She's That Founder: Business Strategy and Time Management for Impactful Female Leaders

050 | No Plan B: Transforming HR into a Strategic Driver for Business Growth with Sel Watts

• Dawn Andrews • Season 1 • Episode 50

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Do you believe in having a Plan B in business, or is it a setup for failure?

In this episode of My Good Woman, I sit down with Sel Watts, Founder and CEO of The HR Linc to discuss why having no Plan B can lead to greater success. 

We dive deep into the world of HR and explore how HR professionals can become strategic drivers for business growth. You'll learn strategies that transform HR into a strategic driver of business scalability, boost leadership skills, and break barriers for female founders aiming to scale.

Packed with real-life, no-fluff advice, this episode is your go-to guide for leveling up your business.


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The essential leadership skills that female entrepreneurs need to boost their business growth effectively.
  • How to turn your HR department into a strategic driver for business scalability and smoother growth.
  • No-fluff, actionable advice from someone who has navigated the challenges of HR, business growth, and entrepreneurship, providing you with practical tips.


This episode at a glance:

[12:53] They're missing the key information from the founder about what's important, what are the goals for the business, and where is this going?

[15:57] We need to get HR people to realize that where you add the most benefit is in understanding the business first.

[18:30] Ultimately, they should be looking at how do I, through the people, help this business achieve its goals.

[21:58] I need to be investing in people and handing things over well before I can actually afford it. Because ultimately, I don't want to be stuck in this business doing these things. 

[29:47] If you know what your thing is, then live that and then let everything else fall away instead of trying to live what other people think you should be doing.


Resources and Links mentioned in this episode


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More about the “My Good Woman” podcast

My Good Woman is a podcast for new and future female leaders, hosted by me, Dawn Andrews.

Grab a seat at the table with me each week for candid conversations with culture-shifting, glass ceiling-busting, trailblazing women, who are leading enterprises that are making a change in the world. 

We discuss what makes them tick and how they get it all done. And we share actionable strategies to help you and your team get organized - so you can focus on your company’s growth, profit and impact. 

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Want to increase revenue and impact? Listen to “My Good Woman” for insights on business strategy and female leadership to scale your business. Each episode offers advice on effective communication, team building, and management. Learn to master routines and systems to boost productivity and prevent burnout. Our delegation tips and business consulting will advance your executive leadership skills and presence.

My Good Woman
050 | No Plan B: Transforming HR into a Strategic Driver for Business Growth with Sel Watts

 

Sel Watts: My life mantra is no plan B and so I believe that if you have a plan B as humans, we're more likely to take that plan B. It's just nature.

 

Dawn Andrews: Welcome to the My Good woman podcast where we help female founders break past plateaus and get to the next level of business growth by refining their strategy building systems and streamlining operations. I'm Dawn Andrews, the founder and CEO of free range thinking business strategy consulting, join me each week for candid conversations with culture shifting glass ceiling busting, trailblazing women who are leading impactful enterprises and grab their strategies to help your business reach extraordinary levels of growth. In this episode, you'll discover three leadership skills that empower female entrepreneurs to boost business growth, you'll discover strategies that transform HR into a strategic driver of business scalability, and you'll get some mentorship tactics that break barriers for women founders that are aiming to scale. Sell Welcome to my good woman. I'm so happy to have you here.

 

Sel Watts  01:02

Thank you so much, Dawn. I'm very feel very privileged to be talking to you today. Oh,

 

Dawn Andrews  01:08

we got together for the listeners. My good friend Quinton English. I just want to give him a shout out because he is I don't know self. You know this about him. But he is the inveterate connector when people say people are mavens or connectors. There is no one better than Quinton English with connecting people. He is constantly got his antenna up looking to bring great people together. So I'm just giving you some love. Quinton, I'm very happy that you connected cell with me. So I'm really glad to have you here today because we're talking about the world of HR for female founders, and especially when they're in growth phases of their businesses, and how HR professionals can be a great benefit to them in that time. But before we dive into that, I just wanted to give people a little bit of a background about who you are. So tell me about you.

 

Sel Watts  01:53

Okay, well, I'm an Australian living in New York City in Manhattan. And I have three sons, 16,  14 and 11. I started my first business, it'll be 17. This year. Yeah. It was born three months after my first son.

 

Dawn Andrews  02:10

It was it something that you had in mind prior to becoming a mom? Or did becoming a mom help you decide that you wanted to launch a business?

