Marci Schnapp

Marci Schnapp, is an Opusuna® Strong Vision Mover/Founder, a business leader, consultant, coach, recruiter, and executive search expert with 25 years of experience and ten years of applying Opusuna’s teamwork theory and bias-free talent assessment.

Throughout Marci’s career, she has been on the leading edge of technology and recruiting. Before Opusuna, Marci founded New Media Links recruitment + rep agency and TeamQuest Advisors; both organizations ran successfully for over ten years each; clients include Microsoft, AOL, Dell, McCann, US Bank, CIBC, and many more.

Today, Marci leads Opusuna’s programs, partnering with consultants and organizations to recognize the opportunities and value that Opusuna provides in identifying and encouraging people’s talents and guiding them to ensure an organization’s future.

Where did the idea for Opusana come from?

Opusuna means work together. The name was selected because Opusuna’s assessment technology and team-building strategy are all about people working together.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

There is no such thing as a typical day – every day is different. I wear many hats. I make my days productive by using my time wisely. I have my goals in mind and I work toward my goals in order of priority. I keep a running to-do list and I use a cloud tool called Monday to organize my projects and to collaborate with team members and suppliers.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I bring them to life by creating strategies that are aligned with my vision for the company and my clients’ visions. I execute or direct others on those strategies. This is what brings them to life and generates revenue.

What’s one trend that excites you?

AI and Chat GPT are exciting. I am in the early stages of using Chat GPT but so far so good. I am also excited about integrating AI into Opusuna to create an even bigger and better platform than I have now.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

My focus is always on productivity, not in a physical sense necessarily, but in terms of producing a large quantity, deep breath, and panoramic scope of ideas, plans, and solutions

What advice would you give your younger self?

OMG, where to start…honestly, I hate this question. But it’s a good one… I would say that I should have been less trusting of people and more in in tune with my needs vs. taking care of others!

I also would have told my younger self to look at her business like a team sport and not as like means to ”caretake” those around me.

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

Widely used recruiting, interviewing, and hiring tools such as personality tests, strength finders, psychometrics, and IQ/EQ assessments were created with sexist and racist biases, and their continued use perpetuates systemic inequality in our families, businesses, and politics.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

Not be easily upset by the inevitable obstacles and difficulties that come across the in the process of making things happen and not be easily intimidated into changing strategies unless gain can be realized in taking action rather than changing things just to change them.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Continue to develop new products and services according to market demands and innovation.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

I chose the wrong partners twice. I hired lawyers and severed the partnerships. It was expensive and stressful…it’s like a divorce. It’s important to know when to give up and cut your losses, move forward, and learn from mistakes.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

Become an expert using an AI app such as Chat GPT or Canva; create a product or service that uses AI, that is in high demand, creates value and is tangible and then sell it.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I practice yoga and become stuck in my practice because the studio I practiced at closed during Covid. I was practicing on my own, and I felt stuck, so I decided to hire an instructor for private lessons…this was amazing. He helped me to get past where I was and move forward. My body and my mind feel better, and I know I can hire him anytime my practice feels stagnant. This is a good metaphor for life and business…we all need to work with others to improve ourselves…there is nothing we can create by ourselves.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

The software I use is Opusuna it helps me tremendously. It quickly and objectively evaluates the people I considering working with. I can’t stress enough that working with the wrong people stalls productivity, creates stress, and is expensive. I use it before I enter relationships. I explain to potential colleagues that I have a process that is objective and designed to help me identify the best people for my team – my business. It will inform us both if we are going to be compatible working together… hence the name Opusuna. After I have the results, I decided if I want to move forward with the relationship or if I want to pass. This is a very efficient and effective method of putting teams together and dodging potential bullets.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

Life is a Contact Sport by Ken Kragen is a 10-Step Program to turn ideas, causes, and careers into success stories. This book is life-changing…it’s easy to read and relate to and the examples are so clear. He describes life and business as a tennis game, and we need to know and understand where the ball is.

I have constant tennis games always going on inside my brain and I know where the ball is and if it’s my turn to serve, serve again, return the serve or ball, or leave the game!

If there is a close second book or tie it goes to Marianne Williamson’s “A Women’s Worth”. I think the title says it all…

What is your favorite quote?

“Collaboration is vital to sustain what we call profound or really deep change, because without it, organizations are just overwhelmed by the forces of the status quo.”
Peter Senge, American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learning. He is known as the author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization

Key Learnings:

• My life experience can help someone else
• Other people’s life experience has helped me
• It’s the things we do day to day big and small that make an impact, it’s not the things that are done to us or that happen to us that define us.
• The choices we make about whom we work with and for will make or break us!