Retail Relates
'Retail Relates' is not just a podcast; it's a journey into the heart of retail and commerce. Our episodes traverse the path from traditional marketplaces to digital platforms, highlighting the successes, trials, and invaluable lessons learned along the way. We're conversing with those shaping the industry—from the front lines to behind the scenes, the creative minds to the global strategists - offering a diverse 360-degree perspective. We're revealing the relationships and personal narratives that make retail engaging and accessible. 'Retail Relates' is an invitation to explore the world's interconnectedness through the lens of retail, encouraging listeners to discover the personal journeys and stories of those who drive innovation and unite us across cultures and continents.
Retail Relates
Making Retail Relatable: The Inspiration behind 'Retail Relates' with Paula, Gautham & Rich
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To kick off our first season, in this episode, we introduce ourselves and discuss our experiences, successes and failures, lessons learned, and motivations. This is not highly edited or polished; it is real and hopefully relatable. We hope you enjoy this episode and stay with us through the journey. We have some incredible guests lined up that we hope you enjoy meeting and learning from.
What is 'Retail Relates?'
It is not just a podcast; it's a journey into the heart of retail and commerce. Our episodes traverse the path from traditional marketplaces to digital platforms, highlighting the successes, trials, and invaluable lessons learned along the way. We're conversing with those shaping the industry—from the front lines to behind the scenes, the creative minds to the global strategists - offering a diverse 360-degree perspective. We're revealing the relationships and personal narratives that make retail engaging and accessible. 'Retail Relates' is an invitation to explore the world's interconnectedness through the lens of retail, encouraging listeners to discover the personal journeys and stories of those who drive innovation and unite us across cultures and continents.
Retail Relates is hosted by Paula Gean, a tech leader who is passionate about building connected communities and telling stories; Gautham Vadakkapett, a marketing professor with a Ph.D. and a deep curiosity for the retail industry; and Rich Honiball, a retail executive who loves history and is inspired by diversity.
Why did we come together to start this podcast? Fame? Fortune? Occupy our spare time? Hardly! We came together with this combined goal.
"Our success is not measured by the number of conversations we have with industry leaders or the number of talented individuals we meet. It's about the impact we make. If even ONE person finds value in our platform and perspectives and decides to pursue retail as a career choice, we consider our efforts worthwhile. Every journey matters to us."
In this series of conversations, we look forward to talking with those driving the retail industry today from every vantage point, introducing you to the diversity of talent and experiences, and discovering how the essence of retail is not just in transactions but in the meaningful connections and relatable stories that energize the industry.
If you have feedback or ideas or want to connect with us, email us at retailrelates@gmail.com.
In the meantime, thank you for tuning in, & enjoy!
Paula, Gautham, & Rich
Rich, Gautham, are you guys ready to do this?
Gautham:So this will be interesting.
Paula:We are going to do our About Us, rich. We would love for you to kick us off, please, and we're all going to interview as if we were one of the guests, so you can get to know us a little bit better. So, rich, take it away.
Rich:I'm going to ask the first question and I will tell you this is a question that, as we've gone through the podcast, I think has become one of my favorite questions. I love the answers that we're getting from guests, instead of asking the traditional tell us about your bio. It's give us those three pivot points in your career, in your life, that have brought you to where you are today. But I'm going to ask you guys first, because I have to tell you. As much as I love asking it and hearing the answers, I struggle with narrowing it down. So, gautam, let me ask you what are the three pivot points in your career and or life that have brought you to where you are right now?
