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BRX Pro Tip: Training is More Than Shadowing

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Training is More Than Shadowing
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BRX Pro Tip: Training is More Than Shadowing

Stone Payton: And we’re back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. You know, Lee, I spent quite a few years in the training and consulting arena, and I observed that we had a little different definition of what training really was. People had preconceived notions. What’s your take on training, and maybe some of the ways that people maybe don’t have the best definition or frame for what training really is and can be?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think a lot of people think that a shortcut to training is just have the person follow them around or shadow them. And that, I think, is really a mistake. A lot of people think that if you just shadow somebody, and they sit on some calls and they watch somebody who’s good at it do their thing, and then you go, okay, now just do what I just did. I don’t think that’s enough. And I don’t even think that that’s training. I think you’re just hoping that these people are going to figure it out.

Lee Kantor: And I think that real training requires structure. I think it’s important to have people actually do the thing you’re training them on while you watch. After they shadow you, then put them in place, watch them and give them feedback in real time on what they’re doing. Because just watching someone do it isn’t kind of that knowledge transfer you’re hoping for. Because a lot of times when they’re watching you, you have shortcuts and you have things you already understand because you’ve been doing it so long and they don’t have that context that you have. They don’t have kind of the repetitions and the experience that you have.

Lee Kantor: So, break down the why behind the what. Don’t just show them your process, explain your thinking, explain the decisions you’re making, and what you’re listening for in order to be effective. And then, create kind of safe practice scenarios. Let them mess up in a safe environment before doing it with real clients or real stakes. Training takes much more time upfront, but it saves you so much time on the back end. When people are actually trained, they don’t need you to constantly fix their mistakes or answer the same questions over and over. So, invest in real training. Your team and your business will be better for it.

Networking in a Digital World: Why Face-to-Face Still Rules

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Greater Perimeter Business Radio
Networking in a Digital World: Why Face-to-Face Still Rules
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On this episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio, hosts Lee Kantor and Adam Marx interview Avoilan Bingham, General Manager at Drive Capital and President of Atlanta Tech Week. The discussion explores Atlanta’s tech ecosystem, the importance of authentic networking, and the impact of AI on startups and venture capital. Avoilan shares insights on building community-driven events, the value of in-person connections, and the evolving skills needed for success in an AI-driven world, emphasizing that strong relationships and adaptability are key for founders and tech leaders in today’s rapidly changing landscape.

Avoilan-BinghamAn Atlanta native and ecosystem builder, Avoilan Bingham is the Atlanta Seed General Manager at Drive Capital where he leads early-stage investing for Atlanta & the Southeast. Avoilan also serves as the President for Atlanta Tech Week, a week-long celebration of Atlanta’s emerging tech ecosystem. Avoilan has spent his professional career as an operator and ecosystem leader coaching, advising and supporting high-growth teams across numerous sales and tech organizations and is focused on rethinking the way we create, engage and develop business solutions in an increasingly digitized world.

Avoilan has held numerous leadership positions throughout his career including Managing Partner at Atlanta based Venture Firm Vertical404, Director of Partnerships for music tech company MyMyMusic where he led corporate partnerships, outreach and growth strategy and was Head of Sales for the digital event SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, The Labz.

A Founding 100 Member and Stakeholder at The Russell Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RICE) and Foundation Member at The Gathering Spot Atlanta, Avoilan is actively involved in community and social initiatives for the betterment of Metro Atlanta.

Avoilan holds a B.S. in Sports Management from Guilford College (NC) and lives in the Metro Atlanta area with his wife and their children.

Connect with Avoilan on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • The Atlanta tech ecosystem and its growth dynamics.
  • The importance of networking and community building for startups.
  • The role of Atlanta Tech Week in fostering community-driven tech events.
  • The significance of in-person connections in the age of AI.
  • Insights into Drive Capital’s investment strategies and focus areas.
  • The critical factors venture capitalists consider when evaluating startups.
  • The evolving nature of networking and relationship-building in a post-pandemic world.
  • The balance between quantity and quality in professional networking.
  • The impact of AI on traditional job roles and the need for interpersonal skills.
  • The future of work in an AI-augmented environment and the importance of adaptability.

About Your Host

AdamMarxHeadshotMay24Adam Marx is a networking & leadership consultant, speaker, startup advisor, journalist & the founder of The Zero to One Networker.

Formerly the founder & CEO of music-tech startup Glipple, Inc., and as a writer appearing in Crunchbase News, Startup Grind, Mattermark, & others, Adam draws on more than a decade of experiences in the music & startup tech industries to teach others how to cultivate powerful relationships using strategies of patience, consistency, authenticity, & value creation.

As a networking consultant and speaker, Adam has worked with numerous organizations, including Georgia State University, TechStars Atlanta, the Atlanta Tech Village, ATDC (through Georgia Tech), & Startup Showdown, where he’s advised & mentored founders on how to develop magnetic dialogues & long-term relationships.

Adam’s talks include those given at Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, with a keynote at Emory University’s The Hatchery and as a featured speaker for Atlanta Tech Week 2024.MinimalFontBusinessLogo4

In addition to advising & consulting, Adam sits on the steering committee for InnovATL, cohosts LinkedIn Local ATL, emceed the 2022 Vermont SHRM State Conference, and was a workshop speaker at South by Southwest (SXSW) 2025.

He is currently working on his forthcoming book.

