MEL #059 | From Student Researcher to National Nonprofit Founder through Taking Initiative and Turning Relationships into Impact with Paul Faronbi

FARONBI (00:00)

I tell people like, this is the secret to networking is just to get the other person to do most of the talking. Cause the thing that people know the most about is themselves. And when you’re trying to start a conversation, just ask people about themselves and then listen to what they’re saying and then keep the conversation going.

ADAMS (00:41)

In this episode, I speak with Paul Faronbi regional senior R &D process engineer at Mars and founder of IncrediPaul, whose mission is to empower young professionals in STEM to become the most incredible versions of themselves. Paul started out determined to become a doctor because he wanted to help people. Along the way, a conversation with his father and exposure to research shifted his path toward chemical engineering. Through research, internships, and industry experiences, he discovered a passion for consumer products and R &D work.

that connects engineering to real world impact. In our leadership segment, Paul shared how he founded and scaled Nala STEM during a time of uncertainty in 2020. When the pandemic disrupted plans, he stepped into leadership by pivoting to virtual engagement and building a national network from existing relationships. This required initiative, adaptability, and leveraging long-term connections. Paul’s advice for aspiring engineering leaders.

He emphasized that leadership requires intentional development. He encouraged engineers to actively seek growth through podcasts, books, mentorship, and real-world practice. His core message is simple. If you want to be a leader, you must consistently act like one. Explore the full episode summary, including guest bio, key takeaways, transcript, and recommended resources in the show notes at drangeliqueadams.com slash podcast. Without further delay, here’s my conversation with Paul Faronbi

ADAMS (02:02)

Hi, Paul. Welcome to Mastering Engineering Leadership.

FARONBI (02:04)

Hi, Angelique Thank you so much for having me here.

ADAMS (02:07)

I am thrilled to have you. Can you start out by telling us how you got into engineering?

FARONBI (02:11)

Yeah, so I got into engineering by trying not to get into engineering. So it’s funny, I grew up really loving the math and science, all the things. But from when I was probably five or six years old, I knew I wanted to do something that helped people. And I said I would become a doctor because like doctors help people and there was a done deal.

So up until I was 18, really, applying to different colleges, going to universities, I said I wanted to get my undergrad in pre-med and then go to medical school. And I think it was up until when I was, I can’t remember which school it was. I think it was a school in Missouri. So I grew up in St. Louis. And I had said this so many different times that I was gonna go for pre-med and then this school specifically was saying.

pre-med is not a major. I was like, what are you going to major in? And I was like, all right, maybe biology or chemistry. And so the backstory behind that is just, I’d heard that that’s a of people do to go into med school, but for anyone who’s gone to med school as a doctor knows you can pretty much major in whatever you want as long as you have the prereqs. And after saying that, I had a conversation with my dad who is an engineer.

And it was funny because he saying like, whatever reason, like you go through college and you don’t become a medical doctor. Do you want to become a biologist or a chemist? And I said, absolutely not. It’s med school or bus. That’s it. And he’s like, well, like, obviously you can, you can do what you want, but maybe think about something that you would still be interested in doing, even if it wasn’t what your end goal.

And so that kind of took me down the path of, okay, I’ve always liked math and science. I’ve always been good at math. Love the sciences more so on the biology side, biomedical side. And so was trying to figure out what difference, what schools I could go into, like what majors I could declare and ended up deciding on, I want to do something on the biomed side of things. And when I ended up going to school at Iowa State University and they didn’t have a biomed

program specifically, but they had bio med minor that was in the school of biological systems or in chemical engineering. And so I ended up going through the chemical engineering route because a lot of that stuff had to do more with the human body and biological systems had more to do with plants. And so that took me down the path to becoming a chemical engineering major. And from there, why I went to Iowa State is

There was a program called Speed It was a summer program for enhancing engineering development. And so it was an opportunity to do research or do different classes. I was on the research track. And so I did that the summer before my freshman year in college and that

really set me on a trajectory to where I am right now because I was in that particular lab, in a biology lab, working with a chemical engineering lab, and I ended up being in that lab for the next four years. And so that really set me on the path towards engineering and understanding that I loved the idea of doing research and just the process behind it, learning how to go about it and really understanding it is a long process. I know a lot of people are like,

What does research look like? And it’s, it can take a lot. There’s lot of things you just don’t know. You’re learning different things, different activities, and a lot of patients, I will say. So that took me down that trajectory. And then there’s a lot of other things along the way that led me to what I’m doing now, where I do a lot of stuff in research and development as an engineer. also have a podcast. I have a nonprofit.

