We are so excited to have Jen Lindahl on this episode of the podcast. Jen is the Strategic Development Director at Echo Search Group.
She is a steadfast partner for clients, connecting the best people with the best opportunities, companies, and cultures. Jen strives to never lose sight of the relationship, offering clients and candidates honesty, transparency, and open communication.
Prior to Echo, Jen held various roles in industries including golf, staffing/professional services, construction, signage, and technology consulting. She has a natural ability to drive transformational change, which has allowed her to contribute to rapid growth at multiple companies.
In 2021, Jen founded WIRED, which was born out of the desire to bring together like-minded women, providing a space where they can inspire and support each other’s dreams and ambitions, all while giving back to the community.
In just two years, WIRED has successfully hosted 18 events, bringing together nearly 900 women and raising over $60,000 for local nonprofits.
Jen’s superpower is connection. Her driving purpose is to feel connected to something greater than herself and to make a positive impact in every endeavor she undertakes.
She lives in Hudson with her husband, and 3-year old daughter Vayda.
Resources:
LinkedIn
Visit WIRED
Visit ECHO Search
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
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon Sr. 00:16
Our guest today is Jen woodbal. Jenn is Client Solutions director with echo search group. Jen, welcome to the podcast.
Jen Lindahl 00:24
Thank you so much for having me.
John Simon Sr. 00:26
Jen, why don't you take a minute or so and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, maybe where you're from and where you live now, and maybe a little bit about what you do in your spare time, if you have any of it,
Jen Lindahl 00:39
yeah, there's not much these days. I actually kind of took my life full circle. I live back in my hometown of Hudson, Wisconsin. I went to college at St Cloud, Minnesota, and immediately left right after I graduated and did a west coast swing. I worked in the golf industry to start my career, and I was out in San Diego for five ish years working at Callaway goal headquarters for most 20 year olds, I felt like I was like, living the dream. I started my customer service, which was not the dream, but I ended up spending my last few years on the product side, so really working with R and D and the agency and the players, and it was awesome. I was sitting in a meeting, actually talking about where we were going to put our spend the next year, PGA tour.com, and they were bringing their whole team in house from their agency, and back at that time, social media. Sat in PR and I was like, I want to learn more about this. And so I called my contact after, and he shared a little more. And within, I think four weeks I had flown there, interviewed, sold my stuff, drove across the country with my mom, and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. And learned quickly, Florida was not my jam, so that was my roundabout way of moving back home. And then I got it a staffing on accident, so I took a smile now sales job to move home, and got connected with a company called antenna during that time and joined their internal team. And I've kind of been in and out of the talent and organizational and business development. I've had a few different roles since then, but really a fun journey to kind of get me where I am right now. At
Dina Simon 02:16
Echo, yeah, and John, most people that get into the staffing industry, they fall into the staffing industry somehow. So So that's common, but how cool to work, like you said, to fall into Callaway. What a great, amazing experience. And then I love that you also went to Florida, and as you said, that we found out that wasn't your jam, and that's the time in life to learn all of that.
John Simon Sr. 02:38
You figured it out while you were young, which is important,
Jen Lindahl 02:42
I guess. I still don't think I figured out. But you know what? I guess I was the what do they say now you climb in the jungle gym, and it's not a ladder career, right? I think I was a little ahead of the time on the whole jungle gym, maybe a little too jungle. Jimmy,
John Simon Sr. 02:55
well, I liked reading some on your bio, where you talk about connecting the best people with the best opportunities. And, boy, that really says a lot about you know what you do to help people out?
Jen Lindahl 03:07
Yeah, it's been a wild ride since I started at that though. So I was brought on actually, to stand up and lead a dedicated HR division here we do all direct hire search and over the course of the last 15 ish months or so, my role has really evolved as Echo has started to evolve to become more than just a search firm. So we launched coaching in q4 so we're doing the standalone coaching, and we're also providing integration coaches with anyone we place in a people leader role. So really working on becoming, I call it more of a strategic people partner, right? We're focusing a lot on retention and engagement, and where is the organization need to get to to support the strategic business objectives that the organization is set forth, rather than just putting a button a seat, right? Which is kind of what you think of when you think of direct hire. So that's been really fun and a really big evolution since I started here. And on the flip side, wired, which I don't know if we want to talk about now or anywhere, but let's go for it. Let's dig in. Yeah, so wired was started two years ago. I was in a business development role, and I was like, I know I need to go to networking events, but there's got to just be a better way to authentically connect with women. Most of our lives are super complicated, and I just want to talk about the hard stuff. And so I threw a happy hour, and 40 women shown up. And over the course of now two years, there's been 810, events, there's been almost 900 women who have engaged with the community, and we've raised almost $60,000 for women run and women founded nonprofits locally here in the Twin Cities. Yay.
John Simon Sr. 04:50
Wow, that's that's impressive in such a short period of time.
Dina Simon 04:55
Yeah, and will you share? So we did have Jenny Severson on and we talked a. Little bit about it, because she said that's one of the things she was most excited about in 2024 is being part of the collective and being a facilitator. So talk a little bit. I mean, this is an opportunity to talk a little bit about wired, talk about the different aspects
Jen Lindahl 05:13
of it. Yeah. So when I started, it really was just there was some type of an activity and connection time. And two summers ago, I decided I wanted to do something different for the holiday party. So I kind of took the power of 100 concept. The goal is to have 100 women donate $100 and we've highlighted more women run our women founded non profits, and we basically raised $9,300 and we donated the safe haven foster shop, it was incredible. But during the process of planning that I got connected with over 20 women runner women founded nonprofits, and I was like, I haven't heard of half of these, and that's a problem. So that kind of really spearheaded the whole Community Give Back Piece. So now every event, there's some type of activity. So last week we did this pound workout with drumsticks. It was an absolute blast. And then we either highlight a nonprofit, so give them a platform to share about their mission. We donate monetarily, we collect items, whatever we can do to make an impact. And then we've got the two Cornerstone events, or the cornerstone event, sorry, which is in December at the holiday party. And this year we upped the Annie. We raised over $15,000 we had 140 people in the room, so I'm excited to see where that continues to go. But last summer, I had a moment of pause, because I was thinking through now the number of women who had interacted with the community, and how do I make sure that I'm giving people what they want and providing the right value to the right people? And so sent out a survey, and there was two camps of people. There was really these people who wanted the community events. They didn't want another membership model. And then there was the people who were looking for the ongoing, more small group interval connection. And so enter wired Connect, which is launching currently. There's two pieces to that. There's an application to get paired, to work one on one with a coach. Or you can join that ongoing collective, which is a group of eight to 10 women with a facilitator. They get together for three hours once a month. And there's a foundational framework that everyone works through, starting with positive chaos and re centering your purpose as a human working through kind of the wheel of life for your career, and then short term and long term goals. I mean, so the goal of that is really to create trust and vulnerability with the group out the gate. But also now we have a goal that we've set forth. We've got accountability partners and a support system to really help us get there.
