167: How to Stop Losing Great People: Taresa Scott’s "Bleuprint" for Onboarding, Culture, and Manager Growth

Holly Owens (00:00.835)
Hello everyone and welcome to EdUp L &D. My name is Holly Owens and I'm your host and I'm smiling right now because Taresa Scott is here and I'm excited. We were just laughing before so we're joyous to be here, right Taresa?

Taresa Scott (00:16.39)
Yes, that's probably an understatement. don't... We're just vibing right now.

Holly Owens (00:19.663)
Yeah. Well, you, yeah, you've been on the show before, so it's really, it's really exciting to have you back and see you what you've been out to that episode. I don't know. It's a while ago. It's like probably a year ago. I don't know. Yeah.

Taresa Scott (00:33.87)
I think it was like a year. We might be somewhere around that 12 month mark. yeah, it's really timely.

Holly Owens (00:39.371)
Yeah, like summer. Yeah, we have a summertime vibe going on. So that's good. Well, welcome back. But for those of the listeners who don't know you, I'd love for you to reintroduce yourself. Talk about what you do at Bleuprint, your journey and everything. We love to share stories here on EdUpLND. So tell us all about you.

Taresa Scott (00:43.667)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (01:01.0)
Yeah, no, first and foremost, Holly, thank you for having me back. Like this is kind of like my jam kind of being able to be in the space of talking about learning, geeking out and just exploring all the things. yeah, to clarify, of course, my name is Taresa. I am the founder of Bleuprint. And at a very high level, what we do is we help organizations leverage learning.

Holly Owens (01:14.241)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (01:24.252)
as their employee retention strategy. So when you think about those strategic onboarding experiences, when you start in day one in a new role in your current company or even a new role to the brand new company as a whole, we're in charge of really developing that experience. Another area really is...

Holly Owens (01:40.545)
Yeah, because onboarding sucks. Onboarding sucks. I'm not gonna lie, it still sucks, Theresa, even after you've been working as long as you have on this stuff.

Taresa Scott (01:48.362)
Know it you know it's going out a lot you know and it's so funny because when my clients engagement of this first thing said Taresa It's bad. We know we're not doing it. Well

Holly Owens (01:56.205)
Yeah. That's okay. I'm happy they admit that. That's hard to admit. Like when you have flaws, it's hard to admit. So I'm happy they admitted that. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I just had to say that out loud.

Taresa Scott (02:01.991)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (02:06.417)
Yeah, no, you're fine. So we are on board as one piece. Another area is leadership development. I like to do a little spin on leadership development really from the middle manager standpoint, because again, when we talk about employee retention, the middle level managers, the frontline managers, those are the ones who are doing the groundwork and they they are the reason that your employees stay or they leave. So a lot of our leadership development is sitting around the middle level managers.

And then last but not least, just department based skills. So you think about, you know, I've been at this company two years in IT, what does it look like for me to go into marketing? What does it look like for me to go to HR in these other areas of the business? So a little bit of department skill, skill path, but also even career path thing so you can grow within that organization. So at that point, we're talking about internal mobility. So as a whole, we are really your fractional learning and development partner, really helping to take these organizations from A to Z.

and just ultimately take and turn off their plate because they realize that at this point they cannot do it themselves.

Holly Owens (03:08.619)
It is a lot of work people. mean, when we were in person, it was a little bit different. You get to spend time with people, you know, like sitting across the table and like, but still you would do like a whole day of orientation and I would come out of that day feeling exhausted and like I didn't process anything, you know, and with a lot of our sectors roles being remote, like onboarding is the most, I feel like it's the most important piece because again, like you're saying like,

introduces you to the culture, the people, like how things operate there. And if it's bad, it's going to leave a bad taste in an employee's mouth for long time.

Taresa Scott (03:47.722)
Yeah, because when I sit down with CEOs and HR exec, was the first thing I say is what is your brand story? And they kind of look at me like what we're talking about learning development, but I'm like, yes Yeah, I'm like, but it's so important to tell that story like you got somebody coming to your business brand new Get them excited about working here. They have they accepted the offer but give them a reason to stay that emotional connection runs much deeper than just that check because they can get a check from anywhere

Holly Owens (03:54.895)
They know it, we don't know it.

