CINspirational People
Steve Inspires People Passion
He has been called an iconic leader, a positive disruptor, and a passionate people person who has inspired probably tens, if not, hundreds of thousands directly and indirectly across the globe to put more heart, more connectivity, and more appreciation into their work, their relationships, and their lives.
Steve Browne, SHRM-SCP, is vice president of HR for LaRosa’s Inc., Cincinnati’s hometown pizzeria restaurant chain with more than 1,100 team members. He serves on the Board of the nearly 300,00 member Society of Human Resource Management, and for about 18 years has been running the local HR Roundtable – growing its monthly meeting attendance from roughly a handful to more than 140 people. Thousands follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter; and many more are touched by his insight through his talks, interviews, and now his book titled HR on Purpose: Developing Deliberate People Passion.
He is one of those rare gifts who makes anyone in his presence feel valued. He is as genuinely impressed with the life experiences of a pizza delivery driver as a CEO. He is as eager to hear about your interest in cats as your interest in reading, sports, volunteerism or leadership. From Steve’s perspective, everyone is important for their own unique qualities and everyone deserves the opportunity to be heard, respected and to contribute. He is driven by his desire to connect with others. It energizes him. It gives his life purpose.
“I have learned incredible things about people by being interested. I want to be excited about them,” he told me.
I had known of Steve long before we first met in person when I attended one of his HR Roundtable get togethers – which, by the way, is not just for human resources professionals any longer. When Steve took over its leadership, that was one of the many changes put in place. He wanted it to be a different kind of networking event, a very personable one, where connections are made on a deeper level than simply an exchange of business cards and where the discussions leave attendees uplifted for their day. If you go, expect to be welcomed by Steve out front as he greets guests on their way in. It is one small gesture that has a big impact. “It matters that you are there,” he told me.
And, in his human resources role, it matters to him that organizational cultures change to provide more flexibility, to be asking the question, “How can we help each employee succeed?” instead of, “How can we make each employee conform for us?”
On Becoming The Double Exclamation Point Enthusiast!!
Steve grew up in a small town of 2500 people, he likens to Mayberry, a blue collar neighborhood where everyone knows each other. “Personally,” he said, “I was always taught to be others focused. I was the guy who hung out with every kind of person in high school and college.”
His parents were a huge influence. His mother was a teacher for years and always active in their community. Steve remembers her coming home and telling them about the lives of every student she ever had. And to this day, those students – now adults – still reach out to her. His father died when Steve was four and his mother remarried during his teenage years. His stepfather just celebrated his 35th year as a village councilman while Steve’s mother, at 79, was named Citizen of the Year.
With that kind of upbringing, it is no wonder Steve grew up to be someone who flourishes most when in the presence of others, usually doing things to bring value to their life. Sure, he was really good at math and science but this high school valedictorian was failing in college when he was majoring in engineering. That’s when his wise mother stepped in and suggested he find another major, something that would allow him to surround himself with people. He switched his major to ‘interpersonal communication’ because pretty much that meant it would prepare him for anything from being a pastor to a social worker to human resources.
And the rest is history.
I asked Steve a few more questions to get to know him.
Lisa: Outside of your parents, tell me about someone else who as has inspired you.
Steve: This is a hard question because I get energized by everyone I meet. There are many people in my life like that, people who life others up naturally. You just want to be with them. I have seen that done in a quiet or robust way. Fred Eck, my bud, calls me every week just to see how I am doing. That is inspiring. If he misses a week, I call him to see if he is ok. We met through Ohio SHRM and he has been a mentor to me for about 20 years.
Lisa: What is something which people outside your inner circle may be surprised to learn about you?
Steve: Actually, I am the most open book person you will ever meet. I will tell you everything about my life the day we meet. I write poetry and now I do that every week. I have books of poems that I have written. All the stuff in my head has to come out. I also have four lava lamps. It is a nightmare. Let me be weird. It is ok.
Lisa: You talk about a life and human resources lesson from your daughter’s sport. Please tell us about that.
