Navigating Passion and Leadership - with Liz Schmidt

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  Please note that the following transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.

  Erica D'Eramo 0:05

  Hello, and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo, and today we're interviewing special guest Liz Schmidt. So Liz is currently the Executive Director for the Women Offshore Foundation, and she also serves as the Operations Director at Shipyard Supplies USA. So we'll be talking with Liz about the elements of a multifaceted career, what that looks like, how work, life balance comes to play in that but also her insights into the intersection of philanthropy and business and how that plays a role in her life. So we're super excited to have Liz join us. We are definitely supporters of women offshore and frequent collaborators with them, and really excited to get Liz's insights.

  Liz, thanks for joining. Welcome,

  Liz Schmidt 1:03

  absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be sharing my stories with you guys today.

  Erica D'Eramo 1:10

  Yeah, absolutely. So I typically ask people, you know what, what is your origin story? So like, what is the arc of your narrative that brought you to this point in life. What makes Liz you know who she is today? Yeah,

  Liz Schmidt 1:26

  so I'm a Midwesterner. I grew up in Minnesota. I grew up in a lovely community just west of Minneapolis St Paul, on a lake called Lake Minnetonka, and grew up with a boating lifestyle. I was on my first boat when I was three months old, and have been that's been a huge part of my life throughout my life. In addition to that, I was raised in a service family. So my dad is a retired Sheriff, police officer, my mother is a retired nurse, and so I was raised in this family of giving back and providing service, and was always, well, involved in my community at multi different levels. I have my Girl Scout Gold Award, and always just volunteerism and being a part of the community was always kind of at the forefront of what I've done my whole life. So after, after college, I went and served with the Red Cross. I had a great experience where I did emergency communication messaging, and I was based in Fort Hood, Texas. So that's kind of started my work in service, and was really launched into supporting women, mostly as they're typically the ones who are, you know, married to the soldiers that I was working with at the army base and supporting them back home in a multi faceted ways. You know, the soldiers were off in Afghanistan at that time, that was mid 2000s so a lot of soldiers frontline off in Afghanistan, and so the wives were left, you know, back here in the States and running the households. And so our role at the Red Cross was to help get their soldiers home. If there was family emergencies, deaths, that sort of thing. But if there were births, we were also helping to make sure that those soldiers could connect with their families. You know, as those births were, were occurring, so it was, it was really great to be able to support, support these women on the base and and, of course, men too, but it was a majority of the women in the in the kids that we were working with at the organization. I later went to Florida. I now reside in South Florida, and I worked in disaster relief. And that really launched me into service area here in a community where I was really focusing on some of these social services needs that are in a community when people have a disaster, sometimes they're just clinging on. And that social services needs we were not only helping them immediately with what they needed post disaster, so house, fire, flood, that sort of thing. And then, of course, the larger disasters that everyone always thinks of, unfortunately, hurricanes down here in South Florida, but it was additional making sure that they had long term services, that they were connected to those services in our community. So I did those things for a few years, and then later went to the YMCA, and had a great career there. I worked in water safety, so I started to get back into my love of being around the water worked to develop community water safety programs. I'm still involved in the water safety world here in Florida as it is such a need for for kids to get swim lessons and for families to be water safe and water aware here in Florida. And so I worked and created community safety, water safety programs for for families throughout the South Florida area, as well as and then branching to the greater state of Florida. Much like a lot of people during covid, I was able to take an opportunity to say, okay, what are some other areas that I'm interested in? I got my captain's license. And I started to lean in more into the Marine and yachting space here in Fort Lauderdale and where I live. And I got the opportunity to start working with a very good friend of mine who's now my partner at shipyard supply USA. He needed some help. The yachting industry was crazy busy during covid, and so I got the opportunity to come on board and really learn firsthand. A couple of my first yachts I was on are some of the larger yachts that that are here in South Florida. We work in vessels over 100 feet. And so when we're when we're talking yachts, we're talking some of the some of the bigger ones here and and it's an amazing experience to be a part of this company. Now as a partner, I joined just as kind of a helper, and helped the company through a rebranding and a growth process to now I am partner in the business and and really proud of the work we have put into to our company. Here, we supply yachts with mooring products, vendors, vendor covers, which are all manufactured locally here in South Florida recently, I was so fortunate to have been found by women offshore, and to be able to work with them as their executive director and really take my love for being on the water, being in the industry, supporting women, supporting women in non traditional roles, and to be able to really be at the helm of this organization. And I really, really do take that all back to my upbringing, of starting in that family area of service.