Holly Owens (04:10.66)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (04:15.242)
But what is your story? What is your history? What are your values? What do you, what resonates with me and my core values? You know, how can I, how's the work I do really make an impact? What do you value me? You know, what were the opportunities even from their understanding the story, do it in my confidence, even do this job well, you know, there's, there's so many little pieces, even in that onboarding process, they get skipped. want to say, okay, all right, come in. All right. There's the bathroom. Here's your manager.

Holly Owens (04:22.051)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (04:28.375)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (04:44.308)
We talk on Slack and then that's it. And then the lucky ones, may get a mentor, but then a lot of times, you know, if you think about that mentor, for lack of better words, it's almost the blonde leading the blonde because who trained them coming through the door? You know, are they, they're guiding this new person coming into the business, but are they even doing the job effectively? Like you may say you expect the job to be done.

Holly Owens (04:44.751)
Right, right.

Taresa Scott (05:07.866)
X Y Z and they might do X a D G You know and they're in there teaching somebody Yes, so and I talk about this from Personal experience when I talk to my clients and we sit down we have real conversation This is what is happening and they're like, yeah, we know Or if they don't know per se when you start getting

Holly Owens (05:13.007)
That is so true. my gosh, yes.

Taresa Scott (05:32.778)
What I do, I talk to a lot of the people in the business. I want to hear again, real world experience. What's really happening here. We start talking to employees and understanding their actual experience versus what the executives and CEOs really think. Oh, that that's where we're really able to bridge that gap. And again, to your earlier point, it's a lot of work. we're in a lot of times that these conversations, this information to be gathered is just being skipped in the process to really create. That's why I emphasize experiences because it's not just checking about

Holly Owens (05:58.34)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (06:02.634)
Okay, come on in. Let's just go down the list. know, this is your job. This is your manager. This is your point of contact, those types of things. Let's really get into the nitty gritty of what does Wright look like to do this job very well and be successful, actually.

Holly Owens (06:15.183)
30, 60, 90 day post that 30, 60, 90 day plan, six months, 12 months, know, like lay all that stuff out from the beginning. I think because it becomes, you know, like it becomes a mess of like trying to figure out like what you're supposed to actually be doing at the company. And as you were talking, I was thinking about, I know I'm not gonna stick on all oar boarding, but I have have a thorn in my side with oar boarding and a lot of different companies. And one of the things that,

you mentioned is that, you know, like getting to know the company and what they're really about. And I was thinking like, you know, how come, how do you feel about this? Let me ask you a question. How do feel about this? Companies say, and I say this in some of my job postings too, if I'm hiring somebody, somebody that's ready to hit the ground running. So to me, that indicates like there's gonna be no or very little onboarding.

Taresa Scott (06:57.78)
talk to you.

Holly Owens (07:12.163)
So when you hear people say they really need to bring in people already with the experience and they just need to be able to do the job, how do you approach that sort of situation?

Yeah, that's a tough one.

Taresa Scott (07:24.808)
You know, that it is a tough one because I remember in the past, even with organizations at a certain level, I've been lied to on the initial saying, okay, I'm going to hit the ground running. So what type of support do I have? What are your goals? What are your plans? What resources do you have? And I said, well, we have, we have this intranet and we're willing to support you and all these different things. And then you really get into it. You start asking questions, you start leaning on people, you start looking for resources and it's not factual. And so.

Holly Owens (07:39.076)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (07:53.186)
Everybody disappears too.

Taresa Scott (07:55.046)
Yes, and everyone's going to go ghost. And in the moment, something goes quote unquote wrong or not to the expectations, which, by the way, they never communicate what those were. They're looking at you like, you can't do your job. And so what I would almost say is. Yeah, just the same as you go into an interview and they give you a lot of scenario based questions, I would absolutely give that interview the same same sort of scenario based questions. OK, you hit the ground running.

Holly Owens (08:08.067)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (08:24.83)
So if I hit the ground running and I say I want to do X, Y, Z and plan, I start distributing to this group of people and it doesn't go to plan, how would you react? You know, I would start framing scenarios to get a feel because as an educator, we have to learn to read between the lines. And even still, again, you can always be lied to, but I think interviewing the interviewee,

Holly Owens (08:43.086)
Yep.