Dina Simon 07:40
Yay. Okay, and so now I'm going to brag about you for a second, because that was a lot. So John Jenny and I kind of alluded to this. So Jenny and I are both signed up to be facilitators. So we're this is that group of people that then, you know, fill out an application, and then what Jen is doing is pulling together like minded people then to be part of a group and then find the right facilitator to be a part of it. So thrilled to be a part of that. And then I also am on the bench for coaching, so connected there. And then we also, Simon says give Mandy's nonprofit was one of your gift backs last year, so you leaned in immediately to partner with me on all aspects, and now on the podcast. So just really want to thank you for that, and you are just, you're an amazing human being. People have so much respect for you here in this community. And really you have to, like, pat yourself on the back, or we will do it for you. But if you look at just the success and the fast moving train that you've created, it's really because of who you are and the character and the energy that you bring to all of this. And as you said, like I was in that that holiday session, and it was so amazing, and it will be so amazing to see it this year, like with all that momentum and just that ripple effect in impact, it will be so fun to see what this holiday of 2024, event brings because I'm sure it's gonna just knock it out of the water even more than you did this holiday.
John Simon Sr. 09:05
How blown away were you when you had the first one and there were 40 people that signed up for it?
Jen Lindahl 09:10
I mean, you
John Simon Sr. 09:12
had no idea. I'm betting of how many leaders you think, Well, if we get five or 10, it'll really, really be nice. Yeah.
Jen Lindahl 09:20
I mean, that was a moment where I was like, Okay, people are kind of in the same kind of connection we had come off of, you know, a few years of crazy. So this was two years ago, but if you would ask me, then if it would have turned into what it is right now, I would have thought that was hilarious.
John Simon Sr. 09:40
Give the people what they want. Yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 09:42
And so family, let's talk for a second, because you have a beautiful, amazing daughter. So tell us a little bit about your family. And I know I think you were just with your parents and your husband and in Arizona over the weekend, but talk a little bit about your
Jen Lindahl 09:56
family, yeah, so myself and my husband, Mike, and we have. Almost four year old zeta, who is sassy and independent, and I have no one to blame but myself. So Karma is a real thing, but they're teaching me a lot. My parents actually, and my in laws and my brother and his wife all live within the 15 minutes of us in Hudson, so we're very lucky on that front. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 10:19
I was gonna say your daughter's really the lucky one. Yeah, yeah,
Jen Lindahl 10:23
she it's funny, she asks about work a lot. I mean, my husband and I are hard chargers. We both work a lot, but we do make you know, we prioritize our family time as well, that she's all really curious about work. And so I actually brought her, Well, my husband brought her to the December wiring event, and she thought it was like the coolest thing ever, because she got to go to the city. And so my husband owns a company, actually, he started a company five years ago in the hunting industry, and that has been growing like crazy. So we're in, I feel like this season of just all things growth in life. And so I mean that is challenging, but really exciting and exhausting all at the same time, and that's where the quick and early weekend is to get away and reset are something that we prioritize. We're big golfers, so we like to get down to Arizona during the winter and play golf. And yeah,
John Simon Sr. 11:16
did you happen to attend the waste management golf tournament this weekend? We
Jen Lindahl 11:19
did. We went on Friday, and I actually had not been. I've been to a lot of golf tournaments, but I had not been to that one. And I will say I will go back, but I will not go back with general admission. I go into those a little too peopley for me. And I'm a people person.
John Simon Sr. 11:35
Well, they sell about a quarter of a million tickets for it, and I've been to a lot of golf cartings Over the years, from the Byron, Gal said, here in the Dallas area to the Masters over in Augusta. And you're used to much smaller crowds. And I watch it on TV when you see 16,000 people at number 16, I just shake my head and say, you know, I don't think I want to be a part of that.
Jen Lindahl 12:00
It's, it's definitely good for a non golf crowd. We actually, we went Friday, like, earlier in the morning, and then we left mid afternoon so we could go actually watch the golf once we meet.
John Simon Sr. 12:10
Yeah, the best way to do it, exactly.
Dina Simon 12:15
Yeah. Okay. So we talked a little bit about wired and your impact, just again on that. So there's so much in that from a leadership you know, our conversation around legacy, and what you're doing today, and living out a legacy and building a legacy, all of that is right in there. Talk for a second, just so on the topic of leadership. So with also what you're doing with Echo, as far as you know, making sure that when you place a candidate, any thoughts on, you know, just when you think of good leadership, what comes to mind? Jen, yeah.
Jen Lindahl 12:45
I mean, the approach that we take in coaching is really around yourself, others in a result, right? Like you can't move the best leader if you're about your best self. So I think it's really important to get clear on kind of who you are and what your why is, and I mean that also relates to the work that we're doing in the wired collectives, right? It's thinking about your whole self and making sure that you're kind of in balance, so that you can bring your best self to work. I'm actually, I'm very lucky. We had a guy know Ryan Beckman join our team here at Echo in September, and he and I are kind of spearheading a lot of the retention and engagement work, and I've worked for a lot of great leaders, but he has this, just this way of helping me calm the king cause, reminding me to live in the game. It's so easy to live in the gap and like specifically, as it relates to building things, right? And building stuff at Echo, and building stuff at Wired, and it's so easy to almost implode yourself because of the pressure that we like to put on ourselves. Instead of thinking about how much progress I've made in the last three months, I didn't even have a website in December, right for wired. And so I think getting to know your people on the human level, and understanding what drives them and helping them remove roadblocks from a actual work standpoint, bringing the human element back into the workplace, are just critical things that are so easily overlooked, but they're so easy if we actually slow down to take the time To focus on it. Yeah, I
Dina Simon 14:21
love that. And John one of the things that happens growing up in the staffing industry, as in other sales industries, but you feel that you're only as good as your last placement, right? Like, that's a thing. So you're always hustling. You're always feeling like, and so you can may take a moment to celebrate that placement, but then you're like, Okay, what's next? And you're just in that, in that kind of that hamster wheel just running. And I know, you know. So I've been around staffing for over 30 years, and I don't practice staffing myself on a day to day basis, but it's so ingrained in me that prime time selling hours every day, Monday through Friday, if I'm not doing even in my. Own, like, business now, like, it's a mental shift. I really have to think back about and say, Okay, I'm not in that world anymore, but it's just so baked into who I was. You know, growing up in the industry,
John Simon Sr. 15:12
I liked reading a little bit of information about you when you talk about focusing on a client's immediate needs while also anticipating future needs. And that's really important.
