PeoplebyDesign

09/19/2026

People by Design is a Gold Sponsor of The HR Storybook, the 2026 GBR Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference, September 22 and 23 at the Crowne Plaza.

We sponsored because of who is in that room. HR professionals spend their working lives making sure other people are seen, supported, and taken care of. Two days built for them is worth backing.

If you are coming, there are two ways to find us. Melissa is speaking Wednesday at 11:00 in Cypress 1 on Every Piece Matters: Building a Culture of Significance in the Modern Workplace. And our sponsor table will be in the main ballroom (Premier I/II). Come by and say hello.

Register at gbrshrm.org

Inspire People. Ignite Culture. Transform Lives.

Thank you to PeoplebyDesign for their support of our 2026 Annual Conference as a Gold Sponsor! Find out how your organization can partner with us: https://gbrshrm.wildapricot.org/Conference.

09/18/2026

Five days out, and here is the honest version.

Wednesday at 11 am, I am running a session called Every Piece Matters at the GBR Society for Human Resource Management conference. It is about the difference between being valued on paper and knowing you are needed. Three practices, no budget required, none of them longer than about eleven seconds.

If that sounds like your kind of hour, join us.

09/16/2026

Purse Bingo 2026 took months of planning long before anyone walked through the doors, and I am incredibly grateful to have been part of it.

The Fundraising Committee of Jackie Whitley, Kayla Clouatre, and Traci Roy Adams is a reminder of what is possible when women commit to something bigger than themselves. The meetings, the phone calls, the problem solving, and the quiet work no one else sees, all of it mattered, and all of it was worth it.

This is the kind of behind the scenes work I believe in most. Building something meaningful takes more than a single event, it takes people willing to show up consistently, and I am proud to have shown up alongside these ABWA - La Capitale women.

Inspire People. Ignite Culture. Transform Lives.

09/16/2026

Carmen, watching what you have built with Carmen's Catering has been genuinely inspiring. Your dedication to your team and this community shows in everything you do. Grateful to know you and to see Baton Rouge lucky enough to have you in it.

🎉 WE’RE ALMOST AT 2,000 FOLLOWERS! 🎉

We’re celebrating the only way we know how… with FOOD!

Want to win a TAILGATE PASTA from Carmen’s Catering? Here’s how to enter:

1. LIKE this post
2. SHARE this post
3. COMMENT your favorite dish from Carmen’s Catering
4. TAG 4 friends who need to know where the good food is!
5. FOLLOW THIS BUSINESS PAGE!

That’s it! You’re officially entered.

🏆 One lucky winner will be chosen Thursday at 12:00 PM!

Help us hit 2,000 followers and tell your friends where to find some seriously good catering!

Pasta will feed around 10 people!

Carmen’s Catering bringing the food to your next gathering, meeting, party or tailgate.

09/16/2026

Choosing between sessions for the GBR Society for Human Resource Management 2026 Annual Conference on September 23? Here is exactly what happens in mine.

You score a nine-question diagnostic that tells you which of three practices your organization is weakest at. You get two written case studies with full analysis. You get three exercises you can run with your own team, with complete instructions. And you write down one thing you are actually going to do, with a day attached, and it comes back to you in thirty days.

It is not a lecture. You will write, you will talk to the people near you, and before you leave, you will say something true to another person out loud.

Nobody performs, and nobody has to be funny. I promise.

Every Piece Matters. Wednesday, September 23, 11 am, Crowne Plaza.

09/14/2026

The line that shows up in exit interviews more than any statistic I could give you. Some version of: I do not think anyone would notice if I stopped.

It is rarely phrased that way. It comes out as I did not feel like my work mattered, or nobody ever told me if any of it made a difference.

We file those under engagement, and then we run a survey. But that is not a complaint about recognition. That is a person telling you they could not find evidence that they mattered. Those are different problems, and they need different answers.

That is the hour, on September 23.

09/09/2026

A two-minute exercise. It is uncomfortable and it is worth it.

Think of one person you work with closely. Write down six things you know about them.

Now cross out anything you could find on their LinkedIn or in their personnel file. Title, tenure, what team they are on.

Now cross out anything you could get from thirty seconds in the break room. They have kids. They pull for LSU.

Look at what is left.

Most people cross out more than half. That is not a failure of caring. It is that the public file is what gets handed to us and nobody ever asked us to go further.

But if you do have something left, that is proof you already noticed. The only thing missing is that you never said it out loud.

This is one of three exercises we will run on September 23.

Inspire People. Ignite Culture. Transform Lives.

09/08/2026

Grateful to be recognized as a Bingo Biggie Sponsor for ABWA - La Capitale's Annual Purse Bingo Fundraiser. This event brought together so many incredible women in business, and it was an honor to invest in the mission of scholarships, education, and leadership opportunities for women in our community.

Thank you to ABWA La Capitale for creating spaces where women can grow, connect, and support one another. Looking forward to what comes next.

Inspire People. Ignite Culture. Transform Lives.

# ABWA

09/08/2026

A few people have asked why this topic, and why now.

I lost my dad in January 2024 and my mom that December.

For twenty years I had been building the systems that are supposed to make people feel valued. Then I found out what it actually feels like when a person makes you feel like you matter, and I realized those are two completely different things.

My best friend of 28 years made me a song. She walked me back through all those years, through the memories we have shared, and she named the precise reasons I mattered to her.

The song was the beautiful part. The part that changed me was hearing someone say the specific reasons out loud. That does not take a song. It takes about eleven seconds and a willingness to be specific.

That is the whole reason People by Design exists, and it is why I said yes to this session.

September 23, Greater Baton Rouge SHRM Annual Conference.