In Episode 51 of The Gen Mess with Tess, Tess is joined by Corrine Ishio, founder of My Working Soul, to explore a challenge many fast-growing companies face but rarely talk about: scaling the business faster than the culture can keep up.
When organizations grow quickly, hiring often becomes reactive. Leaders focus on roles and results, while the human side of the company quietly gets lost. The result? Misalignment, disengagement, and teams that no longer feel connected to the mission that once energized them.
Corrine shares her perspective from years working in talent, recruiting, and HR; helping founders and leadership teams rethink how they hire, communicate, and define culture during periods of rapid growth.
In this conversation, Tess and Corrine explore:
They also discuss how leaders can create healthier workplaces by focusing less on rigid definitions of culture and more on communication, self-awareness, and intentional hiring. Because when companies grow quickly, it’s easy to forget the most important part of any organization: the humans building it.
00:00 – Introduction to Corrine Ishio & My Working Soul
01:05 – Corrine’s Path Into HR & Human-Centered Work
04:00 – What HR Actually Does (vs. what people think it does)
07:00 – Why HR Often Feels Stuck Between Employees & Companies
11:00 – The “Human” Lens Inside Business Operations
13:00 – The Meaning Behind “My Working Soul”
17:00 – Why Culture Breaks When Companies Grow Quickly
20:30 – What a Healthy Workplace Actually Looks Like
23:00 – Communication Differences Across Generations
29:30 – Why Younger Workers Are Often Misunderstood
34:30 – Purpose, Work, and the AI Era
38:30 – Are Younger Employees Harder to Manage?
43:00 – Millennials, Social Media, and Cultural Fragmentation
49:00 – Safety, Identity, and the Digital Workplace
","author_name":"Tess Brigham"}