Transcript

Rapid Response: Taking over when tragedy strikes, w/Guild's Bijal Shah

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Join us at masters of scale dot com slash apply twenty six. That's mastersofscom slash apply. Twenty six. There was a business continuity plan in place, and so It was known that I would step up.

I remember turning to my husband and being like I don't know how I'm gonna do this. I am reckoning with my own Postpartum. I have a new baby. I have a three year old as well. And my husband was like You're gonna put one foot in front of the other And you're just gonna get through every single day.

That's Bejil Shah, who became sґilda education. When the founding CEO, thirty-four year old Rachel Romer, suffered a stroke. This episode of Rapid Response is quite personal about the human challenges of dealing with the unexpected. about when leadership is thrust upon us and how we handle it. Beijil has had to navigate her own emotions while taking on new responsibility for the business.

and making tough calls including a round of layoffs. She's also had to find ways to provide inspiration to others and to inspire herself, tapping into resources from Taylor Swift to Team USA. I'm Bob Safian. This is rapid response.

I'm Bob Safian, and I'm here with uh Beel Shaw, the CEO of Guild Education. Be jil, thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. Super excited to chat with you today. I wanna start first i asking you to briefly explain what guild's business is for our listeners. We work with some of the world's largest employers to help enable their employee population to get upskilled and reskilled. We come to those employer partners. With a curated learning marketplace of offerings. Those employers fund the education experience for those employees, and then they get certifications, degrees, they finish their high school diploma, they get skilled in very specific roles or pathways so that they can hopefully continue to grow at their

existing employer or find new opportunities in the future. Guild was started by your predecessor Rachel Romer Uh who was on the show a few years ago. super dynamic, energetic, young founder.

I don't think Anyone you included expected anyone other than Rachel to be running Guild any time soon. You've taken on The leadership because of a kind of unexpected and harrowing health issue for Rachel. So

Can you take us back to last summer and explain What happened. Yeah, so last summer in the middle of August. I was out on parental leave. I had just had a newborn baby managing what I would describe as postpartum sym symptoms after having a pretty tough delivery. And at about seven o'clock in the morning I got a phone call from someone in Rachel's family, and they said Rachel went to the hospital. We need you to clear her calendar.

And I said, I'm on parental leave. Is this something that's urgent? And is she gonna be okay? And they said, We don't know. We'll call you back. A few hours later I got a phone call from her dad explaining that Rachel had had a stroke and that she had been sent to the best care facility in Colorado, but that I needed to call the board of directors. I called the board of directors I let them know what happened. As you can imagine, the board's super concerned about Rachel, as was I and everyone else who was now learning about what had happened. I then called the executive team and then the following Monday stepped back into the business.

Hm. As I Was told like Rachel sort of had this episode. Like the night before and was Alone all that time and sort of was found

By chance? Yeah, that's correct. I'm not sure exactly what time she had had the stroke, but she was found on her patio in the morning by her aunt who happened to be walking by and it's a miracle that she found her and she found her in time and knew exactly what to do and exactly what was happening. And so you Go into this interim role.

Well You're still not quite recovered from your own medical issues. What are you grappling with? And at that point, like, where is Rachel? What is she going through through this? Um Rachel is in the hospital in critical condition and in the ICU. I am reckoning with my own

Postpartum. I have a new baby. I'm struggling with breastfeeding I remember turning to my husband and being like I don't know how I'm gonna do this and my husband, Amit, was like You're gonna put one foot in front of the other And you're just gonna get through every single day.