Taresa Scott (08:48.458)
in a lot of areas or consulting, wherever you want to call it, having these conversations, that's just what is a conversation at the end of the day to ask these questions about the what if, because that's that, they want to know what if, what do you want to do? Well, what are you going to do? You know.

Holly Owens (09:03.695)
Yeah, right. I want wholeheartedly agree and I always tell people because there's so much anxiety surrounding the interview process and the onboarding process. I'm like during the interview, I'm like, this is just you interviewing them just as much as they're interviewing you. You are scoping them out and checking them out just as much because I think people go into these conversations and they're like, oh my gosh, I need a job, I need money. I just have to, I'm just going to have to acclimate to

what they say and give the correct answers and use the correct jargon and all that stuff and then they get into the wrong they're like no like i made a mistake

Taresa Scott (09:42.984)
You know, I found to have, I always say elevate yourself. You know, at the end of the day, we work as a whole because we need money. We have to take care of our families. want to do whatever achieve, whatever goals we have as monetary. But I do think that we always bring value to the table. Whether it's starting a new, you have transferable skills, whether you've had the skills for the last five or 10 years, you bring value to the table. And I think it's important to understand what you're walking into because yes, you need that role. But if 90 days down the line,

it goes out the window, you've wasted your time and you could have been going into another interview for a company that better align and that was better supportive of what you needed. And so, you know, going into the wrong situation in 90, 90 days or 120 days, you'd be back in a situation that you thought you were exiting from. So I think it's

Holly Owens (10:28.527)
and then you're back looking for a job and it's a hustle and it's hard and it's burnout consistently. So don't do that.

Taresa Scott (10:35.834)
It is. think personally, elevate your language, elevate how you show up. I think it's so important to even let a person interview you asking you those quote unquote hard questions. I support you ask them back because if you find yourself in a where they're getting stumped, they don't have answers, then you can make a more informed decision about is this actually coming for me? Even if they're able to respond, what did they say?

Holly Owens (10:59.565)
Right.

Taresa Scott (11:04.298)
not even just the words alone, body language, tone, know, what words do they use? You know, when we think about, you know, I've seen job descriptions that said, you know, we're looking for a unicorn. Oh, we're family.

Holly Owens (11:15.375)
I use that against them now. I wrote a whole... Did you see my post on like... I'll talk about it in a minute. Go ahead. It's funny.

Taresa Scott (11:23.774)
Nope, but it I did see the post and it's so true because And I bring those I bring those things back to the forefront because I'm not gonna say that that's every single company but if you I've noticed a trend in language and Reality, and so when those type of words are used run Or if or if you don't or if you lean into us a hey, I need this job when if you land that interview

Holly Owens (11:27.235)
Mm-hmm.

Holly Owens (11:44.354)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (11:50.218)
Scenario based questions are going to be your friend Those challenging questions will be your friend because you need to understand. What are you walking into? Because you know you have these certain leaders who think you know, oh You know, we're paying you a check, know We just need we just need somebody in the seat or whatever Whatever their mind frame is you need to cut through that noise and really understand what this what this culture and company could look like you With asking the right questions. You can find out a lot about the organization really quick

Holly Owens (11:53.668)
Yep.

Holly Owens (12:18.957)
Yeah, we are on the same page because I say that to people, people that ask me, they're like, what can I do to stand out or what can I do to, like, what should I be asking? And that's exactly what I tell them. They need to be asking from the get-go, like about the company and the onboarding and, you know, promotions or professional development, all those sorts of things. So you get an idea. Because if company is like, no, we don't do that here, no, we don't do that here, I'm going to say bye.

Taresa Scott (12:19.496)
if you're asking the right questions in those interviews.

Taresa Scott (12:26.762)
You're like, what can we do to

Taresa Scott (12:49.086)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (12:49.261)
And the unicorn thing, so I've used it in the other way. So when I was applying for roles before I got my role at Yellowdig, like I took the unicorn thing and I put it in the chat, I'm like, I just made up a whole like slogan thing about like, I'm the unicorn you're looking for and it had some other stuff in it. it got, that post got some traction on LinkedIn for sure. Because I don't think companies realize like,

Taresa Scott (12:51.508)
Hello?

Holly Owens (13:18.799)
It's not butterflies and rainbows having a job. Like us in the middle to upper middle class or other classes, we're not looking to work for 40 years. We just kind of have to, you know? Like we have to save for retirement, you know? We still want to live our lives. So like looking for a job is just like it's part of the lived experience wherever you may be. But I really don't feel like, we're going to like...

