00:00:12:06 - 00:00:55:09 Unknown Hi, I'm Gail. Hi, I'm Katherine. Welcome to women over 70. Aging reimagined, our award winning weekly podcast. Visit women over 70.com and learn how you may become engaged with our community through Aging Reimagined circle. We hope to see you at our next online monthly program. And we want you to give thanks to our sponsor, Women's Connection. This is a nonprofit women's group with chapters around the country and members of vibrant, accomplished women aged 50 and forward who connect around common interests, empower each other to thrive and stick together as they travel through the stuff of life. 00:00:55:11 - 00:01:25:00 Unknown No matter what comes their way. With women connecting.org. And so today we're happy to have in our showroom Lynn Hazen as a young age, at a young age, Lynn knew she was a performer. Storytelling has been at the heart of her success and over the last many years she has brought it front and center. It's fun to listen as Lynn shares the good times she experienced with her family, all engaged in performance. 00:01:25:02 - 00:01:52:15 Unknown She has a passion for self-expression. Lynn grew up in Canada and speaks fluent French and English. And I believe to other languages as well. Her parents were French citizens born in Egypt and Syria. Her Jewish faith is a strong part of her life. It was while she attended Jewish conferences that she recognized the importance of telling stories to enhance communication. 00:01:52:17 - 00:02:26:18 Unknown Eager to excel in her chosen profession. Recruiting. Recruiting. Lynn believes in personal and professional development. She also has a keen sense of adventure and participates in humanitarian trips. Returning home with more stories and the satisfaction of raising funds where needed. Lynn, welcome to women over 70. Aging. Rehab. Thank you so much. Very well done. There's so much to learn from your approach to life and you know, so talk to us about storytelling. 00:02:26:18 - 00:02:52:15 Unknown Tell us how it became a part of your life and such a thing that's that's woven and woven throughout. You never know when you're going to learn about your destiny in life. And literally when I was a child, I used to love doing and performing television commercials in front of my mothers dinner party guests. Little did I know, literally performing the Nescafé commercial props and all that. 00:02:52:15 - 00:03:14:14 Unknown This would lay the foundation for what it was to be a performer, an actress, a storyteller, and knowing how to engage with the audience and putting this all together gave me literally an advance preview of the skills that I had in life that I could apply to work, to my profession as a recruiter, and also to a storyteller. 00:03:14:16 - 00:03:46:02 Unknown And what's great about storytelling is that this is a skill that never goes out of style. You keep developing it, keep growing your ability to connect with your audience. And that is one of the points I always want to make. Who is your audience? And if you understand who your audience is, from children to older people in your community or family, people or intergenerational audiences, the more you understand how they will respond to you and you can ignite that light within, then everybody wins. 00:03:46:04 - 00:04:09:08 Unknown And we have fun and we laugh together. Well, recruiting is your is your profession. I know that, and you've taken it to a new level in the way you worked with. You work with interns and you mentioned intergenerational, you know, having intergenerational connections. And you've done that with your interns who work with you. So tell us why you chose recruiting. 00:04:09:08 - 00:04:33:10 Unknown And then how we've done this with interns. Recruiting maybe was my destiny in life that I didn't know about at the time, because I made a career change and I had quit my job working within the Jewish community to explore new opportunities. And this was a long time ago. Little did I know that I would spend a year in transition that was not part of the planned agenda. 00:04:33:12 - 00:04:55:21 Unknown And what I did part time is I worked at the Goodman Theater selling subscription tickets for the theater. I was really good at sales, especially on referrals. So give me a glass of wine. I'll give you the names of referrals. So I kept selling tickets off of the referral systems and it worked. And I saw the power that I had in connecting with people. 00:04:55:22 - 00:05:19:01 Unknown This is the olden days on the phone and being able to close the sale. So if I could connect on the phone with people, think of what I could do as a recruiter. And literally I fell into recruiting because of that experience. I went for an interview. I had no idea what a recruiter did, and I sat there with the president of the company and she said, let's continue the discussion. 00:05:19:01 - 00:05:43:00 Unknown So I met with staff people, and I embarked literally on a brand new chapter of my life, and I had to learn fast. So I was a dedicated student of life and learning about jobs and professions within marketing, communications, advertising, PR, and I really was dedicated to networking, going to industry events, and learning as much as I could as quickly as I could. 