We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Corrine Ishio. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Corrine below.
Corrine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
Our team cares profoundly about making a sustainable impact, and we have created an intentional solutions process that unites the industries of professional training, coaching & development with hiring and recruitment. As the world of work continues to change at a breakneck speed, we are committed to supporting the opportunity connection process while addressing the dire need to reskill and rehome human talent in the face of rapid technological innovation – including the use of artificial intelligence, which threatens to eliminate entire industries and many other professions ‘as we know it’ over the next 5 years. We believe that work provides dignity to human life and society, and we are honored to facilitate the development of full human potential through thoughtful strategies that highlight coaching, mentorship and applied learning opportunities (as well as total body nourishment and care) as key hallmarks of the growth and development process. We are disrupting the traditional notion of ‘A’ and ‘B’ talent – the idea that you’re either an ‘A talent’; a superstar and able to placed (industry term is ‘Most Placeable Candidate’) or you are B, C, or beyond talent – relegated to the secondary market for opportunities; where you are excluded from the lucrative growth ladder that the ‘A Talent’ has access to.
As a learning company, we advance the mission that every human being has value – and that value can be developed through thoughtful strategies, nourishment and genuine investment in growth: on an individual and business level. We challenge the notion of A and B talent by developing workers from all walks of life to reach their top potential. My Working Soul is a departure from the binary standard of evaluating talent, serving as a key intermediary in connecting employers and employees, facilitating genuine communication that addresses conflict to create collective harmony. Our keystone tool is ‘The Human Purpose Assessment’; a customizable assessment that helps uncover purpose – supporting accelerated goal fulfillment and optimized intention.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
My Working Soul is a learning company with real solutions. We are innovating in the professional training, coaching & development space, making an impact in connecting business needs (we are known as ‘new human resources’) with the needs of people and the world at large. We are solving the problem of lost potential and opportunity connection in today’s competitive work landscape. As a double sided marketplace (we work with individuals and teams) our solutions are full circle; including career, coaching and mentor solutions. We have intentionally designed a holistic cycle of services that complement one another and echo the growth process of organizations and individuals. Our ‘Human Purpose Assessment’ is our keystone tool; identifying opportunities to maximize a brand’s greatest asset: the people on your team.
Our sweet sauce is working within transforming & emerging industries (especially retail and technology); although our multifaceted team has years of expertise working with clients in a multiplicity of industries; with connections spanning the world of pharmaceuticals, luxury, re-commerce, healthcare, finance, biotechnology and more. We put all of these connections to work, consolidating world-class data that amplifies our boutique resume and LinkedIn profile solutions service. Our resumes are up to date, modern and captivating – just one example of how our solutions add maximum value and combine perspectives to create incredible results.
As the Founder of My Working Soul, I have a decade of experience as a global talent acquisition leader, pioneering a new form of recruitment that blends traditional headhunting instincts with ‘technological spice’ – making connections online that transcend the digital medium and lead to tangible opportunity. I started the company after realizing the inequality for candidates and inefficacy for employers that was embedded in the opportunity process. Combining my functional insights with my childhood dreams of becoming a ‘fairy godmother’, My Working Soul is a brand wrapped in ‘Cinderella blue’ with hopes to start a large movement to empower workers from all walks of life. Our CEO Lisa Fristik joined the company in 2023, revolutionizing the client experience and interaction, as well as developing a powerhouse team of partners, learners, and internal assets to meet the marketplace with strength and impact. Her years of experience as a leader in the B2C ultra luxury retail industries brought sophistication, grace, and results to My Working Soul, helping us become more effective in scaling our reach with the entire world.
We are most proud of the success stories of our clients and our winning reputation with businesses and individuals alike. We want our potential clients, followers and fans to know that we are a trusted partner that makes a true value difference for our clients. Our customized approach is backed by years of experience and high ethics, with an emphasis on efficacy, integrity, and strong character.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
I met my business partner Lisa Fristik as she was an incoming leader for a well-known ultra luxury re-commerce brand, establishing a fine jewelry and watch department from the ground up. As the recruiter tasked with supporting Lisa’s growth and development of the new department, we had many opportunities to work closely side by side in a fast-paced and incredibly demanding environment. I quickly came to respect Lisa’s approach of empathetic and emotionally intelligent leadership, and I wasn’t the only one – every member of her team appreciated, respected, and valued her approach. She truly cultivated relationships with the people around her, and that was a palpable energy that affected every single person in the company. She made people better by believing in them, empowering them, and one of the most valuable things: she listens – not from a superficial angle, without enabling or encouraging negative energy.
I always remembered the impact of Lisa’s leadership, so when our paths serendipitously crossed again I leapt at the chance to recruit her for the My Working Soul team. She has accelerated our revenue, enhanced our results and developed the entire team. She is a huge asset to the team and I am incredibly grateful for her presence, wisdom, ‘with-ness’ and grace.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
As the founder of an ambitious company, I am used to ‘doing it all’ and wearing 10 million hats at once. This quality always served me well, especially during my time at school and in corporate life as a consultant. It was a process to detangle my identity from the company, however I didn’t realize for a long time how much that mentality was limiting our growth as a team. My thinking was constrained to what I thought I could personally accomplish, and that was creating a ceiling for the entire organization. Lisa joining the team as a CEO and VP Revenue revolutionized my thinking. I felt that I could finally detach my personal identity and worth from what we were creating. I stopped having the feelings of ‘I don’t think I have enough time’ and transformed to ‘what is the best decision for the team and for the health of the company?’
I hadn’t realized that I was ‘too connected’ to the outcomes of the business until I no longer had the pressure of having it ‘all on my shoulders’. My passion had helped the company grow during the initial first years of business, but after a certain point it was creating more blind spots, instead of the innovation that the company was founded for in the first place. Stepping back to view the business holistically, through the eyes of everyone on the team, helped me understand the true potential that we could go after — together. That expanded our collective thinking in the most beneficial way. Now our horizons are larger and we practice ‘enlightened brainstorming’ — prioritizing the strategic direction that is considered and measured — while also leaving room for flexible innovation that makes our lean team hyper effective and ultra focused on the key opportunities we have to make an incredible difference.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.myworkingsoul.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/myworkingsoul/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyGMI-V42UOBFkXaYIOpv_w
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myworkingsoul/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myworkingsoul
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/myworkingsoul
- Yelp: https://g.page/r/Cfsu0v-0kCHXEAI/review
- Other: Listen to our Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX1wDe4u99E93SqZURu5lhtqgdjIy7VcB https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hire-intelligence/id1675380285 https://open.spotify.com/show/4LqH4677mOLNnkbAL5YnL3
Image Credits
All Right Reserved, My Working Soul – 2024.