What’s the saying, if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life – right? That’s something Nick Burnett, NMG’s HR Business Partner, has put to practice in recent years, transitioning into a new role in a new business vertical within NMG. His story – an awesome one in and of itself – should resonate on many levels with independent retailers.
Rob Stott: We are back on the Independent Thinking Podcast and we’re doing this at the last minute, right before Prime Time. Are we crazy? Is that just a little bit Mr. Nick Burnett? Just a little. I appreciate you jumping on, man. This is 11th hour before going to Prime Time, but we got to get one in. We got to make sure we have new episodes every week for our members and our listeners to this podcast. So appreciate you jumping on and diving into it. Our HR business partner at Nationwide Marketing Group, excited to have you on, man.
Nick Burnett: I’m excited to be here, brother. Thank you. Listen, 11th hour, first hour, I don’t care what hour it is, I’m excited to be here with you, man. Thank you for giving me the platform and I’m excited to connect with you for a little while.
Rob Stott: Yeah, absolutely. Well, before we dive into our questions that we have lined up and excited to do that, I got to ask because for those that don’t know, we’re going to have a little personal background story here. We’re both in the Philly area, right? So you’re out Chester Springs. Are you in Chester Springs?
Nick Burnett: I’m in Conshohocken.
Rob Stott: Conshohocken? All right. So even closer than I thought. That’s incredible. So Conshohocken to, I’m in Orland Fort Washington, basically a turnpike stop apart from one another for those-
Nick Burnett: Hundred percent, man
Rob Stott: Aren’t familiar with Pennsylvania, but I know too. Personal life. What’s this Cleveland Browns connection I see you got going on? What’s that about? I got to ask.
Nick Burnett: Yeah, so listen, I candidly, I’m a Detroit guy. I’m right here from Michigan. I am a huge diehard Detroit Lions, Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings. I was born at the University of Michigan. My mother used to be a Sky Flight nurse for the helicopter, the nursing department there. So I’m a big go blue guy, but I am building an app for out-of-market sports fans on the side. Just started my entrepreneurial journey last year and I actually threw an event that I hosted just about a month ago. Met the president of the Chester County Cleveland Browns fan group.
Rob Stott: Who knew that was a thing?
Nick Burnett: Listen, if nothing else, I’m finding that there are fans from all backgrounds and loyalties out there that no matter where you look, there’s somebody that’s albeit passionate Philly fans out there. There are people in the weeds that we just don’t know about, and so yeah, there’s apparently a Cleveland Browns cohort, some here in Chester County, Philadelphia area, so I got to meet them. We’re doing an event for week one against the Cowboys, which I know you’ll love. Even die hard Browns fans can come out there and watch the Cowgirls get spanked on.
Rob Stott: If I was there for that, I probably would end up showing up in an Eagles jersey. But for anything, I’d wear a Browns jersey just because they were playing Dallas. Any sports fan knows, that’s how passionate Philly is against Dallas.
Nick Burnett: It’s Philly against the world man, and everybody against Dallas. Either way, you split it. I know that this is going to be an exciting crowd. It should be a lot of fun. So I’m excited. I spent a little bit of time in Ohio in my past life, so I’ll channel that dog pound energy. We’ll have some fun. It’ll be cool.
Rob Stott: Hey, that’s incredible. Well, appreciate you jumping into that. Dive into it. Always, I think it’s a great opportunity, any of these podcasts to get to know a little bit about the people before we dive into the roles themselves and the work you do. A cool story here at Nationwide for you and your path. So tell us a little bit about your current role and what you’re doing, and then we’ll go back a little bit before that as well.
Nick Burnett: Yeah, no, that’s a great question, man. I really appreciate you opening up for me to tell my story. I’m a big storyteller and I’m big on hearing other people’s stories. That’s what really got me tuned into HR. So right now, as the HR business partner, I really assist in a myriad of ways, whether that’s employee engagement, recruitment and retention efforts, performance management feedback and recognition, policy compliance and updates throughout the org to make sure that we are on par with state and federal regulations. There are a lot of different pots that I’ve got my hand into and a lot of cookie jars that I’m trying not to get snapped up in.