00:05:43:02 - 00:06:06:14 Unknown And I made the transition to starting my own business. When people started saying to me, and this is after I worked for two firms, Lynn, why don't you have your own business? I'll give you my business. Oh, okay, I'll do it. And I started my business in the year 2000. So I've been recruiting overall for 40 years. Last 25 as president of Lynn Hayes and Associates. 00:06:06:16 - 00:06:32:13 Unknown What makes us different is we call ourselves the relationship and storytelling recruiters, because if you look at different websites for other recruiters, they start to look alike. And when you think about talent and companies and why we should hire people, what makes you special? What makes you unique? Why should I join your firm? And what makes the talent come to the surface as the best in class talent? 00:06:32:15 - 00:07:00:01 Unknown And by literally tagging myself as the storytelling recruiter and the relationship recruiter, I bring an extra element when I train my students, my interns, when I'm working with candidates to help them position themselves for their interviews and how they put their resumes together and maintain that relationship. Because so many of my interns have gotten into great jobs over time, I've actually placed some of my interns. 00:07:00:06 - 00:07:20:13 Unknown One of my favorite stories was years ago. An intern was a student at Palm studying management information systems and Mis. She graduated in 2020. She had been an intern in 2018. Smart woman who she is. She kept in touch. And then when she graduated, she let me know. And it just so happened that I had a job opening. 00:07:20:16 - 00:07:45:18 Unknown I said, I have you, candidate. And I placed her, and she's still there today. And she has grown professionally. And she's a great ambassador in terms of continuing her education and growing within the organization we placed her. That's my commitment to talent and to help people grow within their organizations. What I'm seeing today is often a lot of candidates because of Covid or even students. 00:07:45:18 - 00:08:13:01 Unknown They lived through Covid and they missed that opportunity to enhance their interpersonal skills. So even though we're working virtually, I put a lot of emphasis on building relationships and finding out what we have in common and how candidates can continue to build their skill set both digitally, eye and interpersonal, so they can literally dig deep when they're interviewing to get to know clients and what makes them special and unique. 00:08:13:01 - 00:08:33:16 Unknown And they interview better. And that's the beauty of that as well. And that's that's great. When can you go? Can you just share with those the third sort of key tips that you give candidates about how to shape their story and what to to emphasize? Sure. I love that question. For example, one very easy exercise is your six word story. 00:08:33:18 - 00:09:00:20 Unknown Tell me your story in six words. Because most candidates and, and, well, you should hire me because, and they stumble. So by developing your six word story, it could be a sentence or it could be individual words. It gives the candidates a framework to be able to describe themselves. And if they've practiced ahead of time, then they'll be in the zone together with the interviewer. 00:09:00:20 - 00:09:33:07 Unknown And it'll just flow. And they could say, I did this really interesting exercise. It's called the six word story. Here's my six word story and how it relates to my interest in joining your firm. Then pause and then the candidate can say, I see you're also looking for candidates who have experience in, intercultural communications or the ability to work with different ethnic groups or be able to come up with, advertising campaigns that will resonate with, moms, with children. 00:09:33:09 - 00:10:10:03 Unknown I worked on those kinds of programs where I came up with a sample campaign that I'd like to share with you. Candidates who take the initiative. I call this the Wow factor. Positioned themselves differently from candidates who just come in, do the job, go home, and then apply for different jobs and positions. The more candidates show initiative, curiosity have researched the firms, seen what they've done, and can reflect back in the interview about accomplishments of the firm and what initiative that individual has taken as a candidate. 00:10:10:05 - 00:10:39:07 Unknown Then there's a sense of blessing each other or emerging the talent the candidate will bring and the needs that the company has. For example, I talked about curiosity clients who are looking for candidates who are curious and who take the extra step. Is it to find an article in a professional journal, or to see what the competition is doing, and to come up with ideas that advance the cause for the company he or she wants to join? 00:10:39:09 - 00:11:04:24 Unknown And they are surprised and delighted when the candidate does that. I'm fascinated. It's very interesting. That's great. So tell us a little bit about switching gears here for a moment. Tell us a little bit about your all these humanitarian trips that you've taken. There's a fascinating. I'm the daughter of immigrants. My mother was born in Cairo. My father was born in Damascus in Syria. 