And every member of the executive team and the leadership team. uh rose to the occasion. I showed up on Monday. They asked what I needed. They said they have my back. I felt incredibly supported. So you were kind of drafted to be interim CEO

How did you know that this was gonna fall? On you or was that part of the sort of already existing plan. There was a business continuity plan in place and so

It was known that likely it would mean that I would step up and But the continuity plan doesn't really contemplate months or even years of something happening. And so I had very frank conversation with the board about why it would be a good idea to keep me in as interm CEO, what the gaps would be, what the areas of opportunities are, who else is on the executive team, and is there someone else better suited? I asked the executive team if they thought there was someone better suited once we realized it wasn't a few weeks and it was gonna be at least several months. I thought it was really important for us to make sure that we were having a conversation about

Who is the right person to be leading this business? Because first and foremost, I I really care about the mission of what Gild does and that it continue to to persist. Mm. Were th was there a point where you went to visit her, or was she not even In a situation where that could happen. Giving you any

Feedback about the business or whether she was really just She was out of it. I did not communicate with her for over a month. And I had asked a few times to see her.

But she really was focused on her recovery. The first time I did get to see her, I went to her hospital room. We've worked together for six years. We don't always agree on everything. And I remember telling her dad, like I just want to argue with her again about something. And he's like, That time will come.

Um and so I hadn't seen her until I got to go to the hospital and I remember Being super nervous and not knowing what to expect. I mean She had a stroke, and so there were obviously um physical differences

But from like a mental agility and sharpness and awareness and Ability to inspire me in some ways. Like no change. And that And as soon as I walked in the door, I just remember her saying to me

Hey Bas Beach. Are you bossing? And it was It was incredible. I wasn't sure what to expect and it just kind of I it removed my anxiety and um it was off limits to talk about work.

But if you've you have met Rachel, Gild is her third baby. She says that to everyone that We'll listen to her say that. It's a core part of who she is. And repeatedly she would ask me questions and repeatedly I'd have to say, We can't talk about that right now. I've been instructed that I can't see you again if we have conversations about guilt. So

So you were Interim CEO in this role for about Six months and then the spring you were confirmed as CEO. In that period, were you all hoping Rachel would come back? Did you Know that she wasn't gonna come back?

It was not clear what the recovery plan or timeline will look like. the recovery on strokes are quite variable. She was thirty four when she had the stroke. The ability to recover at thirty four is wildly different than the ability to recover at sixty five. So I think in the back of my mind I

Thought Yeah, she'll come back. And so that's how we operated, except that the board and Rachel both made it clear to me Right after I took on the interim CEO job And they were like to be clear.

The title says interim CEO and it's your job. To make sure you act like the CEO. The interim is just there because there is another CEO who's on leave. And it was really great to also hear that from Rachel. Um, she was like, You know what to do with this business, you know this business better than anyone.

Go do the things you need to do to make sure this business continues to thrive. Hm and w were there things about being CEO That we're Different than you expected.

It it's it's a new job. Yeah. I think there are things that were Surprising. So one, the job at the top is truly lonely. And I think when you're on executive team

you know, if something's not going well or you're upset about something, there's someone to like Talk with and be like, Ugh, I'm annoyed at X or Y or Z When you're At the top, the decisions that I make and What we ultimately end up doing, they truly do rest on my shoulders.

And I think I hadn't experienced that type of burden and responsibility at this type of scale. Before. There's a weight and a gravity to it that I think you can't fully appreciate until you do the job. There are also some other things around you know, changes I wanted to make or

Things I thought were important for us to put at play that before I'd have to go get alignment from many other people to actually enable And there's some amazing thing that happens when you become the CEO that people just say like yes, we can do that. And so I try to like use that very, very sparingly, but there are times where I get really excited about something

I'm currently on a customer listening tour, so going around the country, talking to every single one of our customers, either, you know, in person or through Zoom and understanding what's working, what's not working, what we could do better. And I thought I'd face a lot of resistance and people were like, Yep, that sounds great. You should do it. And so there's some surprises or delightful surprises, I would say. Were you

Excited? When you became Official CEO? Interim situation where there was some reluctance. Was there still some reluctance this time around?