Taresa Scott (13:37.77)
Right.

Holly Owens (13:48.385)
If we didn't have the option, if we had the option not to have quote unquote jobs, I feel like the culture would be a little bit different.

Taresa Scott (13:58.098)
Yeah, you know, it's really, it's interesting because I see a lot of a lot of things around Gen Z in the workplace. And, know, I've had some leaders come to me and say, you know, they don't want to work. They don't want to work. No, that's not the case. Now, because most of them are just calling out the BS that a lot of Gen Y Gen X even later millennials have taken have have just absorbed over years. And the reality is they're just questioning.

Holly Owens (14:13.891)
That's not true.

Holly Owens (14:24.238)
Yep.

Taresa Scott (14:27.102)
Why are things in this fashion? It's simply asking why. And because they're challenging you, they don't want to work. No. You're just uncomfortable now. And I think even, and that's why I emphasize when you talk about wanting to stand out in these interviews, it doesn't hurt to present a healthy challenge because as an educator, that's your job to really be challenging, to bring things to the forefront. People can't grow and develop in the safe zone.

Holly Owens (14:29.625)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (14:35.983)
No. Yep.

Taresa Scott (14:53.48)
So why are we playing it safe in the interview when we're talking to these executives and these leaders? This is the prime time to challenge their thinking because the reality is...

Holly Owens (14:53.774)
No.

Taresa Scott (15:05.639)
So consciously or consciously, people are a mirror of their leaders, even up to the executives. So if the executive team is uncomfortable with this change or this line of questioning, what do think your employees are going to be? So how much work are you really going to get done as a L &D professional? If your executive team won't even respond to it or properly give you a thoughtful answer, and then think about it.

Holly Owens (15:20.323)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (15:25.133)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (15:33.278)
Are they actually going to support you when you go into the business and start asking these hard questions to the employees? You know, it's a domino effect when you really sit down and think about how can we really progress for if, lend a job. again, that those things can weigh so much on your, on your mental. Like, and that is way more costly than missing a check. That has a long-term effect that

Holly Owens (15:37.038)
Go.

Holly Owens (15:40.887)
I love this conversation. Yeah.

Holly Owens (15:59.671)
Yeah, I agree with you.

Taresa Scott (16:02.462)
can take years to recover from depending on the role, the position, and the amount of time that you've really poured into something that's not pouring back into you.

Holly Owens (16:11.469)
Right. Let's talk about the middle management people a little bit. We've talked a lot about onboarding and asking questions. So what do you consider to be like a middle management person and like how, how does blueprint help them?

Taresa Scott (16:14.878)
Yeah

Holly Owens (16:27.543)
you know, up their game or become confident in their skills. like, sometimes I feel like at the beginning of the career, like you're just so naive or oblivious to like actually what the role is to do. You're just trying everything. And then when you're in the middle, it's kind of like you have, there's a little bit more of that expectation that you know what you're doing, but you're not exactly leadership, but you're not entry level. So you're, you're stuck in the middle. So how does, how does a blueprint kind of help with that?

Taresa Scott (16:52.966)
Yeah, so the real focus is almost it's almost like mentorship in a sense because it is it's it's all of those things what you're saying it is Helping you to take a step back To look at things objectively from really elevating yourselves because it can be really challenging to go from an individual contributor where you're worried about your own self To going into a leadership role where now you are focused on not just developing yourself, of your your team not your peers, but your team

Holly Owens (16:58.979)
Love that.

Holly Owens (17:20.651)
Yeah, and doing all your work too.

Taresa Scott (17:23.149)
Yeah, still doing your work. You have a low cut out for you. And so for me, think I look at the team lead all the way up to the director. And even if there's a level above the director, know sometimes there's like a, what is it? Yeah, senior vice president. Yeah, because a lot of those levels are really, close to that frontline employee. So they're leaning on you. You know, that if you have somebody come in and say, hey, can you approve my time off?

Holly Owens (17:35.979)
executive vice president or senior vice president or something like that.

Taresa Scott (17:49.866)
You're responsible for their development, you know? And so it's really helping them think about, you know, communication styles, building positive relationships, really trans trans trans just in your mind from just a leader that's or a delegator to a coach. You know, how can you elevate this person? How can you support this person? And really, because at the end of the day, being a leader is not about having all the questions.