 

Sel Watts  02:18

No, I'd been wanting to launch a business for quite some time. And I was had been doing a bit of coaching and a few things on my own. Ultimately, my interest is in growing businesses. So I started my first company, what's next group in Australia, a management consulting firm, specifically for small to medium businesses in relation to your people. So in Australia, we have four departments. One is strategic HR. So organizational structuring and understanding how to grow. And then we have our operational HR, which is how you implement and do performance reviews and onboarding and all of those things. And then we have an Industrial Relations Division, which deals with the legal side, and then a recruitment recruitment division that was specifically designed in Australia for companies that don't have a need for internal HR person. So I started that, as I said, 16 and a half years ago, and expanded that over to New York City in about 2019. But when I came to New York, I was really a, I didn't want to grow that business. Again, I was really happy with where that was in Australia. But I didn't want to do the same thing again. So I was looking for my next thing that I could scale and sell here in America. And so that's when I started the private membership organization for HR departments of one. So the consulting firm helps companies that don't have HR and the membership organization is really bringing together those. So HR people that don't have anyone to learn from and they need their own tribe. So I'm working on that startup at the moment. I met Quinton in Entrepreneurs Organization, I joined that organization in Brisbane 10 years ago, and I'm now the president of the New York chapter this year, which is, congratulations, thank you very much. It was very scary. It's an incredible opportunity and challenge to lead fellow entrepreneurs like they're probably the most hardest people to lead because they're all leading their own businesses and all pretty strong minded. And so that has been an incredible challenge here in New York to lead my peers and I'm learning a lot and really enjoying that.

 

Dawn Andrews  04:13

It's a sidebar from our topic. But what are you finding has been, I don't know if interesting is quite the right word. But what's the what are the commonalities that you're seeing among entrepreneurs as a group as the head of EO in New York.

 

04:26

it's been interesting, because obviously, everyone was impacted by Cobra. But New York City was impacted a lot in that we lost a lot of members to Florida, other states, but also they moved, people moved out of the city, they got rid of their offices, some people got completely wiped out, lost their businesses, or were wiped out and have had to rebuild. And I've seen a lot of challenge and really come back to what they have to start again. And that has been really interesting to see the grit and the perseverance of NetSuite entrepreneurs are but that ability to go well I was this And now listen, I've got to start all over. And just the acceptance of that. And going for it, I think has been really interesting. The other thing that I noticed is that is the different stages people are in and the different types of learning they need and the mentorship they need. So here's my view is you never stop learning and that you can learn from anyone at any time. That's been an interesting challenge for me to make sure that everyone's getting value, even though there's people that have been members for 30 years, and some that are just joining and some that are just startups and others that have had their businesses for a long time or have exited. Yeah, it's an interesting, really interesting experience. And I have a full board that I have to lead. And they're incredible and strong, and they know this stuff.

 

Dawn Andrews  05:38

You're really making a great case for EO as an organization, I just to be surrounded by other people who have a similar passion and desire for business and for starting their own thing who have had the ups and downs and the challenges. And even if you're just starting in launching a business and gotten to a certain level, it's like you found your tribe, and some of them are tribal elders, and some of them are new to the tribe.

 

Sel Watts  06:00

Yeah. And it's funny, like when I joined the organization in Brisbane, I wanted to be around people who were where I wanted to be. So I wanted to surround myself with average of the five people we spend most time with. So I wanted to really up my average and be around people that I was like, wow. And it's absolutely done that and continue and continues to but also the tribe element and that we don't just talk about our businesses, we recognize that all of life. So business, family, personal it all interrelates. And I know in my own journey, when the business hasn't done well, it's been because I my personal life hasn't been going well. And we're all interrelates. And we often share a lot about that with each other. We're not just talking about business, because it's not just business, and it impacts family and everyone else. And I've certainly experienced that with chasing my entrepreneurial dream and across the globe, middle aged with kids. So it's been a challenge. But AI has been really helped me with that, too.

 

Dawn Andrews  06:51

It sounds like that's a common theme that you've brought into this new business that you started here since you've been in the States. Yes. Were you a part of EO before you launched this community that you have now?

 

Sel Watts  07:02

Yes, I joined do 10 years ago and in Brisbane and transferred over. It's interesting with the HR consulting firm, because that came from a place for me at the time that internal HR people are not commercial thinkers, they're not strategic. It's all like reactive right in front of their face. And they don't understand business enough.

 

Dawn Andrews  07:22

And usually, sometimes I find too, especially with with smaller HRT or teams is that it's very easy to get caught up in the interpersonal drama, those are symptoms, the hurt feelings, or feeling disrespected or unseen, or unappreciated or unacknowledged. Those are all symptoms of something that's at that higher level that needs to be addressed. So it sounds like that's what you're starting Is that what you saw when you launched the first business, the HR consulting firm.

