Genevieve Piturro is all about Purpose and The Human Connection. She was a successful television marketing executive until she dramatically changed the direction of her life. She found her true purpose when a sudden inner voice challenged her life as she knew it.
In 2001, she founded the hugely successful national non-profit, Pajama Program, when a question from a six-year-old girl in an emergency shelter changed her life forever and she jumped off the corporate ladder. This year, the Program celebrates its 21st anniversary, having delivered more than 7 MILLION magical gifts of new pajamas and new books to children through its 43 chapters across the U.S.
Genevieve is now a professional speaker and purpose consultant inspiring individuals, groups and companies on The Transformative Power of Purpose & The Human Connection. She created the Purpose ACER business training program to help leaders create a shared culture by aligning the goals of the company and management with the goals of its employees.
Her first book, sharing life and leadership lessons she learned through her Pajama Program journey, is an Amazon best seller and the winner of five (5) awards. The book, Purpose, Passion and Pajamas: How to Transform Your Life, Embrace the Human Connection and Lead with Meaning, debuted during the Covid shutdown to rave reviews. The book’s message dovetails perfectly with our Nation’s growing interest in finding purpose.
Her TEDx talk: “1 Idea + The Human Connection = 7 Million Pajamas” debuted at the same time. Genevieve has been interviewed on and in many local and national media including Hallmark’s Home & Family, The Huckabee Show, OPRAH, TODAY, GMA, The Early Show, CNN, Fox & Friends, O Magazine, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Parenting Magazine.
Genevieve rang the Nasdaq Stock Market Opening Bell in 2016. She has been the recipient of many local and national awards as she inspires others to listen to their heart-voice in pursuing their passions.
Genevieve is a graduate of Fordham University and lives in Irvington, N.Y. with her husband, Demo DiMartile. If you can’t find them, check the beach.
Connect with Genevieve on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity radio.
Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the high velocity radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. You guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast. Author, speaker, consultant and founder of Pajama Program. Ms. Genevieve Piturro. How are you?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:00:39] I’m great. Thank you for this invitation.
Stone Payton: [00:00:41] Stone Well, I am delighted to have you on the show. I got a ton of questions. We won’t get to them all, but I’m thinking maybe a good place to start is if you could share with our listeners. Mission. Purpose. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:00:58] Well, you know, I never no one ever asked me what my purpose was or no one ever suggested I might have one and consider it when I was thinking about a career. And I think that’s true for a lot of people who’ve entered who are in the business world now for ten or more years, 20 years even, You know, I thought lucky people found their purpose, you know, famous people I didn’t know we all had one. So when I sort of tripped on mine and it appeared out of nowhere, I thought this this is something that I want to share, that we all have a purpose because nothing felt more right for me to be doing than when I jumped off that corporate ladder because something stimulated me finding my purpose.
Stone Payton: [00:01:46] And what is the back story? How did you find yourself in this line of work? Was it a catalytic moment or did it sort of just evolve?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:01:56] I like that word. It was definitely catalytic. I was climbing the corporate ladder, always wanted to work in the world of television, and I did. I was behind the scenes in marketing and I started in radio and I loved it. It was a fast paced world. I for 12 years, I worked my way up to vice president of marketing for several television syndication companies. And it was my dream, or so I thought. And I really was not paying attention to my roots. I was an Italian first born daughter, first born here in the US, and family was very, very important to my family and I just didn’t have that get married and have children vibe. I had that businesswoman vibe, vibe. But one day, 12 years into this corporate career, I heard a voice in me, asked me a simple question, and it asked me if this is the next 30 years of your life, is this enough? And stone That stopped me cold because I never heard a voice from in me. I’d never considered anything else or really what I was missing. And the answer came just as quickly. You missed something really important. And I realized that although I didn’t want to get married and have kids right then and there, I needed children in my life. And I started reading in shelters and I never felt more grounded than at night after a crazy busy work day.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:03:28] To sit on the floor with these children who were brought in by police and social workers because of being hurt in so many ways. And I felt connected to them. And I felt connected to me. And I’d never felt that before. It took me a while to even use that word. I felt connected to them and to myself. And over time, reading to them, I got to know a little bit about the process. And when I saw them sleeping in their clothes for the first night, they were brought in and huddled together on futons and they had nothing. They were so afraid. I wanted to bring pajamas because I saw the bedtime I had flashed before me and when I did and I handed them out. Most of the children took them quietly, and one little girl was just afraid to take them. And in a moment or two, when I just gently prodded her to take them, she whispered to me, What are pajamas? And that changed everything. I nearly nearly fell over and I went right to the core of me. And I just realized I’ve been I’m the founder of Pajama Program. Now we’re celebrating 22 years. The experience of living. Your purpose has changed everything in my life. And I started talking and speaking on it, and that’s what I do now.
