The Leadership Line

Scaling Up: Leadership Lessons from SHRM 2025

• Tammy Rogers and Scott Burgmeyer • Season 6 • Episode 25

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What happens when you take a leap from conferences with 2,000 people to 22,700 attendees at a national event? The BecomeMore team discovered both the power of preparation and the humbling reality that what you think is mastery may only be the beginning.

This honest leadership conversation takes us behind the scenes of the SHRM 2025 National Conference, where Tammy and Scott's team faced their biggest challenge yet. Through meticulous planning, clear role assignments, and deliberate preparation, the team created a system that allowed everyone to focus on what they did best. "All of that weight that I would normally carry on my shoulders, I was not involved at all, not because I didn't have work to do, but because then I could concentrate on the work I needed to do," Tammy shares, revealing how proper delegation transformed the experience.

Perhaps the most powerful realization came when the team discovered they weren't as advanced as they thought. "I thought we had conferences down... I thought we were like, yes, we own conferences on a scale of one to 10. We are a 10," admits Tammy. "And then you go to this national conference and you go... we're still not done." This humbling discovery wasn't deflating but energizing – showing the vast potential for growth that still remained. The conversation also explores breakthrough successes (like finally seeing ROI on social media after years of struggle) and candid discussions about what they'd do differently next time.

Whether you're scaling your business, leading a team, or simply trying to improve at your craft, this episode offers valuable perspective on how to prepare for growth, trust your team, and embrace the reality that mastery is always a moving target. Join us as we unpack these leadership lessons that apply far beyond conference halls.

Karman:

Good morning Scott and Tammy. Good morning Karman.

Scott:

Hey Karman.

Karman:

I don't always get a salute with a coffee cup every morning. Thank you, scott, you're welcome.

Tammy:

Become more coffee cup. In fact, is what Scott was saluting with Woo-hoo.

Scott:

Yeah, do you normally get this salute?

Tammy:

Scott Bergmeier. You guys, if there was a visual visual, I would literally be smacking. There is a visual it's being recorded he's being naughty.

Karman:

to be honest, that's usually my role, okay, okay, um, one of the one of my, my friend mary beth, and I um have an, and I have a 30-year running joke that originated with me just giving the salute at a random time. Yeah, yes.

Karman:

Speaking of Become More Coffee Cups, it's been a big month for the Become More brand. Big month for more brand. You guys and your team just did a big, a big project attended a national show convention conference in a big way, did a lot of things on a scale that you've never done before. I know there were a lot of learnings for the team and that you guys would not. You know, in a big, significant way. What did you guys learn as leaders of that process?

Tammy:

You know, Karman, I love this question because, you know, it doesn't matter how long you've been at work, it doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter how long you've been at work, it doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how long you've led. There's always an opportunity to become more, to learn, to level up, and this, for us, was the biggest conference. It was the SHRM 2025 National Conference, I believe. If my number is right, they told us that there would be 25,000 to 30,000 people in attendance. I believe what they told us on the first day is that there was 22,700 in person. The rest were virtual. And you know, we were in, uh, not only were scott and I speaking, um, which was an amazing honor, we also had a big booth and we brought staff that we normally don't bring to a conference and had to prepare staff to figure out how to work in a conference and how to do the logistics and all that kind of stuff. So this was um by leaps and bounds. I mean, probably our biggest conference prior to this had a couple thousand. So to go from a couple thousand to 22,000 to speaking in a room that had 2,000, 2,500 seats, compared to speaking in a room. That has a leap for us. And, honestly, the thing that was so gratifying and the thing that was so amazing to me we prepped. So this wasn't like hey, shoot from the hip we had.

Tammy:

As soon as we found out we were going, we started the process of prepping for that. So we started putting regular meetings on the calendar to talk about it. We created a Miro board that kind of had our plans right and we actually worked that plan. So we built a plan, we worked that plan, we assigned roles and responsibilities. Once we actually got to San Diego, all of those roles and responsibilities, that stuff we prepped for the team was ready and what it did is it allowed Scott and I to just concentrate on what Scott and I needed to concentrate on, because the team concentrated on what they needed to concentrate on.

Tammy:

And all of that weight that I would normally carry on my shoulders, the things that I had to worry about, the things that I had to double check, the things, all of that stuff where I would be overly involved. I was not involved at all, not because I didn't have work to do, but because then I could concentrate on the work I needed to do to be on that stage to be in the booth and to be able to have the conversations that we needed to have in the booth, and so, honestly, it was the let's get together, let's talk about what success looks like, let's continue to work that plan and ensure that people understand roles and responsibilities and trust that they're prepped and ready to do that, because in the end, it made the actual days in San Diego really easy and really, really successful, even though it was huge and overwhelming and hard which was amazing to trust your team that much. Unbelievable the work they did prior. That allowed it to be easy while we were there. That was my biggest learning lesson, scott. How about you?

