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Chief Change Officer
#259 Rahshea Cardiff: From Starbucks to Startups—Serving Joy at Work – Part One
00:29:00
What do Starbucks, Microsoft, and happiness have in common? Rahshea Cardiff. In this episode, we sit down with the VP of Partnerships at Happy Companies, who’s not only got the résumé, but the real-life resilience to match. From corporate boardrooms to personal battles—including loss, divorce, and single parenting—Rahshea shares how her toughest moments shaped her biggest breakthroughs.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:57]
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- [01:29]
Indeed Ad
Foreign.
- [01:38]
Vince Chen
Hi everyone. Welcome to our show. Chief Change Officer, I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change, progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world who couldn't use a bit more happiness. This episode and the next dives deep into what it means to find joy and resilience in both work and and life. I'm thrilled to introduce Rishia Cardiff, the VP of Partnerships at Happy Companies. Happy Companies is a venture focused on building happier, healthier workplaces. Rich year brings over 20 years of of experience in people management across major brands like Best Buy, Starbucks and Microsoft, and she's deeply passionate about talent development and employee experience. As we all know, bureaucracy, corporate politics and constant changes like layoffs and digital transformation can make it tough for employees to thrive and survive. Richia herself has navigated intense transitions, leaving a corporate role at Microsoft to pursue entrepreneurship, experiencing the loss of her mother, facing divorce and raising her first child. In this two part series, she shares her journey of resilience, why she joined Happy Companies, and how she's working to enhance employee experience using Technology, but without losing the touch, the human touch. In today's episode, we'll focus on Rishia's personal story and career transitions. On Tuesday, part two, we'll explore her role at Happy Companies and her vision for transforming the workplace, balancing tech innovation with genuine care for people. Let's dive in and find some happiness. Richard welcome to Osho. Welcome to Chief Change Officer. Good evening to you.
- [05:01]
Rashia Cardiff
Good evening. Thank you for having me, Vince. I'm so excited to connect with you this evening and dive into some great, thoughtful discussion. My name is Rashia. I currently serve as VP of Partnerships at Happy Companies and went through some significant life experiences over the past several years that for myself, really placed me in a deeply reflective space in terms of what is my purpose in my time here, what are the intentions and the things that I want to accomplish and the positive impact that I want to have on other people on the world. And then ultimately really positioned me to consider what is most important in life and on this journey. And that positioned me to make some shifts in life. As I reprioritized my family, I reprioritized the things that bring me joy and purpose in my personal life. And going through that journey is then something that cascaded to my career journey and really positioned me to take some different perspectives towards doing meaningful work in the world and really wanting to connect that to the positive impact that I seek to have. So that's just a little bit about that personal and professional journey that I've been on.
- [06:42]
Vince Chen
You spend over 20 years in corporate America with some powerhouse names, Best Buy, Starbucks and Microsoft, all in different industries. Could you walk us through a bit of that journey? How did your role and approach evolve across these big firms, especially since you've always been focused on people management and leadership?
- [07:16]
Rashia Cardiff
Yes, I have so much passion towards people leadership and just as a whole, the people component of teams and organizations. I'm very passionate, you know that people are truly the heart of what propels an organization forward. They are the heart of what propels growth and success. And so that People first ethos has always been a very integrated part of my foundation in leadership. I started out my journey in Best Buy and I was with Best Buy for over a decade in multiple people leadership capacities and ultimately had additional wonderful opportunities within Starbucks. And most recently prior to my journey with Happy, I was with Microsoft for almost a decade. Within each of those opportunities that I've had, I always maintained the mindset that if I put my people first, if I hire the right talent, if I give them a thorough impact structured onboarding experience that sets them up for success. And I then follow that up with consistent talent development, just understanding their individual goals, both personally and professionally, understanding their strengths and the things that they're passionate about. If I kept those things as a priority, and I ensure that anybody within my team truly enjoys coming to work, truly has the opportunity for their talents and passions to have the greatest impact to our clients, to our collective vision and goals, then the results will follow. And really, truly that is what I attribute to the success that I experienced in my corporate career and reasons that I feel I've had such amazing opportunities was really keeping that people first mindset and trusting that the results and the growth would follow. That has ultimately led me to many wonderful chapters in my career. And ultimately that passion is what has connected me to where I'm currently serving in my role with Happy.