  Erica D'Eramo 6:27

  Yeah, wow. I do see the arc, right? And I think as someone who also has had a maybe non linear trajectory, or sometimes people will look at my experience and be like, I don't really see the thread here. It looks like you've done a lot of different things, but there is a thread, right? There's always a thread that ties back to either our core values or or our core motivations. And I'm just hearing so much in that thread around service and community and really enabling others to be, you know, thriving and living, living the lives with lots of opportunities that they want. Yeah,

  Liz Schmidt 7:06

  absolutely. And, and I agree. You know, people are always asking me, how did you, how did you get into nonprofit, or, How did you get into this yachting industry and, and how do you do this work and that sort of thing? And so I just say, you know, I've been able to craft a really great professional life for myself, and by taking all the facets of my professional work that I enjoy doing it and being able to create my work for myself that I like to do every day.

  Erica D'Eramo 7:29

  Yeah, right, because while being the captain of a vessel might sound very different from, say, supporting families on base, you know, navigating life transitions, or maybe managing the operations of an entire, you know, maritime company. They might sound different, and yet, probably a lot of those skill sets are transferable. So tell me a little bit about that, like, what are some of these, like, core elements that you think have really been pillars in your career?

  Liz Schmidt 8:07

  Absolutely, you're so correct. They they all stem from having learned great leadership qualities and being able to work as a leader, to be able to inspire other people to be a leader, as well as project management skills, all of those people that you mentioned, and all those different roles that I have held. It takes project management. You have to take a problem, you have to source it out. You have to suss it out. You have to find your people to help you solve that problem. And then you have to execute solving that problem. And that's one of the threads there is being able to take a problem in taking an issue, good or bad, and getting all the facts, collecting all the information, and then laying it out on the table and saying, what do we have here, and who do we have with us to solve the problem? And at each one of those spaces, whether you're on a vessel, whether you're in a company, whether you're working within a community, you have key players who can help you either solve those problems or to help you to be able to move forward when there's an issue. Yeah,

  Erica D'Eramo 9:07

  I feel like stakeholder management, or, you know, Stakeholder Relations, is probably an element that comes through, and a lot of these is understanding all of the different pieces and all of the different parts of the community. And, you know, who are decision makers, who is impacted, who is affected?

  Liz Schmidt 9:22

  Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And knowing those people and how everybody works together, right? And that's really important too, is knowing skill sets and finding skill sets, and sometimes you have to pull those skill sets out of people, but I think that's where good leadership qualities come in, and those learned leaderships, and I've had, I've been fortunate up to be able to not only seek out leadership skills and training, but have some great leaders and not so great leaders to help me grow in being able to kind of figure out that project management and how to work with a team.

  Erica D'Eramo 9:53

  Yeah. I mean the other element that comes to mind for me, and this was one of the themes that we discussed for this episode. Episode is, you know, living these very full lives with lots of you know, areas for our energy and our time to go into lots of different interfaces and facets, whether it's volunteer work, nonprofit board work, nonprofit executive director of work, or, literally, you know, operational directorship in a company. How you know the cliche question of, how do you balance it all, but from a from a like, philosophical, energetic perspective, what are some of your thoughts on how all of these play in your life, and how you kind of make it sustainable.

  Liz Schmidt 10:41

  Yeah, absolutely. First of all, my calendar is my live or die. Everything has to go on my calendar. If it's not on my calendar, it doesn't exist. So that's a first.

  I think my personality being that I like fast paced. I'm okay with switching gears, right? I can be working in this space and working with chief officer on, you know, on a yacht, trying to get their order set and ready for them, and then immediately switch gears and go and working on planning our gala for the women offshore Gala, right, coming up in February. So it's like being able to switch those gears. I like that fast paced work. So that's one of the qual, you know, one of the skills and qualities that I have to be able to do it. I also enjoy my work. I really enjoy the people I work with. I enjoy the type of work I do, whether I'm standing on the back deck of a yacht, you know, admiring the work that my team has built to make you know whatever we're putting on board that vessel, right, being proud of that and really enjoying the people I work with in that space, to being working with my women offshore team, and seeing how we can make difference in in women's lives. I love both of those, and I've realized I don't have to choose, and I'm really lucky that I haven't had to choose, and I can be able to do both of those things, but it does take balancing. You know, when I'm with women offshore, working with them, it's all in when I'm working with my shipyard team, it's all in when I'm at my board meeting for my nonprofit that I sit on, right? I'm all in. And so each time that you're in those spaces, you have to fully dedicate your brain and your yourself to those spaces you're in. And that's the other thing too, is, is I'm working on this thing now, and I'm going to end that conversation, and then I'm going to move to this conversation. It's you, it's being okay with a switching conversations really quickly, but also knowing when I'm done with that conversation, and I'm moving into this and putting on my yachting hat, and I'm fully in on that, or I'm putting on my nonprofit director hat, and I'm fully into that, and I've learned that that is something that has really helped me keep everything straight, keep everything organized, but also give both, you know, 110% as I as I hope I have been right. Yeah.