So I say pretty busy, but I do a lot of stuff in the engineering space and STEM as a whole.

ADAMS (06:05)

That’s great. if I go back to… So what I didn’t hear you say is that I’m a doctor. so I’m just curious sort of where that transition happened when you said, yeah, I thought I really wanted to go into med school. And that was, as you said, med school or bust. But then something changed and it sounds like it may have been the research experience.

But maybe just talk a little bit about that transition for you, how you made that decision to not do that and to do something else instead.

FARONBI (06:38)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. You caught on pretty well. Like there was a transition that happened. It was more so, and I think my whole career has been deciding on doing something, walking in that and then discovering something else I enjoyed more. I always tell students or people that I mentor or coach is that just go after something. The worst you can do is find out like maybe you don’t enjoy as much as you do and then you can try something else. That’s just the beauty of life.

So that’s what happened with me. mentioned I did that summer program before my freshman year and really enjoyed the research we were doing. It was funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Army working on regenerating nerve cells, the peripheral nervous system. using trans-depreciated mesenchymal stem cells. So that’s a mouthful, but just using cells that are adult stem cells derived from the bone marrow and changing them into a neuron-like.

stem cells, so something that was less invasive. And so there’s a lot of work that went into that, years, years upon years of work. And so I got to learn a lot of that stuff. going back to what I said at the beginning is I wanted to become a doctor so I could help people, but realizing that being a doctor was not the only way to help people. And so when I got into the research and really started to dive deep into that,

I really enjoyed it and I stayed in that lab for all four years, eight semesters, I should say more specifically, because I took semester off for co-op and I got different industry experience that some I liked, some I didn’t like as much and that kind of led me towards where I am now.

ADAMS (08:14)

can you just talk a little bit about what you’ve done from leaving that laboratory experience in undergrad through to the kind of work that you’re doing now?

FARONBI (08:22)

Absolutely. So I will say that it took me a while to finally pull the trigger to I’m going to go into industry. Up until my last semester, I was still going between am I going to go to graduate school or am I going to go the industry route? But leading up to there, like I mentioned, I had done, I had volunteered in the lab for the first year and then I became a paid lab assistant.

And then I did a summer experience. So I was able to, I don’t know if your audience is familiar with the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, but they do a lot of stuff with helping students who are underrepresented in STEM, giving them an opportunity to do research during the semester. And so I was able to get a grant to do summer research in a lab.

that I was already at. So I already knew I wanted to do this research and they gave me funding so I could do this full time. Cause a lot of times you have to work part time and then do something else. So I went to work full time over the summer and that really was the foundation of my first internship experience that I really crafted on my own. And so this was me as a sophomore right after my sophomore summer.

And I was able, I was working with a freshmen student, also a high school student, which I even know they were like a junior in high school already doing this. And so it was like a smaller team that I got to lead really as like a 19, 20 year old, like we’re working with the PI, a smaller part of the project. So I was able to build some leadership skills there. And so from there, I really enjoyed it. But then I also had questions about, okay, I’m going to school to be a chemical engineer. What does it really mean to do this?

in industry, so I did the whole going to the career fairs, networking, trying to get different opportunities. I was able to land a co-op with Cargill. Cargill does a lot of different stuff within the food supply area, but I was more so on the soybean crush and refinery. So it was a co-op, so seven, eight months, I was in Wichita, Kansas.

which I guess is not too different from going to school in Iowa. State University, Ames Iowa. And I got to do a lot of stuff just understanding what it is to do large scale production, refining soybean into meal, extracting the crude oil. And there was also a refinery next to where they made the into different dressing, dressing sauces and oils that they called it.

And so it was a good experience, but I also understood that this was not what I wanted to do long-term. And so from there, I had an opportunity to just explore, go to the career fair again, had another summer internship this time in the consumer packaged goods, sold a lot of the companies that Cargill supplies. So this was actually with Nestle USA.