- [09:47]
Vince Chen
You've worked at big names like Best Buy, Starbucks and Microsoft, each with their own well defined structure, policies and dare I say, bureaucracy. I can relate because during my 15 years in large corporations, mainly in finance, I experienced a similar environment. On the one hand, as an employee I appreciated the structure, the resources and the weight that comes with a big brand. But when it came to handling people issues, especially from the employees side of things, I often felt disconnected from hr. Many times it felt like they were more focused on enforcing policy rather than truly helping employees. Their KPIs seemed more aligned with executing company policies rather than supporting employee needs. Given your extensive experience in people function within large companies, I'd love to hear how you managed this balance. How did you reconcile your personal passion for putting people first with the reality of representing and implementing firm policies which sometimes don't always feel like they are in the workforces best interest?
- [11:42]
Rashia Cardiff
That's a really great topic to bring to the table Vince, because you're absolutely right. We encounter that in corporate America often and there's a myriad of factors within those situations. But what I will say is things that come to mind within that yes, in corporate America we have that structure, we have those guidelines and there's one thing that was reiterated throughout my career. Fair and consistent. We have to be fair and consistent. While yes, that structure plays a role, right? And it is, it's necessary, it is a necessity in many ways. It's also there's a role of a leader to demonstrate leadership, courage and there are times when that should come into play. And so to provide an example there, if I took over a market and prior to taking over that market, I was informed that these members of the team are currently on performance improvement plans and we would expect that they would likely be making changes soon. Right. And so I came in and I said, I can appreciate that insight. I can appreciate where the process currently is. However, as the new leader coming in, what I will ask for is the opportunity to observe the dynamics and the specific circumstances with these individuals and to gain further insight about their opportunities and then have the opportunity to assess from there. And that's demonstrating leadership courage. And I think it's super important that yes, we have structure and we have policies and they do give us a guideline to work within and by and create those standards to be fair and consistent. But there's also times that a leader needs to exercise discernment and exercise courage in navigating a conversation or a situation. For example, within that story I was sharing, one of those individuals, I sat down. Anytime I take over a team, one of the very first things I do is I schedule one on ones with every single person on my team. And I just seek to understand one more about them as an individual. What are they passionate about? What do they feel their strengths are in their specific areas that they bring superpowers to the team? I like to understand a bit more about their strengths and opportunities and their performance and what plans they may have in place around that. And in general, just get a feel for what's going good. What do we say? This is awesome and we want to keep this going. And what are some of the pain points? What are some of the things that we really need to address and consider making some changes around moving forward. So within having those honest conversations with my team, these two individuals whom I had been shared this information with coming in to take on this team, I had heart to heart with them. We looked over their performance trends, we looked over their deliverables and what had consistently been shown over a specific period of time. One of those individuals was able to really do some great reflection, some deep inward reflection and accept some responsibility in those areas. And said, rashee, if I can have your support, if you and I can develop an action plan moving forward and I can turn this ship around, I would really appreciate that. Because these are the long term goals I have that I'd like to accomplish. And if I have the right leader working with me and the right support, I believe I can still do that. So I said, absolutely, let's make it happen. And just to share, that individual did just that. They turned that ship around. They became one of the top three performers in the nation in their deliverables. And that person is now serving in a corporate management role at our corporate campus. And now on the other token of that, the other individual, it didn't end up being the right fit for them. It just wasn't the right role. And we did ultimately have to take that path. But they ended up making their own decision to find an opportunity that was better suited for them. But within that, you're given the context coming in, you're given the expectation coming in. You know that you need to work within that performance management cycle. But as a leader, you need to exercise that wisdom and discernment and not be afraid to have courageous conversations, even if that means with your upper leadership. And so in those instances, I went to my upper leadership and I said, listen, I would like to sit down and review these two situations with you and provide my perspective and my feedback and then share with you what our plan of action is moving forward. I believe that we can turn this around. You can't shy away from having those conversations again, whether that's peer to peer or that's to your upper leadership. So I think that is sometimes where some challenges come in play of I'm just going to go by the policy or I'm going to go by these steps that were issued to me. Are there times when that's the right process to follow? Absolutely. But are there times where as a leader you need to demonstrate that wisdom and discernment and have courageous conversations?