Steve: My daughter was an average basketball player on her team. The coach needed to make room for other players, and so asked if my daughter would like to be team manager instead. She (the coach) called me to talk about it first and I said I thought it was a brilliant idea. She wanted to do the best for my daughter and created a role that didn’t exist so that my daughter could continue to be a valued member of the team. Organizationally, if we thought of employees that way, how amazing would that be? If we asked, ‘how can I find a way to make this fit for her better? I am one of those odd people who sees human resources in everything.
Lisa: When you awake each morning, to what are you most looking forward?
Steve: I am naïve enough to not worry about the day ahead. I’d rather take it as it comes. It is not that I don’t care, but I don’t know what the future is, so I don’t let it bother me. Each day is new and it will be challenging with ups and downs. That is exciting. I dread the days that are dull. If I come across someone disinterested, I don’t get it. I am blessed beyond measure. There are so many amazing people all around me.
I was listening to an interview Steve did recently with Jennifer McClure on her podcast, Impact Makers.
“I get geeked when I see other people,” he told her. “It doesn’t matter if they are employees or strangers I pass on the street. Something as simple as saying ‘hello’ or smiling may be just what someone needs to shatter the darkness he or she is dealing with. There are not great efforts or initiatives needed. You have the ability to be the light. The decision is yours.”
Yes, Steve, the decision is ours! Thanks for being our role model!
Bobby Harrison, You’ve Got This!
Today, as I am writing this, my dear friend Bobby Harrison is preparing himself to go to the hospital where he will have to swallow 15 pills so toxic that he can’t touch them to human skin and will need to flush the toilet three times after using it to ensure no amount will remain in the water for others. He will do this before sitting in a chair where he will spend his next six hours as they pump more poisons into his body. And no doubt, he 
will be doing this while giving those around him reason to smile. Two weeks from now, after they see how this works, the plan is for him to go through all of this again.
That is Bobby’s way. It is among the traits that make him such an incredible gift to this world. It was many years back when Bobby first learned he had lymphoma. Those initial days spent hooked to machines taught him life is not to be taken for granted. And he has lived for every day since as it is the greatest day every.
Bobby’s career has included many celebrities and large companies. He has donated countless hours of his time to help worthwhile causes. He spoke at one of my A Night of CINspiration events last year – and inspired everyone. He has been known to work all hours of the day, weekends and weekdays, doing what it takes to fulfill the load from the great demand for his creative genius. Still, no matter, he has always been there for me. In some dark days when work and life wasn’t going my way, he picked me up. He carved out time for our lunches to brainstorm ideas with me and remind me of my value. Friends like that are hard to find and are treasured like gold.
Last week Bobby and I met again for lunch. It had been our longest stretch between lunches in a very long time because seven weeks prior, he learned his lymphoma had come back with a vengeance. They couldn’t start chemo right away as they first had to get his white blood cell count under control. Complicating matters further, his body and his cancer had become so resistant to much of the chemo that they had to prepare him for what is to come today.
Yesterday we spoke. The first thing he told me was how that was one of the most fun lunches we have had. And he said he was going to call me from the hospital today. He also said that he plans on being at my blog event in April. He wouldn’t miss it.
So, for those of you who will be guests to A Night of CINspiration – I can’t wait for you to meet my friend, Bobby!
Register for A Night of CINspiration at this link!
Betty Finney Is Growing Young
It was 1998 when Betty Finney met the man who did the hiring for the Cincinnati Enquirer’s sales team. She was 64 years old at the time, just about the age that has many others itching to retire. She had never had a sales job before but she wanted to do that.
Not only did she get the job, she won awards every year that she worked there. One day she had a really incredible sale and she wanted her boss to know. It was pretty obvious by her expression she had something important to say. As she paused, he walked over to her. There was a moment of silence…and then she blurted it out, “I am excited, and I want to tell you that I am pregnant.”
I first heard her Enquirer story some 20 years later in a three-minute Toastmasters speech. And through coming to know her since, it has become pretty obvious, Betty is not a woman who is going to let another year around the sun slow her down. She was 78 years old when she earned a master’s degree in natural health. “I got that because I don’t care for doctors and I want to be able to care for myself,” she told me over lunch the other day.