And so this one was in Jonesboro, Arkansas. And that’s where I really found the love of what I do today. Cause I, since then really been a consumer package because the whole time I really love the opportunity to work on different things and different products and be able to go in a store and see it every day. I geek out about it. The stuff that I, different companies I’ve worked at and be able to, especially the ones I work at right now and go and

see the different codes and have to know, this was made at this site. Or I’m always putting out random facts about, I know this is made here or this is made there. Like one fun fact, because I used to work at the site for General Mills and I worked full time in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And I don’t know if it’s still the case. So someone can fact check me if they’re working there right now.

is they were the sole supplier of Golden Grahams and Reese’s Puffs for the whole United States. And so that was a fact I would pull out at different gatherings. like, did you know that they are the sole supplier while I was working there?

ADAMS (12:14)

Yeah, I’m sitting here kind of chuckling thinking I could envision how going from, you know, this sort of cutting edge research in the lab, working in stem cells, going from that to no offense to, to soybean producers in any way, or form, but going to like soybean manufacturing process. Now it very much, you know, manufacturing important, you know, industrial process, but I could see as a young engineer, how that would be kind of meh.

compared to what you were doing before. So was sort of like you swung from these two extremes. But then it sounds like you found something that’s really important, but you understood about yourself that I kind of want to be, I like manufacturing, I like these processes, but I kind of want to be able to have it be tangible, something I can go out and see and.

FARONBI (12:43)

yeah.

ADAMS (13:02)

see it in the stores and see it out in the real world and maybe even attach yourself to it and to some extent be able to tell friends about it, be able to have the fun facts. So I could totally, I could see how you kind of settled on this, finding the parts of the engineering that really speak to you. So that makes a lot of sense. I’m just chuckling about that.

FARONBI (13:20)

It’s hilarious. And I definitely jumped around a little bit there. I could go deep into any of these if you have more questions, but that’s kind of the path.

ADAMS (13:31)

And so now you, in addition to doing the engineering side, I you are helping people in other ways too, with their careers, with, you know, maybe finding out some of these things about themselves that you have found out about yourself. Can you just talk a little bit about that side of the work that you do?

FARONBI (13:46)

Yeah, so in addition to what I do, so I’m a senior R &D engineer for Mars Petcare. People know it for the candy, but it’s actually the largest pet care company in the world. And so I’m on the pet care side. I do a lot of stuff with, whether it’s with a nonprofit where it’s focused on people who are underrepresented in STEM. So that’s NALA STEM, National Alliance for the Acceleration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

It’s a mouthful, so we just say Nala STEM. Or IncrediPAL, which is all the stuff I’m wearing, whereas the hat or the t-shirt is empowering Gen Z professionals to be incredible. So I focus in on the leadership and personal growth side of things, really understanding that when you’re in STEM or in engineering, we learn the hard skills, the technical skills. We don’t learn the soft skills, which I don’t like calling them soft skills. I like to call them…

I like calling them leadership skills or life skills because they’re. Yeah, exactly. Because there’s something that you have to do to be to be successful. Like in every job or every career, you’re always going to have to work with people. And I think a lot of times it’s really easy to say, oh, I just want to work with the code or the equipment or these different things. And then at the end day, you’re going to have to work with someone. If you’re not able to communicate properly, you’re not able to.

ADAMS (14:47)

by the way.

FARONBI (15:12)

build up the skills, it’s gonna be really difficult for you.

ADAMS (15:27)

All right, Paul, can you give us an example of how you use leadership skills in your work?

FARONBI (15:30)

So I talked a little bit about NALA STEM and National Alliance for the Acceleration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and that has taken a lot of leadership because I’m the founder and I was able to bring people along to do this work. So it’s one of those things I think

in my career and my life is just coming upon things and then just taking it by myself to do a little bit more. So the foundations of NALA STEM actually came from another nonprofit that I helped co-found. And so that was through LSAMP, which I mentioned, Louis Soakes Alliance for Minority Participation. Iowa State had a local chapter or a grant specifically dedicated to that called INSPIRE.

so we, me and another alumni at the time, Cree, Sir, Narte, like we helped to create I Lack, which is a nonprofit focus to help with different conferences and just support for students and Iowa state and the other institutions in Iowa.