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn and Instagram and follow Zero to One Networker on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter. It’s time for Greater Perimeter Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Adam Marx another episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio, and this episode is brought to you by 0 to 1 networker helping founders, funders and operators build the strategic relationships and access that move businesses forward. For more information, go to 0 to 1 Networker. What a great show you got today!

Adam Marx: Yeah, I’m excited for this one because it’s it’s been a long time coming and I’m so excited. In fact, we’re just going to jump in, uh, and I, you know, I have Avoilan Bingham here with me today, and I’ll let him introduce his multi-hyphenate job title, as it were.

Avoilan Bingham: Absolutely. Uh, Adam, thank you for having me. Yeah. Avoilan Bingham, general manager and investor, would drive capital where I lead our early stage investment practice for Atlanta and the southeast. Also president of Atlanta Tech Week, Atlanta Tech Week this year, August 9th through the 14th all across Atlanta. So more details at Atlanta. And in addition to that, community director of AI tinkerers, where we have a monthly meetups with the best builders, technical builders in Atlanta. So product people, developers, engineers, founders, investors, people who are leveraging large language models and generative AI to build the future of technology. And we have the pleasure of hosting them at the Biltmore. Shout out to the Biltmore Innovation Center, and we host them on a monthly basis, talking about kind of all things tech, presenting all the new and crazy things that are happening in the world of AI and technology and, you know, super excited to be a part of those organizations and really excited to be here today.

Adam Marx: Now, this is like, how do I follow that? You know, it’s there’s so much good material there, and so much of it is overlaid with great relationships and building networks. I mean, let’s start let’s start with Atlanta Tech Week, right? Because I’ve had the pleasure and the honor of speaking at Tech Week for like the last two years, since since the inception, there’s always, I think sometimes a perception when there’s the word tech in the title or startups in the title, that it’s always going to be heavily technical and, you know, relationship building and network building sometimes can get swallowed up or somewhat outshined by sales marketing, those kinds of very important go to market strategies. But the network building component is something that you and I have had a very consistent dialog about for quite a while. And let’s talk about how that has informed Tech Week in the past till now, and how it’s going to inform it this year.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah for sure. Yeah. Tech week I think when we think about community, when we think about relationships, when we think about networking, those are all really, you know, core to how we’ve been able to scale it. I’ve been with Tech Week. Now this is my we completed my second year last June. This will be my third year this upcoming August. When we think about the growth, it’s been through relationships. It’s been through knowing people like you like a text or a phone call or, you know, lunch, like, hey, like I need you, you know, I want to hear your perspective. And it’s been that just continued kind of growth through those relationships and networking from potential partners, speakers, potential partners to help with programing. It also has led to how we think about Tech Week, where we host Tech Week. Right. So there are relationships across the metro Atlanta area. You know, it’s not just tech week in downtown. It’s tech week. You know around the perimeter. It’s tech week in Peachtree Corners, it’s Tech Week, downtown and Midtown and Buckhead and all these really fantastic places. But that doesn’t happen without the relationships to drive that support, to drive that engagement.

Avoilan Bingham: And so as we’ve continued to grow Tech Week, we really see Tech Week as the platform to build on top of right and the platform. What I mean by that is we create and enable the opportunity for people to, you know, create experiences, create events. It’s not just our team hosting a bunch of events. Our team actually hosts a small fraction of the events that happened during tech week. A lot of people maybe don’t realize that, but the majority of the events that are happening are either existing programs. They’re community driven programing where people see, hey, I have an idea for an event. It maybe is not the most technical event, but it is adjacent to technology or given the current landscape, we’re all using technology in some way. So how do we think about applying that in a way that’s community focused and community led. And that’s really what’s kind of led to our success. And a lot of that, again, has been through that networking, uh, you know, aspect to help build community in that way.

Adam Marx: I mean, I think that I think the community is just a great word. Uh, but it’s also a buzzword. It’s also, you know, everyone wants to have community, um, and, uh, invest in community, and I’m all for that. But I think that we need to really understand that community and snap and it’s quick, you know, and startups and tech, we’re often talking about getting that that flywheel and getting that, uh, product market cycle as tight as you possibly can. And what’s been very successful in, you know, our dialog and I’ve seen this also, I assume, with, with Tech Week as well, and is taking the time to look for what is the right activation, what’s the right opportunity that makes sense for all the people at the table. So everyone comes away feeling like they’re winning. Because I think a lot of times people can get confused. You know, network building can sometimes feel like, well, if I help someone get a job or get an internship or have an opportunity, then I’m now losing something. When in reality this isn’t the NBA finals where someone’s going home unhappy. There are ways for us to figure out how we all can can find success and come away from that table as as winners.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah. No. Absolutely no. You hit it right on the head. I think relationships are not a, you know, zero to, you know, zero sum game. Right. Like I think about those relationships as being able to to power not just you but the team around you, the community around you, the network of people around you. Um, it’s been important for us in our journey, um, with Tech Week and how we’ve been able to grow, um, you know, having a community of people that support us. And so as we think about what those relationships mean, particularly if we kind of shift the conversation to startups, you know, I work with a lot of early stage startups, invest in a lot of early stage startups, and it’s all local. It’s all relationship based, right? And it’s about who you know, who in your community that, you know, there’s a problem that they need a solution to solve. At this stage, it’s all about selling local. And so that’s a big a big focus when you think about like how do you scale and grow. Its with the community. We’ve seen that in the companies that we’ve invested in have also been a beneficiary of that as well.