But there’s a lot of things that I am now involved in within this HR BP role, and it is just incredibly fulfilling because whether it is hands-on with the boots on the ground with regards to those employee engagement efforts, or whether it is looking at the analytics that we’ve got through our capital management systems and then connecting with our leadership team to talk about what’s going on in the organization quantitatively and how we can strategize and put some initiatives on the board to really play into those strengths and opportunities.
There’s so many different things now that I’m involved in, and it’s just like every day is a new adventure, man. It’s a lot of fun. I’m getting to do a lot of things both analytically and then in the human capacity as well, that it’s just my cup’s fuller than ever, man. I’m having a lot of fun.
Rob Stott: Oh, that’s awesome. Well, what’s crazy though, and crazy in a cool way is that when we first met, you were part of the Azione team right after the merger with Nationwide and came in through that door in that role. So talk about the evolution. Were you doing similar work with Azione or not really, right?
Nick Burnett: Not really, but one of the things… And I’ll lead with this, I think every good man has a good woman behind them, whether that’s his mother, whether that’s his wife, his girlfriend, whatever it may be. I will give immense amount of kudos to my wife because she got me into this human space. She said, “Listen, Nick, I really think that albeit you’re an analytical, you’re really sporty, you’re data-driven. You love to connect with people.” I thrive in feeling that sense of community and belonging to something, right? That’s why I’m a huge sports fan because I love belonging to that tribe, right? Philly people know what’s like. Whether you’re in Arizona, whether you’re in Philly, whether you’re in Florida, you’re part of that Philly tribe. I thrive when I feel that type of community.
So I started to look within. About three and a half years ago now, I got into a human resource management master’s program down at Westchester University. My wife said, “I think you need to start looking within, start asking yourself what your passions are. Start to figure out what you’re really good at”, and I have always known that. I’ve obviously, I’ve got the gift of gab, but I love to connect with people. I kind of lead in the beginning of this thing. I love to tell my story and I love to hear other people’s stories. I love to motivate uplift, help people grow and develop. I love helping them get from where they are today to where they see themselves tomorrow, and so that’s where my journey began, man.
About three and a half years ago, I looked in and I said, “I’m doing a lot of analytical stuff with Azione Limited.” I was really tasked with the internal administrative tasks, a lot of different things from communication to sales data and reporting analytics, working on the backend of a lot of our systems. But then I also, through this inward look, this introspection got into things like, “Okay, how can I get a little bit more on board with our recruiting efforts? How can I help our members be smarter at hiring, retaining, and optimizing their talent?”
And so through this journey of really looking in and starting to figure out what my passions are, I said, “You know what? I need to obviously stay proficient at my analytical role here at Azione Limited really serve the members, serve my team, and giving them the data and the insights that they need.” But whether that’s philanthropy, whether that’s, again, connecting with members to talk about hiring strategies, I started to put little things on the map to say, “Okay, hey, listen, I can still juggle the analytical, the tactical stuff here at Azione Limited, but I want to start to get more immersed into that in HR universe.”
And so whether it was building the smart home hire recruiting site that we launched and now the team’s still managing at a high level, or again, whether it’s just putting philanthropic initiatives on the map, working with Karen to do backpack giveaways and packing, its symposiums, those things that really gave back to both the human nature, but also my desire to execute and be philanthropic, give back to the communities and be part of a bigger community. I started to think about little ways that I could still do that data-centered stuff, but really get into the human-centered stuff.
Rob Stott: Stuff. And if I remember right too, there were some early days where you were participating in Nationwide Learning Academy sessions at Prime Time and teaching courses and thinking back on it, you’d mentioned it, right? You were dropping those little nuggets of like, “Hey, this is what I’m passionate about and interested in”, and pursued it, put the pen to paper and started writing out courses and coming to shows and offering your perspective and knowledge around those topics, and educating our members in ways that, I think sort of looking at Nationwide, we’ve always had the opportunity there, especially through the NLA platform where our functional experts, whatever you’re good at typically, is it about the role that you’re in, probably. But in a case like yours, a great example of it’s a passion that you have and something that eventually evolved into what you’re doing today, but a great way of giving you an outlet to pursue that passion and offer that expertise in a way that benefits others in the organization.
