Career Cheat Code
Welcome to Career Cheat Code, a podcast that explores the stories of everyday people making an impact in the world through their careers and loving every minute of it. Whether you're already on your path or searching for your purpose, this podcast is for you.
Join us every Monday as we uncover the secrets behind successful careers and inspire you to make your own mark. Formerly known as Thank God It's Monday | TGIM, don't forget to subscribe for updates and share with your friends!
Career Cheat Code
083 | Shaping Communities Through Impact with Tracy Colunga
Tracy Colunga shares her remarkable journey from city government to founding her consulting firm Colunga and Associates LLC, highlighting how intuition guided her career transitions and how she narrowly avoided mass layoffs by trusting her gut.
• Founding Colunga and Associates LLC as a consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, innovation, user-centered design, and grants management
• Transitioning from Johns Hopkins University to entrepreneurship after sensing political changes
• Building a 16-year career with the city of Long Beach, CA that culminated as Chief Innovation Officer
• Developing the "inside-outside strategy" for community engagement and building trust
• Starting as a first-generation college student pursuing psychology before discovering social work
• Balancing single parenthood while earning a master's degree at UCLA on full scholarship
• Teaching as a university lecturer for 14 years to stay at the cutting edge of public policy
• Taking the leap to pursue a doctorate at USC while running her consulting business
• Implementing personal productivity hacks like scheduling meetings with yourself and using the Eisenhower matrix
• Discovering that government jobs offer excellent compensation, from entry-level ($65-85K) to leadership positions ($300-400K)
If you have a dream in your heart, go for it. It might be scary, but when you follow those dreams, doors will open that you never knew were possible.
Disclaimer:
The views shared on Career Cheat Code are those of the guests and don’t reflect the host or any affiliated organizations. This podcast is for inspiration and information, highlighting unique career journeys to help you define success and take your next step.
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I will tell you that, within 30 days of my resignation, johns Hopkins laid off 2,000 employees. Much like universities across this country who were not funded federal research grants. Johns Hopkins was no different, and so I really feel like I dodged a bullet and it was fully my intuition. Things didn't sit right. There was a shift in the air and I was like I need to pivot right now, before something happens. And then, after 30 days later, I realized what that something was.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Career Cheat Code. In this podcast, you'll hear how everyday people impact the world through their careers. Learn about their journey, career hacks and obstacles along the way. Whether you're already having the impact you want or are searching for it, this is the podcast for you.
Speaker 3:All right, tracy. Welcome to Career Cheat Code.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me friend.
Speaker 3:Appreciate it. I'm excited to talk to you today. Let's dive right in. Let's tell the world what it is you do for a living.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm CEO of Kalunga and Associates LLC.
Speaker 3:So what does that mean? What do you like? It sounds like a consulting company. Is that what you do and like? Who are your like types of clients that you normally work with?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, it's a consulting firm. We do strategic planning, innovation, user centered design, executive coaching and grants management.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Who do you normally partner with? Like, what are your? What are your like? Typical, typical clients that you have been partnering with lately?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I worked in city government for close to 20 years, so I have a lot of city clients. The county of Los Angeles is one of my clients, as well as several nonprofits in the LA area. So, yeah, nonprofits in city county.
Speaker 3:That's great. Okay, how did you get into this? What made you want to start this organization?
Speaker 1:You know what's interesting? Like I mentioned, I worked in city government and, prior to that, county government. About a year ago, I started working on a business plan with some of my friends from grad school. We all have 20 plus years in the field. You know we have professors on the bench, we have nonprofit executive directors and you know individual and corporate sector and we just started brainstorming about starting a company together. So in 2024, we met quarterly and I would curate these strategic planning sessions over barbecue and beer or wine and charcuterie.
Speaker 1:We definitely made it fun because we're all friends, but really this was supposed to be our retirement plan. Again, many of us were working full-time last year and so I wrote the business plan. And then my birthday gift to myself in January of 2025 was to file the LLC and to really launch the company as a side hustle. To be honest with you, with the shift in the administration and some other things that were happening in February, I decided to go full faith and fear 100% as the CEO of the company. My consulting bench most of them are still working full-time. Another one is a full-time consultant but it miraculously, has turned out wonderful.