Adam Marx: Well, you know let’s, let’s let’s jump on to that. Let’s talk about let’s talk about drive capital and your experience in venture capital. You know, in the venture capital landscape. Um, because I don’t know if our listeners may know, drive capital is based out of the Midwest, right. Um, and you can talk a little bit about that, but what I really want to start to cover is, uh, in the start up game, finding access to venture capital is often seen in a very kind of binary way. You get your pitch and then you pitch, and you either get the money or get the deal or you don’t. You move on. And from what I’ve seen, knowing a lot of people in venture capital, a lot of people in different kinds of financing, it’s much more long term because you may be just not where where they are, where that firm is. You may be a little too early, but there’s a way to grow that dialog. Or maybe you’re just not in what the industry that they the vertical that they’re in, but there’s an opportunity for them to possibly make introductions or keep an eye and help you out. So let’s talk about what you would say to startups regarding building relationships and maintaining those relationships, even when it’s not money right now in the bank?

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah for sure. I’ll give a little bit of insight on drive and then happy to to answer that. So a little bit about our firm Drive Capital, established in 2013, uh, based out of Columbus, Ohio. Uh, we are one of the largest venture capital firms in between the coasts. So we think of our kind of geographical footprint as far west as the Rocky Mountains, to as far northeast as the Hudson River Bay. So think like Toronto. Uh, when we think about the cities that we’re in, uh, I manage our Atlanta office, but we have office presence in Toronto, Chicago, Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colorado. Uh, when we think about like, what we’re investing in, we’re investing in, you know, founders, phenomenal founders who are building the future of technology. Right? So thinking about companies that can become unicorns can become billion dollar valuated type of companies. How do we find and evaluate those companies in our geography and invest in them? And so these are companies that are leveraging AI today. Uh, these have been companies that have been in spaces like robotics, B2B, SaaS, fintech, healthcare, future of work. Um, and so like we’ve invested in that next generation of, of companies over the course of the last ten plus years. So, uh, really excited the work that we do, the companies that we see. And I’ve been with drive now since 2022, so have seen a lot, uh, shift. Uh, for context, I started with drive three weeks after I started ChatGPT three drop to the masses.

Adam Marx: I remember that.

Avoilan Bingham: That was just kind of like a blank moment, you know, for, uh, not only for our industry, but really for the world, you know, and we’ve seen just what that has looked like even in the course of, what, now, three and a half, not even four years. It’s upended almost every aspect of our lives. Right? So when we think about, like the advice to give to founders, a lot of it goes back to building something people actually need. Uh, not that they might like or maybe helpful or is cool, but is solving a critical pain point a critical problem in their business that the pain is so acute they’re willing to pay you to solve it, right? They’re paying you. You’re the Tylenol to solve the headache of whatever business problem that they have.

Adam Marx: Yeah. I mean, well, let’s let’s dig into the AI thing right now because especially in the tech space and, and around the network building space, you know, AI is like the new thing. And I actually just gave a talk recently, uh, a few weeks ago at, at evolve here in Atlanta. Evolve 2026. And it was around building and scaling networks against the backdrop of the age of AI. And I think that one, one of the things that can so often become misinterpreted is, you know, not being, you know, don’t be anti AI, but recognizing AI has limitations. And I think anyone who’s ever been on like LinkedIn or you know, we get I get all kinds of my email inboxes of war zone. And so I will find myself very consistently saying to founders, yes, look at how AI can help your workflow, but please don’t outsource every single relationship or every single potential relationship or dialog to AI. It is very, very clear when people do that and it is like an unforced error there. Especially when we’re talking about the dialog with people like yourself, potential venture capitalists who like deals don’t happen day one. There’s due diligence. There’s all kinds of figuring out what what are the details look like? What is the timeline look like? That takes time. And I think it’s really important for founders to understand that AI is this new shiny thing. It is not going to solve access and networking for you. You still have to put in some effort there to get in front of those people who are the people with the resources?

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah, I mean, AI man, it’s, uh, for me is is, as I talked about from my experience with drive, is really kind of shaped and colored, the type of investments that we’ve made across stages as a firm. Uh, when I think about, you know, the role AI has obviously leading a group by the name of AI tinkerer. So kind of deeply involved in the space. It is a transformational technology and the likes that many of us have never seen before. Uh, when we think about these technological shifts that have occurred over the course of the last, let’s just say, 30 years, you’ve got cloud computing, you’ve got mobile, you have the internet, you have these different instances where there’s been a technological shift that unlocks what’s possible. When we think about what we can build and what we have access to. And I think there’s no greater and really no more exciting time than right now. You can build almost anything that you want via a prompt, right to Claude to ChatGPT.

Adam Marx: Even other ones like base 44. Yeah, I mean, that’s crazy.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah. And there’s. So there’s no better time to be a builder. I think anthropic has this commercial where there’s no worse time to be a problem in the history of humanity.

Adam Marx: That’s a great commercial.

Avoilan Bingham: Because of what you can build. But I think to your point, I think there’s also on the flip side of that, there’s no better time to build in person. There’s no better time to build in person. There’s no better time to seek out and build meaningful in real life relationships with people. Yeah, because to your point, we’re getting to a point where you don’t know if something is AI or not, and that’s whether it’s an email, whether it’s a DM, whether it’s a call, a phone call that you might receive. It’s getting harder and harder. Whether it’s video that you or, you know, content that you may engage with. It’s to the point now where it’s almost indistinguishable if you’re unless you’re like very, very like closely watching, you can easily be, uh, you know, manipulated into thinking something is real that’s artificial, or is an AI generated piece of content. So what you know is real is a conversation in person, which you know is real, is having a coffee with someone you know is real, is having lunch. Yeah, having a conversation with someone. So I think when you think about the value of in person, particularly for startups, as you start thinking about go to market, there’s no better presence than being in person talking about your value add, why your product is differentiated and who you are and what your brand represents. I think that’s a stronger, um, a stronger value prop than we’ve seen in the last several years. When you think about in-person versus, you know, kind of this age of being an AI.

