Welcome to GreatConversations, a podcast about leadership and life from GreatAmerica Financial Services. Mitch Leahy, Vice President and General Manager for our office Equipment Group hosts our NextWave series of talks with thought leaders and innovators from across the business world.
In today's episode, we welcome Lauren Hanna, President of Blue Technologies Smart Solutions out of Cleveland, Ohio. Lauren shares her experience as a female in leadership and what it has been like as a mother who battles with the concept of “work-life-balance.” Being in a historically male dominated industry, finding strong females that work alongside Lauren has become an empowering experience and brings more hope for the next generation of leaders.
Mitch: Hello and welcome to GreatConversations with GreatAmerica Financial Services. I’m Mitch Leahy. Today we are joined by Lauren Hanna, President of Blue Technologies Smart Solutions. Good morning, Lauren!
Lauren: Good morning, Mitch!
Mitch: Lauren and I don’t know each other well, but we met at the 2024 ECS event where Lauren was doing a panel and did an excellent job. I'm looking forward to getting better acquainted and learning more about you today! Starting with your role as Vice President; Can you give us a little insight into what that means and what you're focused on day to day?
Lauren: As you get to know me, you'll learn how much I despise titles because I think there’s a lot of people that attach ego to a title. With the Vice President title I'm carrying, I run our Blue Technology Smart Solutions Company, which is our IT and software side of the business. I have sales, ops, and service that report through me on the IT, software, and workflow solution implementation products. I also have sales professionals on the print and production print side of the business as well.
Mitch: So, you took on the challenge of trying to scale on the IT and solution side. How has that been? How long have you been involved on that side of the business?
Lauren: About a year, but I've always been involved. We acquired a company in 2012, like most of us in the office tech space, but it didn't take off right away. It was an MSP with a large government and education focus. To be honest, our leadership group would tell you that they paid the dumb tax on it. They tried to run it like a copier company, and that just doesn't work. I have a lot of thoughts on that. But for the last year it's been really stimulating, in both good and bad ways. I've learned so much from the people on our team. It has been exciting because there's so much opportunity in this side of the business, but also big opportunity to strengthen our other side of the house, too. I feel like I'm back in a new sales rep position; every day I’m constantly learning and carrying around my little notepad of acronyms, driving my engineering team nuts asking what different things mean. It is exciting, but it's ever evolving, I think it evolves much more rapidly than the traditional print side.
Mitch: You mentioned a few learning opportunities. Are there any instances you can share that stick out to you over the years at Blue Technologies Smart Solutions as you were leading that side of operations?
Lauren: I would say the biggest lesson in any business is communication is key. It’s imperative to have not only good communication, but to have excellent communication between sales, service, and admin when it comes to IT. What the sales side is hearing and saying in the field goes beyond just a part number we are replacing. If service isn’t involved, the deliverable cannot be met for the customer and the admin side can’t build the right solution for them. I would say communication and having synergy between all parties, especially on the IT side, because there are so many factors. I’ve been constantly trying to merge and break down the silos between sales, service, and admin and it’s made such a better deliverable.
Mitch: I’ve found that to be a common challenge. Particularly when you're trying to do something that feels like it should be very much parallel and there should be some overlap there, but it can feel like there is a dividing line between the two.
Lauren: Definitely. Another thing is that it's the exact opposite service model. So, if you have a printer or a multifunction device, traditionally, you should have a little bit of service when you install it until a certain mileage point where it may increase toward the end of that lease. In IT and software, it is heavy up front. You could do the best pre-sales discovery assessment in the world, but until you take over that network and get into the environment, you're not only learning the physical infrastructure, but the cultural data of those users. So, IT is much heavier on the service upfront. And if you do it right and create a roadmap of where you would like to go, it should become less of a burden on service as the contract evolves. That's something that's been hard for me to communicate up front. But it’s been really exciting to learn about the process and help communicate it to all parties within Blue Technologies Smart Solutions, not just the IT side.
Mitch: That is exciting. Were you in a leadership role before you moved over to that side of the business, too?
Lauren: Yes, I was our Vice President of Sales for Blue Technologies Smart Solutions. I worked alongside one of the owners/Vice President of Sales, Billy Nelson. He taught me so much of what I know today. We divided and conquered our different branches in our sales teams. I've been here 14 years now, so sales is really my specialty, but I do have that need to understand and learn, so I do love the Ops side too.
