🎙️ Breaking Barriers: Mallory Govert on Disability Employment, Peak Performers, and Leading with Empathy
In this powerful conversation, Mallory Govert, COO of Peak Performers, shares her journey from accidentally falling into the staffing industry to leading a groundbreaking nonprofit that’s revolutionizing employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. With refreshing honesty, Mallory reveals how a challenging job market led her to discover her passion, why empathy is her most crucial leadership tool, and how Peak Performers is proving that hiring people with disabilities isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s smart business.
✨ Key Insights from Mallory Govert:
How Peak Performers uses the temporary staffing model as a nonprofit to create more inclusive workspaces nationwide
Why only 10% of their workforce has requested accommodations, and most cost little to nothing to implement
How employees with disabilities show higher retention rates and loyalty compared to traditional temporary workers
Why Mallory believes empathy is the most important skill a leader can have, especially when “our product is people”
How she transformed her anxiety and panic attacks from a perceived weakness into a professional strength
Why Peak Performers operates as a 501c3 nonprofit while running a staffing business model
How their Disability Inclusion Partners provide specialized coaching and advocacy beyond traditional recruiting
🌟 Key People in Mallory Govert’s Journey:
Susan Walsh: Her area manager at Kelly Services who provided crucial mentorship and constructive feedback during her early branch manager role
Her sister-in-law: Who connected Mallory to Kelly Services after 96 job applications yielded no interviews
Her mother: Whose illness and passing prompted Mallory to reflect on her career path and eventually led her to Peak Performers
Her college therapist: Who helped her understand and manage anxiety and panic attacks, teaching her coping mechanisms
Peak Performers leadership team: Who welcomed her innovative approach to market strategy and analytics
👉 Mallory Govert’s Powerful Perspective on Anxiety: After struggling with severe panic attacks in college, Mallory learned to reframe her anxiety as a strength. “My high energy, my anxiety, the feelings I have about getting certain things done has actually helped me in accomplishing some of the things that I have.” She emphasizes the importance of giving yourself grace: “You can be understanding and still hold somebody accountable. You need to understand, especially again, in our particular case, we’re working with people with disabilities.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE
Transcript
Anthony Codispoti : Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is Mallory Govert, Chief Operating Officer at Peak Performers. Since its founding in 1994, Peak Performers has been a trailblazer in the world of disability employment. As a 501C3 non-profit, they were early innovators in using the temporary staffing model to create more inclusive workspaces.
Today they specialize in temporary staffing, direct hire and executive search services nationwide, all with a mission to raise the bar for employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Now under Mallory’s guidance, the organization continues to strengthen its reputation for building a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Mallory earned her bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and supervision from Purdue University. Before joining Peak Performers in April 2022, she held several leadership roles at Kelly Services including overseeing growth strategies, managing large-scale recruiting divisions and guiding cross-functional teams. She also served as a community ambassador driving outreach and engagement initiatives. Her passion for analytics and effective recruitment strategy has fueled her success in operational management and workforce development. It’s this combination of expertise and dedication that has helped her shape impactful programs and inspire countless professionals along the way. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.
To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the COO of Peak Performers, Mallory. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today. Thank you for having me, Anthony. So it looks like you started in the staffing industry almost right out of college. What first drew you into this space?
Mallory Govert,: Yes, I did. And I will actually start off by saying probably very similar to a lot of us who just fell into it. And by that, just not even really kind of realizing that this industry was a thing. I graduated, as you mentioned, from Purdue. It was around 2009, 2010, extremely challenging market. Also, my degree was like, what am I supposed to do?
It’s kind of business management, very, very vague. And so after 96 applications and no interviews, I was finally complaining to family and saying, I don’t know how I’m going to find a job. I’ve got to start my student loan payments soon. And they started calling around and my sister-in-law actually had worked at Kelly previously. And she said, hey, they’ve got an opening in the Cincinnati market. You’d have to interview for it. But if you would be willing to move, they’ve loved to interview. I’m like, okay, great. So went through all of that and landed the job. I started off actually as an in-house contractor. And I was ready to prove a point.
But what I will say is I moved to Cincinnati. I was super excited. And it honestly probably still took about three weeks before I realized I was recruiting. Like, I don’t know what I thought I was going to be doing. I don’t know if I thought I was a receptionist or what.
But it did. I was like, oh, I’m like matchmaking people to jobs. And really, I mean, I was just kind of hooked from there. But yeah, I kind of fell into it from a very challenging market. And I don’t see myself doing anything else.
Anthony Codispoti : What was it about it once you realized what you were doing that really appealed to you?
Mallory Govert,: A lot of things. I mean, it’s very fast-paced. People often laugh at me. I literally parked my car and ran into the grocery store. I’m a very high energy person. I like the fast pace. I like the variation day to day. You get to talk to so many different people.
You hear so many different stories. I also loved the challenge. Like, oh, give me that job. I don’t know how we’re going to find it, right? The typical purple squirrel. So it was just, it was really captivating. And I am very competitive. And so I had a great team that I worked alongside. I was also very young.
I don’t know. And I was like, I got to get hired on full time. So I was just like ready to make a difference and just fell in love with what I was doing.
Anthony Codispoti : It sounds like you were probably pretty hungry at that point because you had spent so much time looking for work. There was probably like a big sense of gratitude. Like, oh, finally I found something. Like, I got to make the best of this, right? Yeah.