 

Sel Watts  07:45

So what I noticed is that so we were going into companies that didn't have internal HR, we were saying you don't need to get into an HR engage our company, we are from high level to low level across the entire board. So an entire department and all levels, you can use light as us. And over those years I was I was having to recruit a number of HR people, for my business to be consultants. And what I found was the training and development that I was consistently giving my team was not so much about HR, we're very focused on future of work and being creative. So there's that element. But most of it was around understanding business, understanding what really matters to a CEO, how to think strategically, how to not be the counselor or the police, like you're actually working for the business and mindset organizational skills. And these were actually the things where I had to spend most of my time developing my people wasn't in this is how you do in behavioral based interview, for example. And so when I came over here, I was like, what I found here was that there was so many more small businesses that would bring an HR person on at a relatively small size in Australia, because of the difference of laws and needs, you'd find that people would be 60 100 staff before they bring an internal person in.

 

Dawn Andrews  08:55

Oh, wow, that's quite large compared to the US.

 

Sel Watts  08:58

So here, I was noticing 10 people, and they would bring an internal HR person in. And so I was like, You know what, instead of trying to go out and consult to these businesses, why don't I take everything that I've learned about internal HR people and where the gaps are, and go out to them and one, give them a community. So specific HR professionals within small business, so we call them HR pumps have one but they might have, you know, a couple of people in their team, because they don't have anyone to learn from their CEO is it's highly unlikely they see you as HR person.

 

Dawn Andrews  09:27

But chances are, it's like, Don't you find maybe I'm generalizing, but I do feel like sometimes when they bring in the one it's like they're bringing in a not necessarily entry level but not a senior level seasoned HR person. They're bringing in a developmental HR person, somebody who's growing in their career and has maybe at the director level as opposed to a VP or higher level. Do you find that?

 

Sel Watts  09:47

Absolutely. That's because one that's what they can afford. But also there is a lot of grunt work there is a lot of admin work initially and that's what they need done. And also you can't really bring in a high level strategic person be paying them what they're worth, and then the majority of the time, they're going to be doing low level tasks. So what happens is you bring someone in to do those tasks at that rate, but then this whole strategic element is lost. And these internal HR people are not learning from anyone. So they're on their own, they're reactive, and they don't have the support around them.

 

Dawn Andrews  10:16

So and the founders don't have time to train into that if they even knew what to do.

 

Sel Watts  10:20

I didn't learn one entrepreneurthat went into business, because they're good at leading, managing people. That's not why we become entrepreneurs, I didn't become an entrepreneur, because I was a great manager of people, they're not going to learn that way. And there's obviously associations and organizations to keep on top of compliance and best practice, but what about their development in relationship to understanding business and influencing the CEO and knowing how to really write a strategic plan and all of those things? And how do you be with find your other people that are in the same position, and so then the HR Link was created, specifically so that we could bring them together? And then we could develop them in a way that they can't find that development anywhere else.

 

Dawn Andrews  10:57

What are some common complaints that you hear requests that you hear from your CEOs or from organizations that you reach out to to connect them with HR link? What are the challenges or problems they're facing?

 

Sel Watts  11:08

Yeah, so what I hear most is my HR person is doing a good job of what she or he needs to be doing. But I want them now to be more strategic, I want them to be telling me what what should we be aware of with because our workplaces are changing drastically? It's changed area. So what do we need to be aware of? How do we actually attract talent in our industry these days, so they wanting them to give them more commercial advice, more strategic ideas, more forward thinking, planning, and they have never been taught how to do that. And one of the biggest things that we see is that often the HR person is thinking from the employee perspective, as opposed to the business perspective. And they really need to be thinking, what is the CEO trying to achieve? What's this business need to achieve? So we can employ great people, keep them make them happy, they can deliver great work, it has to be that first? And if they don't have an understanding of how to look at business that way, and most times, they're not taught that, then how do that be that and so one of the things that has come through with our members has been questions like, I need to write a strategic plan. I don't even know what I not need to know, what do I ask my CEO? What matters to them? And so we call it getting a seat at the table? Because I'd go to so many HR conferences and HR people would complain, I don't get a seat at the table. They don't give me a seat at the executive table. And I would say that's because you're not bringing anything to the table. So you've got to work out a way like how do you bring something to the table. And the way to do that is to know what actually matters. Because as far as recruiting and all the things we have to do, the CEO just expects that's done.

