Episode 59: Leilani Quiray
Join Lori and her guest, LeiLani Quiray, as they talk about how for profit businesses can give back to the community. LeiLani is the founder and CEO of Be The Change HR, a human resources consulting firm and conscious company. As a business, how do they contribute a portion of their profits to the cause they support? Stay tuned!
Here are the things to expect in this episode:
Learning from a young age that it’s important to give back.
Volunteering is a great way to connect with people and learn new things.
Every single one of us can be a philanthropist!
How can for-profit businesses incorporate philanthropy in their work?
And much more!
Here are the things to expect in this episode:
What does it mean to be a conscious company?
Keeping your passion at the center of what you do.
How does she incorporate philanthropy into her business? Does her team align with her purpose?
And much more!
Connect with LeiLani!
Website: https://bethechangehr.org/
Email: leilani@bethechangehr.org
Organizations mentioned:
Working Wardrobes: https://www.workingwardrobes.org/
Rebirth Homes: https://www.rebirthhomes.com/
Free To Thrive: https://www.freetothrive.org/
Connect with Lori Kranczer!
Website: https://www.linkphilanthropic.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorikranczer/
Episode Transcript
00:09
You're listening to the positive impact philanthropy podcast where we share the journeys of everyday Philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into the lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey and through the stories we will share here. We hope that it sparks something in you. How you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host, Lori Kranczer attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy giving strategist. Together we're going to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist. And make a positive impact in the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode. Posted on Wednesdays, now today we have Leilani Quiray. She's the founder and CEO of Be The Change HR welcome Leilani.
00:54
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
00:56
Oh, it's our pleasure. So why don't you tell our listeners more about you?
01:02
Oh man, me. I am a huge adventurer. Let's lead with that first. I'm a mountaineer. I'm currently training for a half Ironman, and I'm also a business owner. I lead and run Be The Change HR. It's a human resources consulting firm and conscious company.
01:18
Okay, so tell us what that means about a conscious company?
01:21
Totally. So I'll kind of rewind and take you back to why I started this business. And so people change HR when I started and I was like I want to do HR and philanthropy under one roof. I didn't know anything about business. But I figured I would just learn as I go. And so when I started it, I wanted it to be a conscious company, a company that was a for profit business that gave back to the community. If you fast forward to today we're in our fifth year of business. I'm super, super proud of that because anyone who has a business knows how hard it is to run a business and keep it going and keep it successful. And today what we do is there's 13 of us here total, and we do human resources consulting of course and on the other side myself and everyone on his team. We teach Job Readiness courses and do one on one job readiness coaching to individuals who have been rescued from sex trafficking, and those coming out of homelessness. And so when I say a conscious company, it's a for profit business that dedicates a a good portion of its its profits to help that type of cause.
02:29
Okay, so let's go through that a little bit. Because I know a lot of our listeners are in the same situation. They want to have a business or they're running a business but they want to incorporate something philanthropic or giving back within the structure of their business. So share a little bit about how you structured yours like is it proceeds, like revenue that you're providing? It sounds like you're providing services as well. So what does that look like and how did you decide what to do?
02:57
Yeah, I like fast forwarded from day one into year five because honestly, and I speak about this a lot on like public stages like how do you even do that? There's not there's you know, they're in business school like they teach you a certain thing, but there's no real formula for what a social enterprise is or a social entrepreneur does and so you kind of fumble and figure it out as you go. And so when I talk about how do you do these things, I start first with your purpose. If you are, if you're blessed enough to actually know what that is. Or maybe you're just really passionate about something. Maybe it's, you know, animals, maybe it's children, maybe it's you know, eradicating the world from a certain type of disease, then you know, okay, that's what I want to focus on, and make that kind of the mission and goal of everything that you do. So for me, you know, in my late 20s, I had this calling that I wanted to help those who were trafficked or those in the sex industry. And so I started by volunteering at organizations that helped individuals in those situations. And then when I finally was at the point in my career where I could start my own business, that's what I did, right as I go, I'm gonna do these two things under one roof and I'm just gonna figure it out. So there I just had a meeting with my team yesterday. I said, There's no magical unicorn math fairy that will tell you how, like number wise, to do this. And so as I've gone along, and as I've understood how my business operates, and paying attention to that p&l and all of our financials and what keeps us healthy, we've landed on one to 2%. Again, I'm still in this phase of figuring it out at a solid number, because we're toggling right? I'm watching all my financials. I'm watching what our gross profit percentages, and then I'm seeing what can we contribute? That won't make our business unhealthy, but we're still serving the purpose and so right now we are between one and 2% of our top line revenue goes to these efforts. And so we make sure that within the month, we are hitting the numbers that equal that and what is hitting the numbers mean for us? It is so inside my organization, people are paid for their time to do this right to do the job coaching and the classes. And so we take that formula of what the labor costs in order to do that and then factor it into what percentage of the top line revenue that is, and that's how we landed on the one to 2%. So that's how we do that piece. And for anyone thinking about it, I just say just start with your purpose. I think if you just go with the thing, I mean, it's the thing you're passionate about, I
05:26
totally believe you can change the world, the little world
05:30
that you're in and as you change that little world that you're in and make impact around you. Those people make impact around themselves. And that's how we really do incite change and so just go after the thing you're passionate about. I also say no idea is too crazy. So if you want to say I want to eradicate the world from sex trafficking, that's fine. I'm just going for it and making as much impact as I can with my business and with the money that we have.
