Akil and Hong welcome Dan Le Guen-Schmidt to the show to discuss his approach to Human Resources and what he believes makes for successful departments and teams. From there, the trio discuss Dan's path from the twin-cities area to Santa Barbara (with stops in Boston and the Bay Area along the way), discuss favorite styles of hotdish, and how working and touring as a musician earlier in his life set him up on the career path he's on today (and also taught him about how wonderful the McDonald's restaurants in Japan are).
Mentioned in this episode:
SBCC Human Resources - https://www.sbcc.edu/hr/
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker - https://www.priyaparker.com/book-art-of-gathering
Seasonal Depression / Seasonal Affective Disorder - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder
“Pop” vs. “Soda” - https://www.popvssoda.com/
The Story of “Bubbler” - https://geography.wisc.edu/cartography/projects/G572/2019FA/Fall2019ShowersCurtis.pdf
Hotdish - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotdish
Tater tot Hotdish - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020916-tater-tot-casserole
Funeral Hotdish - https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/funeral-hotdish-7418644
Mushroom leather - https://ligayagarden.online/2023/07/14/mushroom-jerky/
McDonald’s in Japan - https://www.delish.com/food/a60248192/best-mcdonalds-are-in-japan/
International Availability of Mcdonald’s products - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_availability_of_McDonald%27s_products
Classically trained musician - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-classical-training-makes-you-better-musician-vishwaka-thejan-36blc
United States military bands - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_bands
Peking Opera - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_opera
First Avenue - https://first-avenue.com/
Fine Line - https://first-avenue.com/venue/fine-line/
Minnesota Orchestra - https://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/
Minneapolis Orpheum - https://hennepinarts.org/venues/orpheum-theatre
St. Paul Ballet - https://spballet.org/
Janet Jackson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Jackson
Mariah Carey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariah_Carey
Robyn - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robyn
Tracy Chapman at the Grammys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLfH9HSUyf4
Target Center - https://www.targetcenter.com/
Celine Dion - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celine_Dion
Gwen Stefani - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Stefani
Prince - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_(musician)
Paisley Park - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_Park
Bob Dylan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan
Club Glam Slam - https://laist.com/news/entertainment/glam-slam
Bellwether - https://thebellwetherla.com/
Grammy Museum - https://grammymuseum.org/
The Greatest Night in Pop - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greatest_Night_in_Pop
Space Debris - https://www.nasa.gov/headquarters/library/find/bibliographies/space-debris/
Wall-E - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E
Captions provided by Zoom
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Hong Lieu: Hello and welcome to another episode of SBCC Vaquero Voices - a podcast highlighting the unique voices that comprise our campus culture, and how we're all working together to serve our students and the community at large. As usual, I'm joined by Co-host Akil Hill.
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Akil Hill: What's good y'all.
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Hong Lieu: And today we're honored to welcome Dan Le Guen-Schmidt to the show. Welcome, Dan.
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Akil Hill: Welcome, Dan!
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Thank you.
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Hong Lieu: So, Dan, you are
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Hong Lieu: assistant superintendent, vice President, or is this executive executive director? I don't know which is which. For Hr. You get one or the other.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah. It's Assistant Superintendent, Vice President, which drives me nuts the titles way too long. I just prefer.
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Hong Lieu: It was a recent thing. It was just vice President. But, they added, assistant superintendent, just to give you the you know the honorifics on that side as well, and it's very fitting, because, you know, just from hearing anecdotally about how you know Ec. And everything's run. Y'all get your hands and everything, and y'all help out a little bit with everything. So it's a very democratic at the top, which is good to hear.
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Hong Lieu: But just just give us we, you know we had your predecessor, Michael Shanahan, on the show, and he talked about kind of hr the the nuts and bolts of it. So we kind of have a good idea of that. So if you just want to talk about, you know you coming into the position, and and how your you know your leadership style, and what you've brought to the department, and just kind of touch on that a little bit. We'd love to hear it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah, absolutely. I'm assuming with Michael. He probably touched, you know, on Covid times, too, if I recall when he was here, and that.
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Hong Lieu: Was a great time to be in Hr.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Oh, I'm glad I don't have to speak to that
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: great the question was, how did I get into Hr. And my leadership style.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, just what you what kind of kind of your unique perspective on what you bring the department? Because, I mean, we all know what hr does. It's just kind of
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Hong Lieu: how the sausage gets made, so to speak, and and it really is. It comes down to people at the end of the day. So, in terms of what? What you bring to the role and kind of your kind of
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Hong Lieu: you know your your perspective on things, your lens, and how you kind of view the department, and how how you're running things, so to speak.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah, absolutely so. A little background on me. If people don't know my undergraduate degree is in music, and I spent the first, st you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: decade of my career doing temp work and then eventually operations work. And then I went back to grad school and
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: had an Hr course. And so that's I've been in Hr about 12 years now in different states.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: So I do have that perspective which I think also brings different thoughts to the work that we do
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: as well as different organizations. So I've done higher education as well as public transit. So primarily public sector work. But my initial dive into Hr. Was a private company, which is great, because then you have a ton of money that you can use to to initiate things and create culture and connect people. But for me, the leadership style I have is really.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and I don't know if people will agree with this outside of
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the people that I work with. But really it's the focus on trusting my team.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And so we have an Hr team here made up of 10 individuals.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Half of those individuals report directly to me, and then half of them report to our director, who reports directly to me. So that's the structure. We do have a different structure compared to other colleges.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But my style and my focus on Hr. Leadership really is, you know, the team should be the experts, and as I've talked about since coming here in June of 24 is that
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the college should be able to trust everybody within Hr.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: To be experts in what we do to be able to provide customer service because
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: every single employee is my responsibility, and that's similar to to my team, although they are broken up into. You know whether it's faculty or staff
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: they
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: need to support everybody on the campus. And so my goal. And if you asked my previous team that I worked with. I have very high expectations that sometimes aren't always met, but my goal is to get people to be the best that they can be. So that way. The people outside of the department
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: really believe in the work that we're doing.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and we have to understand that there's limitations, you know, being in a public environment. We have, especially in California. We have title 5. We have all of our employment laws. Then we have our collective bargaining agreements, our mous, and so sometimes it can feel restrictive in what we want to do in creating connections and supporting different demographics of employees that may not get the support that they need or deserve. And so
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: my approach really is, even though I mentioned that people don't report directly to me. Not everybody reports directly to me. I do meet with all of my employees because I want to know what drives them, what, what are their goals? My! My goal is I, you know professionally, I'm where I would like to be, but I do want to earn a doctorate. And so that's I need to understand if people have educational goals
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: if they have training goals.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Today, we had a training on being an investigator. And what does that look like? And what is an investigative report? And so giving people tools to either be successful here or to be successful when they make a change in their in their lives and go whether it's to Ucsb. Or closer to home. Maybe it's at Ventura College or whatnot.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I want my team to be able to feel supported
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and then provide that kind of support to everybody outside the department. So
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: When I get to speak to it, I think it's great. But on the day-to-day actions it can be very challenging. You know, when you're sitting in meetings, you're not necessarily thinking about, how am I supporting everybody else? You're going okay. I'm doing an action. I'm taking a note, but my my actual leadership style is to focus on the other people and support them. The best that I can.
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Hong Lieu: Which is refreshing to hear. You know, it's nice to have to know that at the core of everything that that's kind of what's what's guiding you, and that's it's good to hear, because, you know, the Hr. Department here a lot of the folks have been there for a while. You have a lot of long tenure folks who have a lot of institutional knowledge. They know what they're doing. So so really, at placing that trust there and saying, Okay, you know what to do. You know what to do here.
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Hong Lieu: giving giving them tools to the job? It's really refreshing here. But at the same time. You, you know, being relatively new to college. I know there is also that desire to kind of
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Hong Lieu: not not quite put your stamp on it. That's very cliche, but you know they have your add your own kind of flavor to things as well. So how do you balance that in terms of I don't want to overstep and just be Dan stomping around and doing Dan things. And while also trusting, you know, because obviously there's there's room. There's room to switch things up.
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Hong Lieu: You know, there's there's always always room to bring some fresh ideas in and stuff. But at the same time you do want to trust our processes and things of that sort. So is there? I mean, it's not easy. It's not an easy answer here. But how do you find that balance? And where do you kind of see that line in terms of where things go.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Absolutely, which is a really great question. Because I think you know, when you come into a new position, you're analyzing the people. You're analyzing the organization. You're analyzing how we do things. And as you mentioned, quite a few of the people on the team have significant experience here, which is great, and that helps me out to be successful in my job. But I think in places where I'm trying to
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: make my mark, or at least get people to understand how I lead and how I want to lead might be, you know, through negotiations we're negotiating with Csea. We'll be starting shortly with fa, I'm currently in, meet and confer with Fan, and it's not me dictating what those mous or contracts are. But me being able to say, I think this is better for employees and getting that into the into those agreements in other areas, I think, with especially within Hr.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Taking the time to look at my team and and listen to how they do things and go. You know
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: one of the things I talked about in my interview, and why people shared with me afterwards. Why they liked me is because I talked about technology, you know. Are we utilizing the tools
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that we have to do the things that we need to do, and in some instances is banner up to speed where we need it to be. Do we have neo ed where it needs to be because it will actually change how we do some of our things like performance evaluations. If you don't have thousands of documents that you have to deal with anymore. Because it's in an electronic system.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It should make your job easier.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It doesn't mean that, you know. It doesn't mean that your job is going away. And so I try to emphasize that with people when I'm analyzing or wanting to to put my stamp on something, it really is. I believe that if we utilize some of this technology, people aren't going to feel so stressed about the work that they have to do because it's less manual. And then they can focus on the things that are more important, like connecting with
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: our colleagues across the college.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: So yeah, it's it's. And I. Also.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I also feel like. I don't necessarily want to come in here and put my stamp on everything
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: in the sense of it has to be my way or the highway. I don't like to micromanage. I don't like to be micromanaged. And so it's really that that trusting of others, and you know
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I've been in Hr for
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: 1212 years, you know, over a decade I haven't been in student affairs. I haven't been in academic affairs. I need to also trust that people in those departments in those areas know what they're doing, and if they ask me a question that I provide them with my analysis as an Hr. Professional, not as trying to
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: be in their shoes necessarily. So I think that it's in. And really it's about like, what are the little things I can do, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Am I? Am I checking in with people when I walk by? You know I've I've been through your office, Hong Akil. I haven't been to your office. But like am I saying hello to everybody?
