My Perfect Path

Velveth Schmitz - How did you become a leader? (CEO, Mayor, Commissioner)

• Season 2 • Episode 1

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My "Adventurous" Path

What do cleaning toilets, turning down investment banking, founding a stationery company, and becoming mayor have in common? For Velveth Schmitz, they're all stepping stones on her adventurous career path.

Growing up as the child of a single mother who escaped domestic violence, Velveth developed problem-solving skills and responsibility at an early age. These early challenges became the foundation for her extraordinary career journey. "What happens with children who have interesting circumstances is that you learn to think about a chessboard, not just the present moment," she explains. This ability to anticipate several moves ahead has served her throughout her professional life.

One of Velveth's most defining moments came during her senior year at Berkeley when she walked out of a final-round investment banking interview after realizing the lifestyle wouldn't align with her values. This bold decision—virtually unheard of in banking recruitment—led her to a management training program that better matched her desire to explore different areas. From there, her path took unexpected turns through financial services, entrepreneurship with her stationery company The Hen and The Bird, venture capital at Invent Ventures, and ultimately to her current role as CEO of Hire Better.

Alongside her corporate career, Velveth pursued public service, progressing from volunteer committee member to mayor of Rolling Hills Estates. Throughout these diverse experiences, she's maintained a people-centered leadership philosophy: "I've always seen being a CEO as the person who's the most serving and bringing everyone together." This perspective, combined with her willingness to learn new skills and embrace challenges, has enabled her to thrive across vastly different sectors.

Ready to create your own adventurous career path? Listen now to discover how trusting your gut, embracing diverse experiences, and leading with an abundance mindset can help you build a meaningful professional journey—one thoughtful yes at a time.


Feel free to leave comments here!

Velveth Schmitz:

I was in the middle of an interview with an investment bank. There were three men in dark suits across from me and in the middle of the interview I had this very still clear moment where I realized I'm going to take this job, I'm going to work 120 hours a week and I'm going to wake up one day and be like what am I doing? And I don't want to do that. And mid-sentence I stopped and they all kind of looked at me like I was weird, which was really weird, because in those moments, let me tell you something no one stops an interview. If you are going into banking and you've gotten to the three suit interview part, you say yes.

Daniel Koo:

Is that pretty much the final round?

Velveth Schmitz:

It's before you the way we used to do it. It's before you went in-house, and an in-house meant you were in office. It was the last round and at the end of that you'd get your offer. So it was right before that and we were on campus and I stopped and I said to them I'm so sorry, I can't do this. And I stopped and I said to them.

Daniel Koo:

I'm so sorry I can't do this. Hey, welcome back to my Perfect Path. For those of you who are new, I'm your host, daniel Koo, and I welcome you to season two. For me, at large, pivotal moments of my life, such as applying to new colleges, applying to new jobs or determining what next career move is right for me I spent time researching and finding mentorship to determine what was the best path for me. I knew that this struggle was not isolated to me. Everyone struggles with this, simply because we cannot predict the future. However, I found something that is second best to predicting the future it's learning from those ahead of our career and from those who've seen more and experienced more. After all, there are not that many problems that have not been solved yet. If you've ever felt unsure about your next career move, you're in the right place.

Daniel Koo:

What do cleaning toilets, turning down investment banking, founding a stationary company and becoming mayor have in common For Velvet Schmitz? They're all part of her adventurous path, a journey shaped by resilience, curiosity and a deep commitment to people. Now the CEO of Hire Better and former mayor of Rolling Hills Estates, Velvet shares how growing up as a child of a single mother sparked her drive, why she walked out of a final round investment banking interview at Berkeley and how trusting her gut has guided every bold step she's taken, from lessons learned scrubbing pots and playing collegiate lacrosse to navigating venture capital and public service. Velvet story is a masterclass in building a meaningful career, one thoughtful yes at a time. Hope you enjoy the episode, velvet. Welcome to my Perfect Path. I'm thrilled to have you here.

Velveth Schmitz:

Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here.

Daniel Koo:

My first question to you is did you always want to be CEO?

Velveth Schmitz:

Ooh, did I always want to be in charge? And am I a bossy lady? Yes, I'm just kidding, you know. Joking aside, being a leader always sort of innately came to me, and I think people often categorize CEOs as, oh, it's this important thing, but I've always seen it as the person who's the most serving and the one that's bringing together everybody, and so in some senses, yes, I always wanted to be the CEO, but I think for different reasons than most people would assume.

Daniel Koo:

So you are currently CEO of Hire Better. What's kind of the best part of working there? I want to ask what's the worst part of working there? But maybe not because of the company itself, but maybe because of the best part of working there. I want to ask what's the worst part of working there? But maybe not because of the company itself, but maybe because of the role.

Velveth Schmitz:

So the best part about working at Hire Better are the people. I have an amazing team and they're really good people. They're smart, they are funny, they are creative and, being a people person, it's definitely the people. You know what? The worst part about working there is that we're all in different states.

Daniel Koo:

Different states meaning.

Velveth Schmitz:

Meaning everybody is remote.

Daniel Koo:

Oh states. Okay, I thought you were talking about stages of life, maybe, but no, okay, completely remote.

Velveth Schmitz:

Like literal states of the United States. I really like the spontaneity of running into someone in the hallway and striking up a conversation, the things that you learn on your way to the bathroom or to the lobby of an office building and I was fortunate my career started out in office. That's what everybody did and I miss that. I miss seeing people in the hallway, I miss being able to run into them.

Daniel Koo:

Do you feel like, as a CEO, it's easier or more difficult to be completely remote?