Mallory Govert,: Oh, yeah. Throw myself into it. Exactly. And like, even then, you’re like, what? Oh, I got to get insurance eventually. Like, I’m no longer on dad’s insurance. So, yeah, there was a lot of moving pieces to navigate in your early 20s of your first time on your own. And figuring out that professional professional world.
Anthony Codispoti : So you made a few stops along the way before you found Pete. Maybe let’s pick one sort of the most impactful stop along the way. What you learned, why it was so impactful for you?
Mallory Govert,: Okay, I’ll pick one. I think that so again, this this actually was even earlier really early. And I was still in Cincinnati. I think you and I talked about a little bit that I originated in the Midwest. I always wanted to go out to the mountains personally.
I just fell in love with it as a kid. And so as I’m navigating this professional experience and learning what I like to do, and also knowing that I still hated the Midwest weather, I ultimately was just like this, this is not where my life is going to end up. I don’t know why I’m still here. However, while I was at Kelly, that first year again, I was determined to get hired on. We also had some significant turnover relatively quickly, where the branch manager just suddenly was like, I’m leaving.
I’m leaving and I’m leaving in a week. And so as I’m super eager and hungry, as you mentioned, well, these are kind of combined. But I was set out to convince them that I was ready to be a branch manager. And like I’m 24, I’ve got this degree from Purdue, I can do it.
And they’re like, you’re crazy, like you’re crazy, you just started. I’m like, just give me the interview, I will prove you wrong. And I had a lot of really wonderful leaderships, my regional manager, the VP of the region, some of them sat up in Columbus, some in Chicago.
And so they gave me a shot to interview, I went through six different interviews extremely incredibly intimidating. And what we kind of landed on is like, your degree matters, but not really. But what I sold them on was the consistency factor. I said, you know, this branch had a lot of turnover in the last five years, which we constantly were turning business. We were losing business with the people. And I said, I find I developed relationships with these people. If you get another branch manager in here, you’re going to lose them. And so they’re like, oh, she has a kind of a point.
Anthony Codispoti : So just to clarify, Mallory, the turnover that you were getting was not with the employees or the contract workers, it was with the clients. Clients were not happy. They were moving on. You came in, you had some good relationships with folks, they were sticking around. It’s like, Hey, you don’t get this role with me like, I don’t know, what’s going to happen?
Mallory Govert,: They might go, they might go, yeah, because they’re going to have to, you know, create this relationship. And at the time, the branch manager was really required to do both kind of recruit as full desk, right?
Full desk recruiting, sales, etc. So I’m like, I would be essentially at this point passing their relationship off again, but yet still being here. So, so yeah, we were we would potentially lose clients. And that’s what I had them sold on is that if I got the position, we would keep them we did. But they gave me that opportunity.
Anthony Codispoti : At 24, you ended up getting the branch manager, you’d been out of school for how many years?
Mallory Govert,: A year and a half, two years. Yeah, yeah. Yes.
Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, I like it. It’s bold and audacious. And so what did you obviously you learned a lot going through that interview experience and, you know, yes, the hat to you for, you know, convincing them that somebody’s so young and green, but highly energetic and motivated, you know, was ready to take on this challenge. So what was it like once you actually stepped into that role?
Mallory Govert,: Oh, a lot of work, a lot of things that, you know, it’s kind of funny. It’s like, we think we know it all, we’re like, I know everything that that branch manager is doing, and they are horrible at it, or what are they doing behind that closed door, right? So it was pretty eyeopening, the level of responsibility. It was a lot of long hours just to teach myself and work with the other leaders to really understand the scope of the job.
And it’s a lot more, it’s easier said than done, right? But it put me in a very uncomfortable spot. It required me to figure it out. It also taught me a lot about what then I wanted to do to build my team, right? Like what was my experience because I was just in it with the branch manager. It was incredibly challenging, but extremely rewarding. And again, I was super determined. So I didn’t really mind and young. So I was like, I don’t mind the grind. And, and I also was able to learn so much because I had a seat at a different table of like, Oh, these are the conversations that happened behind those doors, you know? So it was incredible.
Anthony Codispoti : So who were you able to learn from? I mean, I hear you say that you were teaching yourself a lot. But did you have someone, a mentor, somebody you could go to and say like, Hey, I don’t know how this works. Like, you know, give me a hand here. Yeah.
Mallory Govert,: So Kelly, I mean, is very, was very, very layered. And so there was a lot of different layers of managers. So directly within our physical branch, the area manager, Susan Walsh, which I don’t even, I think she might still be there to be honest.
She was very much a mentor and would consistently have very open conversations with me, very, very direct, very, very sweet too. But about the different areas of, okay, we’re putting too much focus on recruiting. And now we’re dropping the ball on generating new business, right? So how, how do you have to prioritize your time or learn to flex between the two and or take your hands off and allow them to do that?
That’s what you’re doing in a branch manager is kind of bringing it in, passing it off versus the actual completing the task. And so it was just, it was a safe space. It was very supportive. And I never felt like it was just, you know, to point out the, the flaws that I was having or the things that I were, you know, was dropping, it was, it was candid and, and where I needed to improve. But it was supportive in giving me the resources and, and conversations needed tools, etc. To help me get those done, or at least send me in the right direction to continue forging forward.
Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, sounds like a lot of really constructive feedback. You know, there’s something interesting that you mentioned that I want to highlight for a second, which is, you know, you sort of observe from the outside what you thought this role was before. And thinking, Oh, you know, I could do that 10 times better. What is it that they’re really doing behind the closed door?
Right. And I think that there’s a lot of that that goes on just in life in general. We’re sort of, you know, we’re, we’re observing something from the outside without really knowing what’s going on behind the curtain.
