Erin Patchell: All right, everyone, welcome to Weirdos in the Workplace, the podcast where we celebrate authenticity, transparency, passion, and purpose, and all the great things that make our work inspiring and purposeful. And today we have a fantastic guest with us. It's Ange McCabe from Intuity Performance. Ange is the CEO. She's passionate about elevating leaders, business owners, and teams through her whole person performance, coaching, training, and facilitation, and does a lot of other things as well. And I will introduce even more of Ange's bio in a minute. But, Ange, why don't you say hello to everyone and let them know kind of what we're chatting about today? Ange MacCabe: Fantastic. Yes, I'm Ange McCabe, CEO and co founder of Intuitive Performance. I'm so glad to be here and to chat with you today, Erin, about all things leadership and entrepreneurship. So ready to dive in deep. Erin Patchell: Fantastic. So drawing from a decade of experience helping individuals and teams in tech, health, and NGOs to reach their fullest potential, ange is here to revolutionize how people lead. She has an innovative AI SaaS platform through which she's championing the next era of emotionally intelligent leaders, equipping them with life changing tools for success and growth. She's a performance coach, ICF certified Facilitator assessor in disc and EQI, and an HR practitioner. Like, tons of awards. You are pretty spectacular. Tell us something that we can't see on your resume. Ange MacCabe: Thank you, Erin. As you're speaking, I'm like, wow, that sounds so great, and I'm also human. So about me is that I'm fortunate enough to be a mom of an amazing ten year old boy. He's definitely a driver force for me, and my biggest life lesson I'm sure we'll get into in my spare time, I love to coach our under 16 AAA hockey team. And what we do is we focus in on performance habits and emotional intelligence for younger adolescents. So that has been amazing as well. I'm an avid hiker. I live in Nova Scotia, so close to the ocean for all seasons, essentially, and really enjoy spending time connecting with like minded individuals. Ange MacCabe: So happy to be here. Erin Patchell: I'm so happy for you to be here. Your work is very inspiring. The fact that you focus on emotional intelligence, and I have a little bit of that in my own background as well. I think that's really interesting that you take that approach. I love that you're working with hockey teams. I'm a hockey mom as well, so I really appreciate that. From that perspective, I'm very curious about what has inspired you to do the work that you do today. Ange MacCabe: I feel like there's always two facets. Like, people in general, generally speaking, are like onions. Right there's, that professional. Here's what I should say from a PR perspective. And then there's the personal. Here's what really lights my fire. So I'll tell you both in the sense of transparency of your podcast. So knowing essentially what drives me is that I know that myself and my team here at Intuitive Performance and Emotive, Inc. Ange MacCabe: We're creating something that serves leaders and individuals to be in a better place than they were prior to meeting myself and my team. And that's a thing that really keeps me motivated. It's seeing individuals confidence grow. They're gelling more with teams, there's more success, productivity, et cetera, et cetera. So leaving them in a better space or place than when I found them. What's near and dear to my heart is, of course, my son. Like I said, he's been my largest life lesson and he has really shifted my lens on the world and how I'm perceiving things. I know that you're a mom, too, Aaron, so you could probably attest that your lens motivators. Ange MacCabe: A lot of that shifts when you have children. And then also hearing him say that he's proud of me and his ability to express himself are my personal measures for success. Erin Patchell: Oh, yeah. Children change everything through their eyes. Seeing yourself through their eyes kind of just makes you want to become a better person. Ange MacCabe: Absolutely. Erin Patchell: Yeah, for sure. But it's kind of traumatizing, too, to be honest. It really is on those days where. Ange MacCabe: You're just like, I don't really want to adult, Erin. I don't. Erin Patchell: I sometimes just not I'm just not doing it, so and that's I what. Ange MacCabe: I started doing when my son turned five, because he's going to be a debater. Absolutely. Like, he already is one now and he questions a lot. And so what I started to do was to tell my son I'm putting myself on a timeout when I know that I've hit a limit and I know that he's just genuinely curious or he wants to push limits so that he can understand cause and effect, all that great stuff. So there's been times where I'm like, how can I really show up for him instead of just thinking about where my head's at right now? So, yeah, I take time out. Erin Patchell: Yeah, absolutely. And we do the same thing at work probably, too, right? Because people are people everywhere. We can't get away from them, but we love them. That's the same philosophy, I think, that we both have. And the