Speaker 3:That's great. So these are folks that most of you, when you started it, had full-time jobs but were like let's pull together our own separate consulting companies that we can then partner on contracts together. Was that the vision?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was the original plan and because I was the first one to actually file my LLC and do all the paperwork, start a bank account, get insurance. We had a meeting shortly after that and all of them were like, honestly, tracy, can we just fall under your firm? Maybe at a later date each of them will open their own LLC, but right now they're like so happy that I took the leap of faith first and so they're on my bench, for instance, my contract with LA County Office of Education. They're all on the bench, they're on on-call services, but it's as affiliates of Columbo and Associates. So it's been a huge blessing, in disguise, that I took that leap of faith.
Speaker 3:So let's talk about that leap of faith. So what were you doing when you were first planning all this last year?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was working for the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University. So, after a lengthy career in city and county government, I went to work for the university for three years and I was hired during the pandemic. So I was commuting back and forth like many people around the country. I was commuting back and forth once a month to Washington DC and Baltimore and again with the shift in the administration in January, I was actually in DC the day that the helicopter crashed into the plane.
Speaker 1:That was the week after Trump was inaugurated and a lot of people were getting laid off in DC and I remember walking around DC that week and just feeling like it was like Zombieland. People were distraught, confused, they didn't know if they were going to lose their companies, their homes, their investments. And I came back from that work trip and I told my husband I was like it doesn't feel good to be there anymore. And it's not the organization, it was the political environment that wasn't. That felt.
Speaker 1:You feel the devastation. And I said I want to come home and I also have a feeling that Johns Hopkins University is going to ask me to move to DC, to Baltimore, to the East Coast, because of all the return to work policies. I will tell you that within 30 days of my resignation, johns Hopkins laid off 2000 employees, much like universities across this country, who were not funded federal research grants. Johns Hopkins was no different, and so I really feel like I dodged a bullet and it was fully my intuition. Like things didn't sit right, there was a shift in the air and I was like I need to pivot right now, before something happens. And then, after 30 days later, I realized what that something was.
Speaker 3:Wow. So you followed your gut and the stars aligned and the timing was just right. So what exactly did you do at Johns Hopkins?
Speaker 1:I was the civic engagement director at the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, so my team and I wrote curriculum and provided training and education to mayors, city managers and city staff on civic and community engagement.
Speaker 3:All right, that sounds exciting. So you partnered with a lot of cities and really helped them, helped mayors, really advance a lot of policies and programs that supported different communities throughout the country.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was fun. One of our biggest projects was the bipartisan local infrastructure hub, so former President Biden put together the package on bipartisan infrastructure funding. We were able to provide all the community engagement training for over 400 cities. So the federal funding required what's called Justice 40, that 40% of the infrastructure money went to neighborhoods that were historically disinvested, and so we did extensive training on civic and community engagement. We had fun. It was fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. So. That's really where our paths crossed, right. You were at the time partnering with different cities doing initiatives. I was at the Rockefeller Foundation, also partnering with different cities doing initiatives, and some of those events and cities overlapped of parts to say, hey, this is what we're doing, what are you all doing? Who are you all talking to? How can we make sure that we're like supporting the right initiatives and like kind of working in concert, right? So you know, I just remember those early days of just being at conferences and saying, all right, who else, like should we be connecting with, and what are the folks that are doing the good work? So, you know, just remember those early days and appreciate you for that.
Speaker 1:That was fun. Yeah, as you're talking, I'm remembering we were funding the city of El Paso and I met you at the White House, hosted the Hispanic Initiative. You're going to have to remind me the name of it.
Speaker 3:It was a Latinos in Society program within the Aspen Institute. They were doing something with the Hispanic Initiative at the White House and we were supporting that initiative in my role.
Speaker 1:Correct and that's where we met and hit it off and really found a similar passion for cities and really communities at the heart of it and people.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. So you were at before that it sounded like you worked in cities, which is a seamless transition right. Cities, which is a seamless transition right? Because when you then go to these organizations that are partnering with cities, it's always good to have an insight as to how city government works. You know where the gaps are and how philanthropy or other intermediate organizations can kind of come in and fill those roles. So can you talk to me about your career within city government? What were you actually doing there? And county government?
Speaker 1:Yes, I worked for the city of Long Beach, california, for 16 years, thoroughly enjoyed every day, you know, waking up and serving my city. So some of the projects I worked on for the mayor and council included our safe Long Beach violence prevention plan, developing our city's first language access policy and implementation, my brother's keeper, my sister's keeper and, just again, really taking on initiatives that were important to the community and the mayor and council. My last position with the city was chief innovation officer, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. So I was implementing both Bloomberg grants and other grants the Arnold Foundation, Federal Department of Justice and some White House funding on, you know, on behalf of the mayor and council for the last seven years of my career. So by the time I got to Johns Hopkins I could really coach mayors and city staff on how to implement inside and outside city hall that inside outside strategy.
