Effective Mentoring, Relationship Building, Hiring – Part 1

About This Episode

In this episode, we welcome Heather Moyer, Founder and CEO of HNM Systems. Heather provides great insight into mentoring, why mentors are important, but more importantly the responsibility of the “mentee” in the mentor/mentee relationship. Heather discusses her affiliation, commitment and focus on mentoring across several groups she’s involved with. We discuss why relationship building is so critical in life and the workplace. Before we transition to Part 2, we discuss hiring in general and why “A” players are always working, always in demand, and what key things you can do to stand out in today’s workforce.

Listen to the conversation here.

Originally Posted by Paying It Forward.

Key Highlights

Entrepreneurial Spirit & Founding HNM Systems

“I absolutely always had an entrepreneurial spirit… I started selling jewelry outside a grocery store when I was eight.”

• Heather shares her earliest business instincts—crafting jewelry and selling it as a child.
• The spark for HNM came from a chance meeting with a mechanical engineer in an airport fog delay.
• Despite terrible timing—newly married, new home, husband in paramedic school—she pursued her passion for people and technology.

“I am so passionate about people and passionate about technology. This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.”

How She Built the Business from Scratch

“I made a list of everyone I’d worked with who championed me. Every Friday, I’d call them to ask for insights, connections, and support.”

• Heather took a disciplined approach to launching the business:
  • Started with a “yellow paper list” of mentors and past champions.
  • Took weekly outreach action.
  • Landed her first contract—with Disney World—after cold-calling a major wireless leader and asking for one chance.

Mentorship and Leadership Development

“I’ve never actually asked anyone to mentor me. I just found people who had what I felt I lacked.”

• She believes mentorship is vital at every life stage, but it’s often informal.
• Fear of rejection and imposter syndrome are major blockers for potential mentees.
• Heather encourages mentees to show up prepared:

“The mentee must take accountability for what they want to accomplish, and how they follow up.”

The Power of Relationships

“Relationships are the most important thing in life—personally and professionally.”

• Her philosophy: Give before you ask.
• She trains staff to bring authentic value to relationships before requesting something in return.
• This mindset is deeply rooted in her leadership and business development style.

Mentorship in Action

Heather facilitates a mentorship program combining:

• EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization)
• YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization)
• Chairman’s Roundtable

“There’s mentorship needed at every level—from high schoolers to CEOs who just sold $500M companies.”

She reinforces that mentees who show initiative, own their growth, and follow up diligently get the most from mentoring relationships.

Hiring & Values-Based Leadership

“Our number one core value is: relentlessly people-driven.”

• Hiring at HNM is values-first:
  • She screens for alignment between personal and company values.
  • Candidates must demonstrate accountability, initiative, and respect.

“I ask if someone has their own core values—and if they match ours.”

• She emphasizes the importance of hiring people who are self-starters and initiative-takers, especially at corporate HQ.
• For broader roles, it’s about finding the right alignment of motivation, skill, and value fit.

Recruiting A Players

“The top 10% are always employed and very well-networked. It takes hustle and long-term relationship building.”

• Heather underscores the difficulty of recruiting high performers.
• She believes in candidate pipelining—developing long-term relationships before the moment of need arises.

Mindset: Abundance Over Fear

“Gratitude and fear can’t live together.”

• Heather shares that during the pandemic, she worked intentionally on shifting her mindset toward abundance, gratitude, and freedom.
• This internal work influences how she leads through challenges and mentors others.

Core Qualities She Looks For

1. Self-awareness
2. Accountability
3. Ownership
4. Respect

“The things I don’t give on: accountability, self-awareness, ownership, and respect.”

Episode Transcript

Unknown Speaker 0:00
Nick This is the paying it forward podcast episode three,

Unknown Speaker 0:16
as the facilitator of a program like that. What I’ve learned is that as the mentee, you need to take real accountability for what you want to accomplish, how you need inputs and how you show up to every single meeting, as well as how you follow up from all of those interactions and meetings as well. Hi and welcome to the paying it forward podcast. My name is Steve Richards, thank you for listening. I believe if you want to attain a C level position in your career, you need to understand what it takes to achieve that level of leadership. When you have access to successful entrepreneurs and senior executives who want to help you develop the skills and traits to become a great leader, it’s like having your own mastermind group to mentor and guide you. In a nutshell, that’s our podcast. In just a few moments, we’ll sit down with Heather Moyer in part one of a two part interview. In this first part, we’ll talk with Heather about her entrepreneurial spirit. We’ll also talk about mentoring, the relationship between the mentor the mentee who has what accountability, responsibility and ownership. We’ll also discuss relationships and why she believes relationships are the most important thing. We’ll also discuss why hiring and getting it right the first time is critically important. And then we’ll touch on self awareness, self starting and taking the initiative.