00:11:05:01 - 00:11:33:21 Unknown They were both French citizens. They got married in 1948. They tried to get into the U.S.. Can't come in. So they went to Canada, where they spoke French in Montreal. Family members had already started to arrive. So as a young child, I grew up speaking French fluently. Actually, Arabic was the secret language when my parents didn't want us to understand, but we picked up expressions along the way and I was always very curious about learning different languages. 00:11:33:24 - 00:12:06:02 Unknown I took Spanish in high school. I even took one year of Latin. I was always correcting my teacher because she made mistakes on the blackboard. She didn't like that. And then I also took Hebrew as part of my Jewish education and I noticed the amazing connection. And to this day, when I meet somebody and I look at them and I start to talk to them, and I noticed, wait a minute, you speak French and I switch languages, and then I end up knowing that this person is somebody in my life because they're French speaking and it brings joy to all of us. 00:12:06:07 - 00:12:30:08 Unknown And the more we can connect across different groups, ethnic, religious, language groups, the more we come together as people with common interests. And that gives me permission to dig deeper, even in getting to know them. And they feel so seen and encouraged that they start to talk to me. I even had an incident at the grocery store here in Chicago a few weeks ago. 00:12:30:13 - 00:12:54:06 Unknown I looked a man coming out of the line. He paid for his groceries and I looked at him. I said, where are you from? He said, Syria, Damascus. I said, my father was born in Damascus. And I told him the school my dad went to. He said, I know that school. So it's remarkable what happens when you can connect person to person and people literally come together. 00:12:54:12 - 00:13:22:00 Unknown So my interest in humanitarian travel, I actually started at the young age. I've always wanted to go to Egypt, quite the safe place to go to right now. However, I've been to Israel three times. I've been to Jordan, I've been to Ethiopia. Actually, I was on a humanitarian trip and I went into this woman's hut literally, and I saw this hanging, this beautiful handmade artwork, and I said, can I buy it? 00:13:22:02 - 00:13:43:24 Unknown And she looked at me. She said, Israel, Israel. And I understood she wanted to bring this with her to Israel, and I understood. And then you know what she did? She held it up and gave it to me as a gift. Of course, I paid her for it. And now this hangs in my living room as one of the beautiful artifacts that I got from this wonderful woman and her child. 00:13:44:04 - 00:14:06:03 Unknown And she is definitely an artist in Ethiopia. When I went to Ethiopia, I was aghast at the level of poverty and the starvation that was evident in the populations we went there. I literally went in people's huts and saw the number of children who who slept together on one bed and others who slept on the floor. It was tragic. 00:14:06:09 - 00:14:29:16 Unknown And the organization that I was with, the, National North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, was literally feeding children every single day. And people who were pregnant, the women and helping them to nourish themselves and their children. We were there to see it happening. And yet, in spite of all this, the children were a delight to be with and to sing with. 00:14:29:17 - 00:14:55:01 Unknown And I told my stories with someone translating from English to, Amharic. So that was one of my journeys that I did. Another one was in 1995. I had been to the former Soviet Union in 1994 on a journey of discovery, meeting Jewish women from throughout the Soviet Union, former Soviet Union, who had gathered together in Kyiv for a gathering of Jewish women. 00:14:55:03 - 00:15:22:02 Unknown I was so taken by this experience and the woman who I met, Laura Sperling, who's a musician, a flutist, that we put our heads together and a year later we went back and this time we went to the Ukraine. When I think that I went to the Ukraine on a performing arts trip throughout these tiny little villages in 1995, I could never, ever do that trip today. 00:15:22:04 - 00:15:50:13 Unknown So carpet dmcs the day. Take advantage of opportunities that come your way, because you never know if you're going to have a second chance. And we spent an entire year raising all the money, putting the program together, working with organizations. And we literally had a driver, a station wagon, a student who spoke, students again, student who spoke Russian and English, who was my translator. 00:15:50:15 - 00:16:13:05 Unknown And we stayed with community members in all the little towns that we went to visit. We were in Kiev, Novgorod, Valencia, Vinnytsia, story, Konstantinov, Valery, Surkov, and Perlu Luki. And in all of those towns we met members of the community. We heard their stories. We saw literally the places where the Jews had been massacred during World War Two. 00:16:13:07 - 00:16:40:23 Unknown I had no idea, until I went to see all the places that they had been buried in. And it profoundly impacted on my experience because I'm a Sephardic Jew. My family ancestors are from Spain. My mother's name is Pardo, which means brown in Spanish. And yet, going to the Ukraine and connecting with the people there and bringing them hope and a sense of connection, it made my trip that much more special. 