Holly Owens (17:52.298)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Taresa Scott (18:18.45)
It's about being comfortable enough to find the answers. And even speaking of saying, don't know. You know, so.

Holly Owens (18:22.349)
Right. Right. I know somebody that does know though. You hire people smarter than you.

Taresa Scott (18:27.434)
Absolutely and not be intimidated by it.

Holly Owens (18:33.871)
I'm not intimidated anymore. mean, my 20 something year old self would have been intimidated or, and, jealous. My 40 something year old self, all the, know, what's around the window. I want people smarter than me. Yes. Yes.

Taresa Scott (18:45.572)
Look, that's what I call working smarter, not harder. If you, you know, because if you have someone who is, who's willing to raise their hand, bring ideas to the forefront. And my question is, how can I support you? You got some wonderful ideas as a coach. Let me support this initiative. Have you thought about doing X? I really liked this idea. Have you thought about doing X as well? Okay, great. Well, what can I do to help you get this to the forefront? Who are you trying to do this with? Is it, are you able, is it.

Holly Owens (19:00.375)
Yep.

Taresa Scott (19:15.882)
Can you manage this with your existing coursework? Do you need any support for launching this initiative? How can I help you? Those are what I call low-lift, high-impact things that really can make a difference for your team members to feel seen, valued, and heard. But these are mindset shifts, though. These are real mindset shifts that we really help these mid-level managers to really develop.

Holly Owens (19:19.053)
Right.

Taresa Scott (19:39.894)
And until your earlier point, I you mentioned like, you know, when we were in person, you know, you're going to have a all day workshop. You walk out like, OK, what do do with that? You you're pumped. You got these documents. really, goal is to really take it piece by piece over time using a 70, 20, 10 model to learning. So whether it's over a period of 12 weeks, 12 months is really going incrementally to say, OK, these are key skills to build this week.

Let's talk about practical ways you can apply it in the workplace. I give you a little homework that you can apply for reflection and apply into your world of work. And then we'll come back into the classroom again. It's done an hour at a time. very, yeah, so it's very digestible.

Holly Owens (20:18.499)
That's how it goes. And you're always trying to figure out the formula, right? Like you need an indigestible format so you can sit down and like, just sit with it. Like I feel like nowadays, especially in a corporate culture, we don't get the amount of time we need to actually absorb the information and process it and figure out where does that fit into what I'm doing.

Taresa Scott (20:24.776)
Yes.

Taresa Scott (20:40.338)
Yeah, you know, it's strange because like in corporate America, we treat learning like it's an event, right? Like it's a big game there. All right, let's go into the game. Now go and work and then we don't come back to it for six months. yeah, and the reality is we're constantly growing involved in the world has changed so fast. You know, when AI, you know, really came into the work with the workplace, it's been evolving ever since.

Holly Owens (20:51.647)
Yeah, or when when somebody emails us else we have to take this training the security training. Yeah

Holly Owens (21:06.297)
Yeah, it wasn't out when we talked last. It wasn't out when we...

Taresa Scott (21:09.618)
It has been evolving ever since like there's so many new platforms and developments and ways that you can use it like even a single platform is chat GBT has about what four or five version at the versions at this point, so that's continuously learning and so even if you think about athletes 80 % of the time is on the field training and the other 20 is performing but the workplace is reversed they feel like 80 % should be performing 20 % should be training, but you're not How can we?

Holly Owens (21:15.364)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (21:37.674)
sustainably grow this business if we're not continuing to learn how to evolve with it. Your industry is constantly changing. So many things are constantly changing around you. Why do executives and leaders not think that learning is not just as important to be done on a continuous basis? And so that's really our focus to bridge that gap on having a continuous way to learn to adapt. as you're setting your big goals for 2025 or 2026,

Holly Owens (21:44.174)
Yeah.

Taresa Scott (22:06.238)
Where does learning come in the middle to say, okay, we want to increase sales by X, Y, and Z in this particular product. We want to improve our net promoter score by this amount for customer service. You know, just we talk about employer retention, happy employees leads to happier clients for higher client retention. There's so many ways to weave in that ROI.

Holly Owens (22:25.199)
Yep. Like we make it so complex in our heads. It's really simple.