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That's not necessarily putting my stamp on every, on everything. But it really is my way of saying, am I checking in with people?
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And that needs to happen more often? I'm going to completely be honest. It does. I sit in far too many meetings?
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But I I know that that's part of the way of leading, too, is by by saying, How are you doing today, or recognizing when someone's got some like a you know. A certain look on their face. To say is something going on. Do you want? Do you want to talk about it? You know. Do you need a place to go and really be that person, too, as a leader within the department.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, I I'm picking up what you're putting down Dan. You know I just can. I can attest. There's, you know, from being in a mission of records. Every you know when the President walks through, or someone with, you know, that's in a leadership role on campus.
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Akil Hill: They feel like, oh, wow! They stopped by. They said, Hello! They walked through, and and it's just the little things like that that really begin to shift the culture of of the place that you're employed by the other thing that I that you said that I really liked hearing was the piece of like arming people with
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Akil Hill: the skill set to try different things right like I think we like, Hong said. I've been on the block for a long time. We sometimes show up to Sbcc and we work the job, and we don't really get outside of too much of the job itself. And just like, you know, people been here for 1520 years, 30 years. I'm sure you've you've seen it all right, but it's it's refreshing to hear you talk about.
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Akil Hill: you know different things, and and so that's super exciting for me to hear.
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Hong Lieu: And that last part is like.
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Hong Lieu: like, I don't. It's like, sometimes when I feel like my phone is listening to what I'm saying and like it shows me ads, exactly what I want to hear. That last part is exactly what I want to hear, because I mean, I supervised when I worked in video games many, many moons ago, and I feel like a lot of people really keyed in on that aspect of just going up to people and talking to them, and make doing the rounds, quote unquote, just going and saying, Hey, how's it going? And then you can, and being able to pick up on cues when people aren't feeling okay, not by talking about work.
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Hong Lieu: but just by saying, Hello! How are you doing? And then, you see, like, oh, something dropped, you know, like, and that shows a lot of human kind of
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Hong Lieu: like empathy. Right there you can read people, you can. You can, you know when they're not as okay as they know, and when you especially when you do it every day, you would notice things that change a change in demeanor or tone. And then you can key on that and be like, Okay, what's going on and go farther? And people really are like, Oh, thank you for really taking the time. And it's like
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Hong Lieu: it's just, you know. It is a true skill to be able to read that in the moment, and kind of adapt and things like that. And you don't get good at that without practice.
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Hong Lieu: So putting in that time and and really knowing people, because that's the thing. Everyone's different. So like, it's not going to happen the 1st day, but by the 5th or 6th day you'll get you'll get a sense of people, and you know, and that's and that's that process of knowing people and building trust. It's not an instant thing where Dan comes in, because he's got this this and this all of a sudden. Oh, we're riding with Dan. No, it takes time, you know, like. And so just that that aspect of you know how to build those relationships.
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Hong Lieu: And maybe it's not like you're consciously doing it. But you just it's just because it's a habit that other people will feed off of that, and just in and of themselves they they give more of themselves, you putting in that initial effort. So it's not like, you know, it's not like. It's just. It's just beautiful, because it's just one of those things right? I saw it firsthand.
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Hong Lieu: How effective it was in terms of you know, when you work in video games, you just need a high school diploma and an interest in video games. So the pool is wide. The audience, you know, like you can get anybody in the door.
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Hong Lieu: and not everyone works with everybody equally well. But if you know people, then you know where to meet them and where to set the line of. Okay, I can go here with this person, but I can't go here, and it's not by me talking about work with them. It's just talking to them, knowing what they're into knowing where they come from. There's some of their background stuff, what they like to eat at lunch for lunch. That's usually my icebreaker, right? So it's just anything
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Hong Lieu: to be to have more of a human connection. And then the work stuff grows from there. So just yeah, really, really love hearing that.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And I, and I thank you both for that. Those comments. I think some of the challenge, too, is that in this setting it's very easy to talk about.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: but I'm a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, and many times the action is I'm sitting in an office or in a conference room, having a meeting which takes away from what I truly believe and what we're talking about, which is being out there and talking to people, but the work. There's also work that needs to get done with this role. But that is my philosophy. You know. You start with creating those relationships
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and go from there, and not everybody, you know, in my short time here I know not. Everybody will trust me. Everybody is is good at being skeptical, you know.
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Akil Hill: So little, like.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Is his endgame. What is he trying to do? Where is he? You know? And we all play those those kind of thought processes, too. But
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: When I can be out there and actually have my actions follow the words that we're talking about here, it actually fills me up and allows me to feel better than just sitting at my desk typing, you know, emails all day and and responding to people. So yeah, it fills my bucket.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. And I'm sure people, especially in the in your specifically your department, like, you know, the turnover has been what it's been. And so that level of just skepticism, and maybe, like, you know, treading lightly is a real thing, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Oh, absolutely. And it's it's 1 of those things of oh, yeah, he talks about that of wanting to try this new technology or whatever. But maybe he won't be here long enough to actually
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: come to fruition, you know, and there's going to be that skepticism. But we work through it every day and and try to build those relationships, because I think the way I treat my employees that will allow them to feel more comfortable and then treat our our teams outside of Hr. In that same manner.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and at times that has been been lost. But I know that the team does significant work and is recreating, you know, bridges and rebuilding bridges where they need to, and thinking outside the box. And so it takes time, and it won't be solved within 6 months or a year, and so, being here for the long haul will also allow me to see how maybe I've
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: helped support change in a positive way.
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Hong Lieu: And it's interesting thing interesting that you mentioned meetings as this, because it theoretically meetings would be the place where that would grow the most. But there's just something about the structure of meetings that yeah, there's definitely diminishing returns after a certain amount of time. So that yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know, and I think
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: meetings can be great. I shared with my team when I 1st started a book called
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: The Art of gathering by
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Priya Parker. And it's like, why do we gather? Because many times we're just doing the meeting? Because that's what we've always done, you know. Is there an agenda? Is there something that we need like? What are we trying to achieve? And they can be productive? And at times we just also forget. We're just like, Oh, that's what I'm doing today. But then people can. Also. I've had people on my team say.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you're always in meetings. You're never available to meet, and I go well on Tuesdays. Yes, but I try to build in that time throughout the week where I can walk around and check in with people and make sure if there's questions I can answer them. And it's really it's that mindfulness that we do need to place on meetings and other things, to to be successful.
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Hong Lieu: The meetings are kind of almost like the technology. In a way they kind of pair together in terms of they provide, they assist you, but there's still people for a while without like oh, tech would just do all the work for me. But the human element, the part, the human, the last mile, so to speak, the human work involved in making tech work for you and making it efficient because otherwise just bloated and wasteful in a lot of ways. But if you put in the work and learn the tech and let it work for you, then it becomes useful. If you use the meeting properly and and actually get work done.
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Hong Lieu: Really lay things out there. Nuts, nuts, and bolts like transparency. Get everything back, have a good back and forth, but sometimes people use the meeting and say, Oh, we're here in a meeting.
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Hong Lieu: Let's just get it done. Let's just get to consensus. And instead, it's you know. Then you're there for 2 and a half hours, and then it becomes one of those meetings. So I the analogs there are kind of interesting, but it is true, where, like that human part really is the crux of it all, and and knowing that you at least have your heart in the right place with that human element is is reassuring to me, at least. So yeah, thank.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah, and that you know,
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: part of why I got into human resources is because I believe of the value that we as humans have in the great things that we can do. If I could have a whole other, you know, 3 h of a podcast I could go into the fact that most of the work is done by humans to create even this great technology of AI and all these other things.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But there's that human knowledge and aspect and and commitment to
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: improve people's lives or make change. And that's really what can drive us in our day to day.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, here's what I want to know. Why. Why is there always one person in the meeting always wanting another meeting?
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Akil Hill: There's always one. It's like a universal thing where there's always one person that's always like, well, we need to meet again for that like. Why, why, I don't, you know I don't understand it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: If I knew the answer to that question, I mean I would give it to you. But you know that person is always the same person that wants the meeting. At the end of the day, on a Friday.
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Akil Hill: Yes, exactly, exactly, Dad. That is exactly what I.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Or they want it right away at like 7 Am. When? Because that's when they're available. But yes, if I had an answer that actually was
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: concise and not funny. I.
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Akil Hill: Let me share it with you. But.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: No, it really, I know there's always someone who would like that. And I think some of that, too, is just our our nature of going okay.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: we feel unresolved in whatever that 1st meeting was. And so then we go. Well, let's have another meeting about it. When really, maybe it's take that moment, take that time.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: sit with it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: write down your thoughts, and then see if another meeting is needed, you know, and maybe that becomes that email that should be sent rather than a meeting.
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Hong Lieu: 1145 on a day. You didn't eat breakfast. You're starving. It's like 1230. You're waiting, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But.