  Erica D'Eramo 12:58

  So I am definitely biased about this, but I love a boundary. And so as you're talking I'm just kind of, when you're talking about, like switching gears and stuff, I'm really hearing and not boundary, like a hard boundary, like a stop sign, but I'm just hearing that differentiation that's enabling you to switch from one thing to another, and I'm hypothesizing that you probably have become pretty comfortable with boundaries, or, you know, what role does that play for you?

  Liz Schmidt 13:32

  Yeah, it's definitely something that I've had to learn myself. I think, in the beginning, working in this, in this type of multifaceted work, when I had other nonprofit partners, especially prior to being with women offshore, some smaller organizations that I consulted with and that sort of thing, it was, it was difficult to to to have those boundaries at first. And you do have to learn that and and so knowing like these are my times that I'm in my shop with my team, working on the builds that we have to build on, and project managing with them, and making sure that my team, for example, at women offshore, knows that, you know. So from, you know, eight to 10 in the morning, yeah, I'll get your text messages and I'll, you know, I might respond back, or that sort of thing, but, you know, but that's the time that I'm with that team, and these are the times that I'm with, you know, you and this team. And so making sure that everybody knows kind of where I'm at and what I'm doing, to a degree, helps that, I think, helps them say, well, she's not responding to me. Why has it been an hour and she hasn't responded? It's like, well, I'm, you know, I'm doing this now, or I'm doing that now. So setting that up in advance, I think, is really important. And I think that takes, it takes learning. People have to learn that you want to be everywhere at all the times, but you can't always be everywhere. And so if you set that expectation ahead of time, people are going to understand that, and it's not going to be an issue. So that was something I definitely had to learn, and then I'm still learning this. And I think we all are. It's just taking that time for yourself. I still, I have to admit, though I still have that guilt, I have to turn my brain off in the evenings or sometimes on the weekends, right? And it's giving myself permission to say, okay, it's okay to take this Sunday afternoon to watch football on your couch, right? Or it's okay to take the evening off, or that sort of thing, and so giving yourself permission, and I know for me, that's something that I'm still working on and learning, but that's where my support group comes in, right? So I make sure that that my friends, my family, you know, they're helping me to turn off, and so that that's been really important skill is to have them help me to say, you know, do you really have to be in computer right now? You know, do you really have to take that, that call this very second, right? And that sort of thing. And so having them help support me, just like how my team at shipyard, or my team at women offshore supports me in the in the professional sense, I think is really important as well.

  Erica D'Eramo 16:00

  Yeah, yeah. I hear a lot around communication transparency, and I call it sort of the Like operator man, operators manual, or the standard operating procedure for ourselves, that communicating with other people, that, hey, this is, this is what you expect, and this is how we can work together and understanding what they're like operating manual is can be so, so helpful in, you know, just clarifying expectations and being able to work together. And we take it for granted that everyone's got the same operating manual, but we really don't, right and, and, yeah, yeah,

  Liz Schmidt 16:35

  absolutely. And I think in this type of work with with women offshore especially, we are a team that is spread across the US like we are at one point. I think even still, we have somebody in every single time zone across the US, so nobody is working at the same time, and everybody has different hours that they operate and that they work within. And so that has been a really great lesson in just professional work life balance. Because, you know, I may send an email out, and I know just because of the time, I'm not going to get a response until the next day, or I'm not going to get a response until a few hours from now, because they're probably still asleep if they're on the West Coast, because I'm on the East Coast, right? And so that has really helped with kind of slowing down and saying, okay, not everything has to be responded immediately. And as a millennial, the millennial culture, you know, we were, we were kind of brought up and taught our ourselves, most likely, mostly that, you know, emails are this, you know, immediate response thing, and that, you know someone asks for something, and you have to just hop to it and do it right away. And I think the what women offshore, and the way that our team operates across the US and these different time zones, it's taught me, is that's not always realistic or necessary, and necessary is the key, right? And and we suit our work done, and we do it at such a high level, and it's having that grace for each other and knowing that everybody has to have that work life balance.

  Erica D'Eramo 18:02

  Yeah. I mean, I think back to, like, metrics for maintenance, right? And work completion rates versus break in work and when something comes on to your plate, what's going to go off the plate and and having criteria for When things do break in because, yeah, really getting our head in that space that we would almost manage our own time and priorities with more intentionality and thoughtfulness, just like we would, you know, a maintenance schedule, I think is kind of foreign to a lot of us, because we're so reactive and socialized to Be and expected to be in many cases. So yeah, having some criteria before something gets bumped to the top of the list is something I'm also working on, also working on it.