Velveth Schmitz:

Yes to both. So I find that we have such amazing freedoms with technology today and they allow us to do things that I don't know. I don't even know if we I'm sure somebody out there knew this was possible and it's great. And I miss. I miss the office not because you have to be there from a certain time to a certain time and people that part I don't miss. But I miss the office Not because you have to be there from a certain time to a certain time and people that part I don't miss.

Velveth Schmitz:

But I miss the spontaneity of having a conversation of you know, my career started in an office and I learned so much by watching knock on an office door of a vice president and ask to come in and have a conversation, share an idea. I learned so much from our executive assistant, who the vice president, who sat in the corner office and she sat right in front and she was the eyes and the ears of the floor and I remember people telling me listen to her, she knows what's going on. And I learned so much from people who weren't in my departments and I miss that. I miss that we're not all in the same space, learning from each other, learning about each other. I like building a relationship and probably my team's like thank goodness, because I ask a lot of questions and I want to know about them.

Daniel Koo:

Of course we all want our bosses right next to us, obviously. Said facetiously Understood but I think I really admire your passion towards people meeting in real life, because your company is a recruitment company, it deals with people. Can you tell us a little bit about your business and what the mission is Like? What are you trying to achieve?

Velveth Schmitz:

Well, the heart and soul of our mission comes from our founder, Kurt, and his idea many years ago was that the recruitment industry is broken and that you're pitting interests against one another instead of aligning them instead of aligning them. And so our mission is really to keep a very human to human connection space and really treat people with respect, decorum and develop a relationship and then help those people build good companies. And so we have founders, we have CEOs that come to us and say here's my dream. And we say, great, we can help with the people you need to build that dream and we'll find them for you. And then we go and we find these amazing people and we say we know you're doing a great job where you're doing it, but we want you to come do that great job over here.

Velveth Schmitz:

Because of this reason, this reason and this reason and oftentimes, probably 99% of the time, we work with really good people. 1% of the time when we choose to work with someone who goes against our values, we learn our lesson quickly and we don't work with them again, but we work with really good people to build their dreams, work with really good people to build their dreams, and so we try to keep that in mind and it not only makes us different, but it helps to create this pay it forward ecosystem where the companies we help build do really cool things and then oftentimes the people we recruit stay friends with us because we've represented the company well, we've been honest and ethical and we've helped them with a career change. That's been amazing and that's what differentiates us.

Daniel Koo:

So I guess your company is kind of at a space where you have clients on both ends.

Velveth Schmitz:

Well, no, we're client hired. But because we're client hired, we go find the talent. And so those candidates we've done arduous process to find them. We're looking for a specific individual and because we're looking for a specific individual, when we talk to people we will assess are you that person? And generally we'll find two to three people that really match well. And often our clients will say this is not fair.

Velveth Schmitz:

And we'll say what are you talking about? And they'll say I want to hire all of the people. These two people, I really want them. And we'll say, well, that's our job. Our job is for you to want that. And we've had situations where people have actually hired two people or have created a position for somebody else because they're so amazing. But because we work with entrepreneurs, we are helping people who oftentimes are blazing the trail for the first time, and we're selling culture. We're selling vision and not necessarily a fully thought-out product or project yet, but we're in partnership with our clients and so we represent them very well, we represent the brands very well, and when we bring these opportunities to the people we're recruiting, they're very excited about them.

Daniel Koo:

What is the kind of level of role that you guys usually hire? So, from our conversation before, you mentioned CEOs and CPOs.

Velveth Schmitz:

Yeah, so we do executive level, individuals, and then we have done all the way down to manager. It's usually a professional vice president, director, c-suite title and it's really that impactful person who comes in and changes. So if you think of verticals in a company sales and marketing operations, human resource, sales, finance and accounting so a CFO, a VP, finance, a controller, those kinds of people and the people really helping to lead and create strategy and see the vision but also help implement it.

Daniel Koo:

I see I want to talk more about you and your personal career. I want to talk about, kind of like, your background. You know how you grew up as a kid, just to give the listeners a little bit more context on who you are and where you came from.

Velveth Schmitz:

Well, it's very interesting. My childhood because it's a juxtaposition of I was raised by a single mother. There was domestic violence in my home and my mom decided to make a courageous move and moved my brother and I out of the house in secret, ended up raising us just her, ended up raising us just her. And we were fortunate that the community she picked to live in was an idyllic community here in Los Angeles. So I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley.

Velveth Schmitz:

I grew up in a town called Covina. Covina Hills, for many people who knows, has a lot of orange groves and horse trails and green space, and so, for the audience that may be much older than you, there used to be a show where it's called. Mayberry was the town, and it's this idyllic town. You know where, quintessential Americana? Well, that was my town. We had a wonderful elementary school that had what felt to me like blocks and blocks of green space, and so we had parks. We had a wonderful neighborhood. My house was in a cul-de-sac. I got to live in a really nice neighborhood growing up where all the neighbors knew each other and my mom what felt like to me at the time was the only single parent in my elementary school. It was traditional families and I had a weird name. Nobody else was named Velvet.

Daniel Koo:

It's very hard to pronounce sometimes, I must admit.

Velveth Schmitz:

Yes, people often struggle with it, and it was both things it was wonderful and it was hard. It was a beautiful community and, I have to say, very safe and very nice place to grow up here in Los Angeles with access to the rest of Los Angeles. So I grew up a Dodger fan. I grew up a Laker fan. I grew up volunteering most Saturdays at the LA Mission downtown. My family was always very philanthropic, so if you've ever been down to the LA Mission, it's not in a particularly good part of town.

Velveth Schmitz:

And if I ever complained about volunteering, my mother would say that I should be thankful because I was born into a family who loves me and it could be a lot worse. And so I was often reminded that I had very good fortune for having the family that I had, and so all of those things sort of created a space where I'm a person who, ideally, maybe you can tell me I come across very grateful. I have a lot of gratitude. I'm grateful for the fact that I'm alive, the fact that I'm safe, that I've been able to thrive, and there were some very difficult things that I had to overcome. And those difficult things I wouldn't remove at all because I think it's what gave me my hunger and drive to do all the things that I grew up to do.