Nick Burnett: Yeah, you said it really well, man. I think that one of the things that I advocate for everybody to do, one of the things that I’m really excited to have the opportunity to do in this role is be an advocate for people, to encourage them to look within, figure out if there are things that you would like to do more of, if there are experiences that you would like to immerse yourself in. That was one of the reasons I really fell in love with Nationwide from the beginning of our acquisition, was that I was given the opportunity to get to Prime Time, and I’ve always gone forward in my life with a servant first mindset, giving myself my time, my energy and effort to other people. But when you actually get into that Prime Time space, whether it is seeing the event, the floor come together in what feels like milliseconds-
Rob Stott: I’m sure it feels that way to Melissa and team, too.
Nick Burnett: Oh my, it’s the effort and the coordination, the end result. It’s just amazing from start to finish to feel that energy and then to furthermore see the members, to interface with them, to know who it is that we are serving and doing all these things for, it is so powerful. And again, that goes really back to my love for community and that sense of camaraderie. It was just such a powerful experience, and I can’t thank Nationwide enough, man.
Honestly, I am just incredibly thankful that they gave me the opportunity to kind of drink the Kool-Aid a little bit, feel it, get immersed in that environment, and I love it. We’ve got tremendous people on this team, and if it wasn’t for those early opportunities, and if it wasn’t for the people on the HR team seeing me, my passions and my aspirations, I wouldn’t have even had anybody to raise my hand to and say, “Hey, listen, I’d like to do a little bit more of that.” So it was just all around just an incredible opportunity.
Rob Stott: Yeah, I mean, talk about that too, the ability to move from one… I think most people, when they think about a career, it’s like, “Oh, well, I’ve got what I’m doing in my role, and that’s kind of the trajectory that I’ve set for myself.” I mean, you stepped out of the rocket, found yourself a new one, and then took off to another. So talk about what it was like to transition from one position to another, and the reason I ask too, and this isn’t to talk specifically about Nationwide, but I think it resonates really well with our members that have to wear many hats during a day, week, month, whatever it might be in their own businesses, but then to know that there are other. It could be moving from one vertical to another or bringing a vertical into their store. It just shows that sort of mindset. So that’s what I want to get at with you is the mindset and what it took to move from what you were doing into a new position.
Nick Burnett: Yeah, yeah. Listen, I think that I try to keep it simple with this. I think that what I stopped thinking about is what I was, and I started thinking about who I was. And I think that that’s something that whether you’re a retailer, whether you’re an NMGer out there, I think that once we get out of that mindset of, “Okay, I’m an analyst, so I’m going to do analytical things.” Yeah, I’m an analyst, but at the end of the day, who I am is a people first servant leader. I’m somebody who loves to connect. I’m somebody who loves to serve and help, and that once I started to really tie into the who rather than what, rather than asking people what they do for a living, started to ask them a little bit more about their story and who they are.
I think that those things, that train of thought, that shift, I think that that’s really what got me into this vein was starting to see that, “Listen, I can still be an analyst. That’s what my job title and my email signature can say, but that’s not all about who I am. That is just a label, just a title.” There’s so much more to people out there than what it says in their email signatures or what if it says on their LinkedIn profiles, and I knew that once I pivoted to that, who versus the what, that there was so much more opportunity out there for me to fill my cup up in different ways, and if you’re a retailer out there, you might be a warehouse manager, but if you want to do more mentorship, more leading, if you want to give back to the community in different ways than you’re not doing now, and you feel like that would fill your cup up, I would really encourage anybody out there.
Again, whether you’re a retailer, you’re an NMG or somebody who’s looking at NMG from the outside, I would ask you to look within, figure out what it is that makes you happy, what it is that fills your cup up, and I think that you would find that there is a tremendous amount of opportunity out there to fill those different passions, to fill those cups, while still being what you are and still being confident.