Yeah, I think their honest answer is yes. And mainly because I had never imagined that this would be the role that I would play inside of Guild. I didn't expect Rachel to go anywhere. If you had asked me like do I want to be CEO of this business one day Let alone CEO somewhere else, my answer would have been I don't know.

If you had asked me that question 15 years ago, by the way, I would have said yes, I want to be CEO. And then something along the way changed, and I'm like, I'm good. And so I think that there was still some hesitation Just Because it's a new role and

There's a lot of gravity to the role and there's a lot of people that you're either gonna like Make proud or let down in some way. And there's a lot of really hard decisions to make. As you continue to grow you know, a high growth business, it's really messy. And so yeah, I think there was still some hesitation.

You can hear in Bjel's words, and in her ton. The razor's edge she's been navigating. She's heartbroken about Rachel's situation, which is included multiple surgeries and serious questions about the future. But Beejil also has to be a leader without seeming like she's pushing Rachel aside or enjoying her opportunity. And the hard decisions she references, they've hit right away, including a big round of layoffs.

We'll talk about that after the break. Stay with us. When you build substantial wealth through your business, it's often tied up in a single equity position. The upside is real, but so is the risk, and knowing when to act isn't always obvious. Creative planning works with business owners to build a strategy around concentrated equity.

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I'm Rana El Chayubi. And on my podcast Pioneers of AI, we answer that question and so many more. As an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor, I know what it takes to build AI that works for everyone. Every week, I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future. And we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in. Before the break, we heard Guild Education's Beejal Shah talk about the stroke that befell the company's CEO and unexpectedly thrust her into the corner office.

Now Beejil explains why one of her first official acts as CEO was a big round of layoffs. And the decisions she's made around AI. Plus, she shared the inspiration and lessons she draws from Taylor Swift. And what's behind the new reskilling partnership with Team Юсе? Let's jump back in.

You have had to make some hard business calls amid all of this recently you and as they were laying off like a a quarter of the workforce D did you know that like Alright, if I take this

Official CEO role. That like one of the first things I'm gonna have to do is a big round of layoffs. I did know that when I took the opportunity That was something in order to continue to ensure that we were building a sustainable business that this would be something that I would have to do.

Is the hardest thing I've had to do in my career and something that I knew was gonna have to come with the territory and the job. And also made it Something where I couldn't take the job lightly.

You have to get the business to con continue to and lean into high growth, right? That's Part of the reason the layoffs are necessary was Maybe you weren't growing Fast enough from here. I mean

You have what? Two thousand courses companies like Walmart and Target and Taco Bell as clients so it's Got a lot of reach. Like what is the growth plan from here then? There are

eighty five million adults working in the United States who need access to guild, and so we're nowhere near done. We also have a lot of opportunity to build adjacent products And deliver on more specific or niche needs of the workforce. When we think about where America is headed from a workforce transformation perspective, there is so much to do in this country to upskill and reskill. The notion around the restructuring was more about how do we put even more investment into growth opportunities and less so about right right sizing because we're worried about growth.

We had Sal Khan of Khan Academy on the show recently and he talked about Their AI based Con Migo bot. And you guys have Made some investments in AI How

Much is that part of The growth opportunity. Well or is that just an experiment for you at this point? It's very much a part of our growth, but maybe not in the way that you think about it. How do we help Uh

Employer partners as well as employees understand How the future of work is going to change for their specific roles as AI continues to get adopted in the workforce. And for the tasks that they do every single day, which ones do we expect to get augmented or automated? And if those things get augmented and automated, then where they should they be spending their time and how do we make sure they get skilled for the role? And so we are using it to provide better insights to both the employee and the employer on exactly what they need to do next. I

We'll say that sometimes I feel like the conversations that business leaders have around reskilling does not always connect to the uh effort and resources that are put towards it. We've been pretty lucky in that We have employer partners who really do view this as a business imperative.