Jen Lindahl 15:23
It is, you know, and I think that's where we're doing the right thing at Echo, by slowing down to actually think about what the organization needs, instead of just being an order taker and putting a button to see. Because we could do that, and we could make a lot of money doing that right, but we're not making the impacts that we want to be making with our clients if we take that approach versus slowing down and actually like thinking organizationally, what are the roles we need to be thinking about over the next one to three years based on the trajectory of our company? Right?
Dina Simon 15:56
And I may have asked this, but does echo stand for anything? The
Jen Lindahl 16:00
whole concept behind echo is there's one voice yours that we're going to echo in the market. Nice.
Dina Simon 16:07
I love it. Love it when there's Yeah, that's great marketing, right? Yeah.
John Simon Sr. 16:11
I used to have a saying whenever I ran the business that I ran that a good employee knows what you tell them to do. A great employee anticipates what you want them to do? Yeah,
Jen Lindahl 16:21
yep. And a good leader hires smart people and gets out of their way, right? Amen, yeah,
John Simon Sr. 16:27
don't get in their way. Yeah, yeah. You can only slow them down as you get in their way.
Jen Lindahl 16:33
Exactly. Yeah,
Dina Simon 16:35
I think you have a you're going somewhere pretty extraordinary this summer, aren't you like in the spring or some summer, don't
Jen Lindahl 16:42
you have a big trip that you're taking? We're going to sell to Africa in May for 10 days? Yeah. So never thought I would get my husband to go there. We actually were at a cheering event. So my husband's business is in the hunting industry. Avid hunter grew up in the hunting family, and we were at this shop for Hope benefit, and I stopped one of the auction items, and it was this haunted in South Africa. And so I got in our friend Dan's ear, and I was like, Dan, you need to get a mic here, because we need to go on this trip, because his wife's awesome. And sure enough, like, couple hours later, we finally convinced him to, you know, bed. And we were like, the second month, and we're like, oh, we're never going to get it. Well, we got it the next morning, we woke up and we're like, Oh man, we're going to South Africa. So here we come. We've been in planning mode, and yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
Dina Simon 17:31
Oh my gosh. What a trip of a lifetime added
John Simon Sr. 17:34
into the photo Safari type program.
Jen Lindahl 17:38
So he will actually be hunting for four days, not for zoo animals, but for IKEA Impala, I think is what they will hunt for. It looks kind of like an antelope, but we're flying to Cape Town, so we'll be there. Me and the other wife that are going are gonna stay Cape Town for four days. The guys will stay for two. So I think we're gonna get on a wine train, and we might go to like, an elephant sanctuary, and
John Simon Sr. 18:04
it sounds like a lifetime,
Dina Simon 18:06
right?
Jen Lindahl 18:08
Yeah, I'm all about like, experiences, right? And that's what one thing that we've learned the older that, not that we're that old yet, but like the older we get, it's like, we want to experience life, and what's the point of living if you're not out experiencing and checking things off your list, and you're not guaranteed tomorrow, so let's go do it today.
Dina Simon 18:26
Amen,
John Simon Sr. 18:27
do it while you're young.
Jen Lindahl 18:29
Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 18:30
that's what I keep saying. I'm doing things now while I'm young, 74 you know?
Jen Lindahl 18:35
Yeah, hey, yeah. Keep doing
Dina Simon 18:38
it exactly. Keep doing it and keep Yeah. And like you said, keep checking those things off your list and then being open to awesome experiences like this, like that, may not have been on your radar, but the opportunity presented itself, and you jumped at it. You
John Simon Sr. 18:52
know what I was thinking the other day, Nina, of all the people that we've talked to on the podcast, the majority of them are in a relationship business as opposed to a transaction business, and it is really, I'm impressed with you know how you go about doing your daily business, but helping other people? Yeah,
Dina Simon 19:13
yeah. And Jen, we'll do another one in the fall. We'll get John back, but we did a happy hour with those that had already been on the podcast when he was in town about a month ago. And what was so fun was sitting around the table, and immediately there were some people that knew each other, some people that had not met each other. And immediately, you know, John was impressed with how people literally leaned in on, oh my gosh. How can I help you? And there were like conversations at the table and people that then kind of sat in the corner of the big table and were truly talking about how they could help each other and just in that relationship building. And how can we truly, you know, come together and support each other is exactly what you do and have done, and it's. It's amazing to watch and see. I was
John Simon Sr. 20:02
impressed. We're sitting here at a long table, people on both sides of it, just chit chatting back and forth. And then how all of a sudden it morphed into three or four people to get away, and they start talking a little bit, and then someone else joins it, and then somebody else moves away and goes over to another one. There was no lack of communications. Everybody communicated with everybody there, and it was pretty impressive. I
Jen Lindahl 20:27
love that. Yeah,
Dina Simon 20:29
so after your trip, we'll make sure he gets back so we can hear more about your trip and everything. I might just love it and stay there so you might, you might
Jen Lindahl 20:39
again, my parents can ship Mina over there.
John Simon Sr. 20:43
And who's gonna, who's gonna take care of your daughter while you're gone?
Jen Lindahl 20:46
We are lucky to have grandparents whose lives revolve around she's the first grandkid on both sides. So you can imagine a spoiled level.
Dina Simon 20:57
Yep, and she is absolutely darling. So I just it's super fun to watch what you post and stuff, and I had the chance to get to meet her when we had the event this holiday. So life, leadership and building legacy. So the legacy piece I've already touched you're doing just amazing work in building your legacy. But anything else that comes to mind when we talk about legacies and the reminder that the legacy is not just what you leave behind, is what you're doing right now.
Jen Lindahl 21:23
Yeah. I mean, I think, to me, the legacy of the impact, right? And I am constantly reminding myself to live in an abundance mindset and live in that gain, right? I think those are two things that, if you can focus on that, like the legacy that you live while you're here, and that you leave when you're gone. Nothing will replace that. No,
Dina Simon 21:45
yeah, and I love that. Live in the game,
John Simon Sr. 21:48
and I'm sure, I'm sure for you, every time you help a person in taking on a new opportunity, that's got to be thrilling for you.