Daniel Koo:

Actually, we should mention that, on top of the CEO role that you have right now, you have another job. It's being the mayor of Rolling Hills Estates. That's a city in, I guess the South Bay. Yes, that's a city in, I guess the South Bay, yes, and I think today we want to kind of dive into that as well, because I feel like that's a completely separate kind of career track that you've been able to maintain over time. Being able to do all of that, I think, is truly impressive, and I want to see how that connects with your childhood and how you maintain your drive and motivation throughout your career. Today's episode is named my Adventurous Path. Could you share with us why you chose this adjective for this episode today?

Velveth Schmitz:

So I'm an adventurer at heart. From when I was young, I used to take these hikes with my grandfather. We called him Vito and he used to. There was all these wild strawberry fields, and we would hike and go eat fresh berries, and there was something nice about getting lost in nature, and I've never been one to shy away from a good adventure. I've had this sense of I really want to live this life, and I feel like I chose to be in this space and time, and because of it I'm looking for any adventure anywhere that I can be a part of, and so that adjective, to me, is synonymous with opportunity. I think that when you choose to be on an adventure, opportunities come up that you would never have imagined, and as they come up, life takes you on paths that you yourself may not have even constructed, and in my experience, thankfully, they've always ended up in a better place than where I thought I could go.

Daniel Koo:

So throughout your career, I'm sure you've been offered a lot of opportunities. Do you have a way of determining which one you want to delve into? Because there's also this advice of learning to say no and don't say yes to everything, but you need to kind of choose your impact. You have to focus in on what you want to develop and spend your time on. Do you mostly just say yes to a lot of these things and try to extract the most, or is there anything that you have, a decision criteria of sorts?

Velveth Schmitz:

That's a great question. Any person worth their salt will tell you. You learn the hard way. So I said yes to most things along the way until I learned that I needed to say no and be more judicious. So I'll tell you my first impactful no. I was a senior at Berkeley. I went to Cal Go Bears it's a big part of my life and I was in the middle of an interview with an investment bank. There were three men in dark suits across from me and in the middle of the interview I had this very still clear moment where I realized I'm going to take this job, I'm going to work 120 hours a week and I'm going to wake up one day and be like what am I doing? And I don't want to do that. And mid-sentence I stopped and they all kind of looked at me like I was weird, which was really weird because in those moments let me tell you something no one stops an interview. If you are going into banking and you've gotten to the three suit interview part, you say yes.

Daniel Koo:

Is that pretty much the final round?

Velveth Schmitz:

It's before you, the way we used to do it. It's before you went in-house, and an in-house meant you were in office. It was the last round and at the end of that you'd get your offer. So it was right before that and we were on campus and I stopped and I said to them I'm so sorry, I can't do this. And they said what are you talking about?

Daniel Koo:

You were doing so well.

Velveth Schmitz:

They were so excited and I'm sure I was a disappointment and I said I know myself, I will commit every fiber of my being to this job and I don't want my life to pass me by.

Velveth Schmitz:

So I am going to respectfully decline and I'm going to gather my things and I'm going to leave. And one of them was really upset and said you are wasting our time. Do you know what people would do to get this interview? Do you know how many people want this? And I said I do, and I am so very sorry. I'm sorry that I wasted your time. Mostly I'm sorry that I took a slot and I hope that you will consider offering somebody else my slot, and I don't think it would be fair to you or to me, because you will get a great worker in me, but I will sacrifice everything and I'm not okay with doing that. And then the other guy said well, now I want to hire you for your honesty.

Velveth Schmitz:

It was like well, I got to go and when I left in the hallway I didn't know what I was doing and I was having a moment of crisis, thinking I probably just made the biggest mistake of my life. And I was having a moment of crisis, thinking I probably just made the biggest mistake of my life, and I came out into the hallway to what I thought was the person who worked at the career center and she was sitting there and I obviously needed to vent. And so I sat down and I must have looked freaked out and I said I think I just made the biggest mistake of my life. And she asked me why? And I said, well, I just gave up on this interview and I just wish there was this place that allowed me to rotate between departments so I could figure out what I want to do with my life and I just that's the kind of job that I would like. And it turned out she was a recruiter for a different company that did literally that it was a management training program.

Velveth Schmitz:

She said she recruiter for a different company that did literally that it was a management training program. She said she was leaving for the airport at a certain time but my story felt compelling and she wanted to offer me 15 minutes of her time before she went. I thought I was being punked. I was like there's no way this is real. She gave me an interview. I ended up really liking them and that's how I ended up at Transamerica.

Daniel Koo:

And that's the role of project manager, right.

Velveth Schmitz:

Mm-hmm.

Daniel Koo:

I want to kind of dig into how you change your decision on that. So what made you go into investment banking in the first place?

Velveth Schmitz:

Oh, daniel, the seduction of iBanking. So you know, the word on the street is you're an investment banker for two years. You can write your ticket anywhere in life. Being an investment banker at a college teaches you so much. Have you ever seen the movie the Devil?

Daniel Koo:

Wears Prada, no Okay.

Velveth Schmitz:

No, okay. So the premise of the Devil Wears Prada is that you are the assistant to one of the most recognized and enviable heads of the world's best fashion magazine and that by being that assistant for call it two years, you can write your ticket anywhere. And that's because that individual is so hard on you. You learn all of the things that you need to learn to be successful in anything you would do in life. Investment banking is kind of like that where you are thrown into a group of incredibly talented individuals from across the world who make things happen individuals from across the world who make things happen and there are no excuses and you work really hard, but you learn so much.