Unknown Speaker 1:36
My guest today is Heather Moyer. Heather is the President, CEO and founder of Hnm systems, providing direct hire contract to hire professional placement and consulting services to the telecommunications, utilities and IT sectors. Heather has grown Hnm systems revenue 25 times since its first year under her leadership. The company has received several awards, including Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies. Two years in a row. Prior to founding Hnm systems, Heather served as the executive officer of a technical staffing firm in the San Diego area. She led the company to achieve 900% growth over a six year period, and the company was subsequently named one of San Diego’s 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies six years in a row. Heather is an active philanthropist and member of the community. She sits on the board of nonprofit echo in the valley, and as a member of peers network, the Entrepreneurs Organization and the Young Presidents Organization. Heather has been named Top 40 under 40 by the San Diego daily transcript in 2017 and by San Diego Business Journal in 2018 in 2020 she was a finalist for the San Diego Business Journal CEO of the Year and Business Woman of the Year. She’s the proud wife of a firefighter paramedic and also adoring mother of two children. Heather, it is my distinct honor and pleasure to welcome you to the podcast. Thank you for being here. Thanks for having me when you were younger. Did you always have a dream of starting your own business? Well, I absolutely always had an entrepreneurial spirit. The first selling opportunity I had was actually as a little girl. I must have been about eight years old, I started to develop and craft jewelry in my basement cool and I got a little table and set it up outside the grocery store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and started selling my jewelry to the incoming grocery shoppers, smart to get them on the way in on this as opposed to a way out. There wasn’t any legislation at

Unknown Speaker 3:41
that, child labor laws, let alone selling out of the back of your trunk. Exactly, how did this endeavor go? Yeah, wildly successful, not quite the organization that I have today, but definitely profitable immediately. So H and N systems being in the business of providing services and direct hires or contract to hires, or replacement and consulting services to its clients. I look at it more and given certainly that you’re in the technology or telecommunications utility space, I really see this as a tech company,

Unknown Speaker 4:13
right? Absolutely. What made you get into tech? You know, really, it’s a it’s a really unique story. I was working for another staffing company here in San Diego that was focused in automotive finance. And I was really young, 27 years old, constantly on an airplane, flying back and forth to customers nationwide. And I happened to be fogged into SFO one night, which anybody who’s traveled from SFO has probably been fogged in there very much. And I started chatting with a mechanical engineer who was located here in San Diego, who actually had deployed the first outdoor wireless system in 1998 here in San Diego for spring, wow. And he started talking to me about everything, really.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
To wireless and wireline and the future of mobility. And he piqued my interest. And he piqued my interest for two reasons. One, I’m inspired by technology. I’m inspired by the ability of technology to connect people, and I am also just authentically inspired by relationships and connection. And so for me, this was a beautiful marriage of both innovation and technology and the ability to connect people both through technology and employment opportunity. So you have this conversation as serendipitous. How did you go from thought idea to launching H M, so I went and met with him and his wife, and we talked a lot about my background as it relates to staffing and talent acquisition and people management, and we talked a lot about his background related to engineering and both electrical and mechanical. And I really spent the next 12 months researching the industry, thinking really hard if I wanted to leave a rapidly growing organization, which at that point I was the president of, at a very young age, for someone I love and respected so much, and really go out on my own, start over again, I was just recently married. My husband is a firefighter paramedic. He had taken a leave to go to paramedic school. We had just bought a house. It was absolutely the worst timing you could ever think of. And yet, there it was, you know, there was this great opportunity. And I am so passionate about people and passionate about technology, and I just felt that this was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. Certainly, working for utilities, everybody knows what it’s like to turn on a light or, you know, open the tap and get some water, but that telecom space can be very challenging. Yeah, it’s very technical, and it’s also male dominated. It is predominantly male dominated. Take me back to the beginning. Someone who sees an idea capitalizes on idea starts a company as an entrepreneur, you had to hire your first several people. You had to get a contract, something like that, to get launched. Tell me what it was like to be a solo entrepreneur when you started to the first employee you hired to the first contract you got. Talk me through the leadership angle of that, like, how did you really sort of organize yourself to be a leader? Because you had to become one based on starting the company. Great question. Yeah, I definitely had to create some thought leadership. So first was self education. The second thing that I did was, and Steve, I think you were on this list, I wrote a big piece of I took a big piece of yellow paper, and I wrote everyone that I had worked with in my career, who was a champion of mine, of sorts, so anybody that I respected, that I felt like I valued their opinion, I wrote their name down on a yellow piece of paper, and I called them. And I actually spent every Friday calling people, talking to them about what I was doing, and asking what they knew about telecommunications, what they knew about utility, what they knew about starting a business, and if they knew anyone, that anyone or any resources that could help me and I had such beautiful contributions. You know, the one of the previous VPs and CIOs of Toyota sent me a beautiful book called your first 90 days. Wonderful mentor to me.