Jen Lindahl 21:56
Yeah? I mean, it's thrilling for me, both seeing like my clients win and the candidates win, right? Like being able to create that match and and everyone wins, that's a win.
John Simon Sr. 22:08
Yep, absolutely. That's your kind of marriage you want to have.
Dina Simon 22:12
Yeah, yes. So Jen on the echo side. So are you still are mainly on the HR practice? No.
Jen Lindahl 22:19
So my role is officially actually evolving into what we're calling strategic development. So I'm going to be now focusing on kind of business development and channel partnerships across all of our visions. So we focus on accounting, finance, operations and human resources pretty agnostically. And then we've got two industry specific divisions, banking, financial services and manufacturing,
Dina Simon 22:45
awesome. So for us to help you. So who do we need to put in your past? So anybody that's looking for a new executive search firm to partner with?
Jen Lindahl 22:56
Yeah, any companies who are having trouble finding your retaining talent, looking to grow or having trouble getting to growth, would be welcomed. Introductions,
Dina Simon 23:06
and are you mainly here in Minnesota, or also outside of Minnesota, heavily
Jen Lindahl 23:11
in the Twin Cities, but we've worked nationally with quite a few organizations that maybe have multiple locations. We do a lot of work in Sioux Falls. We've done some in Des Moines, so a lot of Midwest, but we can work anywhere. Okay,
Dina Simon 23:23
yeah, good to know. Anything else, knowing that you were coming on the podcast, anything else that you wanted the listeners to know about you.
Jen Lindahl 23:31
I love connecting and hearing people's stories, so find me on LinkedIn, and would love to have a phone call or coffee and
Dina Simon 23:36
nope, and come to a wired event. And come to a wired event,
Jen Lindahl 23:41
yeah. So if you connect with me on LinkedIn, you can get to the wired page. From there, the website is wire of mpls.com and that has all the information on upcoming events or joining a collective.
Dina Simon 23:53
And what does wired mean again? Yeah, so
Jen Lindahl 23:57
when I started it, which I'm kind of dropping this now, because the group has evolved, but it's so for women impacting revenue, who are empowered and driven, because it was a lot of business development women. And now the group is really, it's kind of falling in that 35 to 55 you know, age range, and what's, yeah, been fascinating, is you've got a lot of like, career moms who are in like, the thick of it, and then you've got a lot of, like, newly empty nesters who are providing a great amount of value to each other. So that's been really fun. There's moms who are re entering the workforce, people navigating pivots. It's it's really an exciting group. So
Dina Simon 24:41
the impacting revenue, though, too, just so it's, it's almost like impacting impact, right? But that revenue piece, I mean, going back to being a nonprofit that you supported, that's still revenue, it's, it's donations, it's, how are you still impacting? So I love the what you set out to do, and then what it's grown into. Do. And as we've all told you, with the collective whatever you start out to do today, which is amazing, it will continue to grow right. And so three, five years from now, who knows what it will look like based on just the people that come to the table,
Jen Lindahl 25:13
the entrepreneurial journey right is not for the fame of heart. So I think it's just trusting the process and continuing to surround myself with incredible people like you to own. I'm just, yeah, I'm grateful for this whole crew that has kind of stepped up to support me in this next chapter.
Dina Simon 25:29
Well, we thank you. Thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for bringing all of us together. John, any other questions for Jen,
John Simon Sr. 25:38
well, I tell you what, honey, yeah, I'm very impressed with everything that you've done at such a young age, and I know that the long term is just going to be wonderful. I
Jen Lindahl 25:47
hope so. I was going to ask you about golf, because you look like you play a lot of golf, so what's a win account? Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 25:54
as you can see behind me here, that's the 18th at Pebble Beach. Yes, yeah, I've been golfing for quite a few years. So I've been trying to golf for quite a few years, but you know, you never master it. You get a little bit better one thing, and then, you know, something else, something
Jen Lindahl 26:09
else gets messed up. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 26:11
you take a lesson to six one thing and two other things go wrong. But it's not about it, to me anymore. It's not about the score. It's about going out and having fun with a group of guys or girls, or whoever you're golfing with, and the camaraderie, to me, is more important. And at my age now, we play a lot of scrambles. You know, everybody will hit a shot, and then you go to the best one, and you keep playing that way, and your individual score doesn't make that much difference anymore.
Jen Lindahl 26:37
I love that. I have the same mindset. My husband actually gets mad at me because the lack of competition that I bring to the golf course, but it's my sanity place like which is fascinating, right? Because usually people that's not a relaxing scenario for them, and that's when I'm most relaxed. So if I can golf every day and try to be really good for
Dina Simon 26:57
you, right? Well, man,
John Simon Sr. 26:59
I'm sure when you worked at Callaway, you had a lot of opportunities to visit a lot of the golf courses around and and see some of the phenomenal places where these pros golf, where everything is perfect. And you know, the courses that I go to aren't quite that way, and the other is generally not enough sand into sand trap, or the pond is dry. You know, it asked inside of my golf. Golf's hard enough, but somebody had to wake up one day. So, you know, let's put some trees and water and sand on this, just to make it a little bit harder. Yeah,
Jen Lindahl 27:34
it's an adult toy box.
John Simon Sr. 27:36
It really is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 27:40
And when you go so in Arizona, does your parents have a place down there, too? Don't they? Or is it just you and Mike, they have a place just like
Jen Lindahl 27:46
the eyes. They're actually down in our place for the month of February, testing it out. They haven't spent a ton of time in Arizona, so I'm excited to hear how they like it.
Dina Simon 27:53
Oh, fun. That's awesome. Good for them. Good for them. Yeah, nice. Well, again, Jen, thank you so much for being on the podcast, and thank you for everything that you just the energy and the impact, and again, everything that you're doing for our community, and then that huge ripple effect, the people that you're bringing together, the people that you're placing at Echo, the customers that you're supporting. You have to go to bed at night and be a little tired because you're doing a lot every day, but those of us that know you just really appreciate that, and thank you.
Jen Lindahl 28:27
Oh, thank you so much. That means a lot.
John Simon Sr. 28:29
It was great getting to know you. And I look forward to my next trip up there, and hopefully we can get together in another group setting, like we did last month.
Jen Lindahl 28:39
I think it's all like we should probably plan a scramble this summer.
John Simon Sr. 28:42
Here you are.
Jen Lindahl 28:43
I love it awesome.