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Hong Lieu: And and really, in video games it was the kind of thing where there was always room to make things better. But a certain point. You feature lock and ship it, you know. Ship it, and you wait till the things come pouring in. Then you fix it afterwards, you know. And yeah, but a lot to be said for that.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Really that. I mean, I love that you're talking about video games. It's
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it's like we want to be perfect with everything.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And we're just afraid of of doing, and sometimes it's better to just do and see what happens.
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Hong Lieu: And and that backlash doesn't feel good, because you always miss something right, and people will always tell you about it 3 different ways and emphasize. And they're not wrong. And it never feels good.
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Hong Lieu: but you know that it's our job in those positions to take that you know, like not that you have to enjoy it. Yeah, I mean, it's always anguish. But I mean, yeah, that 1st line of defense it falls on, you know. Captain goes down with the ship, so to speak. You know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Oh, exactly. And it, you know, it's it's our human nature to kind of analyze risk. And it's very different for me to say, oh, that's fine, you know. Send off an email that just kind of maybe is missing something compared to the people that implemented whatever the technology was that basically took down the airlines and.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Of risk, you know.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Be okay with it.
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Akil Hill: Well, I mean, I used to manage, too, and I would always find that
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Akil Hill: you would rather deal with the employees that are telling you everything that that's wrong versus with employees that aren't telling you anything.
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Akil Hill: Usually when the employees aren't speaking or not communicating, that's that's I find, or found that that was a more challenging situation to be in, because then you're kind of like trying to like find the light switch in the dark right versus someone who's over communicating you and telling you all like we were trying this. And this doesn't work. And you said this and that, so you can rectify that. But it's the one that you like the people who aren't speaking that you're like. So what do you think
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Akil Hill: they're like?
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Akil Hill: Like, how do you? How do you? How do you? How do you move on from that, you know. So that's just that's just, you know, some of my experience, past few experiences.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You just hope that whatever they do think isn't like gonna cause shock waves.
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Akil Hill: Thumbs up.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know, or or because they aren't speaking, that whatever happens is gonna blow up in your face and go. Okay. You know exactly.
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Akil Hill: Tweet.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But that's that also, too, I think, speaking of leadership and going back to the that initial question. That's where, when you know your employees. Some people are introverted, and and the way that they want to share might be one on one and other. People love to share everything. And it's via meetings, and in, you know, in in full group sessions. And so there's an art to that as well of of
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: how do you kind of get people to share without making them too uncomfortable.
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Hong Lieu: And so along those lines. What is the best way to contact? Hr. Day, if you're staff faculty, and you have a question, or you want to. You know what is the best way to get in touch with Hr.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Great question. And
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: one of the things and challenges. I noticed when I started is that the Hr suites were locked, I mean, if people don't know, we're now in the Administration Building previously in a different location prior to my starting. But I think the best way.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: if you have a general question is, you could either email or call our direct line to ask questions. Otherwise it's always good to just go to the sbcc.edu
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: backslash.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Hr. Human resources. I don't memorize the page, but go to the Hr. Page, and on the 1st page it'll tell you the functional area that each individual has
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And so it's typically great to start with the team, because, as I mentioned before, they are the experts many times, if people come to me if I don't necessarily feel like it's something that I can fully support. You know, if it's a leave, and there's paperwork involved, I will redirect to Sharon because she handles those things. But I do have an open door policy, and I prefer my team to have that. If you're not in a meeting or you're not having to do dedicated work on something. Your door should be open. You should be available to answer your phone or a chat.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and I can't speak, but you know, on behalf of each individual on my team. But I think if the more that our college knows who handles the functional area, then the more likely it is you can reach out to them whether it's chat or email, or a phone call, or even walking in.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And so there isn't really a 1. Size fits all to this, this answering this question. But you can start with the general area of of going to our general phone number and our general email address
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: or focusing on who does the function within the team. And then I also remind people
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: my role as the head of the department is to really always be available. And so, if you are uncertain, send me an email. And I, I might do that redirect. Or I might just answer the question right out for you.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and I can also tell people. Oh, you know, this person is not available. They'll be back at this date, because I'm aware of vacations and sick time and things like that, and sometimes it just makes it a bit more
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: palatable for the team, so they don't feel overwhelmed.
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Hong Lieu: Excellent. I will get all that info in the show notes. Get the Hr. Links and Urls in there.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Perfect.
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Hong Lieu: Segwaying right along and rambling off.
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Akil Hill: No, not at all.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I don't know.
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Hong Lieu: You got? Well, no, that's the best. That's because, you know, and especially with you coming in. You may be a process of change, but that's that's usually the way it should be, check the website or check, you know, and contact the person that that is most purpose.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah. And for us, the website list, too. You know, we have today, we had, we had a training. And so most of us were not available. We look, we put that right on our main page, you know, to list dates that we might not be available, or we might be closed for specific reasons. And so that also gives the community more understanding of oh, they're not available because something else takes precedence, you know, and and or priority. And so we have to focus on that.
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Akil Hill: Hey, Han, did you get the book? The art of gathering.
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Hong Lieu: I I looked it up. I don't know.
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Akil Hill: That will be in the show. Notes, too.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, no. I got that.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Hong Lieu: No, I definitely listen to everything. I get everything. I'll get everything.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Excellent.
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Hong Lieu: Pause, or anything for me. I pull it all. I pull it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I loved the book. I don't. I was at a conference, I think, when it was shared with me, but like it's not just about meetings. It's about weddings, it's about kids, birthdays. It's about like.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: what's the purpose. And when you know the purpose behind something that can change the entire environment. So
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: don't think it's just work focused.
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Hong Lieu: I love the workbooks that are not work focused because it's more universal, I think the more we make things more holistic like that and kind of bring. Pull that stuff out into concepts that everyone is familiar with. Then we have. Then it's easier to find that the empathy and to relate to people better when you sometimes, sometimes we can be. You know, it can be a little like, well, that's their job they should be. But it's like there's a lot going on. There's, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Going on.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, and and
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Hong Lieu: don't know each other's stories. I don't know what's happening in other people's lives. We have fires, earthquakes.
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Akil Hill: Absolutely.
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Hong Lieu: And even with gatherings everyone's like, Oh, it's such a fun thing! Well, the person running that gathering see how much fun they're having, you know, like, I'm working the grill half the time on some of these gatherings. It's fun, but it's also work, you know, like, that's yeah. We have to value that work as well. So absolutely, I would definitely pull it down the show notes.
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Hong Lieu: But segueing right along to what brought you to Sbcc you mentioned. You were doing music before, and you mentioned your last stop was in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis area, are you from that area? Did you grow up somewhere else, or.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yes, I'm from a small farm community about an hour west of the Twin Cities 6,000 people, very common to have people drive tractors to work so they could pick up feed for their animals, for their family. I mean not to work to school high school, and so I'm from that area. I went to college in northeast Iowa, so that I started branching out then, and then I moved to Boston and spent time out there for 8 years, and then Silicon Valley, where I was at West Valley Mission, so got an initial
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: liking of California, and the Ccc. Community
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: did it. Was that too many C's California community colleges with so many acronyms. And then I was back in Minnesota,
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But we had moved back to Minnesota in 20
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: end of 2018, because of family matters and aging family matters or family members that we wanted to support. And
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: one of the things I've lived with most of my life has been seasonal depression, which I can tell you. If you've never lived in the tundra of the North.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it is very different, and it can really take a toll. I know people here can can relate when you have
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: August and June.
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Akil Hill: Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And.
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Akil Hill: I'm learning.
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Hong Lieu: Terms, you know all those may Gray.
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Akil Hill: May gray June gloom.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Exactly you can. You can really sense that. And
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Some of what happened was in. It was 2 years ago now. Early early January my father-in-law died, and so
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that kind of set off this this it was pre 6 months prior to my husband turning 40, and so for his 40th birthday we took a trip to California again, and we just you know, we sat with it. And we're like.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Hmm, okay. And then the that next winter
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: all of a sudden was very severe, and you know I was sharing with people when I started. Some of the months they consider
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: a day having sunshine being. You have sunshine for 3 h out of the day, that the sun is up in Minnesota, and we had 4 months where it was 3 days each. And so I was feeling the pressure of the the depression.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And so that's really what brought me here. I started applying to jobs again and looking at places that have a better natural climate, although dealing with the the smoke from the fires and allergies that I now have here that I didn't have. There really is what drove me here to to apply. And and then, once I came here for my interview, I was like, would you say no to that view from the stadium, would you.
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Akil Hill: You picked.
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Hong Lieu: Pound for pound for hey
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Hong Lieu: weather I've ever seen in the world, and all the travels I've been so far pound for bound year round best weather I've ever seen, so.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know it. It's it's just crazy. Because what was it? Tuesday of this week? So January 20, whatever it was.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I'm gonna say the actual date, so we see it in the future.
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Akil Hill: 21.st
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Most schools in Minnesota were closed because it was 18 below, with wind chills of 50 below, and
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it was 70.
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Akil Hill: Yup, and.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know I didn't worry about it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: so that's the personal reasons why. But I think professionally, too. I was a vice president of Hr. In in Minnesota.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I really just felt a connection to people during the interview process.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and I heard what people were saying, and I thought, I can come here and hopefully contribute
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: again, not not put my stamp on everything, but contribute in a way that helps the institution.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: be what everybody wants it to be or support people in a way
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that people feel welcome, and and that they have career paths and things like that. And so.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: on the professional side. There was really a drive as well from the connection, from the people that I've met to to go. Okay.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I know I can work with these individuals, and there may be their challenges here.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But there's challenges everywhere, and it'd probably be things that I can handle.