Velveth Schmitz:

And when you're done with that, you could go to law school, you could go to business school. You can do many things, and so one thing that I knew early on from my childhood and from where I grew up, is that I always wanted choice. I always wanted the ability to have a choice and I always looked for the things that would offer me the most choice. So I chose to go to Berkeley because I knew that having a degree from Berkeley would open doors worldwide and that I knew it meant something. And I was right. And I was interviewing for investment banking because I thought if I did this, it's going to open the doors to many things, which is why it was so devastating when I walked out.

Velveth Schmitz:

But in that moment I just I did something which I would learn later to be very valuable, which is I trusted my gut. My gut said this isn't it for you, you need to do something else. And I was right. I mean, I have a friend who went into investment banking. She's a dear friend of mine. She's doing different things today. She has started amazing things. She knows who she is. I won't name her, she's quasi-famous.

Velveth Schmitz:

I won't say who she is, but that 100% everything I believed about investment banking happened to her and she is a hard worker and the hustle and bustle that girl owns it. And she went into banking after we graduated Cal and she's had an incredible career. And so I was right about that and I was right to trust my gut, because my adventure took me into so many different arenas and areas that it took that first step, knowing I needed to make a different choice to do it.

Daniel Koo:

So you said no to this. I guess life where you're kind of burying yourself at work, but you strike me as a person that will kind of put yourself into any role and really pour your entire existence into it. Did that end up happening somewhere else?

Velveth Schmitz:

Yes, daniel, it did. At Transamerica. I was afforded incredible opportunities at that company and actually in a very interesting way. That is also how I ended up at Hire Better, a former Transamerica colleague who recruited me to Hire Better. I am still in touch with my CEO from Transamerica. He and I built a relationship back then and he was a mentor and someone I admired and actually someone who I still admire and keep in touch with not as regularly as I like, but he's still in my life and the other individual from Transamerica. And so, yeah, I buried myself into that company and my jobs and it's probably my nature I think it's just in who I am. I like to know about the things that I'm involved in, and so I take really deep dives into those things and I enjoy being a part of it and I think sometimes I lose track of how deep and how much I've invested, often because I get sick and then I have to stop and think about I'm pushing too hard.

Daniel Koo:

So when you got started there and you started working a little bit, what was kind of in the roadmap for you, so were you thinking I want to stay here for the long term, or were you thinking I want to learn what I can and maybe try another thing?

Velveth Schmitz:

I did. I wanted to stay there. I wanted to be CEO of that company and I saw a path where this will be my career. This will be where I start at manager and I build my way all the way up to C-suite and ride into the sunset, and I had high hopes of staying there. And then, as anyone who works for a big company with a lot of challenges and levels of management, Bureaucracy.

Velveth Schmitz:

I wasn't going to say it because I was trying to find gracious ways of describing it, find gracious ways of describing it. But I realized that if I wanted to have a say at the table the way I wanted to have a say, I needed to leave and I needed to find something that was smaller, leaner. And so I left there to found my own company, which then was both good and bad exactly what I was asking for in being the founder and CEO.

Daniel Koo:

So this company that you've found is the Hen and the Bird, and from what I know it's a stationary company. What was your intention with it? And I guess I'm kind of curious about their origin stories, about that too. Did you have a friend that you were working with?

Velveth Schmitz:

I did. I had a co-founder, our creative director. She's an incredible artistic mind and we wanted to bring joy to people in a form that at the time, felt like was dying, which was paper, and one of the things that I love are handwritten letters, cards and notes. So we have a tradition in my family anytime someone travels for work, we hide notes in their suitcase in different areas, and so when you're unpacking, you find different notes at different times as a gesture of love.

Daniel Koo:

Our family actually has a very similar thing, where we trade letters at the airport, so I know what that feels like.

Velveth Schmitz:

It's very nice, doesn't it feel wonderful? I mean for the audience. If you can start that, let someone you care with a handwritten note.

Daniel Koo:

It's the best thing ever. It's the best thing ever.

Velveth Schmitz:

Oh, daniel, I knew I liked you, so my creative director and I decided that we wanted to preserve this sort of way of expressing our feelings, and so the hen and the bird were actually nicknames for our firstborns and my oldest. We still call her Birdie, and she was the bird and her oldest he's the hen. And so we came together and it was really interesting because, for being an artistically driven company, companies require a lot of non-artistic frameworks and structures, so finances and QuickBooks, and we needed manufacturing and tools and machines, lots of things that you wouldn't think are very artsy. But so it was her exquisite design work and we built it together and it was great fun. It was so much fun and it took us across the country and it was at a time when so Hallmark Channel there actually used to be a store called Hallmark and they had cards. I don't know if you know that.

Daniel Koo:

Maybe I'm-. I think I've heard of it.

Velveth Schmitz:

Okay, I don't know how many people have and they were going out of business and people weren't going to buy cards anymore, and so we wanted to sort of hearken back to that and we built these beautiful look like small works of art, and our clientele grew very rapidly because we were creating customized holiday cards and customized stationery and baby shower wedding invitations.

Velveth Schmitz:

We had many of the wedding guests contact us through our website saying I'm a guest at this wedding. I just received the invitation and it's beautiful. I never want to throw it away, and so it was just such a different from financial services. It was such a different adventure and it was really fun. We got to meet a whole other world of people and got to build it and I got to be in charge, which I really liked and I realized I like being in charge.

Daniel Koo:

What gave you the confidence to start a new company? Because I'm working as a software engineer and the more I learn, the more daunting it is to start something new, because I'm wondering who's going to do all this work. And with Stationery you have to talk to manufacturers and it's a real product which I think creates more problems. With software, you can write it once and deploy. So I'm wondering where you kind of got that confidence. Did you feel like you had all the skills you needed?