Dina Simon 28:47
I want to thank Jen Lindahl for joining us to be part of our podcast, and we'll make sure in the show notes that you know how to get out in touch with her, both from a wired perspective and then also for Echo search. But she's just a powerhouse. And those of us that get to know her and be part of everything that she's got going on in this community are just thrilled for the connection. And so if you're not connected with her and would like to be, as she said, she's always open to connecting and learning about people and how to make connections in the community, so feel free to reach out to her, as always, I thank my father in law, John for being my co host on the podcast and until we talk again. You.
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon Sr. 00:16
Our guest today is Jen woodbal. Jenn is Client Solutions director with echo search group. Jen, welcome to the podcast.
Jen Lindahl 00:24
Thank you so much for having me.
John Simon Sr. 00:26
Jen, why don't you take a minute or so and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, maybe where you're from and where you live now, and maybe a little bit about what you do in your spare time, if you have any of it,
Jen Lindahl 00:39
yeah, there's not much these days. I actually kind of took my life full circle. I live back in my hometown of Hudson, Wisconsin. I went to college at St Cloud, Minnesota, and immediately left right after I graduated and did a west coast swing. I worked in the golf industry to start my career, and I was out in San Diego for five ish years working at Callaway goal headquarters for most 20 year olds, I felt like I was like, living the dream. I started my customer service, which was not the dream, but I ended up spending my last few years on the product side, so really working with R and D and the agency and the players, and it was awesome. I was sitting in a meeting, actually talking about where we were going to put our spend the next year, PGA tour.com, and they were bringing their whole team in house from their agency, and back at that time, social media. Sat in PR and I was like, I want to learn more about this. And so I called my contact after, and he shared a little more. And within, I think four weeks I had flown there, interviewed, sold my stuff, drove across the country with my mom, and moved to Jacksonville, Florida. And learned quickly, Florida was not my jam, so that was my roundabout way of moving back home. And then I got it a staffing on accident, so I took a smile now sales job to move home, and got connected with a company called antenna during that time and joined their internal team. And I've kind of been in and out of the talent and organizational and business development. I've had a few different roles since then, but really a fun journey to kind of get me where I am right now. At
Dina Simon 02:16
Echo, yeah, and John, most people that get into the staffing industry, they fall into the staffing industry somehow. So So that's common, but how cool to work, like you said, to fall into Callaway. What a great, amazing experience. And then I love that you also went to Florida, and as you said, that we found out that wasn't your jam, and that's the time in life to learn all of that.
John Simon Sr. 02:38
You figured it out while you were young, which is important,
Jen Lindahl 02:42
I guess. I still don't think I figured out. But you know what? I guess I was the what do they say now you climb in the jungle gym, and it's not a ladder career, right? I think I was a little ahead of the time on the whole jungle gym, maybe a little too jungle. Jimmy,
John Simon Sr. 02:55
well, I liked reading some on your bio, where you talk about connecting the best people with the best opportunities. And, boy, that really says a lot about you know what you do to help people out?
Jen Lindahl 03:07
Yeah, it's been a wild ride since I started at that though. So I was brought on actually, to stand up and lead a dedicated HR division here we do all direct hire search and over the course of the last 15 ish months or so, my role has really evolved as Echo has started to evolve to become more than just a search firm. So we launched coaching in q4 so we're doing the standalone coaching, and we're also providing integration coaches with anyone we place in a people leader role. So really working on becoming, I call it more of a strategic people partner, right? We're focusing a lot on retention and engagement, and where is the organization need to get to to support the strategic business objectives that the organization is set forth, rather than just putting a button a seat, right? Which is kind of what you think of when you think of direct hire. So that's been really fun and a really big evolution since I started here. And on the flip side, wired, which I don't know if we want to talk about now or anywhere, but let's go for it. Let's dig in. Yeah, so wired was started two years ago. I was in a business development role, and I was like, I know I need to go to networking events, but there's got to just be a better way to authentically connect with women. Most of our lives are super complicated, and I just want to talk about the hard stuff. And so I threw a happy hour, and 40 women shown up. And over the course of now two years, there's been 810, events, there's been almost 900 women who have engaged with the community, and we've raised almost $60,000 for women run and women founded nonprofits locally here in the Twin Cities. Yay.
John Simon Sr. 04:50
Wow, that's that's impressive in such a short period of time.
Dina Simon 04:55
Yeah, and will you share? So we did have Jenny Severson on and we talked a. Little bit about it, because she said that's one of the things she was most excited about in 2024 is being part of the collective and being a facilitator. So talk a little bit. I mean, this is an opportunity to talk a little bit about wired, talk about the different aspects
Jen Lindahl 05:13
of it. Yeah. So when I started, it really was just there was some type of an activity and connection time. And two summers ago, I decided I wanted to do something different for the holiday party. So I kind of took the power of 100 concept. The goal is to have 100 women donate $100 and we've highlighted more women run our women founded non profits, and we basically raised $9,300 and we donated the safe haven foster shop, it was incredible. But during the process of planning that I got connected with over 20 women runner women founded nonprofits, and I was like, I haven't heard of half of these, and that's a problem. So that kind of really spearheaded the whole Community Give Back Piece. So now every event, there's some type of activity. So last week we did this pound workout with drumsticks. It was an absolute blast. And then we either highlight a nonprofit, so give them a platform to share about their mission. We donate monetarily, we collect items, whatever we can do to make an impact. And then we've got the two Cornerstone events, or the cornerstone event, sorry, which is in December at the holiday party. And this year we upped the Annie. We raised over $15,000 we had 140 people in the room, so I'm excited to see where that continues to go. But last summer, I had a moment of pause, because I was thinking through now the number of women who had interacted with the community, and how do I make sure that I'm giving people what they want and providing the right value to the right people? And so sent out a survey, and there was two camps of people. There was really these people who wanted the community events. They didn't want another membership model. And then there was the people who were looking for the ongoing, more small group interval connection. And so enter wired Connect, which is launching currently. There's two pieces to that. There's an application to get paired, to work one on one with a coach. Or you can join that ongoing collective, which is a group of eight to 10 women with a facilitator. They get together for three hours once a month. And there's a foundational framework that everyone works through, starting with positive chaos and re centering your purpose as a human working through kind of the wheel of life for your career, and then short term and long term goals. I mean, so the goal of that is really to create trust and vulnerability with the group out the gate. But also now we have a goal that we've set forth. We've got accountability partners and a support system to really help us get there.