reason why we do our work is because we love people at the end of the day, and we believe in people and we want the best for people. Absolutely. How has your philosophy evolved over time? Ange MacCabe: Or has it I think that my philosophy, depending on what we mean by philosophy specifically, but I believe that I have the opportunity to evolve as a person in a continuous manner. It's not just a start and stop journey for me, it's more of that infinity symbol, right? Like, you might take pauses or breaks, maybe sometimes you fall off the wagon, but it's really about looking outwards as to what can we continually grow to be that better person or elevate ourselves. So I'm very much about walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to that whole emotional intelligence space. So I'm actually in a coaching mentor group right now to continue to advance certifications, et cetera, trying to do something once a year, whether it be CEO group, whether it be looking at different associations to be a part of, et cetera. But personally, what I make sure of is that I have individuals around me that will also speak from a true place of candor. Because it's really important to understand my own learning edges, not just from my own lens. But to your point that you said how you see yourself and your children, you can also see yourself as a CEO amongst your team. And so really building that safe culture to get feedback for people to identify the things that they love and the things that I have an area of growth and accepting the same, I think that's what continuously helps me to elevate. Ange MacCabe: And that's kind of my philosophy around evolving, essentially. So from a business perspective, I feel like in the first year, you're really just focusing on building that thing. It's not so much about how am I showing up, but how can I survive? And for our situation, we opened our doors a week to the day, the first round of COVID essentially. So resiliency and grit were the theme of our first year. And it panned out well for us. We're really excited, fortunate, abundant with opportunities. So for us, it's really focusing in on things like making sure now to look at things from a more strategic perspective. And then I also feel like we're straddling not just strategy, but how am I showing up or how am I growing as a CEO? Right? Because essentially my thought process is I want to work myself out of a quote unquote job, definitely to be able to really impact a larger amount of people. Erin Patchell: Yeah. I'm curious if you had a moment or a series of moments where you realized that your philosophy was around this kind of continuous improvement concept, did you have any AHA moments? Ange MacCabe: That's a great question, a great follow up question. I feel like I stumbled through it, to be totally honest with you. It was like, okay, here's a learning opportunity. Okay, I got humbled. Okay, I was celebrated here. But it really became intentional for me when I started asking myself the question, what is my purpose? And that was when I was in my late 20s ish So still working, still full time employed. And I started questioning a lot of things like, is this the right place for me? Is this the job that I love? What do I want to be when I grow up and just surrounding myself with different topics or areas of interest to express my growth. So for me, I would say that light bulb turned on probably around 29, 30. Erin Patchell: As an entrepreneur, I'm going to move on to the entrepreneurial talk because you're the CEO of Intuity Performance. I'm an entrepreneur. We have a few things in common that way. For me, I have no sense of balance whatsoever. There's nothing in my life that is balanced. I try to practice integration as much as I can, so if I have something going on the day, there's no shame, I do the thing. If it's personal, whatever. If I want to have a nap, I can. Erin Patchell: A lot of the time I am working weekends, I am working evenings, I'll work whenever I'm inspired, et cetera, et cetera. But I am curious about other entrepreneurs kind of modus operandi when it comes to this sort of thing. What's your philosophy around balance? Ange MacCabe: Quite similar, like you're saying a lot of the same words. And I would add that I think we need to omit the word balance because it's an unrealistic expectation that things are going to be equally weighed so that something doesn't fall. And then what happens? Right? Our imposter comes up. We're hard on ourselves, almost critic, et cetera, et and that really happened to me in my first year of business. And I hit, like I would say, a semi burnout. It wasn't like a full burnout, but I was putting too much pressure on myself. I could see my son turning more to his NAN for help, et cetera, et cetera. And that slowed me down to look at it from the perspective of, hey, there's more to life than just work or that purpose. Ange MacCabe: It's really about integration. And in the first year it was funny because I treated myself like an employee. Like, I clocked in at seven in the morning and I clocked out at five, and then when my son went to bed, I was clocking back in at eight and then clocking out at