Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Serio.
Hi Joe, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In second semester sophomore year, I took out the 1983-84 course catalog, closed my eyes, twirled my finger in the air, and stabbed the page. My finger landed on a class called Who are the Soviets? It seemed interesting enough so I started studying Russian language. That started a long road: studying in Moscow in the 1980s, working in the Organized Crime Control Department of the Soviet police, becoming director of the Moscow office of the world’s leading corporate investigation and business intelligence firm, and writing books about Russia. My latest, out in August 2021, is Vodka, Hookers, and the Russian Mafia: My Life in Moscow. After I returned from Russia, I earned a Ph.D. in criminal justice, focusing on leadership and wellness. After graduation, I started leadership training for probation officers and then law enforcement officers. Through that, I stumbled into the 9-1-1 sector. For the past eight years, I’ve been traveling the United States and Canada delivering leadership and wellness training for 9-1-1 dispatchers. I created a 9-1-1 supervisor leadership academy, a retreat for dispatchers on a ranch outside San Antonio, and co-authored a book on stress management for dispatchers. I’ve spent more than 100 hours monitoring calls in 9-1-1 communications centers and interviewing supervisors and dispatchers. I’m working on several more books about Russia and for 9-1-1 dispatchers.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
In the Russian portion of my life, the struggles came largely from operating in that culture. The Soviet Union was a physically and psychologically difficult place to work, not to mention the weather and the massive amount of drinking they expect you to do. The Moscow office of the corporate investigation firm I worked for had collapsed, the staff defecting and setting up a competing firm. This meant putting in 16-18-hour days every day for months. In my first week as director, one of our clients was arrested by the KGB and was going to be brought up on espionage charges. In Russia, the struggles were many and varied. In my training business, the struggles have been fairly typical: develop products the market needs and values, do the leg work, and be excellent, pretty much the same struggles most entrepreneurs and consultants have.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Joe Serio Enterprises, LLC, is the umbrella organization for The 360 Dispatcher, Government Leadership Training (GLT), and GTN Media. I help government employees give themselves permission to show up better to work, be more productive, and transform their lives both at work and at home. I take a different approach to leadership, focusing on personal responsibility and accountability. I do that by offering real talk about fear and resistance, emotional intelligence, resilience, time management, positive interaction with difficult people, and organizational culture. My trainings are different in many ways, but primarily I make it about the audience. I have music playing when they walk into the training room, signaling to them that this will be unlike any other government-related training they’ve ever been in. I talk about growing up in a family of 14 in order to get them to think about their families and how they grew up. I play the harmonica and the guitar in class, using those instruments to illustrate points I make during the class. I give the attendees copies of the books I’ve written on fear, emotional intelligence, public speaking, time management, resilience, and others. There are small group exercises and large group discussions. I memorize the names of all attendees and call them by name for the entire class. Attendees often cry during class because of the way in which the material speaks to them on a personal level. From there, we move into leadership issues. I don’t know how an organization can change its culture without at least some of the employees changing on an individual level. I strive to create a path through which attendees can change their thinking, change their habits, and change their lives. GTN Media is the vehicle I use to self-publish my Get the Nerve series of books and my Russia-related books.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
First and foremost, get out and network. Many people are afraid to do it. One thing I’ve observed: most people don’t understand the raw power behind effective networking. It’s not just meeting people and exchanging business cards that will sit in the bottom of a drawer. It’s about building relationships…but not simply building relationships. It’s about taking the relationships and finding how your universe of relationships can intersect and help each other, whether you benefit directly or not. Networking is not a one and done activity. I think of it as fishing. When I meet someone, I think of it as me throwing my pole in the water. And then I leave it there for the rest of my life. I’ve had contacts return to me 10, 20 years after having met them and then working together to mutual benefit. I love a one-sentence email. How many one-sentence emails can you send in 5 or 10 minutes? A lot. These emails say things like, “Hope you’re well,” “Thinking about you,” and so on. One can maintain a lot of relationships that way. That one method alone opened a lot of professional and personal opportunities for me.
Pricing:
- Conference keynotes $7,500-10,000
- One-time leadership training experiences $4,000-$5,000
- Vodka, Hookers, and the Russian Mafia: My Life in Moscow $25.00
Contact Info:
- Email: joe@joeserio.com
- Website: www.joeserio.com; www.glttraining.com; www.360dispatcher.com; www.vodkahookers.com
- Instagram: drjoeserio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joeseriospeaks
- Twitter: @joeseriospeaks
