When Paula Festas was a young girl in Mozambique, her father was her greatest mentor. He taught her many important lessons about mentorship, but one stood out: treat your employees like family and friends. It’s a piece of wisdom that saved his life. Today, Paula’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Huumans, a financial services and cloud accounting company for small businesses. And her passion for mentorship is stronger than ever. Discover why Paula is fiercely committed to mentoring others, how she excels at it, and the unbelievable story of how learning about mentorship changed the course of her life.
When Paula Festas was a young girl in Mozambique, her father was her greatest mentor. He taught her many important lessons about mentorship, but one stood out: treat your employees like family and friends. It’s a piece of wisdom that saved his life.
Today, Paula’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Huumans, a financial services and cloud accounting company for small businesses. And her passion for mentorship is stronger than ever. Discover why Paula is fiercely committed to mentoring others, how she excels at it, and the unbelievable story of how learning about mentorship has changed the course of her life.
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Hosted by Katherin Vasilopoulos. Made by Cansulta and Ethan Lee.
Music by © Chris Zabriskie, published by You've Been a Wonderful Laugh Track (ASCAP).
Songs used in this episode include: "Air Hockey Saloon," "Perhaps It Was Not Properly Manufactured," "Cylinder Four," "Heliograph," "I Am Running Down the Long Hallway of Viewmont Elementary," "I Knew My Way Downtown and Walking Was Deluxe," "Itasca, It's Glowing Red Hot," "Short Song 011123," "Short Song 020323," "Short Song 020523," "Short Song 021023," "Short Song 021123," "Short Song 021423," "Short Song 030623," "Land On the Golden Gate," "Rewound."
Used under the Creative Commons 4.0 International License
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:00:05]:
It's a hot summer's day on a beach in Mozambique. The sand is ashy white, bleached by the sun's rays. Waves tumble in and are pulled back out into the vast Indian ocean. It's the perfect place to relax. Somewhere along the shore lies a seven year old girl. Her family is nearby while she stares at a bracelet on her wrist. They're residents of Mozambique, but in a year, they'll be forced to leave the country, and they'll never come back. She has no idea what lies ahead of her, the events that will put her family and her greatest mentor, her father, to the ultimate test. I'm Katherin Vasilopoulos, and this is and so she left the podcast about incredible women founders and the wisdom they uncovered beyond the corporate world. We also need to think about the golden rule great mentors offer kindness in addition to industry knowledge. If you just focus on learning or teaching new skills, you're not developing a deeper relationship which is essential to retaining those learnings. Hi, Paula.
Paula Festas [00:01:34]:
Well, hello, Katherin.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:01:36]:
That's Paula Festas. She's the young girl from the beach. Today, she's the co founder and CEO of Huumans.
Paula Festas [00:01:43]:
A little different, spelled with two u's. People always love this brand name. Essentially, it's a financial services industry cloud accounting for small businesses.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:01:54]:
Over 20 years, paula's done just about everything you could think of in the advertising space. She's worked in companies like CBC and global in print, digital broadcasting, and sales. All those positions gave her opportunities to learn how to scale companies and lead teams.
Paula Festas [00:02:10]:
Until I made a move into the small business world and startups.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:02:16]:
When she started her corporate career buying ads for clients, paula adjusted quickly to her work environment. But making the move to sales was tougher. In her new position, Paula found herself surrounded by a certain kind of guy who had male dominated perspectives she was forced to contend with. But Paula isn't the type to be pushed around.