Adam Marx: Yeah. Well, it’s I often think about it as kind of like this balance. It’s oftentimes presented as how many people do I know, how many investors, how many other potential co-founders, how many customers, how many people do I know? Kind of in any given network, a city or an industry. But I think a much more interesting question is how many people know me and knowing one’s brand and and just continuing to show up. I mean, I will often get now people say, oh, I know you. You’re you’re everywhere, you’re here and here and here. And it’s like, well, no, I can’t actually be everywhere at one time because, you know, I have a life and have to sleep at some point. But creating the perception of ubiquity is actually very doable. And so when you are in an ecosystem, especially now with this AI factor, I think it’s even more important. Like like you said, to double down on I know this is a real conversation with a real person who has real things of value. It’s not just a script that’s that’s, you know, behind the curtain. And I think it’s that I think that we’re we’re at the at the moment where Founders really need to understand that in order to not just get access, not just the introduction factory to potential funding or pitch opportunities or whatever that may be, but to scale and maintain those dialogs over time. We don’t spend enough time talking about that secret sauce. It will require a lot more focus and attention. Devoted to this is not necessarily the product development portion. It’s not necessarily the hiring portion. It’s the hey, we’re still on this radar portion. We’re still in this orbit portion. And that’s really critical to staying in front of the people who are running those conferences who have access to those funds.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah. No. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s a it’s a big opportunity. Um, you know, and when I think about, you know, again, this dichotomy really this, this pendulum swing where if we go back, what, 2026? We go back six years ago and you had Covid and everything, you know, had to be digital and we had to stay in the house because we couldn’t go out for fear we were going to get sick to where we are now. And yes, it’s this AI component that has colored or is shaping every part of our lives. But that in-person connection is never, I think, been more powerful, particularly when you’re thinking about building a business, when you’re thinking about the types of partnerships and relationships that you want, you want something that’s in person. I think one of the things I would credit even our firm at drive, we’re big on in person, we’re big on in-person, even during the pandemic, where a moment like this to be in a room with someone, when you’re in a room that’s access, that’s, um, you know, the ability to close a deal, that’s the ability to take a relationship potentially to the next level when you’re in the room. Um, you know, like, I think going back to even, like, Teddy Roosevelt, the man in the arena, like. Yeah, that kind of thought process around, like owning a space and being the person to really own. You know, and kind of own that area.

Avoilan Bingham: I think it’s something that’s really powerful and it’s just as powerful now. I think, if not more so just because of what’s happening with AI. And the opportunity to to build in person is something that’s really, really, really valuable. And I’ll give you another example. Um, with AI tinkerers, we’re doing a hackathon. Um, and so this hackathon is about this platform called Open Claw. And so for folks who’ve been kind of paying attention to it, it’s really like this hyper autonomous agent that’s able to act on your behalf. And these agents can swarm, create multiple agents to do all types of things for you, whether it’s building platforms, whether it’s, uh, you know, executing tasks on your behalf. It has gotten to the point where they’re as good as like an actual team of people doing this on your, you know, for you. So we’re doing a hackathon to let people just create. What type of automations can you create? You know, using this platform. But what makes it so special is that it’s not just something you would do online. It’s, you know, it’s a hackathon, it’s in person. And so we got people coming out of the woodwork like, hey, can I get in? You know, can I get on the list? Can I be there? And it’s like, we’ll see. It’s not necessarily going to we’re not going to have the space to accommodate everybody. As much as it’s a.

Adam Marx: Good problem to.

Avoilan Bingham: Have, you know. But it’s one of those things where you’re seeing like man, like there’s just there’s just this desire for people to be in person and build with each other. And I think you’ve even seen that with how some of the top ecosystems in the country, you know, have been able to grow and expand. People want to be around other smart people. They want to be around other people, and they want to be in places that kind of foster that community.

Adam Marx: Well, let’s I mean, you mentioned you referenced drive and the drive philosophy a few few minutes ago. Let’s talk about that. I mean, what in your opinion, because you’ve been in the VC world for a while. I mean, since since I’ve known you, I think. And what do you think that venture capital firms that startups need to know, that venture capital firms. What kind of trends are they looking for within the context of when they’re looking to invest? You know, we hear about okay, I want a good product, product market fit, you know, a good team or whatever. Let’s take that to what are they looking for in terms of how to assess startups abilities, to build those networks, to cultivate those networks? Let’s take it away from the technical product portion right now and talk about are those firms, especially in the age of AI, looking for that factor? Not just a good internal team, but the ability for those teams to grow that that community. You know, it could be a customer base, but it could be a community of partners, Colleagues, um, local leadership, you know, whatever it may be. Is that a factor now that venture capital firms are really starting to look at in terms of a startup’s ability to grow?