So that was a foundation. And from there, realized that we had a lot of people who were alumni that wanted to come back to their conferences, give back to students.

be on panels, help with mentorship. Really the mentorship was the key component of it. And it’s something that I always talk about because it’s really hard to accomplish things without a mentor. It’s not impossible, but it’s pretty hard. You wanna have someone that has walked the same halls as you, gone through similar things and tells you everything’s gonna be okay. Or even maybe it’s not gonna be okay, but they’re gonna be here with you to walk you through it.

So that was a key thing. And then from there, there was a regional center of excellence that had helped with all these different LSAMs because there’s 50 plus around the nation and they help put on different conferences. And so it was back in the end of 2019, I had reached out to see if there are other alumni organizations helping these other LSAMs.

and because we wanted to partner with them and they said there was not and they asked what we were doing and I said I presented a plan and they loved the idea and they said that they’ve been thinking about doing something on a larger scale and they asked me would I consider leading it and I was like that was not the plan my plan was I had this organization I just want to see how we could partner with others

but they pushed a little more and I’m a person of faith. I prayed about it and I thought, okay, like if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. And then I could just go on doing other things. And so in January, I met with some of the people at the institution. So it was through IUPUI and Purdue, they were the lead institution. So met with their PIs, presented the idea and…

we wanted to just see who would be interested. So there’s a lot of different conferences coming up in Chicago and Missouri and I think in the South and there we’re gonna go to the different conferences and present the idea of what we’re doing and see who was interested. So we went to the first, I’m laughing because we went to the first conference in February, went really well, people were super excited and this was February of 2020 and I’m laughing because

A month later, we did not know what was going to happen with the world literally shutting down. mean, it was somewhat shutting down in other parts of the world. The US just didn’t know what was going on in late 2019. But by March of 2020, everything kind of shut down. And so all the conferences we had planned to go after Chicago were canceled, obviously, because we just don’t know what’s going on. Everyone is just trying to survive at that point.

think there’s a lot of leadership stuff that came from me to say, to think about this is a time that people still need support, probably now more than ever, because everyone is completely isolated. They don’t know where to go. They have really no hope. And so what I did, because I was still leading, helping lead the other organization like I mentioned. So we had co-leads between me and Queenstir leading it. So I told her, I like, I think,

I need to focus in on this. If you can focus and you can lead this organization. And we had other people on the board too. So it wasn’t just us two, but we were the ones leading it. So I told her I would focus in on this new initiative that’s going on a national level and just see where it goes. And I recruited a couple other people that were a part of Inspire originally. And I knew them personally.

So that was Lizette Tamayo and Natalie Fuentes. And so Natalie and I, both went to Iowa State University, didn’t study the same thing, but we had gone through different student organizations together. actually helped start a student organization. So we’d been through something similar years prior. And then Lizette Tamayo, I had met her at a conference through Inspire, probably like,

three years prior. So this is why I tell people about how important networking is. I met Natalie at Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers my freshman year at just a membership meeting, eating pizza. And we’re still good friends to this day. And then, and also helped found two different organizations and a student organization. Lizette Tamayo, I met

at a conference through Inspire as well, because she did not go to Iowa State. She went to Augustana College, but we stayed connected, so close to this day. And so it was from those relationships, I didn’t even know where they would lead to. We just had a mutual interest, and I’m someone that tries to stay in contact with people, especially when there’s shared interests. And so from there, we were able to build a foundation of what would become Nala STEM. And how we launched was a

Several months later, think October 1st, 2020, because it our launch day, we sent an email out. Because there’s a lot of stuff we were doing on the back end just to try and put all the structure in place, figure out what our focus was going to be, who we’re going to reach out to. And from there, we sent an email out. We got a lot of people that are interested from different parts of the country. We started putting on different networking events, different panels.

And really for the next year and a half, we had, I think we led, I can’t remember off the of my head, probably like 20 different events, whether it’s different panels, different conferences, different speaking engagements, different mentorship opportunities, just to get students and overall people, engaged. And that has been really rewarding. And I think a really

really impactful part of leadership that I was able to experience.