Paula Festas [00:02:36]:
It was one of those things where, of course they know, oh, how can you sell? What do you know about know? Those types of conversations that just fueled me, that fueled me to be better, do better, prove them wrong. And time and time again, that's exactly what I did. And then eventually, when I got into the leadership level, where I was actually running teams of salespeople, then it was a different perspective. Then I had to deal with a lot of the women aren't sales leaders as much as men are, and dealing with senior male CEOs on the agency side who aren't used to having women come in and have these strategic conversations with them. So there was always that a little bit of the male dominated industry that at times I struggled with. I'd come home and I'd be upset, and sometimes I'd even cry because there are comments that were made, things like that. But again, all those things just I just learned from them some of these sayings are a little old school, but they resonate when they say, treat people how you want to be treated. In my corporate career, sometimes the way I was treated was unbelievable. I just always thought, how can you treat me this way when I know you would not want to be treated that way? Being aggressive, being mean, calling people out in front of people. Why would you do that? That to me, is just not the way that you probably are at home with family and friends. I had a boss who was just I hate to say it, but he was a bully and he was narcissistic. And it was interesting because when he hired me, one of the first conversations I had with him was, if you're looking for someone who is a yes person, is going to do exactly what you want them to do. I am not that person. Do not hire me. But if you're looking for someone who knows the landscape, understands, has opinions, will challenge you in a respectful way, then I'm the person. And he said, Absolutely, that's what I'm looking for. And unfortunately, that was not the case. And so I remember one time we had a preparation meeting for a forecast for the upcoming year, and I was working with three different teams because I led the whole revenue organization. And we worked so hard in putting together our thoughts on what the forecast was going to be for the year. And we barely got started in the meeting, and we had the first person talk about their division, and he just stopped the conversation. Looks at me in front of six other senior leaders and said, this is BS. This is not good enough. Just really reaming me out on the whole thing. Why are you guys doing forecasts that will not allow us to be profitable as much as we want to? Just different things like that. And just kept going and going and going and going. And it just was uncomfortable for me, but uncomfortable for everybody else in the room. Right? Because how do they react to that?
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:05:47]:
This happened to Paula in 2018, and five years later, the problem hasn't gotten any better. Kinsey and Lean In report that today women leaders are exiting companies at twice the rate of men. But did you also have opportunities to have mentorship come along the way? Were there people who you remember fondly?
Paula Festas [00:06:08]:
Oh, my goodness, yes. I tell people this all the time. And because of the mentorship that I had, part of that reason is why I give back so much. And I mentor people now because if it wasn't for the mentorship, I don't know if I would have been able to get through it. I tell young people all the time, the best thing you can do is find yourself some coaches and some mentors. Do not be afraid to ask. And along the way I certainly did. And I had both male and female mentors, and I still remember the one male mentor that really did help me was right from when I started my internship at Global Television. He was the head of sales and he really taught me a lot and he was very straightforward with me and told me, these are the things you're going to encounter. And along the way, for the next ten years of my career, anytime I needed to make a change or consider making a change in my career or was struggling with something, I always reached out to him.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:07:03]:
Quick question. How do you help people who haven't found their passion yet? What do you tell people?
Paula Festas [00:07:11]:
I always try to tell, especially young folks who finish school, don't think that you're going to have it all figured out in the next year because of course they want to. We all wanted to, but the reality is, sometimes you're going to have to try and test different things. So I always begin by saying, choose something you're passionate about. Because if you're working, it doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur, you start something or you're working for a corporate company, if you are doing something that you are not enjoying, you're going to get burnt out, you're not going to like it, and you're going to want to move on. So try to find out what that passion is and then try to go and either build something in that scope or work for a company that really allows you to have that passion.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:07:57]:
Now that you're in this position, how do you find yourself being inspirational to the people around you?
Paula Festas [00:08:02]:
We're all remote across the country, so how do you stay connected? How do you encourage people to give their best and make them feel like they own part of this company, that they're part of growing this to the level that we want to get it to? And those are the things I try to instill. We have things like Friday wind down at 230 every Friday. We all get together and we just talk about our lives, what are we doing for the weekend, those sorts of things. Even though we're so small. I created a mentorship program just because I really believe in that. And all the senior leaders are now able to put their hand up and say, I want to mentor. It's not just about mentoring you in this current role. It's about mentoring you as a whole. What do you want to do here outside of this, and how can I help you get there? And these things just make our employees and the people feel like they're part of the team and they can grow within the team.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:09:00]:
How do you handle training someone, being their mentor? And then you realize that the position they were hired for is no longer the position they want. They just want to grow out of it and do something else. And then you have to now find somebody else to fill in the role. Does that ever happen?
Paula Festas [00:09:16]:
Oh, all the you know, I'm a big believer. I've got examples even at Yahoo. So for me, as I'm coaching and mentoring somebody, of course I'm doing it so that I can try to keep them in the company and help them grow. But the reality is you're not always going to have a position for that person. And so I'm not the type of boss which I've had many times when someone leaves the company, they get upset. And I think, but if it was you and you had an opportunity, you would do the same thing, so why are you getting upset? And so I try to coach and mentor people to be ready for the role, whether that role is with our company or not. They worked with you, so it's your persona as well. You help them get there, and if they leave and say bad things about the company or they didn't have opportunities, that's not a good thing. And so, yes, sometimes it's tough because you got to look for other people. But again, it's just part of being in an organization. People leave and you have to hire new people and train them up again.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:10:27]:
Paula is clearly a gifted leader. With younger mentees especially, she knows that there are certain things they don't learn in school that would benefit them in the workplace, things that she's more than happy to dive into. So how did she develop those qualities?