ten. And so it took me a while to understand that whole concept of integration, but I think I have it down somewhat pat now in a sense that it's really about the opportunity of looking at things based on priorities. And so I've been more disciplined in understanding, okay, what are the top three priorities that I have for my passion? I e work for that week? What are the top three priorities that I have for my health? Making sure that I'm sleeping, eating, exercising when can and then, of course, family. So obviously I'm human. There's definitely opportunities for growth and further integration, but it's something that I try to keep top of mind or live to myself often, so I don't lose sight of that. Erin Patchell: So integrating the concept of emotional intelligence into we feel, how do you feel know as your emotional intelligence of you're gaining a maturity? Ange MacCabe: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's on point, Erin, in the sense that when you have higher levels of emotional intelligence, whether organically, stumbled upon or intentionally, you have lower levels of stress, higher levels of confidence, and you're able to manage things from a place of pressure versus stress. So that's one piece of it. The other piece of it, too, is the level of empathy I have for myself is substantive now than it ever has been. And when I say that, it's not like, oh, poor me, I deserve something. It's more so like, hey, you know what? You gave that your best shot. Here's what you can learn from it. Ange MacCabe: When we're rested, we'll go back to this. Right? So it's multifaceted in the sense of when you focus on emotional intelligence and its growth, it seeps not just into your professional world or leadership or athleticism, but also your personal life. And then it impacts the way that you parent. It impacts the way that you partner with your loved ones, et cetera. Erin Patchell: I would like to talk about your SaaS platform. Is there something you're willing to talk about? Ange MacCabe: So in full transparency, we're currently at our MVP stage, Motive. So the company name is Motive Inc. And what we're doing is we're looking to develop emotionally intelligent humans. And the whole premise of this concept is that we're going to be hopefully, knock on wood first to market with an actual emotional intelligence AI coach. And that's not to replace coaching, but rather to utilize it as a strong tool with coaches. So the intention is that instead of growing, which we know statistically and have experienced with many of our clients over the past three, four years, of an increased delta of emotional intelligence when you focus on it. So meaning that you can grow your emotional intelligence or the subsectors by 20% kind of geeking out here, Aaron. So tell me if I'm going too far offline here. Erin Patchell: We are a full geek here. Don't worry. Keep going. Ange MacCabe: Okay! So, noticing that basically you can grow your emotional intelligence if you focus on it through the year or consistently, I should say. What would that habit look like if it was powered by AI? And what we've seen in testing so far, we're in the alpha testing stage of a demo type thing. And what we're seeing is that what we could coach in an hour can be accomplished in 15 minutes. And it's not to say that we want to speed through things or take away the quality, but rather it gives a very safe space in the sense of knowing that only your coach is going to see this. It gives you almost a playground. And then also, too, it's going to give accessibility to people that normally wouldn't have the means or knowhow with a coach because we strongly feel that everybody should have the opportunity to have access to a coach. Right? So we're really inspired and excited about it, humbled by the tech journey and can't wait to break into the community and really spread our wings there. Erin Patchell: Well, I will advocate for this. You just let me know how I can help because I think this sounds amazing. Seriously, what's the lead time look like to market here? What are you looking at? Ange MacCabe: So right now we're bootstrapping it. So TBD, if I'm being totally transparent, hoping that we have maybe some listeners or some individuals that are super excited to help us get off the ground, because we're really looking to minimize risk around costs and expedite delivery. Because we know that there's a lot of people in the market right now looking at doing similar, if not the same things. Erin Patchell: Okay, so funding. You're looking for funding? Awesome. Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, let's put it out there. We're looking for funding. Does not hurt to... I think this is like, you know, I'm a coach, I'm an emotional intelligence practitioner. I also have a husband who's in software technology, and I'm very interested and curious about it. Although I don't do a whole lot of work on the tech side of things, I'm an avid user of technology. So I think this could be very cool. And I love micro learning platforms, which it sound like this is kind of a bit of a micro learning platform, right? Ange MacCabe: Absolutely. So, for example, a lot of coaching clients will come to intuitive performance to talk about, how do I be a better leader? So it's like this big global question of leader identity. And when we break it down, it's things like those micro learnings how to have difficult conversations. Let's use that for an example. So the AI coach, in between coaching sessions, or even on its own, can help that person take the time and pause and partner with them to ask the appropriate questions based on their profile, past coaching sessions, et cetera, so that they can really start to walk through on their own. That micro learning of difficult conversations because everyone's different in the sense of what is your definition of a difficult conversation and what's difficult for you. So the AI coach will help you unpack that and then also provide appropriate recommendations. Erin Patchell: Yeah. In real time. In real time, yes, absolutely. I'm having a difficult conversation in five minutes. Shit. Ange MacCabe: Yes, absolutely.  Erin Patchell: Yeah. That's brilliant. And much better, I think, than what you could ever hope to get from any of the other AI tools that are currently out there. Ange MacCabe: Thank you. Erin Patchell: Very cool. Ange MacCabe: So we're hoping to hit all 27 eIQ skills, which hasn't been done yet. We know that there's movement in empathy in the healthcare world. There might be some other studies that are out there. Hit me up at [email protected]. If there is, I would love to hear about it. But all this to say is, like, whatever you're going through as a leader, as an athlete, as a woman in leadership, this AI app will help you elevate those skill sets, communication, confidence, understanding, cause and effect. Right. Like, if I say this to Aaron, what does that mean? Because in some circumstances, we don't have a few of those eIQ quotants raised high enough to understand how I'm going to impact someone. Erin Patchell: I could see this being useful for cultural competency as well. Ange MacCabe: Oooh. Erin Patchell: Isn't that a big one? Ange MacCabe: Yes. Erin Patchell: If I'm talking to a person and we know that they have a certain cultural context, I can easily see the AI tool being able to handle something like that. Ange MacCabe: I love that. I think that's beautiful. Erin Patchell: Yeah. So I guess that leads me to my last question, my last official question. Who knows where the heck we'll go? But how can we build truly inclusive and accessible workplaces - and accessibility, especially because I was recently at an event in Ottawa called Policy Talks and it was all about accessibility in workplace. Ange MacCabe: Yes. Erin Patchell: And one of the statistics they threw out there was that while 90% of organizations have some kind of either DEI strategy or DEI objectives, almost only 4% have accessibility included as part of those DEI objectives... which I thought was crazy. Ange MacCabe: That is crazy. Erin Patchell: Yeah. Ange MacCabe: And curious to understand. So when you're talking about accessibility, are you talking about physical accessibility to the workplace? Erin Patchell: Physical accessibility would be one of the components. Ange MacCabe: Okay, tell me more. Erin Patchell: Well, that's a good question. I don't have any more than that. [laughs] That's the statistic. Well, okay. I can tell you how I would define yeah. In terms of accessibility, for me, it's strength based work environments, building work environments where we can spend more time in our flow states. And we have folks around us who can with complementary skill sets, complementary personalities that can help us and support us in different types of work so we're more focused on what we do well, but then we have other people around us who can help balance us out. There's the cultural component as well in terms of the bums and seats aspect. Right. Not everyone works well from an office, from nine to five. We all have to adapt. So having a more adaptive work environment or a results only work environment is big part of accessibility as well, and inclusion. And then, of course, the physical work environment and having accessible tools. Accessibility to tools. Ange MacCabe: Right. Erin Patchell: Yeah. Ange MacCabe: It's definitely a deep topic, Erin, in the sense of layering that onion to speak to it on its face, in the sense of physical accessibility, it's really making sure that organizations understand that people are the largest asset that they have. And if the writing is on the wall that we are accessible, then how that shows up in the workplace is if not replicated, but the same in a sense that the way that the bathrooms are designed or the way that there's access or egress from buildings, et cetera, et cetera. From a cultural perspective, I have a different opinion or viewpoint on it. When it comes to the people and culture side of things and addressing DEI, it's extremely important and I think that there's some subcategories that we're really hitting on, but there's not enough attention. And here's why. I actually had the lens lifted for me because originally my thought process was, well, if we increase emotional intelligence, a lot of the cultural pieces will open