We are so excited to have Jenni Severson on the podcast.
Jenni has served on the Board of Directors for Simon Says Give over the last five years. Thank you Jenni for your contribution to the community.
Jenni Severson is the Vice President of People at Vivacity, Tech PBC, an EdTech company providing technology solutions to K-12 schools. With a sharp focus on fostering an exceptional employee experience, Jenni leads all HR functions for the organization, driving business outcomes through development of a high performance culture.
Her commitment to excellence extends beyond Vivacity, as she actively contributes her expertise as a Board member for TCSHRM and Simon Says Give, and serves as a committee member for Full Stack Saint Paul and the MN Chamber Education and Workforce Development Policy Committee.
Jenni holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Minnesota and certifications as a PHR-certified HR professional and an Insights Discovery Client Practitioner.
Along with her husband Tim and two children, Jude (7) and Clementine (4), she attempts to tackle every fun activity the Twin Cities has to offer.
Resources:
LinkedIn Profile
Transcript
John Simon Sr. 00:06
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR and I'm Dina Simon. Our guest today is Jenny Severson. Jenny is vice president of people, and Jenny is our first guest of 2024 and the first guest of season number two. So Jenny, welcome to the podcast.
Jenni Severson 00:32
Thanks so much for having me, John and Dina. What an honor to be the first guest of 2024 so happy to be here with you guys today.
John Simon Sr. 00:40
So Jenny, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and where you live and maybe what you like to do in your spare time. Does you have any of that? Yes,
Jenni Severson 00:50
well, I have very little spare time. I will be honest. I live in Rogers, Minnesota, which is a Northwestern suburb of the Twin Cities. I grew up in the Brainerd Lakes area. So I really enjoy living on that northern side of the Twin Cities. It gets us a jump start when we're on those trips up north. And actually, my husband and I are both from the Brainerd Lakes area, and we still have family there, so we try to spend time there with our family. We're actually Junior High sweethearts. We've been dating for dating for her home almost 25 years.
Dina Simon 01:24
Oh my gosh, yeah,
Jenni Severson 01:25
I am under 40. So 25 years is just a long time. Insane is a very long time. We have two amazing children, Jude Clementine, so that's really our life is managing these two beautiful kids. Jude is seven, and he's definitely the most energetic person I know. He's hilariously, he's hilarious, and he's covertly very kind, so I see a lot of his kindness, and he makes his sister laugh. How old is Clementine? Clementine is four. Okay? She's gonna be five next Tuesday,
John Simon Sr. 02:03
yay. So as vice president of vivacity, a public benefit corporation, and in charge of vice president of people, what is your day like? So
Jenni Severson 02:14
I manage the HR function. Our organization brands our HR as people and culture, because our emphasis, obviously, is on our employees and building that culture for our employees to thrive within. So I manage the entire HR function and have a team, a small team, that helps provide an exceptional employee experience. Okay?
John Simon Sr. 02:35
And maybe you can tell our listeners a little bit about vivacity tech. Absolutely.
Jenni Severson 02:40
So. Vivacity Tech is a public benefit corporation. We are in the ed tech space. We provide technology solutions to K 12 schools. And being a public benefit corporation is really a pillar of our organization and our commitment to giving back into community. I
John Simon Sr. 02:58
did, like in reading a little bit about your profile about giving back a portion of profits to ensure the nation school success, and I think that's very commendable of your corporation.
Jenni Severson 03:09
Thank you. It's very important to us, and as a people and culture leader, it's also just a wonderful way to build culture within the organization to really, you know, find talent that wants to come in and
Dina Simon 03:21
be a part of that. So headquartered originated here, but I know there's other locations, correct? Yes,
Jenni Severson 03:26
we are headquartered in St Paul. We are founded in St Paul and have had several offices, but always in the St Paul area. Right now we're in Midway, and we launched our second site in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2021 and then just last year, in 2023 we launched in Chicago and in Denver. Nice. So growing growing. We're growing very quickly. Yes, we actually did place on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies this year and number 1213, wow,
Dina Simon 04:01
congrats.
Jenni Severson 04:03
Thank you, nice.
John Simon Sr. 04:04
And I understand you're involved with Simon Says gives.
Jenni Severson 04:08
I am involved in Simon says give,
Dina Simon 04:11
yes. And so if Jude is seven, then it's been about six years.
Jenni Severson 04:16
Your math is exactly accurate. Yes, he has just turned one, and when we came to our very first high fiver supplies,
Dina Simon 04:25
yep, we've got cute pictures. And then we've seen you before Clementine and after her right like so we've experienced all of that. So super fun. But you do have two beautiful children that keep you very busy, and then you support us with Simon says, Give as the chair to our high five for supplies drive and vivacity has helped the last couple years in supporting that. So we greatly appreciate their give back to the community. So thank you for that. But yeah, so you've been so six years and on the board probably four or five years, because I know you volunteered at first.