Velveth Schmitz:

No, and every entrepreneur will tell you if I knew what it was going to take to do this, I probably would have never done it. So that's the beauty of ignorance you don't know what you don't know, and so you make these bold statements like I'm going to start a creative company and you're going to go and do it, and then, once you're in it, there's nothing you wouldn't do. Once you're in it, there's nothing you wouldn't do, and so you start to do all of these things. I think you're aware, and maybe not one of my jobs when I was in college was to clean toilets.

Daniel Koo:

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, it wasn't on your LinkedIn or anything.

Velveth Schmitz:

Well, let it be known to the world I'm an excellent toilet cleaner and I don't know if anyone sets out to be like I'm going to clean world. I'm an excellent toilet cleaner and I don't know if anyone sets out to be like I'm going to clean toilets. But, man, that's probably one of the best jobs I've ever had in my life, and I'll tell you, it was also at a summer camp, it was through Berkeley, it's where I met my husband and so, yes, there are many emotional things that make it an incredible job. But it's all these things that you don't really know what it's going to take to get the job done, and usually it's harder than the thing that you think is easier, and the thing that's harder ends up being easy. Like it's really easy to clean a toilet and there's gloves, like it's not really that dirty, and you're constantly around very heavy chemicals that bleach everything and sanitize everything. So it's actually a very clean job in an odd way, and I like clean things. And so, had I, had I known what it would be, I would have jumped at the opportunity, which most people would be like I would never say yes.

Velveth Schmitz:

But the other end of that spectrum is if you, as an entrepreneur, knew what it was going to take to make it happen. You may not choose to do it, but once you're in it, you're in it, and I mean I'll tell you another job I had was working in the kitchen. No one works harder than kitchen people, and if you've ever known a chef, a sous chef, the person who washes the pots, those people work so hard and I loved it. I loved being in a kitchen, I loved the team, I loved what it took, and often we would be working 12 hour days and I would go back into a kitchen at any time because of how great it is. And so I think part of it is not knowing exactly what you're going to get into. And then, for those that do it repeatedly, it's the thrill of knowing it's going to be hard work, but it's good, clean, fun, because it may be a derivative of what you've done before, but it's still hard work.

Daniel Koo:

I think that's actually that was a lot to take in, but it reminds me of the episode that you had recently. It's called Reflecting Forwards and you talk about how a leader should be willing to do the job that you're asking people to do, and I really like that and I think I see where all of that comes from. It's because you've done it all and you've done things from cleaning toilets to becoming CEO. There's nothing that you wouldn't do personally, and I think maybe that's why there's this drive of like you can do anything you know. And I also wonder you also mentioned that you did lacrosse at.

Daniel Koo:

Berkeley. Were there any lessons or challenges that you've learned there? That kind of helps you make your company 100%.

Velveth Schmitz:

First, a shout out to my coach, jill Malco. I'm sure I was a thorn in her side. I know that I wasn't quiet every time she asked us to run the connector. I had a lot to say about running Probably not in the positive, oh, I know, not in the positive.

Velveth Schmitz:

I learned so much from team sports. I've learned, you know, we do not do anything on our own. None of us, none of us can stand and say I did this. It's just not possible. I think we do things together, we come together and make things happen.

Velveth Schmitz:

And in my life, recognizing from sports that each of us plays a part in the whole, that each of us plays a part in the whole and now I'm going to get a little existential is like the big physics question right with energy is not created or destroyed, just transferred. We all are interconnected, everything is interconnected, and when we work in concert it all falls into place. And so I learned that from sports. I learned that from my teammates. I learned to rely on them. And then I had a coach at Berkeley. Her name was Ria and I really enjoyed Ria and she would have us go through these visualizations and sometimes it was hard for me at the time like, okay, so I'm visualizing throwing the ball and then catching it from that person and she would really emphasize how yes, like that person, whomever that player was is throwing you the ball and you're cradling, and the way that those instructions were given.

Velveth Schmitz:

I realized later that it was all about the mechanics of working together and anticipating the move that the other player was going to make, so that you knew where you were standing but where they were throwing, which meant in the present moment I'm here but I need to be there, and so I'm simultaneously in both places because eventually the ball is going to get there, not here, and I need to move there and I need to see it and I need to anticipate it.

Velveth Schmitz:

And at the time I mean I was I'm still dumb, but I was a dumb college kid. I mean I was I'm still dumb, but I was a dumb college kid I didn't realize the ramifications of how, like, if you imagine that and just take that lesson and take its components, the depth of what that coach was teaching me, absolutely that makes up everything that I know. And so I think lacrosse, I think volleyball, I played softball, I swam, all of that helped in so many ways, and I think there's something about the physicality of sports that also helps your memory at a cellular level retain things that you can later recall.

Daniel Koo:

I really like that because I think in a corporate setting sometimes you don't feel like a team actually. I think sometimes it feels like you're all out on your own. I think sometimes it feels like you're all out on your own, but I think sometimes, if you can imagine what other people need you to be at a certain place and time, maybe that's the way to actually be impressive and be useful to your team. That's what I'm getting out of that.

Velveth Schmitz:

That, my friend, is what a CEO does. A CEO helps each of their team members realize what role they play, where they're meant to be and where they're meant to go, and how they're meant to throw the ball to their teammates.

Daniel Koo:

I want to talk a little bit about your career to mayor and at what time it started and when you were at Transamerica. Was that something that you've been starting on the side, or is there something like an ideation? I guess what motivated you to kind of participate in that?

Velveth Schmitz:

So, funny enough, I was accepted to Berkeley as a molecular and cell biology major.

Daniel Koo:

Oh, that's completely unexpected from your.

Velveth Schmitz:

Well, I'll tell you why.