Scott:

When I think of, for me, the learning lesson of, it's funny because it's not new information, nope. It reinforced the fact that when you have great talent, there are places where you just let them go and let them shine. And there were times when, when I think about it, there were times when we did that and it worked, and there were times when we did that and we didn't do the prep we should have or the confirmation that we should have. And some of that was just what I think. What Tammy talked about in our podcast last week was have they done it before? Ooh, not really. Do they have a track record of success? Oh, no, they don't, they're brand new with us.

Scott:

Well, there were a few places where we didn't do and we and we should have right we made some, I think, some assumptions that were not quite correct, and so I think to me it was just reinforcing that. There were places where I know I was at times micromanaging and I even prefaced some of my emails like hey, I'm a shoot, I'm a little blind here, so this will probably sound micromanaging and Tammy's laughing because she knew, but it also reinforced that we were letting them go, but I was not being informed. And so, with lack of information, what else am I to know? My assumption would be it's not being done, which was fair and unfair. So to me, it was just reinforcing that you know what the leadership ladder does work and like hey, maybe we should use it more often.

Tammy:

Well, I will say one of the cool things about this, even though all of this was a step up, right, the prep Okay. So if I just think about the fact that we have been doing conferences for two years steadily now, and after every single conference we asked that question what worked, what didn't work, what are we going to do differently? And we have been implementing, you know, all of those changes along the way and I think that that incremental growth, that thing that says hey, let's not go from zero to 120, you know, just by putting our gas, our foot on the gas pedal, let's actually just meander for a little while and learn and then go a little faster and learn and meander for a little while and learn and then go a little faster and learn. And let me go a little faster and learn. That time period that we have spent learning how to do conferences, I think, allowed us to take that leap into 20,000 instead of 2,000, right. The other piece that I find so interesting, Karman, in this question, is I thought we had conferences down. I thought we were like, yes, we own conferences on a scale of one to 10. We are a 10.

Tammy:

And then you go to this national conference and you go we did this really good. I mean, I'm very, very proud of what we accomplished there and how we did it and what I believe is going to come out of it. But we're still not done, because I just learned when I'm at a national conference that there's even more things that we could do differently and grow, and so that's the other thing. That's kind of fun and exciting in this spot is we were a 10, because that's all we knew, and then we got exposed to something and now you're like all right, we're good and we're not done yet, right, we're good.

Tammy:

And that 10 now became a five. So how do we get that next five points in this new world that we just opened the door to? And that was personally exciting. Okay, it's also professionally exciting from the standpoint of now we can actually do even more. We can level up in a way that I had not even recognized, and you know how cool that is to think I thought we were the best. I found out that we were average and there's a ways to go to continue to grow in that spot. That's really exciting too. That was really fun.

Scott:

For me. What was interesting, as you say that, tammy, is we weren't you know. Okay, yeah, I would say we weren't our best. If I like, this is okay. So hold on. Hold on to your ego. Hat for a second.

Tammy:

I was going to boo him. Like you've ever watched, like you know, america's got talent and Mel B is in there and the whole crowd bruiser. I'm like boo, what are you talking about, scott? We killed it. What are?

Scott:

you talking about Scott. We killed it. Well, we did kill it and we learned, which will make us better. So we were not at our best. We were at our best based on what we knew in that moment Correct, and we were better than 90% of the vendors there.

Tammy:

Well, of the ones we could see. Because let's just be very honest with you, with everyone, you know we didn't walk the whole show.

Scott:

I walked a fair amount and again it's not a to me, it's not a comparison against vendor to vendor, Right, but I still say we were still, you know it reinvigorated my belief that conferences are the way to go.

Tammy:

Yeah.

Scott:

Which I have been skeptical for a year.

Tammy:

More than a year I've been kicking your butt on this particular one and you and I have not agreed. But you've been kind and you've allowed me to show you and to me what is exciting is we've changed.

Scott:

I think the other part of our learning here is we changed our chart of accounts, where we are going to be able to see dollars and cents, what did we spend on conferences and what was the outcome? Correct, because we had a pretty good I would say better than an estimation. We had a pretty good account last year. I don't know that we had it formal enough to really catch some of the. There were some of the things that I think went uncaptured in our expenses and probably in the revenue too.

Tammy:

Right right. You know, but I think that's the other thing for me.

Scott:

Yeah, we're getting better and better. In that, I think the other part is we really the other thing. For me, that leveled up is like our social media.

Tammy:

Go Marcella.

Scott:

I mean, you know when, when. Again, this is a place where it's like, okay, what could you do with it? Like bring back some ideas, bring back a plan and nailed it.

Tammy:

So think about this too. Folks probably don't know this. We have struggled with social media. Let's just tell the truth, right? This has not been a place that we've shined. We have had three organizations that quote unquote helped us that this is what they do for a living, and none of those had a return on investment. We hired someone and that person did not work out for us and she left us relatively quickly. That did not work out. This is the first time in three years Scott, maybe four years that I feel like our social media has had a return on investment. Bumps right and we're seeing more and more return on that.