In order to have the workforce of the future and in order to make sure that they have people that they need in very critical roles I also think that they're seeing in the broader labor market that going out and finding that talent There is talent on the market, but finding the talent that has that specific skill set to bring inside their organization is actually quite challenging to find. And so their desire very much is to find people inside their own organization who they can skill.

And so I do think at least for us, we are working with those employers who are kind of leading the conversation and leading on the solution that's most important for them to drive their business strategies. Mm. I heard that you're a big Taylor Swift fan. I heard that for your fortieth birthday y you went to the Eras tour. For people that don't understand the hype, like What's the appeal? Are there things about Taylor's

Business success that appeals to you and how she's Pulled it off. Yes and yes. First of all I happen to love her music.

I think she's an amazing lyricist. I think that she knows how to Create, write and produce a hook. That stays in your head for a very long time. And as someone who grew up in kind of the world of product, the stickiness. aspect of what she creates is genius, in my opinion.

And then yes, she is one of the savviest business women I have ever heard of. Based on what I know about how she runs her operations, how she treats her team, how she enables her business and continuing to grow that business. She's an icon from a business perspective as well, in my mind, and very much someone that I Fangirl.

Wholeheartedly. Are there things from Taylor's world that you Learn from and Try to apply it guild? I think she's a great storyteller and has the ability to understand

how to break something down or make something relevant to a wide audience of individuals. And when we think about who we serve, we're trying to serve the broad American population and we're trying to ensure that the content we deliver and the learning marketplace that we curate applies to a broad population. And so yeah, I think there are things to learn about her approach.

The ability for people to feel inspired and motivated, uh, by what she does, I think are all learnings. I noticed that you recently added the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the LA twenty eight Olympic and Paralympic Games. As partners offering team USA athletes access to guild. How much of that was about this sort of storytelling as opposed to the number of athletes you reach? Like does that Help the guild story?

I mean I think it'll drive awareness, but more importantly for me First I love sports. And I you know, I've spent a lot of time thinking about Athletic careers and second acts for those who go and devote so much of their time to Their sport.

And what happens after they complete their sport. I recently learned that the average tenure for a football player in the NFL is less than two years. that's not very long as a pro athlete playing, you know, in a sport that you've dedicated your whole life to. And so I do think it's really important that for athletes in particular, whether they're Olympians or Paralympians or not, That they have the ability to invest in themselves in educating themselves equally as in investing in their athletic careers. skilling and career mobility provider for Team USA is way more about how do we support athletes on their second act. And Bob, like I don't care if it's ten of them or a thousand of them. It's a really important need and a thing that

I think we owe to these athletes who spend so much time doing something and really do need help. Thinking back to last summer and that stroke. It's a reminder that anything can happen. And I'm curious how that may have changed the way you approach the world, the way you Approach the workplace.

The way you think about the future. Yeah, I think it's been a good reminder for me of the importance of making sure that I continue live each day to the values that are important to me. that I prioritize and spend time on things that are meaningful in this world and that I believe are gonna drive impact. and that I ensure that I take care of my health and my well being and

And do the best that I can to play offense on that, knowing that life will throw curveballs and that you can't predict exactly what's gonna happen and when it's gonna happen. And I think having the right support system around you and the right mindset at the end of the day, I think is really important. Well, Bijal, this has been great and thank you for sharing so much of The journey. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Listening to Beejil, I'm reflecting on her words about Rachel that she thinks of the business as one of her children. And I think the emotional side of our connection to work is so powerful, so central, and just doesn't always get the attention it should. It sometimes takes something tragic and difficult to jolt us out of our veneer of professionalism. And that's too bad because the human side of work really is the most gratifying. It's essential to business success, too. The stories we tell ourselves about the work we do, they motivate us and define us. Hey, that's why is drawn to Taylor Swift.

Hopefully that's part of what draws you to rapid response to I'm Bob Safian. Thanks for listening. Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show. Because every Friday we release a second Rapid Response exclusively in the Rapid Response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about

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