Speaker 3:Actually, can you speak a little bit about the inside outside strategy right? Like that was also one of the things that we discussed, because I was also in city government doing government community relations work and we spoke about the importance of that right, can you explain to the audience that may not be too familiar kind of what that means and how you actually go about doing that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know it's really about trust building and, again, inside City Hall and outside City Hall, being a person of your word, follow through. Because you know my family and I live in Long Beach. My husband works for Long Beach Unified, walking the streets of Long Beach or attending community meetings or events hosting. I did a lot of facilitation of design sessions with our community members around again, language access or helping people break the cycle of incarceration, and oftentimes I would meet community leaders like Mary Simmons. She's the Neighborhood Association, president of AOC7.
Speaker 1:It's a neighborhood here in Long Beach that has some of the highest amounts of crime, highest amounts of people who are unhoused in the local park and she had me on like speed dial so if council or a city department wouldn't get, she couldn't get ahold of them. She'd call me and say Tracy, there's an issue, your kids are trying to walk to school, there's some. You know I'm like, okay, call 911, you know, call nine, emerge, not emerge Like. I guided her through the city language but oftentimes I would just sit with her and really hear what some of her concerns were.
Speaker 1:I did that with a lot of community members and the inside-outside strategy was that people knew that I was someone who they could call and confide information in, but also that I would coach them on the appropriate way to navigate the bureaucracy and, last but not least, follow through. They knew if I, you know, promised them something like I will come to your next neighborhood association meeting and present on, or I will invite the police representative to join me, they knew that if I made that promise, I was going to deliver on the promise. And that's the inside outside right. I think people working in city halls sometimes don't realize that it turns into the ivory tower and you can't kind of see what's happening on the outside. You just know you have to do your day to day job responsibilities and so really having those relationships outside City Hall help you navigate how to get things done and how to really help create a stronger image for the city.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Let's walk backwards now, so, because it sounds like you spent, you know, almost 20 years really dedicated to your community where you lived and worked. Was that what you always envisioned your career going like? So take me back to, like 16-year-old Tracy what did you think you were going to be and what happened at that point?
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, oh, I was going way back. So I'm a first gen college graduate, first in my family of 35 cousins. So my mom says from fifth grade I was always like I'm going to college, I'm going to go to college, it's just something I talked about. I studied hard, got good grades, but at the age of 16, it's interesting you said that there was a psychologist that came and spoke to my school about being a psychologist and what that involved, and from that day on I was like I want to be a psychologist.
Speaker 2:I want to help people.
Speaker 1:I want to help communities like the one I grew up in to really solve problems, and I didn't have the language at the time, but I knew I wanted to help people.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you're still in high school at that time, right? So you have this vision of going to college. Where'd you end up going to college, and did you actually end up majoring in psychology?
Speaker 1:So I and this is a great story so I went to St Mary's College, notre Dame, indiana. In high school I got invited to a summer program for Latina potential you know, first gen Latinas and I spent the summer at St Mary's college and I fell in love with the campus, the professors. I just knew this is where I wanted to go. So anybody in the education field really introducing potential first gen students to campuses is a game changer, right. It opened up my eyes to to college life and so I applied, got into St Mary's and I was a psych major.
Speaker 1:I knew that's what I wanted to do until I ran into Professor Maritucci, who convinced me to take an intro to social work class and he said I know you think you want to be a psych major, but actually what you want to do is you want to help communities, and so social work actually has a. It's called micro, mezzo, macro. Micro is therapy, what most people think about social work. Macro is policy and public administration and really unpacking grand challenges or wicked problems. Social workers have been doing that for decades. So my undergrad degree is in social work.
Speaker 3:Wow, I love these stories right, because a lot of times we go into college thinking we're going to do one thing. Then we get exposed to something else and it's like, hey, that's actually pretty interesting right. So, like I switched majors twice in college, I ended up with like a dual major, not because I was super studious, but more because I literally didn't know what I wanted to do. So well, I had a sense of what I wanted to do. I just the path to get there was, you know was a little different, but you know, I think it's it's it's important that you stay nimble like that, right, and you figure out how to pivot. Why did that person's opinion on what you should study kind of resonate with you?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I kept telling him no. I kept telling the professor no, I'm not meant to be a social worker. He's like Tracy, just trust me, you should take an intro to social work class. Just take one class and then come back. And he was right. I took an intro to social work. There was a social worker that talked about community engagement, community impact, policy change and I was like this is what I want to do with my life. He knew something I didn't know.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:I mean. That's why it's important to see people in the spaces that you envision yourself in, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So graduation comes, you're about to leave St Mary's College and what do you think you're going to do? And then what do you actually end up doing?