Taresa Scott (22:33.214)
It's like It's it to me. It's like if we if we put it in the flow of work That's why I emphasize the flow of work because again, it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to take a whole lot of time It doesn't have to be you know, doesn't have to be just one time a year twice a year It can be something just as incrementally as an hour a week or 30 You know as long as it is meaningful relevant and digestible You can make such an impact

Holly Owens (22:53.955)
Right.

Taresa Scott (23:01.418)
by being consistent with it. You know, I've actually had several articles I've published in the last several weeks around consistent learning for change management alone. But I think about all these things when you ask, know, how do we help is putting into a flow, making it relevant, making it meaningful and helping again, professionals to apply because

Holly Owens (23:12.527)
We'll share those in the show notes.

Taresa Scott (23:30.676)
The biggest thing that I'm finding with organizations is that they're either really good at providing information like a ton of content, but a lot of times what happens is once they get that content, they still don't know how to help their people to apply it. So it still goes out the window. So we're helping them to blend the two worlds of content, learn, adapt, and apply. Learn, adapt, and apply.

So again, it's not just knowledge, it's just being absorbed and squeezed out like a sponge is actually being absorbed. then this is how we can apply it at work. This is how we can apply it to your role. This is how we can apply it in these different scenarios. So that's the goal of how we really operate. So when we talk about strategically, sustainably, that's really where we show up to really, again, the rubber meets the road so it can take off right now.

Holly Owens (23:58.094)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (24:09.785)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (24:23.247)
Gosh, I know that you said it so well. I don't even need to comment or say anything. I don't even need, you know, we have a lot of people, we're already almost done with the episode. See, this is what we do with each other. We have such a good time. goes by. Imagine if we live closer to each other, because I'm in Wilmington, North Carolina now. So now I'm not that close, not really. But yeah, I know.

Taresa Scott (24:38.346)
I can't hear what

Taresa Scott (24:49.362)
I know, because I'm out here in Dallas, Texas, so we got a bit of a drive, where we can meet in the middle? we can work something out.

Holly Owens (24:53.257)
Yeah, just, yeah, that would be so much fun. I didn't realize you've worked for eBay, AT &T, Dave and Busters. You've done the gambit pretty much in your career. You've been involved in ATD, DirecTV. I was just looking at your LinkedIn and I forgot. lots of people in our audience are looking to jump into learning development, especially transitioning teachers.

Taresa Scott (25:21.674)
Mm-hmm.

Holly Owens (25:22.647)
So if you had to give like three pieces of advice to them as a takeaway from this episode on what they could do and now you're you and your own company you're doing your thing and you have been for about six seven years what would you say to them as they're transitioning maybe into like to work for somebody or to work for themselves either way?

Taresa Scott (25:42.014)
You know, I would say, think about your transferable skills because, now I won't pretend as if I've been in the classroom education space, but I've been in the corporate classroom before. And what I would say is, know, think about some ways that you've been able to really engage and connect and really help your students to learn new skills and talk about it. Yeah, and then ask yourselves, you know,

Holly Owens (25:47.064)
Yeah.

Holly Owens (25:56.686)
Right.

Holly Owens (26:08.015)
That's great advice. Yeah.

Taresa Scott (26:12.71)
What are some areas you feel like you would really enjoy? Like for a long time, it took me a while to really niche down because I'm like, man, you know, I really enjoy doing, you know, this industry and that industry. But then I thought about the work I actually did. It was very customer centric. I really, even with this been branding, marketing, onboarding department based, it's all around good customer service. And a lot of times people think customer service is just, know,

a business to a consumer, but it's even being a good customer internally. If I'm in learning and development and I work with marketing, how can I be a good customer to marketing or a good client to marketing, vice versa? And so for me, I really love being in those areas because it's all about good communication, good collaboration and teamwork. So for me, it's been able to really communicate what I really enjoy, how I show up best.

Holly Owens (26:48.622)
Yep.

Holly Owens (27:11.243)
Yeah. So you.

Taresa Scott (27:12.106)
Because we can do a lot of It can be so dynamic. So I say, you know, think about those experiences when you've really been able to help you help engage your students, level them up and really see their development grow. Then also, what would be some areas that you're really passionate about? if no matter what, yeah, yeah, I'm going to flip it down. Like what would that thing be that's like, you know what, if I think back to a couple of projects or a few things that I did.