05:53
So, so there's a lot in there. So I want to go back into your 20s when you first identified with the issue that you wanted to support or eradicate, right. Where did that come from? Yeah, that's
06:06
always a really good question. So I never like go into the actual details of what happened because it comes from a very personal place. Typically our purpose will come from a very personal place. And so in my 20s, my early 20s I went through a lot of hardship, I hit rock bottom rock bottom, oh my gosh, so so so many times. And so when I finally came to a turning point where I said, you know, I'm as soon as I feel healthy enough, I'm going to turn around and kind of the visual of reaching your, you know, the stairs and the ladder and as you climb, you turn around and you reach out a helping hand to pull those up with you. And so that's where that came from when I finally felt like okay, you know, I can do this. So I worked with an organization called Working wardrobes out of Orange County. They help individuals in all kinds of walks of life by teaching them job readiness skills, I volunteered there and so when I would teach classes to women in all kinds of different situations, domestic violence coming into homelessness, those who are have gotten over addiction issues. I mean, you sex trafficking, you name it. I would stand in front of a class of women, I would say, I know what it's like to be where you're at. And I know what it's like to climb out of a deep, dark place. And I always I always get a look like what like what happened to you. And I'm like that's, that's like my personal story. To tell if I ever want to tell it. But that's where it comes from. Because I know what it's like to come from dark dark places from rock bottom from absolutely nothing and I mean really a negative nothing to get, you know, to a certain stage. And so in my journey, you know as I moved along, like I knew at one point, I was just going to help individuals.
07:53
Yeah, philanthropy is such a personal thing. And it like you mentioned before, there's no right or wrong, what you want to support. It has to do with your values. A lot of it is our identity and how things happen to us in our lives that help shape that so many people that we interview here on the podcast, talk about things that happened to them in their childhood, people that were instrumental to them and inspire them can you think like looking back, maybe it was in your 20s when you were going to this and volunteering? Were there any particular people that joined you on that journey that inspired you?
08:35
I feel like this. I feel shy to give this answer. But I'm going to anyway because it’s the truth and yes so that person is me, you know so I'll give you a little like a little bit of my journey. You know, I battled some serious mental health issues. I you know, I'm a survivor of suicide. I'm a former drug addict Gemma flora, you know, alcoholic like all this stuff. I've climbed out of and so there's a lot of gratitude that I have for who I was then and who I am now and all the steps that I took along the way. It wouldn't have happened without my family not leaving me during those time periods and the friends that stuck by me. There's not one specific person except myself of like, you know it at that time. I remember saying this because I'm 42 now. So at that time, I remember just like holding on for dear life thinking there's something that I meant for so much more. And I kept saying to myself, you just can't be so hot when you're 40 you're going to be hot when you that's what I would say in my 20s like it's gonna be okay. And so there's a lot of times I'll just sit and I feel like I'm gonna tear up and total gratitude of like, I just hung in there. I just needed to hang in there for a handful of years to get past what I needed to. Because now where I'm at now, it's a beautiful place like the type of impact that I get to make within my organization and the stuff that we do and then the fact that I just I'm just a happy person that I've done all this work to get where I'm at today both personally and professionally. You know, I'm very grateful for hanging in there and sticking around.
10:08
Well, I think we're all grateful Leilani I've met you several times and every time it our listeners should know this every time I speak with her she's in a different place of the world. Essentially she when she says she's an adventurer is absolutely true. And she's got some great stories. Let's talk about your team also, because many times when we're working on building our business and incorporating philanthropy, we have a team also and they have their own identity and values. So how do you share your purpose and work it in with the business that you have with what your team may feel?