Paula Festas [00:10:43]:
I come from a big family, and we're always there supporting each other. We went through a lot coming into this country as immigrants, so that support piece for me has always been ingrained in me. Along the way. I always coached people, I always helped people. And when I got into a people leader role, my first management role, I decided to take a lot of different leadership courses and management courses. And over the years, I've done so many people ask me all the time, which one should I take? What book should I read? And the truth is, you should create your own. And so I always did leadership courses, read a lot of books, took a little bit of everything, and made it my own because I am different than the person who wrote the book or person who did the course. And so I just really wanted to be the best people leader that I could be.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:11:31]:
Tell me, let's go back. You said something about your family and how you arrived here as immigrants. Can you share more about your background as a child and what your journey was there?
Paula Festas [00:11:41]:
Absolutely, yeah. My childhood was it's pretty crazy, actually. My parents are both Portuguese, from Portugal, but my dad, when he was probably 18 or so, back then, obviously you were in the army, and so Portugal had two different colonies that they would send their army troops to, and one of them was mozambique. So my father was sent to mozambique, and so he did his, I think it was four years, and at the end of the four years, he decided to stay there and build a life and a business. And this was his first entry point into entrepreneurship. As a matter of fact, my parents lived in mozambique for over 20 years there's. Four of us, three of us were born there, one of us was conceived there. As a matter of fact, my dad owned a lot of businesses in mozambique, and we mostly lived in the jungle. We had a big house in the jungle, and it was very different. The stories that my dad still tells us, and things that I remember snakes and all these sorts of things that no one in north america would ever experience.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:12:44]:
Do you remember watching your dad operate the businesses? Like, what did you take away from that?
Paula Festas [00:12:49]:
Oh, I did I take after my dad very much a people person, very much about helping others. And he had different businesses, and one of the businesses was a factory, and he had a lot of employees, and they were always at our house. We'd always have dinner with them. We would have get togethers afterwards, and parties and dancing, and that part I always remember. My dad taught me, treat your employees like as if they're your friends and family, and you will get the best out of them. And that's something I've taken in my entire career right up until now. So that's one of the things I learned from my dad.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:13:34]:
In 2018, paula was fed up. There's only so much yelling and burnout you can take before devising an exit strategy. Luckily, paula's desire to pursue entrepreneurship wasn't new to her family.
Paula Festas [00:13:47]:
My dad owned his own business in africa, as well as here, with a restaurant. My daughter actually owns her own business, my husband owns his own business. So I thought, okay, there's a pattern here. This is my time, it's your turn. It was an agreement on both parts, because I had done so much for the company. I over delivered. I had been promoted, I had delivered massive margin growth on the digital side. They didn't really need the role anymore because things were accomplished. And so together, we agreed that it was time to part ways, and I had the luxury of taking a year off. I was so burnt out. I had a very bad taste after 25 years in this industry, of this corporate world, and how things kept reoccurring the same way, that I just really thought, I need some time. And I didn't know if I was going to take three, six months time off, but I know I needed time. And quite frankly, it was my husband who really said, you've got the luxury to do this, just do it. So I took a year off, and I traveled the world. I went to 38 countries.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:14:54]:
Wow. 38.
Paula Festas [00:14:55]:
38 countries in about six months. On and off, back and forth. Yeah. Best thing I ever did.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:15:01]:
I want to hear about the travel. How did that change you?
Paula Festas [00:15:04]:
Oh, my goodness. It was amazing. So I was never able to do that travel. When I was young. A lot of people finish university and then they go off and travel for a year. I couldn't do that. I was helping my parents. So for me, this was, I'm an adult, I'm capable. My children are grown up. I can leave them alone for longer periods of time. And so just to be able to go and enjoy and not think about what's happening back here was so instrumental. Really get myself ingrained in the culture where I went to look at how people lived, to see the differences, what was important to them, just really kind of take a look at your own life and think about what's important to you. And then going to a country like Bali and seeing how happy everybody is with the minimal that they have just puts a whole different perspective. And for me, it really changed. And I had a big pivotal moment, not only on I'm not going back to the corporate world, but also just as myself. I used to say, I'm never going to retire. I'm going to run a company until I'm 75. And after that year, I completely changed my mind. And I said, that is not what I want to do. I don't want to do that. I want to be able to get to a point where I can retire when I'm ready to retire, so I can enjoy my life before I get to a point where I can't do the things I want to do. So that also changed for me.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:16:31]:
I agree with what you're saying there, because sometimes we wait until we're 70 or 80 to go travel, and maybe that's not the time where we have our health or the ability or even the income to do it. So you're right, maybe you have to try and make that decision before then. But let me ask you this. When you were in other countries, and especially the ones that have completely different cultures, were you able to observe how people ran businesses there? What did you find?