Jenni Severson 04:58
Yes, I started as a volunteer, but. For joining the board, and we found
Dina Simon 05:01
you, because you kind of found me on LinkedIn, and then we found out, like the the paired people that we knew of each other, you know that you had in your network, that I had in my network. So before you got to vivesta, you talk to us a little bit about your career leading up to where you are today. Absolutely,
Jenni Severson 05:19
yes, I was so excited the week I met you, I think is one of the same weeks that I got connected in with versique, and that was such a cool way for us to have those shared connections. And versique has been a wonderful partner to me in my career, and has placed me actually at my last two positions with vivacity and also previously at Mary T, Incorporated. Mary T is a humanitarian, and we provided the HR function to her family of businesses. She had six businesses that we provided the HR function to. And prior to that, I spent almost 10 years working in the massage industry, health and wellness, working with a local entrepreneur to build a SPA brand. Yeah?
Dina Simon 06:02
Nice, nice. And so always in that people just making amazing experiences for the staff that you have, the clients, the stakeholders, the people that you're working with. So I do love, as John said, just the vice president of people, yeah, you know it that actually is such a great title for you and and the career that you've had so far. I remember
Jenni Severson 06:25
my president, my founder and president massage, dutree and spa, trying to tell me about this title at the time. This was years ago, and I remember telling him that does that sounds like a made up title? Why are you proposing this title for me? And I didn't use it when I when I worked there, but I think it really encompasses, yeah, that commitment to people in my career,
John Simon Sr. 06:47
definitely a real tie into human resources too.
Dina Simon 06:50
Yes, yes. So leadership, talk to us about, you know, maybe your favorite leader that you've had, or something that resonates with you from a leadership perspective,
Jenni Severson 07:00
absolutely, you know, I started my career working for an entrepreneur at massage retreat and spa, and he is the most important leader in my life, working and partnering with him for 10 years and really just learning so much from him on what I wanted to do as a leader. Some of it may be in opposition, but a lot of it in marrying. And really, I think the most important thing I learned is trusting in people. And I was, you know, such a young leader for that organization, and he had so much confidence in me and allowed me to learn and fail and make mistakes. And always, was always in my corner in helping to promote my success. And that's really what taught me, that leading people and helping people succeed is what ultimately helps your business succeed. Love
Dina Simon 07:57
that. Love that. So you, as you said, you're not yet 40, so you're still a young leader yourself. But if you think back, any words of wisdom for you know somebody, and you do a lot of mentoring. I saw that you're doing the Minneapolis Business Journal mentoring. I saw that on LinkedIn today. So in mentoring, when you have somebody that's starting out in an HR career or some type of career. What are some of your words of wisdom to that younger generation starting out? Yeah,
Jenni Severson 08:25
you know, I'd really love for someone to tell me, when you stop being a young professional. I don't feel like that is clear. So I still feel like a young professional, but I don't think I am one. The most important advice for an HR professional, in my opinion, is to learn the business, and you know your focus is obviously on people and their development and their contribution to the business, but understanding the business, understanding how your business makes money, so that you are in partnership with your leaders When you're helping to provide that feedback from the employee lens that you're adding in that business acumen. You
John Simon Sr. 09:06
know, one of the hardest things I found whenever I ran the business that I ran is, number one, finding the best people you can find, and then secondly, retaining the best people.
Dina Simon 09:17
Yes, that's absolutely
Jenni Severson 09:18
true. And finding talent has, you know, that's really where the culture piece comes in, is ensuring that you have a culture that attracts talent. You know, it's hard to go out and find talent. You need to attract it. You need to have an employer brand that is strong. You need to have a culture that is strong, that people are interested in coming to work for you. And you have to make sure that that is authentic. That's the key to retention, that you know who you say you are is who you actually are, and that when your employees show up every day, that they understand the expectation and the culture, yeah, and it's
Dina Simon 09:53
really being lived out, yeah.
John Simon Sr. 09:55
And it makes it more difficult whenever you have turnover, because now you you. You've trained someone, you spent many days, hours, months, years, and getting them to where you want to be, and then they pick up and leave sometimes, and now you're back to really peg number one again.