 

Dawn Andrews  12:36

I just want to shout that out real quick. So for all of you out there that think everybody's supposed to read your mind, please know that they cannot do that. So I'm just flipping what you're sharing. So you have an HR person who wants to do their very best work, their perspective is likely through the employee, as you mentioned, they're missing the key information from the founder about what's important, what are the goals for the business, where's this going. So I'm flipping all of this upside down founders that are listening to make sure that you have big grand plans for your business, what I've encountered in my business consulting role is that a good 98% of those plans are still in somebody's head. They're not out. They're not articulated, they're not written down. They're not organized, they're not shared, they're not cascaded down through levels, if there are levels. And this is true, even if you have a very small business, and you have outsourced support, you still need to have your goals delineated. So that when you're working with somebody, they have the best opportunity to help you win the game of your goals. So thank you for breaking it down.

 

Sel Watts  13:37

Yeah, I spend it that makes me think like I always I have a weekly meeting with self, which is like my one to one with myself. And it's the same. So if you're just a small business, and you've got two of you, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do a strategic plan and sit down and have your planning sessions or your communication sessions or whatever. The other thing is, is that most CEOs and fountains, they see HR as a cost, and it's reactive. And I completely understand that. But what I'm trying to do is change that to get the HR people to realize that they need to first step out of that brand. And they do that by how they behave and learning and growing. And it's interesting, the conversations that I'm having with our members, their complaints, our CEO has no idea all the things I have to do. They don't realize how long it takes to do this. And I need to explain to them and I say no, you don't let they don't care. They want to know if you can understand what the goal is of the business, then you talk to that, and then they will listen to you.

 

Dawn Andrews  14:28

How much do you think so? I find that the majority of HR professionals are women. I don't have stats in front of me, so I can't speak to it. But I would say easily 50% and above are women. How much do you attribute that brand, that HR brand to women's approach to business in general? We tend to be helpers we tend to want to support we tend to wait for instructions instead of being bold and forward thinking which is not true of this audience, by the way, because that's why you're all founders but it's something to be considered. I'm curious when it comes comes to HR, how do we flip the conversation not only for the HR professionals, but I think that having an HR partner is so essential for growth or collaboration for the strategic thinking partnership, how do we shift that brand conversation?

 

Sel Watts  15:15

I think HR needs a complete overhaul of friends,

 

Dawn Andrews  15:19

I'm snapping my fingers and wiggling my neck over here.

 

Sel Watts  15:23

I've interviewed so many HR people over the years for my own business. And I would ask them, Why did you get into HR? Why do you love it when the answer is because I want to help people that does not turn me on at all. Because I want someone who understands that they want to help a company achieve its goals through the people, we need to hire great people. And we need to make sure they're clear on what's expected of them. We need to give them culture and all of those things, but understanding why are we doing those things, and that we can actually give more to the people if we get the business functioning. And I don't like to do that. Because I like to help people. It's this is not being a social worker. And so we need to be getting HR people to realize that where you add your most benefit is if you understand the business first. And so one of the things that we say to our members is that they have to explain what does the company you work for actually do? Not your people, not internal, but what does it do out in the market? Who is it in the market, it's really interesting to me how many people don't really understand what the business actually does out in their market, what their competitors are, what their trends are, or what's happening in their industry, they don't really understand it. And that's gonna be the first thing, it's got to be business knowledge first, then HR, not the other way round. And I think if we can really bring that awareness to HR people, but also to the founders and CEOs when they're interviewing, but they also need to bring these people to the table and enable them by sharing this stuff. So I was speaking to a CEO not long ago, and I said, Why doesn't your HR person present the HR plan to the Board of Directors? Why do you do that? And she said, I never even considered that she would do that. She goes, Yeah, I actually need to be informed on how to make my HR person the most valuable to me. So it's really interesting. It's like educating both sides and seeing what's possible.

 

Dawn Andrews  17:03

If you're looking to transform a relationship, you got to have all the parts of the relationship president. So a couple things were interesting in what you shared, for the helpers out there for the people that just want to help people. What Sal just shared, I think, is really important to note that you will be a better service person to the people that you're helping to the people you hire, and the people that you're serving as an HR professional, if you know the business, let's use therapy for an example. Right? So I could come into a therapist, my first session and have whatever complaint concern challenge that I'm facing and share it with them. And they might be able to give me a little bit of support in the moment. But every single one of them is going to back up and say, what led to this, what are the conditions this person's living in? What is their environment like Have they had enough sleep, there's so much background that they would require to effectively help me with whatever that presenting issue is. And the same is true here. So if you're an HR professional, if you want to be able to really support and or help shift whatever problems are coming to your door, you need to have the understanding of the business behind it.