Stone Payton: [00:04:46] Yeah. So. So you’re out there, you’re speaking, you’re consulting. So who are you speaking to and consulting with?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:04:53] Well, it’s so funny because I was doing this while I was still executive director of Pajama Program, and I wanted that position to start to grow us. And after 20 years, I decided to go out on my own to speak about this experience and further it. And so I speak and I have always spoken to groups who are maybe looking for chapter two, who are unfulfilled in general about how to find your purpose and how it changes everything and how we have one. Every single one of us has one. It’s not just for the lucky few. And then in and after the pandemic was at its high, we all were reconsidering what we were doing. And even if you love your job, there’s a way there to communicate with your coworkers and the leaders of the company how to make it purposeful for everyone there to grow the company’s bottom line, to grow the companies camaraderie, to feel inspired. So even if you have a job, you can find your purpose.
Stone Payton: [00:05:56] It must be. It’s got to be incredibly rewarding work.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:06:03] You know. Yes. Rewarding. I don’t. There’s got to be a better word than rewarding because you feel like you belong exactly where you are. You feel like you are in the right skin. You feel like there are forces outside of you that are supporting you. The right people come. Now, when I started Pajama Program and I jumped and left my job, I had I had very little I was not a saver and it was very frightening. I had a lot of nights where I cried myself to sleep, afraid that what did I do and could I get all these children pajamas? And I didn’t even know what a 523 was. So I did it. I did it in a way that probably wasn’t easy. And I coached people on both. You know how I got through that and how to do it a little with a little less stress. But you still always feel like you are where you’re supposed to be and you will get through it. There’s just that knowing when you on your purpose.
Stone Payton: [00:07:03] So how does the whole and I recognize that that this is a nonprofit pursuit, but I still think this applies. How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for for an organization like yours? Like how do you get a chance to get to do the work?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:07:20] Well, you have to balance doing the emotional work because I think for the most part, founders of nonprofits are are doing it because of an emotional experience and emotional attachment to what they’re doing. Right? So there’s balancing the need to tell people how important it is. Share your story, because all founders have a story of why they’re doing this with growing the financial aspect. It is a business the IRS is watching. People want to know the financials. People want to know how they’re making a difference. So there’s a balancing there that takes place. And you need and I needed we all do professionals, professional attorneys, professional CPAs, professional fundraisers, people who know how to run the business part with you while you’re telling the story and really working the mission part of it. And of course, you can make a living working in nonprofit. It’s a little different. You know, it’s different in a lot of ways, but it is a business.
Stone Payton: [00:08:25] So what has it been like moving through the pandemic, coming out of the pandemic? Has that had an impact on the way that you and your clients go to market?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:08:39] Definitely. I think leadership is changing. I think that was a very big part of the pandemic’s effect on all of us. I think I would say it’s used to be more of a military. When I was in my beginnings of the career, very military, like in a boss, said what he wanted you did with the boss wanted. And that’s how I accepted it. And I think over the years and certainly my starting something brand new, I was developing different leadership styles. And I think in the pandemic we all reflected on is that what I want to do? Going to work every day. Is that how I want my day to go? Is that the relationship I want with the people I work with and work for? And I think we’re all looking for more compassion and leaders who inspire us. And I think that that’s a very big difference now today versus three years ago and certainly versus ten or 15 years ago, the different leadership styles for us all.