Unknown Speaker 8:24
I’ve found in my career that people are so willing to help you have to be willing to ask, and sometimes, to your point, that’s a very scary place to be.

Unknown Speaker 8:33
So started with that yellow sheet of paper and then recognized that I didn’t have any direct leads. There wasn’t really anybody on my champion list that had telecommunications or utility connection. So I went and created a go to market strategy. I looked at who the the players were in the telecommunication space, who was the ecosystem of wireless and wireline, and I found the number one company in the industry, and I followed their head of at that point, I think he was head of small cell and I listened to a speech that he gave, and I picked up the phone and I called him and said, here’s who I am, here’s what I’m doing, here’s why I can help you. And give me one shot, I’ll show you what I got, and then let’s talk about the contract. And that one shot, that first shot for me, was Disney World. Oh, wow. Let’s start small. So you the first thing I heard in there was certainly seeking out information, but you were seeking out some sort of mentoring. So if we transition into the topic of mentoring. It sounds to me like you did not only the individual research. You identified potential people, some could have been, or may still be, mentors. How important in that early going were mentors? I think mentors have been key to my success my entire life, really from what I was.

Unknown Speaker 10:00
A young girl all the way to you know, my current position, I still have people mentor me. For me,

Unknown Speaker 10:07
there are so many blind spots, just as a human being, as an individual, as a business leader, as a mom, as a wife, you know you have a certain peripheral vision, and you need people to come in and help to introduce different ideas, different frameworks, different perspectives. I think that’s so important, and really has been great for me. I would say I absolutely would not be here had I not been mentored. Interestingly, I don’t know that I’ve ever asked anybody to mentor me, right? It was never a conversation. Will you be my mentor? You approached. Sounds like pretty quickly, like a lot of people are afraid. I think that’s the number one reason people are just afraid. But that’s just my own opinion. I’d like to hear your opinion. What do you think holds people back from even engaging in a mentoring process? I think you’re right. I think there is a fear of rejection. I think that’s human nature. In any situation that you would be fear of fear of potentially being rejected, of mentorship. I think also sometimes we don’t feel that we deserve a seat at the table. So if we ask somebody to mentor us, we maybe don’t feel worthy of that time and mentorship. So I think those things hold people back to your earlier question. I didn’t actually have a conversation where I asked anybody to mentor me. Rather, I found people that I respected and valued, that had something I felt deficient in, whether that was executive leadership, vision, you know, sales strategy, technology integration. I found those people that had something where I felt deficient, and I investigated out of curiosity why they had something I didn’t how I could accelerate myself in those areas, and at some points, did I even need to, right? So there were a lot of different questions. What I interpreted was, Don’t be afraid. But I think most people are afraid to simply ask. I think more people would want to help anybody, any coworker, just get better in any way, shape or form they can. So part of mentoring kind of segues me into relationship building or networking. How important is relationships? Or relationship building? I think relationships are the number one most important thing in life, business and personally, that’s my belief system