Courageous, tenacious, funny, loyal, kind-hearted, spontaneous. Those are all words that describe this woman with too many goals to let a thing like aging stand in her way. She calls her latest business, Oomph!! Through it she offers talks and strategies for Growing Young. “Be transformed from a frail, stifled brain, dampened spirited person to a blooming mind, high energy, vibrant human being,” she has on her homepage.
It is an attitude that has served her well in life.
Betty and her husband, Charlie have been married more than 60 years. They have seven children and 15 grandkids. They rarely argue. They are independent. They are trusting of one another. They take risks. They love to travel. They love each other. And together, life is never boring.
Their stories are priceless.
LIKE when their seventh child was due and fathers were not allowed in delivery rooms, only Charlie wanted to be there. 
Betty happened to have read a book that suggested if your doctor would not allow it, to tell your doctor that you would handcuff each other together. Charlie mentioned it to their OBGYN, who, after some thought, told the couple, “Betty usually delivers in the middle of the night so we will dress you in a doctor’s attire and you can hide your camera underneath and I will tell them you are allowed.” And, that is how Charlie witnessed the birth of his youngest child.
LIKE when the couple were vacationing in Costa Rica in their 60s and Charlie mentioned zip lining. Betty didn’t know what she was getting herself into, and then, when it was over, they were asked if they wanted to do the Tarzan swing. “I said, ‘ok’,” Betty told me. “So we did that too. We were told that whoever screamed the loudest would get a gift. I screamed pretty loud.”
LIKE when Betty announced one day after years of staying home to be with her kids that she didn’t want to do the housewife thing any longer. She was prepared for Charlie’s objection…that didn’t come. When asked what she wanted to do, Betty told her husband, “have a career.” And he told her, “then go do it!”
After Betty began working and the realization hit her that keeping a household running and keeping the laundry clean was going to be tough, again she found no resistance. What did he do instead? Betty shared the story. “He said he was going to announce at dinner that everyone will do their own laundry. That means everything,” she told me. “He did that and everyone was like, ‘No Way!’ He also made me promise that if I did any of the laundry for anyone, that he would never make an announcement like that again. A couple weeks later he said that he couldn’t find his blue jeans, the ones he put down the laundry shoot…we negotiated.”
By the way, when Betty was applying for that first job, she didn’t have a whole lot to include on a professional resume but she figured she gained some pretty valuable experience in her years at home. She called that position, “household maintenance engineer”. It was that title that got her the job doing public relations for Kathrine Switzer’s Avon Running. (It most certainly was not because she told her future boss in the interview that she had never un or even seen a race.)
Fast forward to 2018
Betty and I are sitting across the table from each other having lunch. She wants to know if I have any connections with prisons.
Connections with prisons?
Yep! You see, she had presented her program three times at a local prison, talking to the inmates about using laughter as a way of removing tension. One of those inmates rolled on the floor, kicking his feet up in pure, unadulterated joy. After her third visit she remembers seeing them line up single file. She had to pass in front of them to exit, and, when she got in front of them, they began clapping in the way that she had taught them until she was out the door. “I cried all the way home because I knew I had gotten to them for some happiness in their day,” Betty said.
A year later she was approached in a card store. “Are you Betty? Did you do the laughter at Riverside Prison?,” he asked as Betty realized he was the man who rolled on his back. “I just want to tell you that I am out of prison. I made one dumb mistake and learned my lesson in prison. Thank you for laughing with me. It made a big impact on me.”
I think Betty has a big impact on everyone who comes in her path. It is just her way.
Question to Betty: What is your personal philosophy on life?
“To love everybody but first love yourself. Be happy. Be positive. Negativity will get in your way every time.”
Respect And Value Kathleen
Today I’d like to introduce you to a friend who holds a very special place in my heart. Kathleen Sheil is an incredible example for all the qualities that I look up to another person. She is confident, yet humble. She is open and honest and genuine, and most definitely unafraid to stand up for herself and for others. She has this incredible way of making everyone feel welcome when in her presence. She gives of her time generously as a board member of Cincinnati nonprofit LADD (Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled), where she lives independently, and numerous other disability related organizations. And she also seeks opportunities to encourage and inspire others to be all they can be.
