Interview with Elena Valentine, CEO & Co-Founder of Skill Scout

UNBOSSED

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Interview with Elena Valentine, CEO & Co-Founder of Skill Scout

Brought to you by the Chicago Woman's Club

Marina

Oct 12, 2021

Wepa! I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian. ;)

UNBOSSED is “Stories of Amazing Women in Chicago”.

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In this episode:

Elena Valentine is a workplace filmmaker and design researcher. Elena has made it her mission to help people find meaning in their work through stories that matter. With the motto “you cannot be what you cannot see” Elena started filming jobs as a way to get young people excited about careers. Since then, her team at Skill Scout has since built a world class media company. Their films have helped clients like Nike, McDonalds, and American Airlines engage candidates and employees alike. Elena's particularly excited about Skill Scout's latest project, the Humans@Work documentary and virtual film festival series that shares stories of people who find passion and meaning in their work.

Elena was recently named HR Superhero by DisruptHR Chicago and Newcity's Film 50 of 2020. She is also the co-founder of Mezcla Media Collective, a a thriving community based Chicagoland non-profit that elevates femme identifying filmmakers of color.

Key Highlights/Tools:

Building businesses to last
The Power of an Eternal Prayer
The Entrepreneurship Journey

Timestamp:

0:00 Intro

02:24 Part1- Elena Talks about Skills Scout UNBOSSED on the go

4:00 Early Career

13:18 How the Musical Tommy shaped Elena

16:00 Building businesses that last

22:00 Part2- Elena and Marina get introspective and emotional about their respective journeys

23:00 Having the courage to stay and build community

27:00 The Practice of Mindfulness and Enough-ness in Elena

34:00 Who we are as leaders change everything around us, including our business

39:00 Is there such a thing as too much flow?

44:00 Different stages of entrepreneurship

50:00 The importance of taking care of oneself (Marina gets emotional)

Memorable Quotes:

You cannot be what, you cannot see.

Useful Links and Resources:

https://www.skillscout.com/
http://www.mezclamediacollective.org/
Digital Minimalism

Join the Conversation

Our favorite part of recording a live podcast each week is participating in the great conversations that happen on our live chat, on social media, and in our comments section.

This week's question is: What challenges have you faced as a woman founder?

Ask Elena anything by leaving a question/ comment on Substack.