40. Gina Heffner, VP, Centric Consulting, On bettering business by reducing travel

When Gina Heffner started her career, she was a typical consultant: a "road warrior," traveling all over the country week in and week out. She didn't mind and made it work, aided by the fact that her husband also traveled extensively and the couple didn't have children yet. But after a while, she found her way to Centric Consulting, a firm founded with the explicit purpose of bucking that industry norm. "Centric was started by three guys who said … 'We still want to do great work for great clients, but we want to work where we live,'" Heffner said. "And so 20 years ago, they founded Centric with the express purpose of getting consultants off the road." Heffner, who now leads the firm's Columbus office, said the different approach at Centric helped her identify what work/life balance looked like for her, even as she still spent plenty of hours helping clients. "If you ask 10 people what the definition of their work/life balance is, you're going to get 10 different answers, right? … I work lots of hours. I probably work … 50 to 60, sometimes 70 hours a week," Heffner said during a recent taping of our Women of Influence podcast. "For me, work/life balance was always: I'm not getting on an airplane, and I'm here to put my kids on the school bus, I'm here to get them off the school bus. … I get to schedule my day, every day, based on what's important that particular day."Mentioned in this episode:Let Crate Media help uncover your company's story and amplify your messaging with a branded podcast. Get a free one-hour casting session at crate.media/cbf