Happy International Women’s Day friends! To celebrate, the time has come to introduce interviews on the podcast with a very special guest, my mom! Sandi Robinson joins us to talk about how entrepreneurship has grown and become more accepted, what loyalty to a company can look like, and the advice she’d give to someone just starting in their career!
Catch The Show Notes:
Get To Know My Mom- Sandi Robinson (01:40)
Her Career Now
What Sandi Wanted to Be as a Kid
Sandi’s Career Timeline (3:10)
Company Loyalty (5:00)
Was Entrepreneurship Ever an Option (6:20)
What were Sandi’s Thoughts on My Entrepreneurship (7:00)
Sandi’s Mindset on Entrepreneurship Now (10:00)
Sandi’s Career Advice (10:40)
Surprise Question (11:30)
Review the Transcript:
Haylee Gaffin
Welcome back to clocking in with Haylee Gaffin This is Haylee Gaffin and this is my mom Sandy.
Sandi Robinson
Hey, audience!
Haylee Gaffin
Audience? HAHAH
Haylee Gaffin
Hey, y’all, welcome to the clocking in Podcast, the podcast for entrepreneurs and professionals making their way in the working world. I’m your host Haylee Gaffin. This podcast is produced and brought to you by Gaffin Creative, a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. Learn more about our services a Gaffin creative.com. Plus, you’ll also find resources, show notes and more for the clocking in podcast. So let’s clock in and get to work.
Haylee Gaffin
Hey, y’all welcome back to clocking in. This is an extra special episode because it is my very first interview on the podcast. And in honor of it being International Women’s Day today, the day this airs, who better to bring on then my mom. So on the next few episodes, I will be introducing you to my family. Now I know that you’ve probably heard about my mom on past episodes, especially in episode number one, which is where I talked about five lessons, my mom taught me about money. And that is actually my most popular show, which ironically, I’m sure is because she shared it on her own Facebook page when I went live, and told all of her friends to go listen. So welcome to the show, mom. And for those that are listening in that don’t know you as Mom, this is Sandi Robinson.
Sandi Robinson
Thank you. Great to be here.
Haylee Gaffin
So to kick things off, I want our listeners to get to know you a little. So let’s start by having you tell our listeners what you do for a living.
Sandi Robinson
Okay, I work for a local battery company, and I’m the logistics supply chain manager. And what that consists of is, um, over purchasing, planning, inventory control, shipping, receiving and finishing. So you do I do a lot of it. Yes. And where I’m responsible for it.
Haylee Gaffin
I’m going to assume that when you were a kid, that’s not what you imagined you’d be doing as an adult, not at all. So as part of this little interview, you know, process with family members, I wanted to kind of give a history of me but also of you. So when you were a kid, what did you imagine yourself to be? Like? What What career did you imagine for yourself when you grew up?
Sandi Robinson
The first thing I remember, but I mean, I’m sure there were several different things. But the first thing I remember is I wanted to be a cosmetologist and do hair and makeup and nails and make women beautiful. Yes. But as I got older and in the high school, and I went to dances and you know, the prom and all that I wanted to be a backup dancer for Tina Turner didn’t pursue that. Do not pursue that dream.
Haylee Gaffin
So what kept you from pursuing cosmetology
Sandi Robinson
I actually met your dad got married and college was out of the question. At that point. I just wanted to get married and get a job.
Haylee Gaffin
So when we look at your timeline for working, I know that you didn’t have me or Tanner until you were almost 30, which means that you did have a career before you had kids, right?
Sandi Robinson
Yes, we were married 10 years before we had you and landed a job at Ulsan staffing. And I worked in the office. So I found people jobs. They I would send them out to different companies in Chattanooga. So before I sent them out, I would have to interview them. That job changed me in how I my work ethics and how I approach people. And it actually helped me in my career at that job, like how what made you leave that job was that when you had kids? I actually had Tanner, and I stayed home retainer for a year or two, I think a year.
Haylee Gaffin
So that would have been for those that don’t know Tanner’s younger than me. So I would have been three or four. Yeah, by that. Yes. Do you think that your role of that company impacted or like kind of set you on a path to the career you’re in now?
Sandi Robinson
It did, because after I left there, when I went back to work, I went to work for Brock candy, which
Haylee Gaffin
I love that job because we get so much free
Sandi Robinson
we did I got that job because I knew that company from working at Olston. So I went to work in their purchasing department, which led me to work with their purchasing department and then it just evolved from there.
Haylee Gaffin
Yeah, so I know for you you’ve actually been pretty loyal to companies like yeah, in my in the life that I can remember. You know, I can’t remember being a toddler but for the life that I know you’ve had two jobs like yes career 30 years?
Sandi Robinson
That’s correct.
Haylee Gaffin
How do you find that loyalty to a company? Because as someone who, you know, I worked in ad agency before this, and you saw me job hop, but that’s just the industry of the ad agency. So how, one for our listeners that are business owners, what can they do to make employees loyal to their company?
Sandi Robinson
Well, I think there’s just, it just depends on who you are. I mean, some people say that after seven years, you need to go to a different company to increase your salary. But me are just a learn the job and I love it. And if it’s challenging, I want to learn more, and I actually look at the benefits, you know, if your company matches your 401k, that
Haylee Gaffin
all of us are laughing, right now as entrepreneurs
Sandi Robinson
I know. But, I mean, the benefits are very important to me, especially at my age, but at a younger age. I just I never dropped. Yeah, I guess because, you know, I look at my mom and dad, they never did that.
Haylee Gaffin
That’s true. I’ve never really thought about it that way. Because both my grandparents my mom’s parents are they were with the same companies. Right? Your whole life?