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Hong Lieu: And oh! Good!
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Akil Hill: Go ahead! Go ahead!
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Hong Lieu: It sounds like you made some pretty big moves, you know, like you went many. You went to Boston. You came West, I mean, I'm someone who wasn't born in La born, nor but grew up in one area and never really moved except to go to college in terms of that big move mentality, I mean.
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Hong Lieu: do you know when it's right? Are you just taking a chance? I mean, is there like a 6th sense that tingles like this place is okay. Do you visit first? st I mean, what's what's that mindset life strategy like when you're deciding because you're uprooting, you know. Talk about family being far away from family, you know, and and new place, I mean. Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And I think that is also being a person who has moved a challenge because there is huge value
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: for the people that that you know our hometown, you know, if you're a hometown.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Santa Barbaran, how, I don't know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Hey.
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Akil Hill: Santa, barbarian.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah. However, you might say that, you know, if if you are from here
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: sometimes, I know I might say something that could be really rude to someone that's from here, because I'm like, Oh, I'm new, and I'm bringing in this different perspective. And you know, and I don't. I don't necessarily the intent isn't to say that it's really to say I'm bringing different ideas.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You can be a hometown person and contribute significantly to the area.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and you can also be someone like myself who has lived in other places. And to me what I value is is that difference? You know the cuisine is very different in Boston than it is in Minnesota than it is here.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: which I know. We're going to talk about food later in the in this segment, but you get to experience it, and I think that that's kind of also my drive, too.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I've I've had, and I'll say it's probably privilege to be able to travel to other countries and to really experience the local culture and the local cuisine and those things.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And it just can. It's a way to connect with people, and sometimes you ask questions differently, and and and get people to open up and
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you know I lived in Boston. And so if you hear people honking on the road in this general area of Golita, Santa Barbara Carp, it might be me, because that's what you do in Boston, and I lived there for 8 years, and I learned this bad habit. But
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Hong Lieu: Hey? I'm an la Guy. I'm a honker all day, so
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Hong Lieu: you know, so like Honker and
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Hong Lieu: Hand, when they do something good that I give the hand so.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Dog does things. We.
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Hong Lieu: Hog does give the head.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And it. It's so, I think.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it. It isn't really, you know. It isn't to diminish people who stay in the same area, and and we could have big philosophical conversations, too, about, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Lgbtq. Plus community, and being in that community and living in a state like Alabama, where people on the coast are going to judge you and I go well, but if that's where they're from.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that's what they know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and you want to be connected, and it is hard, you know, if if someone in my family has an issue
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it's a
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: depending. If I leave from Santa Barbara or from la! It's anywhere from a 9 h trip, because I drive to La and take a 4 h flight to a 6 h trip from Santa Barbara.
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Hong Lieu: The layover.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah, or my in-laws, you know, live, live in France, and
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that's a 13 h flight from La. So it does make those instances when something is happening in the motion.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you you really have to think about and go. Okay, do I need to make make a decision? And do I need to say I'm leaving work, or whatever where, if you're local.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you might have a bit more flexibility. You might be able to call Grandma grandpa to pick up a sick child at school, or you might be able to say, I'm taking my lunch break to assist my parent or my sibling.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But yeah, it can be. You know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I can talk about a lot of things. But you know, it really is like.
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Akil Hill: With me.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I came here because it it felt right. There were many reasons, and I will tell you this last being here through the winter.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I would say, if I lived here.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I probably would have never been diagnosed with seasonal depression.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: living in Minnesota. Very different, and that that's my own personal story about it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But it's interesting how that plays in where to me my mental health is is huge and very important, because I've known for years that I have that issue, and I've dealt with depression, and I don't hide talking about it. You know I'm open about it because I think I want other people to find resources. But that's part of my driving factor where other people have other reasons why they make their decisions. But it can be very hard, because
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I will say I don't have a ton of friends here, you know. I'm getting to know people.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: but I've lost that. My best friend is still in Minnesota, you know it's a it's a balancing game of
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: of give and take, you know. Do you?
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Do you go with that to help yourself and lose some of those supports you have.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: or do you stay? And maybe then deal. Continue to deal with a health issue. That's more challenging, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: So yeah, hopefully that all makes sense.
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Hong Lieu: A friend that just moved from La. You know. I grew up with him, and he moved to Columbus, Ohio, because cost of living was better, and he'd said, you don't really understand what it's like
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Hong Lieu: to not be able to go outside or do anything for like a month or 2 months at a time, because you never really think about it, and I literally in my life have never thought. And that's why I haven't moved very far. You know, I know Southern California, but I knew I didn't want that. But at the same time I still don't know what it's actually like being in that situation. He's like, it's very difficult, you know, it's beyond the functional, the technical aspects, you know, snow tires, and this and that.
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Hong Lieu: just sitting inside with the heat, because you literally can't go outside. I mean that blizzard weather you were talking about. It's like he was minus 9 the other day. I when it's, you know, 30 degrees. I'm suffering. So yeah, he just like, it's like, I had an idea.
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Hong Lieu: But in in terms of actually being in it, it's way different. And it's unexplainable, you know, like, it's as well as things like empirically. You can't explain an experience unless you you know. So yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And it adds, like a different set of issues, too, because you don't think about pipes freezing, and you might not have water, and you might not, where we know, with natural disasters and things, you might run out of water, because it's not at the store or whatever. But in the winter you could be dealing with all these other issues where everything's frozen, and you really are stuck, and it really becomes scary and dismal. And you go. Oh, but yeah, it's, you know, if you haven't experienced it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it can be a shock like anything can be if if you haven't actually experienced it. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: I grew up in the Midwest as well, I mean I. My father was in the military, so I moved around quite a bit, but I spent time. I went to elementary school in Nebraska. So I know about those long, those long winters, and I remember like it would get so cold when we would buy.
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Akil Hill: you know, soda. My mom would like just to put outside on the patio. It would get cooler, faster than outside than it would in the refrigerator. So here's my question. Before we started the show, I told Dan I was going to ask him a question, so the question I wanted to ask you that I'm sure every all the viewers are dying to know you being from the Midwest. Do you say soda, or do you say, pop.
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Akil Hill: That is the question, Dan. What is it that you call it?
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I usually say, Pop, I know, but it's.
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Hong Lieu: Understandable, understandable.
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Akil Hill: Understandable.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It can be an argument, you know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That's weird.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: All have strong opinions about what we call it. But you know, and in other places. People say, Well, you call it Fanta, or you say, Dr. Pepper, and be like, no, I just want to pop.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I don't need to specify what it is, I'm just gonna say, that's what I want. So that is a great question. Because,
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you know, even being from Minnesota, people in Wisconsin say, bubbler, and we say water fountain, you know.
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Akil Hill: What is a bubbler.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I don't know, but that's.
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Akil Hill: I just. It's refreshing, because I in Nebraska they would call it Pop. And so I. When I got moved out here, I was calling it pop people like, what do you? What's wrong with you? It's not pop, pop is something you get when you act out a line. And so
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Akil Hill: but so then I switched over to soda. So it's gonna be interesting because I haven't met anyone that calls it pop until now that you call it pop. So I'm gonna see how long it's gonna take for you to.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Change.
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Akil Hill: Change from pop to soda. So we'll see to be continued.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Okay, I. And that's a great question. You know, anytime I see some of those things that that are posted online about. What what States love, what sports teams and what they call this or that. I'm always fascinated by that
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: stuff because it's just across the board.
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Akil Hill: Absolutely.
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Hong Lieu: But and we're definitely glad you picked here, and we're and and you hope you enjoy the weather and stay as long as you possibly can. Yes.
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Akil Hill: Absolutely, absolutely.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Still I'm still struggling, though with with the earthquakes. I am struggling with that. So shortly after I moved, when I previously lived here, the text. Messaging thing wasn't a thing yet.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And when I say previous delivery, I mean in the Bay Area
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: when it happened in June or July, and I got a text message. It was like the amber alert that I'm used to, which is, you know, lost lost children or adults.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that that could be missing for whatever reason, and I was looking at it. And I'm like, Okay, my phone is doing the amber alert. But it's saying an earthquake is coming.
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Hong Lieu: That that was new because I had never
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Hong Lieu: preemptive. I never got a preemptive one before. That was the 1st in advance. So you were.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Okay.
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Hong Lieu: You're on the ground floor with all of us here, because.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: I was amazed. I was like, this is the future. We're here. No flying cars, no Jetsons conveyor belts, but and so
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Hong Lieu: like the head of an earth.
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Hong Lieu: I know I know to.
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Hong Lieu: So it's coming.
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Hong Lieu: Go under a table or something. Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It was. I mean it just again, fascinating, because that's the technology.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But I could not comprehend that it wasn't a missing person, and I just
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and then I sat, and then I sat there, and I was like, what am I supposed to do? I mean, it's telling me there's an earthquake coming. But now, what am I supposed to do? So, anyway? That's a side note.
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Hong Lieu: And that's where, as a California, we did the drills every year, it's either get under a table or get outside, but don't watch out for your hallways, because people used to be like stand in the hallways, and that was not a good one, depending on the yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And you know Nebraska, Minnesota. We can tell you what to do with a tornado.
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Akil Hill: Yup! Yup!
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I know how to do, but.
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Hong Lieu: And that's something my son is really into, because he actually got into sirens for a little while. So he wants to hear like an actual tornado siren. Go, and my my buddy in Ohio. He's like every Wednesday. Do the tests, Dad, can we go? Can we go like you want me to fly to Columbus, to stand there and watch the tornado siren go like.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Okay.