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah, I’d say it always comes. I mean, I think the, the one and one a is, is team, uh, and market size. So do we have a team, do we have the right jockey? Are we betting on the right horse, um, that we believe could build $1 billion, billion dollar company? Like, I think that’s always kind of at the forefront. One a or one kind of depending on the market is how big is the market? You know, like healthcare as an example, you know, multi-trillion dollar market in North America, you could build a company that doesn’t capture .01 percent of that and still get $1 billion company, right? So those are always kind of like the two biggest focuses as you start to drill down. I think one of the things or themes that I heard from what you said and the question was kind of like, go to market and like, how do you think about approaching that? And there is an in-person, real life element of how do you capture and find people? What is your distribution channel to find your audience of potential buyers, of potential customers? How do you cultivate that? Within that? How do you sell? So we take the technical and the AI stuff out. Part of your job as a founder? To me, you’ve got to know how to sell. And that’s not just sell as a customer, that’s also sell because you got to hire people who need to also be as bought in to what you’re building, but you also need to be able to sell to investors, and you need to be able to sell to people and partners that are in that sphere of people you’re trying to get in contact with.

Avoilan Bingham: So that is a critical element and is a differentiator, right? Because there’s a lot of me too products out there, particularly with AI. It’s hard to differentiate a lot of times. So the the differentiation is going to come from, Yes. The technical, you know, technical or selling ability of that team. But then it also is going to come back to your ability to build relationships with people, durable relationships that get you an audience of your customers or potential customers in a way that your competitor can’t. And that becomes, in and of itself, a level of defensibility that allows you and potentially your business to capture market share. And so as I think about that, like, I’m certainly looking for those characteristics in the founders that we back up because I can give a really smart person, you know, half $1 million and they can go build something really cool, maybe even build something really useful that people will buy. But if they don’t have those other skills, people call them soft skills, but they’re tremendously valuable.

Adam Marx: It’s a misnomer.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah, yeah.

Adam Marx: It’s a misnomer.

Avoilan Bingham: If you don’t have those, you’re going to be on the outside looking in. You know, as others know how to build those relationships.

Adam Marx: Well, it’s interesting because, you know, part of the part of what I referenced in the talk that I gave at evolve is if you look and I’ve posted a little bit about this, like, you know, on my LinkedIn and social networks, like if you look at some of the other stories that are coming out that came out last year, we’re still the beginning of 2026, but in 2025. And like from, you know, February, March, beginning of the year, all the way to like November, December near Christmas time. Stories from like Education week talking about like what are the big companies like Apple Microsoft, Delta. What are they looking for. Network building skills and relationship cultivation skills and what we what they’re calling SEL skills social and emotional learning. And then there was an article, I think, from Business Insider, I believe uh, in November of, of 25. So just a couple of months ago and it was a kind of an interview with some Goldman Sachs partners. And what are they looking for? Relationship cultivation skills because they’re looking at AI as a tool that can help fill in the gaps, fill in the blanks in a lot of the busy work, and allow for more time for their their team members to really spend focused energy on building those relationships, cultivating those dialogs with their customers, potential customers because they’re looking at something. We want a relationship of 20 years. And so these very large, well-known companies are literally saying AI is great, but also these quote soft skills like that’s what’s really in demand right now. And so when we talk about startups and tech, it’s not just, hey, I have a great product, you may have a great product. Are you showing up for the community? Are you showing up to to build the conversations that could lead to great partnerships down the road.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah. No, I think it’s a really interesting point. And I’ll take it a step further. I think if I read between the lines on those comments, we are in a time where and there was a post on X about, um, the name escapes me, but really about just kind of like this shift that we’re seeing with technology. Um, and as we think about this shift where the AI is getting to the point where it can write its own software and code for itself, it doesn’t need a person. Like there was a report this week where Spotify said, like its top developers haven’t written code since December, which is like unfathomable to think.

Adam Marx: They edit the code now.

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah. They’re so yeah, as we think about like the skills that you need, like we’re in a place where you’re not going to see the same type of development work happening because they’re just going to let the AI do it, and you’ll have a human in the loop to a certain degree, but you’ll be able to reduce that workforce. If you look at what’s happening in technology at the enterprise level. They are lowering their headcount of human headcount because that CapEx is now going into I need to have a better, you know, more. We need to put more money into training. We need to put more money into compute upskilling. Yeah. Well, I’m saying they’re taking that they’re taking the money that they would have put into people and putting it into building the technology. So it’s not about upskilling in that instance. What I’m saying though, is there is going to be this there’s a future that is coming and is at our doorstep today, where if we’re not investing into these other skills, outside of technical skills, you’re going to replatform millions of people. It’s already happening. So a lot of white collar jobs, right? Jobs that at one point seemed untouchable because you had to have a level of education and certification, those white collar jobs in finance and in health and in, And, you know, legal.

Avoilan Bingham: Those jobs are going to be replaced and are going to be AI focused first. So it’s not so much about upskilling, but it is about what are the the I know we call them soft skills, but what are those skills that cannot be automated, those skills that cannot become AI ified. Right. And thinking about how to build those skills. Because in the future those are going to be extremely important, right? There is there’s going to be this intersection of AI and the physical world via automation that’s going to happen. But there’s some things AI is just not going to be able to do, and there are new jobs that are going to emerge. How do we position that workforce to take advantage of these new opportunities that are coming? And as we’re seeing the AI get better and better and faster and more intelligent and able to discern and do more the need and the opportunity to invest into this next generation of skills and in person relationship building is one of those skills that we need to spend a lot more time in, you know, supporting and investing in.