 

Sel Watts  18:02

Yeah, the business and what's happening in that business as well. So we recently did a speaker session talking about how HR can be the gateway for AI and not as in so we talked about how HR can be using AI to make their role easier. And because there's often is a lot of HR that's very administrative and doesn't really need to be done. It could be made easier. So that was one element element. But the main thing was saying was you should be going to your CEO and saying this department, we could be bringing AI into this department or this department because ultimately they should be looking at how do I through the people help this business achieve its goals, and really being open to these things, as opposed to what's quite usual is shutting things down. So anything new I remember years and years ago, I was doing speaking around with HR teams about how they should be promoting their teams to use social media in the office. And I said how I'd put in all these social media KPIs because now I could have a whole marketing team and then I remember him saying how do I get my stuff off Facebook? How do I monitor that they don't go on socia l media. That ship sailed.

 

Dawn Andrews  19:02

What did you use them as branding extensions?

 

19:06

And they helped more so that's one thing they need to be not threatened by the change and how quickly the world is moving and be and think of how can I actually come to the table and say, You know what, we're not using any AI This is ridiculous. Why are we exploring this.

 

Dawn Andrews  19:21

Oh my gosh, yeah. Super missed opportunity there for anybody that's hiding from it. You guys. You already know how much of a an AI advocate I am. I'm addicted. And that's another podcast but something that strikes me so it's football season here in America football throwing pass not kicking head. I have three songs on where Willow was fully aware. Yeah, it will we're 40 Niners fans over here, so I'm dating the moment but it was a big game last night. It strikes me if founders started to look at their HR professionals a little bit more like the scouts for their teams. It would be a complete shift in the relationship. So for instance, 40 Niners played last night one I'm very excited. But there's a group of people who over the last part of the season have been injured. There are players that are probably coming close to retirement, there are players that have newly joined the team, and we're not sure how they're going to work out no different than managing the HR and the whole employee body of a company. And if you're a well seasoned HR professional, similar to a scout for a team, you're aware of all those comings and goings, the ups and downs who the competitors are that the team is playing against, and the kind of team that you need to build to be able to win the Superbowl.

 

Sel Watts  20:34

What stage your team is in? Are you in a we won two years ago, and then we had to now we're not so good, we have to rebuild, or we right at the crux, where we're ready for Subala? Where is the business or the team at in its lifecycle?

 

Dawn Andrews  20:47

Yes, and if as an HR professional, you can start to think of yourself that way and present yourself that way, then you become a an invaluable partner. And I think for founders, if you're not clear on that, if you're not clear of what functions you need team member members to serve, stop trying to have it all in your head and do it all yourself. This is where you get the chance to lean in a little bit. Like, I'm sad that even with smaller businesses, that people are not leveraging that opportunity. What do you think is in the way there? What do you think keeps founders from leaning into their HR professional,

 

Sel Watts  21:19

I think it's leaning into any role in the business and when they're starting out. So when I look back on my journey, and I started the consulting firm, and it was just me, I never wanted to be a consultant, like an HR consultant, I wanted to grow a HR consulting company. So what that meant in the first five years is that I could have really relied on me as the key billable person for those and made more money, but the business would have been very reliant on me. And when it got to a point where I wanted to step out, it would impact the face so much that I probably people struggling to then step out. So right from the beginning, I was of the view that I'm trying to grow this, I need to be investing in people and handing things over well, before I can actually afford it. Because ultimately, I don't want to be stuck in this business doing these things. Now, if you're someone, you're a practitioner, and you're building a business, and you want to keep doing the work, or whatever, that's great, I didn't start a business for that reason. And I really believe the reason that we're in Australia, we didn't have any competitors that were close to our size was because I ran the business as I'm running the business, I'm not in in doing the work and I had to for a long time, but less and less. And I sacrifice the money for the ability to grow the business longer term. And so I think HR sales, even finance to a point you think I can do this, I can interview I know how to interview, I can go out and do most founders a great business development. But let's say something else, I can keep doing my payroll. And it's the ability to go do what I always think, what are the things that lonely.

 

Dawn Andrews  22:52

Why?

 

Sel Watts  22:54

Because we don't get the money and we don't feel that we're ready. And I'm a big believer in do things before you're ready and then grow into them, I have no aversion to risk. So that can be difficult for some people, which I appreciate. But I think that if you look at your time, and you think what is it in the business that only I can do like right now, only I can do this. But if I was working on a document before this, there are other people in the business that can do that. So I really should be a majority of the time doing only what I can do now, remembering that depending on the stage, the business, we all have to do everything at some point. But you got to be able to look and think.

 

Dawn Andrews  23:28

how soon can I get myself out of this?