I see Kathleen as a leader, not only among her peers, but in the community as well. I consider myself so fortunate to be among her friends. Kathleen inspires me to be a better person.
Over dinner the other night, we got to talking about life. Kathleen’s motto, “Go out with the negative and in with the positive,” was inspired early on by her parents who encouraged her to always be confident in herself.
“My mom has always told me to put my best foot forward and that I need to be learning the whole aspect of being on my own completely. My parents never treated me differently from my siblings. They want me to be independent and a person of energy, a leader. They want me to also do my best with everything I do, if they are with me or not with me,” she told me. “I need to live the moment and to think about what that one thing is that makes me happy. That one thing for me is not just talking, not just my friends or my family, and not just LADD, but just being myself.”
“And who IS Kathleen?,” I asked.
“I am someone who is beautiful, honest, respectful, very positive, outgoing, and a leader who encourages others to be very special. I like to make conversations with different people and get to know who they are. I am a person with dreams and goals. I like to sing, do art, and plan events. I have always wanted to find that one person. I am very fortunate to have a family and friends who love me for who I am.
“I am someone who wants to be treated with respect,” she said.
A few weeks back, we heard about a CBS News report of how Iceland is eradicating Down syndrome with genetic testing and abortion. Kathleen was moved to action. She shared her thoughts in a letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer that was published. Among her words…”I want you to know that I have Down syndrome and I am important to this world. Yes, I may be different from you because of who I am, but we are all different from each other….Above all else, I am a person, like you, who deserves to be loved and respected. I have a lot of friends who are like me and who deserve to be loved and respected too. If I had not been born, the world would have missed out on getting to know Kathleen Sheil!”
THAT would have been a huge loss to this world because Kathleen, you make this world a better place.
Amy Tobin Dwells In Possibility
I love this quote by Howard Thurman, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
It reminds me a lot of Amy Tobin. When I think about Amy, I smile. She just has that effect on people. I’m not really even sure how we first met but each time our paths cross, what stands out to me most is her energy and enthusiasm. It is infectious.
The header on her website says it all…’Inspired Ideas’.
“I love sharing ideas, inspiration and advice with people that make our everyday life just a little more celebratory, beautiful and delicious,” she told me. “I’ll never forget, one Thanksgiving years ago, looking around the table and taking such pride and pleasure in the mood, the food and the experience I had created for my family. I was also struck by the fact that creating a holiday meal, dinner party or even a weeknight dinner, didn’t come easily to everyone. That fueled my focus on creating easy, approachable “food for family and friends” and my cookbook by the same name. From time saving ideas to presentation tips to products I love, I especially love when people let me know that something I’ve shared with them has made a difference in their life.”
Amy has come a long way since throwing her first dinner parties in high school. These days she divides her time between being director of the Event Center at New Riff Distillery, owner of Amy Tobin & Company (a lifestyle consulting company) and host of Amy’s Table on WKRQ/Q102 (and spending quality time with her family and friends).
“My passions are found in my work, from creating great food to interviewing interesting guests to encouraging my team to expand and grow, I love how I spend my time. These same channels allow me to give back to the community, too. From raising awareness on-air to MC-ing events to my team and I working with Northern Kentucky youth, I try to share my resources with the community,” she told me.
Lisa: What are some of your simple pleasures; why are they simple pleasures, and how do they make you feel?
Amy: My morning ritual is a simple pleasure that I couldn’t live without! My husband brings me coffee in bed every morning and I honestly savor it as I wake up and think about my day. I do a bit of reading, journaling and meditation before my feet even hit the floor. I know this practice puts me in a great position to seize the day.
Lisa: Do you have a favorite saying or words you live by? If so, what and why?
Amy: My favorite saying comes from Emily Dickinson who said “I dwell in possibility”.
I dwell there, too. I frequently put the “what” I’m trying to do before the “how” which creates endless possibilities in the way I work and play. I don’t focus on obstacles- instead I spend my time thinking about life’s potential.