Gautham:You know I will say this, when we decided to do this, I sat and thought a lot about what I'm going to speak and it's actually really, really hard to distill it down to three pivot points. So I'm going to talk about family For me. That's me as a person. So I'm going to talk about my life. My career reflects my life in many ways. So the first pivot point for me was getting into the engineering school. So, coming from India, everyone had to be a doctor or an engineer. I wanted to be a doctor. My parents really, really wanted me to be a doctor, but I passed out when I saw blood and so I became an engineer. I was a lousy engineer at that, so I distinctly remember I took an exam for the engineering and I ranked well. My uncle came with me to go decide my future of what kind of engineering program and I chose to be closest to home. I actually used to take the train almost every other day to be back with my family. It was a one and a half hour drive one way right. My second pivot point was I did well in my engineering school. I have no regrets there. It was the best decision of my life, made some great friends. Like with everyone in India after engineering, we decided, okay, I'll go get my MBA. So I started taking my MBA exam and my uncle, who was in the US at that time, was like Gautam, you have to get an American education. And I was like I'm not. I'm the guy who took a train, one and a half hours, one way to get a degree. You're going to ask me to go to the US. Well, he forced me in some ways to take the exam, with the help from my parents. I did really, really well, got admitted into a lot of the good schools in engineering, from Georgia Tech to Texas, a&m and so forth. My dad took some money out. My uncle decided to support my education as well. So there I was, a guy who never left home, sitting in a plane crying my eyes off, and I got on the plane and came to the US. The best decision, right. I am a completely different man because of who I became when I came to the US and it's my adopted country now.
Gautham:And then the third part I'll fast forward to me actually meeting my wife, having a family, and that was probably the biggest pivot point, right when you get to the age of 45 and all your hair turns gray. You wonder about the why what are you doing these things for? And I had my why right, and it kind of helped me achieve what I am. And so those are my life-related pivot points. Now, from my career-related pivot points, I was an engineer by training. I came to the US, I worked for GE as a contract worker for a couple of years and I realized at that point that I wanted to do something more data analytics driven. I got my PhD in marketing with a focus on data analytics and that was a big pivot point. And, of course, my third pivot point from a carrier perspective was when I came to Mason. I launched the retail center, which was quite successful, and, as a consequence, I got to interact with people such as Rich and you, paula.
Paula:Your retail BFFs or your podcast BFFs. That's really vulnerable. Thank you for sharing, Gautam.
Paula:My three pivot points in my career have been I was 18 and I started at level one trauma orthopedics. I got to talk to patients in their most vulnerable and horrific moments and work with surgeons on helping these people. Got to go into the OR. It was so impactful. I just fell in love with people and their stories even more then. And then the second one was when I went into journalism very shortly after I don't know, I just gravitated to it. I interviewed people again in some of their most vulnerable moments. A gentleman had just lost his wife the night before, interviewed him about his life, really fell in love with understanding people and what makes them tick and their why. And then the third one was when I went into tech. So I had left journalism, decided I wanted to make some money and I joined a digital marketing startup and that was my first introduction to tech.
Paula:In my other two professions I used tech all day. I used it as a multimedia journalist, I used it to do the presentations for the orthosurgeons. When I went all into making it in my industry, my career, my profession, that really changed things for me, Really. Another third pivot point I guess 3.5, was when I married Matt. All the reasons why you marry a partner right. He gave me that balance. But also, most importantly, he taught me how to think like a blonde haired, blue eyed white guy, and not just a blonde haired, blue eyed white guy, but a D1 athlete, blonde haired, blue eyed white guy, who had that kind of life growing up and I just saw the world from a whole different perspective. And that's when I started setting healthy boundaries. So those are my three.