 

Sel Watts  23:31

What should you do first, and that's when we do a lot of organizational restructuring. That's what we look at who shouldn't your next hire actually be? And yeah, so I think that it's not just leaning into HR, it's that mentality of I'm gonna lean in to all the people that are experts in their roles so I can have the majority of my role doing the things that only I can do.

 

Dawn Andrews  23:50

So something that just struck me from what you shared in fact, I put a little note down was always be planning your exit. So as a founder, yes, hopefully, girls if you do not know this, I'm telling you right now, if you are starting a business, you need to be planning for your exit from the beginning of starting your business. What struck me what you said that I'm taking a step further is that with every stage of the business, you're planning your exit. So if you start a business and you're wearing all the hats, what are the ones that you can take off next and neck it's from the minute that you first the business you're trying to get yourself out of it basically.

 

Sel Watts  24:23

Yeah, and that out of it doesn't mean necessarily that you selling it and for example, my consulting firm is a really good lifestyle business in the sense of I could use it to throws out good cash to be able to live a nice life. Now I decided that I would instead of using it as a lifestyle business I did for a little while, after I'd grown up I decided to use that to rather to invest in coming to the coming to America and starting again. And so that business was always going to be more valuable to me as a cash business than it was as a sale business rather than just going oh, this is just a lifestyle business. I just looked at went okay, what how can I make he'd be the one that helps me do the thing that's going to perhaps be the retirement or whatever else. I know that all the way through, ultimately, it wasn't going to be the best thing for that business probably wasn't going to be preparing it for sale there was going to be preparing it for to not have any reliance on Me, which is unusual in a services firm. But I did that right from the beginning. And I remember, every coach and advisor that I had along the way, told me I was doing the wrong thing. And I'm a big believer that you listen to people who have done what you're trying to do not people that say, Hey, I'm an expert in this. And putting that back to HR. Actually, HR people are not necessarily experienced at managing their own people or firing their own people or hiring their own people. They advise the managers and support the managers, I know that when I have my own a hat on, I'm not good at interviewing, I go all the same mistakes as everyone else. But if I'm interviewing you, I'm exceptional at it. Because that's an area of expertise. I do it little for me, then there's too much emotion. But yes, like it's understanding where do you ideally want to be in? What are the things that you're going to take now and only take advice from people who have been done what you're trying to do.

 

Dawn Andrews  26:08

I'm so enjoying our conversation today. And yet, obviously, we started in the HR space because of where your businesses are. But I feel like I have gotten so much from our conversation, just from a business perspective, like your thoughts on how to operate, how to hire, how to relate to your people, it's been really valuable. So now I'm going to peel it back for a second. And I would love to hear a little bit about how you keep it all together behind the scenes, because you are a mom of three, you have a business that you're running in Australia, you have a business that you're running in New York, you are the head of iOS, New York chapter, that's a whole lot of life going on all at once. And that's not even talking about hobbies, and or anything else that you're interested in the world. So what helps you keep all of these pieces together?

 

Sel Watts  26:54

The key thing for me is, know and focus only on what matters. What really matters.

 

Dawn Andrews  27:00

What's your decision making criteria for that? How do you know?

 