And once you got to go behind the curtain, because now this is you sitting in that chair, you were like, Oh, there’s a whole lot more to this than I realized. Right. And it’s a good reminder just for people in general, like, we tend to compare our inner experiences to other people’s outer experiences and like, Oh, yeah, I want that job because they drive a nicer car, you know, they better apartment or a house or whatever.
Exactly. You know, you don’t know sort of the daily grind that they go through. So you got to go through that, you know, in a pretty big way and, you know, pretty early on in your career. Yeah.
Mallory Govert,: I think I think a big thing that’s important that I’ve learned, and I think it took me a lot longer than just that timeframe, but is why it’s that much more important to build trust among your you and your team or teammates. Because if they trust you, they know they know like you’ve got them, right, they know if your doors close or whatever it is, right, whatever you are working on is in the best interest of the organization or in the support of that team.
It’s not, they’re not left to create their own narrative, they’re not wonder what’s going on, right. And so there’s a level of transparency, obviously, as especially, you know, executive leadership, there’s not everything that we can share. But if you have a level of transparency in the overarching goals and direction and what is being worked on from a high level without giving all the details, and then to also see those things kind of leading by example, and coming to fruition, you build that trust of, okay, yes, they are doing what they’re saying. We don’t know necessarily how they’re getting there, but we’ll kind of follow them in that direction.
Anthony Codispoti : Well, I want to switch now to what you’re doing today. Peak performers, you’ve been there a little over three years, worked your way up pretty quickly, you know, director of market strategy and analytics, then chief of staff. Now you’ve been in the COO role for almost two years. How did that door first open? How did the opportunity to join Peak performers first come about?
Mallory Govert,: Yeah, absolutely. Well, my last position at Kelly, well, was more formally, I guess, known as the community ambassador, had a very big flair or dynamic to that role as a growth strategist, and really doing a lot of market research, data analysis, and just pulling in information to supply the teams to help with different, you know, whether it was QBRs, ABRs, you know, your different business reviews, or going into a pricing conversation to request for additional, or, you know, raises or increases on your pay rates, whatever that may be, right, really supplying them or equipping them with that information. And it was a very big job, because at the time I was over our mountain market and our Pacific market, so basically anything like West of Kansas, north and south, all the way west, was my territory.
So it was a big job, it was very fulfilling, and I know we’ll probably get into a little bit more about data feeding, you know, more sound business decisions. But I also, at the same time, was going through a lot, right? Everybody went through a lot in 2020 with COVID, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it, everyone had to, whether that was personally, professionally, and different, you know, business aspects that we all had to learn really quick, what we needed to do to be agile. However, I also, right after COVID, my mom got really sick, and I was working remotely with Kelly, so I was able to go back and be a caretaker for her and continue to work. And so it was really good that I was able to be with her and spend that time and help them through that. I also, it was good that I still had a distraction and something I enjoyed to do. But inevitably, we did lose my mother, and it was just a moment in life where I kind of said, what am I doing?
Right? What am I doing? Do I enjoy what I’m doing anymore, where I’m at? So again, personally and professionally, you know, when you have a loss of that nature, you just, you kind of put things in perspective. And so after that reflective moment, I had realized we had gone through six restructures, or reorgs at Kelly, in like a three or four year span.
And that was just really exhausting in itself. I also was like, okay, I’m approaching 11 years at the same company. Job hopping isn’t what it used to be. It’s actually probably maybe even going to be looked at this, this individual can’t adapt, because she’s been somewhere for so long. You know, maybe she only knows their technologies or their way.
If she goes to another company, she would try to push that agenda on us or again, struggle to transition. And so in that moment, I started to open up, like, I think this might be a moment that I need to make a change. And you know, whether that was burnout, it might have been a little burnout, I don’t know. But I think at that moment, needed a radical change. So ironically, an old colleague who was in the same type of role as I was at Kelly, she had left on her own doing and started her own staffing company.
She called me one day and said, Hey, I just talked to another old colleague of ours from a long time ago. And he mentioned that peak performer where he’s now at is looking to expand not only into the private sector, but nationally. And she’s like, and they’re looking for this director level strategy, strategy and analytics person.
And just everything we talked about was like, Oh, my God, Mallory would be your person, like, it would she would be perfect for it. So it was brand new to them. Again, they were navigating different waters that they hadn’t been in yet. And I was the first person that came to our mind. She’s like, Would you be interested in talking to them? And at this point in my life, I’m like, Well, one, yes, I was actually just thinking about making a change.
But two, that sounds like that sounds really exciting. But also, I don’t get it. I think I mentioned to you, I’m like, What is this company again? She’s like peak performers, they’re nonprofit.
They are staffing, the business model is staffing. I’m like, Okay, send over some information, but I’d love to have a conversation. I also think you should always have conversations with anyone, because you never know what doors that could open. So that’s another aspect of it. Anyways, long story short, I started doing the research. I was so intrigued, I was again, somewhat confused. But I was like, This is really amazing.
Anthony Codispoti : What intrigued you? What was it that was like, Okay, this these guys are doing something?
Mallory Govert,: Well, again, it’s staffing. So it’s everything I know. But it’s also our their mission as a community is to have responsibilities to work. I’m like, That’s incredible, you are making a huge difference, right?