Rich:So you guys have given me the permission to go to a 3.5 and incorporate family, but at the same time you probably have given me greater clarity as to what my three pivot points would be. My first one was in high school, sitting in a doctor's examination room in Manchester, New Hampshire, and being told that I wasn't medically qualified to join the Navy. And, to put that in context, my goal had been to join the Navy with an ROTC scholarship, military intelligence, earn the opportunity to have the Navy, pay for law school, retire honorably, go into private practice. I'd read Advice and Consent and I thought politics might be in my future, maybe one or two terms as a senator. I was one of those kids that had it mapped out. I qualified academically for the ROTC scholarship. To this day I don't know how I didn't realize that I wouldn't pass the physical I scholarship. To this day I don't know how I didn't realize that I wouldn't pass the physical. I was hit by a car when I was in sixth grade. I couldn't make it past the season of soccer. Hearing the news, I went through 17 different emotions and at the very end of it, realized I had no plan B. Like a lot of people in retail. I kind of worked in retail as I took classes for several years, not really knowing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
Rich:The second pivot I was the manager of a new concept store in New Hampshire. I had a mentor and a boss at the time who offered me an opportunity to take over the division of 10 stores. It was a concept for a national specialty retailer. It meant they would relocate me to their headquarters outside of Baltimore, so my wife and I would move and the concept of being relocated and running multiple stores. And they went as high as South Bend, Indiana, Madison, Wisconsin, Montgomery, Alabama. I think I might've been in my mid twenties at the time and it was the first time that I really saw retail as a career and I was exposed to store operations and buying and sourcing. I really fell in love with the industry.
Rich:And then the third pivot point is somewhat personal and career related. I was a successful executive at a private equity-backed company. I was a successful executive with a publicly held company. I was on a career trajectory where I was accumulating stock options and grant, looking forward to the next bonus and the next promotion. I left a position because I saw some things that I didn't particularly like, Subsequently started to think of retail and the rest of my career, not just in terms of making money or earning a title, but trying to have an impact Our daughter's adopted.
Rich:There's a wonderful irony in that today I work for the US Navy in a position where I hold the civilian rank of a flag officer and I get to do merchandising and marketing and I get to serve the very customer, the very patron that I had hoped to be part of so many years ago. And on the day that my daughter was born, unbeknownst to me, I was actually at Brooks Brothers selling Nextcom on a uniform program. But that pivotal moment was the first day I was out of, I had stepped out of that executive position and I was home for the first day and started the network for my next one. And my daughter came home and she said oh, you're home, Can you teach me how to ride my bike without training wheels?
Rich:Now I had thought she was going to ask why dad was home. Did I have a job? What was going on? And I broke down, I went into the other room and I cried for about 10 minutes like I've never cried before, and I came back out and we went to the park and for four days straight, when she got home from school, we went to the park. And on Thursday, when she said, daddy, I'm doing it, I'm doing it I won't tell you that I pivoted permanently, but it was when I appreciated that there's much more than just career advancement and stock options. And since that point, the purpose of what I'm doing and the value of what I'm doing has mattered more and more.
Paula:That's really beautiful.
Rich:Very nice report yeah.
Paula:I don't know why that made me want to cry too.
Gautham:But listening to these things? Right, we ask people and, if you think about it, even with the guests that we spoke to, most of them had a personal right. We often talk keep work and life, a family life, separate, but they're so deeply intertwined Like I can't tell you how much time, like of course I didn't speak it as eloquently as I wanted to, but the amount of time I spent thinking about this and I could not disentangle the two, and so I said, okay, you know what If I didn't realize I was going to be the first one out of the bat, but I had a three career kind of things. But to me the ones I started off with are truly the pivotal points, and I think it was really nice to hear the story from the three of you. Like it was almost all personal in some ways.
Rich:Besides and the personal part affects the career part- so, Paul, I'm going to let you ask the next question. Well, what am I saying? I'm not going to let you ask the next question. Well, what am I saying?
Paula:I'm not going to let you do anything, but if you would like to, you are welcome to ask the next question I'll ask the question Rich, so I have another question for you what is your biggest failure and learning from that?
Rich:Another question I struggle with. I think my biggest learning is acceptance of failure. I'm not trying to be funny with the wordsmithing there. I am in marketing after all.
Rich:Early in my career I was so afraid of saying the wrong thing one of the symptoms of imposter syndrome that I found myself being quiet and really not joining the conversation until I saw the direction that it was going into. And then one day a senior executive said hey, honeyball, in the absence of an opinion, you can have mine. And I realized that I had to speak up. And now I don't shut up. It's really because I have an opinion on a lot of things. You guys will know that I never wanted to be mistaken for being somebody who didn't have an opinion and was afraid to express it.