Unknown Speaker 12:40
for me, when I started building new relationships, I think relationships are so important, and I think it’s important to think about how you come into your own relationship. So for example, with me, with my whole staff, I will say, let’s do something first for somebody else before we ask them to do something for us, and I want that to be authentic. Don’t do something because you’re looking for something in return. But let’s show up for the people that want to work with us, that need to be placed, that need a staffing services provider, that need consulting services, and let’s solve a problem for them. And I almost hesitate to use the phrase solve a problem, because I think it’s overused from a sales perspective, but let’s meet a need. Let’s Let’s grow a capability for our customer. Let’s solve a problem. You know, let’s do something impactful, and let’s start the relationship where we bring significant value before we ask for them to give us back significant value. And I find that when we come to relationships in wanting to authentically give, not out of obligation, that it’s so well received. And that has just been a huge success for me in the business and just in life in general. Heather, how are you personally involved in mentoring and giving back to various groups and people?

Unknown Speaker 14:10
Yeah, I actually run a mentorship program for the Entrepreneurs Organization in collection, in collaboration with the Young Presidents Organization, their YPO gold and a local organization here called the chairman’s round table, and they’re all pro bono mentorship programs in which the mentee has an opportunity to work side by side, generally, with a C suite executive to help to establish a significant goal. And what I would say as the facilitator of a program like that, what I’ve learned is that as the mentee, you need to take real accountability for what you want to accomplish, how you need inputs and how you show up to every single meeting, as well as how you follow up from all of those interactions and meetings as well. I.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
Think sometimes one of the deterrents for being mentored and mentoring somebody else is that it’s unclear who is responsible in that relationship for kind of showing up to the table. And the relationships that I’ve seen be very successful are the ones that the mentee has really clear expectations, really clear goals, and really consistent follow up and follow through on what’s discussed and inspired. Somebody shows up to do something, and then all of a sudden, they’re paired with a C suite executive. They’re not getting paid. They’re here to learn to be better. Are these younger workers already, or are they actually, you know, the high school students? I’m assuming these, are these older folks. Well, I’ve seen it in all walks. So you know anybody from high school, junior college, you know, in a college program all the way through, you know an entrepreneur running a $5 million business who’s being mentored by, you know, a chief executive officer who just sold a $500 million business, right? So I think there’s areas and opportunities for mentorship along the path of life, professionally and otherwise. Generally, when a mentee engages a mentor, it’s because, for whatever reason and right or wrong, they’ve decided they are stuck, or they have plateaued. They have leveled up to their own capacity and ability, and they generally need someone to help them get unstuck or to just kind of push them over that line. So if I were recapping this, I’d say, from a mentoring standpoint, seek, don’t be afraid, expect rejection, but don’t take it personally. If you really want to get ahead, find those people who have either been there and done that, who are willing to turn around and say, Yeah, I can bring you along, or people who have a larger corporation than you, or a larger role than you, whatever it may be, where you aspire to get to where you want to go, these people can help you. And there’s plenty of people around it sounds like absolutely and offer to mentor. Yeah, I think you know that it was interesting, because I was going to ask you that question. Since you’re involved in it, you’ve obviously had both ends of this, the spectrum, anything inside that, that that gotcha scared. You You just you’re willing to have a conversation on a variety of topics with people, and you’re willing to give first, which I like, this whole servant side, and then you receive through the joy of just the conversation or helping people get from where they are to where they want to go. Do you find in that process? Do you find that process frustrating at all? Yeah, I don’t find it frustrating when something difficult happens, I just look for something new. I don’t necessarily look at it like a roadblock. I look at it as everything happens for my own good and for the good of who I’m supporting, showing up for mentoring, so on and so forth. So I think that’s a mindset. And we’ve talked a little bit here about, you know, the things that hold you back are generally related to this mindset of fear and scarcity. And I’ve really spent a lot of time, in some ways, related to the pandemic, making sure that as a leader and just as a human being, that I am operating out of a mindset of abundance and freedom and gratitude, because what I found is gratitude and fear can’t live together. So if I’m in gratitude and abundance, I’m really out of fear and scarcity. So as an entrepreneur and owner of a company. I don’t know if you’re involved in every hiring decision. I’m assuming you are involved in most.

Unknown Speaker 18:46
How what do you look for when you’re hiring people? What do you what are you really after?

