My Champion in the Room When I Wasn't There

Tiffany Pham

Hi, Janis.

Janis Hoyt

Hi, Tiffany.

Tiffany Pham

What an honor to have you. I'm so excited to have you.

Janis Hoyt

Thank you. It's so nice to be with you today.

Tiffany Pham

Absolutely. No, of course. It's such an honor on my end. As our listeners should know, Janis and I go way back and are personal friends as well as collaborators through the years. And she's just such an incredible supporter and champion and has just been with us for so long. And I'm just really honored to have her here with us today to be able to shine a light on her incredible journey and inspiring lessons and leadership and accomplishments. So I'm really delighted to be able to share your amazing story with everyone. And thank you again for being here with us.

Janis Hoyt

Thank you. My pleasure. Of course. It's been wonderful working with you too. I have to say that it's really been an honor. Thank you so much.

Tiffany Pham

You know, I think you and I know the main angle of our podcast, of our show, is really to be able to delve into your chief officer role and to be able to hear how you got there and that moment you got it and were told, and all of that. But before we get there, I'd love for you to be able to share your story prior to that moment of your first Chief Officer role. What was your story? Where did you grow up? All those years prior to the Chief Officer, where were you and what shaped you along the way?

Janis Hoyt

Yeah, great. Well, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and I had an opportunity to go to college at UC Berkeley. And that's where I received my undergraduate degree. And I have to say that I think that that is really where it sparked my interest in people. A lot of diversity unfolded there in my educational background and activities that I chose to get involved in. And I feel like I really became a sociologist, so to speak, while attending Berkeley, which actually happened to be what my major was at that time. And, you know, as you know, it's the study of people. I think it's just so interesting, how do people tick, so to speak, and what makes them different. And so I really am very fortunate to have that background and education, because that also drove, I think, a lot of that standard of achievement and putting your best foot forward and the competitive part of it as well. And as I grew from there, I also got married and had a family after I got out of college, but started my career primarily in retail first. I had joined Macy's executive training program to become a buyer, and I feel that that was such an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of business, the operations piece of it, sales, marketing, managing people at a young age, of 30 people on a staff. So I really started to learn a lot about the business on that path forward, and had an opportunity to do an assignment in human resources along the way. It was such a great way to really learn about gross margin, how do you drive sales through insights. It's important to listen to the consumer, the customer. Every day someone's voting on what it is that you're selling. And so I learned a lot very early in my career, I think, also about change, because it was rotational. You went from one assignment to the other. And I think that that's also something that even today I encourage people to do. Be open to change and new responsibilities, new opportunities, because you can always learn something there. And I consider myself a lifelong learner. And I think that that is really the throughput of my career throughout, and actually achieving the chief officer role was really being open to learning. But from that experience, I went on to go into a different industry. I went into healthcare, and I always feel like I've been drawn into these really purpose driven, you know, what's driving me from the heart, and just these mission driven companies.

Tiffany Pham

Yeah, it's important, right, to be able to connect the head and the heart. And I think that that's how culture shows up also in companies: if you have a mission and a purpose, it's always easier to explain to everybody the why. Why was this organization created?

Janis Hoyt

Yeah, exactly. Yes, and I find myself really talking a lot about that in a lot of the companies along the way. But healthcare was great. I worked at Aetna and that's really where I honed a lot of my human resource skills and became a human resource business partner, which was really stepping into that coaching and executive and understanding a human capital plan, and really actually diving into all of those business related, how does the people strategy become part of the business strategy and how does that unfold? And so I think I've built a lot of courage as I stepped through that. Then I was given an opportunity to join a company that really shaped a lot about who I was as a person, both personally and professionally, and that was the Clorox company. It's such an amazing CPG company. Moving out of healthcare into CPG allowed me to really build those muscles of how do you learn about a different industry. And what I found was there's a lot of things that you can pull through from one industry to the other that seem to be really important, especially as it related to people and leading the people function. And so in that experience at Clorox, I was able to do something that really helped me think about my career growth. That's really where it started to grow to the next level. And when I think about what happened, some of the greatest points along the way, it was doing something that was completely out of my comfort zone, and something that I may not have necessarily thought that I could do. And that was taking on an international role.

Tiffany Pham

Who was the first believer? Was it someone that was a mentor?