Rich:Now that's been probably my biggest learning, especially as I've advanced my career learning how much what I say matters in some cases and doesn't matter in other cases. And I'll give you a quick example. If I say I believe in work-life balance, in my case I believe more in work-life balance, in my case, I believe more in work-life harmony but I don't show that and demonstrate it. My words are hollow, and so I actually have to show it with my actions. On the flip side, I realized that I'm in a position where, if I say something to a person and it might be an off-the-cuff comment, there's a lot of times where it just became an edict we joke about in my office and people will march down a path and I've just created this division because I didn't choose my words wisely. So I think the biggest lesson for me is understanding. Actions speak louder than words. But your words really matter when they don't connect with what your intent is Agree wholeheartedly.
Paula:Those are great examples as well. So Gautam to you your biggest failure and learning from it.
Gautham:I'll actually talk about my opening lecture as not a biggest failure but as a way to kind of frame how I think of it. And for me, the biggest thing growing up was I was afraid to fail, kind of what, like Rich had said, part of it is culture, part of it is the pressures that come with who you are and so forth, and part of it is just that mental block of failing and I always say this to my students is that you know, when I came to the US I weighed in at 82 pounds, true story. I could not lift a five pound weight and since then I've had, I've made an intentional decision to try different things. Not really failure, but it's. You learn a lot from it and in fact you grow faster from failure. So perhaps very cliche, but that is my biggest failure is to be afraid of failure.
Paula:I think that's one that a lot of people could resonate with. So for me, my biggest failure in learning from it I had a couple, but the one I ultimately chose is lack of boundaries. So I had a boss and I was just so desperate for approval that I used to take their call 4 am, midnight and anytime in between I used to, like they would say, jump, and I would ask how far? And we're talking about not that long ago I just made myself a doormat and I lost a lot of confidence and self-respect that I'm still trying to gain to this day.
Paula:You have to have healthy boundaries, and that's one of the first times that my husband sat me down and said, like I don't like to interfere with your life and how you handle it, but you need to understand that this, this is what's happening, and I was just so in it that I didn't see how I was being taken advantage of. Set healthy boundaries. They matter so much for your health, for your self-esteem and for setting you up for the rest of your life.
Gautham:That's a great lesson right Setting boundaries, setting you up for the rest of your life that's a great lesson right Setting boundaries. I also remember. I'll add one other thing that I learned was my advisor, when I graduated from my PhD program, said Gautam, the biggest problem with you is you'll never learn to say no. That was a very, very astute observation on his part and I still can't say I'm learning to say no. It is a hard fight for me to say no, and that's also a very, very important lesson, I think, is to learn to your point of boundaries. Learning to say no is critical in setting those boundaries.
Paula:And knowing what healthy boundaries look like. Especially when you grow up as an immigrant, which I know you understand, you just are always taught that you've got to go farther, you've got to go faster, you've got to try harder.
Gautham:You've got to go farther, you got to go faster, you got to try harder, you got to do more. So, you know, I give credit to our guests because, man, this is tough. But let's move to an even tougher part of the show, which is the lessons. And perhaps for our audience, why don't we just take a quick minute or two to talk about who we are and why we're actually doing this?
Rich:So I think I'll answer first. I right now serve as the chief merchandising officer for the Navy Exchange Service Command that serves military patrons across the globe. I'm the chief marketing officer for the entire command, so that includes not just the retail stores but food, fuel services, hospitality we have over 18,000 hotel rooms, our uniform program, ship stores. It defines a lot of who I am, but the mentor part and the coach part is becoming more and more important to me. That's what led me to following Gotham's footsteps at George Mason and trying my hand at teaching retail. And it's why this project is important to me, because I'm not going to say I'm getting to the end of my career, but when I was taught it was you.