Rob Stott: Well, what’s awesome is that I can see that relating to not even just who they are and their own passions that they’re pursuing, but even to the customer relationship and your approach to everything you’re saying is, “Well, if you take that human approach to it and you connect with your customer, find out about their story.” I mean, I think back to whether it’s all the keynotes or just the messages we deliver to members is that’s the difference between the experience you can have at an independent store as opposed to the faceless big boxes we’ll call them, right? The opportunity to be that community connection with your customer and it resonates with them on a deeper level, and I think that makes it more impactful for the in-store experience to how even to how you present yourself online to them and connect with them that way. It’s neat to see that that mindset can have so many different ways to resonate within the retail community.
Nick Burnett: Yes, it is so emotional, especially on a local level. People trust the smaller stores or the independent retailers out there, no matter how small or large you are. We talk a lot about trust at Nationwide. Trust stems from that emotional belief, that understanding. My dad always taught me when I was a kid that people want three things. They want to be seen, they want to be known, and they want to be heard. And I think that every single time I think about that, especially with regards to the retailer and the customer experience, the more you can get to know who and not the what they’re looking for or what you might be able to sell them, but who, what’s their story? What are their experiences? I think it all goes back to your greater ability to be able to serve them and really understand who they’re and how you can support them.
Rob Stott: I want to turn to that inward facing look at this role because something that we’ve talked about HR on this podcast before and the importance of it and how some of our members are pursuing this type of, call it a department or someone just initiative within their businesses. The impact a role like yours can have that focus on your team, your people. Talk about that a little bit and sort of the importance of it there for could be retail, but really honestly it’s at any business, right?
Nick Burnett: Yeah, no, I think that there is a tremendous impact. Obviously I say that a little biasedly, right? I think that-
Rob Stott: Certainly. It’s like asking an Eagles fan or a Philly fan, “Why are the Eagles going to win this year? The Super Bowl?”
Nick Burnett: Exactly. I got a home-grown-
Rob Stott: Let me tell you.
Nick Burnett: HR feel, right? So I’m always going to advocate for doing more people-centric things, but I think that the impact is massive. Rob, I honestly do. I think that one of the things that I’ve chatted about in these prior NLAs is dictating intentional culture, doing it purposefully. I think that by getting into HR functions, whether you wear that strict structured Taylor or what is it I’m trying to say? Whether you wear that HR hat and you wear that title or not, whether you just want to assist in the cultural functions.
I think that you can really help cultivate a really healthy, fun, attractive culture by just doing more human centric tasks by really getting into the minds of the people, the employee experience. I think that you can really honestly make it a more organic, healthy place to work by just having that desired effort there. I think the impact is an immense one.
From cultural standpoint to employee engagement, I think that ties into job satisfaction. You look at having a healthier culture and the retention ability that you have as an organization. Businesses, I looked at a Gallup poll not too long ago that said high employee engagement results in a 21% increase in profitability. So I think that the more, a lot of times we look at these organizational goals or objectives, the hopeful outcomes, we look at these different tasks and initiatives in between.
I think the more that you pour into the people, whether you are an appointed HR person or whether you are somebody driving a truck out there, the more you pour into the people, I think that the more immense the impact it’ll have on your organizational performance. Even with regards to performance management, developing and nurturing talent, finding future leaders, driving diversity and inclusion within your company by just making people feel like they belong there.
I think there are a tremendous amount of opportunities for people to do, again, people-centric tasks that have immense impacts across the organization, from marketing to growth and profitability to sustainability to the community impact. I think that there is a widespread amount of opportunities to give back.
Rob Stott: I’ve asked it to previous interviewees, again internally and members. Mr. Kuester’s been on here before talking about this. I love having him on. You talk about, I’m jealous you’re on a team with him and you have him to tap into on a regular basis. That man is just a wealth of knowledge, but I love asking him too, and I’m excited to get your perspective on it.