Janis Hoyt

It actually was my boss, my boss Bill Dixey at the time. He came to me because there was an opportunity to step into this. It was a head of HR for Latin America and Europe. And he approached me with that and he said, I know we've been talking about development. And you had mentioned something kind of aspirationally that international was something that you had an interest in. And he said, what do you think about taking on this role of heading HR for Latin America?

Tiffany Pham

I'm getting chills.

Janis Hoyt

We had countries in Latin America, and then a small business in London. And I said, Bill, I don't even know how to speak Spanish. Are you sure? You know, we have directors in each of those countries. And he said, I believe you can do this job. I believe that you have the willingness to grow and to develop, and also step into it with the best set of values. And so when you hear that word about, I believe that you can do, that's the first time I really stepped back and I thought, wow, someone is believing in me. Because I remember saying, are you sure? That's something that I should do and can do? And it actually happens to be one of the most pivotal roles that has helped me with really my toolkit, so to speak, as I've developed and has grown as an HR and a chief officer, because you really become flexible to change and learning. Everything in every country is different. So you're learning constantly about the environment, about what makes things work here. What are the differences? And when you grow up in the US, a US based company, experiencing international, I think it just helps you to become just this global citizen. And it's about the people no matter where you go. And I just found that so refreshing, that I felt these points of just comfort knowing that what were some of the expectations in different countries were very similar to what I had been working with in years, which was about people wanting to grow personally, professionally and financially, and how is that going to unfold for them, and how is the company going to make that transparent for them? How will my career grow? How will I know I'm ready for the next step, and what is it that I need to do to take those steps and see that come to light for me? That experience was incredibly rewarding, but it was really all about someone believing in me.

Tiffany Pham

I love that. Bill Dixey was his name, he said.

Janis Hoyt

Yes. Bill Dixey. And I had that opportunity actually unfold to me really twice as I continued to grow my career, and they were all experiences that I had not necessarily had on my plan, so to speak.

Tiffany Pham

Yes.

Janis Hoyt

You know, you think you have this career plan: I'm going to do this, I'm going to stay here for X amount. And I always believe that plans, when you're open to new things that come out of the blue, can be so rewarding, and can be actually places and spaces that are out of your comfort zone that allow you to really get the biggest level of growth and development. And what I feel comes about, and I'll use another example of growth. I had another big growth opportunity when I was at Blue Shield of California and became the vice president of human resources, and there was a major change initiative for the entire company. And my boss at that time, the CHRO Mary O'Hara, who was amazing, and really was another first believer of something that I could do and that I could lead. And hearing those words along the way, I was like, okay, this is something I could step into. But also knowing that there are people that are there to help support you and champion you. And that's where I think people also, as they develop their career, and I know that as things have unfolded for me, it's been really important to know that I have developed mentor relationships along the way.

Tiffany Pham

Yes.

Janis Hoyt

And there's definitely differences between that mentor who's your cheerleader versus the mentor who is there to champion you in the room when you're not there. And really, in all of those opportunities where I had a first believer that I could do something that I wasn't even sure that I could do, they were my champion in the room when I wasn't even there. And the most impactful time that that happened, where I had a true believer, and it was my first opportunity to step into the Chief People Officer role, was at The Honest Company. And that was Nick Vlahos.

Tiffany Pham

That's where we met, by the way, Janis and myself.

Janis Hoyt

Yes. What an amazing company. It was five years old when I joined. Nick Vlahos had just been named the CEO. He was the COO at Clorox. So we had worked together. I didn't know that connection existed.

Tiffany Pham

Wow.

Janis Hoyt

Yes. So I got the call, which was this great opportunity to come and join this fast growing startup. It was started by Jessica Alba, Christopher Gavigan, Brian Lee, Sean Kane. It was an amazing, one of the first direct to consumer companies, a lot of excitement that was happening around that. It was started in 2012 and it was on this huge growth plan, and they needed people to come in and make sure that it was going to be guided down the right path. But also, it needed some leaders who had been there and had experience in consumer products and goods. And so when I got the call to join the organization, Nick also said, I know the work that you can do, Janis. I'm a believer that you can make so much happen in this area of driving a people strategy, and moreover partnering with a leadership team to align this organization on what we want it to do.