Speaker 1:Well, I started off as a mental health was it like a mental health intervention worker at the Juvenile Justice Center and I loved it. It was. I enjoyed that job, but I knew there was more. So I had a relationship with them. You know our local member of Congress, the chief of staff. I don't know how, I can't even remember how I met her, but she just really kind of took me under her wing and mentored me. I then became a youth director at our Latino community center, la Casa de Amistad, back home in Indiana. So there's a lot of migrant farm workers first, second generation Latino families that live in Indiana and I just I knew I wanted to do something with migrant farm workers policy advocacy and I took the leap of faith and applied to both UCLA and Berkeley for my master's. I got waitlisted at Berkeley, which I still believe was the universe telling me I was supposed to go to UCLA. So I went to UCLA, luskin, a school of public policy, for my master's degree.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you were originally from Indiana and then took a leave to go fly out to go get this master's degree in at UCLA.
Speaker 1:Yes, yep.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's a big. That's a big change, I'm sure, especially as someone who was the first generation and all the things your family's like wait, you're going where. Now You're leaving us. Yeah, was that a hard decision to make, or did you feel like basically destined to go? Do it?
Speaker 1:I definitely feel destined. We lived in Indiana because my family migrant farm workers. I'm fourth generation Mexican-American. I have family all over the country Oklahoma, texas, illinois, indiana, wisconsin. If you travel through the Midwest or middle America, there's Latinos everywhere and many of us have family members who were here back when Texas was Mexico. When my grandma lived in New Mexico as far back as we can see, her family lived there back when it was Mexico, before the US purchased all these states.
Speaker 1:So fast forward to my life. Well, when I moved out to UCLA I was a single mom. I really took a huge leap of faith with my daughter. So I got pregnant with my college boyfriend and we didn't end up working out which is OK, because sometimes it doesn't work out and I took the leap of faith. He actually moved out to LA to teach at a Catholic high school shortly after I got into UCLA so he could be near our daughter. He went to Notre Dame and I got accepted to UCLA on a full ride scholarship. We lived in family student housing and my daughter went to UCLA child care. It was like the universe opened every door for that leap of faith.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's awesome. So at that point you basically leaned into the macro part of the social work that you were exposed to. You took the leap of faith to say you know what I'm going to? Just do it go get this master's in public administration or public affairs or something of that nature, right At UCLA. And what did you? Why did you feel like you wanted the master's at the time and did you get what you wanted out of?
Speaker 1:it. Yeah, oh, you know what? My junior year of college, I had my mom and stepdad, like we drove to university of Washington and St Louis and a couple other. I was researching my master's. So it must've been, it must have been my professors that introduced me to like, yes, a bachelor's degree is good, but a master's will take you to the next level. So I knew for many years I wanted a master's degree and I, when I applied to UCLA and Berkeley, I knew I wanted to leave my hometown.
Speaker 1:Although I love my family very much and I love my hometown, there were only at the very much and I love my hometown, there were only at the time. It's different now, but there were only about five Latinos who had degrees that I knew of in my hometown and my community and I just I really wanted mentorship, I wanted opportunity and I wanted to spread my wings and fly. I also wanted my daughter to have a different life than I had. As I mentioned, I was first gen college graduate. Like I did. I had, I had new everything. Everything was brand new to me. Right, preparing to live in a dorm graduation? How do you find a job? Right, how do you build retirement? Like all of these things I had to basically self-teach and or teach myself, and so I really wanted to provide more opportunities for myself, but also for my daughter.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. Okay so, and you have right, you did. You did the things right First gen, not just undergrad, but now graduate as well. Tell me more about that transition then, from getting your master's degree. Did you originally see yourself as someone that would get the degree and then go work in government somewhere, or did you have, like, other plans? I?