Daniel Koo:

I thought it was political science.

Velveth Schmitz:

That's what I graduated with Okay cool.

Velveth Schmitz:

So MCB was the major I picked and I was going to go to Harvard, to go to medical school, and I was on the path and science at Berkeley just did not sing to my heart. And science at Berkeley just did not sing to my heart. Students in the science fields at Cal are crazy smart and it's very competitive and I didn't find that I loved it. I just it wasn't singing to my heart and soul. And I took a semester where I took economics, history and political science and I found my people and so I decided that I would switch. And during my undergraduate studies I was taught by amazing individuals, individuals who I could never tell what part of the political spectrum they themselves were on. I was taught to think, I was taught to question, I was taught to seek information, I was taught to challenge, but I wasn't taught any sort of doctrine. And I learned from who I believe are the best. And you know one of my professors at the time in class. It was a California politics class, taught by Dr Cain, and he was talking about you know people running and if we in the room should ever choose to run, talking about you know people running and if we in the room should ever choose to run. And honestly, back then I was like what, who would ever do that? And just let it go of that, let go of that idea. Well, when we moved to Rolling Hills Estates, as I mentioned, I volunteered at the LA Mission.

Velveth Schmitz:

Growing up, and in my family, the expectation was always that you give of your time or you give of your money. And you know, when you're starting out you don't have a lot of money and so you give of your time. And when I moved to the city, I was really interested in being involved in the community and so I joined a lot of different philanthropic organizations and I applied to be on the Environmental Advisory Committee for the City of Rolling Hills Estates. Well, what's really interesting about that is the way that the city is structured, and this is kudos to all the councils and staff before me. You have committees that meet and then you have commissions and then you have the elected council. And I was hooked.

Velveth Schmitz:

I had never been a part of the public sector and I didn't understand how public money is different from private. And I've done I'd done nonprofit and I'd done, of course, corporate for profit. But public is very different and it's structured very differently, and we, as elected officials, are stewards of that money and we're stewards of it for the betterment of everybody, not just one person. And so that means that oftentimes we have to sit with conflicting ideas and information and make a decision that's the best for the most. And some decisions, no matter which way you look at them, will harm something and you have to mitigate that harm at all costs. You have to make sure that the harm is as little as possible, if non-existent, and I loved it. I loved that in that commission we talked about the environment and we talked about how we could preserve. Rolling Hills. Estates is very, very special. It's so lovely that we have a thriving commercial district and incredible outdoor space, and so to make that happen, we have to be very thoughtful about the environment, about what we do. And that committee.

Velveth Schmitz:

Just, I loved volunteering, I loved working with the city staff, and then I decided I'm going to do more and so I volunteered and I applied to be a commissioner for the Parks and Activities Commission and I sat on that.

Velveth Schmitz:

And then I applied to be on planning and I sat on that and I chaired that, and then I was fortunate to have a mentor. He was on the city council at the time and he said so, you've now been volunteering with the city for about 12 years and you know how it works and I think you'd be great to run for office. And I said but I don't know anything about that. And he said well, I'm going to teach you. And he spent about six months teaching me the city budget, the rules, regulations, the ordinances, how it's governed, who's part of what, how we work with fire and police and any other service provider, and how we work with the state, how we work with. I mean, just John took a lot of time to teach me and by the time it was campaign season, I felt very comfortable filing to run and then I ran for office.

Daniel Koo:

So how did you connect with this person? Was it John? How did you connect with John to the extent that he's willing to teach you everything? I think finding those mentors are often very difficult. Maybe you can have mentors that will sit with you for lunch, maybe once in a while, but to work with you for six months to really dive deep into the role. How did you develop that relationship?

Velveth Schmitz:

So I think asking direct questions, oftentimes people are nebulous about what they want. And so if you go to someone and say I'm looking for a mentor but I don't really know and I'm kind of wishy-washy, I don't think it's that people don't want to help, it's that they don't know how. And John was very prescriptive. I knew that if I needed to run, I needed to learn and he could teach me. And I wanted to know. And my question to him was if I want to run for office, what do I need to learn? And he said well, there's many things to learn. And I said would you be willing to teach me over a period of time?

Daniel Koo:

Also, it was you who kind of requested that specific.

Velveth Schmitz:

It was a little bit of both of us, but I definitely asked and he answered. I had asked of others and initially I was turned down. I was told that they were going to mentor somebody else whom they wanted to run, oh interesting. And so I said okay, thanks. And so I asked again and John said yes.

Daniel Koo:

I want to know what the timeline was for this. So when did you first get started? As I guess the commissioner of parks and activities Was that during your Transamerica role. When did you first get started, as, I guess, the commissioner of parks and activities?

Velveth Schmitz:

Was that during your Transamerica role or was it much later? I moved to Rolling Hills Estates in 2004 and got involved shortly thereafter, and I ran for office in 2016.

Daniel Koo:

What was your role in the corporate sector?

Velveth Schmitz:

in 2016. What was your role in the corporate sector? So I actually was the chief operating officer for a tech company in Emeryville called Athletes Renaissance, and it was alongside two individuals who had played basketball at Berkeley and we knew each other from Berkeley and we're building a platform to help support professional athletes and the myriad of things they need to stay on top of from a financial, diet, exercise perspective, and I had just left that to run for office, and so prior to that, I was there and then, prior to that, I worked with Invent Ventures, helping to build other companies through venture funding.

Daniel Koo:

So you were the vice president of Invent Ventures. What was your favorite thing about working at Adventure Capital?

Velveth Schmitz:

And I guess what are some of the more difficult challenges that you faced.