Tiffany Pham

With that, you know, it really calls upon your vulnerability and your humility and all those things that I love. A lot of the things that Brene Brown brings to the table about vulnerability and how that opens up empathy. And do you think that was an ingredient in your relationships with these two first believers, with Bill, with Nick? What was your dynamic like with them that ultimately led to such a strong relationship, one of belief, one of true partnership and collaboration? What were the ingredients, the dynamic of those relationships?

Janis Hoyt

I think it was based on trust. We had built a relationship on trust. And I think it has to do with the expectations of work and knowing that I was committed to doing the work. They were committed to aligning clear expectations and deliverables. And I really believe that during that time of building this trusting relationship with them, it challenged me to be courageous about asking for feedback. And it's the first time I really realized how important that was, because I kind of feared feedback. I think growing up in a household where, you know, if you got feedback from your parents, it wasn't always about meeting, it was always about, I think, what you could do better. So I think that over time, I didn't necessarily always seek out feedback and look at it as a gift and be confident enough that failures are the way that we grow, and being courageous and humble enough to say, okay, that's something that I could have done better, and that's something that I may have failed at, but I'm willing to get up and try and be committed. And so I think that building those relationships, which were trusting relationships, really led to that openness for them to be a believer that I was going to show up with the personal leadership brand that was important to me. I really felt that there was a commitment that I had to bring my best self.

Tiffany Pham

Amazing. So it was a huge trust between you and Bill, you and Nick, that led to these incredible opportunities. I wanted to highlight that further to our listeners as they seek out mentors and believers themselves, to remember to establish that level of trust with that hopefully first believer or second believer for them. And so my question to you next is, that moment when Nick made that call to you, where were you? Kind of cinematically describe it for me if you can. How did you receive the call? What was it like hearing from him on this opportunity that you got it? How did it go?

Janis Hoyt

It was really something that was a bit of a surprise, because I was in the midst of change. I was in the process of leaning into my executive coaching. I have an executive coaching certificate and I was thinking about going out and doing that kind of independently. I was leaving Blue Shield, having completed a number of initiatives, and really thinking about what was next for me. And I got the call from Nick and we went to lunch. And we were basically just talking about this amazing company that he had just joined. And the one thing that I know that was just so rewarding about the conversation was it was really focused on people, and it was focused on talent, and it was focused on his belief about how do you build a high performing team. And he is one of those leaders, you know, he's gone on to do remarkable things after The Honest Company. We took it public in 2021 and he went on to be the CEO of Rhode and worked with Hailey Bieber and did a huge sale with e.l.f., and it's now becoming one of the most amazing companies and growing. But it's all about really focusing on the people, having the right people around you and building a high performing team, which is completely built on trust. It's built also on transparency. It's built on feedback. It's built on building capabilities and alignment. And when you build that trust, you can have those conversations and listen to people that you have trust with. You hear different things from people. And my husband's like that too. He's actually one of my mentors, because I trust him. He's on my, I have a personal, a lot of people may do this, well, I have my own personal board of directors.

Tiffany Pham

Yes.

Janis Hoyt

That I go to when I really want to get deep on, is this something I should do? Is this something that you believe I'm capable of doing or have the capacity to do? And capacity is something really important. Sometimes I jump in and say yes, yes, I can do that. But do I really have the capacity to do that? And that's another thing.

Tiffany Pham

So was that how it unfolded when you got the call for Primal Pet Group?

Janis Hoyt

Yes, exactly.

Tiffany Pham

Was that them directly or was that the search firm? How did that go?

Janis Hoyt

No, that actually, it's amazing, because it's somewhat a similar situation. After Honest had gone public and we built this public organization, new leadership team, built out the board, I stayed there for a little over a year, knowing that I was going to be moving back to Northern California. And I got another call from someone who was stepping into a CEO role, someone who also I had worked with at Clorox, and his name is Jon Balousek, who is my current boss, amazing leader as well, and also had a real focus on, I need to build a leadership team that is a high performing team, and we have a very aggressive path forward and strategy. It is owned by private equity, and happy to say that a sale of the foods business just happened this past year. But it was also about change and how you can have speed moving you forward. And I think that one of the key things that they knew I would be able to do as one of the chief officers on the leadership team, and I do believe the board also believed that, is that I could have courage to ask the question in the room that is about people, and quite often it's the most uncomfortable one, by asking, do we have the capacity as an organization, with the talent we have, to do all of the initiatives we have?