Holly Owens (27:29.465)
That's where the niche part comes. Yeah.

Taresa Scott (27:40.522)
did enjoy x area. And I would say get clear on those things first. Because as you apply to roles and you look into these different companies, you'll start to do a little research and kind of see, is this somewhere I can see myself? Do I want to do instructional design for health care? Or do I want to do instructional design for automotive or for restaurants or retail? It can really help you to get a little bit clearer and kind of niche down in your role and focus.

Same thing even if you're starting looking to start your own freelance or consultancy. Again, same thing. Who do you want to support? I think when we identify our who and our expertise, then everything else becomes a little bit clearer along down that path. So that's my big, big take away I'll provide to anyone that's thinking about this.

Holly Owens (28:30.819)
Yeah, I think that's great. Great advice. Thinking about your transferable skills, niching it down, about what you're passionate about with that. And then you also mentioned communication. How do you communicate that as well to the role you're potentially going to be interviewing for? Also, too, how do you...

in terms of communication, how do you talk about it yourself? How do you talk about yourself? Do you do mock interviews or things like that? Those are three great pieces of advice, Thank you so much. All right, we're coming up on the end of the episode here. Where can people find you? Where do they go? We're obviously gonna have everything that you mentioned, your articles and about you is all gonna be attached to the show notes, but tell us where people can connect with you, learn more about Bleuprint.

Taresa Scott (29:18.762)
I would highly encourage LinkedIn because wrong face when you're in serum But I'll tell you why or we live the most is really on LinkedIn so you can find our company page blue is spelled BLE you so we're little unique in that aspect, but Yeah, so of course connect with us follow us. I said I'm really conscious about putting pushing out newsletters and content. That's really helpful and you know Let's keep it rocking real from there. That's how we're sharing the love so connect with us there

Holly Owens (29:31.021)
Yup. B-L-E-U.

Holly Owens (29:44.899)
Good, LinkedIn.

Yeah, LinkedIn world is where it's at for sure nowadays in the professional space. I mean, we like, you know, I use Facebook and Instagram too, but that's more for like pop culture type related stuff. We're seeing what my family's up to like LinkedIn's where it's at. I will die on that hill. will die on that hill. hill. Yeah.

Taresa Scott (29:59.529)
Yeah.

Yeah, that's definitely amazing. But if you're in the corporate space, that's just where it makes sense, you know?

Holly Owens (30:11.567)
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, before we wrap up, Facebook tried to do like a professional thing recently and I accidentally clicked on it. And my grandmother was my grandmother was like, she's like, why? What is this professional thing you're doing on Facebook? was, no, I was just looking at it. I didn't mean to click on it. But, know, like the other companies are seeing the value of that, like what's happening on LinkedIn. So they're kind of trying to figure out a way to get in that game, too, I guess.

Taresa Scott (30:34.857)
Hmm.

Taresa Scott (30:41.45)
And you know, and I've seen a lot of chatter about, know, even your Instagram posts, like your, like the, the captions are feeding over to Google for SEO. So I see, yeah. So the social platforms, they're really trying to beef it up. So I guess they're seeing, you know, a lot of people like content creators and things are posting out there. mean, not saying, not saying it's wrong. I just, I also learned early too, that if you're starting something out, that if you try to be everywhere, you'll bring yourself out. So.

Holly Owens (30:49.496)
Yeah.

Wow.

Holly Owens (31:10.639)
100%.

Taresa Scott (31:10.908)
As you build it, pick one platform, go with it, you can always, another piece of advice. So, you know, pick one platform and go with it, build it, nurture it for a while. And then you can even scale it up from there and then add some additional ones on. So that's my last, that's my last takeaway.

Holly Owens (31:13.561)
Bonus piece of advice. Bonus piece of advice right there.

Holly Owens (31:28.527)
I love it. That's a great piece of advice as well. Well, Taresa, thank you so much for coming back on the show. I really enjoyed having you again and I hope we do this again soon and have fun. Everything about Taresa and Bleuprint is going to be in the show notes, so go there, check it out and follow them on LinkedIn.

Taresa Scott (31:44.414)
Yeah, thank you for having me. See you next time.

Holly Owens (31:46.443)
Of course! Bye!