Velveth Schmitz:

So I mean it's what you would think it is. You get pitched these ideas that you're like oh my gosh, these people are geniuses. One of my favorite things was working with an individual by the name of Tim. Tim is really smart and so creative and down to earth and I found that I learned a lot and I didn't know a lot, but he was willing to be very honest with me and I enjoyed the team. Again, it's kind of boring because I'm saying it's the people and it's always the people, but that's the running theme in my life and I just told this to somebody recently in that my purpose here has been to come to this beautiful existence and have people feel seen and heard, and that's my job, and so I liked the people. I didn't like how cutthroat that world was.

Daniel Koo:

I'm sure a lot of tough decisions have to be made.

Velveth Schmitz:

Very, but I also have such an abundance mindset that I don't think our resources are finite. I think there's enough for everybody if we choose to look at it from an abundance perspective. But yeah, there's some tough decisions that I have to make and on any given day, you can have a great product with a great team and it doesn't work. You can have a terrible team with a terrible product and it works. I mean it's just the weird thing about things working out and not working out. I mean it's certainly not fair, but it's also it's odd the algorithm of what chooses to work and what doesn't.

Daniel Koo:

You kind of send it out in the world and you don't know what it's going to do.

Velveth Schmitz:

And there's so many people who had brilliant ideas and never made it.

Daniel Koo:

So I guess for venture capitals. Then how do you guys develop a sense of an internal decision criteria? Or do you feel like it's like a prescriptive kind of formula, or is it kind of based on gut feelings from people, um, or do you look for very specific things from the ceo, do you like? Is there anything that you've learned?

Velveth Schmitz:

vision and conviction of that vision. It's often when a founder is maniacally blinded by their mission. You know that that individual is going to move mountains to make things happen. There has to be a demand for a product, so it can be okay that people don't know that they need something yet, but they're definitely going to need it and that has to exist. And we of course had matrices and different things we looked at and then brilliant minds in the room and often, back to Tim, there would be things that I'd be like that is so great, I love it, we should do that.

Velveth Schmitz:

He would be like here are 37,000 reasons why you shouldn't, and they would all make sense and it would blow my mind away Like what? How do you even know that? And so yeah to all of those things.

Daniel Koo:

How has being in a venture capital helped you? I guess lead a company, is it something?

Velveth Schmitz:

that you couldn't have learned anywhere else. That's a good question. I'm sure it can be learned elsewhere. It's what I know because, how I learned, it's very helpful to have an equanimous approach to things and to really stay level-headed, because oftentimes our emotion will hide things from us. If we're overly excited about something, we may not see a problem. If we're overly anxious about something, we may not see the solution. And so there are really important steps to staying sort of neutral to be able to really assess things. And so if you have criterion, if you have things that are not emotionally involved, those are really critical.

Velveth Schmitz:

And I am not without emotion. I am a very emotive person and it's you know for people who see me. You know exactly what I'm feeling when I feel it. And that was difficult, because if I'm excited, you know I'm excited, I know I'm excited. The American people, if I'm excited, you know I'm excited, I know I'm excited, the American people know I'm excited. And if I'm not, same audience will know it. And so that's not the best indicator of thumbs up or thumbs down on a deal, but I do think you need it in the room. I think you need a champion in the room, think you need it in the room. I think you need a champion in the room, and it always helps to have both a champion and a defector in the room, because having that person who's like no way no, how would I ever put a cent to this is very helpful alongside the. I will sell my house to put money on this.

Daniel Koo:

I want to talk a little bit about how you became COO of Athletes Renaissance. That seems like a new role for you. Where do you think you got the skills to become CO and what were the circumstances that led you to that role?

Velveth Schmitz:

So let me tell you something With every role I've had, I have both, in the same instant, felt like I am qualified and I'm 100% unqualified, and both are right. There are days when I feel really good and I know what I'm doing, and there are days when I am like what? Who do I think I am? What am I doing? And so for every role that I've had not just for that one here's what I know to be true Whether you're cleaning toilets or the CEO or the mayor, knowing that there are things you don't know is important.

Velveth Schmitz:

You don't know what you don't know and you can never solve for that, because you are a human. You are never going to know everything you need to know, and knowing that the skills that you have are transferable, they're applicable and useful is critical. Every job that I have had has taken my commitment, my concentration and my desire to want to do it those things bar none. It doesn't matter what the job is, you have to have them, and that's critical. It's huge, it takes you a long way, and so I cannot be a software developer, because I don't have the technical skills for that. I cannot be a seamstress, because I don't have the technical skills for that I know if I wanted to be a seamstress because I don't have the technical skills for that I know if I wanted to be a seamstress, I need to go to school to learn how to sew, and I know that if I needed to do a technical job, that I would need to be educated on how to do it. But for the majority of jobs, it's really the commitment to being a lifelong learner. There is no way you are going to know anything about everything all at once. It just it doesn't happen, and so for any interest that I've ever had, I have really taken the time to learn.

Velveth Schmitz:

And so with Athletes Renaissance, I was connected to Tashawn and Ryan and we started having these conversations and they needed operations, help for ensuring things got done and what we could structure to be repeatable processes and making sure that we were having the finance, talk to the creative and so forth, and I could do that. I could do those things, I could help to grow it, and there was a lot that I had to learn, and along the way, in every job I've had, there's always a lot I have to learn, and I would beg to say right now I probably need to learn a lot more about my job and for my team. This is an inside joke with us. I try to source candidates sometimes and they're like yikes. But I did find a very good candidate. She now works for us actually she's on our team and I found her, so I'm taking credit for that.

Velveth Schmitz:

But I don't know that. And so I say all that because you never want to count your weight like don't count yourself out, never count yourself out of a job. Always look at something and be realistic about the things that you know and don't know. But you can learn a lot of things and there's help out there. We were just talking the other day during COVID. I told the family we all needed to learn something new and it's something that we had to teach ourselves that you'd never done before, and so I bought a harmonica.

