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#BeTheGlue Podcast
🎙️ PODCAST Be The Glue Series — Episode 18 Hosted by Elina Kokorotsis
What does it really mean to hold an organization together — especially when things get messy? Tonja joined Elina for an honest conversation about people problems, leadership gaps, trust, and why sometimes the best thing you can do is let it break.
Want to have Tonja on your podcast, panel, or event?
Tonja brings 20+ years of HR leadership, a talent for translating chaos into clarity, and the kind of real-talk that makes audiences lean in. She's available for podcast interviews, speaking engagements, panel discussions, and advisory conversations.
Upcoming Events
Friday HR Briefing: Strategic HR vs. Administrative HR: What Does Your Business Actually Need?
Friday, October 23, 2026 (8:00 AM - 9:00 AM) (EDT)
The problem: "Strategic HR" is everywhere — a board conversation, a coach, an article someone forwarded — but most growing businesses don't know what it actually requires, whether they have it, or what triggers the need. It happens at five-employee companies and fifty-year-old companies alike, and rarely on the timeline anyone expects.
The fix: A clear way to tell administrative HR apart from strategic HR, plus a simple diagnostic for exactly what stage your organization is at right now.
What you walk away with: Clarity on where you stand today, what's actually driving the need to change, and what to prioritize next.
Presented by Tonja Ried, HR Executive and founder of TMR: Future of Work.
This complimentary meeting is open to Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce members only.
Lean Into The Crazy The Book
Lean Into the Crazy is a collection of real workplace stories from the back rooms of HR — the moments too absurd, too raw, or too human to make it into a policy manual. It's about the chaos nobody prepares you for, the humor that gets you through it, and the impossible gap between who organizations say they are and who they actually are. Funny, honest, and long overdue.