Jenni Severson 10:11
Yeah, yeah. Building out retention strategies is, of course, a very important part of your business and your growth. And, you know, we've been really fortunate at vivacity to have limited, voluntary turn, and that is, you know, really just due to the commitment we make to our people and to our culture,
Dina Simon 10:31
nice, what? What would you say? My just, even though, with the commitment, Okay, are there like, three things that come to mind that you're like, here's, here's, from a culture perspective, why people stay well,
Jenni Severson 10:42
we obviously align our culture a lot with our values. So desire excellence, build community and be vivacious. Are three of our values that I think are most important. Building community is, you know, really important to us as a business, in both aligning internally within our organization, building community, but also externally. And our commitment to the community helps us connect with people who also have that same commitment to the community. Right? We give all of our employees 96 hours of PTO that they can use per year to go out and volunteer and find organizations that are meaningful to them. We encourage collaboration with the K 12 community, but really it's anything that our employees are passionate about, and then be vivacious is really what it means to work at vivacity is, you know, we're growing fast, and we have a lot of change, and every day is a little bit different, and just showing up and being vivacious every day is an important part of our culture. How'd
Dina Simon 11:45
you land on 96 hours of volunteer time?
Jenni Severson 11:48
So it's eight hours per month,
Dina Simon 11:51
okay, is what it ends up nice. I love that where John the standard is maybe companies give a half day or a day. But no, I don't know many companies that give more than one or two days. Jenny, yeah, so that's awesome per year, yeah, yeah. Per year. So very commendable. Yeah, yeah. So Jenny, you asked a question. When we post the podcast on LinkedIn, I'll do a poll, because you asked the question of, when are you no longer a young professional? I think that's a great question. So I can tell you, from my perspective, you know, there's that 40 under 40. So I kind of feel like, once you get to that 40, I feel like, so I think there's still question between like 30 and 35 Are you still considered a young professional? And I think it's changed too. I think that, I think, I think it's gone a little bit higher up into closer to 40. I think over the years, you know, we think about when we what Simon says give when we talk about our youth, like our kid Advisory Board, we went back and said youth to us was, you know, college kids, we're still in that so. But I think that's a great question on who, what? What is young professional? What do people consider that so and now that the population of workers is also getting older and people are working longer, I wonder how that maybe has changed it too. So great question.
Jenni Severson 13:12
I can't wait to see the results. There you go. You
John Simon Sr. 13:16
know, one of the questions Nina normally asks is, what would you tell your 20 year old self. Well, that's not too far away from you. So, you know, you don't have to get back very far to think about that. I
Jenni Severson 13:27
think I would just tell my 21 or 20 oh, gosh, look, I went to 21 Oh, I would tell my 20 year old self that you got this. You know, I think I personally was a really young leader. And being a young leader is, you know, it's filled with a lot of imposter syndrome, and you just show up every day and hope that nobody calls you out on what you think you don't know. And just to continue doing that, stay positive and keep comp, keep your confidence up. And
John Simon Sr. 14:01
as you mentioned, learn the business. Learn. Learn what makes money for the business. Yeah, so
Dina Simon 14:06
you can be a real business partner sitting at that table absolutely, yeah, yeah. So we heard a little bit about your family, and so tell John where you spend your college football days. Yes,
Jenni Severson 14:20
Gopher athletics is a large part of our family life, specifically Gopher football. We love all gopher athletics, and we've made it to basketball and hockey and some other really fun sporting events, but Gopher football is where it's at. We go to every game, our kids go to every game, our home games, and it is a very important tradition for our family.
John Simon Sr. 14:44
That's great because, you know, now that it's tradition, the kids will pick up on it also, and they will, they will do the same thing someday, whenever they have children, also, absolutely,
Jenni Severson 14:54
I think my husband, when he graduated from the U he. Had only missed one game in his entire right, like, year time as a student, and he kept that trend up all the way until last year, when he had to miss a game for my brother's wedding.
Dina Simon 15:14
So your brother didn't consult when football
Jenni Severson 15:17
season. Yeah, my husband said, you know, it wasn't like he was missing things, you know, you know, he was like, it wasn't really like I did it intentionally, but it was just the streak that he had going. Yeah,
Dina Simon 15:28
right. Love that, yeah. So
John Simon Sr. 15:29
I would imagine that way could start a new one. Yes,
Dina Simon 15:33
start a new one. And I would imagine that you guys are hopeful that your children might choose the University of Minnesota, go to go to college. You
Jenni Severson 15:42
know, I'm hopeful that we've built a tradition that they're excited to be a part of.
Dina Simon 15:48
Absolutely yes. So I don't know if you know this, but so with Mandy, and why she didn't go to Madison, I don't think I do so just so you know, not to be a Debbie Downer, but, but we took her to Madison so much, yeah, that everybody assumed she was gonna go to Madison. Sure. So when she took when she did, like, the college tour, she was like, okay, Ben here, done this. And so it wasn't new to her anymore. So I think for two reasons. One, everybody assumed that's where she was gonna go. And then two, we had just taken her there so much, and so she wanted her own thing, which has turned out beautiful for us, and we still love to go to Madison. And she and I were there for the Cornhusker badger game, but it was really interesting, like that feedback when we finally got to that point of like, yeah, I guess I Oh, I have to blame myself for that.