10:42
Easy and difficult at the same time. So when you start a business or when you bring on employees I would really identify what your core values are, right? And there's all sorts of wonderful books out there that can help you figure that out. We have four common, caring, reliable and fun. So when I interview the first two rounds of interviews before I bring before I I have knockout questions, those are the questions that you asked so you have to have these required pieces. So I don't look at their resume until interview number three. The first two are only based on core values and do they live these values because typically people's values don't change. And so I bring people into this organization that have the same values as the organization does. And part of it is a huge piece of talking about, you know, volunteerism and making an impact in the world and making sure that they have a passion for that as well. On top of that, the one type of professional that is best suited to teach people how to get a job as an HR professional. So really they come already with that type of knowledge and experience because we teach these classes about how to write a resume, how to interview, they're very one on one, right this is what a header looks like. This is what a summary is. So an HR professional, I don’t have to teach them that they already know that stuff. So it's really the value alignment. So I just encourage anyone whether you already have employees, or you're thinking about hiring them, really focus on what your core values are. And always, always, always hire to your core values. And then anything you do in your organization, ask yourself, are we living our core values in doing x this thing, whatever it is, whether it's picking the benefits whether it is your how you're treating employees, like always make sure you go back to your core values.
12:22
Yes, I absolutely agree and it should be completely baked into your business that your employees or potential talent that you hire, should not feel comfortable. Being in an organization that doesn't share their same values and that's okay everyone has a different values. So it is a very important thing to go through and I like that you don't even look at a resume until the third interview that's really interesting. Let's talk more about your giving back within your business and also what you may do personally outside the business if there is anything like that. Are there any organizations that you are either volunteering with or are giving back to in any respect board member anything like that outside of the work?
13:08
Not a board member yet? It's not it's on the horizon, but not yet. know everything. Everything that I focus on is in the business. So of course there's some giving that I do but that's like hey, you know it's a friend running you know, for a marathon or it’s someone raising for you know, a certain organization and so I’ll always do that. You reach out to me I'm always going to contribute in that way personally, but but I'm so focused on what we do in this organization. And so currently the nonprofits that we support is rebirth Homes out of the Inland Empire in California that helps women who've been rescued from sex trafficking, free to thrive as a legal aid source from those who've been helped from trafficking. We've got Caring Works in Atlanta, Georgia, that is men and women, mostly bipoc homeless men, that we help transition out of homelessness by teaching them those job readiness skills. And then we're currently starting to work with Naomi's house in Chicago. And so those are the ones that we prima- oh and cupcake girls out of Las Vegas. That's my first one duh cupcake girls, helps men and women who are coming out of the sex industry and then those out of sex trafficking.
14:13
So let me ask a follow up question. So all amazing organizations, we're gonna post the links in the show notes so everyone can check them out. What sort of process do you do or have you done when it goes to looking at the organizations you want to support within that issue area?
14:29
It goes both ways, of course, because when you're working with different segments of the population, who, who, who could have like a safety risk and who's working with them just for trauma response or for actual physical safety? I often get my background check brands. Sometimes they're like, can we run it? Yeah, run a background check on me. But what I look for an organization that we can work with, is they can they support working with us because it takes a little bit of you know, you need you need we do everything on Zoom. So you know, having the computers that or being able to share a device. Sometimes we have two people who are working off of a phone through zoom and that's fine, as long as we have a way that we can have an interaction with them, and then they can support having this on a regular basis. The the nonprofits that we work with, we hold these these courses in classes monthly, if not every other month. So we want to keep a regular cadence and have a relationship with them like you would any you know, sort of business relationship. We want to make sure that we have that they can support it, and that we can support it as well our classes are kind of are quite small, and we keep them that way because we want that one on one attention. Also, it feels much safer. If you have someone who's working solely with you or a couple people in that environment, and so we keep them small so we also don't work with we work with small to mid sized nonprofits. And then our classes are typically no more than 10 individuals. And usually we keep a ratio of one HR Pro to every two attendees, so that everyone can get the attention and then ask a lot of times ask the questions and they might feel shy about because our course also will cover information like how to cover gaps in employment. So reasons that people have no business knowing about and you can fill in the blank of whatever that is, or reasons that businesses will find out about because they're going to run a background check.
16:23
Great. Okay, so we're I see that we're getting close to the end of our time. And this has been incredibly informative and inspirational. Leilani Can you share what you consider your legacy to be?
16:37
Yes. You know, finding out my purpose in my late 20s And then starting this business, and the reason why I do a lot of speaking is to to encourage others to be a conscious capitalist. The more money that we make, the more impact that we can have. And so to be successful is an amazing thing because you can make more impact with more dollars. So I just want to be that person that encourages people to continue to do that or to start to do that to be a conscious capitalist to use your money for good.
17:10
Thank you. And so you mentioned a few different places that you're supporting where can people find out more information about you?
17:18
Yeah, you can head to our website be the change hr.org And you can also personally email me, my email is Leilani L-e-i-l-a-n-i at be the change hr.org We can chat about how to be a conscious capitalist or if you need HR professionals, we’re your people. Great. Well,
17:37
thank you so much for joining us and thank you all of our listeners for joining us. We hoped we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in on Wednesdays when new episodes are dropped. And we'd also love to hear your feedback. So leave a comment and a rating about what you like what you'd like to hear more about. Till next time. See you soon.