  Liz Schmidt 18:53

  And you know, I would say for me, I I'm such more I'm so much more understanding of my team that I work with, and knowing that they have lives, and wanting to, of course, respect that they have families and lives and hobbies and activities and and all that kind of stuff. And so I'm always like, Oh, it's okay. You're fine, you know? But then for myself, me, I'm like, wait, I haven't, you know, I haven't been on my email in two hours because I've been doing something else. I better jump in, right? So, yeah, absolutely, it's, it's being conditioned to that, and it's starting to trying to unwind that conditioning to a degree. You know, that's

  Erica D'Eramo 19:28

  why I think it's great that you have, you know, people to reflect back to you as well and be like, Hey, you said you wanted to relax. So When's that going to happen? Or, you know, those people that can help hold a mirror up for us, the trusted community, and trusted, you know, members of our inner circle and and our work circles as well, that can kind of reflect back and show us what we're actually doing. Absolutely,

  Liz Schmidt 19:52

  absolutely you gotta have those, those allies all over and all different facets, because I think that's really important to making sure. You don't get burned out, or that you don't get that kind of hysteria feeling of sometimes I say I feel like I'm being pecked off by chickens, right? It's coming out to me from all angles and and so sometimes it takes some of that trusted circle to kind of help you have that calming, calming feeling. Yeah,

  Erica D'Eramo 20:18

  I think one of the other elements that's probably so challenging for many of us who do get involved in a lot of different things, is we get involved in those things because we care so much about the impact that it's having in the world, or about the mission or the ultimate vision of these organizations or companies that we're in. And so it can make it harder, I think, sometimes, to really take that longer view of what is most sustainable when we want so much for it to be successful from a core values perspective. So tell me a little bit more about that, like, how does how? How have you navigated that? Because you're very involved in things that, like it seems, are important to you and make a difference?

  Liz Schmidt 21:02

  Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, to a degree that service, that service piece of me, helps keep that going. I think that having that passion, that's one of the things that I've I've been told at all different parts of my career, is when I'm talking about my work that I do that, you know, people will stop me in the middle of a sentence and say, Wow, you seem like you're really passionate about this work. And I think that is what keeps my drive, is I've always been that person that I have to be all in in my professional work and and I and for me, that's really important. And I know for some people, they have maybe a different philosophy on professional work, and I absolutely respect that. But for me, I think that that personal passion and that personal drive to make it better, whatever it is in my work that I'm doing, helps drive me to continue to do it and push it forward. And I also just have this deep sense that I don't want to let people down. And that's you know that. And sometimes that can, can be a bad thing, but not necessarily always right. And so I want to make sure whether it's it's a community, whether it's an individual, whether it's an industry like I want to continue to push myself and push the work that I'm doing, to make sure that I don't let let those people down. And there's definitely positives and negatives to that feeling, for sure.

  Erica D'Eramo 22:24

  Yeah, I have been working with a lot of my coaching clients lately on, you know, identifying their strengths. And several times over the past week, I've had a client say, Huh? I mean, this is a strength, but it's also kind of a weakness. And it's like, oh, yeah, that's the thing. That is how it works, right? Like our our greatest strength also is usually, you know, just like a cliche superhero, it's always that their greatest strength is corresponding to their greatest weakness. So I'm interested, for you, like that passion. I see it so much in the volunteer work, in things where people's passion is relied upon to, you know, get a lot done, and I see a lot of burnout. So how have you found a sustainable way? You've mentioned some things, but I'm just interested if there's any other insights you have for these people who do this mission driven kind of work that they don't burn out?

  Liz Schmidt 23:18

  Yeah, well, I first want to recognize the people that compassion fatigue is real. I absolutely know that I suffered compassion fatigue when I was at the when I was at the Red Cross and doing that work, and I was the start of my journey in my professional world. And so I probably wasn't as well equipped with the tools to be able to understand what that was at the time. I knew what it was, but to understand how to fix that. And so, first of all, you know, understanding that that is something, and to get support where you need it, when you feel that you have compassion fatigue, I think that that's really important in depending on the type of work that somebody is doing in that service space. I think for me, it's, it's making sure, you know, reflecting back on the boundaries, it's making sure that I have my own time management, that my time is managed well for myself and and it's really easy for you know, people to you know you, like you said, kind of use that passion as a way to get some stuff done or have alternate agendas. And I think is, as I've grown in my professional career and had taken on more leadership roles, I am a very cognizant of that in my team, so making sure that I'm supporting them and that I'm not asking too much because of that yes culture or that passion to want to get it done. And I think that's experience that I've had over over the years of getting to that burnout space, or feeling like I'm at that burnout space. So knowing your time. When I was in college, I had a really good leader who had us do a worksheet. I worked in the office of First Year Experience and students in transition. And so we were taking all the new kids in and helping with orientation and things like that. And at the beginning of the semester, she would have us do a basic worksheet that you blocked off your time. And the first thing she said was, you have to get eight hours of sleep. That's a non negotiable. So block out eight hours of sleep. And then from there, you know, block out. You know, you're gonna go do some type of exercise for an hour, and then, and all of a sudden, you know, you have to block out time to eat. So is it 30 minutes for breakfast in the morning, or is it 10 minutes for breakfast, you know, and then is it an hour for lunch? But so we kind of blocked it all out. And that was one of the those, the times where I was learning like, hey, if I'm if I'm purposeful in my time, both in my relaxation time and in my professional time. And at that time, of course, it was college, so I was, you know, juggling my course load as well as as my my on campus work, but that's where I really learned, like there is time in the day, it's just how you use it. And so being intentional, of having your time planned out. And sometimes it works really well, and sometimes it doesn't work at all, but if I feel myself starting to get a little crazy or starting to feel a little bit out of control with the amount of work that's being thrown at me, I take it in and I say, Okay, let me block out my schedule. Let me look and see what I have here, and see how I have to rearrange stuff to make that work. So I actually still do that here and there when, I feel a little crazy, but, but that time management is such a skill, I think that is is helpful in all this multifaceted work that I do.