Jenni Severson 16:38
I don't think that's Debbie Downer. I think that's valid, and I appreciate wanting to go off and explore. And obviously, you know, the University of Minnesota is right here in town, so I would understand, you know, my kids wanting to go out and spread their wings somewhere else.
Dina Simon 16:55
It'll be fun to see, because I see the picture. So they sure love, they sure love with everything, go first. So it's super fun to watch. Yes,
Jenni Severson 17:03
especially Goldy Gopher. Goldie Gopher is a celebrity at our house.
Dina Simon 17:07
I would imagine, I would imagine. So let's talk about legacy. So life, leadership, legacy. So to us, legacies are the things that we're doing we're living out now. So it's not what happens one day, it's the things that we're living and trying to accomplish. So what comes to mind when we talk about legacy?
Jenni Severson 17:25
Gosh, I'm so glad you phrased it that way, because that is exactly the way that I look at legacy. And I was wondering if you were going to ask me this question. And I was thinking about, you know, the way that I view legacy. It is the now, it's every day living life with your colleagues, with your family, and being connected the relationships you're building. And I definitely have a futuristic, futuristic mindset in how I think about the future and dream about the future, but really, when I think all about legacy, it's about today. And what am I doing today to make somebody's day better?
Dina Simon 18:06
Yeah, yeah. And Jenny, you certainly have been part of our nonprofit for many years and in service, but you also are on other boards, very active in the community. What are you most excited about? Maybe moving into 2024
Jenni Severson 18:20
as far as community, what I'm most excited for is connecting in with wired and Dean, I know you're involved in this too, but Jen Lindahl is launching wired connect in 2024 and providing opportunity for women to connect in community on personal and professional development, and I am very excited to be a facilitator for the launch of these collectives. Yes,
Dina Simon 18:47
and so John, we'll have to have Jen on our podcast so you can learn more about that. But Jenny and I are both going to be facilitating like a peer group, basically, that will get going in the next quarter, and we're just taking applications under this wired umbrella, and we're very excited about it, and it's super fun that Jenny and I will get both get to work together on it.
Jenni Severson 19:08
I'm so excited I cannot wait to get started. Yes,
Dina Simon 19:11
yes,
John Simon Sr. 19:12
and it'll be a group that under 40, over 40. Or is there a specific group that you're looking for, or is it really anyone? Yeah,
Jenni Severson 19:23
the focus is on curating groups based on both the group membership but also connection to the facilitator. We'll have to report back on how those are curated.
Dina Simon 19:34
Yeah. And so John, people are filling out applications, and you just based on questions and what maybe an individual. So if I was looking to join a peer group, here's what I'm looking for. Then they're going to try and curate like minded people looking for kind of the same thing, and then try to match up the right facilitator. Okay, yeah, awesome. Well, Jenny, as you were prepping for the podcast, and I know we gave you some. Prep questions, anything else that you wanted to make sure the listeners heard from you? No,
Jenni Severson 20:04
I think we covered everything that I plan to talk about. I think, you know, the most important thing I just would highlight is just the commitment to community and how important that is in both professional and personal. And I'm so excited to be a part of this Twin Cities community. I love being a part of the Twin Cities business community, and opportunities to connect across nonprofits and business is a really rewarding, yeah,
Dina Simon 20:37
and that's one of the things that you've been given a lot of leeway on right, in your role and again, so you're very visible in this community as as somebody who does work for vivacity in this VP of people. And so your ability to be out and to be connected, to have that influence in the business community, but also from a recruitment standpoint, right? Like, I'm sure people are like, wow, you, your company really does stand back behind those values and all of the give backs and the volunteering and and you're being on boards and things so that that has to speak volumes for again, what you're doing on a day to day basis.
Jenni Severson 21:12
Yes, and our CEO and founder, Eli maloli, and his wife, Leah, our public benefits director, they, you know, they really build this company with giving back at the core, and so they're so supportive of the time commitment that is put into all the community initiatives.
John Simon Sr. 21:30
You know, what I take away from listening to you is find something that you love to do and you never work a day in your life.
Jenni Severson 21:39
Yes, I think that's true.
Dina Simon 21:40
Nice. Well, Jenny, we are honored to kick this year off with you as our guest on the podcast. So thank you for that. Thank you for your six plus years of just partnership and friendship. And look forward to connecting on wired as well as continuing on with Simon says, Give and making impact this year with our high five for supplies again, and just thank you for all that partnership in the community, just even with with me and and all things Simon,
Jenni Severson 22:08
thank you so much for having me. This was so great to connect with you guys. Thank you.
John Simon Sr. 22:12
Thank you.