Paula Festas [00:16:59]:
Absolutely. You know, not so much in the corporate world. Depends on where, you know, when we were in Switzerland, people there really focus on life balance. Women have longer time to have matt leaves, like those sorts of things. So there are some countries like that that do a much better job of work, life balance and things like that. But a lot of them still had the same issues. If I'm speaking to a woman who's in a company that's male led, they're dealing with the same things. It's global. It's not just in North America. But what I also noticed was more in the small business. If I was in a country and I went into a retail store or a restaurant, it's just having these conversations with them. They built this business because they were passionate about it, not because they wanted to make money and not because they had a love for what I do today, the accountancy side or the bookkeeping, it's because they loved what they did.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:17:53]:
Did you ever encounter any challenges along the way? Is there a particular country where you felt like, this is really difficult, or I'm learning so much more about myself than I thought.
Paula Festas [00:18:03]:
We went to Cairo, we wanted to see the pyramids and we didn't spend a lot of time there. That was probably the most culture shock for me. There are people there waiting for you with guns and things like that, so it was just very different. But for me, the biggest culture shock there has nothing to do with that. It had to do with the fact that if anyone wanted to talk to my husband and I, they would always talk to my husband. They would not even look at me, not even talk to me. It was the questions were all directed at him, the good mornings, the whatever, was just towards him and not towards me.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:18:37]:
I guess after six months of travel, you come back with a new lens, you come back with something new under your belt. And so how did you propel yourself into the next phase?
Paula Festas [00:18:50]:
Yeah, I mean, even just when I was away, I would talk things through with my husband and I would say, I'm thinking about this, or I'm thinking about that. What do you think? Because obviously having the support of your partner is really important. And he always said to me, I think it doesn't matter what you want to do, you'll put your mind to it and you'll succeed at it. And so, yeah, I started having different conversations with people around startups and then I'd have a few conversations with a few startups and realize that this is what I wanted to do. Because I had learned so much in my 25 years across all gamuts of the business, that I thought, I have so much to offer for a small business, for a startup. I want to help them understand, figure out their strategy, their go to market plan, do they want to expand into other countries, all of that. I felt like I really loved it, and so that was pivotal for me.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:19:46]:
So what's the differentiator between Huumans and other startups? If you ask Paula, she'll tell you that it's the vision of where she sees her team going, that the way she sees herself solving problems is just as important as the solutions her company offers.
Paula Festas [00:20:02]:
We have a vision and we know what we want, which is great to me, going into a startup that is instrumental. Always think about what you want that end game to be, and then work it backwards, because if you start with, just let's just build it up and see how it goes, sometimes that doesn't work. And so for us, we know that we want to build a business and create a small business ecosystem where a small business can come to us for anything to do with financial services. And they struggle just like my dad struggled. They say things like, okay, I really don't have a clear lens into my finances. I don't know how much I'm burning per month, for example. So we have all these conversations, and we started to think, why wouldn't we partner with the best of the best for small businesses? And as clients come to us, we have a roster of top benefits, top insurance providers that make the most sense for small businesses and have them choose between those. There's two sides of kind of the accountancy side. There's small firms, and then there's the big firms, the big four, and we're kind of in the middle. We're that sweet spot for small businesses. What would we love to do, really build this out? And quite frankly, one day when one of those big four see what we're doing, they'll turn around and say, okay, we're missing this middle piece of the small business, and hopefully they acquire us, and then I can have that retirement I'm speaking about.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:21:35]:
So that's how you started with the end in mind, I see.
Paula Festas [00:21:38]:
Correct. That's how I started with the end in mind.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:21:46]:
You now, we could have ended the show right here, but I felt that there was one more piece of the puzzle to uncover. I wanted to know more about Mozambique. When I pressed her, paula shared some beautiful memories, some not so beautiful memories, and some experiences that were a little tough to listen to.