  Erica D'Eramo 26:28

  Yeah, it's really like managing a budget in a way. Because I think when you think, oh yeah, we've got whatever $10,000 to do this project, that sounds about right, and then you start looking at, okay, but how much does, how much do the nails cost, and how much does the permit costs, and how much does the paint cost, and how much do? And really start looking and and getting into the detail of it. Then it becomes quite clear what you can and can't do with that, and where there's efficiencies to be made. I that really resonates for me, because lately I have been every Monday I have time at the beginning of my Monday I have, like, a little co, co working group that meets just, it's like, you know, I don't charge anybody for this. It's just folks who want to show up and just spend 45 minutes getting their week planned, and we just do it in silence, and we all just sort of block out time based on what our priorities are for the week. But the thing that's been key for me is actually doing my actuals. You know, in finance, we would have, like, projected versus actuals, well, going in and saying, Okay, how long did you take on doing QuickBooks reconciliation? How long did you take on replying to emails? Because there's all these things that we don't realize we're doing that take up time, especially the interpersonal part, right? And I'm it can be tough to really value that relationship management when it's not on your to do list, and at the end of the day, you're like, Oh, I didn't get anything on my to do list done. It was a failure of a day. But actually maybe you had some really important conversations that needed to happen, or maybe you held space for somebody, or maybe, you know, you took a break and you went for a walk. And actually that was valuable too. So I started like, I've started actually capturing my actuals for where my my time was planned for the day, and then where it actually went for the day, and it's making me much more realistic about what gets done in a day. So

  Liz Schmidt 28:26

  yeah, I'm sure that does that would be really interesting to try, because I know over the course of especially my work in in shipyard supply, because we build products. And so my partner is like, Oh, well, we can just do that in two days. And after a while, I'm like, No, we can't. We have to cut it, you know, I'm not doing any of this. I have a great coverage routine that does it. But I'm like, we have to cut the product. We have to, you know, shape it. We have to fit it to the vessel. We have to go to the vessel maybe two or three times to make sure, you know, all this kind of things, right? And so over, over the past few years, being with the company is like, no, these builds are sometimes taking us, you know, five days, and he's trying to cram it into two and that sort of thing. So we've learned together how to better, you know, project manage our time out for these production builds. And so in that kind of sense, I think that doing that for some of the personal life stuff, right? I think can help say, No, it actually does take me a little bit longer than I think, to, you know, go to the gym, right? Like, maybe I'm thinking, Oh, 30 minutes because I'm like, I'm on the treadmill for 30 minutes of the elliptical. But it's like, no, it actually takes you 90 by the time you drive, by the time you walk in, but, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And it's like, maybe if I gave myself 90 minutes at the gym or gym time, I would be more successful at getting that space in for myself, or whatever it is, you know, then trying to cram it in and then just not doing it because I run out of time, that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's a really good idea.

  Erica D'Eramo 29:52

  Well, I think especially from the from a neurodiverse perspective, you know, ADHD ers have a lot of time blindness, which I. Definitely have and and can be very optimistic about how quick we can get things done when we're hyper focused, and maybe not so optimistic, or, like, not as realistic about all the different distractions that may come into play. So yeah. So as you, as you, like a lot of people, spend their entire careers, either in philanthropy or nonprofit sphere, or they spend it in private sector. You know, in I'll call it business sphere. I guess it's not really an accurate, like alternative, but or description of what the alternative is. What would you for profit? We'll say for profit. So, yep, yeah, what would you, what would you say to the folks who have you know. Like, what are some of the the insights that you think you you particularly have benefited from by crossing both of those realms? Like, how has your nonprofit work maybe supported your for profit and vice versa? Yeah.