I love people and I love to see that kind of marriage of a perfect job, and a difference that it’s going to make in their life or their family’s life. And then I you take it a step further, and you’re making a difference for somebody who is in an underserved community, who doesn’t have somebody advocating for them that there is a huge misconception or stereotype out there, lack of knowledge of what it means to work with somebody with disabilities or just that they’re all incapable. And I mean, I was just like, I need to know more, right? I need to know more. I wasn’t in that very moment as educated as I am now, but I was very, very, very intrigued. And so that’s what started the conversation. And within a month and a half, I said, I’m ready to go.
Anthony Codispoti : So tell us more about this business model of helping folks with disability find work. Like why this niche? Why does it work? Why is it important? Yeah.
Mallory Govert,: Yeah. Well, so I’ll just kind of dive in really quick as the nonprofit, well, sliding backwards, as the nonprofit, because again, as I said, it was confusing to me. However, as a nonprofit, as long as we are driven by the mission, which is to prioritize those individuals with disabilities, then we have that status. And it’s also, again, to a driven societal need is what this is fulfilling.
And it’s addressing that societal need straight on. Again, there’s those misconceptions and it brings immense value to diversify your workforce. There’s so many complexities that people associate with somebody with a disability, but are often not even accurate, right? The biggest thing that we get is, oh, it’s going to cost way too much because they’re going to need an accommodation. They don’t always need an accommodation.
You have no idea. You’re just putting them all in one box that they all have the same disability, which would require an accommodation. In fact, 10% of our workforce, only 10% of our workforce has asked for one.
Anthony Codispoti : And of those, some of them… 90% does not.
Mallory Govert,: 90% does not. And of those 10%, there’s little to no cost or some have no cost, right? It’s like I need a demo, we’ll switch in my office or I would need to sit closer to the restroom. Okay, easy. That’s not going to cost you anything.
Anthony Codispoti : I’m going to put out a ramp in or I don’t know what the other accommodations could be.
Mallory Govert,: And there’s a plethora of things, right? But the thing is, if you can’t stereotype and put them all in one box, you can’t say all of them would require an accommodation because you have no idea. So again, that’s kind of where it goes back to that we’re putting this lens and saying hiring somebody with disability is going to cost too much, is going to come with legal ramifications, you name it. But it’s also dismissing that it’s creating that inclusive workspace. It’s providing more engagement and empathy. Another aspect is retention and decreasing turnover. They’re very loyal. They need a job. They want a job. They quite frankly want to work.
Anthony Codispoti : Oh, that’s interesting. I mean, because especially with temporary and contract workers, I mean, notoriously very high turnover rates. What I’m hearing you say is you’ve got an underserved population here, incredibly grateful to have found games and employment. And they’re like, we’re here. We’re on board. We’re with you. And they stick around longer. Absolutely.
Mallory Govert,: Absolutely. And another aspect, and I understand how an employer could add a cost to this, but generally you already have this immersed into your business plan. But you heard me mention as a 24-year-old, I needed insurance. Don’t you think an individual with disability probably would need insurance too? But they have to be gainfully employed in order to get that insurance without having a huge cost attached to it. So again, they’re going to be showing up to work every day. They’re going to be incredibly thankful and grateful for that job so that they have those benefits that are needed to address things for their health.
Anthony Codispoti : That makes a lot of sense. I always find it interesting and helpful if we can talk about individual case studies, like a particular example of somebody that you were able to help. I’m not mentioning any names, but here was somebody, here was their situation. Here’s how we helped them find a job and it made the employer better. It was good for the employee. Do you have any stories sort of at the top of your head you can share?
Mallory Govert,: I do. I do. And I’ll actually, if you want at a later time, we can go through a new series or initiative that we have that we’ve just recently launched, which is called Talent Without Limits.
It’s like a video film series in which we’re highlighting some of our talent that is actively working at this time. So I won’t use this name. However, we do have it posted so we could always refer to it at a later time. But we recently met with an individual. He was a former radio station manager who had an extreme passion for comedy. He was well on his path to be a stand-up comedian. He was stepping on stage. He had just a wonderful and exciting path in front of him. He soon after his career at that point was taking off, he was diagnosed with peripheral artery disease.
Yes, that’s a mouthful and that’s something also that a lot of people probably have no idea what it is. However, what happened is that it led to some complications in his legs, which ended up exposing nerves and flesh, which required a super innovative treatment using codfish skin grafts. So the codfish skin grafts aided his recovery. His journey, though, was not even just about healing physically.
It also, though, completely destroyed his confidence, his purpose. He really struggled to get back into stand-up comedy because this was again happening in his legs. But he also just completely derailed him for years and so many different doctors and things that they didn’t even know that they were going to be able to help or find a solution. And so he also had, he was receiving disability payments. And so then he had this juggle of, well, if I get a job, I’m going to lose that. And it took him a long time to get the disability insurance.
And so he juggled at that point then. Do I go back to work? And it will help him mentally. It will help him physically. He also could exceed what he was receiving on those benefits. But it took him forever to get them.
And if he lost them and potentially got a contract gig and he lost that, now he’s left with nothing again. So it’s a pivotal moment for him to say, but it’s important that I get back out there. So next insert peek, he starts working with some of our different recruiters.
And it’s been incredible. We’ve actually found him several positions. But he is now as an accountant with one of our state agencies here in Texas. And they love him. I mean, and he’s able to use the skills. He actually is starting to do some of the stand-up comedy again. He has friends.
I mean, he has coworkers that have become friends. And he’s just he’s incredibly resilient. And a true testament, excuse me, that disability didn’t define him. And really, in all actuality, he’s got the talent. He’s got the ability. He just lost his way because of his confidence, because of his disability, taking him out of that for a few years. So we’ve helped kind of get him back on that journey.