Unknown Speaker 18:52
Well, Steve, I think you nailed it earlier in our conversation when you said you look for somebody who is interested in taking ownership, in being self accountable.

Unknown Speaker 19:04
I really look for folks who put the interest of others ahead of themselves, and that’s a company core value here. So at H, M systems, our number one core value is relentlessly people driven. And what that means is we consider the needs of other people first, instead of necessarily the P and L of the business. Now, obviously we need to remain profitable. We are in business, but what I’ve found is there’s such a significant impact in that so for hiring for my own organization, the number one thing that I do is I determine whether an individual has their own core values established, and if they meet our company core values. So I show up. I’ve got a set of core values. I interview with your team. You’re looking for my values to see if you can decipher what they are. I’m not hiding them.

Unknown Speaker 19:56
Assumption is I can communicate. I can communicate.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Those values, you can align those values up. Sounds like it might be a good fit culturally for your company, me and your company. And then you would figure out where you’re going to place me somewhere in the world.

Unknown Speaker 20:14
How important is it? How important is it for me to be self starting, or, you know, sort of taking the initiative

Unknown Speaker 20:23
for my organization, because we’re an entrepreneurial organization in major growth mode. If you’re going to work for us at corporate, those are going to be two of the key most important skill sets. What I’ve learned in recruiting and staffing 1000s and 1000s of people all over the United States is, is that there are good fits with all different skill sets, levels of aptitude and motivation everywhere. So really, it’s more about finding that fit and alignment. Now I will say the things that I that I don’t give on is, like I said, accountability, self accountability, self awareness, ability to take ownership, responsibility and respect. Oh, yeah, it’s, it’s funny. It just sounds like such, such core, basic stuff that you think people do every day. But I’m finding when I run into individuals, they could be a variety of ages. Doesn’t matter locations. There’s a lot of people that seem to take the assignment,

Unknown Speaker 21:31
get it done. May not be the most stellar assignment, might not be the most stellar result of that assignment, but

Unknown Speaker 21:38
they may start. They may not start. They may be assertive. They may ask questions, they may just produce something. And you think, this isn’t really that great. It’s nice that you can sort of filter those people out up front. Is it difficult hiring people today? Do you find it harder than in the past?

Unknown Speaker 21:56
And if you do, if you don’t find if you do, what

Unknown Speaker 22:00
do you think the difference is? I’m curious, if you’ve been being able to pinpoint a couple of different various things that you look to and you go, wow, I see a common thread like this, and good or bad.

Unknown Speaker 22:12
I think actively recruiting a players has and will continue to always be difficult. So I think the performers, the people that perform at the top 10%

Unknown Speaker 22:24
those people are generally always employed or working on something. They are hard to engage. They’re selective, and they’re very well networked. So oftentimes they don’t need a whole lot of help in finding their next opportunity. Now, all that to be said. You know, everybody at one point in their career is looking for an opportunity, so I think there’s a lot of hustle that goes into attracting a players, maintaining relationships, and what I call candidate pipelining, and really developing those relationships to your earlier point with potential A players, and then making sure that you have that good alignment and core value and skill set.

Unknown Speaker 23:08
You’ve been listening to Heather Moyer on the paying it forward podcast. She is the president of H and M systems. That is part one of a two part interview, and as you listened, you can tell that she has quite a bit to say on the topic of mentoring, as well as relationship building and hiring and staffing her firm. In part two of the interview with Heather, you’ll hear more about servant leadership, what it means to have a can do and will do, attitude, how conflict and conflict resolution are handled, how you can stand out, communication, listening, and above all philanthropy and giving back to the community. This information and more is in the show notes section of this episode on our website, simply go to www dot lessons from the C suite.com. Forward slash. Episode Three, you can follow our podcast for free on Apple podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Libsyn, SoundCloud or your favorite podcast player. If you happen to think this is a five star worthy podcast and you leave a written review, I’ll be sure to mention your name in an upcoming episode as a small way to say thank you. If you’re not yet following this podcast, please go to www dot lessons from the C suite.com sign up or subscribe. It’s free, and you’ll receive a PDF on various ways you can pay it forward every day, as always. If you have any questions or suggestions for the podcast, any guest suggestions or any feedback in general, please send us an email at feedback, at lessons from the C suite.com, or go to our website and submit a message directly. Thank you for listening until next time you.