Daniel Koo:

Wow.

Velveth Schmitz:

I epically failed.

Daniel Koo:

Have you played any instrument before?

Velveth Schmitz:

No.

Daniel Koo:

Okay.

Velveth Schmitz:

And I tried to teach myself the harmonica. Fyi, for anyone learning harmonica, that is hard and also, if you've ever tried to rap, same thing with your breath. I taught myself how to rap in the fifth grade and I still have some songs that are my go-tos.

Daniel Koo:

Okay, we'll pull up some music right now.

Velveth Schmitz:

Gosh, thank goodness that we didn't record things back then, but it was very difficult. But there were many resources and multimedia. So if I wanted to take a book on, read a book about how to play harmonica, I could. If I wanted to watch videos, those were available. If I wanted someone to teach me, you know, via Zoom, that was available. There's so many resources that don't shy away from something because you need to learn a new skill. That's literally why you do new jobs. Be open, learn new things, be hungry. That's the magic for any of the jobs.

Daniel Koo:

Right after Athletes Renaissance. Now we arrive at Hire Better, which is where you are right now as CEO. I want to talk about if you believe that these skills that you have are innate or if you develop them over time and I think we just answered that. But I kind of want to hear your opinions on if you think there are certain talents that are innate. Maybe it's being extroverted or maybe it's people skills that you kind of have to have from the get-go.

Velveth Schmitz:

So that's a really interesting question. Sometimes I think you went to psychology school, Daniel, because you ask some profound questions that are really good.

Velveth Schmitz:

Thank you, which is good for you. You have a lot of good introspection, so it's hard to answer that for me, because a lot of my skills I developed out of survival and so, because I had a single mother and she often had to work, I was tasked with parenting my younger brother, and at four, five, 11, I wasn't a good parent. I was a kid, and I'm sure my brother was like you're a terrible parent, which I probably was but I needed to figure things out because I had to. There was no one else to do it, and so I needed to learn to listen in different ways. So, for instance, when you're in second grade and your teacher's talking about a form that they're gonna send home for your parents to sign, I know that I need to get that form home, I need to read it, I need to see what's on it, I need to have my mother sign it and then I need to bring it back, and if what's on it means we are agreeing to bringing supplies, I then have to procure those supplies. So my job isn't just to hand this form over to my mother. My job is I read this form, I need you to sign it and we need to go get crayons, because I have to bring crayons back to school.

Velveth Schmitz:

And so what happens often with children who have interesting circumstances growing up is that you have to really be thinking about a chessboard, not just this present moment. You need to think about the move you're going to make and the three moves you're going to make after. And so my skills developed from not just wanting to survive but wanting to thrive. I never wanted to be the kid that sat in class and wasn't able to do the project because I didn't bring the supplies, and I never wanted to be the kid that didn't get to go on the field trip because I didn't bring the permission slip, and so I always was extra careful.

Velveth Schmitz:

Now, the dark side of that is you develop these OCD tendencies because you don't want to miss something, that you start to overcomplicate things, and so, while these skills are great when you're an adult, if you had to develop them as a child with trauma in their lives, they come at a price right. They come at the cost of. Come at a price right. They come at the cost of. I wasn't a carefree child. I had a great imagination and I played a lot of imaginative games and I problem solved. But I also was a very serious child because I needed to think things through, and so would I have had these skills Maybe, but I know for sure that I developed them because of that and I think the answer for my life is that they were acquired skills.

Daniel Koo:

You and I actually had very different childhoods and I am learning so much, you know, kind of vicariously. You know, some of these things that you've learned through trauma and through hardships actually ended up being the energy source for a lot of your success and a lot of your journeys. And you mentioned in the beginning that you wouldn't regret or you wouldn't replace any of that, and I think that really shows as like a hopeful sign for a lot of those people that are in the same situation that if you're somehow able to make it out of it with the lessons learned, then you can achieve so many great things.

Velveth Schmitz:

Well said and let me underscore that, because somewhere a kid's going to listen to this and when you're in it, you are in it and it's hard, and it's hard to see that it's going to get better. I get that and I am not trying to minimize or trivialize, but, man, besides being messed up, we make some pretty cool adults and I hope this is hopeful. I always knew that those things would serve me. I knew that I could be a statistic and I never wanted to be. I always wanted this to mean something and all of those things gave me the ability to create amazing opportunity and I feel so fortunate because I'm not a statistic and I didn't do it alone remember, we never do it alone and I'm so grateful for every person in my path who extended their hand and pulled me up. But I have this amazing, adventurous life because of it, because of all of that, and it's created these awesome opportunities and I'm fortunate.

Daniel Koo:

To summarize a little bit about what we talked about today, I think the number one thing I'm learning today is, if you commit yourself to the role that you have right now, learn everything that you can there. You never know when those skills are going to come back and help you in the future. Also, you know when you go through tough times, it actually may be a time to harden you and really develop yourself, and I think, keeping that in mind, it's going to kind of be a hopeful message for us to remember that at the end it's all going to be worth it.

Velveth Schmitz:

I will add that shout out to every therapist I've had, because they have helped and because of them I am so loving. I have never closed my heart and I'm so grateful that I've stayed optimistic, positive and open, because that's also been a big difference.

Daniel Koo:

Thank you so much for your insights today. They've been profound and I think I'm going to take so much out of this and apply it in my own life, so really appreciate it.

Velveth Schmitz:

Thank you for having me, and you are an incredibly wise individual and people are so fortunate that you've chosen to create this as a way of paying it forward, because the very intention you have if no one's listened to the trailer of the podcast, they should the intention you have of paying it forward and of bringing the ability for people to have mentors in their lives through this podcast, you're nailing it.

Daniel Koo:

Thank you so much. It really means a lot Great job.