Anthony Codispoti : What a great story. And yeah, you know, the additional benefit besides finding him work, besides, you know, helping an employer who needed a position filled is now he’s back in society. He’s he’s making friends. He’s, you know, out of his house. He’s like he’s redeveloping a life again. I think it’s hard to, you know, put kind of a number or price tag on the value of that. Exactly.
Mallory Govert,: Yeah, I would agree. I agree wholeheartedly.
Anthony Codispoti : So Mallory, talk to me about how you at peak there, you leverage data analytics and recruitment. How does that come into play?
Mallory Govert,: Yeah, absolutely. I I don’t know that this is any different just right out of the gate that anyone else would be doing or using. Right. I mean, we’re looking at data constantly from a recruiting perspective to look at our, you know, phone screens, our interviews, our time to submit our submittals, our offers, right, our rejections, everything that you’re going to be looking at to understand the health of your pipelines. We’re also looking at, you know, our job postings or the the return on investment, the numbers behind our job postings and job boards that we’re using to make sure that we’re posting actual jobs or, you know, jobs are bringing in the right talent. What do our postings look like? How much money are we spending because we have a bad posting and we’re getting the wrong talent in.
And so with that being said, I don’t think it’s really any different than a lot of our standard staffing agencies or recruiting efforts. However, from our end and operationally speaking, a few years ago, I really tried to drill in and say, listen, data is only as good as what you actually are able to paint as a big picture. What is the big picture telling you?
How do you zoom in and how do you zoom out? But what are you also going to pull from it to understand if there’s a trend? Ultimately, there’s three areas that I like to put focus on, and that is people processing technology. Because, again, that number may not be telling you that the job posting is wrong. It might be telling you that the technology is broken, or something is not actually feeding that information over.
And so you can’t just take it too literal of like, oh, our number is down, so we need to go do more. So if we look at these three categories more specifically to say, oh, it’s, and I hate to pick on the people part of it first, but it’s like, is this person having a bad week, or are they consistently not meeting their metrics or those numbers and figuring out why, right? Is it a lack of effort? Is it a lack of knowledge? Maybe they just need to be retrained. Maybe they haven’t been given the right resources. Or is there a bottleneck in our process? So the numbers are telling us that everybody is getting hung up at that point, or everybody’s numbers are extremely large, but we’re not then netting anybody to an inner or smittler and interview, right? So trying to really take that data and look at it more and then specifically look at those three categories to say, what do we need to do operationally speaking to pinpoint how we can use those numbers to actually move the needle? Or do are we doing great, right? And everything’s seamless, which is rare, but it happens.
Anthony Codispoti : The unicorn moment we’re all searching for. Right. What markets are you currently serving Mallory?
Mallory Govert,: We’re kind of all over the map. However, we’ve drilled that in as of the last year or two. We are still in Texas is our biggest market right now. That is where we were founded. And again, up until about 2020, 2021, we were not expanding outside of that. New York, New York City are very big markets for us. We’re also expanding into New Jersey, Maryland, Rhode Island. We’re in Florida. We just landed a new account in Oklahoma. And by a new account, I mean the state use program, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona. So it’s kind of all over the place. We’re in about 19 different states.
Anthony Codispoti : Do you set up a physical presence in each of those states as you grow? Or is it more like, hey, we’re working with a national account and they’ve got, you know, offices multiple locations or yeah.
Mallory Govert,: Yeah, we mostly have a centralized delivery method or delivery. What am I trying to say? Operations. However, we do have some offices in different locations if it’s a contractual agreement or requirement. And so we have offices actually in New York and New Jersey. We have one in Pennsylvania in Oregon, Texas, and I might be missing one, but yes, we only are doing a local or presence there again if we are required from a contractual.
Anthony Codispoti : If it’s something that the client wants from you. Correct, yeah. And then do you need a client of a certain size and a new geography for it to make sense for you? Because I’m also trying to wrap my head around like how are you finding the employees with disabilities that are looking for work in those localities too?
Mallory Govert,: Yeah, absolutely. So yes and no, we have some states that we will not service. Your California’s and Illinois’s we’re just kind of like, we’re not at a size that we could support it and it’s just very hairy from a compliance perspective.
So we’re just not even going to go there. We’re going to be more strategic in our efforts and energy. But with that being said, we generally are looking at either state use programs, which is the entire state agencies within that particular state and or public service.
Anthony Codispoti : Say more about that. I don’t know what that means. The state use programs.
Mallory Govert,: So yes, state use programs. So there are actually different CRPs, so certified rehabilitation programs, that the different government agencies would have to go through to find contingent employees before they could go outside of that program. So there are, I don’t quote me on this, but I think there are 27 states that have these programs. And there are 20 states that are a must use.
So those state agencies must go through that contingent program, which is again, then we’re trying to, they’re trying to actually say, yes, we want to promote that you would hire somebody with a disability prior to then going outside of that program. Right. They’re trying to.
Anthony Codispoti : So this is helping folks find jobs within state government themselves. The agencies within the state. Okay.
Mallory Govert,: Yep. And so that’s, that’s kind of where we, we were founded and originated. And again, Texas is a must use. And so that’s our New Mexico, Nevada, actually, Oklahoma. Again, some of these, it gets a little muddy because not all of them are these must use programs, but it’s, it’s within the public sector. And then our private sector in the last year and a half, we realigned our, our sales strategy and our only focusing on managed service programs. So those are going to be larger clients.
