Announcer 0:00Welcome to the CXR channel, our premier podcasts for talent acquisition and talent management. Listen in as the CXR community discusses a wide range of topics focused on attracting, engaging and retaining the best talent we're glad you're here.

Chris Hoyt 0:23Hello, everybody, this is Chris Hoyt with CareerXroads, I am excited. We have kind of a special announcement today. And I'm kind of pretty excited about it. But I have with me, Barb Ruess, who is the VP of Marketing and all muscle at CareerXroads. So we're pretty excited to have you on Hi, Barb.

Barb Ruess 0:41Hi, Chris.

Chris Hoyt 0:43So, so Barb, I I'm dying to share the news, because with this is a project that has been in the works for quite some time. I think even you might agree even before we knew that this was what this was going to become.

Barb Ruess 0:59Yes.

Chris Hoyt 1:00But I I would like to bestow to you the honor of making the announcement. So why don't you tell everybody why you and I are on the podcast today.

Barb Ruess 1:10Oh, I'm so excited to officially announced the launch of the CXR Foundation.

Chris Hoyt 1:16Oh, my God,

Barb Ruess 1:17I know we should have like sound effects.

Chris Hoyt 1:21What's the six our foundation?

Barb Ruess 1:23I'm so glad you asked. I you know, I want to tell you, I think like many ideas across the board, not just with people involved in talent and recruiting. It probably came about over over a dinner at some point. And you're right, I think it started. It started with at a project level. And then we realized, Hey, wait a second, if we tie these community service projects that we were doing under CXR Cares if we tie things like the Recruiters Recruiting Recruiters efforts. If we tie these things together, we have the potential to really make an impact in the world of talent. And that's that's what the CXR Foundation is all about.

Chris Hoyt 2:02Yeah, I think it's my so let's back up a little bit because I had totally forgotten. I feel terrible. I had totally forgotten the true origin, right. We have an origin story. Like every superhero, we have an origin story. We were typically back in the days of traveling, we were typically going to our live meetings a day or two early to do a little team building. And that typically consisted of Gerry and I going to play around a golf.

Barb Ruess 2:27Yeah.

Chris Hoyt 2:28And then we would all gather together for dinner and talk about the next couple of days had the work that we needed to do any ideas, any last minute curveballs etc. But But somehow that that transmogrified into us believing that we could do not just work for the talent acquisition community, which is our mission. It's in our blood for CareerXroads, but something for the local communities in which we were we were being hosted, right?

Barb Ruess 2:55Yeah, yeah, I tell people that when we talk about community, we don't just talk as we like to walk that talk in as many ways as possible. I think it was an It was a natural fit. It was a it was an idea sparked, with a couple different conversations. And then, as often happens, once I get a hold of idea, I'm happy to figure out how to execute that idea. And then the next thing you know, instead of playing golf, we were stacking food pantry shelves and flipping beds and homeless shelters. And and we really got to see some sides of communities that we certainly would not have seen otherwise.

Chris Hoyt 3:30Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the fun work we got to do under the umbrella of CXR Cares was and I think just the start, but that was like, really appreciate it. We had a number of members join. We In fact, we were so excited to do more of it this year, I'm literally sitting on 150 T-shirts, because of a T-shirt to everybody that would show up at the events. And of course, nobody's going anywhere. So the T-shirts,

Barb Ruess 3:55We should send those out and just have people start wearing them under meeting. But yeah,