ADAMS (22:18)

I think so many people think that networking is about making sort of like making transactions or helping each other like in the moment, Everybody thinks about like networking happening, like if you’re at an event or something like that, that that is networking. And then if you don’t do it then.

then you lose your opportunity. And it sounds to me like you have found a way to somehow nurture these relationships over time. And so that when opportunities arise, months, sounds like maybe potentially even years later, you at least have enough of a relationship with people to at least hear you out. At least be like, oh yeah, okay, I want to hear what Paul’s up to now, you know? And then you can go from there. So can you just talk a little bit about

how you nurture these relationships over time.

FARONBI (23:06)

Yeah, so I realized in your question and even just in the last year that my ability to do that is not that normal because people ask me that question. That’s like, how are you doing this? I think it’s just because that I anytime I’m meeting people or talk with them, I try to find things that are similar or things that are just unique about them. So I’m a

pretty curious person. And I think that’s why I enjoy podcasting so much because I get to ask questions and get to learn things about people. And so anytime I’m meeting someone, it’s, and I tell people like, this is the secret to networking is just to get the other person to do most of the talking. Cause the thing that people know the most about is themselves. And when you’re trying to start a conversation, just ask people about themselves and then listen to what they’re saying and then keep the conversation going.

So I remember specifically the reason why Lizette and I connected, and I don’t know if she remembers this or not. Probably have to ask her this after the fact, is that we had started a student organization at Iowa State focused on research. And she was trying to do something, I don’t know if she was trying to do something similar or had some questions about what we were doing. So we connected on that. Oh, we started a brand new organization based on research.

And we just kept the conversation going from there. Obviously LinkedIn is a huge help as well. So I think a lot of people, I think more people now realize how impactful LinkedIn is. mean, that’s how we got connected was from LinkedIn. But it’s just too, a lot of people don’t take the extra step of reaching back out. And sometimes people think that it’s been too long or people are going to forget them, which maybe

I’ve just had a lot of failure therapy, which is like, I’ve tried and it hasn’t worked and I just tried again. But majority of the time I’ll say like 95 % of the time, maybe even higher, when I’ve reached back out to someone that I haven’t talked to in some cases years, they remember me and they’re willing to help. So one that popped up in my mind and I’ll come back to how I met Natalie was I was interviewing

for different jobs at a company, because I’m always telling people the best time to network and interview is when you already have a job. So I had different questions about this particular organization. saw someone that I had worked with prior also worked at our organization. And it just so happened that they were other people that we had done an event and we recruited them to talk about this launch that they had done. So at this point, it had been, I think, four years.

at least three years since I had talked to this person at all. And I just sent them a note. said, hey, I don’t know if you remember me, but you had helped us with this event a few years ago. I was just curious about your experience at this company. I’m interviewing with them. I just want to make sure it’s a good fit. And that’s all I said. they were like, Paul, I was like, of course I remember you. It’s like, how are you doing? It’s been a few years.

and they gave me the lowdown of everything. So, and I think it’s what I, what comes back to what I did at the beginning is having those connections early on. And it’s not like I make these connections early on because I’m like, I’m thinking three, four years later, I’m going to use it. It’s just the fact that I love, I love connecting with people and sometimes it helps down the road. Other times it’s just a good conversation and we all want better conversation.

ADAMS (26:39)

Yeah, I think that’s a really great point. It sounds like one, you do put in some effort in the front end when you’re meeting people. sounds like you’re really saying, like, actually try to meet people. Like, actually try to get to know them. I mean, if you’re gonna network, you might as well do it for real and actually try to get to know them a little bit. And then, of course, use something like LinkedIn to actually sort of make an electronic digital connection with someone. Yeah, it does help. And then…

Don’t be afraid to reach back out sometimes even years later because you might be surprised at how receptive people are. And I have found that to be the case too. mean, people tend to be really receptive when you reach back out. Oftentimes they’re flattered that you remember them, right? Another thing that came to mind in the example you gave you are

very much open to starting new things. So you’ve started several organizations. And so I’m just curious about what that is about you that says, okay, There’s not an organization here that can help with that. I guess I’ll just start it myself. So a lot of people just walk away and leave problems just right where they are. And don’t take the initiative to try to start something, to try to help. So can you maybe just talk a little bit about where that comes from?

and what your approach is to starting new organizations.