Tiffany Pham

Love that.

Janis Hoyt

And who's going to be courageous enough to say, no, we can't do that? And we have to be really thoughtful about that, because we all want to grow. We all want to do the million things. But it's really about finding the critical few things as opposed to the critical many things that are often on our plates.

Tiffany Pham

And how beautiful that you pointed that out as part of your growth journey: a childhood in which you were afraid to receive feedback, and now that's become your strength, is providing or receiving feedback and building that level of trust. And now that's your differentiator, you just pointed out. I love that. A few more final questions for you. Just, you know, with all the disruption happening across AI and the excitement around the future of work now for HR leaders, what is it that you're proudest of at this time in terms of looking back upon your career, your journey, the accomplishment that you feel you most contributed to and created most impact?

Janis Hoyt

I think that it's really about understanding the different waves of what would be the tools needed to infuse into the company, because everyone's talking about the wave of AI and how that's going to impact every company. What I have to say is that every company is unique. Every culture to every company is so unique. And so I think it's really about the assessment of the culture that needs to happen to really understand the speed in which you're going to infuse all of those tools, especially AI. And I'm seeing that a lot of companies believe that it's going to actually take over one entire function, you know, that might need to be done a little bit more surgically. How can you bring that in as part of your overall, it's no longer a human capital planning process. It's really a capability planning process, right, that every company is challenged with. What's the capability sets and how does it show up, and in what ways? And that's quite often very similar to, are we outsourcing this capability? Are we insourcing it? Are we building the capability internally or externally? Are we doing it with AI? Are we having that build more slowly in this area as opposed to others? So I would have to say that really, with every change that has been very significant, whether it was the introduction of the internet and social media, and I think back to the days of COVID and how important these communications and everything, really listening and understanding the current state of the culture and what people need. I think that assessing the speed at which you need to infuse that is what is really important. And where I feel I've been able to do that, like, we need to catch up and we can't ignore this and we need to figure out how we test and train. It's okay to fail at it and, you know, fail quickly and get up and start learning again. I am a strong believer of that, and I think we can really push ourselves to do that. And I really think that that's something that we all need to take a step back and really look at what are the needs, and assess and learn deeply what are those tools, and look at things as a set of tools to help us be better across the board.

Tiffany Pham

I love that. And yeah, I definitely think your ability to act so flexibly at speed, surgically though, when you see the need, has been within your toolbox for success since you've been a leader and a partner to the CEO at so many incredibly fast scaling organizations. So to hear that that is part of your success, I completely agree. My final question to you is, what advice would you give to someone just below the chief officer seat who would love to be more like you? What's that piece of advice that would help them get there?

Janis Hoyt

Well, I think it's really being open to the continued learning, because every time I've stepped, I've now stepped into three CHRO roles, two significant ones at both Honest and Primal Pet Group. And I'd have to say that just being open to learning, and know that that's going to continue on. But find the right mentors around you who are going to champion you along the way, because you will need those people as you step into the role. It's so great to have a network of a couple of people who have been there, done that, that you can reach out to and talk to. Lean into also what you're going to learn from people in the organization, because I think a lot of times people step into these roles and they're expected to have all the answers. Every time I've stepped into an organization as a CHRO or Chief People Officer, the first thing I do is set a timeframe in which I do listening sessions, and listening to the attributes and the characteristics of the culture, and listening to what has changed, what are things that seem to stay in place from the beginning of the company. You know, there are things that continue to organically exist, and that usually ties back to the mission and the purpose. And so I think listening is an important part of that. But also, you know, get your network and your mentors together. Lean on your personal leadership board of directors. I have a family and children. I'm so proud of all my kids becoming adults and doing well in their own careers. And I do listen to them and expect feedback. And boy, if you want to get feedback, ask your kids, because they have no problem telling you what's true.

Tiffany Pham

I love that. Well, thank you so much, Janis. What a pleasure and honor again to spend this half hour with you. And Janis, just so everyone knows, was in a major town hall with her CEO, stepped out of it just to be with us today at Chief Officer, and now has to jet off to the airport as well. So excited again to have you, and just so inspired by you. So thank you again.

Janis Hoyt

Thank you so much. I wish you well.

Tiffany Pham

Safe travels to you.