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Hong Lieu: Think about it, and I'm probably gonna end up doing it. But.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: If they're concerned that there's going to be severe weather, they won't do it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Don't want you to be so. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, right, exactly.
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Akil Hill: Exactly.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, excellent. So segue, right along. Good eating our food section.
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Hong Lieu: So a dish you either ate recently or something you grew up with, whether you cooked it or ate at a restaurant. Anything you want to go with you can list more than one.
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Hong Lieu: And talking about midwestern things I hear about casseroles, because I grew up not eating a lot of casseroles or hot dish, whatever you want to call it. But I grew up not eating a lot, and so whenever I'd get one, they were like so magical to me that I just love them like
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Hong Lieu: unbelievably, like all of them, I think of Lasagna as a casserole. But, like Dorito, casserole, like random parents, would make these random casseroles throwing things into a dish. And I love them all. So if if you're going online, too, I'm with it, too. So I don't know if that's truly a midwest thing. But people tell me it is so. I'm all about it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: So I mean these. These aren't my favorites, but I will talk about it because we have a thing called tater tot hot dish.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, that sounds so good! So it's a hot dish. Yes.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It has, you know you take ground beef and you you cook it. You toss it in there, you toss it and
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the great things, because
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: when you look at cookbook, my family has done cookbooks for years, but really it's taking the recipes off of the Campbell soup cans and.
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Hong Lieu: Dish.
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Hong Lieu: My wife's dad had a secret secret cherry pie recipe, and then I bought the can of cherries that he made the pies with, and the recipes on the back of the can. I'm like, wait a minute.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Eccles.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That's how you do it. But that's tater tot hot dish. It's basically that. And it's it's beef. It's
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: cream of mushroom soup. Maybe. Then you put in the mixed bag of vegetables, which is carrots, corn, peas, and then you throw it with tater tots, and you put it in the in in the casserole dish, you know we say hot dish or casserole. I say hot dish, but the pan you put it in is a casserole.
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Hong Lieu: And not a casserole dish. It's just casserole. So is that like saying dish dish? If I say casserole dish.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yes.
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Hong Lieu: However.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Saying, Casserole also also references. What is in that dish which.
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Hong Lieu: Indicator.
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Hong Lieu: Hot dish. Yeah, I know it's a.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It's the craziest stuff. It's the craziest stuff, but that is a key staple in the Midwest kind of that, for for I will say key staple for the Germanic. You know European based family heritage, and I think people who may not have the European background still enjoy it because they know it as being just a very, and it
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it is what it is. It's a hockey. It's not.
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Hong Lieu: I had a.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Something you're gonna get Michelin stars for. It's it's just a hot dish.
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Hong Lieu: And I'm familiar with that flavor because I had a roommate who would do cream and mushroom soup with a burger, Patty, and put it over rice. So
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Hong Lieu: hots. Oh, man, that's leveling it up. That's that's that's a that's the next level, right there.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And it's a whole meal.
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Hong Lieu: With the veggies. Cause. Yeah, I was feeling the lack of veggies. But putting the veggies in there. Yeah, you didn't know that you're totally speaking my language here. This is beautiful.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You just take your spoon, even your soup ladle, and you just plop it on the plate.
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Akil Hill: Yes.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It's a whole meal. It's great another one, though that is also kind of a staple, and you'll hear it again. It
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it's a hot dish. It's called funeral hot dish. And really all it is is you have it at funerals, the Christian Catholic, you know Europeans that live in Central Minnesota. It's the same thing. It's beef, it's rice, it's
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I think it's cream of mushroom.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah, there we go.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Not a lot of ingredients, but they'll make it in the giant roaster pans for funeral.
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Hong Lieu: And you have.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That with some plain bread.
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Akil Hill: Ted.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Underwritten.
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Hong Lieu: Oh, oh, rice and bread! Carb on carb! Now, now you're totally speaking my language. Carb on carb violence. I'm all about it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You take the you take the funeral hot dish and you put it in that, you know. Wonder bread, and you eat it like a sandwich. That's how I.
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Akil Hill: Oh, my!
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But so that's those 2 meals are not my highlights. Those are just traditional things.
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Hong Lieu: They grew up with, Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Staple if you ever want to try it, just Google, them.
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Hong Lieu: I will definitely put recipes in the show notes, because I am down.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Find, the.
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Akil Hill: Man is bringing all back the Midwest to me right now with with those 2.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That's very, very midwest, very. Yeah. And
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you know it's called funeral hot dish. But it doesn't have to be had just at a funeral.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You can have it outside of a funeral. But people might question, Yeah, why you have it. But.
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Hong Lieu: If you pull up to a part, if you go to like a birthday party with funeral hot dish, is it gonna be like a. Is it a passive, aggressive, like a statement, or is it okay?
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Probably.
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Akil Hill: Don't try it, Hong Kong. Don't even try it.
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Hong Lieu: I'll just be I was happy to eat it. I'm not gonna say nothing, do nothing. I'm just happy to be in the company of people that have that kind of going on.
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Akil Hill: Pull up to the West Coast with a funeral hot dish. You're like this is a funeral. People are. Gonna be like, what.
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Hong Lieu: People are. People are always bagging on casseroles, and I'm like.
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Hong Lieu: I see I'm the person like they always say, you cook. Someone cooks someone cleans. I'm the cleaner. So like minimal dishes is best. Casserole is the most efficient way. I mean, you have wok and you have casserole. Those are the 2 most efficient modes of cooking and trend food transportation, because it's always one dish to clean. That's it. You got utensils. But in terms of the dish, that's it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That's perfect. Exactly like.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, if I have to use 12 dishes to make something. I'm I'm done.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, we're not in a professional kitchen. I don't need you getting tasting spoons and then throwing them in the sink like, no, I'm washing those. So you got to be a little more deliberate with your spoon usage.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, one.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Same thing. That's it.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I will say so. Non non like.
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Hong Lieu: Non hot dish non.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Not hot dish people, I mean, I've experienced a couple things. So in a small.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: My husband's from a small town in northwestern France.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the town that his mother lives in now. He didn't grow up there, but it's just, you know, down the road it's made up of during the year about
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: a thousand people, and then in the summer 7,000, you know, is is the population. And so
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: shortly down the road there's a resort that has a Michelin starred restaurant.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You would not expect it, because there really is no one there outside of tourist season.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and we went there for our anniversary 2 years ago, and they made mushroom leather as one of those.
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Hong Lieu: Things.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I know.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: fascinating. So as I'm talking about random things that are not staples, mushroom leather. So it was. I don't know what the process was. I don't know how they did it, but you take the mushroom somehow, and you you must keep compressing and compressing.
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Hong Lieu: But are they whole mushrooms? Are they whole mushrooms? Are they chopped up, ground up.
394
00:48:57.890 --> 00:49:07.409
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That I don't know, because what came out, what was on our plate looked like a piece of leather in the shape. I think it was in the shape of circles. I could probably find a photo. But wow!
395
00:49:07.530 --> 00:49:11.650
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Mushroom leather, and tasted exactly like mushroom.
396
00:49:12.100 --> 00:49:17.329
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: had a consistent sea like leather, but you could still chew it and actually get through it.
397
00:49:17.500 --> 00:49:27.720
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: The most crazy thing I've kind of experienced in the sense of thinking of what a mushroom is, and how it was leather like like that. The the texture didn't match so.
398
00:49:27.720 --> 00:49:38.510
Hong Lieu: And I think I think about like a beef jerky where you dehydrate it to really focus the flavor. So the mushroom, the umami flavor must have been just like, just like smacked upside the head with, how? Like, just like, yeah.
399
00:49:38.510 --> 00:49:47.330
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: One has been something. If you can never find a restaurant even in the in the area la, maybe where they might be doing like a mushroom leather or something. It's just
400
00:49:47.540 --> 00:49:52.058
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: again your brain kind of comprehends it and goes, wait, what is this? You know?
401
00:49:52.630 --> 00:50:00.529
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and then in college I had a band tour. We went to Japan and China and Japanese Mcdonald's.
402
00:50:01.230 --> 00:50:02.670
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yes, I know.
403
00:50:02.670 --> 00:50:07.950
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Amazing. Thank you. Akil. I mean, I again, I'm gonna
404
00:50:08.670 --> 00:50:15.260
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I'm gonna just put it out there for all audiences to know I can find Salsa to be spicy. So if it's a mild
405
00:50:15.260 --> 00:50:20.469
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: also, I can find it to be spicy. I'm not good with I'm not good with Wasabi.
406
00:50:20.470 --> 00:50:21.100
Akil Hill: I think we've.
407
00:50:21.290 --> 00:50:38.209
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Chili peppers. I'm not good with those things, but because I was there. I was like, I have to try Japanese Mcdonald's, and we all went, and it was great, but I thought it was too spicy. And you again you don't imagine, because it's it's Japanese based.
408
00:50:38.610 --> 00:50:40.500
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You're thinking American
409
00:50:40.660 --> 00:50:49.048
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Burgers, and whatever. But there's there's wasabi and other things in it that are traditional Japanese, you know, sides and and whatnot.
410
00:50:49.560 --> 00:50:56.869
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And and I loved experiencing it. But I was like, Wow, I am a weakling when it comes to spice, because even Wasabi is like.
411
00:50:56.870 --> 00:50:57.430
Akil Hill: Yeah.
412
00:50:57.430 --> 00:50:58.619
Hong Lieu: That's a different kind of spice.
413
00:50:59.090 --> 00:51:01.010
Hong Lieu: That nasal spice is tougher, nasal.
414
00:51:01.040 --> 00:51:01.710
Akil Hill: Yeah.
415
00:51:01.710 --> 00:51:02.510
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah.