Rich:What is it? You learn, you earn and then you impact, and so I'm probably in the impact stage of my career. Diversity in every single sense of the word matters more and more to me every day. I've learned that from my daughter. I've learned that from this generation. This project's important to me because not only do I get to spend time with my podcast BFFs and I'm probably going to steal Gotham's line here if there's one person that listens to the very diverse group of guests that we have and decides hey, you know what, retail would be a great career and all of the hours that we spent is worth it. When I retire and I will one day and I travel the world with my high school sweetheart, I want to leave behind a very diversified group of talented people who make this a better place.
Paula:I am currently the leader of partnerships and alliances for a billion dollar tech company. I also am the co founder of a camping safari company called Africa culture journeys. We do camping safaris in Botswana, which is the country right above South Africa, and I think I might be the first camping safari Latina owner which I'm very proud of. So all of this to say is that, though I can tell you concretely what I've done, really, for me, it's about impact. Where can I add value?
Paula:Growing up, we didn't have much, so my mom instilled in us hey, you may have nothing, but no one will ever, ever, ever take away from you. Number one, what's in between your ears, and number two, the value that you provide. So a driving principle in my life has been anywhere you go, make sure that you leave it a little bit better than how you found it. At minimum, that's something that's driven me. I am just so happy to be here and just feel very honored to be able to have these conversations with these leading executives and people that have such different paths and people that I admire, and to be collaborating with you, rich, and you, gotham. It just it brings a lot of joy to me, to my life.
Gautham:I will bring us home on this question. So I am an associate professor of marketing at the University of Central Florida. I've been an academic for the past 12 plus years. Where I teach in marketing, I take a data-driven approach to teaching marketing, where we talk about marketing analytics and emerging technologies. I have also, in the process, built interfaces between academia and industry to try and bring the two together to shape the future of the talent that enters these industries. So why am I doing this?
Gautham:For the past 12 years or so, one thing has always stood out I have had students, be it at George Mason, be it at the University of Central Florida, who always worked in retail but have never, ever considered retail as a real career, and for me, bringing individuals into the classroom was a great way to connect students with the industry and to make the industry relatable, make them actually understand the opportunities that the industry presents and to go from an accidental career to perhaps an intentional career. So that's purpose number one. Purpose number two for me is that I am innately curious on how leaders operate. Selfishly speaking, with this podcast, I get to pick the brains of several extremely sharp individuals who I probably never had the opportunity to speak with and in the process. Not only does it bring in fresh content into the classroom, but it also helps me shape my thinking and the way I approach life in general, as we have experienced with our initial set of five or six podcasts, many of them were tips on how to manage different difficult scenarios.
Gautham:So those are the two primary reasons for me to do this and, of course, as Rich said, yes, if even one person not listens but actually makes retail an intentional career, I will take it as a win and I also strongly believe that for me personally, I want people to think of retail in a much broader spectrum as an industry. If you're 90, retail is the right place to go shop. If you're into analytics, retail is the best place that I can speak. They have a lot of data to actually build those interfaces. So to think outside and to actually think of retail as the first place for some of these cool new areas to be in, that is a great answer, and my catchphrase has become I'm going to take these notes back to my team.
Rich:And I do that. I keep a notebook here and I'm taking notes. So I will ask the next question. We've all talked a lot about mentoring. We ask our guests about mentors and or about the best advice they've ever received. I'll ask each of you a mentor who has meant the most, had the greatest impact or the greatest advice you ever received.
Gautham:All right, I'll go first, just to give all of you a chance to think about it. So this is probably gonna come from the left field, but the person who has really had the biggest impact on me is my mom, and I'll give one simple example and I will remember this to. Is my mom, and I'll give one simple example, and I will remember this to this very day, when I was a very small kid I don't remember exactly the age, but I remember the instance I decided to boil eggs by myself and the water was boiling and I was standing on a stool and my mom comes in and she sees me boiling the eggs and putting eggs one after the other in there and the water's boiling, right, it's starting to spill over and my mom says, gautam, you should not put any more eggs in there, it's going to burn you. And I'm like no mom, I can put one more egg in. And I remember to this day she said well, go ahead, you can try and see what happens. And I actually tried.