Paula Festas [00:22:05]:
People probably don't know this, but in Mozambique, they have beautiful beaches, and I still remember being very little and my mom and taking us to the beach. And it's very different because, of course, there's not a lot of people around because it's a local beach. And just playing in the beach till this day, there's nothing more soothing for me than being at a beach, listening to the water, the waves, and just playing in the sand. And I do remember having a lot of the employees come over, having big parties in the back and the locals playing the bongos and getting me up and dancing. And they used to do this fire dancing ritual around the fire, and I used to do it, and I used to sing in Mozambiquean to that. And then I have memories of my brother getting bit by a poisonous snake and then not telling my parents. And then my mom finding him where his leg right up to his knee was completely swollen and the poison was going through, and my dad running in and cutting where he was bit and trying to suck it out, rushing him to the hospital getting tetanus shots, like, almost dying. So there's like, these two sides of these memories, but these are things that when I tell people, they almost don't believe it because it sounds so unreal. But again, those are all memories that make me who I am today. The good and the bad.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:23:30]:
That's right. Did you ever go back there as part of your travels?
Paula Festas [00:23:34]:
Unfortunately, no. In 1975, when we came to Canada, part of the reason we came to Canada was because the Independency War broke out. So what they wanted to do is they wanted to take all the entrepreneurs who came from other countries and really just send them back. And unfortunately, it was not a positive experience. So my dad was very well off. He had a lot of businesses. And so they actually came this is such a tough story. More for my dad, because obviously I grew up here, but my mom and dad so they came to our house in the middle of the night, the militia and all that. And they basically shot down everything in the house, grabbed my mom and my two siblings and I. No birth certificate, no clothes, just our passports. And they sent us back to Portugal, and they actually took my dad as a hostage. They put him in jail, basically, because they wanted to learn his trade before sending him away. Unfortunately, a lot of my dad's friends, who also own businesses, never even made it back. And so here we are in Portugal, mom pregnant, three kids, three little kids, and we don't know what's happening with my dad. And it took him almost about seven months to escape, and we actually thought he was gone. And so he showed up in Portugal seven months later, and I still remember, obviously, I was Daddy's girl. He came and he took somehow he took my seven favorite bracelets that I had, and I woke up to him putting them on my wrist in Portugal, and it was just unbelievable.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:25:07]:
Wow. I am breathless. I'm sitting here listening to the story and, whoa. Okay. And I'm happy that there was a good outcome at the end. And I love the story with the bracelets because that made me cry. How did he escape?
Paula Festas [00:25:28]:
He was so lucky because a lot of his employees loved my dad. So it's funny because it's full circle comes back to the comment where my dad taught me, always treat your employees like family and friends. And it was his employees, a few of them, who helped him escape.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:25:44]:
They broke him out of jail.
Paula Festas [00:25:46]:
They pretty much did. It sounds crazy, but it was a war back then, right? It was 1925. This was not a fun time. It's like what you see in the movies. And, yeah, two of them kind of helped him escape, and one of them actually got caught, and he was thrown in jail and whatnot. But, yeah, they helped my dad escape. So, again, if he didn't treat those employees that way and make them feel like family, he wouldn't have survived that. So these are the things that I live by and really try to ingrain in any business, in any team that I ever work with. And it was amazing because, yeah, they helped him escape. My dad passed away two years ago. So just it's always with me. And even when he got here, after everything he went through, he didn't give up. And eventually he opened up his own business here. He opened up a Portuguese restaurant. And the recession hit. There was no cloud accounting and MacBooks, and he tried to do all the finances himself. And you know what? He lost his restaurant. We lost our home when I was 18 years old and about ready to go to university, but he still never gave up. And this is that other piece I take from my dad. It's okay, don't give up. Keep going. Look at all the things he's lived through and he still kept going. And so I take that with me until the day I'm gone. And I try to instill that in my kids and my family and anyone that I work with as well.
Katherin Vasilopoulos [00:27:18]:
Thank you so much to Paula Festas. You can learn more about Huumans through the link in the episode description. If you like the show, please rate review and subscribe to And So, She Left wherever you listen. Your feedback helps us to better serve current listeners and reach new ones. You can also fill out our quick feedback form. It's just five questions long and your response helps us to make the show that you want to hear. And So, She Left is made by Cansulta and Ethan Lee. We'll be back next Wednesday with a new episode. Our music is by Chris Zabriskie, edited for your enjoyment. You can find a list of all the songs you heard here in the episode notes. I'm Katherin Vasilopoulos, and thanks for listening.