Speaker 1:don't think I knew, I just knew I wanted to. You know, when you're younger, I just want to change the world, you know. So my first year of grad school, I interned with LA County, which I really enjoyed. That's why I learned how to navigate LA County early on in my career. My second year, though, was with former Congressman Javier Becerra, who was just our recent Health and Human Services Secretary, and I learned so much under his leadership and his chief of staff. That's where I learned how to read and understand federal policy and its implications. I learned how to navigate between the community and the federal government, so taking what you hear from the local community and how do you translate that into policy or policy recommendations. I enjoyed that job so much that he hired me to come and work on his staff right after grad school, and I. It was fun.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. So that was basically then your intro into like working in government and presumably that then led to you going directly to work for the city of Long Beach at some point and building kind of an illustrious career that way.
Speaker 1:Yep. So after well, after working for the congressman, I got offered a job with the county, making a lot more money. If you don't know now, you know that working for a member of Congress really doesn't pay a lot, but you have to be really passionate about policy and community, which I was. The county offered me a really great package, so I went and worked with the county for a couple of years and then eventually moved down to Long Beach and landed a job with the city. So it's wild looking back, but I worked for the federal government, county government and city government for close to 20 years.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's amazing. So can you actually speak a little bit about kind of navigating through different roles for that long amount of time? Right, if you're in county and then city government for close to 20 years, how do you then position yourself for different roles, so you're not in the same role the entire time? And then also, can you speak to generally how much money people can even make in government? Because I like to say there's a myth out there that if you work in nonprofit or public sectors you're not making any money. I just don't think that's true, because I've been in both and I know that's not true. So can you speak about both navigating to different roles and generally, how much money can people expect to make and go?
Speaker 1:Yeah, these are actually really great questions. So I would say, with county, la County is a beast right. There's 32 county departments so much opportunity, especially, you know, with that bachelor's or master's degree. The city of Long Beach, much like other cities, especially large cities, has 22 departments. So my first job I got hired was in the health department running a health you know, health center and federal grants in Martin Luther King Park. It's one of our highest crime neighborhoods, where Snoop Dogg grew up 21st and Lemon. So when you come to Long Beach, go to 21st and Lemon. You can see the house he grew up in with his grandma and I started there.
Speaker 1:I remember I applied for a position with Parks and Recreation. Didn't get it. That's okay, though, because I ended up landing a job with community development. So I spent five years in the health department, five years in community development and then my last six years in the city manager's office, you know, under the mayor, running all the innovation work for the city. So you know there's so much opportunity in terms of, you know, networking within the city. Looking for those special opportunities. I have a young woman that I mentor. She was working in the health department as an outreach worker for the unhoused population City, long Beach, and now she works for the city prosecutor and she's in the courtroom with the prosecutor basically helping the unhoused population navigate resources and what they call the LA County calls the homeless court. So again it's. You just have to not only like, look for those opportunities, but network and be ready. You know, you never know what opportunity may come your way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's great, especially with a place like city government. Right, as you said, you can basically have completely different careers. Right, you can do everything from accounting to health department stuff to legal issues whatever you need. A city has to deal with all of it.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:So it's good to, as you said, both network, but keep yourself ready and keep your eyes open for different opportunities throughout even just the behemoth that is a city.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the pay, I absolutely agree with you. Right out of a master's degree, for instance, you could make minimum $65,000. I think I just recently saw a post for the city of Long Beach for our management assistant program that's a program I used to run, I think the starting pays like $85,000. So with a master's degree, even a bachelor's degree, you can Even with no degree, by the way, because don't forget our refuse, trash pickup people, parks and rec staff there's a lot of positions in the city, the city government, that actually don't require a degree.
Speaker 1:We also have the port of Long Beach. Those positions, you know, if you're a longshoreman in the local port, you can start off by making anywhere from 80 to 100,000 a year and that's without a degree. So you're I think people are sleeping on city government jobs, not realizing. So I would say that's a minimum pay, Maximum. Well, of course, you know, if you become city manager or chief of police, you can make anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000 a year and then you're incrementally getting raises, being promoted at $100,000, $120,000, $150,000. If you're a bureau manager, $180,000.
Speaker 1:If you become a department head $200,000. And luckily in California everything's on transparent California you can look up all these salaries, but there is a really strong career trajectory in city government.
Speaker 3:Yeah, completely agree, and that's one of the things I like about California. That's one of the things I like about New York City is, if you want to know how much a job pays, you can look that up. That is an option. It is not like the gatekeeping days when you have to basically know someone and figure out if they can share some of that information.