- [17:50]
Vince Chen
Yes, the people function is crucial, but it's also uniquely challenging. Unlike tech, policy or finance, you can't just apply a formula or a quick fix to people issues. There are so many layers, emotions, personalities, motivations, incentives and politics, all of which make it complex to navigate. One of those layers is happiness, which can be an emotion, but also an approach to leadership and management.
- [18:33]
Indeed Ad
You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed Sponsored Jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With Sponsored Jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com podcast, just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com podcast for a limited time at.
- [19:30]
Verizon Ad
Verizon, you can get our best price ever for a single line, just $45 per month. When you bring your phone, which is less than you spend on Too Tired to Cook takeout every week, get one line on unlimited welcome for $45 per month with autopay plus taxes and fees. Visit your local Portland Verizon store by April 2nd to save $20. Monthly promo credits applied over 36 months with a new line on Unlimited welcome in times of congestion, unlimited 5G and 4G LTE may be temporarily slower than other traffic domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. Additional terms apply.
- [19:59]
Vince Chen
All you Homeowners have unique needs. Some feel the need to leave up holiday decorations year round.
- [20:06]
Rashia Cardiff
Others have the need to use their.
- [20:08]
Vince Chen
Garage as practice space for their new metal band.
- [20:11]
Rashia Cardiff
And because each homeowner has unique needs.
- [20:14]
Vince Chen
GEICO helps you get the right coverage for your home and and what's in it.
- [20:18]
Rashia Cardiff
That way you get exactly what's right.
- [20:20]
Vince Chen
For you, even if your needs are unique. Get more with GEICO before we dive into your work with happy companies. I know you've experienced some major transitions yourself. Moving from a large corporation into a new venture is a big leap in itself, but on top of that, you faced some personal challenges along the way. Could you share what that journey was like and how did you find your grounding to move forward even stronger?
- [21:02]
Rashia Cardiff
Yes, it's one of the things that's interesting as we reflect on our journey is there there tends to be some conditioning as we're growing up. We go to school, we get good grades, we go to college, we get married, buy a house, continue to climb the corporate ladder and achieve a certain title or a certain status. And it's just kind of things that we observe, we see, we hear, we're taught as we're growing up. And it was always very important to me to be very independent, to be able to stand on my own two feet as I navigated the world. And I really was very ambitious from a very young age when my mother was always telling me that was her concern for me. You're such a workaholic and I know you're so passionate and you're so talented, but my biggest fear is that you're going to look back and realize you missed so much by being so focused on your career. And I used to in my mind, just be like, oh, she doesn't understand, she doesn't understand. And I keep climbing that ladder when in 2016, my life really started to go through some really challenging, challenging life experiences. I went through a divorce with the person whom I had spent half of my life with up to that point. My mother went through multiple battles with cancer and she ultimately passed away in 2017. And so those were two tremendous losses literally within a year of one another. And they really started to shift my entire mindset and perspective towards life, towards my priorities, just in general, towards how I wanted to move forward in life. I then had my first son in 2018 that just continued this kind of intense internal evolution because now I had this amazing little person whom I wanted to provide a wonderful life for. I wanted to be the most amazing mother for. And I didn't want to miss it all. I didn't want to be so focused on my career and working so much that in 10 or 15 years I'd look back and feel like I missed it all. You know, it was through those back to back experiences that I really started to ask myself, what am I doing with my life? What are my priorities? And how do I want to be very intentional and purposeful with how I adjust those moving forward. When you go through a loss like a parent, just you realize that we fall into this mindset, we're all moving so fast and like at the speed of light every day, and there's so much going on that we just have this mindset of there's always tomorrow. It really takes going through an experience like that to help you realize, no, we're not. And one of the biggest mistakes we can make is living as though we are always guaranteed tomorrow. And that really started creating some massive, just internal transformation for me. And so at this season in my life, I was overseeing four states of business, I was traveling extensively, my son was right in that two to three year old range. I would come back and just feel that I had missed so much. One of the questions that I like to ask myself a lot now at the end of each day, I ask myself, am I at peace? Am I content? Do I have joy for how I spent this day day? And if it were my last