Suzy I Wanna Say To You

[Azucena Mcquay]

Myguest for Episode #225 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Suzy Siegle. She is the author of, most recently, the book Chief Energy Officer. Suzy currently serves as the ninth President, CEO and Chief Champion of Walsh College in Troy, Michigan.

Mark Graban (16s):

I am Mark Graban. This is My Favorite Mistake. In this podcast you'll hear business leaders and other really interesting people talking about their favorite mistakes because we all make mistakes. But what matters is learning from our mistakes instead of repeating them over and over again. So, this is the place for honest reflection and conversation, personal growth and professional success. Visit our website at MyFavoriteMistakepodcast.com to learn more about Suzy Walsh College, her book, and more Look for links in the show notes or go to markgraban.com/mistake225. As always, thanks for listening.

Mark Graban (56s):

Well Hi, everybody. Welcome back to My Favorite Mistake. I'm Mark Graban. My guest today is Suzy Siegle. She is the author of most recently her book titled Chief Energy Officer. For those watching on on YouTube, I've got a copy of it. I'm Holden up here. We're gonna talk about that today. Suzy currently serves as the ninth president, the CEO and chief champion of Walsh College in Troy Michigan. Suzy's academic and professional background blends passions for business law and higher education. She focuses on the value and importance of business and technology education in today's rapidly changing world. Suzy is a licensed attorney, a member of the state bar of Michigan, has bachelor's degree, master of Business Administration, a JD, and a doctorate in higher education, leadership and management.

Mark Graban (1m 42s):

Suzy is previously the author of the Thrive Journal, a step-by-step guide to help you create and accomplish your goals and locus, take control and change the direction of your life. So Suzy, thank you for joining us here. How, are you

Mark Graban (2m 1s):

Yeah, well Thank you and Thank you for being here. We're gonna have a lot to talk about, including your Favorite Mistake story. I, I do want to quickly acknowledge Kyle Comf, who is a guest in episode 82. He had suggested that Suzy and I get connected and that she come on the podcast. So Thank you, Kyle for doing that. So

Mark Graban (2m 21s):

Yeah. You know, so Suzy, before we talk, you know about your work and your book, you know, diff different things you've done in your career, what would you say is your Favorite Mistake?

Suzy Siegle (2m 31s):

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as all people probably answer this, we make so many as leaders and we learn from them and there's probably a lot, but one comes immediately to mind and it was not that long ago, you know, where are we now? 2023. It was probably back in 20 13, 20 14. I was working in a different institution. So prior to when I came here and it was a great institution. You know, we had two campuses. One was in Michigan, one was in Wisconsin. And because of the two campus structure, our president was in Wisconsin. And then we had a campus c e o in, in Michigan. And I'm sharing all that because it lays the context. So there was one time we were talking about building out an entrepreneurship program. And that's a passion of mine.

Suzy Siegle (3m 11s):

I absolutely love working with entrepreneurs, especially student entrepreneurs and business and technology. And that's why I love Walsh so much. And so we were talking about that and, and the president kind of was talking to me a little bit about a role that, you know, I could do, I could help out with. And we talked about this at one of our strategic planning retreats. And then I wrote a follow-up email to him with some thoughts and just, he's since retired, by the way. He's fabulous president, just a great relational person. But I write this follow up email and I'm kind of embarrassed to say it was probably if you printed it like two pages. Okay. And I'm a lawyer so we can, we can write, right? And that's why it's like, oh, it's almost funny, my book, just in case anybody's worried, it's not even 200 pages. So I joke that I can write an email longer than the book, but yeah.

Suzy Siegle (3m 55s):

Yeah. So I write this long email, so excited sharing all these ideas, thanking him for allowing me to kind of play in this amazing entrepreneurial sandbox. And I'm so excited and I Thank you so much. And here's another idea. And I copied our campus president, a c e o on it at the time. It was a great guy and we're still friends and colleagues we talked to this day. He is very supportive. And he came from the business world, obviously, where you're laser your bullet focus, right? You would never send this like dissertation, right? And I'm coming a little bit more from the academy where we're a little more feeler and qualitative and he, he writes to me something, or if he wrote or he called me and he said, don't you ever send the president of an organization that long of an email again, that was totally inappropriate.