Mitch: In making that transition and focusing on a different part of the business within the Blue organization, do you feel like it has made you a better leader?
Lauren: Oh, tremendously. I'm very close with our CFO now because I wanted to understand the financial side of things and not just the sales side. I drive her crazy asking so many questions, especially when it comes to understanding the billing and the profitability of these contracts. I have also started to see things through different team member’s perspectives, which has ultimately led me to be a better salesperson. If I understand the financials, then we can account for it at the point of sales, demo, and discovery with our customers. I think the biggest benefit to my leadership style is just understanding all the different parts and specific steps that go into making a deal with a customer. What are their challenges as a customer or someone on our team and how can I better understand where their obstacles are? That has made it honestly fun. It's kind of changed how I sell it a little bit. And then I'm trying to pass that on to, not just the IT side, but also the traditional office technology side as well. If we can better understand our departments and inner workings, it helps us better understand our prospects and ultimately provide a better deliverable.
Mitch: I think that’s a great example. That takes a certain type of personality that’s willing to jump in and learn and gain trust from the team, even knowing that it’s going to be a new challenge as a leader, and it may require a certain level of humility in terms of asking the right questions to the right teams to really gain that understanding. I’m guessing there were already quite a few people in place when you moved into that position?
Lauren: Yeah, that was the biggest obstacle was prior leadership has really built up the silos and I really didn’t understand it. It felt like we were fighting with each other rather than working with each other. You will often hear me say this in conversation with anyone on our team whether it’s sales, service or admin. At the end of the day, it is just IT and copiers, and sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in what we are doing that we forget to take a step back and look for a different perspective. It’s easy to get too narrow of perspective and think our world is only this thing that we do. That’s just going to make things harder. So, I had to rebuild the trust, break down that role, and put everyone on notice quickly so they understood that we are not the same company we were 15 years ago.
I jokingly started a “swear” jar for every time we say, “Well, back then it was like this.” Time to put a dollar in there! I understand why people go back to that, but it was wasted energy on focusing on how things were run in the past. We have just such a synergy now and people make comments about seeing the help desk manager and the head of engineering walk down the hallway together. It makes me so proud of the team, because now they're coming up with ideas on their own; it’s not just one person. It's not “Lauren Technologies”, it is Blue Technologies Smart Solutions. I’m not great at coming up with ideas, but I’m a great executer. I’ll master anything and even over-execute. Now seeing the team come together, come up with ideas, and proactively problem solve makes me so proud and truly it’s imperative so we can have a better deliverable to our customers.
Mitch: I know that's taken a lot of time to reshape the thought process and internal muscle memory. I love your idea about the “swear jar” to emphasize that you’re not going back. I've heard throughout my time in various roles that you can't really think about yesterday or what anybody prior to you had done, said, or implemented. You must think about where we are at today and where we are trying to move going forward. Then as a team we will figure out how to close the gap between the two.
Lauren: Trust is important in any relationship. Whether in marriage, parenting, or relationships, it is incredibly important. The reality is you are at work with your co-workers more than you’re with your family members awake. So, in IT, if the support team doesn't have enough trust in me to tell me something that they messed up, I'm not going to find out until it's on fire. This whole failing forward concept is something that I’ve been leaning into. You can have every certification in the world, but most of the engineers I have worked with over the last 15 years tell me they learned because they broke something really bad and had to figure out how to fix it.
Before the jar, there was a need to justify or defend the old ways, and now I want them to report what was messed up along every step, each day, even if it includes what they individually messed up. This includes after onboarding or little projects; we just want to know where we can improve or what went well. The next step is to learn how to prevent mistakes from happening again and ensuring that two engineers aren’t making the same mistake.
Mitch: That’s just a great message for everyone. It’s a messy, tricky business. You are relying on technology, but there’s also people involved so there is going to be mistakes. Let's not dwell on it. Let's fix it and think about how we can learn from it so we don’t do it again in the future. We get really caught up on who made the mistake and why did we make the mistake? But the fact of the matter is, it’s done. Let’s fix it and move on.