  Liz Schmidt 30:54

  So one of the most common misconceptions that I hear from people who aren't familiar with the nonprofit space is, there's, there's no money. You're always scraping by. You're never going to make a living all this kind of stuff. And so first of all, I try to squash that all the way. I'm like, no, there are some amazing careers you can have in that space. There's organizations that nonprofits that have money to be able to support their work in their community. And so I first grew grew up career wise in nonprofits that were national and that were large, and so I was able to see and learn some of that firsthand, but they have to be run like a business, and that's the other thing, where a lot of small nonprofits that I have worked with and helped out don't always necessarily look at like that, and they they tend to want to give away a lot, and they tend to want, and it's for the passion, right? And I see that, and it's sometimes we have to take that step back, and we have to, we have to run like a business and and so for the nonprofit that I sit on the board for, I sit on the board as the treasurer, and it's a local environmental nonprofit called the local octopus Foundation. And I have, I have trained, trained, so to speak, my founder and my other board members who I'm very good friends with. I have trained them to say, we run this nonprofit like a business. And they founded the nonprofit and had asked me to come on board to help them, you know, become, you know, get their 501, c3, status, and help them make sure that they're operating everything correctly. And so I have trained them to say, you know, we run this like a business. We take a look at our budgets, we take a look at our financials. We know what to say yes to. We know what aligns with our corporate structure, so to speak. And and so that really, though, became from my nonprofit work at the YMCA, because the YMCA operates in both spheres, right? They are a business. They are a gym and swim. They're very known for that. They're very renowned for that across the country, but they are a nonprofit that does some amazing things in their communities. And so they do, they have revenue that they have to meet. We had sales goals, so to speak, revenue goals that we had to meet in order to keep the business operational, but at the end of the day, we also had the ability to give back and the service part of our work, to give back to the community. And so I got a really great upbringing so to speak professionally in the YMCA, to say, how do we run a business to make sure we're meeting our sales goals, but how do we also make sure that we're supporting a community at the same time, and so that work translates into my for profit work, because we do have sales goals to meet, we do have criteria that we have to hit. But in addition to that, we also look and see, okay, where are some of those places that we can give back to our team? We have a great team that works really hard in some harsh conditions to build the products we need. And so how do we help support them in other ways than just, you know, giving their paychecks on Friday? And so I think that's something that we have built a really good group of people that work and manufacture our products for us, because we're not just taking a look at that revenue in terms of, like, how much can us as the partners make in revenue for this company, but giving back within our own business to the people that serve our company. And then in addition to that, we're also philanthropic in our community. So we have that, and they talk about corporate philanthropy, and it's talked about a lot in lots of different facets, but for me, I see that as part of operating our business is giving back into our community and giving back in spaces of our community that has to do with the work that we do. So we're intentional about how we give back, who we give back to in the work that we do. But I think all of that is really important. And then lastly, I mean, it goes back to funding and budgets, like knowing your budgets, knowing what's in your bank account at all times, having that number, and that's a little bit of a skill I learned that I have is to just kind of have that roundabout number all the time in my head, but knowing that, and as something comes in the account and out of the account, and luckily, we're, we're, you know, small enough of a company that I'm able to keep track of that. But you have to have a handle on that. You have to have a handle on your on your QuickBooks, for example. The leisure is right to know, okay, if we go and we spend this, or if we have our team work X amount of hours over what we typically have them work because we're on a crunch line to get a bill done for a vessel that's leading, how is that going to affect our bottom line to be able to continue to buy supplies or do what we need to do? And so having that part in me, I think, has made sure that we're successful growing business from, you know, compared to when I started with the company, you know, three, almost four years, four years ago now. So, yeah, yeah.

  Erica D'Eramo 35:30

  I mean, when done, well, it sounds like they are that, you know, for profit and nonprofit, work is really quite similar in many ways, and it makes me think of Simon Sinek book, which everybody knows like start with, why? But his book, infinite game, actually talks about this in terms of where you know, capitalism and corporate entities have really kind of strayed away from what their core mission is because of the element of shareholder value. And so it becomes about like, you know, maximizing shareholder value instead of, what is it that we're trying to do, and doing that as well as possible in the most sustainable way as possible, as you know, members of the community, and then in the nonprofit sphere as well, like when done well, it does look a lot like a business, because it needs to be sustainable and not extractive, in leaning on the most passionate members to essentially run themselves into the ground or donate all of their time, or be, you know, underpaid or scraping by, which is not, you know, like I see that, I do see that a lot in some nonprofits that haven't realized how unsustainable that is.