00:16:41:01 - 00:17:12:06 Unknown And we've certainly kept in touch with them over the years. And all the communities went to visit with members of communities and synagogues in the Chicago area that have partnership relationships with them. So they still continue their relationships. So it made a profound impact on me meeting people to people, sharing my stories and being able to take their stories and bring them back, to share with the people here and continue for fundraising and humanitarian purposes. 00:17:12:07 - 00:17:46:20 Unknown Wow. So, so you've always been storytelling. We know that storytelling is is your life and but but you took it to a new level recently and you started doing story slams. Tell us about that. Fate has an amazing way of becoming part of my life. In the year 2023, George Rafferty, who's a good friend, he posted on LinkedIn that they were bringing storytelling Slam to the Wilmette Theater in Wilmette, Illinois, just north of Chicago. 00:17:47:00 - 00:18:10:23 Unknown I said, ooh, I like this. And I submitted my entry. I was immediately accepted. And so far, I'm the only performer who's been invited back all four times. And there's more to come. And what is a story slam? It's based on a true story. So the individual has to have written and developed. The story doesn't necessarily need to have been published. 00:18:11:00 - 00:18:54:01 Unknown However, this stage appearance gave me a chance to perform it live in front of an audience. And I'm so grateful, Gail, that you did come to one of my performances. So it was great having people in the audience who I knew who I could literally be sharing my experience with, people who were there to support me. And the beauty about sharing storytelling through the Story Slam is that it motivated me to go to a different level of research about my family, about my Hebrew school teacher from second grade doing more investigating, and I found objects, passports, my father's school notebook and information about it that I had never seen. 00:18:54:06 - 00:19:24:03 Unknown For example, I found out that when my father went to school in Damascus, he learned Arabic, Hebrew and did he learned English to Arabic and French? Okay, those three languages. Rosetta. Wait a minute. He learned Hebrew in Damascus, in Syria. And Mr. Goldman wrote his comments that he was a good student and very serious. It gave me a different impression of my dad than I ever knew. 00:19:24:05 - 00:19:45:10 Unknown He died when I was 12. So I have taken on upon my commitment as a member of the Hazen family to research and to tell their stories and to share them. And little did I know that my grandfather had two wives. It's like the same time I tell you this. I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. 00:19:45:15 - 00:20:11:17 Unknown And I started calling relatives and found out that, yes, my grandfather had two. Why? Because wife number one gave him four daughters. And my grandfather wanted a son. So he married a second time, and she gave him six children. Thankfully, my father, Eli or Eli, was child number three. And he was the boy. So the family destiny was guaranteed to continue. 00:20:11:19 - 00:20:33:22 Unknown So I've been inspired by hearing my family's stories, literally to continue to do my research and to find out more and to go online and to find out histories about these schools and programs. And my mother, for example, my mother grew up going to the French Lick and the French Lick system was a global system of French schools. 00:20:33:24 - 00:20:59:04 Unknown So she grew up speaking French. Actually, she grew up Italian speaking Italian and also French and Arabic because she lived in an Arab speaking city in Cairo, and her love of language was passed on to me. And I saw, oh, this is funny. I would go to the farmer's market with her when I was a little girl in Montreal, and we'd be at the farmer and we'd be talking to him, and she could sense that he spoke Italian. 00:20:59:09 - 00:21:21:22 Unknown So she switched languages and spoke to him in Italian. You know what the farmer did? He gave her an extra zucchini as a gift. And like those kinds of tricks and tips that I learned by observing my mother first hand as she worked with people. She was an amazing French teacher and kids loved coming to the house for her French classes. 00:21:21:24 - 00:21:45:07 Unknown And I learned by observation the power of story, of connecting with people, of learning and sharing my stories with them. And making that feeling of community come alive. And I do the same thing with my candidates, and I ask them, where are you from? What language do you speak? And as soon as they tell me if I have something in common, I switch to that language. 00:21:45:09 - 00:22:14:21 Unknown And it's like magic. And there's a sense of trust that's being built. For example, I have three students right now who are interns, and they all speak Spanish. You cannot. Blah espanol contigo esta bien. I want to speak in Spanish with you. Is that good? And they are totally transformed. They feel seen. And they love it. And there's a building of trust factor that I really engage in because I was brought up speaking different languages. 