Lauren: And remember that it’s IT, so from an outside seat it’s easy to think we know how they could have avoided the mistake, but we don’t. There are so many variables in IT that are ever evolving. Every customer has a different network infrastructure and have different end users. I feel like the team has been developing and growing because it's no longer the blame game. We view it as wasted energy, and life's too short to be complaining about others all the time. If someone comes into my office doing the blame game, I'm like, get out of my office, we don't have time for that. Come back when you're ready to talk about how we fix it. I haven’t had to have one of those conversations all year. It's exciting, and they're starting to have them without me too, which is even better. They're starting to take that and grow it with their teams. I think that it will trickle to not just the IT side and the software side, but it will grow across our company.
Mitch: I’m sure that feels really good. I’m excited to talk with you let's say a year from now to see what other great things are happening as part of that.
Mitch: I'd like to go backwards a bit and learn a little more about Lauren and getting up to this point in being with Blue and being in leadership. So, who were you as a kid? What was Lauren spending her time on?
Lauren: I was in gymnastics and softball. I was about four feet tall when I was younger so, and I played softball on travel leagues and was in a gym for gymnastics where I would go before and after school for practice. Once gymnastics transitioned from middle school, I cheered but tore my achilleas. After recovering I cheered competitively. So, it was always busy, I was also in every club I could be and very active. My parents have been divorced since I was very young, both remarried and I love both my stepparents very much, but very different parenting styles at different houses so, I was constantly busy and active in teams especially.
Mitch: Those of us who’ve play sports, there's a lot to learn about teamwork, leadership, and taking responsibility, whether that's an individual sport or a team sport, you have to hold yourself accountable in both areas. What were some of the goals you had when you were younger? In high school they ask you, “What does your look like in 20 years?” What were some of the things that you would have written? Was being in leadership at Blue a part of that?
Lauren: No. My parents raised me with high expectations. I was a straight A student that wanted to be a doctor. I always really was fascinated by the medical field and just being able to help people. I went to college and for my first two years I was a biology major to eventually go to med school after. I ended up giving CPR twice in a year in a college environment and then I had my appendix out over New Year's. It was too much hospital time for me. I had this “Aha” moment going into junior year, and I switched majors. I did get to watch Blue being built. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs. My dad didn't have Blue at what it is today when I was little. He started his own company after being let go from a private equity situation in the industry. I watched my dad, and his partners build this company from nothing. I was exposed to that. Then my mom was in real estate, so everything is constantly networking and prospecting. I couldn't go to any meals without either one of them recruiting the waitress or waiter. So, I think a strong work ethic was ingrained in me, watching both of them be so proud of what they were doing. I think med school was something that I thought I wanted to do especially at 16. But I'm so glad that I ended up in this industry. When I graduated college, I did not think I would be at Blue until I was a grown-up. But I found my way here when I was 24 and 14 years later, I'm still here.
Mitch: What was the stop on the way to Blue between college?
Lauren: My first job out of college was a junior sales rep role where I sold payroll solutions. Paul, my dad, thought our generation job hopped too much, so he said you must try a role for two years. They had great training for new reps, but it was so different going from a Fortune 500 company to a mid-sized business; I felt like I was just a number there.
Mitch: A huge organization for sure.
Lauren: Huge. They had great training and great resources though, and I'm so grateful for that. I met so many friends that are still my closest friends today. It was my first sales job, and I learned a lot. I asked my dad to go to lunch because I had two job offers and it was coming up on my two-year anniversary, so I was going to buy him lunch which was a big deal for me. Then he switched where lunch was the day of and I was like, “Oh, my goodness, how much money does he think I'm making selling payroll?” Looking back, I realize it was his strategy. He had me go through my whole spiel; I wanted his advice on which role I should take. And then he asked me about an opportunity at Blue. I was not expecting that. I was so oblivious in my 24th year of life. He had me meet with one of the partners the next morning at 6:00 A.M, which was so early for me then. I think I always thought I’d land here, but again, I thought it was when I was going to be a “grownup.” That's kind of how I landed here.
Mitch: Well, they clearly saw the future potential and that you were ready to jump in. The question I have is, did Paul sign up for paycheck services?