Stone Payton: [00:09:43] Well, yeah, I suspect some things that may have worked very well for us before pre-pandemic. Now, these are terms, right? Pre-pandemic, but before maybe don’t services as as well now are trying to go forward. Yeah.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:09:59] Yes. Yes. I think we’ve all we all have our stories and they’re very valuable and I don’t think that we were raised, many of us, to share those stories. They were private, but people are sharing now and I think that’s a good thing. We want to find where we connect with each other. I don’t think we want to be on two sides, You know, the leaders over there and everyone else over here. I think we want to connect and interconnect and and intermingle and share and find the commonality because leaders want their teams to rally for them. And the teams employees all want to feel that they’re seen, that they matter, that somebody knows about them and values what they want and includes them. So I think in order to feel included on both sides, the leaders feeling they’re included in their entire team base and the team, the employees feeling like people see them and that they matter. I think that communication and that sharing is key more than ever now.
Stone Payton: [00:11:03] So are you finding that that the client is also seeking something different or or more from the the sales person and those relationships as well?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:11:15] Yes, I think I think all of us are looking for more from each other. Any relationship, personal or business? I think it’s about connection. And I talk a lot in my book about the human connection and how that’s the key to our success. Once you find your purpose, that human connection is going to take you home.
Stone Payton: [00:11:34] So this book, Purpose, Passion and Pajamas, I got to ask, did it did it come together for you pretty easily or were there some parts of the book that were more of a struggle to get committed to paper and articulating things the way you wanted to? What was that experience like writing this book?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:11:54] Well, I tried over the years many times, but Pajama Program took my attention 100%. So I started and stopped a while. And that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to pass the baton of executive directorship and the salary to someone who could take it. So the next 20 years and I wanted to write the book. So that’s what I did. The hardest part, I knew the message. I knew that I wanted to tell everyone, You have a purpose. Promise me you will. Look, I know. I promise you, you have a purpose. And if they feel there’s something missing in your life, there is. And go find it. And I’m here if you want to brainstorm. But the hardest part was the particulars of Pajama program and the children. I wanted to. I wanted everyone to understand the plight of these children and why it brought me to my knees and why I cried and why I didn’t want to to I wanted to take them all home, but I didn’t want to fill it with all of the devastating stories I heard and learned about. So that was that was difficult because I wanted to share so much and I wanted to be really sensitive to to everyone.
Stone Payton: [00:13:02] And so let’s offer the listeners a little bit of counsel, if we can, when they get their hands on this book. Do you do you have some recommendations on how to get the most out of it, how to how to utilize the the book?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:13:17] Sure, it’s a chronological story, but at the end of every chapter are a heart of the matter lessons and in the chapter proceeds it. There are two, three or four key points I want the reader to really own, and I list them at the back of every chapter. So it’s the heart of a matter of lessons that I learned that I want to share at the end of each chapter.
Stone Payton: [00:13:43] So you’ve done something that I’ll confess has been on my bucket list. You’ve conducted a TEDx talk. Say a little bit about that, what it was like to prep for it, what the experience was like, and and what you’ve found to to unfold after doing that.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:14:01] Well, I did it during the pandemic, which was very odd. So I do want to do another one live. And I was set to do one live. And then the pandemic hit and Ted came around and said, okay, hold on all the Ted X. So everybody held. And then when the pandemic didn’t end in six months or even a year, they came back and said, okay, we need to continue. Ted, is there need to be inspiring do them on video? Get a cameraman, do the professionally. Here’s the logo or whatever. We’ll will approve them once you send them in and then we’ll run them. That’s how I did mine. So it was a very surreal experience. I had did what they said. I got a professional cameraman, but I only had that person and my husband cheering me on. And my story is emotional as most Ted is, I think are you you want that feedback from the audience. You want to feel connected because you have a very personal message. So that was strange that I only had my husband and a cameraman there, and I was used to and still love speaking in front of an audience because of that feedback. But but I did okay. They approved it. It’s out. It’s gotten a decent amount of views. And it dovetails with my book and my story and my messages.