416
00:51:02.510 --> 00:51:16.740
Akil Hill: Definitely that. Yeah. So I mean, I'm so glad that you actually said that because I was born in Japan. And so one of the things when I have gone back, like pretty frequently, one of the things is always to go to Mcdonald's.
417
00:51:16.740 --> 00:51:17.340
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Oh, yeah.
418
00:51:17.590 --> 00:51:18.710
Akil Hill: Yeah, yeah.
419
00:51:18.900 --> 00:51:29.420
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And again earlier. I talked about like cuisine, and I always find if you can go to where it's from, it's great. But then, to be like. I went to Japan and had Mcdonald's.
420
00:51:29.420 --> 00:51:30.843
Akil Hill: Yeah, and it's better.
421
00:51:31.200 --> 00:51:35.249
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And it is better. It's not the same as American Mcdonald's, because they pull.
422
00:51:35.250 --> 00:51:42.489
Hong Lieu: Lot from the local influence. Like the Mcdonald's in India, the Mcdonald's in Japan, they always have like unique items. So I am always curious about those unique items as well.
423
00:51:42.490 --> 00:51:46.240
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And if you are one of those people that you just love fast food
424
00:51:46.670 --> 00:51:55.140
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: whenever, if you see something, and especially if you're you're from here, and you see Mcdonald's, or Chipotle, or whatever, and you're going somewhere else. Try it there because it is going to be
425
00:51:55.280 --> 00:51:56.100
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: different.
426
00:51:56.450 --> 00:51:56.980
Akil Hill: Absolutely.
427
00:51:56.980 --> 00:52:08.949
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Be the the Big Mac that you're always getting here. So that's been a unique experience as well. So having that opportunity to try something I was expecting in my mind to be very.
428
00:52:09.940 --> 00:52:16.499
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you know, drive down the road from my my house and or my apartment in Golita, get there, and then it has all these different flavors.
429
00:52:16.940 --> 00:52:18.387
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: just great, so.
430
00:52:20.230 --> 00:52:47.440
Hong Lieu: Great picks, excellent picks. I will get all those into the show notes, and it's actually a great segue into our last segment. Higher learning our culture segment because you mentioned playing in a band, I mean, what kind of what kind of music did you play? And I mean, we can always dub to another conversation, because I want to talk to you about Minneapolis music, because I mean you mentioned you were music musician also, and Minneapolis, Minnesota music in general, but the music of the Twin cities especially.
431
00:52:47.510 --> 00:52:55.270
Hong Lieu: has had a profound influence on my life, I mean deep, deep in all aspects. But yeah, but I want to hear about your band first.st
432
00:52:55.490 --> 00:52:58.620
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Okay. So it wasn't. It wasn't my band. It was the college band.
433
00:52:58.620 --> 00:52:59.179
Hong Lieu: Oh, okay.
434
00:52:59.180 --> 00:52:59.590
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Additional.
435
00:52:59.590 --> 00:53:02.000
Hong Lieu: Oh, yeah. Instruments. Yeah. Instruments.
436
00:53:04.010 --> 00:53:19.339
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I grew up playing trumpet French horn like brass instruments. I actually started in second grade with piano. So like I do still play piano. I also play organ because there was an organist shortage when I was younger, and so, you know, I thought, I'll take that up as well.
437
00:53:21.350 --> 00:53:26.250
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I am very much classically trained, and so in the sense that I struggle. You know
438
00:53:26.520 --> 00:53:29.989
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I I'm I. If I have music in front of me, I can do jazz.
439
00:53:30.200 --> 00:53:33.930
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: but that tells you also how my brain works, and so
440
00:53:34.660 --> 00:53:52.259
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I don't know if I could ever be like a beyonce or a Taylor Swift, or Prince, where you're like writing music. And you're doing all these things. I've never had that kind of talent. I've just had the talent of okay. Someone else has done this, and then I perform it. So yeah.
441
00:53:52.260 --> 00:54:11.009
Hong Lieu: Which is also amazing, though, because my son plays piano and clarinet right now, and it's always funny, because people always, when they hear he plays piano. Oh, play something for me, and it's like I need the sheet music I need to read. He's not there yet where he can just like kind of like. He can play little scales and stuff, and when he, when someone has to play them he's like, I need sheet music. Bro, what are you doing.
442
00:54:11.010 --> 00:54:22.290
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And that's 1 of those talents, too, where, when I was a kid, I had a recital where I'd memorize a piece, but we still put the the music in front of me, and once I looked at the music I stopped because
443
00:54:22.860 --> 00:54:32.180
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I was seeing the notes all of a sudden, and so ever since then, like I can pinpoint. Why, I don't memorize music now, because I screwed up so badly at every.
444
00:54:32.180 --> 00:54:33.890
Hong Lieu: Site open. I was like.
445
00:54:33.890 --> 00:54:45.729
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And so I really like, if you have a piano in the airport, I don't sit down and play it, because I need that music in front of me. So I totally get, you know. There's a difference, too, for musicians who just
446
00:54:46.140 --> 00:54:49.340
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: they'll wing it and do whatever, and others that like me, where it's
447
00:54:49.930 --> 00:54:55.953
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: very structured, very, you know. But yeah, that was the band. And I I got to go there.
448
00:54:56.450 --> 00:55:00.043
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I also had a choir tour in college that was in into Europe.
449
00:55:01.730 --> 00:55:20.720
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Czechoslovakia, Austria, and got to experience some of those areas so great opportunity. And like, when you think about, you know, talking about being a military child, too, like I was always fascinated with the military bands because they're going other places, and they're performing, for you know, inaugurations, funerals of presidents, and
450
00:55:21.210 --> 00:55:25.099
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: just the way that music can connect us.
451
00:55:26.400 --> 00:55:36.500
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Music is is a language that doesn't have boundaries, you know. When I when I had that tour in Japan and China, we went to the Peking opera in in Beijing.
452
00:55:36.500 --> 00:55:37.700
Hong Lieu: Wow!
453
00:55:37.700 --> 00:55:42.100
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know, and so it's music, and
454
00:55:43.990 --> 00:55:50.779
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it may be weird at times, you know, yodeling can be a little, you know. We all kind of wonder about that, or like bagpipes. But
455
00:55:51.270 --> 00:55:58.259
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: people people will just stop whenever there's music, you kind of stop and go. Oh, what's going on, or what's happening in that.
456
00:55:58.590 --> 00:56:10.420
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: no matter what the words might be, or if there's no words, people have a feeling and a response to it. And that's really what got my passion into music prior to Hr. Is that it's a way to connect
457
00:56:10.600 --> 00:56:19.000
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and cross boundaries when when we didn't have Duolingo and we didn't have these things where we could translate Google translate and actually talk to people in other places.
458
00:56:19.655 --> 00:56:24.729
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: So yeah, that's it's also given me experiences which has been phenomenal.
459
00:56:24.960 --> 00:56:45.449
Hong Lieu: And also having that creative background in terms of your work. Now, as an Hr. Person where some people might be doing Hr. Like, oh, I wish I could just be making music instead, or like, and it's like, and it's like, Well, there's good things and bad things about both, you know. And it's 1 of those things where like is even people when I was, you know. Now, when I tell people working video games. Oh, I wish you could work in video games. There was parts that were great.
460
00:56:45.620 --> 00:56:59.050
Hong Lieu: And then there was parts where I'm just in the same position where you're just pulling your hair out in agony. So there's everything. It's always work, you know. You do what you like. You never working a day in your life, bunch of hogwash to me.
461
00:56:59.050 --> 00:56:59.900
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Fully. But that's okay.
462
00:56:59.900 --> 00:57:18.460
Hong Lieu: Okay, that's okay. It's okay. That's absolutely 100%. Okay, work is work. And that's fine. But but having that perspective even helps, you know, reaffirms even more that you know. Like when you've seen both sides, when you have that, you know that broader perspective, it really it really kind of brings home that that you know, that empathic humanist aspect that you mentioned earlier. So I just want to.
463
00:57:18.460 --> 00:57:30.559
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yeah, for sure. And many times you know that the idea of do something you love. Well, sometimes something you love may not ever pay the bills, you know, and and there's so many things of why we think about it. And
464
00:57:30.770 --> 00:57:38.130
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: for me, too, music has also given me the opportunity to play. I played for my husband's best friend's wedding in France, and like
465
00:57:38.430 --> 00:57:49.109
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I had that opportunity. But it was still was stressful, stressful, because it was in a different language, and I had to understand. You know I'm not fully fluent in French, and so I had to understand
466
00:57:49.420 --> 00:58:01.699
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: a church service in French, and and those types of things, too. So there's that added pressure of or you know you're performing. And then all of a sudden, you become, you know you. You start somewhere. I remember when Adele started, she
467
00:58:02.020 --> 00:58:08.240
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: saying at Minnesota public radio back in 2,007 or whatever. She wasn't big then.
468
00:58:08.530 --> 00:58:13.870
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and then you become big, and that adds an extra layer of stress. You know you think about all these people
469
00:58:14.620 --> 00:58:17.439
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: beyonce Adele.
470
00:58:17.650 --> 00:58:19.810
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Any of the bands you know.
471
00:58:20.540 --> 00:58:30.153
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: They're still human beings. And there's now a different set of pressure on them, because people know them and security issues and other things. And so, anyway.
472
00:58:30.850 --> 00:58:41.540
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you're doing something. You go from doing something you love like a few hours a day to 8 to 10 HA day all day all the time. Do you still love it? I mean it. Just yeah, yeah.
473
00:58:41.540 --> 00:58:42.190
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: right?
474
00:58:42.190 --> 00:58:47.390
Hong Lieu: Then you turn your back on the audience and still play like Miles Davis.