  Liz Schmidt 36:51

  Yeah, absolutely, and, and those you know, for those organizations I would, I would take a look at, you know, is, is your team? What are some ways that you can restructure, or what are some ways that you can take a look at, if I have to pay my team X amount and not enough to be able to feel good about the work that they're doing and to be able to make ends meet at the end of the week, what are maybe I need to restructure my company so that I can right and, or, you know, if I'm a small nonprofit, and this is something that I've seen in some of the nonprofits I work with, you know, they want some of the really big, flashy CRMs, and they want some of these big tools. And it's like, you know, maybe we start with Excel, right? And that's the same thing with business. I mean, you know, with our company too, we take a look at what are some of the things that that we do need, and that do make our business work. But then what are some of those things that we just we don't need to pay for, and making sure that in both nonprofit and for profit, we're not putting value on because we have this X thing, or we operate using this X software or that sort of thing, that that means that we're at a certain pinnacle, means we're paying so many money that we may not need to right? And so if we need it, let's use it. If we don't need it, let's exit right? And so I think in both of those nonprofit and for profit, we have to take a look at that and time management of our team, like I said, sometimes I know my team's gonna have to work more than what I budget them to work in both the for profit and nonprofit sector and being prepared for that, and knowing how that's going to affect things moving forward. But also, is them working more? Is that producing more and that sort of thing, and that's what we take a look at in our for profit space. If my team is working to a deadline, it's because, you know, we're working towards probably a pretty big build. At the end of it, we're probably getting a pretty big, you know, paycheck back back into the company, and so, you know, taking a look at, you know, those sort of things, and balancing all of that out, and it's constant, and you have to constantly be a step ahead to be successful. I feel it's

  Erica D'Eramo 38:50

  interesting too, because as you're talking, and I'm just hearing and thinking about how, really understanding motivation, compensation, recognition, you know, even just pay and remuneration might, that might also be a skill set that gets strengthened from dipping, you know, from one side to the other in non profit versus for profit, where in non profit, you do tend to attract a lot of people who are very mission driven and willing to maybe, you know, work at a discount, which is, again, not sustainable, but motivating people based on that mission, and then being able to transfer and kind of, yeah, that balance. So, yeah, really interesting, yeah, yeah. Well, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing some of these insights, because I don't like I said, I don't know that there are lots of people who, you know, operate in both realms simultaneously, and have navigated through these realms, you know, back and forth throughout their careers. And so I really, really appreciate all the thought and learnings and wisdom that you have been able to share with us. And I just want to ask, you know, I. What might one takeaway be that you would like to leave our listeners with today?

  Liz Schmidt 40:07

  Go with what your passions are. I have felt like I've stuck to that over the past few years in growing my company and working in the nonprofit space, and I think that has made me a very well rounded but a very fulfilled person. I feel just so happy to be able to work in this field, work in maritime, work in the nonprofit side of maritime, work in the for profit side of maritime. And I would say to listeners, is really look and see what that passions are. And if you're in a space right now, professionally, and you're, you're looking to, you know, branch out or grow or change and that sort of stuff. I would highly say, look at your passion, and how can you work in your passion area? Because I know, for me that that really helps me. It's, you know, it's still work. I'm not, you know, it's still outlook, it's still Google Sheets at the end of the day, but, but being able to be in that passion space, I really, I really do feel, especially service driven people are going to see a difference in in how they operate and their fulfillment that they feel. Yeah,

  Erica D'Eramo 41:12

  that's that's really impactful. How might people connect with the work that you're doing? So, you know, this is a great time to shout out the entities that we want to highlight here. Yeah, absolutely.

  Liz Schmidt 41:24

  Well, women offshore. If you are a woman who works in maritime, especially women who works offshore, offshore energy, please, please check us out. We are at women offshore across all handles we have. Our conference is coming up in about two weeks, October, 11 and 12th. And so we are going to be sharing some really great insights to the industry, and we're going to be following up with some podcasts and some lessons learned as well. So you can check us out. We have a podcast as well. Women offshore. My company is called shipyard supply USA. We're at shipyard supply USA, across all handles. So if you want to check out some of the work we do on some of the yachts, I was just in Monaco at the big Monaco Yacht Show that's in the end of September every year we have the Fort Lauderdale boat show. So which is another kind of Pinnacle Yacht Show that's that's coming up here in a month. So we have some great things coming up in both both my both my spears. And the greatest part is I get to combine them a lot. So I meet female captains when I'm when I'm working in in my shipyard supply space, and I bring them over into women offshore. And so I did that at Monaco this, this, this past couple weeks. And it was really great to be able to bring those women into our community and that sort of thing. So check us out. Like I said, Women offshore. Women offshore.org, and shipyardsupply usa.com, if you want to see some of the work

  Erica D'Eramo 42:44

  that I do awesome, I was gonna say it's like the opposite of a conflict of interest. It's like a confluence of interest or something awesome. I

  Liz Schmidt 42:52

  love it. I love it. Take this card.

