Sara Leisinger of Who’s Lance Digital Media can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Sarah Banowetz of Banowetz Marketing can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Our guest today is Arica Ohloff. She can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Arica can also be found at AricaOhloff.com
Transcription:
[Announcer] Welcome to Sarah Squared, the podcast for all things marketing, business growth, branding, and social media. Sara Leisinger is the owner of Who’s Lance Digital Media, serving start-ups and solopreneurs. And Sarah Banowetz owns Banowetz Marketing, a full-service agency located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Together, they make up Sarah Squared, dedicated to the inspiration, motivation, and education of growing companies.
Sara Leisinger: All right. Welcome, welcome.
Sarah Banowetz: Welcome.
Sara Leisinger: To today’s edition of Sara(h)Squared. I’m Sara Leisinger.
Sarah Banowetz: And I am Sarah Banowetz.
Sara Leisinger: Today we have Arica Ohloff joining us.
Arica Ohloff: Hi, ladies.
Sarah Banowetz: Welcome, Arica.
Arica Ohloff: Thank you. Thanks for having me on today.
Sarah Banowetz: Thanks for coming.
Arica Ohloff: You bet. It’s an honor.
Sara Leisinger: All right. Well before we get into some fun … It’s a little bit of a twist on the topic today, that Arica’s going to cover.
Sarah Banowetz: Yeah.
Sara Leisinger: But before we get into that-
Sarah Banowetz: Okay, ’cause this topic is … I’m excited about this topic.
Sara Leisinger: Yeah, yeah. I figured you would be.
Sarah Banowetz: Yeah. Okay, so before get to introducing Arica.
Sara Leisinger: Okay, so really quick, the topic that we are going to cover today, little bit of a twist. You can have the most awesome marketing to bring in the best employees and to put out the best production, and bring in the best client, but there’s this one thing that can ruin it. Arica is gonna talk about that.
Sarah Banowetz: I don’t know the … I don’t know what Arica is going to talk about. I am on the edge of my seat quite literally.
Sara Leisinger: She is guys, I’m looking at her.
Sarah Banowetz: Yeah. But, before we get into that we need to know who you are. Can you give us a background on who you are?
Arica Ohloff: Absolutely. So, I, to take you back real quick. I have kind of walked a wild journey to get to where I am. But, that is the beauty of it all, truly.
Arica Ohloff: So, I originally was in the medical device industry. Spent about five years working in the spine implant world. Obviously worked with a team of people in that realm of life, which has shaped all of my thoughts and beliefs today.
Sarah Banowetz: Wow.
Arica Ohloff: Loved it. Thought I would do it forever. You know, really just found myself being really passionate about leading women, in particular. Took a jump from the medical device industry into a direct selling company that is very focused on leadership of women. Moved up in that realm and have been doing that for the last eight years. Lead me to coaching and leading women outside of the company. Really is just-
Sara Leisinger: Its taken off pretty quick for you, right?
Arica Ohloff: It has, yeah. It has. I think that all comes back to what we’re going to talk about today. Our topic today and just really aligning yourself with your innate talents and putting time and energy and knowledge behind those things to really soar in a positive direction.
Sara Leisinger: Right.
Sarah Banowetz: Awesome.
Sara Leisinger: So, doing that as well as kind of in the office environment and kind of getting that mixture of personalities, strength, talent right what does that look like? How do you help companies with that?
Arica Ohloff: Well, I love to work with a specific assessment. It was created by Gallop years ago. Really it just, it really takes out the component of, you know you’ve heard people say, “You can do anything you want to do if you just do it-”
Sara Leisinger: Oh, hate that phrase.
Arica Ohloff: “Hard enough,” right. Or put in enough time. I think a lot of times we think teammates or employees, if we just teach them the right way of doing something with enough hours they can do it. However, this assessment kind of goes against that, right.
Arica Ohloff: So, you cannot do anything that you want to do. But, you can be a whole lot more than you are. So, that, I feel like for me, is what I just wake up. I eat it, I breathe it, I sleep it. Just believing so passionately that we all have this incredible potential within each of us. But it’s about finding it.
Arica Ohloff: So, Gallop says one in 33 million people have the exact same top five strengths. There actually talents. They don’t become a strength until you put action behind them. But, that just shows how unique people are. So, often times in a team collaborative organization people look for people who are just like them. So, actually to be a really effective team it’s important to have people whose strengths align with what the need is that you need them to do. So, you can spend all this time trying to, essentially, put a round peg, or a square peg in a round hole. Right? It’s just not going to happen.