Gautham:The rest is history, but I tried. The lesson there was you got to try, got to learn to do things, and that was perhaps the best advice I've ever received and it stood with me is that don't take others word for it. You try, you learn from your own successes or mistakes. Okay, now I will tell you. I put the egg in and the water did not spill over, I did not not get burned, but it was perhaps the best lesson. It's like hey, don't listen to me, even your mother. Do what you think and see what happens and deal with the consequences. So that was my best mentorship advice that I tell everyone else. Live your own life, do what you think is right, seek advice, but go after it with your own interests in mind.
Paula:That's good. I was not expecting that. So for me, mentor who meant the most or the greatest advice? Of course, I have to mention Rich. I've been so lucky, I've been very fortunate, to have some really great mentors in my life, and some of them that didn't even know they were mentors that taught me how I didn't want to be, because those are important as well.
Paula:I mean I just can't boil it down to one or two or three. One that I was going to mention Gotham, before you said yours was my mom, because I mean she came to this country to give us a better life and she taught us determination and grit and thoughtfulness. I just couldn't, I wouldn't be anywhere without the lessons that she taught me. The greatest advice has got to be just keep learning, so in all aspects, because the world changes and you don't realize that you stop changing as rapidly as you did in your early 20s and then one day you wake up. Some people wake up and they become that crotchety old person that doesn't understand why the kids won't get off their lawn. But if you continue learning and continue exposing yourself to what younger generations have to teach us and what the world around us, what it actually is, you'll be in a good position.
Rich:Well, I will say, in case I don't cut out the part where Paula mentions me I consider her a mentor. I think the more you can surround yourself with people that you can learn from, it can be younger, older, less experienced, more experienced, different industries, and so part of me is challenged with the notion of who's the mentor I remember most. I'll recall one because he passed away this year and there's a very specific moment, but I do remember probably one of the best piece of advice I learned from a mentor as well. The mentor that I'll mention is Martin Greenfield tour as well. The mentor that I'll mention is Martin Greenfield, who was a Holocaust survivor. He owned Greenfield Clothing Company. He and Claudio Del Vecchio were helpful when we went to adopt our daughter. They introduced us to the attorney that they had used, and I had the opportunity to travel the country with Martin and with another friend of ours, alan Levine, selling custom apparel to Brooks Brothers customers. This is a man who survived one of the most horrific times in life and yet he had a work ethic that was unbelievable, and I remember one of his favorite cities was DC. Colin Powell was a friend and a customer, and I had the chance to meet Secretary Powell through Martin.
Rich:I remember this one night we had been working for 12 hours straight. I was dog tired. I could not imagine how Martin still had any energy and the store had closed and there was a wrap on the door and somebody said I rushed, I tried to get in. I want to see Martin, I wanted to get a soup before I left. I watched Martin just kind of go from that, slumped over I've just worked 12, 14 hours to picking himself up, taking a deep breath, turning around and with the energy of a 21 year old, the biggest smile and the biggest greeting, and made that person feel like he was the first customer of the day. And I watched that time and time again and it's always stuck with me.
Rich:I think from an advice perspective, it was from another mentor. I was put in a position and I did what I felt was personally well, but didn't receive the recognition that I thought I had deserved. I challenged this person who had put me in the position, who was a senior executive, and he said to me Rich, you didn't learn what I wanted you to learn. You think that respect and recognition come from authority and title and it's earned. It doesn't matter what your title is.
Rich:You are trying to get everybody to learn your language. You need to learn everybody else's language. You need to learn your boss's language. You need to learn what other people need to get out of the equation. Yes, you've been successful, but you haven't learned how to truly be a leader, and a title is not going to get that for you, and I was pissed as hell because it wasn't the answer I wanted and it burned me for a couple of months. I continue to think about it and he and I have talked about that day. It's one of those things that stuck with me throughout my entire career. That it's you earn it. It's not a title, it's not authority, it's not autonomy, it's day-to-day earning it.