Speaker 3:A lot of that stuff is more transparent now, which I think is is great for job seekers yep, exactly yeah, so from your government days, federal county, city, working in higher ed, starting and running your own consulting company, what are you most proud of in your career?
Speaker 1:my children my. She got her bachelor's from Marymount Manhattan in New York Before the pandemic. She graduated right before the pandemic. She came back home and got her master's in social work at Cal State University, long Beach. She is a school-based mental health therapist. So she's opposite of me, I'm policy and she really feels called to help millennials and Zs and the younger gen alphas to deal with mental health and she loves her job and she's so good at it.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. And then you just made a trip to New York recently.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my, our youngest, our son, gets out. He my daughter's name is Guadalupe, and our son Quetzal. He got accepted to NYU. He is a filmmaker. He went to a performing arts school here in Long Beach and he got accepted to NYU. We moved him into the dorm this weekend and went to the Tisch School of Film. You know, mama, in tears, that my son is pursuing his dreams to be a filmmaker.
Speaker 3:Those are great things to be very proud of, so I completely appreciate that. I love hearing that. Can you speak to me about, you know, I think, moving, having your kids graduate and having your kids go to school, but also someone like you that has still been around with education, right, like you've been a lecturer, and can you one talk about, like why be a lecturer as you're also full-time employee somewhere else, like what's the logic in that, and like what are you gaining out of that and what are you doing with that.
Speaker 3:So let's start with that first Like why would you become a university lecturer and where were you doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for 14 years I've been teaching at the university graduate level. I just started my 14th year this year. So my first five years were at UCLA Luskin, my alma mater, and then the commute kind of got where it was wearing on me and Cal State, long Beach, offered me a teaching position. So I taught there for seven years. But I'm back. I'm back in the classroom and it's so fun. It's two things. One is it keeps you at the cutting edge of your field, right. So I'm teaching theory, I'm teaching policy.
Speaker 1:I taught an advanced policy and poverty class this spring. I mean we're at the forefront of what's happening. We were watching each week as the big, beautiful bill was being proposed and enacted. What does that mean for low-income communities, what does that mean for the wealthy? And really analyzing the bill and the policy, but also, at the same time, looking back over the last 100 years of what policies have presidents enacted to try to alleviate policy? Did they work, did they not? That was fun. And then the second piece is sharing real life stories. What was it like developing the city's first language access policy? Or the citywide violence prevention plan, which was a policy document put forward by mayor and council? National and global policy and unpack and analyze it. If you will. I also can give them real life examples of local policy that I've helped develop and what that experience was like the good, the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. I think that makes a lot of sense. And those are, you know, I think, some of the reasons that we don't think about, like why someone would be an adjunct professor. Right Like you have a full-time job, you have things going on right For the most part. You're not being an adjunct professor for the money. Right, like it's not, you're not going to get like rich doing the thing. But if you enjoy being in the classroom and if you enjoy exposing rising professionals to the work, right and to the actual things that have happened and how to actually use, leverage your experience to impart some of that wisdom, right, I think there's a lot of value there, absolutely and I'm still in contact with a lot of my former students.
Speaker 1:I have one student he's a veteran and formerly incarcerated, you know later in life got his life together and got his bachelor's and his master's. He was in my class 2021 and during class I remember halfway through the semester I said Manny, you need to go get a doctorate. You are so intelligent, you understand this theory so well and the practicality of how it works or doesn't work for certain communities. I want to encourage you to go get your doctorate. He's like Professor Kolumba you're crazy, I'm barely making it here, I'm just getting my life together.
Speaker 1:Well, lo and behold, he got into a doctoral program at California Baptist University. He texted me yesterday. He's in his second year and he's creating a theory of change around veterans, veterans and innovation. And because he's a veteran and he understands the lived experience, he's actually creating a dissertation in the theory of change around how to how to help veterans. I mean, if that's not like what I'm called to do is help create these amazing future leaders, then I found my gifting is helping people, like you know, figure out these world problems and believing in them so they can believe in themselves.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. He's not the only one going back to school, though, right.
Speaker 1:You're right. So thank you for asking and saying that comment. Quietly, while my son was applying and getting into NYU, I was quietly. My family my husband and children knew I was applying to USC to get my doctorate in social work. So they started recruiting me around the time that I was creating my business plan and I really believe in alignment and open doors. So I took the leap of faith and applied and got in and I just started my doctoral program this week.