Sandi Robinson
Pretty much. I mean, my dad was more there was a trucker, but mom, and they were mom having two jobs. Yeah.
Haylee Gaffin
Because she my whole life. I mean, she retired years ago, but my whole life, she is at the same company. With that in mind, and the way you are raised, did you ever imagine entrepreneurship as an option for you?
Sandi Robinson
No. Because growing up, I really never heard of it. Yeah, you know, people just didn’t talk about it. So, you know, you went to work for a company, and they paid you and you had their benefits. You know, I didn’t I don’t think I’m there anyone that had their own business? Or?
Haylee Gaffin
Well, technically, if you had been a cosmetologist, you would have ended up being Yes.
Sandi Robinson
But I would have had to work for someone and rent that booth.
Haylee Gaffin
As my mom, what were your thoughts? About me ever starting a business? Like, uh, you know, I had started a little photography thing for fun in college. And that morphed into what is now Gaffin creative. But if I had come to you during college and said, Mom, I want to leave college, and I want to pursue photography full time, what would you have said to me? Like, what would you have thought
Sandi Robinson
I would have told you that you’re not going to make any money. There’s no benefits in it. So.
Haylee Gaffin
And like, what if it was just any kind of entrepreneurship role?
Sandi Robinson
I would have told you the same thing. So now you can tell me how wrong I was.
Haylee Gaffin
Well, I mean, I, the reason I asked is because I feel like I Well, in college, I saw I did the photography thing on the side. But advertising and marketing was always my goal and what I wanted to pursue, and I love the idea of like, moving to New York and working in an ad agency and having a Superbowl commercial. So like, I got into it. And while I love the work, I didn’t, I didn’t love the environment. I didn’t love agency life. And like, you really have to climb your way to the top there. And not in the best way. It’s like, I won’t get into that too much. But in my mind, when I would talk to people in my they knew I shot weddings. It took so long for me to say like, Yeah, I’m a photographer. Yes, I charge for my work because it is a business. And it wasn’t until my last like corporate job if you want to call it a corporate job where I worked with photographers and saw them all the time, succeeding and having these full time businesses. And that was really the first time that I saw entrepreneurship. And I was like, anyone can do this. This isn’t just like, Oh, my daddy has money and he’s handing it to me and I’m building a business off of daddy’s money. It’s you can start from the ground up in entrepreneurship, if you want to. And so that’s one reason I asked that is because I never really saw myself doing entrepreneurship. And I even went and told I spoke at my college. Fact, this was years after I graduated. And they were asking me about freelancing because in the ad agency world, freelancers are a big deal. Like, you get contract work when you have a new client come in, but it’s not a long term client, so you just need someone for a little bit. So freelancing was really big but wasn’t stable. So I even told them, there is no way I would ever be a freelancer or own my own business like that because It’s so unstable. So now that I’ve been self employed for over a year, has your mindset shifted and all around entrepreneurship?
Sandi Robinson
Oh, yes, definitely. Yes, I see. I see how successful you are how? I don’t know if I can say this. You and Steven have paid your house off in five years.
Haylee Gaffin
Oh, yeah. You can listen to like, five, I think to hear a hair.
Sandi Robinson
But yeah, that’s just I mean, the things that you do, are is just so impressive to me. Thank you, and not because you’re my daughter.
Haylee Gaffin
But so now, as an adult, with all of this career, like we’ve walked through your career, and the the options that are out there now, because I do feel like when you started your career, maybe entrepreneurship wasn’t as big as it is now. Like, there are so many small businesses, there are so many resources, the internet makes it a lot easier. And I mean, I even look back when I was a freshman in college, we didn’t have iPhones. I mean, I’m sure they were out there. But so now as an adult, what is one piece of career advice you would give your younger self or someone who’s just getting started in their career,
Sandi Robinson
a piece of advice that added not get, invest, invest when you’re young. Don’t live paycheck to paycheck, save your money, invest? Because when you get my age, you look back, and you wish you had done that.
Haylee Gaffin
That’s good advice. Well, I have one surprise question that I did not put my mom with. And I’m asking my mom, my brother and my dad the same question in their interviews. And it’s actually, it was inspired by a tic tock video. And I want you to tell me exactly what you would say to someone, if they asked you, What does your daughter do for a living?
Sandi Robinson
She does a little bit of everything. She helps people with their websites for I don’t know, is that what I do? I don’t know. What do you do?
Haylee Gaffin
And this is I wanted to ask this question, because I feel like it’s so funny. Like, I had someone introduced me as empathetic as I am. That’s the point of the question. You want to answer it again?
Sandi Robinson
No. You do a little bit of everything.
Haylee Gaffin
If someone were to ask me what you did for a living, I knew that you worked in purchasing at the battery company, because I also worked at that battery company. But I didn’t know all of the other titles that you’ve earned since I was at the company. So I was like, 16 When I started there, yeah.
Sandi Robinson
My job has grown there. Quite a bit.
Haylee Gaffin
Well, thank you so much for joining me for an episode today. And I hope this kind of opens the doors for people to talk to their parents about careers and entrepreneurship, even the retired parents because I feel like they have a lot to offer, especially to to small business owners. And a lot of my audience did start their business younger. So like straight out of college didn’t have corporate experience. And I think as people start to scale and grow their businesses and bring on team members, knowing like what people are looking for in a business is important too. So really appreciate you joining me today for this episode.
Sandi Robinson
Well, thanks for having me bye.
Haylee Gaffin
This has been another episode of The clocking in podcast. You can find the show notes for this episode and more at Gaffin creative.com. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. If you love this episode, I’d be so honored if you’d leave me a review in the Apple podcast app. Until next time, I’m your host Haylee Gaffin clocking out