Gautham:You know it's interesting, also right, the best mentors are the people who give it to you straight, at least to me, like I, of course, spoke of my mother, but there are lots of other people who influenced me. They're always the people who took the time to be there, be available, but also give it to you straight no sugar coating, maybe, because that's how I like it, but those are the best mentors.
Rich:Well, gautam had a chance to meet one of my mentors and it was just, I will say I learned. I have learned an immense amount from my wife, from my daughter, but Gautam knows firsthand. The first time I came and spoke to his class, it was the first time my daughter had visited the college campus. I struggled with public speaking and confidence and so I asked her to give me advice, because she struggles with it as well. I presented and I was talking to the students afterwards and my daughter's taught me to be more open about having ADD and imposter syndrome and of my challenges, because I wasn't as comfortable with it then. And I looked over and I saw my daughter had gone up to and this is an introvert, this is a shy person, paula, you know her well and she was over at Gotham taking notes. How did my dad do? How could he have done better? I mean Gotham, it wasn't just give me a superficial answer, she was trying to help me get better. Yep.
Gautham:I will never forget that day because I have always believed that you got to ask for honest advice. It was interesting to see a person who I did not know at all, right Like we had just walked over from my office to the classroom that's the limited interaction I had with her to come up to me after that and I was like tell me what my dad can do better.
Paula:And I'm like oh no, no pressure, but it's just my dad at the second right now.
Gautham:I was like he did great, he was wonderful, he's covered key topics, no, but what can he do better? I said I love that attitude. Right, we always the growth mindset. That's really wonderful to see and I hope everyone has that attitude.
Paula:She takes her job seriously or her responsibility seriously.
Rich:She's probably like us and she's like a lot of people, in that it's tough for her sometimes to speak or to carry herself with confidence, but she's amazing at coaching other people and I would probably look at the two of you and say I could see similar traits. I know with me it's much easier to give advice sometimes than to get advice, but she is. It's amazing to see her turn into the young woman that she is.
Paula:All right. So we've talked about mentorship, we've talked about our three pivotal moments. Tell me, if I was trying to get a job with you, what is the most important skill set that you look for or quality that you look for in others?
Rich:So you know how I always struggle with giving succinct answers and I always have three answers to one question. This one's easy, I know it's never happened. This one's easy Curiosity. This one's easy, I know it's never happened. This one's easy Curiosity. If you are not curious about people, about your job, about life around you, you can be the smartest person in the world, you can have a tremendous skill set, but it means you're not learning, you're not growing, you're not curious about your coworkers. Curiosity, to me, is the thing that I am looking for the most.
Gautham:Interesting. Since option A is gone, I'll go with option B. So curiosity of course, but I think curiosity without ability to connect with the human that is across the table does not bode well. So in my experiences I've had a lot of interaction with very, very curious, very, very sharp people, but their inability to connect with the person across the table, their inability to see walk in their shoe, is perhaps, to me, has been a bigger, revealing lesson, and so when I look at things, especially as an academic, where our publications take five years, I assume curiosity is there. But then the most important thing is can I grab a drink with this person? Can I actually be straight up with him? I can fight with him or her, but the next day we'll get back to conversations, right, and I keep my circle very small and limited for that reason. But that's really, really important to me is their ability to connect, the ability to speak directly, the ability to have empathy.
Paula:So the skillset or quality I look for the most in others is thoughtfulness. My mom was very thoughtful. She taught us how to be very thoughtful, but not thoughtful as in the classic way you would think of thoughtfulness. I'm talking about that kind of thoughtfulness that makes you very perceptive and other people think that you're very intuitive, but you're just insanely curious and thoughtful about it and you put that into action. I feel like thoughtfulness is the result of curiosity and action. Okay, gotham, rapid fire, are you ready? Absolutely, I'll go first. Your walk-on song.