Dina Simon 07:40
Yay. Okay, and so now I'm going to brag about you for a second, because that was a lot. So John Jenny and I kind of alluded to this. So Jenny and I are both signed up to be facilitators. So we're this is that group of people that then, you know, fill out an application, and then what Jen is doing is pulling together like minded people then to be part of a group and then find the right facilitator to be a part of it. So thrilled to be a part of that. And then I also am on the bench for coaching, so connected there. And then we also, Simon says give Mandy's nonprofit was one of your gift backs last year, so you leaned in immediately to partner with me on all aspects, and now on the podcast. So just really want to thank you for that, and you are just, you're an amazing human being. People have so much respect for you here in this community. And really you have to, like, pat yourself on the back, or we will do it for you. But if you look at just the success and the fast moving train that you've created, it's really because of who you are and the character and the energy that you bring to all of this. And as you said, like I was in that that holiday session, and it was so amazing, and it will be so amazing to see it this year, like with all that momentum and just that ripple effect in impact, it will be so fun to see what this holiday of 2024, event brings because I'm sure it's gonna just knock it out of the water even more than you did this holiday.
John Simon Sr. 09:05
How blown away were you when you had the first one and there were 40 people that signed up for it?
Jen Lindahl 09:10
I mean, you
John Simon Sr. 09:12
had no idea. I'm betting of how many leaders you think, Well, if we get five or 10, it'll really, really be nice. Yeah.
Jen Lindahl 09:20
I mean, that was a moment where I was like, Okay, people are kind of in the same kind of connection we had come off of, you know, a few years of crazy. So this was two years ago, but if you would ask me, then if it would have turned into what it is right now, I would have thought that was hilarious.
John Simon Sr. 09:40
Give the people what they want. Yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 09:42
And so family, let's talk for a second, because you have a beautiful, amazing daughter. So tell us a little bit about your family. And I know I think you were just with your parents and your husband and in Arizona over the weekend, but talk a little bit about your
Jen Lindahl 09:56
family, yeah, so myself and my husband, Mike, and we have. Almost four year old zeta, who is sassy and independent, and I have no one to blame but myself. So Karma is a real thing, but they're teaching me a lot. My parents actually, and my in laws and my brother and his wife all live within the 15 minutes of us in Hudson, so we're very lucky on that front. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 10:19
I was gonna say your daughter's really the lucky one. Yeah, yeah,
Jen Lindahl 10:23
she it's funny, she asks about work a lot. I mean, my husband and I are hard chargers. We both work a lot, but we do make you know, we prioritize our family time as well, that she's all really curious about work. And so I actually brought her, Well, my husband brought her to the December wiring event, and she thought it was like the coolest thing ever, because she got to go to the city. And so my husband owns a company, actually, he started a company five years ago in the hunting industry, and that has been growing like crazy. So we're in, I feel like this season of just all things growth in life. And so I mean that is challenging, but really exciting and exhausting all at the same time, and that's where the quick and early weekend is to get away and reset are something that we prioritize. We're big golfers, so we like to get down to Arizona during the winter and play golf. And yeah,
John Simon Sr. 11:16
did you happen to attend the waste management golf tournament this weekend? We
Jen Lindahl 11:19
did. We went on Friday, and I actually had not been. I've been to a lot of golf tournaments, but I had not been to that one. And I will say I will go back, but I will not go back with general admission. I go into those a little too peopley for me. And I'm a people person.
John Simon Sr. 11:35
Well, they sell about a quarter of a million tickets for it, and I've been to a lot of golf cartings Over the years, from the Byron, Gal said, here in the Dallas area to the Masters over in Augusta. And you're used to much smaller crowds. And I watch it on TV when you see 16,000 people at number 16, I just shake my head and say, you know, I don't think I want to be a part of that.
Jen Lindahl 12:00
It's, it's definitely good for a non golf crowd. We actually, we went Friday, like, earlier in the morning, and then we left mid afternoon so we could go actually watch the golf once we meet.
John Simon Sr. 12:10
Yeah, the best way to do it, exactly.
Dina Simon 12:15
Yeah. Okay. So we talked a little bit about wired and your impact, just again on that. So there's so much in that from a leadership you know, our conversation around legacy, and what you're doing today, and living out a legacy and building a legacy, all of that is right in there. Talk for a second, just so on the topic of leadership. So with also what you're doing with Echo, as far as you know, making sure that when you place a candidate, any thoughts on, you know, just when you think of good leadership, what comes to mind? Jen, yeah.
Jen Lindahl 12:45
I mean, the approach that we take in coaching is really around yourself, others in a result, right? Like you can't move the best leader if you're about your best self. So I think it's really important to get clear on kind of who you are and what your why is, and I mean that also relates to the work that we're doing in the wired collectives, right? It's thinking about your whole self and making sure that you're kind of in balance, so that you can bring your best self to work. I'm actually, I'm very lucky. We had a guy know Ryan Beckman join our team here at Echo in September, and he and I are kind of spearheading a lot of the retention and engagement work, and I've worked for a lot of great leaders, but he has this, just this way of helping me calm the king cause, reminding me to live in the game. It's so easy to live in the gap and like specifically, as it relates to building things, right? And building stuff at Echo, and building stuff at Wired, and it's so easy to almost implode yourself because of the pressure that we like to put on ourselves. Instead of thinking about how much progress I've made in the last three months, I didn't even have a website in December, right for wired. And so I think getting to know your people on the human level, and understanding what drives them and helping them remove roadblocks from a actual work standpoint, bringing the human element back into the workplace, are just critical things that are so easily overlooked, but they're so easy if we actually slow down to take the time To focus on it. Yeah, I
Dina Simon 14:21
love that. And John one of the things that happens growing up in the staffing industry, as in other sales industries, but you feel that you're only as good as your last placement, right? Like, that's a thing. So you're always hustling. You're always feeling like, and so you can may take a moment to celebrate that placement, but then you're like, Okay, what's next? And you're just in that, in that kind of that hamster wheel just running. And I know, you know. So I've been around staffing for over 30 years, and I don't practice staffing myself on a day to day basis, but it's so ingrained in me that prime time selling hours every day, Monday through Friday, if I'm not doing even in my. Own, like, business now, like, it's a mental shift. I really have to think back about and say, Okay, I'm not in that world anymore, but it's just so baked into who I was. You know, growing up in the industry,
John Simon Sr. 15:12
I liked reading a little bit of information about you when you talk about focusing on a client's immediate needs while also anticipating future needs. And that's really important.