Tammy:

And honestly, I think it's Marcella right. She came in and she has an open mind and she's trying stuff. She's also really good at what she does. I'm really proud that she's a member of our team in that particular space. And to add on to that, from my standpoint, one of the things that we did really well is we leaned into the strengths of our team. Marcella is just one member of the team that actually did a phenomenal job. There are other members of the team that we leaned into their strengths and they were also exceptionally skilled and brought those gifts to the table and as a leader. I think that's one of the things you have to do when you assign roles and responsibilities.

Scott:

So what, tammy? What would you do different?

Tammy:

With leadership, Scott, or with the conference? What?

Scott:

would you do different With leadership, scott, or with the conference?

Tammy:

No leadership of the conference or the team preparing for that or really any conference. I think for me, if we are talking about from a leadership standpoint, what could we have done differently? We should have started working with the staff that were new to conferences and new to Become More. We should have started with probably about three or four weeks out and practicing their elevator speech, practicing the handoff from you know. Hey, I just introduced myself to this person, to. This is a person who actually I need to get to Scott and Tammy in order for them to have more and better, deeper conversations with customers, and we shortcut that and we actually needed that to be much more purposeful, intentional and like talk about the outcomes there, and I think, from my standpoint, that was the one spot that we missed in planning. That was critical to our success, and I think that we would have done need to do that differently in the future. What's yours, scott? Yeah.

Scott:

Mine is there were planning and follow-up meetings that I couldn't make and so having a way just to get that information so I understand, have a clear picture of what's going on.

Tammy:

Yeah, that for me, honestly, between the two of us, I was very confident because I was at all those meetings and had all those conversations and you are right, we did not communicate it to you and I kept saying it's, it's taken care of and you wanted data, you wanted information, instead of my just giving you the reassurance, and I think that's fair.

Scott:

So and I could have trusted more, but to me that was what I wasn't ready to do that.

Tammy:

Are you ready now?

Scott:

I'm a lot more comfortable, and there were things that happened that would tell me I'm not 100% comfortable, that we can just let it go.

Tammy:

Interesting. So the piece about this that I find interesting Scott is you and I are peers.

Scott:

Yep.

Tammy:

Right, and I don't think you're saying, tammy, I don't trust you. I think you were saying, tammy, I don't trust that you have asked them or that you have followed up on that, and they may have dropped the ball, and I find that very interesting.

Scott:

Yeah, now, it's little things and so it's also probably not worth worrying about.

Tammy:

To me, there were two things One that got fixed at the last minute, okay, and then there was one that we just dropped the ball on, but it was so tiny, okay, now I'm still not happy, okay, and it should have been caught with. That said, of all the things that we could have forgotten, of all the things that we could have planned, it was minor, yeah.

Scott:

Overall, have we answered your question.

Karman:

Yeah, I think so. I mean, as leaders use the leadership ladder, make sure your team really understands what the outcomes in the assignment and what their role is, and great communication that factors in all those things plus helps the leader feel like, yeah, they really got this, yeah, and they know where to step in.

Tammy:

I love that. Karman, that's a great summary. And Scott, I'm going to ask you this okay, scale of one to 10, with the expectations that we had going in, not the ones that we now, because we're going to raise the bar for conferences from here on out. But a scale of one to 10, 10 being weak, hit it out of the park. Five is you know? We were just average. One, we sucked. What would you give us?

Scott:

I would give us an eight.

Tammy:

Okay.

Scott:

Eight or a nine.

Tammy:

Yeah, and I would tell you I would give us a 9.5.

Scott:

Yeah.

Tammy:

Wasn't perfect, but it was darn good. For me, it depends on what we include or don't include, but it was darn good.

Scott:

For me, it depends on what we include or don't include.

Tammy:

Well, at this point it's not fair to include what is the outcome of sales.

Scott:

No, no, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, if I look at the conference prep until the end of the conference and we got home, I agree 9.5. If I look at the entirety of the conference process, which is not even the results, getting the data into our systems, I haven't seen us be able to do that well yet, so my number would be lower then.

Tammy:

Yeah, it's interesting in terms of, again, what are the expectations? And of course, I'm not looking at that at all. I'm looking at getting to the conference, getting set up for the conference. How do we interact with potential customers? Are speaking right and do we have the relationships and Scott's about the data.

Karman:

Who are you guys?

Tammy:

carvin. That is a really good point and isn't that interesting in terms of how?

Scott:

yeah, look at this stuff yeah, yeah, I, I think, and it is just, it was exceptionally beneficial to bring the team together and and that is important, without having the other things, it is a flashback to our previous podcast. It's wasted excellence.

Tammy:

Well, and I think our listeners should like like, hold on for just a bit, and we should probably revisit this. Yeah, and do? I think we're?

Scott:

going to have, and I'm not even talking about the outcomes, it's the. It's what we're slogging through right now. Yeah, you know lots and lots of names, and how do we manage all of that data?

Tammy:

Yep, and I think it makes sense, in all honesty, to come back and say how did we do in that, right, because there's going to be a little bit of time before we understand that. The other one, though, is hey, financially it was great to be there, but did we actually close business? I think it's also worth coming back and answering that question in a future podcast.

Scott:

For sure.