They are, you know, it’s their headquartered in Maryland. We have, you know, five or other six other states that we would know about that we would potentially be servicing in addition to that. And generally have a point where we could scale when, when we would be servicing that or let them know, you know, we would not be servicing this until we had a volume or increase in, and Rex presented or opportunities.
Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, I’m guessing it requires sort of a certain amount of like heavy lift from you to go into a new geography and to run the ads there, do the recruitment or whatever it is that you guys do to find the folks that are looking for work.
Mallory Govert,: Yeah, absolutely. And actually, if you want, I can, I can go a little further into that because there’s probably, again, it is interesting because a lot of folks say, well, how, how do you vet them for, to have a volume?
If they have a disability or not? And first and foremost, we’re still recruiters first and foremost, right? We, we are looking at their skills.
We are still vetting them to ensure that they have the qualifications that is first and foremost, nothing of that changes. As a nonprofit, we do have and with our mission, we do have the ability to discuss that is a prioritizing factor that they would be prioritized in consideration for the job. So we need to understand if they do or do not have a disability. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not again talking to folks that don’t have disabilities either. And then how we then target or try to continue to partner with affiliations and other organizations that are mission minded or like minded in that mission is actually by our disability inclusion partners. So that’s a very unique title. I don’t know any other organization that has something of that nature. But it is an incredibly important role here at peak and something that we developed a few years ago. I’m trying to actually get to the bottom of my little notes for you guys because they’re really unique and how that we approach this. Let me see, sorry. We have two of them and they actually operate. I keep going back to this talent with limits thing.
Anthony Codispoti : Which is an interesting video series that you guys are working on now where you can kind of highlight some of these success stories and that that’ll be interesting. You provide us the link Mallory won’t include that in the show notes for folks.
Mallory Govert,: That would be great. That would be awesome. Yeah, it is it is really cool. And they are part of that as well in addition to our head of brand. But our disability inclusion partners. It’s again very unique and our staffing model model. But they there are specialized recruiters and staffing managers that actually provide guidance through for both recruiting or candidates excuse me candidates and employers. But they’re more than that they’re advocates they are mentors they’re also career advisors for every candidate and every client basically they understand right they understand thoroughly how the disability can affect the job seeker and the different workplace dynamics. They also will provide tailored coaching. So our recruiters do a little bit of this as well but again these these two individuals are dedicated to doing this. But they’ll provide that coaching on you know disclosing your disability or their disability. What should they say how do they say it and also again giving them the encouragement to to release that information or disclose that information. They’ll help prep them for interviews.
Everyone hates going through interviews right it’s an incredibly stressful time. And so to go a step above and beyond and be there to help coach them through that and prep them and be there on the you know waiting for them when they get done with that. But they they also just they grow in the roles they help them feel empowered they’re also looking to again like I said kind of in those new markets reach out to different affiliations and organizations to partner.
You know not to say hey can you send us all of these people that come to you. It’s it’s a partnership it’s a exploration and continuing to provide that information and just team up right like it’s we’re not really competing we’re just trying to all help these individuals so how can we how can we partner on that.
Anthony Codispoti : So you mentioned that obviously you guys are doing a lot of work with states and supplying workers to the state different state agencies. I’m just side of that what other industries do you find that you’re a good fit for.
Mallory Govert,: Yeah so we everything that we’re doing is really at a higher level more professional roles. We’re in several different industries you’ve got your you know accounting and finance it HR you know administrative office clerical. We do have some engineering we also some legal as far as what we do we also I mean we do your you know standard contract contract a higher direct hire.
We also have a an executive search we’ve done several executive searches actually C level roles and those are completely different right of recruiting requirement or search or completely derail a recruiter for what that executive level needs. So we have three different I guess we put them down into three it’s our staffing model our peak direct which is more of your executive search level and then peak launch which is something that is new for us as far as a product which is going to be more of a skills skills based excuse me hiring delivering job ready candidates and that’s a little newer of an initiative for us but to keep us keep us fresh.
Anthony Codispoti : Say more about some of these newer initiatives or where you see like future growth coming from.
Mallory Govert,: Um well the world is ever changing right and we’ve been doing the contract and contract to hire for a long time. We didn’t have a ton of direct hire until about two and a half years ago and and I’m like the pendulum is going to swing right so what are we what are we going to have to do when direct hire no longer so hot. And it’s just it’s it’s staying in front of that as much as possible. But ultimately we know what our expertise is and that is again identifying these candidates for these particular industries. Ensuring that we’re continuing to build a pipeline that are that are ready to go. You also combat people that want to be fully remote and so we continue to make sure that we’re building those pipelines of saying don’t call this person they may look like perfect fit on paper but they only want remote so unless you have a remote opportunity like.
Don’t move forward right don’t don’t pass go. And that is the way of the world still that a lot of people are still wanting fully remote and they’re doing a lot of back to office. So it’s a shift that we just have to stay in front of but we just have to be agile internally with our processes and make sure that we’re buttoning up our communication. What is the process of keeping this information organized in our applicant tracking system. Again making sure our processes are dialed in and everybody is operating seamlessly work consistently we were not we did not we did not have for closed like three years ago that was my big push in twenty twenty two to get everything documented right. Sometimes it seems super basic but we often forget about those basics so it’s it’s making sure that we’re consistently talking about them.
Anthony Codispoti : Well now what core beliefs have guided your decisions and shaped your leadership style. I think that.
