Meet Leira Feves-Rodriguez, Operations and Finance Analyst at Goalbook
To know Leira is to know that she is extremely organized and loves to plan events. When you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that behind the organizational skills and event planning is a desire to truly serve and care for others.
Leira has always had a strong pull towards working with children. When she was a teenager, Leira began working in the special education classroom at her high school during her free periods. Through the years, she also worked as a nanny and took early childhood classes. When she entered the corporate world, she worked in various roles, such as an executive assistant, office manager, and operations manager.
At her core, Leira loves helping people. Working at Goalbook has felt full circle for her: she is able to help others and support students. While her role as an Operations and Finance Analyst is more behind the scenes, it is critical in creating smooth day-to-day logistics and memorable experiences for the whole team. In this Q&A, Leira gives insight into how she finds meaning and fulfillment in her role on the Operations team.
1. What attracted you to Goalbook’s mission?
It’s so hard to find an EdTech company like Goalbook that is so highly driven and focused on helping educators to ensure that all students do succeed. You see a lot of companies that have mission statements, only to join a company and find out that mission statement is nowhere to be found in their work.
For me, I find that Goalbook’s mission is so deeply rooted in all of our work, across all teams. Goalbook is also very intentional. I saw this intentionality during my interview process. In my interviews, I could tell that the mission was very real and very much at the forefront of the work here. I knew that it was a mission statement that wasn’t just something Goalbook puts on the website. I could see that people lived it every single day.
“Knowing that I helped create opportunities for people to connect is one thing that makes this role so enjoyable. I know that there’s meaning in showing up for work every day.”
2. What is your role, and what are your favorite parts of it?
My role encompasses many things: benefits, travel support, onboarding, HR, planning and facilitating team weeks, and helping with team and company finances.
One of my favorite parts is definitely the team weeks because I love to plan things. I’m a big planner. Organization is my jam. When we get together for those weeks, I see everything that I planned, play out in real time. People really enjoy their moments together and have thanked me for helping with the team weeks. It has been so great for me to help team members connect with each other and for me to connect with them, too. It’s super fulfilling to see all of that come together.
Knowing that I helped create opportunities for people to connect is one thing that makes this role so enjoyable. I know that there’s meaning in showing up for work every day.
Another one of my favorite parts is knowing we help every single person on the team, in one way or another, and in turn, make their day easier or smoother.
3. What does your day to day look like?
It’s consistently busy all year because, even if there is a lull for everyone else, that means Operations is in the background gearing up and preparing for something else. There are a lot of things we do behind the scenes that the rest of the team may not be aware of. Our team is “go, go, go” all the time; it just depends on the time of year as to what that “go, go, go” is.
Right now my work is very team-week focused as we’re getting closer to our Summer Week. It’s a lot of project-based work for me, but I love it because it’s very much in my wheelhouse. I just love to do it.
4. In your eyes, how does your work support Goalbook’s mission?
I don’t secure a sale, I don’t go out and lead professional development training or anything like that. But if a team member reaches out and says, “I’m going to this PD, can you help me book a conference room?” I can help them with that.
Another example is me planning the team weeks, processing payments, helping with travel requests; all these little behind the scenes things allow the team to go out and do the work they need to do without the additional distractions of wondering if their flight is booked or paid for. It’s logistical things they don’t have to worry about because I and the others on the Operations team are doing those things for them.
We want our teammates to go out and succeed so that they are able to help educators feel supported, and in turn, those educators can leave those experiences and ensure their students get the support they need to be successful. So even though my work doesn’t directly impact those educators or students, I know it directly impacts the team, which then directly impacts the educators and students. Our work is integral and very much intertwined with one another.
5. How do you work and communicate with your manager?
I’m very clear and direct as a person, so that’s how I am with my manager. I also ask that my manager be clear and direct with me. If they need something improved or updated, I ask that they be vocal about it and let me know. For me, communication is the biggest thing. Without it, it’s very hard to achieve what they or I want.