Dina Simon 22:13
Thank you to my friend Jenny Severson, who joined us on the first podcast of 24 and kicking off our season two. She is a vice president of people at vivacity tech. Sits on a few boards here in town, including mine, of Simon says give and just love her energy and spirit and how she represents all the things that she cares about, an amazing mother. And I won't hold it against her that she is a gopher fan since I'm a badger, but thank you, Jenny, and we'll make sure you don't have to get in touch with her in the show notes. As always, I think my father in law is super excited that we're kicking off the second season and he's still all in so until we talk next time you
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR and I'm Dina Simon. Our guest today is Jenny Severson. Jenny is vice president of people, and Jenny is our first guest of 2024 and the first guest of season number two. So Jenny, welcome to the podcast.
Jenni Severson 00:32
Thanks so much for having me, John and Dina. What an honor to be the first guest of 2024 so happy to be here with you guys today.
John Simon Sr. 00:40
So Jenny, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and where you live and maybe what you like to do in your spare time. Does you have any of that? Yes,
Jenni Severson 00:50
well, I have very little spare time. I will be honest. I live in Rogers, Minnesota, which is a Northwestern suburb of the Twin Cities. I grew up in the Brainerd Lakes area. So I really enjoy living on that northern side of the Twin Cities. It gets us a jump start when we're on those trips up north. And actually, my husband and I are both from the Brainerd Lakes area, and we still have family there, so we try to spend time there with our family. We're actually Junior High sweethearts. We've been dating for dating for her home almost 25 years.
Dina Simon 01:24
Oh my gosh, yeah,
Jenni Severson 01:25
I am under 40. So 25 years is just a long time. Insane is a very long time. We have two amazing children, Jude Clementine, so that's really our life is managing these two beautiful kids. Jude is seven, and he's definitely the most energetic person I know. He's hilariously, he's hilarious, and he's covertly very kind, so I see a lot of his kindness, and he makes his sister laugh. How old is Clementine? Clementine is four. Okay? She's gonna be five next Tuesday,
John Simon Sr. 02:03
yay. So as vice president of vivacity, a public benefit corporation, and in charge of vice president of people, what is your day like? So
Jenni Severson 02:14
I manage the HR function. Our organization brands our HR as people and culture, because our emphasis, obviously, is on our employees and building that culture for our employees to thrive within. So I manage the entire HR function and have a team, a small team, that helps provide an exceptional employee experience. Okay?
John Simon Sr. 02:35
And maybe you can tell our listeners a little bit about vivacity tech. Absolutely.
Jenni Severson 02:40
So. Vivacity Tech is a public benefit corporation. We are in the ed tech space. We provide technology solutions to K 12 schools. And being a public benefit corporation is really a pillar of our organization and our commitment to giving back into community. I
John Simon Sr. 02:58
did, like in reading a little bit about your profile about giving back a portion of profits to ensure the nation school success, and I think that's very commendable of your corporation.
Jenni Severson 03:09
Thank you. It's very important to us, and as a people and culture leader, it's also just a wonderful way to build culture within the organization to really, you know, find talent that wants to come in and
Dina Simon 03:21
be a part of that. So headquartered originated here, but I know there's other locations, correct? Yes,
Jenni Severson 03:26
we are headquartered in St Paul. We are founded in St Paul and have had several offices, but always in the St Paul area. Right now we're in Midway, and we launched our second site in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2021 and then just last year, in 2023 we launched in Chicago and in Denver. Nice. So growing growing. We're growing very quickly. Yes, we actually did place on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies this year and number 1213, wow,
Dina Simon 04:01
congrats.
Jenni Severson 04:03
Thank you, nice.
John Simon Sr. 04:04
And I understand you're involved with Simon Says gives.
Jenni Severson 04:08
I am involved in Simon says give,
Dina Simon 04:11
yes. And so if Jude is seven, then it's been about six years.
Jenni Severson 04:16
Your math is exactly accurate. Yes, he has just turned one, and when we came to our very first high fiver supplies,
Dina Simon 04:25
yep, we've got cute pictures. And then we've seen you before Clementine and after her right like so we've experienced all of that. So super fun. But you do have two beautiful children that keep you very busy, and then you support us with Simon says, Give as the chair to our high five for supplies drive and vivacity has helped the last couple years in supporting that. So we greatly appreciate their give back to the community. So thank you for that. But yeah, so you've been so six years and on the board probably four or five years, because I know you volunteered at first.