Mallory Govert,: There’s a lot of things that have guided me and and I’m very very grateful for again a lot of the experiences that I’ve had the people that I’ve worked with because they’ve certainly. Added a flare or two or things that I did not want to do moving forward but. I’m I’m very very big on leading by example I’m also very very big in. Not being afraid to take a risk. I don’t know it’s like you can’t break something. Or you can break it but we can probably fix it and so I would rather I would rather empower my people to feel super. Confident in their ability to make those decisions so that we are responding in a timely fashion. That’s my my responsibility as a leader if they’re not equipped with the right resources and tools to make those decisions. But otherwise I would be bottlenecking if it had to come through me 24 seven.
So it’s really important again to train to support to empower. I also am incredibly big on empathy. I actually every once in a while people kind of laugh because like I’m so process driven I’m so structured and then I’ll do a reminder to folks like hey.
Don’t forget to give grace and not just to others but to yourself. We’re only human and again our product is is people. I mean we’re all human things are going to happen. There’s a lot of stressors in life.
There’s a lot of things going on. You can you can be understanding and still hold somebody accountable. You know you can still have those expectations but you you need to have a lending area you need to be you need to understand especially again in our particular case we’re working with people with disabilities we’re asking them to have these very very vulnerable conversations. If you are not empathetic and what you’re doing we might as well not be doing it like we might as well not. And so a lot of folks I think over the years that I’ve encountered are kind of like to me the empathy doesn’t go with these other things and to me I’m like it wouldn’t be going if I didn’t have it. And if I didn’t encourage my team or those I work with to also be empathetic and again a lot of times to to ourselves because we’re our own worst critics and we’ll beat ourselves up but. You allow the you know you allow room to make mistakes to learn from that to grow from that to be resilient. And if you do that for yourself you’ll extend that to your team and your team will extend that beyond them.
Anthony Codispoti : I like a couple of things that sort of came out of what you just said there Mallory. You know we’re talking about this idea of empathy. It doesn’t really on the surface seem to align with somebody who’s so process driven and let’s get stuff done today. But I love that you point out that these things can and should coexist. You can be very process driven and understand that the people behind the processes are people are still people. Right. And the other thing I really loved about what you said is not only extending that empathy and that grace to other people but to yourself.
Right. We are most of us we are our own worst critics almost all of the time. There’s that voice inside of our head that is you know constantly berating us and you know if that voice in our head spoke outwardly to our friends. Our friends would no longer be our friends. You know if we talk to our friends the same way that sometimes we talk to ourselves.
Hey I don’t want any part of that. So I love this idea of empathy and grace not only for others but for you know internally for ourselves too. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
Let’s shift gears a little bit. I’d like to hear Mallory about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life personal or professional. What was it? How did you get through it? What did you learn?
Mallory Govert,: Well I mean this is actually probably very fitting for personally and professionally just in this conversation. But while I was in college it was probably my sophomore year. I started to experience I didn’t know at the time but panic attacks and I mean incredibly stressed out. I was really struggling with some of the classes I was having that semester because I felt a lot of anxiety taking it was they were the only grade you got was through test and test freaked me out.
I would immediately blink as soon as I went in there no matter how much I studied or didn’t. And so anyways I started having these panic attacks and I always knew again I was high energy that I just always kind of felt anxious. I don’t know that I knew the word anxious truly though as a child. And so I went through a lot of very much having to learn myself in college and it’s a very odd time anyways but that I do suffer from panic attacks.
I do suffer from severe anxiety even in that time some depression. And so that was a whole I don’t know I just eye opener for me that all of a sudden I’m like I didn’t know any of this existed and it came on very very quick. And so I had I did at the time a lot of therapy but I also had to go through a lot of exercises to help myself to not necessarily grow out of it. I don’t know that you’ll ever completely grow out of it. I think you find ways to manage it. But what’s interesting over the years is I’ve actually found it to help me in my professional environment. My high energy my anxiety the feelings I have about getting certain things done has actually eight like helped me in accomplishing some of the things that I have. And so I think that it’s it’s been a shift on how I’ve even looked at having a disability or chronic illness or whatever right.
I don’t even look at it as that anymore for myself because to me I’m like I can embrace this. I can actually take this and it gives me a lot of past completions not the right thing because I don’t like just task completion but the desire to get things done and in a very well done manner and but timely right like I have to constantly be doing something. And I also though need to couple that with meditation with yoga with doing different things to kind of then also take myself down because I don’t want to throw myself into a panic attack because I have all of this moving behind the scenes. So it’s been a it’s been very interesting but it’s helped me a lot in again kind of I think in my career to have some of these things behind that going on I guess but also then tell me that I do need to slow down at times and help me kind of work through some of those different thoughts in a different way as well.
Anthony Codispoti : So a few things I want to unpack here first of all thank you for there’s a lot to unpack. Yeah good stuff. First yet thank you for opening up about this I think this is unfortunately a very common thing that people experience unfortunately not something a lot of people talk about. And so when it happens to somebody they don’t know what’s going on they don’t understand it they think something’s wrong with them and that just compounds the struggle and the suffering. Right. I’m curious when this first presented itself to you back in college how did you get to the point of understanding what was even going on. Yeah.
Mallory Govert,: No that’s in your spot on I think then I was very scared I was very uncertain what was happening I didn’t know how to unpack it right so a lot of that in the time like you said a lot of people don’t want to talk about it so at that time I think I did a lot probably behind closed doors with my my family. Not really understanding what to do obviously I think in those moments it was more like OK go to the bathroom and breathe into a bag I’m like I don’t just carry a paper bag with me everywhere you know. So it was very ad hoc and like what do you need to do in this moment but it was like OK no I think we need to talk about longer term I think I need to seek some therapy to actually discuss ongoing ways to cope or mechanisms.