00:22:14:23 - 00:22:39:22 Unknown And when I think of my customers and where they're from and the languages they speak, and I always say, who are your customers? What language do they speak? What customs do they have? So I can bring that element to help build trust. You know, time goes very quickly, unfortunately. And and we're moving towards it towards the end. But I just want you to say a word or two about what assessments have done for you. 00:22:39:23 - 00:23:08:09 Unknown Oh, excellent. Thank you so much. The beauty about using assessment tools is they confirm what you know about yourself already. It's nothing that should be. Oh, I never knew that about myself. Think of the word pattern of behavior. When I look at candidates profiles, I look for patterns that repeat of strengths, of abilities to grow and develop within your career that are reflected within your resume. 00:23:08:11 - 00:23:48:07 Unknown Your resume highlights your accomplishments, quantifies and qualifies, and tells your case stories. So, for example, one of my favorites is Marcus Buckingham, and he wrote the book Love and Work. And when I did the assessment, I smiled. What's my first tier? Creativity and my second teaching. So I thrive on creativity. My brain goes into active mode because when I'm creative, I am in my happy space and I love to pass on what I've learned to other people, to other generations, to interns, to candidates, because we're all stronger because of it. 00:23:48:09 - 00:24:20:03 Unknown Then, for example, there is another woman by the name of Gretchen Rubin. She is the founder of the Happiness Project, and she's a devotee also of the museum in New York City. And you can sign up with The Happiness Project as well. She has four tendencies. And mine was very clear. I'm a questioner. I always ask questions. And here's a tip I ask everybody to take into consideration w five plus h. 00:24:20:05 - 00:24:48:06 Unknown If you ask those questions, you'll always be in a good spot. Who? What? When? Where, why and how? If you ask those questions, you'll get answers. And it's so, so smoothly when you do it right. It is Gretchen Rubin. There's the four tendencies from hers and Marcus Buckingham. Here's another one I'd like to tell you about. It's called h e a, and e a is a tool that I discovered fairly recently. 00:24:48:12 - 00:25:15:23 Unknown And it is called oh my goodness. When when do I have it written down here. Help with it here. Right here.com. And you'll find it online. I know I have it written down. It's, I'll get it to you. Anyways, these are all tools that are free, and all you have to do is go online and it's h slash e slash o, elderly academy. 00:25:15:23 - 00:25:34:24 Unknown And the H is. I'll get it. I wrote it down somewhere. Anyways, you can always tell me a story in between. And with that, I'm open to any questions that you might have at this point. Or is it time to say farewell? Well, we do have one more question. Okay. Yeah, sure. And I think you as a member. 00:25:35:02 - 00:26:11:04 Unknown Yeah. So I, I'll come off the air. Okay. I'm real. So, you see, sometimes I even need a refresher for. Well, Lynn, we like to ask our guests. How do you think about and think and feel about your own aging? Oh, aging experience this question. You know what? It's been a transformational moment when I started getting involved with the program through the Story Slam, because it gave me an opportunity, literally, to go even deeper into my storytelling because I was writing a lot more original stories, and I love working with different generations. 00:26:11:07 - 00:26:48:23 Unknown I do a lot of storytelling with people who are older. So it's one of my favorite activities to do and to make it playful. And when I'm with, audiences of older ages, when I get them playful, you wouldn't believe the excitement that radiates in the room. I feel the energy going back and forth. So actually, when I turned 70, it was a moment of celebration because it was an opportunity not only to look back and to look forward to say, I have a lot to learn, to contribute and to do it with a sense of joy, energy and excitement. 00:26:49:00 - 00:27:12:15 Unknown And when I have that kind of relationship with the audience. Magic happens, and I am thrilled to be able to share this era of wisdom and joy together, because I can look back at things that I've done. You know, I've learned from that experience, and I can even laugh about it today and take it all with a cup of sugar. 00:27:12:17 - 00:27:37:00 Unknown Well, you use the term magic happens several times, and that's I can see how that inspires you and and inspires others that you, that you encounter. This is really wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. I love it. I love being with you both. Thank you for being here. Yes. And listeners, make your voice heard as together we change the conversation about women aging. 00:27:37:02 - 00:28:12:01 Unknown Explore women over 70.com and join us at Aging Reimagined Circle. And we know you enjoyed this podcast and we have another her podcast her to recommend. And that is Beverly Glaser. She's the host of aging with Purpose and Passion, and it's a weekly podcast. And, we're inspiring at that. Inspires women over 50 to embrace bold life shifts and unlock their potential through captivating stories from trailblazing senior women that's aging with purpose and passion. 00:28:12:03 - 00:28:12:14 Unknown Thank you.