day, would I be at peace with it? And if I reach a season where there's too many days that the answer is no, then I know that I need to pause, take a step back and recalibrate. And that is really what happened. I started asking myself that question and there were too many days, the answer was no. Because I was missing time with my son. I was gone a lot. Even when I was with him. I wasn't fully present because my role was very high responsibility and very consuming. And so I had to start asking myself, what changes are you going to make? What are you willing to do differently moving forward to work towards the life that you really want to have, which is being able to prioritize my family, my friends, my passions, and making a positive impact on other people's lives in the world. And so I chose to resign from corporate America and take a massive leap of faith into entrepreneurship. I did that for about 18 months, and then I ended up crossing paths with Happy. And Happy is just doing so much of the work that I believe the world and especially teams and organizations need when it comes to prioritizing the people component of what propels them. And I ended up being a great fit. Fit. And now I have the joy to be contributing to meaningful work. I am close to home, I'm local, so I still have that ability to balance and prioritize my family and the things that I'm passionate about. It's really put me in the position to live that more purposeful and intentional life that I want to live.
- [27:48]
Vince Chen
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Living in the present is not just a saying. It's truly a way of being. When we let go of the constant worry about what's next and really ground ourselves in what's happening now, every moment feels richer, more meaningful. And like you said, it's not about being overly dramatic or anxious about what could happen tomorrow, but rather about appreciating what we have right here, right now. Is this more things? Picking up your son, making dinner, enjoying a little downtime that could mean so much when we approach them mindfully. That idea of the present being a gift really resonates with me too. I love that Kung Fu Panda quote for a reason. It's simple, but so profound. When we live in the now, we allow ourselves to fully experience life and that's what makes it all worthwhile.
- [29:11]
Rashia Cardiff
Yes, it is a gift. I'm so grateful for the learnings and the wisdom that I've been able to derive from the challenging experiences. And just an example of that, connecting to what you just shared in the past. If I was having one of those challenging days where it just seems like nothing's going right, but you lost the car keys or you ran out of gas or just any number of things that happen to us in the day to day of life in the past, I would get very anxious about that. When you just, okay, how do I fix it? How do I make everything work today? When I'm having a day like that. It really to your point, it helps me be more present and I'm like, you know what Rashiya, if you can't find your car keys, maybe there's a reason why maybe you're just not supposed to leave right now. So let's just redirect our time and energy towards something productive and fun right now. Or if you're having just a difficult day, right, maybe you had a challenging interaction at work or a challenging exchange with a client or customer. I do so much better now at just releasing that once that situation is concluded and shifting my mindset for okay, how can we continue to go make the best of today when it really does help you focus more on living in the present and making the most of today? And I think it's such a gift when we are able to shift our mindset and perspective to live that way.
- [31:08]
Vince Chen
Just now, Richard shared honestly about her own personal journey and career transitions. On Tuesday, we'll explore her role at Happy Companies and her vision for transforming the workplace, balancing tech innovation with genuine care for people. Join us again on Tuesday and find yourself some happiness. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show. Leave us top rated reviews, check out our website and follow me on social media. This is Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.
- [32:20]
Indeed Ad
You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed Sponsored Jobs help you stand out and hire fast. With Sponsored Jobs. Your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can reach the people you want faster. According to Indeed data, Sponsored Jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored Jobs. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com podcast, just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com podcast for a limited time at.
- [33:17]
Verizon Ad
Verizon, you can get our best price ever for a single line just $45 per month. When you bring your phone, which is less than you spend on too tired to cook takeout every week, get one line on unlimited welcome for $45 per month with autopay plus taxes and fees, Visit your local Portland Verizon store by April 2nd to save $20. Monthly promo credits applied over 36 months with a new line on unlimited welcome. In times of congestion, unlimited 5G and 4G LTE may be temporarily slower than other traffic domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. Additional terms apply.