475
00:58:48.370 --> 00:58:56.790
Hong Lieu: Yeah, so did you? I mean, did you? Did you get a chance to go to a bunch of shows like, did you go to 1st Avenue and and say live music and all that.
476
00:58:56.790 --> 00:58:59.625
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: We had a place called Fine Line.
477
00:59:00.190 --> 00:59:06.150
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: My parents were big on, too, like going to the Minnesota orchestra, and so there
478
00:59:06.520 --> 00:59:24.300
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Minneapolis has a ton of theaters, obviously, Orpheum, where lots of Broadway shows come. But then you get stand up, comics and whatnot, and then there's the ballet and whatnot in Saint Paul. And so my parents instilled music within me, you know. Kind of. That's how we how we grew up. And so
479
00:59:24.770 --> 00:59:39.000
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: we would do shows then, and then in college, too, I went to a college that was obviously big on music, because that's where I got a degree. And so they would bring in performances, and that I've always done that, and when I can go I try to
480
00:59:39.480 --> 00:59:44.520
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and now that there's the bowl here, I'm like, oh, I should really go there and experience that.
481
00:59:44.810 --> 00:59:48.249
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But you know, I've seen Janet Jackson
482
00:59:48.690 --> 00:59:57.830
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: 3 times in my life 3 different states. I've seen Mariah Carey like, Okay, I'm
483
00:59:58.070 --> 01:00:00.249
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I'm a gay guy. So
484
01:00:00.670 --> 01:00:09.399
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the names that are coming up people are like, Oh, okay. So you know, you wouldn't think, maybe, that someone would go see Mariah Carey, but I love her. I love
485
01:00:09.590 --> 01:00:11.706
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Janet Jackson. I've seen Robin
486
01:00:12.130 --> 01:00:15.060
Akil Hill: Oh, Robin, is! It would be so good to see live.
487
01:00:15.060 --> 01:00:19.620
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And that was a great show she was with. Oh, boy, what was that group.
488
01:00:21.090 --> 01:00:22.350
Hong Lieu: The group she was in, or.
489
01:00:22.350 --> 01:00:26.999
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: No, no! She her her what's that word?
490
01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:27.940
Akil Hill: Who opened it.
491
01:00:27.940 --> 01:00:36.290
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Opener. Thank you. I was like, anyway, it was a great group, and then they came back and sang with her at the end. But yeah, so for me, it really is like
492
01:00:36.410 --> 01:00:45.010
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: when when something comes up. I love watching the Grammys, you know, and and seeing
493
01:00:46.930 --> 01:00:48.139
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: why am I blanking.
494
01:00:49.510 --> 01:00:53.239
Hong Lieu: Don't worry. We can. We can edit out the pauses. You can take your time. We can edit out the pauses.
495
01:00:54.980 --> 01:00:59.240
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: What is her name? You've got a fast car, she's saying, Thank you.
496
01:00:59.240 --> 01:00:59.940
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You. Chairman. Yeah.
497
01:00:59.940 --> 01:01:00.580
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Gosh!
498
01:01:00.580 --> 01:01:00.910
Akil Hill: Yeah.
499
01:01:00.910 --> 01:01:02.990
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Just listening to her yesterday trick, you know, like
500
01:01:03.380 --> 01:01:05.359
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I would love to see Tracy Chapman. I would.
501
01:01:05.360 --> 01:01:05.740
Akil Hill: Yeah.
502
01:01:05.740 --> 01:01:15.439
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: To see some of these people, but, like the Grammys, is a way to also experience some of this, although it's in a short spurt to be able to see her sing that song that I remember from my childhood, like.
503
01:01:15.440 --> 01:01:15.910
Akil Hill: Yeah.
504
01:01:15.910 --> 01:01:19.200
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I was in tears. You know I'm like, what is this? And so
505
01:01:19.750 --> 01:01:37.369
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I encourage people to go see whatever whether you like it or not, you know, if country is not your thing, or if Reggae is not your thing or jazz, still try it because it's an experience, and you understand where these things come or like. If you can experience peaking opera, it is not what you think of as as
506
01:01:37.530 --> 01:01:42.539
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: classical opera, you know it. And so you want to experience it. Do it once in your life.
507
01:01:43.581 --> 01:01:49.358
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But yeah, fine fine line. First, st Ave target center all those places
508
01:01:50.260 --> 01:01:55.570
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I've been to for concerts. Celine Dion! I actually saw at the target center
509
01:01:55.690 --> 01:01:59.200
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: before she stopped singing until the Olympics.
510
01:01:59.610 --> 01:02:01.890
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: so prior to her little break,
511
01:02:02.740 --> 01:02:03.960
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Black eyed peas.
512
01:02:04.130 --> 01:02:07.180
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: That was a great concert. Gwen Stefani.
513
01:02:07.400 --> 01:02:08.040
Akil Hill: Okay.
514
01:02:08.040 --> 01:02:13.677
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Experienced all those in Minnesota. So yeah, I you know I've had that. I
515
01:02:14.770 --> 01:02:18.520
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: The only disappointment is, I never saw prints, and so.
516
01:02:18.940 --> 01:02:19.640
Akil Hill: Yeah.
517
01:02:19.640 --> 01:02:27.820
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Own singer never saw Prince, and that is, if I had a regret, a regret, that my parents
518
01:02:27.820 --> 01:02:29.186
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: take me to see Prince.
519
01:02:29.460 --> 01:02:32.460
Akil Hill: There's a lot of people who have that regret. Right? You know.
520
01:02:32.460 --> 01:02:32.849
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know.
521
01:02:32.850 --> 01:02:34.480
Hong Lieu: Same, because there was a time when he was doing.
522
01:02:34.480 --> 01:02:35.970
Hong Lieu: I have that regret.
523
01:02:35.970 --> 01:02:41.769
Hong Lieu: Yeah, there's a time where he was doing so many shows you kind of just took it for granted, and then it kind of wound down a little bit.
524
01:02:42.230 --> 01:02:47.359
Hong Lieu: And then all of a sudden, no more opportunity. And it's like, Oh, no.
525
01:02:47.360 --> 01:02:48.220
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You know.
526
01:02:49.030 --> 01:03:05.050
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: we would drive past his his Paisley palace all the time I actually attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting there, and so I got to got to see the art, the exhibits, and got to see whatever. And so if you're in the area plug for Paisley Palace, go do it.
527
01:03:05.340 --> 01:03:07.619
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But yeah, you know, people talk about
528
01:03:08.040 --> 01:03:16.049
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the Paisley Palace. Looks like an office building if you haven't seen it. But there's a giant theater room, and there were a couple theater rooms.
529
01:03:16.270 --> 01:03:31.770
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and I've heard stories of people that were like, Yeah, you know, I was with friends one night. And then all of a sudden we got an invite from another friend to go to a concert, and it was Prince at Paisley Palace like he would do pop-up concerts in his house, because that was his house
530
01:03:32.270 --> 01:03:36.590
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: in these rooms and hearing those stories. And I'm just like, Oh.
531
01:03:37.900 --> 01:03:38.530
Akil Hill: Hey!
532
01:03:38.530 --> 01:03:42.200
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I want that, you know and and
533
01:03:42.740 --> 01:03:45.229
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it is what it is. But when when he passed
534
01:03:45.830 --> 01:03:52.000
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: it I was, I remember where I was, and I nearly dropped to the ground like
535
01:03:52.140 --> 01:03:59.569
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: screaming, you know. And I was like, Okay, keep it together because you're in public. But yeah, and and
536
01:03:59.840 --> 01:04:03.659
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I've never seen Bob Dylan. You know. I know he's got the that movie out now with.
537
01:04:04.110 --> 01:04:05.030
Hong Lieu: Timothy, Chalamet.
538
01:04:05.030 --> 01:04:12.749
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Timothy Yup, Timothy Chalamet! Never, never seen him, but he's you know, the hometown artist.
539
01:04:13.840 --> 01:04:21.569
Hong Lieu: I saw him at the Cal Poly Rec Center, and that was the worst place to see Bob Dylan, because gym acoustics are not exactly. Yeah, not not.
540
01:04:21.570 --> 01:04:22.240
Hong Lieu: That'll suit it.
541
01:04:23.590 --> 01:04:26.360
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: People love putting concerts in gyms, but oh.
542
01:04:26.950 --> 01:04:52.830
Hong Lieu: Yeah. The echo in the din. Yeah. Yeah. Because Prince used to own a club in La. It was called the Glam Slam Club when he owned it, but it was. It's now the bellwether, so it's a music venue. So it's kind of cool. If you go see a show at the bellwether in la, because you're like, Oh, man, you can kind of see the kind of the layout and the way you can. There's still pieces there. I mean they they redecorate the whole place because the way it was decorated, for it was awesome. But even now there's still the little you know touches, and it's like, Oh, man, this place is probably
543
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Hong Lieu: so cool and also dude. I want to be here when it was probably wild, as I'll get out, too. But yeah, for sure. But it's all. You can always see those little pieces, the little artifacts sprinkled throughout. Still, that.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Oh, yeah, and I think like at Paisley Palace, you know, similar to going. If you go to the Grammy Museum, I experienced that this last fall. You get to see people's outfits like up per up, close and personal, and you don't realize how short some people are.
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Akil Hill: Oh, yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: They are until yeah
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: outfit. And you're like, okay. When I saw them on TV, I swore they were 6, 5, you know.
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Akil Hill: Yeah.
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01:05:28.770 --> 01:05:30.670
Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And they're like 5, 4. But like.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I feel like seeing Prince's outfits in Paisley Palace like you just feel his artistic vibe.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: you know. And and yeah, like you, said Hong, being there, or or what was what was it like to experience when that person was there? It had to have been just radiating
552
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: a great vibe, and we didn't experience it.