Adam Marx: Well, you know. But before we start to wrap up, I, I think that there’s something in that that’s really important because so a good friend of mine is, is, you know, an engineer and, and she said exactly what you mentioned that since, you know, AI has come out like they they’re team members, you know, they use Claude and she spends more of her time basically acting as an editor and going through that code and also needing to have the communication skills to go back to her team and say, this is it’s not exactly what we were looking for. There’s a context here, or there’s a nuance here that the AI missed, and we need to kind of kind of figure out how to maneuver it correctly so that what we’re building is actually what we’re looking for. And understanding that nuance and understanding that context is going to become even more important. So you know how to navigate management, how to navigate different personalities. These are relationship building skills and network building skills where you want to have a lot of different kinds of people in your network. You want to have the hard tech people. You want to have the local leadership people. You want to have the, uh, the legal people and the healthcare people like you want to have an understanding of how to make oneself or one’s company the conduit between different communities. And that will, when as it’s powered through AI, will help really fuel that network building capacity. Mhm. Um, I mean, I think that’s I think we should possibly leave it off there because we gotta, we gotta get you back on the show and have something more to talk about.

Speaker5: Yeah. Yeah. There’s, there’s always, always.

Avoilan Bingham: Plenty to talk about. Um, I’ll just kind of leave by. And again, thanks for for having me. Adam. Um, it’s been great to kind of watch your journey and your growth and, you know, your brand that you’ve built, which is really been so intentionally focused on network and community, which has just been awesome to see. So kudos to you and everything that you’ve been doing. Thank you. Um, and yeah, man, I’m always happy to talk. Uh, whether it’s drive, whether it’s AI tinkerers, whether it’s Atlanta Tech Week August 9th through the 14th, uh, we’ve got some really exciting things that are happening throughout the course of this year. So we look at tech week is not just a week. Uh, we really look at it as really the platform to build on top of. And, you know, the programing that we do reflects that. Uh, really with the focus on how do we build in Atlanta and make Atlanta the best place for builders to convene? Uh, and so we’re really excited about that mission, the work that we do, uh, you know, and it’s a labor of love to do it, but excited about it and yeah, happy to to continue to to speak about it. And I appreciate you having me on.

Adam Marx: Yeah. Well we’re going to have to get something going during during tech week. We’ll talk about that off the air. Yeah. Um, but for everyone who is less familiar with Drive or Tech Week, you know, where can they go and support you and then go and support these different initiatives?

Avoilan Bingham: Yeah. For sure. Um, you can find me on almost every social media platform. Uh, Avoilan Bingham. So av o I l a n last name. Bingham. Uh, I’m typically most active on LinkedIn, but you can find me on X. You can find me on IG there as well. Um, and yeah, you know, share a lot of comments, a lot of content. Um, we’ve got more on the way, but those are the best ways to get in contact with me.

Adam Marx: All right, well, we’ll do that.

Speaker6: Awesome. All right.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Adam Marx. We’ll see you all next time on Greater Perimeter Business Radio.

BRX Pro Tip: What All Top Performers Have in Common

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: What All Top Performers Have in Common
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BRX Pro Tip: What All Top Performers Have in Common

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, I know you pay a lot of attention – I try to as well – in watching people who are succeeding. I mean, identifying those top performers, identifying what they do, what they don’t do, trying to emulate it. In your experience, what are some things that all top performers do?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think top performers in all industries have something in common, and I like to look at sports as a kind of metaphor for business a lot of times. And something in sports that every top performer has in common with each other, they always have a coach. There is no top performer in sports that has not had some coaching at some point in time. No one does this on their own based on their own knowledge and skills. It just doesn’t happen. Top performers in every sport have coaches. That’s just the way it is. They wouldn’t even consider not having a coach.

Lee Kantor: But for some reason, in business, that isn’t the case. People need someone on their team to help them maximize their talents, to help prevent them from self sabotage, to help them get back on track when they stumble. But for some reason, business leaders are reluctant to get help from someone who has been there and done that. I mean, I don’t understand why entrepreneurs think they have to do this all themselves without help. There’s no shame in getting help.

Lee Kantor: A good coach can save you time. A good coach can save you money. And a good coach can save you a lot of frustration. Now, when it comes time to finding this trusted advisor, and when you’re investing in coaching, that’s where you’re getting is a trusted advisor, you have to choose wisely.

Lee Kantor: So, if you’re out there and if you’ve been involved in podcasting in any way and you’re frustrated by the results you’re getting, it might be time to consider getting a coach. And a good place to start is one of Business RadioX’s studio partners. We have been doing this work a long time and getting great results for our clients. We specialize in helping podcasters get results. So, if you’re a podcaster and you’re frustrated with your results, I highly recommend you go to one of our studio partners and ask them for help because they can help you get to a new level.

The Art of the Ask: How to Move Prospects from Interest to Commitment

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Scaling in Public
The Art of the Ask: How to Move Prospects from Interest to Commitment
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In this episode of Scaling in Public, hosts Lee Kantor and Stone Payton, joined by coach Gabrielle Baumeyer, discuss strategies for expanding their business radio network. The conversation focuses on building authentic relationships with potential studio partners, overcoming hesitations in sales conversations, and the importance of community engagement. Gabrielle coaches the hosts on turning conversations into action by setting clear next steps and accountability. The episode highlights the value of timely follow-through, direct communication, and leveraging community to drive business growth, offering practical insights for entrepreneurs looking to scale their impact.