Gautham:I don't have any, but I will say I'm a hardcore rock and roll person. So if I had to pick any song, it would probably be Metallica or Guns N' Roses. Maybe, like Enter the Sandman, metallica might be my walk-on song.
Rich:Wow, you know I'm going to give you two options. One of them would be Enter Sandman by Metallica. I had the chance to see live in concert in San Francisco outdoors it was phenomenal and Mariana Rivera Yankees coming out to Enter Sandman. I mean, close it down, otherwise it would be Send in the Clowns.
Paula:I feel like those are two polar opposites.
Rich:It all depends on the mood and the audience I'm speaking to. All right, Paula, what's yours?
Paula:Dude, that's a hard one. I'm going to have to punt on that one. But if I had to choose right this second, it would have to be, you know, probably that Pocket Full of Sunshine song. I don't know why that popped in my head, like I do not know why. That's the first song that popped in my head. So, but actually I would have to pick something from shakira, because she's also from columbia. I take it back, I would do something with shakira, okay, next question all right, I'll ask.
Rich:You can transport yourself to anywhere in the world right now, 24 hours. Where do you go easy for?
Gautham:me wimbon. I am a diehard tennis fan. I will take any option. I've never been to Wimbledon to watch a game, but that will be my option. And if I could watch Stefan Edberg play Boris Becker, that would be even better.
Paula:Anywhere for 24 hours and I would be safe. So that's a tough one. Initially I thought, botswana, I'd like to be in the middle of nowhere with the animals unplugged. But then, if I would be safe, I would absolutely get in the middle of like Russia or Ukraine or Iran or Gaza. Like I would get right there and see like what is going on and get in and help, if I knew that we would be okay.
Rich:I like that and the interesting thing is. So I'll answer. And typically I've been to all 50 states. I've been to I think my count is 70 countries, and when we retire, that's what I want to do is travel. Retire, that's what I want to do is travel. So you would expect my answer to be someplace I've never been, but right now, this moment, I would go to Negril, seven mile beach sunset with my wife. We've been twice. It was the first adult vacation we took a few years ago. The sunset in Negril is just absolutely beautiful and I think it would just be nice to sit there and just soak it all in.
Gautham:I will ask the last question, I guess, which is if you could automate one part of your life, what would that be?
Paula:Answering emails, which is getting more automated, but like thoughtful answers and resolving problems through email that I would automate that in a heartbeat.
Rich:I'm actually going to have to go with the same answer and I struggle with it. I don't. I have a hard time with having my EA go through my emails at work because and I've got 8,000 of them right now because I don't want to take the chance of missing something and I use it kind of as a disorganized filing system. But it's gotten to the point where, if I could trust the automation, I'd love to clean up my inbox and just simplify.
Gautham:And for me it's going to be syllabus kind of related right. But, rich, you know this, at the beginning of the semester there are quite a few questions that come in that are actually on the syllabus, and so I was thrilled when ChatGPT finally was available. I'm hoping that we can embed that into our learning systems to answer questions, because, man, that would be amazing.
Rich:Well, in the spirit of the fact that your daughter is looking in the window and you have a daddy-daughter date, what's the ice cream of choice? So?
Gautham:she always gets cotton candy with a ton of sprinkles. Like mother, like daughter, they both get the same thing. I have to try every ice cream, so they will decide what I get. That's always the.
Paula:Such an academic, a thoughtful academic.
Rich:Close out with your ice cream of choice Lime sherbet, orange sherbet.
Gautham:See, I can't make a decision like that, like I have to try something different every time. It's like annoying.
Rich:You got us onto this ice cream. I'm like yeah.
Gautham:I got you on, but we're moving on.
Rich:Assuming they have every flavor, I would I choose between pistachio and peppermint, but I'm I'm with gotham I.
Gautham:I like to try just about everything I love pistachio peppermint maybe not as much, but pistachio yes. Hey, I love something new metallica pistachio, awesome. And I've got to meet matt.
Paula:That's the the big takeaway from all this all right, all right, go enjoy your ice cream.