I think one of the things, you talk to any of our members or anyone that’s not in this space right now within their business, something that’s not necessarily a concern, but it’s like, “Hey, if we start doing this, how do we make sure it comes across as authentic?” You never want to have your employees feeling like you’re trying to force this stuff on them. Any advice to a retailer looking to get into this space to be effective as they pursue, whether it’s culture or HR specifically as a department within their organization, how they can do it in a way that’s effective without it coming across in that way?
Nick Burnett: No. I think what I would say to that, Rob, honestly, and I think you said this really well in our conversation earlier, is that we are all human. Make it personal. I think a lot of times we get into these professional settings and we feel like it’s got to be black and white. We feel like you got to kind of separate that person from the profession, the what it is from the who you are.
My advice to anybody out there to make it genuine is to make it personal and to do so with intentional effort and energy. Anybody can do anything average and it can easily feel disingenuine as a result by just doing this cookie cutter, templated approach by not making it passionate, genuine, and personal. That would be my advice is tell your own story. Tie it back to you. Tell people furthermore what impact it could have and what impact it would have on you on the people that you work with, on the people that you serve.
But more than anything, the common denominator here, I would say is make it personal. I think that you can’t go wrong when you are vulnerable. You show people who you are and you give them that genuine feeling of, “Hey, listen, this is coming from a place of good intention. This is coming from a place of, this is my personal experience and this is who I am and this is how I want to serve you and help.” I think once we make it more about who we are and how we want to serve others, I think that you’ll break down that wall of disingenuineness and distance real quick.
Rob Stott: I think people too, it’s the easiest thing to ask, right? I mean, you hear about that type of work and just for… I don’t want to call them naysayers either, but someone that’s not involved in it or doesn’t deal with it on a regular basis. That may be some one of the first things that comes to mind. I don’t think those people give enough credit to an individual’s ability to sniff out the BS, if you will. I think people, employees, individuals, I think we have a pretty good barometer for being able to tell if someone’s being intentional and genuine and caring about, whether it’s their employees or those around them and that sort of thing. So no, I think that’s awesome advice and different than what we’ve heard in the past, right? So like I said, I was excited to get your take on that.
Nick Burnett: Listen, the thing I’d say to that, one more thing is I’d say to that is the effort that it takes is like 1% different, right? It’s not a lot, right? You said so perfectly a second ago, Rob, that you can sniff the BS out there. You can sniff out those ChatGPT responses and that cookie cutter academia type talk. It is so easy to flip the switch and to just be you and deliver the messages you are to come correct as you are to make it personal, to make it genuine, to just take your idea or the typical traditional approach and to go one step further to make it a little deeper, a little bit more personal, whether that’s an onboarding package or a performance review. I think that there are so many things that we can do immensely more impactfully and just do things 1% differently, right?
Rob Stott: I thought for a second there, I thought you were going to go start singing Nirvana on me. Come As You Are.
Nick Burnett: Listen, I’m a fan of karaoke, man. Don’t put a mic in my hand. I will sing.
Rob Stott: Well, now that I know that Vegas, we will have to have a good time then. We’ll find a good karaoke bar. No, this was incredible, man. I appreciate you taking the time. Appreciate the personal story at the top too, and diving into everything, what you’re doing there in Conshi and as well as here within Nationwide Marketing Group, so we appreciate the time and look forward to seeing how you continue to grow in this role, man. I know our employees, and even more broadly, our members and others involved with Nationwide Marketing Group are benefiting. We appreciate it and look forward to catching up down the line.
Nick Burnett: Brother, thank you so much for the opportunity. If there’s anybody out there ever that wants to connect on this stuff listen, I’m an open book. I would love to connect with anybody on the Nationwide side, on the retail side. If there’s anybody that just wants to chop it up, feel free to slide into my email and I’d love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit better. Thank you for the opportunity, brother.
Rob Stott: Whether it’s about HR or hey, even app building, right?
Nick Burnett: Anything, man. Community where you’re from, what you like, what you’re about. I want to get to know you. That’s who I am, man. Don’t hesitate to get in my ear.
Rob Stott: Awesome. We appreciate it.
Nick Burnett: Thanks, Rob.