Gabrielle-BaumeyerGabrielle Baumeyer, ACC, CEWC has spent almost three decades coaching and consulting individuals and teams in achieving extraordinary results. She is a certified Executive Leadership Coach and works with executives to elevate personal as well as team performance levels.

Prior to becoming an Executive Leadership Coach, Gabrielle co-founded Reason2Race where she worked with over 500 companies and non-profit organizations to maximize their community impact. Her coaching and consulting work resulted in approximately 6,000 individuals completing 700 events and raising $8 million dollars for local and international causes, widening the reach of their mission driven initiatives.

Today, in her coaching, Gabrielle believes that every leader has different motivations to perform, yet most of them are only tangentially in touch with the purpose that is most beneficial, the opportunity to impact the lives of others. Her work with clients focuses on uncovering and discovering what will have executives, staff and board members not only perform at optimum levels but have those around them do the same.

For her achievements as a community leader, Gabrielle was honored with the Houston Business Journal Women Who Mean Business award. She was instrumental in supporting Reason2Race to win the small business competition presented by BBVA Bank and Houston Dynamo. She was recognized by Leadera Consulting Group as an Outstanding Woman in Business. As an Ironman Arizona finisher, Gabrielle was honored as a top fundraising athlete.

Gabrielle earned her coaching certification from CoachRICE of the Rice University Graduate School of Business and her Associate Certified Coach credentials from the International Coaching Federation. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from the University of Texas and lives in Houston, Texas with her husband Bill.

Connect with Gabrielle on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • Strategies for business growth and expansion
  • Building relationships with potential studio partners
  • Overcoming fears and hesitations in sales conversations
  • Importance of community building and engagement
  • The roles of team members in sales and strategy
  • The significance of direct communication and asking for commitments
  • Techniques for effective outreach and follow-up
  • The value of transparency and sharing experiences publicly
  • Insights on navigating objections and fostering genuine connections
  • The role of accountability in maintaining momentum and taking action

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from our flagship studio in Atlanta, Georgia. This is Ccaling in Public. The next 100 Business RadioX markets, featuring founders Lee Kantor and Stone Payton, along with some of America’s top coaches, helping them grow the network with real strategy, real lessons, and real accountability all shared in public. To learn more about the proven system that turns podcast interviews into a perpetual prospecting pipeline through generosity, not gimmicks, go to Burks Intercom and download the free Business RadioX playbook. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative addition of scaling in public. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you Now join us as we’re a couple of minutes in with Coach Gabrielle Baumeyer, helping us identify our desired outcomes for this session.

Lee Kantor: So if we can land on specific things, that would be useful.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Great, great. And if I say that back to you, Lee, are you saying you’re more comfortable in the process? So you like the building of the procedure? And then there’s the actual doing of the procedure, which is something different.

Lee Kantor: Correct. So that’s what I mean. That’s what I’m learning about myself that I am more, I get more I don’t want to say pleasure, but more it’s more fulfilling for me to build a machine than it is to build a widget.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes, yes. Back to Stone’s reference of the big strategic picture, right? Okay, great. Well then, Stone, let me bounce back to you here. Give me a sense of how a conversation or two has already gone. Because you’ve been in this now for over 30 days. You’ve talked to some potential studio partners. Just give me a just a tiny snippet into how that world has gone.

Stone Payton: So the conversations have been very friendly and have, um, produced what I would characterize as a stronger relationship than most people probably have in a zoom conversation or something like that, but they haven’t landed clearly, uh, on the, the, the next steps that are going to either kind of, you know, ease them out of the pipeline and on a different relationship path or down to the, the next, uh, the next step. And so that’s why I feel so energized now is because that’s what we were working on the last couple of sessions is what can we do to remove. I, uh, I envisioned it, and I think there’s some truth to it that there was some fear or some perceived risk around taking the next couple of steps and exploring this opportunity. And now I feel very well equipped to address all of that. So I’m kind of it’s almost like if you if you go to your batting coach in baseball, shows you a few tips off to the side. Now you want to get back out there to batting practice and and take some swings. Right?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, okay. And you’re the you’re the batter in this scenario.

Stone Payton: Correct. Right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Gotcha. All right. Great. Uh, Lee, uh. Excuse me. Yeah. Lee.

Lee Kantor: Um, yeah, that’s the same thing. I mean, I’m, um, the two roles that Stone and I play in this, Stone is more, um, dealing with the sales and actually implementing some of the things that we’re talking about. And I’m more, uh, kind of working on the strategy and vision, that’s been our roles historically, but I’m trying to do more things tactically that give him more at bats.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay. Gotcha. So you aren’t having the conversations with the potential partners, Lee? Yeah. Okay. Gotcha.

Lee Kantor: I mean, I’m having them.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: At some point in some level, but. Right.

Lee Kantor: But he’s he’s his, uh, he’s in charge of sales.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: He’s making the ask.

Lee Kantor: Right. That’s his role in this. Yes.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, great. Stone, back to you. Uh, how many people have said no?

Stone Payton: Well, they haven’t said no, which is part of the advice that we got is get them to say no. Um, there’s been a lot of the, you know, maybe in exploring it and that kind of that kind of thing. But, uh, in so far, no one has said a definitive yes in the last 35, 45 days, I guess I would say.

Lee Kantor: Or a definitive no.

Stone Payton: Or a definitive no for sure.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Right. Yeah. I heard in one of the. I think it was in the call with Tricia. What you said, Lee. It was quite profound. You said we need to go out and get some some no’s. Mhm. Because then when you have some no’s the yeses follow and there’s some, you know, magical number role you know rule about that and that rule of numbers. But you haven’t gotten any no’s yet. So what do you think about that Stone.