Jenni Severson 04:58
Yes, I started as a volunteer, but. For joining the board, and we found
Dina Simon 05:01
you, because you kind of found me on LinkedIn, and then we found out, like the the paired people that we knew of each other, you know that you had in your network, that I had in my network. So before you got to vivesta, you talk to us a little bit about your career leading up to where you are today. Absolutely,
Jenni Severson 05:19
yes, I was so excited the week I met you, I think is one of the same weeks that I got connected in with versique, and that was such a cool way for us to have those shared connections. And versique has been a wonderful partner to me in my career, and has placed me actually at my last two positions with vivacity and also previously at Mary T, Incorporated. Mary T is a humanitarian, and we provided the HR function to her family of businesses. She had six businesses that we provided the HR function to. And prior to that, I spent almost 10 years working in the massage industry, health and wellness, working with a local entrepreneur to build a SPA brand. Yeah?
Dina Simon 06:02
Nice, nice. And so always in that people just making amazing experiences for the staff that you have, the clients, the stakeholders, the people that you're working with. So I do love, as John said, just the vice president of people, yeah, you know it that actually is such a great title for you and and the career that you've had so far. I remember
Jenni Severson 06:25
my president, my founder and president massage, dutree and spa, trying to tell me about this title at the time. This was years ago, and I remember telling him that does that sounds like a made up title? Why are you proposing this title for me? And I didn't use it when I when I worked there, but I think it really encompasses, yeah, that commitment to people in my career,
John Simon Sr. 06:47
definitely a real tie into human resources too.
Dina Simon 06:50
Yes, yes. So leadership, talk to us about, you know, maybe your favorite leader that you've had, or something that resonates with you from a leadership perspective,
Jenni Severson 07:00
absolutely, you know, I started my career working for an entrepreneur at massage retreat and spa, and he is the most important leader in my life, working and partnering with him for 10 years and really just learning so much from him on what I wanted to do as a leader. Some of it may be in opposition, but a lot of it in marrying. And really, I think the most important thing I learned is trusting in people. And I was, you know, such a young leader for that organization, and he had so much confidence in me and allowed me to learn and fail and make mistakes. And always, was always in my corner in helping to promote my success. And that's really what taught me, that leading people and helping people succeed is what ultimately helps your business succeed. Love
Dina Simon 07:57
that. Love that. So you, as you said, you're not yet 40, so you're still a young leader yourself. But if you think back, any words of wisdom for you know somebody, and you do a lot of mentoring. I saw that you're doing the Minneapolis Business Journal mentoring. I saw that on LinkedIn today. So in mentoring, when you have somebody that's starting out in an HR career or some type of career. What are some of your words of wisdom to that younger generation starting out? Yeah,
Jenni Severson 08:25
you know, I'd really love for someone to tell me, when you stop being a young professional. I don't feel like that is clear. So I still feel like a young professional, but I don't think I am one. The most important advice for an HR professional, in my opinion, is to learn the business, and you know your focus is obviously on people and their development and their contribution to the business, but understanding the business, understanding how your business makes money, so that you are in partnership with your leaders When you're helping to provide that feedback from the employee lens that you're adding in that business acumen. You
John Simon Sr. 09:06
know, one of the hardest things I found whenever I ran the business that I ran is, number one, finding the best people you can find, and then secondly, retaining the best people.
Dina Simon 09:17
Yes, that's absolutely
Jenni Severson 09:18
true. And finding talent has, you know, that's really where the culture piece comes in, is ensuring that you have a culture that attracts talent. You know, it's hard to go out and find talent. You need to attract it. You need to have an employer brand that is strong. You need to have a culture that is strong, that people are interested in coming to work for you. And you have to make sure that that is authentic. That's the key to retention, that you know who you say you are is who you actually are, and that when your employees show up every day, that they understand the expectation and the culture, yeah, and it's
Dina Simon 09:53
really being lived out, yeah.
John Simon Sr. 09:55
And it makes it more difficult whenever you have turnover, because now you you. You've trained someone, you spent many days, hours, months, years, and getting them to where you want to be, and then they pick up and leave sometimes, and now you're back to really peg number one again.
Jenni Severson 10:11
Yeah, yeah. Building out retention strategies is, of course, a very important part of your business and your growth. And, you know, we've been really fortunate at vivacity to have limited, voluntary turn, and that is, you know, really just due to the commitment we make to our people and to our culture,
Dina Simon 10:31
nice, what? What would you say? My just, even though, with the commitment, Okay, are there like, three things that come to mind that you're like, here's, here's, from a culture perspective, why people stay well,
Jenni Severson 10:42
we obviously align our culture a lot with our values. So desire excellence, build community and be vivacious. Are three of our values that I think are most important. Building community is, you know, really important to us as a business, in both aligning internally within our organization, building community, but also externally. And our commitment to the community helps us connect with people who also have that same commitment to the community. Right? We give all of our employees 96 hours of PTO that they can use per year to go out and volunteer and find organizations that are meaningful to them. We encourage collaboration with the K 12 community, but really it's anything that our employees are passionate about, and then be vivacious is really what it means to work at vivacity is, you know, we're growing fast, and we have a lot of change, and every day is a little bit different, and just showing up and being vivacious every day is an important part of our culture. How'd
Dina Simon 11:45
you land on 96 hours of volunteer time?
Jenni Severson 11:48
So it's eight hours per month,
Dina Simon 11:51
okay, is what it ends up nice. I love that where John the standard is maybe companies give a half day or a day. But no, I don't know many companies that give more than one or two days. Jenny, yeah, so that's awesome per year, yeah, yeah. Per year. So very commendable. Yeah, yeah. So Jenny, you asked a question. When we post the podcast on LinkedIn, I'll do a poll, because you asked the question of, when are you no longer a young professional? I think that's a great question. So I can tell you, from my perspective, you know, there's that 40 under 40. So I kind of feel like, once you get to that 40, I feel like, so I think there's still question between like 30 and 35 Are you still considered a young professional? And I think it's changed too. I think that, I think, I think it's gone a little bit higher up into closer to 40. I think over the years, you know, we think about when we what Simon says give when we talk about our youth, like our kid Advisory Board, we went back and said youth to us was, you know, college kids, we're still in that so. But I think that's a great question on who, what? What is young professional? What do people consider that so and now that the population of workers is also getting older and people are working longer, I wonder how that maybe has changed it too. So great question.
Jenni Severson 13:12
I can't wait to see the results. There you go. You
John Simon Sr. 13:16
know, one of the questions Nina normally asks is, what would you tell your 20 year old self. Well, that's not too far away from you. So, you know, you don't have to get back very far to think about that. I
Jenni Severson 13:27
think I would just tell my 21 or 20 oh, gosh, look, I went to 21 Oh, I would tell my 20 year old self that you got this. You know, I think I personally was a really young leader. And being a young leader is, you know, it's filled with a lot of imposter syndrome, and you just show up every day and hope that nobody calls you out on what you think you don't know. And just to continue doing that, stay positive and keep comp, keep your confidence up. And
John Simon Sr. 14:01
as you mentioned, learn the business. Learn. Learn what makes money for the business. Yeah, so
Dina Simon 14:06
you can be a real business partner sitting at that table absolutely, yeah, yeah. So we heard a little bit about your family, and so tell John where you spend your college football days. Yes,
Jenni Severson 14:20
Gopher athletics is a large part of our family life, specifically Gopher football. We love all gopher athletics, and we've made it to basketball and hockey and some other really fun sporting events, but Gopher football is where it's at. We go to every game, our kids go to every game, our home games, and it is a very important tradition for our family.
John Simon Sr. 14:44
That's great because, you know, now that it's tradition, the kids will pick up on it also, and they will, they will do the same thing someday, whenever they have children, also, absolutely,
Jenni Severson 14:54
I think my husband, when he graduated from the U he. Had only missed one game in his entire right, like, year time as a student, and he kept that trend up all the way until last year, when he had to miss a game for my brother's wedding.
Dina Simon 15:14
So your brother didn't consult when football
Jenni Severson 15:17
season. Yeah, my husband said, you know, it wasn't like he was missing things, you know, you know, he was like, it wasn't really like I did it intentionally, but it was just the streak that he had going. Yeah,
Dina Simon 15:28
right. Love that, yeah. So
John Simon Sr. 15:29
I would imagine that way could start a new one. Yes,
Dina Simon 15:33
start a new one. And I would imagine that you guys are hopeful that your children might choose the University of Minnesota, go to go to college. You
Jenni Severson 15:42
know, I'm hopeful that we've built a tradition that they're excited to be a part of.
Dina Simon 15:48
Absolutely yes. So I don't know if you know this, but so with Mandy, and why she didn't go to Madison, I don't think I do so just so you know, not to be a Debbie Downer, but, but we took her to Madison so much, yeah, that everybody assumed she was gonna go to Madison. Sure. So when she took when she did, like, the college tour, she was like, okay, Ben here, done this. And so it wasn't new to her anymore. So I think for two reasons. One, everybody assumed that's where she was gonna go. And then two, we had just taken her there so much, and so she wanted her own thing, which has turned out beautiful for us, and we still love to go to Madison. And she and I were there for the Cornhusker badger game, but it was really interesting, like that feedback when we finally got to that point of like, yeah, I guess I Oh, I have to blame myself for that.
Jenni Severson 16:38
I don't think that's Debbie Downer. I think that's valid, and I appreciate wanting to go off and explore. And obviously, you know, the University of Minnesota is right here in town, so I would understand, you know, my kids wanting to go out and spread their wings somewhere else.
Dina Simon 16:55
It'll be fun to see, because I see the picture. So they sure love, they sure love with everything, go first. So it's super fun to watch. Yes,
Jenni Severson 17:03
especially Goldy Gopher. Goldie Gopher is a celebrity at our house.