Sel Watts  27:03

Yeah, so kids is a good one. Because if you're a mother, well, I don't do mother guilt, I just will not partake in that behavior. Because it doesn't help me but also certainly doesn't help the kids. It doesn't help anyone. It's the biggest waste of emotion and energy. So for example, I look at the boys, they've got two teenagers, and then one that's just turned 11. And that so much is going on. And I have to go what actually really matters in relation to my parenting because me not doing baking for the bake sale, which I never have. And I never will because I hate anything more stick at his word. It's like now they won't even ask me to buy a cake for them sake, they'll just get it on the way. And I'll never even know that there was but that doesn't matter if that every one of them was something that I really enjoyed doing, then great. But it's not an there's no, I just don't even think about it. But I had a very clear view when I had the boys. I was like, Okay, how am I going to parent because it's, it's constantly changing. We have no idea what we're doing forever. And so I was like, Okay, let me look at it this way, If I only could, if I could only give them one piece of advice their whole life, what would it be? And so that's really thinking about what matters, what do I think really matters. And to me it was I want to tell them that no matter what the likelihood is of success, that they should chase their dreams, I didn't want to be the parent that says, Oh, you want to be an actor great. But just get a law degree just in case, it's my life mantra is no plan B. And so I believe that if you have a plan B as humans, we're more likely to take that plan B. It's just nature. And so I thought I want them to just go for it. Because whatever happens, whether they hit their dream or not worth the journey they'll have along the way, we'll give them the challenges. And so then I went okay, that's great. That's what my advice would be out of everything of the no drugs. And then I was like, okay, therefore, I have to give them a front row seat in dream chasing, because who am I to say, Go and live your dreams? Like didn't I was too scared, but you do it, you go and do it, I think you can do it. I have no right to say that. So I was like, Okay, well, I'm gonna live and they're gonna watch what I would like to share with them until now it's up to them whether they decide to do that. But what it's done is it's made my decision making around really hard choices with a lot of criticism from people. And it's made it so much easier because I came and lived in New York for nearly two years on my own commuting back and forth every six weeks because I had this dream to be here, but I wasn't in a position where I could just move us all over and see how it went. I had to try and get that to get off the ground. And so I had to leave them there. Be here, keep going back and forth. I had so much criticism, but I was chasing my dream and they got to watch that and they saw the sacrifice and they saw the pain and the criticism and then getting them here the things that I you know want to do they get to see all that and experience that now and I'm not saying that should be someone else's view. But if you know what your thing is, then live that and then everything else you just let fall away instead of trying to live what other people think you should be doing and I'm expected to bake for the bake sale. I'm expected to have a His balance of blah, blah, blah, I'm not expected to whatever once you know what your thing is, whatever anyone else is doing or thinking, it just doesn't matter. And so then I look at everything that I'm doing what actually matters in this situation in this conversation in this meeting, in this piece of work that I'm doing, and HR from an HR perspective. So this is key for entrepreneurs, but from an HR perspective, hrs most overworked department, I believe they're doing so many things that don't need to be done. So it's like, what are we trying to achieve here? And this is what I trained my team and what's the intention? Ultimately, what are you trying to achieve? And do that when you're getting on a call? What makes that caused success? What is it and just do the things that matter? Do you can look at everything through that lens, in my view, then a lot of floods away.

 

Dawn Andrews  30:44

it simplifies things pretty significantly.

 

Sel Watts  30:47

Yeah, it's easy to say no to things, it's easier to be able to juggle lots of different interests that you have. And same with the boys in the every day. It drives me insane that they leave their wet towels on the floor, and they dry clean their room and whatever. And yes, I'm on them about that. Ultimately, if it's that or time spent talking about drugs or being there when they've had a hard day, yeah, what tells be damned? Yeah, doesn't matter. It's much more important that I just sit there and listen to them, or whatever it may be. So I just look at it that way. And I think that's helped me do lots of things. And the other thing, I think that has made it easier is that I don't believe in failures. I just think you try things. And you either go, oh, I tried that. But I wasn't good at it. Or I tried that. And I didn't actually like it when I started to do it. So I'm gonna do something else, rather than I tried that, and I failed, I couldn't do it. And so therefore, it's got this negative look at everything, like an experience. And I didn't actually realize this, but it came around when I was talking on a podcast in Australia about my business. And the interviewer said to me, let's talk about how your Sydney office failed. And I was like, What do you mean, failed? And she said, you started a Sydney office last year, and then you close it down. I was like, Oh, I shouldn't consider that a failure I can with the way it was for me was I wanted to open a Sydney office. And so I went and did that. We got there. And I realized I didn't really like like it there. And I'm going to be a lot less expensive just to steal service clients from Brisbane, the staff member who said didn't want to say we didn't do it anymore. Where's the button here and having a god something and going, oh, yeah, this is sucks. I don't do this.

 

Dawn Andrews  32:22

Yeah, I'm placing a bet. I thought that might work. And it really didn't work for what we needed to do.

 

Sel Watts  32:27

And so that also enables you to just have, as we say, in Australia, have a crack at things have a go and like yeah, judgment about just live your journey. No one really cares at the end of the day.

 

Dawn Andrews  32:38

Any apps on the phone any, like tactical tools that really help you support you?

 

Sel Watts  32:44

Yeah, so I have a couple of things. So one is that weekly meeting with self, and it's 10 things that if I don't do them, no one will know no one cared. But if I do them, they will make all the difference. So it's this is all about business. But it's if you exercise, like ultimately, no one's gonna care. But if you do it, and you do it consistently, so there are certain things that I know, enabled me to grow my business.

 

Dawn Andrews  33:05

Though they may not be visible to an employee to a purchaser of your services, etc. Yeah. So what's on the list?