Stone Payton: [00:15:17] You are so well accomplished in your in your passion for for the work. It just it really comes through. Did you have the benefit of one or more mentors in your corporate career and or as your entrepreneurial journey was unfolding? Did you get a chance to work with some mentors that helped you navigate some of that terrain?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:15:43] I did. I did. I had a couple of them, but and I had a very good one in constant one whenever I needed to hurt in the nonprofit world when I started that. But early on, somebody gave me the best piece of advice that I give people because we all struggle when we’re trying to grow ourselves and our careers. We’re all trying to do that for the most part. And in addition to one person telling me, get paid on time, no excuses from anybody. And it sounds funny, but I stuck to that and it’s always worked. So that was a very simple piece of advice that I don’t know. Most people hear that from their mentor, but he said that to me and I promised him I would. But a very important exercise that someone told me about. I use it to this day and I’m actually looking at it right now. Stone They said, you know, those days when you think you can’t do it, when you’re doubting yourself, take out a piece of paper and handwrite every accomplishment that is impressive to you that not everyone else has done.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:16:48] Well, If you do that, if any of your listeners do that, I promise you you will be amazed at the list of things you’ve done that you would never have thought a year before, two years before you could have or would have done. And you know what? Most of those things on your list other people don’t do, most people don’t do. And I add to that list. And when I get down and I doubt my next move and I get paralyzed because I’m afraid to take a step and look at that list. And it just it just gives me inner strength to say, Oh, my goodness, look at that. Look at that. I walked out on that job because of something, the way that they were running it or or look at this thing I did when I didn’t think I had any money. How in the world that I all of a sudden get the money to do that? And it’s just empowering, empowering, and I will forever be grateful for that person telling me that.
Stone Payton: [00:17:45] Well, I am so glad that I asked because.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:17:48] I know if you haven’t yet.
Stone Payton: [00:17:51] That is an absolute pearl. So as I understand it, in your work with companies, you’re helping leaders really get a get a handle on this idea of shared culture and and goal alignment. I’d love to leave our listeners with a with a few I’ll call them Pro Tips. The number one pro tip is reach out to Genevieve. But you know between now and then maybe a few actionable items things we should be thinking about, things we should be reading or just some things to be thinking about if we want to be serious and focused. In intentional. Those of us who do have responsibility for generating results with and through other people. Are there some things that we can begin kind of doing on our own before we get our hands on your book and listen to your talk and reach out to you?
Genevieve Piturro: [00:18:44] Well, I created the Purpose Acer program, which I facilitate for leaders and teams, and there are several exercises in there and suggestions and things that I facilitate with them. But I think the communication and the sharing has been missing. I think that there are there’s a group in every organization of the up and coming leaders. They’re in the middle and the top brass can identify them and that group. Honestly, I can tell you where your leader’s going right, and where the leaders might be going off course, because they’re in a great position to either continue and make that company successful or take everything they’ve done in that place where they’re riding high and take it somewhere else. If they don’t feel seen and that their ideas aren’t being considered. So I think. A really great place to start is with your up and coming leaders to make sure they’re on board, to listen to what they need to stay and what they think you’re doing right and wrong. And it’s a scary thing. And it has been for many years for the leader to take a chance and sit down and get that personal. But that is an incredibly powerful group in your organization, Those up and coming leaders and then those that are hired have been hired within six months or a year of report card. How are we doing together? And people are clearly demanding that they be considered. That we see it in the job market. We see it in the change, we see in everything we read about corporate America. And I put that now in quotes. So I think those two groups we really have to pay attention to.
Stone Payton: [00:20:37] Okay, let’s make sure that our listeners have an easy path to have a conversation with you or someone on your team where they can access that TED talk, get their hands on this book, whatever you feel like is appropriate, whether it’s a LinkedIn or a website or email. I just want to make sure that folks can can reach out and connect with you.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:20:58] Thank you. Stone Well, my website has everything Genevieve Pinterest.com and Short LinkedIn has everything to.
Stone Payton: [00:21:07] Well, Genevieve, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show. Thank you so much for for investing the time and energy to join us. And thank you for the work you’re doing. Incredibly important work, and we sincerely appreciate you.
Genevieve Piturro: [00:21:24] Oh, thank you. And thank you again for asking me to share share my story. I so appreciate it.
Stone Payton: [00:21:30] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Genevieve Petro and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.