Arica Ohloff: Matter of fact, I was just conversing with a woman yesterday whose Chief Development Leadership Officer in her company and they just had to let someone go who was 12 years into the company because she just wasn’t aligning with what they needed. But they wanted to give her a chance. I think there’s a lot of organizations, and teams, and companies that keep people around in a certain position or department who really aren’t naturally aligned with the strengths it takes to soar in that position.
Arica Ohloff: So, it’s about building on who you already are and reaching your potential. So, also most experts say that majority of people go to their grave tapping into only a small percentage of their potential. So, you know, there’s a lot of wasted potential. So, it’s just my passion today to help people find what their natural gifts are. What their natural talent is so that they can build upon that, right.
Arica Ohloff: So if you would compare it to growing up, or in the school system, there’s so much focus on the deficit. Or the weakness. Or the class that you’re not excelling in.
Sara Leisinger: Yes.
Arica Ohloff: Where it should be a greater focus, or emphasis, on where you are doing really well so that you can soar in a greater dimension, or greater dynamic in that realm. So it’s about being the best version of yourself.
Sarah Banowetz: That’s awesome.
Sara Leisinger: So, what you’re saying, and like this … I firmly do believe this, Arica. You can have a fantastic marketing strategy, but just to help our fellow business owners out, if you have a fantastic marketing strategy, your social media’s on point, your really engaging, you’re really building trust, people are taking action with you. However, you have the wrong people in the wrong positions at your company. Or, people are just completely unaware of what their strengths are, that can ruin any sort of reputation that you’ve already built.
Arica Ohloff: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sara Leisinger: So, this small investment of bringing somebody like yourself in saves money. Saves money. Save yourself some money.
Sarah Banowetz: Well, and what we’re getting into is business leadership and how the leadership of a business is affect … How that affects the marketing efforts that a company puts out there.
Sara Leisinger: Absolutely. So, Arica, do you have maybe an example the thank you can maybe give us just of when this situation may happen in a company? Like a square peg, round hole situation? And maybe how you would help the leadership to rectify that?
Arica Ohloff: Yeah, that’s a really great question. So, to answer that in kind of a umbrella answer what a business leader might see is someone disengaged from their work. Or, kind of reverting back to the path of least resistance. So, they’re not seeing the production anymore.
Sarah Banowetz: So, it’s like an employee just-
Arica Ohloff: In it for the paycheck. Yep. They just … So, this whole concept is around sustainability, right, of a position of production of an employee. So, people can fit into a role and produce initially but they say 71% of people are disengaged from their work. I believe that comes directly to they’re not utilizing their innate gifts, their innate talents within them. So-
Sarah Banowetz: So, when they are how does that benefit the business owner, the business leader, when their staff is engaged?
Arica Ohloff: Right. I mean, it impacts the bottom line. It impacts the productivity.
Sarah Banowetz: Because, yeah productivity goes up.
Arica Ohloff: They get so much done in so much less time because it’s natural for them. So, whether it’s an executing role, an influencing role, a relationship building role, or a strategic thinking role. They fall into those four different categories. So it’s about aligning the right people in the right place.
Arica Ohloff: So, then for a team to be able to communicate and understand each other. Because there’s barriers that become present with each persons strength.
Sarah Banowetz: Okay. So, Arica, if a … Because we’re going to have to end this podcast. So, for any business leaders or owners our there who are interested in talking to you more because this is a fascinating topic. I bet there’s a lot of people listening right now that would like to get in touch with you. How do they go about doing that?
Arica Ohloff: Yeah. You can find me on my website, aricaohloff.com. I’m also on Facebook as Arica Ohloff, Instagram as Arica Ohloff, LinkedIn as Arica Ohloff.
Sarah Banowetz: Can you spell your last name for us?
Arica Ohloff: Yeah, you bet. First name is Arica, A-R-I-C-A. So, it’s Africa without the F.
Sarah Banowetz: Okay.
Arica Ohloff: Last name is Ohloff, O-H-L-O-F-F. Frank Frank.
Sarah Banowetz: Awesome. So, reach out. Get in touch with Arica.
Sara Leisinger: Absolutely. Watch your productivity go up. Help your people function in their strengths, man.
Sarah Banowetz: Awesome. Yes, yes, yes. Sara, why don’t you let our listeners know where they can find you.
Sara Leisinger: You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn at Who’s Lance Digital Media.
Sarah Banowetz: So, Sara is marketing. Has a marketing company, Who’s Lance, to work with freelancers and startups. Then you can find me, Sarah Banowetz, at banowetzmarketing.com. I’m a full service agency helping established companies scale.
Sara Leisinger: Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us today, guys.
Sarah Banowetz: Have a great day. Bye.
Sara Leisinger of Who’s Lance Digital Media can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Sarah Banowetz of Banowetz Marketing can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Our guest today was Arica Ohloff. She can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Arica can also be found at AricaOhloff.com