 

Sel Watts  33:12

So there's which team member I am I going to go shadow this week go to a meeting with or just as a which internal training am I going to do? Which person am I going to take out for copy to get some sort of mentorship about a specific area? Which client? Am I going to call just checking which past client? Am I going to check in on? What professional development Am I doing this week? And then the one key one is what's the elephant in the room? What's the need to deal with? That I'm not dealing with a difficult conversation doing that task. And just like a normal one on one, which you would have you with your team, I have that with myself. And I write those things down. And if I do those things, it's like the important not urgent, you know, activities that ultimately make the difference. And I do believe that a lot of the times it's the things that you don't see that make the difference. And I'm just a big believer in be around people that are where you want to be. Ask for people's advice, guidance. I'm constantly calling people can you mentor me in this particular subject? Or can I ask you about these things? Just ask people for knowledge? Because that is Yeah, I think that's invaluable.

 

Dawn Andrews  34:22

Yeah. And what an underrated skill or an even an unidentified skill, right? People just don't even realize that they have the world at their fingertips and don't ask.

 

Sel Watts  34:31

Exactly, it's all there. I mean, business can be really simple. I think it's interesting. Now when I started the business, my first business there was no social media or so there wasn't this you weren't seeing what anyone else was doing.

 

Dawn Andrews  34:45

You just there's no no death by comparison sort of a thing. Yeah. And I'm

 

Sel Watts  34:49

Very much about that. Just I'm in my lane. Like I'm just doing my thing. And I might change my thing. If I don't like this or whatever, which is fine. I can change lanes but I'm not in every lane because someone is over there and someone's there. And I should be there. I just don't do that. And I think that helps a lot.

 

Dawn Andrews  35:05

So take a moment, let's share with the listeners a little bit more about HR link. And then I have one more question for you before we go. So tell me about HR link.

 

Sel Watts  35:13

Page A link is for those founders out there who have an internal HR person, and it's a community for them to invest in their HR persons in that community, they get, obviously a community of other people just like them, but they get a lot of one on one training and development from me, we do forums together with peers, we focus on specific learnings that will be able to be implemented in the business tomorrow, basically, like strategic planning, like organization, time management, often, unfortunately, because and I think this is a female thing, I hate to say self esteem, things, as well as AI, and how do you understand your industry, what does a p&l actually look like? All of the things that's going to enable HR person to add value sitting at the table. And so I would like to see founders investing in their HR people, not just as make, I'm going to give you this membership. So you've got your compliant and we're safe, it's like really invest in them. Because ultimately, they can have an impact over every employee. So you invest in your HR person, then you're investing in your whole team, which is not necessarily the case in any other department. They grow and they're not lonely. And the stuff we teach is really real life. I haven't learned anything out of a book, everything's been I've learned has been on the job in the world. And that's what I share.

 

Dawn Andrews  36:33

And you're giving the people that are part of HR link Applied Business Strategy, apply, it's actually take it and go out and do it in your company and make things better.

 

Sel Watts  36:41

This is the real stuff. But this is the stuff that actually happens in a business. It's not that stuff you've read in the book, or the awesome articles you're writing. This is what happens when you're dealing with a founder who's an entrepreneur who's driving their passion, but doesn't know how to run a business. This is the reality, and that's what we talk about not what's in the books.

 

Dawn Andrews  37:00

Love it. And where it's a where they find HR link, is it hr link.com? Or where do they

 

Sel Watts  37:05

the HR link.com? It's li N C? Linc hrlinc.com.

 

Dawn Andrews  37:11

Okay, good. I just want to make sure everybody can find you. Alright, so last question for you. And I asked this of everybody Imagine yourself in Times Square, surrounded by all the sparkly billboards. So you get the biggest sparkliest one to share a bit of wisdom with other female founders, what would you tell them?

 

Sel Watts  37:27

I would tell them to chase their dreams, no matter how unlikely it is, no matter what anyone else says you've got one life. And it's too long not to be doing what you want to do. And it's too short not to be doing what you want to do. And to many people are not living their life because of what they think others expect of them or what how they should be. Row that out. It's your life and just go for it. No plan B

 

Dawn Andrews  37:55

love it. No plan B.

 

Sel Watts  37:57

I plan B on your life. Yes.

 

Dawn Andrews  37:59

Thank you for that illusion to female reproductive health care to lock Yes. It's like we need the plan B. I know that's a different conversation. We hear you and we support you so well, thank you so much for joining me today. I have taken so much away from this myself. And I always do in these conversations. This has been particularly packed with wisdom. Thank you for sharing it with me and with all of the listeners.

 

Sel Watts  38:26

Thank you so much. I've loved it.

 

Dawn Andrews  38:30

Thank you for joining me, my good woman. If you loved today's episode, make sure to subscribe. Consider it like getting a front row seat at the premiere of the year's biggest blockbuster every episode. You wouldn't want to miss the opening scene of a cinema classic right? So hit subscribe to ensure you're in the audience popcorn in hand for our next thrilling episode. Don't let the credits roll without you. See you soon