Jen Lindahl 15:23
It is, you know, and I think that's where we're doing the right thing at Echo, by slowing down to actually think about what the organization needs, instead of just being an order taker and putting a button to see. Because we could do that, and we could make a lot of money doing that right, but we're not making the impacts that we want to be making with our clients if we take that approach versus slowing down and actually like thinking organizationally, what are the roles we need to be thinking about over the next one to three years based on the trajectory of our company? Right?
Dina Simon 15:56
And I may have asked this, but does echo stand for anything? The
Jen Lindahl 16:00
whole concept behind echo is there's one voice yours that we're going to echo in the market. Nice.
Dina Simon 16:07
I love it. Love it when there's Yeah, that's great marketing, right? Yeah.
John Simon Sr. 16:11
I used to have a saying whenever I ran the business that I ran that a good employee knows what you tell them to do. A great employee anticipates what you want them to do? Yeah,
Jen Lindahl 16:21
yep. And a good leader hires smart people and gets out of their way, right? Amen, yeah,
John Simon Sr. 16:27
don't get in their way. Yeah, yeah. You can only slow them down as you get in their way.
Jen Lindahl 16:33
Exactly. Yeah,
Dina Simon 16:35
I think you have a you're going somewhere pretty extraordinary this summer, aren't you like in the spring or some summer, don't
Jen Lindahl 16:42
you have a big trip that you're taking? We're going to sell to Africa in May for 10 days? Yeah. So never thought I would get my husband to go there. We actually were at a cheering event. So my husband's business is in the hunting industry. Avid hunter grew up in the hunting family, and we were at this shop for Hope benefit, and I stopped one of the auction items, and it was this haunted in South Africa. And so I got in our friend Dan's ear, and I was like, Dan, you need to get a mic here, because we need to go on this trip, because his wife's awesome. And sure enough, like, couple hours later, we finally convinced him to, you know, bed. And we were like, the second month, and we're like, oh, we're never going to get it. Well, we got it the next morning, we woke up and we're like, Oh man, we're going to South Africa. So here we come. We've been in planning mode, and yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
Dina Simon 17:31
Oh my gosh. What a trip of a lifetime added
John Simon Sr. 17:34
into the photo Safari type program.
Jen Lindahl 17:38
So he will actually be hunting for four days, not for zoo animals, but for IKEA Impala, I think is what they will hunt for. It looks kind of like an antelope, but we're flying to Cape Town, so we'll be there. Me and the other wife that are going are gonna stay Cape Town for four days. The guys will stay for two. So I think we're gonna get on a wine train, and we might go to like, an elephant sanctuary, and
John Simon Sr. 18:04
it sounds like a lifetime,
Dina Simon 18:06
right?
Jen Lindahl 18:08
Yeah, I'm all about like, experiences, right? And that's what one thing that we've learned the older that, not that we're that old yet, but like the older we get, it's like, we want to experience life, and what's the point of living if you're not out experiencing and checking things off your list, and you're not guaranteed tomorrow, so let's go do it today.
Dina Simon 18:26
Amen,
John Simon Sr. 18:27
do it while you're young.
Jen Lindahl 18:29
Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 18:30
that's what I keep saying. I'm doing things now while I'm young, 74 you know?
Jen Lindahl 18:35
Yeah, hey, yeah. Keep doing
Dina Simon 18:38
it exactly. Keep doing it and keep Yeah. And like you said, keep checking those things off your list and then being open to awesome experiences like this, like that, may not have been on your radar, but the opportunity presented itself, and you jumped at it. You
John Simon Sr. 18:52
know what I was thinking the other day, Nina, of all the people that we've talked to on the podcast, the majority of them are in a relationship business as opposed to a transaction business, and it is really, I'm impressed with you know how you go about doing your daily business, but helping other people? Yeah,
Dina Simon 19:13
yeah. And Jen, we'll do another one in the fall. We'll get John back, but we did a happy hour with those that had already been on the podcast when he was in town about a month ago. And what was so fun was sitting around the table, and immediately there were some people that knew each other, some people that had not met each other. And immediately, you know, John was impressed with how people literally leaned in on, oh my gosh. How can I help you? And there were like conversations at the table and people that then kind of sat in the corner of the big table and were truly talking about how they could help each other and just in that relationship building. And how can we truly, you know, come together and support each other is exactly what you do and have done, and it's. It's amazing to watch and see. I was
John Simon Sr. 20:02
impressed. We're sitting here at a long table, people on both sides of it, just chit chatting back and forth. And then how all of a sudden it morphed into three or four people to get away, and they start talking a little bit, and then someone else joins it, and then somebody else moves away and goes over to another one. There was no lack of communications. Everybody communicated with everybody there, and it was pretty impressive. I
Jen Lindahl 20:27
love that. Yeah,
Dina Simon 20:29
so after your trip, we'll make sure he gets back so we can hear more about your trip and everything. I might just love it and stay there so you might, you might
Jen Lindahl 20:39
again, my parents can ship Mina over there.
John Simon Sr. 20:43
And who's gonna, who's gonna take care of your daughter while you're gone?
Jen Lindahl 20:46
We are lucky to have grandparents whose lives revolve around she's the first grandkid on both sides. So you can imagine a spoiled level.
Dina Simon 20:57
Yep, and she is absolutely darling. So I just it's super fun to watch what you post and stuff, and I had the chance to get to meet her when we had the event this holiday. So life, leadership and building legacy. So the legacy piece I've already touched you're doing just amazing work in building your legacy. But anything else that comes to mind when we talk about legacies and the reminder that the legacy is not just what you leave behind, is what you're doing right now.
Jen Lindahl 21:23
Yeah. I mean, I think, to me, the legacy of the impact, right? And I am constantly reminding myself to live in an abundance mindset and live in that gain, right? I think those are two things that, if you can focus on that, like the legacy that you live while you're here, and that you leave when you're gone. Nothing will replace that. No,
Dina Simon 21:45
yeah, and I love that. Live in the game,
John Simon Sr. 21:48
and I'm sure, I'm sure for you, every time you help a person in taking on a new opportunity, that's got to be thrilling for you.
Jen Lindahl 21:56
Yeah? I mean, it's thrilling for me, both seeing like my clients win and the candidates win, right? Like being able to create that match and and everyone wins, that's a win.
John Simon Sr. 22:08
Yep, absolutely. That's your kind of marriage you want to have.
Dina Simon 22:12
Yeah, yes. So Jen on the echo side. So are you still are mainly on the HR practice? No.