FARONBI (27:55)

Yeah, that’s a good question. I was told recently that I might have undiagnosed ADD, so maybe that’s part of it. But in all seriousness, I think it comes with being an engineer and being a problem solver. So when I see something that’s a problem, I want to solve it. One of the first things I’ll do is try and look and see if there’s something that already exists and I can connect.

with someone on it. So that was even how Nala STEM started is that we already had something at a local level and I was reaching out to see like who else is doing this and they, wasn’t my idea initially, but I was like, you know what? I can just try it and do it. And I think it’s it’s been building on different things. I don’t think if I had not started a student organization as a sophomore,

I wasn’t the only one, but I was one of the founding members of the student organization as a sophomore at Iowa State. I don’t think if I’d ever done that, it wouldn’t have led to other things. Along with, while I was in that student organization is when I got exposed to Inspire. And Inspire allowed me to be able to do internship over the summer. And that internship experience allowed me to get the co-op experience at Cargill. That co-op experience allowed me to get inter-

internship experience with Nestle and that internship experience with Nestle allowed me to where I wanted to do full-time with Jenner Mills. So a lot of the stuff that I’ve done has just built on each other and I think it’s really easy to look at the end result and say like, yeah, Paul did this, but in order to get where Paul is right now, there were steps along the way. And so that’s what I’m really passionate about when I see, especially students, Gen Z professionals like earlier in their career.

is when I see people passionate about something, I want to nurture that and like point them in the right direction because a lot of times you’re not sure about what you’re going to be doing and what you’re doing might not even exist yet. So a lot of the stuff that I was in the earlier part of my career after I was doing engineering stuff, I did a lot of stuff in continuous improvement.

And I had no idea what that was while I was in college, but then I spent a large portion of my career while I was at Nestle Parina doing continuous improvement work. And that laid the foundation and a lot of stuff I’m doing right now in research and development. So all of it comes together, but I think it’s being intentional about taking that first step, seeking out mentors and just being willing to try something new.

ADAMS (30:39)

All right, Paul, as we wrap up, what advice do you have for engineers who are interested in pursuing leadership roles?

FARONBI (30:45)

The advice I would give for engineers, or really anyone that wants to pursue leadership for all, is you need to be intentional about developing your leadership. And what do I mean by being intentional? Is you can say you want to be a leader to your blue in the face, but if you’re not doing things to practice your leadership or grow your leadership, one, it’s either not gonna happen,

Or two, it’ll happen and you’re not going to be prepared for it. So key ways to develop your leadership is you’re already doing one of them. You are listening to this podcast and that you are engaging with leaders who do it every day, who you’re learning from their mistakes, learning from the things that they thought you could do differently. And the other piece is just reading books. So podcasts and like this podcast already mentioned I’ll plug in.

My podcast as well, incredible leadership that’s specifically focused on Gen Z professionals, but the advice is relevant for everyone. I’ve just chosen to focus in on Gen Z and then the Maxwell leadership podcasts I really love as well. So I’m certified through John Maxwell as a trainer, speaker and coach. So lots of great content there and a book I will also recommend. So I’ll recommend two books if you haven’t read them.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Highly Effective People is a really impactful, say it’s in the realm of leadership, but I think just in life. It’s just a good life book, but it is a leadership book. Seven Habits, and then I really like Developing the Leader Within You 2.0. So that’s a book by John Maxwell.

So we also wrote a book that’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, which that’s a really impactful book. It’s a lot. I think a good starter book for leadership is Developing a Leader Within You 2.0 and really focusing in on that. But all comes down to what I said at the beginning is being intentional. So the fact that you’re listening to this podcast tells me that you’re someone that is intentional. You just need the resources and…

reaching out, connecting with people who are on this show. I’m sure like anyone who’s been on the show would love to stay connected with you. I would definitely love to stay connected. And I think those are really great ways that you can become a leader in engineering.

ADAMS (33:04)

Paul, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today.

FARONBI (33:06)

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a great conversation.