Inspiring Conversations with Kira La Forgia of Paradigm Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kira La Forgia.

Hi Kira, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2014, after escaping to a three months backpacking trip to recover from corporate trauma, I reached out to a local employee engagement and leadership specialist to talk about how to plan to transition into a consulting role. I was so inspired by his advice about creating a fun and engaged workplace that I was able to implement it into my career leading teams of employees in medium sized brick and mortar businesses. When COVID shut everything down, I found myself with enough time on my hands to start freelance consulting and found a need for remote teams to manage their people, their culture, and their HR compliance. Paradigm People Operations Consulting was born out of a need for companies transitioning to the remote workspace to stay competitive and attract the best talent. We believe in the power of small businesses to excel if they have the right people on their teams and that accessible management and HR is key to the growth of small companies.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The toughest thing about starting a business was finding where my unique talents fit in the marketplace and then learning to create services that capitalized on both my expertise and showing value while introducing something new during a time when the right people strategy can be transformational as businesses were moving to remote work. There’s so much self-worth tied to what you create, as an entrepreneur as you are going through the ups and downs of successful and not-so-successful times, it can be really hard not to take it personally. As a leader who manages other’s emotions, learning to work through those emotions were the hardest and most rewarding part of entrepreneurship for me.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I founded Paradigm to bridge the gap between corporate HR policies and the modern needs of online entrepreneurs. Most small companies are able to put up big revenue numbers with a small but powerful team in place. There are very few instances when an experienced HR business partner is one of the few roles small remote teams need to fill. Most teams can automate their payroll, basic onboarding, and legal, but when it comes to human side of managing a business, entrepreneurs are out of their depth. Small teams are still held to the same HR and ethics standards as huge companies with whole HR departments.

We offer services to speak to those unique needs; a membership where you can consult with our team on minor issues that need an answer quickly or custom HR services that set the foundation for your growing team. We are the business owner’s partners in decisions that could be put off for months, or even years, that inevitably lead to a bottleneck in profits and growth.

With a decade of experience in People Operations in the corporate world, I am no stranger to the sensitive issues involved in the human side of running a business.

There’s a lot to learn from hiring, onboarding, training, and managing the performance of over 500 employees for a multimillion dollar business. The good news is, we learned it all so you don’t have to.

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that the true measure of success is not how much money you have in the bank but the feeling of living your purpose. Of course, making money and providing security for myself and my family is great, but being able to provide meaningful careers for my amazing team and helping our clients find peace in their growth is what really matters. Learning to stop comparing myself to what others think I should do and embracing my instincts has been so fulfilling. I also know that I am extremely privileged to be able to be fulfilled by my job, and we can help companies do that for other people and that is real impact.

Pricing:

• Services start at $197
• HR Templates available at settoscale.com

Contact Info:

• Email: kira@the-paradigm.com
• Website: https://www.the-paradigm.com
• Instagram: @theparadigmm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theparadigmm
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theparadigmmm
• Other: Free 12 week challenge to engage your team and build a company culture you can be proud of: paradigm.ck.page/12

Image Credits
Lauren Pollard Photography