Jen Lindahl 22:19
So my role is officially actually evolving into what we're calling strategic development. So I'm going to be now focusing on kind of business development and channel partnerships across all of our visions. So we focus on accounting, finance, operations and human resources pretty agnostically. And then we've got two industry specific divisions, banking, financial services and manufacturing,
Dina Simon 22:45
awesome. So for us to help you. So who do we need to put in your past? So anybody that's looking for a new executive search firm to partner with?
Jen Lindahl 22:56
Yeah, any companies who are having trouble finding your retaining talent, looking to grow or having trouble getting to growth, would be welcomed. Introductions,
Dina Simon 23:06
and are you mainly here in Minnesota, or also outside of Minnesota, heavily
Jen Lindahl 23:11
in the Twin Cities, but we've worked nationally with quite a few organizations that maybe have multiple locations. We do a lot of work in Sioux Falls. We've done some in Des Moines, so a lot of Midwest, but we can work anywhere. Okay,
Dina Simon 23:23
yeah, good to know. Anything else, knowing that you were coming on the podcast, anything else that you wanted the listeners to know about you.
Jen Lindahl 23:31
I love connecting and hearing people's stories, so find me on LinkedIn, and would love to have a phone call or coffee and
Dina Simon 23:36
nope, and come to a wired event. And come to a wired event,
Jen Lindahl 23:41
yeah. So if you connect with me on LinkedIn, you can get to the wired page. From there, the website is wire of mpls.com and that has all the information on upcoming events or joining a collective.
Dina Simon 23:53
And what does wired mean again? Yeah, so
Jen Lindahl 23:57
when I started it, which I'm kind of dropping this now, because the group has evolved, but it's so for women impacting revenue, who are empowered and driven, because it was a lot of business development women. And now the group is really, it's kind of falling in that 35 to 55 you know, age range, and what's, yeah, been fascinating, is you've got a lot of like, career moms who are in like, the thick of it, and then you've got a lot of, like, newly empty nesters who are providing a great amount of value to each other. So that's been really fun. There's moms who are re entering the workforce, people navigating pivots. It's it's really an exciting group. So
Dina Simon 24:41
the impacting revenue, though, too, just so it's, it's almost like impacting impact, right? But that revenue piece, I mean, going back to being a nonprofit that you supported, that's still revenue, it's, it's donations, it's, how are you still impacting? So I love the what you set out to do, and then what it's grown into. Do. And as we've all told you, with the collective whatever you start out to do today, which is amazing, it will continue to grow right. And so three, five years from now, who knows what it will look like based on just the people that come to the table,
Jen Lindahl 25:13
the entrepreneurial journey right is not for the fame of heart. So I think it's just trusting the process and continuing to surround myself with incredible people like you to own. I'm just, yeah, I'm grateful for this whole crew that has kind of stepped up to support me in this next chapter.
Dina Simon 25:29
Well, we thank you. Thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for bringing all of us together. John, any other questions for Jen,
John Simon Sr. 25:38
well, I tell you what, honey, yeah, I'm very impressed with everything that you've done at such a young age, and I know that the long term is just going to be wonderful. I
Jen Lindahl 25:47
hope so. I was going to ask you about golf, because you look like you play a lot of golf, so what's a win account? Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 25:54
as you can see behind me here, that's the 18th at Pebble Beach. Yes, yeah, I've been golfing for quite a few years. So I've been trying to golf for quite a few years, but you know, you never master it. You get a little bit better one thing, and then, you know, something else, something
Jen Lindahl 26:09
else gets messed up. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 26:11
you take a lesson to six one thing and two other things go wrong. But it's not about it, to me anymore. It's not about the score. It's about going out and having fun with a group of guys or girls, or whoever you're golfing with, and the camaraderie, to me, is more important. And at my age now, we play a lot of scrambles. You know, everybody will hit a shot, and then you go to the best one, and you keep playing that way, and your individual score doesn't make that much difference anymore.
Jen Lindahl 26:37
I love that. I have the same mindset. My husband actually gets mad at me because the lack of competition that I bring to the golf course, but it's my sanity place like which is fascinating, right? Because usually people that's not a relaxing scenario for them, and that's when I'm most relaxed. So if I can golf every day and try to be really good for
Dina Simon 26:57
you, right? Well, man,
John Simon Sr. 26:59
I'm sure when you worked at Callaway, you had a lot of opportunities to visit a lot of the golf courses around and and see some of the phenomenal places where these pros golf, where everything is perfect. And you know, the courses that I go to aren't quite that way, and the other is generally not enough sand into sand trap, or the pond is dry. You know, it asked inside of my golf. Golf's hard enough, but somebody had to wake up one day. So, you know, let's put some trees and water and sand on this, just to make it a little bit harder. Yeah,
Jen Lindahl 27:34
it's an adult toy box.
John Simon Sr. 27:36
It really is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dina Simon 27:40
And when you go so in Arizona, does your parents have a place down there, too? Don't they? Or is it just you and Mike, they have a place just like
Jen Lindahl 27:46
the eyes. They're actually down in our place for the month of February, testing it out. They haven't spent a ton of time in Arizona, so I'm excited to hear how they like it.
Dina Simon 27:53
Oh, fun. That's awesome. Good for them. Good for them. Yeah, nice. Well, again, Jen, thank you so much for being on the podcast, and thank you for everything that you just the energy and the impact, and again, everything that you're doing for our community, and then that huge ripple effect, the people that you're bringing together, the people that you're placing at Echo, the customers that you're supporting. You have to go to bed at night and be a little tired because you're doing a lot every day, but those of us that know you just really appreciate that, and thank you.
Jen Lindahl 28:27
Oh, thank you so much. That means a lot.
John Simon Sr. 28:29
It was great getting to know you. And I look forward to my next trip up there, and hopefully we can get together in another group setting, like we did last month.
Jen Lindahl 28:39
I think it's all like we should probably plan a scramble this summer.
John Simon Sr. 28:42
Here you are.
Jen Lindahl 28:43
I love it awesome.
Dina Simon 28:47
I want to thank Jen Lindahl for joining us to be part of our podcast, and we'll make sure in the show notes that you know how to get out in touch with her, both from a wired perspective and then also for Echo search. But she's just a powerhouse. And those of us that get to know her and be part of everything that she's got going on in this community are just thrilled for the connection. And so if you're not connected with her and would like to be, as she said, she's always open to connecting and learning about people and how to make connections in the community, so feel free to reach out to her, as always, I thank my father in law, John for being my co host on the podcast and until we talk again. You.