Dina Simon 17:07
I would imagine, I would imagine. So let's talk about legacy. So life, leadership, legacy. So to us, legacies are the things that we're doing we're living out now. So it's not what happens one day, it's the things that we're living and trying to accomplish. So what comes to mind when we talk about legacy?
Jenni Severson 17:25
Gosh, I'm so glad you phrased it that way, because that is exactly the way that I look at legacy. And I was wondering if you were going to ask me this question. And I was thinking about, you know, the way that I view legacy. It is the now, it's every day living life with your colleagues, with your family, and being connected the relationships you're building. And I definitely have a futuristic, futuristic mindset in how I think about the future and dream about the future, but really, when I think all about legacy, it's about today. And what am I doing today to make somebody's day better?
Dina Simon 18:06
Yeah, yeah. And Jenny, you certainly have been part of our nonprofit for many years and in service, but you also are on other boards, very active in the community. What are you most excited about? Maybe moving into 2024
Jenni Severson 18:20
as far as community, what I'm most excited for is connecting in with wired and Dean, I know you're involved in this too, but Jen Lindahl is launching wired connect in 2024 and providing opportunity for women to connect in community on personal and professional development, and I am very excited to be a facilitator for the launch of these collectives. Yes,
Dina Simon 18:47
and so John, we'll have to have Jen on our podcast so you can learn more about that. But Jenny and I are both going to be facilitating like a peer group, basically, that will get going in the next quarter, and we're just taking applications under this wired umbrella, and we're very excited about it, and it's super fun that Jenny and I will get both get to work together on it.
Jenni Severson 19:08
I'm so excited I cannot wait to get started. Yes,
Dina Simon 19:11
yes,
John Simon Sr. 19:12
and it'll be a group that under 40, over 40. Or is there a specific group that you're looking for, or is it really anyone? Yeah,
Jenni Severson 19:23
the focus is on curating groups based on both the group membership but also connection to the facilitator. We'll have to report back on how those are curated.
Dina Simon 19:34
Yeah. And so John, people are filling out applications, and you just based on questions and what maybe an individual. So if I was looking to join a peer group, here's what I'm looking for. Then they're going to try and curate like minded people looking for kind of the same thing, and then try to match up the right facilitator. Okay, yeah, awesome. Well, Jenny, as you were prepping for the podcast, and I know we gave you some. Prep questions, anything else that you wanted to make sure the listeners heard from you? No,
Jenni Severson 20:04
I think we covered everything that I plan to talk about. I think, you know, the most important thing I just would highlight is just the commitment to community and how important that is in both professional and personal. And I'm so excited to be a part of this Twin Cities community. I love being a part of the Twin Cities business community, and opportunities to connect across nonprofits and business is a really rewarding, yeah,
Dina Simon 20:37
and that's one of the things that you've been given a lot of leeway on right, in your role and again, so you're very visible in this community as as somebody who does work for vivacity in this VP of people. And so your ability to be out and to be connected, to have that influence in the business community, but also from a recruitment standpoint, right? Like, I'm sure people are like, wow, you, your company really does stand back behind those values and all of the give backs and the volunteering and and you're being on boards and things so that that has to speak volumes for again, what you're doing on a day to day basis.
Jenni Severson 21:12
Yes, and our CEO and founder, Eli maloli, and his wife, Leah, our public benefits director, they, you know, they really build this company with giving back at the core, and so they're so supportive of the time commitment that is put into all the community initiatives.
John Simon Sr. 21:30
You know, what I take away from listening to you is find something that you love to do and you never work a day in your life.
Jenni Severson 21:39
Yes, I think that's true.
Dina Simon 21:40
Nice. Well, Jenny, we are honored to kick this year off with you as our guest on the podcast. So thank you for that. Thank you for your six plus years of just partnership and friendship. And look forward to connecting on wired as well as continuing on with Simon says, Give and making impact this year with our high five for supplies again, and just thank you for all that partnership in the community, just even with with me and and all things Simon,
Jenni Severson 22:08
thank you so much for having me. This was so great to connect with you guys. Thank you.
John Simon Sr. 22:12
Thank you.
Dina Simon 22:13
Thank you to my friend Jenny Severson, who joined us on the first podcast of 24 and kicking off our season two. She is a vice president of people at vivacity tech. Sits on a few boards here in town, including mine, of Simon says give and just love her energy and spirit and how she represents all the things that she cares about, an amazing mother. And I won't hold it against her that she is a gopher fan since I'm a badger, but thank you, Jenny, and we'll make sure you don't have to get in touch with her in the show notes. As always, I think my father in law is super excited that we're kicking off the second season and he's still all in so until we talk next time you