Lauren: No, he did not because he believes in doing business with our customers, and our payroll company is still the same payroll company he would not switch to me for. I joke about that because I have a lot of people in that industry that I know, and they want to provide a service for us and I'm like, “He wouldn't even buy from his kid, he's not buying from you.” I didn't understand it when I was 22 and needed a quick win. But no, I did not sell him. That was not my best sales strategy.
Mitch: You’ve got to respect the loyalty, so that's an okay one to not have on the board.
Mitch: You mentioned being excited that you had a female in one of your engineering positions. I’ve been with GreatAmerica for 16 years; I joined right out of college. So, I've been involved in this channel probably closer to nine years and then been engaged in external things in the last five or six years. In those years, I feel like I have started to notice a shift generationally, as well as female participation in leadership positions. I'm curious to hear your experience over the past 14 years. I think it's been a very male-dominated industry, so what are your thoughts on how to continue to educate and elevate folks on how we should have more diversity in those opportunities today?
Lauren: Yeah, I think over 14 years I have definitely seen a swing. Even from our leadership team at Blue. Both our CFO and director of administration are female, and they are so smart. My branch manager in Columbus is also strong female leader. Our director of sales is as well. I'm a big production print nerd and it’s still very heavily male dominated, especially in the commercial print space. I think it's all about making sure people have the opportunity to even know about the career paths and know about what people's strengths are. I have a four and three-year-old, both little girls. I understand more today than I did prior to children why females weren't necessarily in leadership as much, with the balancing act that so many women must do. But I think it's also so important that we surround ourselves with people who make up for our weaknesses, which I think our leadership team has done a great job at doing. We have to have that diversity because the world evolves, post-2020, it's evolving so much more rapidly compared to before. So, we need different perspectives. I'm proud of having a female engineer, but I also am so proud of the male engineers on the team that aren't put off by that.
We have different generations in all of our teams. There are more generations in the workforce today than there ever has been because we have anywhere from baby boomers to Gen-Z and everything in between. So, it's not just empowering the women in the workforce, it's having the right team members there that aren't going to be put off by that or that are going to embrace a different thought process.
Mitch: You touched on something that is a reality that some either don’t recognize or don’t want to talk about, but it’s the time commitment. I think today most would admit that the women carry a lot of the load of the family responsibilities and coordination and all this stuff that's going on because the world's back to moving at 100 miles an hour again today. It's unfortunate there has to be a balance, but I think as leader, you have to recognize that those things are there. Doesn't mean you have to have different expectations, but maybe an acknowledgement of how to get the best out of your workers with task management. Asking “How can I help you prioritize? Can we help supplement with resources or other team members taking on some other different things?”
Lauren: What is the goal or the task that they're supposed to be accomplishing. I talk to my branch manager in Columbus often while she's picking her kids up from daycare because they charge per minute afterwards. I feel like the daycare knows who I am because she puts me on hold when getting them because it's the best time for us because it's before the kids go to bed and no one here at the office is coming in to interrupt me for something, and we get a lot done in that 30 minutes of her picking them up. I love her kids; they are extensions of the Blue family because they know me as boss Lauren and they imitate me and it's hysterical. My kids know her as Ms. Jessie. I think post-COVID this is becoming more acceptable with the hybrid work environment. We don't really have a remote mentality because we sell office technology. But it goes back to understanding how we can help them accomplish their goals, and does it have to be in the way we would have done it before? That's something that generationally has been the biggest struggle. We all know who charges the door at 4:55 in every organization, they’re leaving right at 5 or right before, and that drives our owners nuts because they didn't take payroll for the first couple of years when they started this company. For me, it's more about do I want you to take PTO when you have to go get your kid from school or daycare because they have a fever, and they can't stay there? Or can you accomplish it still with the time you have? It's all about understanding what the task is or what is their role in in to accomplish and instead of telling them how to do it exactly.
Mitch: We can get much too focused on how rather than if we got done what we needed to get done. Did we take ownership of what we're responsible for? There are some people who we need to support our customers from eight to five. But to your other example of if you have to leave mid-day, but you have a deadline by tomorrow morning, you have to trust that people are going to do that, and if they don’t, that’s where the leadership has to have a conversation. What I hear often from leaders, especially new leaders, is, “Well, if I don't have visibility, how do I understand what it is that they're working on?” and it is the output we're looking for. That's how you know what they are doing.