We have 1:1 meetings once a week, but we also have a lot of overlapping meetings. So I see my manager a lot. She isn’t one to shy away if I have a question for her, and I want to get on a call with her. She’s always available when I need her. She and I are very clear with communication, and it works really well for us.
Our whole team is available when we need each other. If we need help, we hop on a call and talk it through together. I think that’s why we are such a strong unit because we ask each other for help. We’re not afraid to say, “Hey, I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do here. Can someone just walk me through the process a little bit?” The communication is huge and goes across the whole team.
6. What are one or two things you love here?
I love our sense of community here at Goalbook. I have always felt so supported and heard no matter who I talk to, and it makes showing up for work every day a lot more meaningful. It doesn’t matter the team, because even in our whole team meetings, when we break out into small groups, it’s always so nice to connect with people. It never feels like a burden.
I’ve worked with other companies where, when I started a role, they were like, “Welcome to the team. It’s great to have you.” And then after my onboarding, it was literally crickets, and I didn’t hear from people. I have never gotten that from any teammate here ever. This speaks volumes to how Daniel is as a leader, and how that trickles down through each department.
I’m really grateful to work for a company like Goalbook because, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, you need people, and you need to surround yourself with good people. Working for a company with good people is a game-changer for me.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you can plan things as much as possible, but you have to be realistic that something will happen and go wrong.”
7. What have you learned in your role so far?
The biggest thing I’ve learned is that you can plan things as much as possible, but you have to be realistic that something will happen and go wrong. That’s just how it goes. You have to be willing to be adaptable. It just doesn’t work with the flow to be rigid. So I’ve learned to be adaptable.
For example, our setting for our Winter Week 2023 was a mess. During that week we had so many times where we as a team had to pivot quickly on the spot due to issues with the food, or layout, and multiple team members got COVID, so we had to end the week early. That week was the most stressful week of my life. Scenarios like this show exactly the strength of our team and its core foundations, and for us, it was the communication, being willing to work with each other, and being adaptable that allowed us to pivot.
8. What Operations team activity has been your favorite?
Glass blowing during Summer Week 2023. I’m a very creative person, so for me having something to do with the team and being able to physically take it home with me was a gift. Being able to take something home we created ourselves, and having a memory tied to it, holds a lot more weight.
Letting people decompress by working with their hands and doing something creative was really, really nice. Everyone really enjoyed it, and I got a lot of great feedback from the team.
9. What are you reading/watching/listening to right now?
Reading: I’ve just recently finished all of the Sarah J. Maas Throne of Glass series. I was very late to jump on that bandwagon, but when I jumped on, I binged all of the books in a very short amount of time.
Watching: I kind of watch a little bit of everything. My husband and I just finished watching The Crown, which I loved. We’re going to start watching Peaky Blinders again because I think we’re halfway through. We also love to watch comedy and romcoms, so The Office is a favorite and The Big Bang Theory. Also Friends! I love having shows like that on in the background if I’m cooking or cleaning.
Listening to: My husband and I both listen to a lot of reggaeton. I can also jam out to some old school 90s, R&B, hip-hop, and things like that. When I need to zen out, I listen to classical music. It really depends on my mood, but I’d say 90% of the time it’s reggaeton.
10. Early bird or night owl?
It depends. I’ve been shifting my wakeup times to earlier because I like to start my workday earlier and then get off earlier because I’m trying to spend more time with our dogs outside since it’s getting nicer out. We’re in Oregon, and we really take advantage of the nice weather here when we have it.
During the week, I like my routine, so I keep it fairly structured and quiet. I tend to go to bed earlier during the weekdays so I can be fully productive.
On the weekends, I’m very much a night owl. I like to say that, but you know, sometimes I will fall asleep before 11 pm. So it just depends on if we have plans or we’re going out somewhere, then I can definitely stay up. I just play it by ear.
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