I don’t have the knowledge I don’t know what’s going on so I need someone to educate me. And so it went it went from you know family to then OK let’s talk to somebody else about it and I’m sure in those moments I had a lot to unpack to from childhood or other things going on. But ultimately that there was just something I was kind of wired with and that that was OK. But I also think that’s why and I might be jumping ahead a little bit but I think that’s also why it was kind of something that made me a little bit more empathetic and give myself grace was this doesn’t make me a bad person right. It’s not something I did wrong per se it’s just something I have to deal with and I can either embrace it or and you don’t even have to embrace it but I can I can I can deal with it.
And know how to or I could be mad about it and shut down and all these other things. And so I tend to try to find silver linings or the positive and things and so I chose that different road but I certainly to answer your question I had to be I had to get education. I had to have somebody help me walk through it and and kind of give me that you know push push in the other direction because I wouldn’t have probably been able to get to where I did on my own.
Anthony Codispoti : And what’s really interesting here is how you were kind of able to turn this on its head and you’re like oh this is actually kind of a strength for me this is when I can learn to sort of put some guardrails in right so you know it doesn’t get out of control like this is like I’m high energy like driving me to get things done. What helped you kind of get to that inflection point of sort of turning this around from something that you know is a struggle or you know it’s it’s a it’s a it’s an albatross to hey no like this is part of the good parts of who I am to.
Mallory Govert,: That took years years and years I would say honestly it’s probably when the last five years that I did and really I will reflect back again 2020 everybody went through something I was always an extrovert I had to be around people when co it hit. I’m like oh wait I actually think I like this time to sit here and think to myself or take this me time. And I leveraged that I kind of had that I’m comfortable in this reflection mode in my own thoughts and felt a different way about it coming out of coven.
I mean I was super stoked as we all were to see people and etc maybe in a mask or not in a mess. But then then you know taking care of my mom and losing my mom I’m like life’s too short like even she went through a lot of things of you know I have cancer nobody’s going to want to talk to me I’m like that is not true. That is just not true like why would you think that and so it’s again kind of saying how can I find the silver lining in this and use it to my advantage versus allow it to bring me down or back so I don’t know if that answers that but
Anthony Codispoti : it does I love it it’s a hard path to get there. I think we may have talked about this in the before we went live here is you know I had another guest we talked a lot about imposter syndrome and he in a similar way kind of flipped it on its head and rather than being this thing he sort of ran from is like you putting the silver lining on it this is his superpower as he sees it and allows him to sort of get up and you know out of bed every day and you know look for new challenges to tackle and you know ways to improve the things in his life.
Right but yeah. Mallory I’ve just got one more question for you but before I ask I want to do two things I want to first of all invite everybody who’s listening to go ahead and hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app. You want to get more great interviews like we’ve had today with Mallory from peak performers. I also want to let people know the best way to either get in touch with you directly follow your story to follow that of peak performers what would that be.
Mallory Govert,: Several different things I mean we are our website is peak performers dot org so please check us out. I’m on LinkedIn we also have a LinkedIn we have an Instagram we have a tiktok now we have a lot of things because we want to illustrate these stories and share these stories with others. Anyways you can find us a peak performers and kind of go from there as far as everything else on the different outlets.
Anthony Codispoti : So last question for you Mallory as you look out say over the next two to three years. What are the biggest changes that you see other coming to your industry or specifically to peak performers that you’re most excited about.
Mallory Govert,: Oh most excited. Well I mean I am I’m very very excited. I think that our growth strategy over the next three to five years and probably you were about your two of that is very well established. We have an incredible alignment across all of our departments now and how we’re going to get there and so I’m just I’m really excited to see how we continue to grow and develop that private sector market or the our managed service programs. And into these new states as well as our public sector or state state agencies.
You know we again the economies will public sector shrinking right. It’s just right before our eyes. So that might be a little unique. I guess excited. Well we’ll just say I’m excited to see how that all shakes out. But I again I think we have a really wonderful team here. So I’m excited about that.
I’m also excited. Maybe anxious or nervous about all the different A.I. and things that are inevitable. I still think that you know a lot of people in our industry not a lot of people but some are very scared.
You know it’s like I look at it as back in the day when the self checkout registers were created and everyone’s like oh it’s going to take all the jobs of the cashiers like no it’s not. But I’m interested how it all unfolds. I’m very intrigued.
I think it’s a really cool resource and tool and there’s going to be so much that comes out of it. But I also again we’re human like we are human. We need human interactions. We’re going to I think it’s going to potentially come to a point where it’s like well now we need proof of human.
Like so I’m very interested to see from an industry perspective how that continues to unfold where it lands where maybe the hype you know calms down a little bit but should be very interesting.
Anthony Codispoti : Are you implementing utilizing A.I. in any way currently.
Mallory Govert,: We’re dabbling. We are dabbling. That is an initiative in this year that we are looking on how we want to build those policies right create trainings and how we would incorporate it to not just be a the importance around responsibly using it but also the efficacy you know efficiencies etc. Within our processes so we’re dabbling but it’s still very very early from an adoption perspective and so we’ll see how that kind of plays out.
Anthony Codispoti : Mallory Gover I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.
Mallory Govert,: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
Anthony Codispoti : Folks that’s a wrap on another episode of the inspired stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today. Thank you.
REFERENCES
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