Lauren: About eight years ago, we formed a generational growth committee at Blue. Paul returned from CDA and texted me, “It's not just you, you’re all different.” A speaker discussed how generational influences shape communication. Our committee, which included sales, ops, and services, aimed to bridge generational gaps. We are a big Mike Reardon and Joe Goodrow company so we white boarded and did a problem solve to identify a bunch of issues. One that came up was the lack of company cell phones. But when presenting to the executive team, we used visuals like a paper map, roll of coins, and pay phone to show past practices, contrasting them with a phone being able to do all of these things today. We emphasized understanding the current policies and proposed improvements without dismissing the past.
Mitch: Communication is key. Have you worked with Mike and Joe to understand how different team members prefer to communicate?
Lauren: Yes, they use an interest analysis and success profiles. Joe recently did a refresher session, sparking great conversations. We're committed to continuous learning and breaking down silos. Joe's third-party perspective helps maintain peace and fosters new ideas.
Mitch: We had a speaker at our National Sales meeting who introduced the DISC assessment. Our leadership team is excited about using it as a tool moving forward.
Lauren: The maturity of your leadership team will determine how long that excitement lasts. It's crucial to integrate new ideas into the culture, not just for a week. We can go to all of these events and talks, but if you are unable to learn from them and adopt some of the thoughts and mindsets, what is the purpose of going? Strong leadership ensures longevity in our industry.
Mitch: I completely agree. I think it's great to give people exposure to things, but how do I take it and apply it back into our personal or work life? Leaders must be disciplined in leveraging new knowledge and holding themselves accountable for their coworkers or company.
Lauren: Absolutely. Post-COVID, there are conferences every week, but we must be selective and mindful for what is going to help grow or maintain your business. If we're going to partner with Joe and Mike, why wouldn't we implement it? Our leadership brought them in for a reason, so we need to continue implementing what they are teaching us. I talk about all those procedures and policies in my personal life and the lessons are parallel; it’s not just in your professional life, but your personal life too.
Mitch: I completely agree. It’s not a work life balance anymore, it's work life harmony. It's really hard to cut things off, even from working from home.
Lauren: I agree completely. I struggle with mom guilt and work guilt. I have mom guilt when I’m working late that day, then I feel guilty about the team when I’m not here. I don’t think there’s really a true balance, but presence, which is something I have been working on this year. If I’m in at the pre-school lunch on a Monday, then I’m there and present. If I’m here at work, I’m never 100% disconnected from my kids but I have a very supportive husband that knows that month end is a big time for us at Blue Technologies. I have been setting up that system to be present at both ends of my life. I caught myself veering from being present so, one of my New Year's resolutions was presence in work and with my family.
Mitch: My wife and I started practicing the word of the year to stay focused. It’s a great way to re-center yourself and your relationship.
Lauren: Definitely.
Mitch: In closing, I'd just like to ask, what are you excited about here for your upcoming year?
Lauren: I am excited about a lot of things. I feel like business is back. I don't think business will go back to what it was, but I feel like businesses are evolving as they are growing and becoming more efficient. I'm really excited about taking what the foundation of our traditional business was and keeping that growing into our IT and software side of the business. What our owners have built, our service deliverables and our commitment to excellence, is why people choose to do business with us. I’m so excited to see our IT and software teams really grab that and run with it to take it to a whole new level. We are here to solve issues for our customers so it’s never the same day twice and that’s what motivates me every single day. It’s going to be a really exciting year.
Mitch: You can tell you are very passionate about what you do and I’m sure your team feels that as well. They're just as excited about those things as you are moving forward.
Lauren: The team is the part that makes it the most exciting. Every day, one of them surprises me, and it's just very motivating. If you have a good team around you, it doesn't feel like work. I'm excited to see how our partners in the industry are evolving and there's a lot of exciting things to come.
Mitch: I completely agree. Lauren, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
Lauren: Thank you so much for having me. We’re excited to see what you're doing with the industry.
This has been Great Conversations, a business podcast from GreatAmerica Financial Services. We hope you found some helpful takeaways from this episode as you're charting your own leadership journey. We'd love to hear your feedback for future episodes. Reach out to us on Facebook and LinkedIn or learn more at our website. Thanks for listening.