  Erica D'Eramo 42:55

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. We just did the inclusion summit with women offshore. So two peers. Was not the inclusion summit. That was, what a great event. That was, thank you so much for hosting that. That was, you know, members. So women offshore members, each company or entity or organization that is a member, got a handful of tickets for that. So highly recommend if you're, if you are a leader within an organization and want to explore membership with women offshore, I would suggest it lots of good perks and benefits. And then, yeah, we've got the conference, and this podcast will go live on the day of the conference, if all goes planned. So we'll be at the conference as well. And then you've got the gala, like you mentioned, coming up in February, which I'm really excited about. So, yeah, definitely connect on all the fronts. Absolutely,

  Liz Schmidt 43:44

  lots of great stuff coming up all across the board this fall. It's a busy time, but it's all good things, and, and, and so it's really great to be a part of everything. I love it, yeah,

  Erica D'Eramo 43:54

  well, thanks for making time in your busy schedule to come on here and share your thoughts. And we really appreciate it, and we will have a summary of this episode and links that were mentioned in the show notes and on our website. So that's twopiersconsulting com, and yeah, head over there to see some of the insights from Liz and the folks at women offshore. Thanks so much, Liz,

  Liz Schmidt 44:18

  thank you.

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navigating Passion and Leadership: Liz Schmidt’s Multifaceted Career Journey

In this episode of the Two Piers Podcast, host Erica D’Eramo sits down with Liz Schmidt, Executive Director of the Women Offshore Foundation and Operations Director at Shipyard Supply USA. Together, they explore Liz’s unique career path, from nonprofit work to the yachting industry, and the valuable lessons she has learned along the way. Liz shares insights on leadership, time management, and the importance of passion in sustaining a fulfilling career.

Liz Schmidt's Early Career and Background

Erica begins the conversation by introducing Liz Schmidt and her impressive roles at both the Women Offshore Foundation and Shipyard Supply USA. Growing up in Minnesota, Liz was no stranger to boating, but her career journey truly began with a passion for service. Liz’s early work with the Red Cross involved supporting military families at Fort Hood, Texas, and assisting with disaster relief efforts in South Florida.

From there, Liz transitioned to the YMCA, where she took on responsibilities in water safety and community programs. This experience built a strong foundation of leadership and project management skills, which would later serve her well in her transition to the marine and yachting industry.

Transitioning to the Yachting Industry

During the pandemic, Liz made a significant career shift into the yachting industry, starting with hands-on work before eventually becoming a partner at Shipyard Supply USA. She talks about her role in rebranding the company and her hands-on experience working on large yachts, where she gained valuable insights into the industry.

Her current role involves supplying yachts with mooring products, many of which are manufactured locally in South Florida. This line of work aligns with her passion for the water and her desire to support women in non-traditional roles, a mission she continues to champion through her involvement with Women Offshore.

Balancing a Multifaceted Career

Erica and Liz delve into the challenges of managing multiple roles. Liz emphasizes the importance of maintaining an organized calendar to keep her career on track. Switching between tasks—whether working on a yacht or planning a gala for Women Offshore—requires clear communication and strong time management skills.

Liz shares how essential it is to enjoy what you do and have a supportive team around you. She talks about the fast-paced nature of her work and how she sets expectations with her teams to avoid burnout and maintain balance in her personal and professional life.

Setting Boundaries and Avoiding Burnout

One key takeaway from Liz’s journey is the importance of setting boundaries. Liz opens up about dealing with compassion fatigue and how she has learned to say no when necessary. Self-care, time management, and relying on a supportive network of friends and family have become crucial aspects of maintaining her energy and avoiding burnout.

She shares practical tips, like using a time-blocking worksheet to schedule sleep, exercise, and other activities, ensuring she has time for herself while managing her many responsibilities.

Nonprofit and For-Profit Work: A Balancing Act

In the conversation, Liz also touches on the misconceptions people have about nonprofit work. Running a nonprofit, like the Women Offshore Foundation, requires the same level of attention to business operations as for-profit work. Liz explains how her time with the YMCA taught her the importance of balancing budgets and keeping financials in check, even when the mission is service-based.

Liz emphasizes that whether it’s a nonprofit or a for-profit venture, success often comes from intentional corporate philanthropy and giving back to the community. By blending her nonprofit work with her role in the yachting industry, Liz exemplifies how business and service can go hand-in-hand.

Passion and Fulfillment in Career

Throughout the conversation, Liz encourages listeners to follow their passions. For her, passion has been the driving force behind her fulfillment in both nonprofit and for-profit roles. Combining her love for the water with her commitment to supporting women in non-traditional careers has created a deeply rewarding career.

Liz concludes by highlighting the importance of understanding what motivates you and how intentionality can lead to success and satisfaction in any career path.

Take Action

- Check out the Women Offshore conference happening October 10th-11th, and explore their podcast for more inspiring conversations.

- Consider membership opportunities with Women Offshore to access exclusive benefits and resources.

- Connect with Liz Schmidt to learn more about her work at Shipyard Supply USA and the Women Offshore Foundation.