Stone Payton: Yeah that’s that’s one of those, uh, tips that the batting coach showed me that I want to go try out. I just want I want more of them.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, great. Great, great. Okay, um, now, let me ask this. When you when when you all decided to do this endeavor, maybe you percolated on it for a little bit, and or maybe you had several questions about it and wonderings. And then at some point you talked to Tricia and said, hey, let’s do this quote, experiment. What would you say Lee made this time? Now the ideal time to do this? Because you know you’re doing something very distinct than what you’ve done before. So why now?

Lee Kantor: Um, part of the now is that we’re just getting older, and we’ve been doing this a long time, and we’ve been frustrated with where we’re at for a long time, and we just want to try more and more things faster in order to see what moves the needle. And, um, I’ve always been intrigued by this kind of, uh, publicly sharing what we’re what people are doing, uh, as a way, uh, number one, to keep doing things. And also, um, you know, by sharing it, we create content every day. So why not use what we’re going through as the content that we’re creating? So that resonated with me. Uh, we don’t have a problem sharing. Stone and I believe in generosity as part of our kind of value system, so being transparent and authentic is nothing new to us. That’s what we try to be all the time. So that wasn’t kind of a fear of giving away anything or sharing as some sort of fear based, uh, issue. So we were comfortable with that. And, um, you know, we feel coaches are, are one of our, our kind of avatars for successful partners. So explaining what we’re doing to coaches directly by being coached, and I’m assuming a lot of the listeners are either coaches or coaching clients. So we thought that that made sense. So again, I don’t want to keep putting on my strategy hat, but strategically, it made sense in a lot of different ways. And since we were working so closely with Tricia, who is obviously an experienced coach, that all kind of made sense. So this became this. It just made sense at the time to explore doing this in a way that aligned with, you know, multiple um, constituents values and objectives and outcomes they desired. So to me, it was like kind of a win win win all the way around.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, okay. Timing just happened to be right. Perfect storm. Right? Uh, Stone, how about for you? Why now?

Stone Payton: Well, yeah, I would echo what he said about racing the clock. I feel that way a little bit. And I guess that kind of dovetails into our legacy, my legacy. But also just on a day to day, you know, we’ve interviewed a lot of coaches over the years. We have relationships with a lot of coaches. We have coaches who are clients, and a few of our studio partners are coaches. But I can tell you all of that for me, validates the need has not faded at all. The value of what we can deliver. Coaches, consultants, execs. If anything, it’s grown. We’ve gotten better at it. But the and the need I think continues to grow. So I, I, I feel like I have every confidence in the world that going through this process is going to help us get better and better at helping more people faster. And the the safety net or the, uh, the the other thing that I keep in mind is if for whatever reason, this blew up and didn’t work and I said, forget it, it’s too much work and we already got enough money. And let’s just, you know, have our little lifestyle business, uh, just just doing what we’re doing and, um, and capturing it and being willing to share it, just people listening into this series, I think they’re going to benefit from that. So I guess I’m just saying the same thing, maybe with some different words of I think everybody in this equation wins to some degree, regardless of how it actually unfolds over time.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, yeah, very, very well said on both of your accounts. And you, you bring up something that I’ve been, uh. It’s been on my mind ever since. Tricia asked me about doing this and invited me to this very unique, wonderful opportunity. I was on a plane and listened to the first call with Tricia, and I’m going to be very candid with you here both. Not like I wouldn’t be, or I need to preface that, but, you know, there’s two roles. I have two hats in this conversation. So let’s just call a spade a spade, okay? Y’all willing to have a conversation where we’re just going to call a spade a spade?

Stone Payton: Absolutely.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, good. Uh, I play two I have two hats in this experiment here. Obviously. One is I’m coaching you and I’m also prospect, am I not?

Stone Payton: Yes, I think so.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: You think so? Or I am.

Stone Payton: You am?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, I am. So what I’d like to do in the next part of this call. And Stone, you and I have talked a couple of times and I kind of get straight to it. You know, it’s like, let’s call a spade a spade. Let’s be direct. Let’s not beat around the bush. Right, right. So what I want to share with you is that when I first listened, I said to myself something about, wow, would I be a studio partner? Because I thought, well, I’m a candidate. I mean, right off the bat, I’m a candidate. Would I do this? I wonder if I would do this and what would it take? And I thought that and lead to your point. Well, both of you, to both your points. As I’ve been listening and getting to know you, I’ve crossed a bridge And I have just really taken to the two of you. You’re you’re so authentic and so genuine, and you really do have a love and passion for making our community better. And as I kept listening, I kept getting more connected to you. And I kept getting validated that there are people like you out there who are people like me. And I go, well, I wasn’t expecting this. Wait a second. This is really interesting. I have to share it with these guys because in the calls where you were talking a lot in a good way, both of you talking, I go, oh yeah, that really that that’s pretty.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: That’s pretty genuine. Listen to Lee. Gosh he really does. He have? He has a love for people and gosh, Stone is just so hungry to put his arms around everyone and just hug the whole community. And I just got as I was listening to all the, the audio. I mean, I was just like, where’s the next one? I gotta listen to these guys some more because I’m just really engaged and I love this. And I go, wait a second, now I’m a better prospect. You know, and so I, I just couldn’t get it off my mind and off my heart to share that with you. