I've Been Preparing for This ...

This week, as we announced my new partnership at HCap Search, I joked how this career shift just adds to my Tri-Fecta of "most hateds":  I'm an attorney. I've worked as a journalist, a fundraiser, and now ... a HEADHUNTER.   

In truth, though, this is an easy and logical transition. 

You see, I started preparing for this job at 25. 

Fresh out of law school, with some experience in a mid-sized boutique domestic relations firm and an appellate clerkship under my belt, I was hired to start and run a statewide legal newspaper for a growing publishing firm out of Boston.  It was August. Their charge:  Incorporate us in Missouri, find an office, hire a printer, hire your staff … and, we want to have a product on the streets in October.  While it was a start-up, I had to hire a full complement of advertising staff, a legal editor, a news editor, a CFO and administrative support staff.  I ended up recruiting locally and from several states away a staff that ranged from fresh out of a prestigious mid-tier University to seasoned veterans from law and journalism.  I was lucky to have a mentor in the process, the brother of the company’s owner who was retired  Fortune 500 Exec.  But, make no mistake:  The success or failure of the fledgling start-up concern was 100% dependent on the talent I hired and how I brought those individuals together as a team.

After 5 years of producing essentially a “daily” newspaper week-in and week-out without interruption, 52 weeks a year, it was time to think about returning to one “coast” or another – St. Louis or Kansas City – to be close to support systems as my husband and I thought about starting a family. A call from a headhunter started my search process and I kept at it through the most part of a year, until a career in nonprofit management called us to Kansas City.  There, as CEO of a 100-year-old social service agency dedicated to empowering women and eliminating racism, I completely realigned the organization according to Mission-based service lines rather than geographic service areas and charted a bold new vision that resulted in a $11-million capital campaign and a spot on a national Task Force for Excellence within the organization’s worldwide movement.  All the while, overseeing operations and management of a staff of more than 300, ranging from very-part time program and facilities staff to top-level division managers.

At Commerce Bank, my job was to network with and cultivate colleagues to generate leads for new trust business.  I worked out of Kansas City and was responsible for the Mid-Missouri market, seeking out pipeline referrals from all areas of  the bank – from commercial to retail to brokerage to institutional trust to community board members of all stripes. 

For the last 11 years, I have been integrally involved in all aspects of growing my former firm to a nationally recognized fundraising consultancy.  Consulting in personal services, I knew that the firm’s success – and my personal success – would be built on Human Capital.  Forming strategies, identifying and recruiting talent to enter new markets and providing ground-up training and performance coaching, I helped grow the firm from a two-person shop to a roster of 14 consultants and more than $2 million in revenues.  As a consultant, I’ve recommended new staff acquisition and led searches for dozens of clients, ranging from needs to drive growth, to crisis intervention, to strategic human resource reallocation. 

My story is one of entrepreneurship, building new networks, and -- most importantly -- reinvention and transition.  Reshaping and transitioning my own skill sets as I  forged a career path that brings me to where I am today.  While I’ve conducted – literally -- hundreds of searches for my employers, business ventures and clients over the years, I’ve also found myself a frequent resource for advice and networking for job seekers and hiring managers, alike.  From wanting to know how to move from corporate or law into the nonprofit world, to general intelligence on the business and nonprofit community, I’ve been fortunate to be considered a go-to person for friends and colleagues.

So, in a very real sense, I’ve been building for this job all my career.  I know that human capital is THE KEY to success or failure in business – for profit or nonprofit – and that’s why I’m passionate about the work we do at HCap.