Speaker 3:Congratulations.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Why did you decide to actually go back to school and how do you envision kind of leveraging that or utilizing that in the future?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So back when I had my daughter and got my master's degree, I always wanted a doctorate. However, at the time I knew I needed to raise my daughter and I got married, had our son and but just the timing wasn't right. It was always one of those dreams, you know, like, deep down in my heart I knew I wanted to do it. Can I just tell you about alignment and, you know, intuition. This USC person kept calling me and emailing me like we really think you'd be a great candidate, you really should apply. It's like the universe will send you signals, whether you realize it or not, like it's time. And I really I applied on a total act of faith of like I don't know, like my son's going to college, I just started a new company. I'm starting the second half of basically my life and my career.
Speaker 1:Everything looks completely different than it did a year ago or five years ago. The whole landscape of my life. We're empty nesters. There's a lot of things. I don't work in city government anymore. I own an LLC and I was like, all right, I'm just going to take the leap of faith. And can I tell you, everything's lined up. The stars have aligned, even my first day of class, some of the newer theories that are being proposed and the integration of innovation, user-centered design and social work. These are things that I was doing in the city of Long Beach and now I have language. Now they're presenting theory and I'm like my mind is blown. I am exactly where I'm supposed to be today.
Speaker 3:That's remarkable. Congratulations. That is a huge, huge, huge accomplishment and I'm excited to continue to follow you as you finish this degree and what you do with it beyond that. So, are there any? I call them forms of media, so that can be books, podcasts, things that have shaped you personally or professionally that you encourage other people out there to check out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So you're hearing this on my second you know my mid-career, or how do I say, the second half of my career. I'm launching it right now. One of the books that really has shaped me over the years is the 21 laws of irrefutable leadership. This is a phenomenal book. I highly recommend it. It's a book I read a long time ago by John Maxwell. One of my former mentors, you know, mentioned it and I read it and I've actually read it several times. We did it as a book club with my employees and my last job, because they were training and mentoring mayors and, you know, city staff. That has been really a guiding document of my leadership. I would say the other thing is the emotional intelligence. So if you know, taking StrengthsFinder, the Enneagram there's a couple different. You know methods out there, but really being in tune with who you are as a leader and in and tuning in with your leading right, whether it be your staff, your team, my bench of consultants that's really important in taking that really just a human approach to leading people.
Speaker 1:A recent book that I'm reading oh my gosh, it's blowing my mind. It's called Smart Women Finish Rich. Now, something to know about me is I am not a money-driven person. I didn't get into any of this for money. Now I'm realizing, though money has a purpose and some people are. I'm not controlled by money. I am like agnostic. I have no feelings towards money. However, with more money, I can do more good, right? So what I mean by that is, for instance, in my family, we give away 10% to nonprofits and good causes, and that has really served us well. We've been abundantly blessed financially for many years because of that cause and action, also investing, of course, in your retirement, in your future. And then the last thing is like paying off our mortgage early. So this book Smart Women, finish Rich has been just a game changer. So David Bach he's out of New York, he worked in the financial industry for 30 years and he really wants to help educate people, and specifically women, about how to manage your finances and how to live financially free. One of the activities he has you do in the book is write down your 10 goals that you want to accomplish in the next three years, and then he walks you through step-by-step, pick five of the most important ones, and then you develop a smart goals right.
Speaker 1:We all. We all do this at work. We all have created smart goals and strategic plans for our companies that we work for. The question is have you ever done it for your own life? So I actually did this for my life. My husband and I did it together. So we actually have a Columbo family value statement and strategic plan. I have a Tracy Columbo value statement and strategic plan, can I tell have in my 20 years in government and I did a lot of great things and I was very focused at work but it's it's taken it to a whole new level of alignment of my personal values and goals in life.
Speaker 3:That's some great advice to go along with the book recommendation, just so people understand the real value add. That's that's within the book and this is just. You know, I learned a lot just from hearing you say it. But, like now, if you dive into the actual book you know there's even more there.
Speaker 1:So I appreciate you sharing that If I could share about a few podcasts and other couple other little hacks that I do. So every morning I listened to daily meditation. It's about like a 20 minute podcast on meditation. So again, you can choose your favorite channel.