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Akil Hill: You guys are totally giving me the greatest night in pop vibes. Did you guys see that on Netflix.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Yes.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, it totally was like, Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about.
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Hong Lieu: I guess a question I have, and wrap this back around to you know what brought you? Sbcc? Maybe a little bit. But in terms of you were doing. You were this very entrenched in music, doing performances on tour?
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Hong Lieu: At what point did you not know but have an idea that you might need to pivot to something else to do. Hr. Or do something else, I mean, do you? Do you hit like the end of a road where someone's like. Well, if you can either do this or do this, or was it just kind of you? Came a decision on your own, and just said. I didn't want to, maybe practice for 8 HA day anymore to keep up a standard or whatever.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: So, so, interestingly enough, I actually wanted to be a music teacher.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and then I had J term. So my my college would do a fall semester, and then a 3 week J. Term in January, and then a spring semester.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and I had to go student teaching.
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Akil Hill: I see.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Survived those 3 weeks because I'm still here.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But I realized I didn't want to be a teacher, and so the like. The performances were really with college and stayed with college. And it was, okay. Obviously, is music outside of doing like church work, weddings, funerals going to be something you could do that would really sustain you, which no, it's not, you know, that's not something you're going to do.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I also graduated right prior to the the 2,008 recession. And so
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: when we talk about kind of degrees and things, you know, some people say, don't ever go get that
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Latin degree, because it's not going to serve you. At the time of 2,007, when I graduated, a music degree wasn't going to serve me, and people flat out, said that, and so I tempt a lot. And then the recession happened. So I continued to temp until I got a temp to Perm role where I became an operations person, and really was focused on operations. And so no one ever really said anything to me. It was more of the world was saying.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: what's the point of a music degree, you know. And me going? Okay, you you have talent to do perform weddings and funerals and kind of that traditional classical stuff.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: But it's not something that would have sustained me
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: in a way. And so, you know, if someone asked me today, you know, can you play for a wedding tomorrow. I'd be like, absolutely I could do that. But that's not something that I would
570
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: would fill my bucket and sustain me. So it was really more the world kind of coming together and saying.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Why, you know, you know, and not
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: not one person saying you should really pivot. And then, as I moved along at that time, too, and it's not to diss the Mba degree, but the degree of choice or the degree du jour was, everybody should get an Mba. Like if you want to advance. And it was like 2010, 2011, you need an Mba. And so that's when I really knew and took those courses that then included some Hr courses and that kind of changed that trajectory as well. So
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Sometimes we have to listen to the world, and I think my advice to people is degrees are worth it. Obviously we work in higher Ed.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: and you can also pivot at any time and listen to those vibes. Listen to what maybe people are saying, or what the the world is saying, or or where your life is going, and and and don't
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: dissuade whatever that voice might be, you know, for some people like we've talked about, the music is phenomenal, and you can do it, and that's that's your goal. But sometimes there is something else that that really drives you. So yeah, there wasn't. There wasn't really people telling me it was more of kind of this culmination of things that said this probably isn't going to be
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: what you do.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: And at the same time I graduated with people who are still performing musicians, and that's their role. And that's what they do. And I'm so proud of them because I think it also takes. Nowadays, you know, it takes the marketing, the Instagram, the social media, the all of this. It's not just your performing, it's the practicing and all of that. So.
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Hong Lieu: That grind is universal, that grind is universal.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It is, you know, and and that's really kind of how it it happened for me. And
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: yeah, it wasn't necessarily people saying, you know, you should reconsider what you're doing. It's really kind of been, as I've felt.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: but the
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the words and the comments, and the the reports and things like that kind of come out and you go. Okay, yeah, maybe there's a different thing I need to be doing. And so then
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: the passion of music, and how that brings people together really does translate into doing Hr work
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: because you do have to bring people together. You have to get people to the table, whether it is to negotiate or to make big decisions or to create AI. You know, it's
585
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: a collective effort. Excuse me. I'm getting hiccups.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Edit that out. Yeah, that you know. That's that's kind of how it goes. And I also think
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I love Hr. And at some point, you know, a future goal for me might be just to to be a faculty member or to be some sort of
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: I don't want to say a consultant, but in the future, or closer to retirement like, do something different where I'm taking what my experience and what I've learned, and saying.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: this is how I got to where I was in my professional career that was really focused on Hr. And these are the tips and tricks
590
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: so it could evolve from where I am now. So to me it's it's kind of, you know.
591
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Don't ever dissuade the voice of of change. Don't dissuade yourself from trying something new, and and that's kind of
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: that path that I've had throughout life.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah. As a philosophy, major, I can definitely relate in terms of when I was going to school. Everyone's like, so you're going to do law school after? Or are you going to double major in history, or get a you know, Phd. And go teach? And I didn't want to do any of those things. And I you know it's like, because I kind of fell into it. I was an engineer first, st and I couldn't hack it, and then I went to business, and I was bored out of my mind, so I didn't want to do that. So I went to college liberal arts, but so I was like, I don't want to do any of those things.
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Hong Lieu: But so then, after after I graduated, I wanted to, you know, wanted to do writing. So I went to work in video games to try to do writing just stumbled in to end up doing all the you know project, lead and technical stuff, and that's where I got my tech bona fides where I do it. Stuff now, where it's like. So those things where you just kind of have to be ready to pivot and just kind of when something's telling you like. Okay.
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Hong Lieu: they're telling you you don't have very many options. Let's see what your other options you have. And then that's where you lean on this just pure skills, you know. And you lean on the skills you have just relating to people and and building trust, and those kind of things that you've done in music have translated to other industries. And that's where people, I think, feel like everyone in general should just really take a better inventory of the skills they have, because we're all as humans so skilled and so good at doing things, but sometimes we give short shrift to the things we're really good at
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Hong Lieu: in favor of wishing we were better at other things. But when you really lean in on the skills that you have and and really just trust yourself before you can. You know, like that the idea of building trust when you trust yourself and what you can do, and really lean on that. Say I can. I can do this really. I can find work doing this. Then that's when you become so willing to change and willing to, you know, open to pivoting. And that's when, like you kind of fall into this new path. And that's you know. It's a beautiful thing to see. So.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Oh, absolutely. And you have great points there, because I think there's a reason. There's a philosophy degree. There's a reason there's a classics degree. We shouldn't diminish any of those areas. But yet at times you'll hear the world around us say, Oh, that's you know you do need to do that.
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Hong Lieu: Don't do that, or, Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Why aren't you going to law school after this? And we need to acknowledge there's a reason why there's a community college system in many States. Why, there's a technical college system, because it's not a 1. Size fits all. There's a job out there for everybody, and something you can enjoy. You may not love it every day.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: You may not
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: want to do it your entire life, but there's ways to do it and to like you said, you know, you can pivot, and you can change, and you can go and get an associate's degree or a certification to be able to do something different, because you want a career change. And it's really about like, you know, just don't be afraid to
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: to embrace something you might be feeling.
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, that's right.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Sources like people in Hr. Who can say, Oh, you're considering a career change. Let's work on your resume. Let's work on getting you connected to a program somewhere where you can get those skills to make that change.
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Hong Lieu: Because it goes both ways, too, where folks will fall into something really young, you know. Get a certificate and do that job for a while and think, well, I've been doing this for 10 years. What else can I do? But the truth is, it's such a long, you know. It's like it is a marathon, not a sprint. And when you look back on things you really are looking back a long way, there's always time. But yeah, you don't always want to reset and go to the bottom rung of a salary scale, not saying, always do that, but at the same time you really have to just trust
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Hong Lieu: and value the skills that you've built, no matter what you were doing, and and trust that you can do the job the next job. That's there, no matter what it is, you know, and I'm not saying go into interviews, and you know, fake it till you make it. I'm not that guy, either. Don't scam your way into anything.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: No.
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Hong Lieu: But at the same time really trust yourself, know yourself, and trust what you're good at, and just use that to really to push yourself to whatever you want to do. Yeah.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Right. And and I think it's, you know
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: again, like the institutions that we have and the degrees that we have, the jobs that are out there are out there because we need them. We need those jobs and it, whether it's higher education, whether it's working for the postal service, whether it's working for, you know, a private entity. Those jobs are there for a reason or like this morning, you know. Spacex shot off a rocket, and I looked at it while I woke up, and I was like, Oh, that's fun, you know. I'm never going to be a rocket scientist, but
611
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: might pivot someday and go. Yeah, that's what I want to do. And I want to be part of that. And.
612
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Hong Lieu: And the new industries, like someone's got to clean up all that space junk in 20 years. You know, the satellites all run out of juice.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: It's gonna turn into. Oh, what is that? Oh, what is that movie? It's an animated film.
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Hong Lieu: Wally.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Wally. Thank you.
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Hong Lieu: Absolutely so. Yes, absolutely higher learning. Thank you for those lessons, Dan. Thank you for that, and thank you for coming on the show.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: For having me.
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Hong Lieu: Before we say goodbye. Anything else, any final, any final words, any last anything for the listeners.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: If you have more questions. I like to be an open book unless it's a confidential work issue. So ask about anything. Come, you know I'm here to have those chats to other than work, so.
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Hong Lieu: Yes, open door policy. But we'll also put all the Hr website info in the show notes and thank you again, Dan, thank you.
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Akil Hill: Thank you. Dad.
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Dan Le Guen-Schmidt: Until next time. This is Vaquero Voices. Take care! Y'all, thank you.
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Akil Hill: Peace.
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Hong Lieu: Alright!