Suzy Siegle (4m 40s):

And they're like, oh, I know right now. Now this is a great guy. He's so direct. In fact, I'll just say his name 'cause he's probably gonna see this. I'm gonna send it to him, Kurt. So Thank you, Kurt, for being, for being on here. And he'll laugh. So, and, and like I just had all these reactions and first of all, he was a hundred percent right. It was too long. And it was a great lesson for me to learn at that point in my career to say, okay, you know, and now the president didn't mind getting it. 'cause I just know he, that type of person. But he was so busy, he gets so many emails. So he literally said this to me and I remember thinking, oh, it's like a gut punch. Okay. Like, how could, I mean, I, I was so excited. I put so much thought into this. And it's like, okay. So I remember thinking two things. One, I was so grateful he said it because it was like many times people don't let you do that.

Suzy Siegle (5m 23s):

They let you continue on in an error in your career. And that has served me well because even though I continue to write long emails, I'm much better at it. I bullet point it and I, and I've had to refine it. But here's why this was my favorite. At the same time, I remember saying to myself, if I'm ever in a leadership position, even if it is a president role. So I didn't even foresee that at the time. And somebody took the time like me to send this long note. I would never react that way. I wanna make sure that I would hold space for that. So fast forward to maybe four months ago, literally like four months ago, maybe actually, you know, it would've been in 2023. So early January, our incredible director of enrollment that we have at Walsh College reaches out to myself and to our chief operating officer with an idea she has to take the team out to celebrate what was a really good hardworking semester.

Suzy Siegle (6m 14s):

And she wrote this long email and it went through the theory behind it and how excited she was to be part of the team and her vision. And I immediately remembered, this is me,

Suzy Siegle (6m 24s):

And I wrote her back, and I'll say her name. I said, Abby Thank you so much for taking the time to thoughtfully write this note. I read it twice. I'm so grateful for you. And I shared this story with her. And the reason I did was I wanted her to know this was that full circle moment. But also the feedback is it works for me at, in business, we should probably follow Kurt's advice and assume that not everybody is like us. So I just, I share that because we talk a lot about obviously diversity and having people feel included in the conversation. And those mean much broader things and much deeper things Of course. But it's also how we communicate and work with people one-on-one. So it was My, Favorite, Mistake. 'cause it was literally, I had this sort of harbinger of the future.

Suzy Siegle (7m 5s):

Like if I'm in a leadership role, I'm, I'm not gonna do that. 'cause I remember what it felt like. And at the same time, I'm so grateful to Kurt that he had the, you know, the, the wisdom and the leadership to say, Hey, let me check this.

Mark Graban (7m 17s):

Yeah. Wow. Oh, there's a lot. I mean, I love, I love the story and there's a, there's a lot to unpack and, and dive into around that. I, all of that. I mean, you, you described and you said Kurt had sent an email with the, don't you ever do that again? Or did

Suzy Siegle (7m 35s):

I forget if it was an email? I mean, it wasn't exactly like that, but it was like, you never send a president that long of an email. I think it was, I think it was an email that he sent because he, he, he was on the email chain. I think he responded and said something to that effect

Mark Graban (7m 49s):

Because I was, I was wondering, did you have a chance to actually talk about it at all? Yes. Or did you think like, okay, duly noted, life goes on, career goes on? Or, or was, was there a conversation with Kurt?

Suzy Siegle (8m 2s):

No, Kurt was very good. He had open door policy. I, I mean, again, this was years ago, but I remember we did talk it through and it was a much broader conversation too, because it was definitely a change in the direction of the college at that point. Although now it's very entrepreneurial what they're all doing over there. But, you know, I think we definitely sat down and we, we talked about it and, and he was clear. He said, you know, the president of an organization doesn't have time to read two page emails from you. Especially this was the president of two big campuses, right? Sure, sure. And he's like, you gotta be more laser, you know, and, and it was just a good piece of feedback. I'll tell you, there was a part of me though that just thought, yeah, but you know, how could he not have time? I mean, if you have a person that's so on fire about a initiative or a mission, you gotta make the time.

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