Speaker 1:I'm really big on this because I feel like the meditation, it centers me. You know, mentally and spiritually I get very like zenned out and then I usually go for a run or lift weights or do some kind of workout. I do something to educate myself and then I start my day. And so the 5 am club it is a book. I'm not going to lie, I didn't read it. You know what I did. I threw it. I asked AI to tell me what were the highlights. Oh, that's a hack If you don't have time, but you want to know what are the key takeaways and that was what it was is have spiritual meditation or quiet time, have some kind of exercise in the morning and then learn something new and then get your day started. So that also has really centered me and I feel like I'm more intentional with my time because by the time I turn on my laptop I'm like I'm focused on the moment. I'm in the moment and I know what goals I want to accomplish for the day.
Speaker 3:Are there any other career cheat codes that you've come across or that you've taken advantage of that you think people should should consider in their lives?
Speaker 1:So I have a whole bunch of them so, but I'll just share. I'll just share a few. One of them is scheduling time to do things. So you know, one of the things I learned in government and I've been applying it really well with my company is that if you want to get something done, you have to schedule a meeting with yourself. Right? We have a long, long list of, let's say, 20 things to do.
Speaker 1:So what I've been doing for the last several years is I calendar time. Let me give you an example. When I worked at the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation, we were running multiple programs, but we also had to write curriculum. So I would book time with myself throughout the week an hour here, an hour there, two hours on Friday where I was reading, I was writing, I was developing curriculum, reviewing curriculum and I treated it like it was a meeting with myself that I had to get these things done. What I've seen is, year over year, as I've booked time with myself to accomplish my to-do list, I actually have been able to really outperform peers, and it's not because I'm smarter or more equipped I mean, I've worked with some data scientists, some people who are smarter than me it's because I get stuff done and the way you do that is you have to schedule time with yourself to make sure you tackle. That's one hack. I will say another hack is the Eisenhower matrix. So I think a bunch of us learned that in grad school.
Speaker 1:There are things on your to-do list that are time wasters or, like man, if I had more time, I wish I could do that thing. So I constantly am looking at my to-do list. Am I getting paid by a firm to complete this action, or one of my clients? Is this for coursework or is this something that just feels good and I wish I had more time to do? And can I delegate it or do I delete it? That actually has helped me. I'm trying to look for the word like go further, faster, because I've decided it's healthy to say no and sometimes it's healthy to say you know what? I don't have the bandwidth for that right now, maybe in the future or maybe never, but it's actually a time waster.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Those are great cheat codes. Is there anything else we haven't discussed today that the world should know about Tracy?
Speaker 1:The second half of your career, right. So the first half is fun and I want to speak to the younger people first, and then the you know, the older folks in the room. So first part of your career and I again, just at my age, watching the people I'm mentoring. My own experience, my you know colleagues, experience In your younger years you're ambitious, you're getting a lot done. It feels like you know you can conquer the world and you can and you do and do it all. Do it all and have fun. You know, it's interesting because I remember when my daughter graduated I was in tears and I was like baby. You know, should I have been a stay at home, mom? Did I, you know? Did I mess you up? And she was like, don't you? She was like mom, don't you ever say that again? She said I knew that my mom had an important job. I never really knew what you did, but I knew it was important, right? So she knew that I was doing work that was important for the community, the city, the communities that we care about. So in your younger years, go for it, make it happen. Be an adjunct faculty, you know. Work on projects, sign up, say yes when your boss is looking for volunteers on that new project. I really believe that's how I got promoted was saying yes to things.
Speaker 1:Now that I'm on my you know second half of my career, I still can dream big, but it just looks a little bit different. I feel like the landscape is wide open. I understand the world better. I know who I am. I know what I want out of life. I know what projects I'm passionate about, my company, what projects I can say yes to, and what projects are. Maybe I make a referral to another company who could do a better service, and that's okay, but I feel more established in myself.
Speaker 1:I want to write books. When you offered for me to speak on this podcast, I'm like I just I feel more established in myself. I want to write books. I want to talk. Like when you offered for me to speak on this podcast, I'm like, yes, I want to talk on podcasts. I want to share with the world things that I've learned. I think most importantly, though, is I want to inspire other people, like, if you have a dream in your heart, go for it. It is scary. Starting this business was scary. Applying for my doctorate halfway through my career was scary, but I promise you, if you follow those dreams, so many doors are going to fly open for you that you just never knew were possible.
Speaker 3:It's awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining us on Career Chico today. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did and believe on the mission we're on, please like, rate and subscribe to this podcast on whatever platform you're using, and share this podcast with your friends and your networks. Make sure you follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at Career Cheat Code and tell us people or careers you would like to see highlighted. See you next week with some more cheat codes. Peace.