up for us. Right? And that's not a favorite opinion that's out there right now. And the reason why I say that is because if we understand ourselves and our beliefs and our biases, it makes it a heck of a lot easier to then try to empathize and understand someone else. Ange MacCabe: So communication improves. I'm preaching to the choir. I know this Erin. Right? So I'm really passionate about that piece of it. And I stumbled upon an individual on my podcast, and she's in DEI for Harvard Business Review. And we went into the green room thereafter, and I hesitated in having a debate about emotional intelligence being the crooks of cultural competency and opening up that DEI framework. Erin Patchell: Really? Ange MacCabe: So it's not just a checklist, because that's what kind of saddens my soul is. A lot of companies want to do well with it, but they don't know what to do, so therefore it turns into a checklist, and then wrong assumptions can be created and or made. So my eyes were open, and the door is blown off for me because what I didn't realize is that organizations aren't looking at their current processes and procedures to identify is there systemic things in here that prevents cultural competency or diversity, equity and inclusion. And so I think it's two pronged. One, from an operational perspective, it's really getting honest and open within organizations to understand our processes and what is the lens on culture. Right? So in that particular example, in some circumstances, they had publicated more white written articles for HBR than African American or black. Right. So that's a systemic thing. Ange MacCabe: So what do they need to to instead of just raise it up, they need to change the way that they're doing the operations and the way that they're looking at things and does it make sense and what are the topics that they're writing about? And by the way, there needs to be a Quotant where there's equity in the types or the diversity of authors that are being put forth. And that's the great work that they're doing. And I totally am behind that and subscribe to it because it's important to look at your operations as well as the people behind your operations. So we have that eIQ perspective and a different look at operations. I think to me that's what really DEI and accessibility ought to look like, because that falls into the psychological safe environment and starting to think more innovative. Because if you don't have trust and your roots there, you can try as hard as you want and throw tools and processes at things. You're not going to get any further ahead with innovation. Erin Patchell: Everything's connected. Ange MacCabe: Definitely, yeah. Erin Patchell: It's interesting because I'm terrible at focusing. I have ADHD, and I'm kind of all over the place, but in my mind, everything's a contingency. Everything's connected, and you just very eloquently, I think, described a big part of that in terms of the dei and accessibility. So how all of those little pieces are connected. Yeah. Thanks for that. Ange MacCabe: Oh, my pleasure. Erin Patchell: Okay, so if folks are listening to this today, and they would like to get a hold of you and they have any questions about any of your work or your podcast and what's your podcast called again? Remind me? Ange MacCabe: Our podcast is The Human Side of Business Podcast. Erin Patchell: Amazing. The Human Side of Business. I love that. So your work The Human Side of Business Podcast, or even if they're interested in your AI SaaS platform, which they should be for anyone listening, how can they get a hold of you? Ange MacCabe: Yeah, for sure. So they can find me on LinkedIn under Ange MacCabe or they can email me at [email protected]. Erin Patchell: Awesome. And I will include the links. If you look in the bottom of the podcast script, I'll include some links as well, in case anyone is looking for. So thank you so much for joining me today. Ange MacCabe: Yes, my pleasure. Erin and I look forward to continuing chatting. Erin Patchell: Absolutely, yes. Ange MacCabe: Take good care, everyone. Erin Patchell: Thanks again to Ange McCabe for coming on the show. She is absolutely wonderful. Definitely check her out at intuitiveperformance.ca. For the end of this episode. I was looking for a quote that inspired me. And this is what it is by Ralph Marston. "Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focused most intently, so choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting, and joyful." That's it for today. Don't forget to stay weird, stay wonderful, and don't stay out of trouble. [Outro Music] Erin Patchell:  If you like this episode of Weirdos in the workplace, don't forget to like and subscribe on Apple Podcasts Spotify or your favorite podcast platform. You can reach us online at positivist. CA P-O-S-I-T-I-V-I-S-T CA. Or on most social media platforms at Positivist Group. Have a beautiful day at work. ---- Follow Ange MacCabe at: https://www.intuityperformance.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/intuity-performance/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ange-maccabe-67a07616/

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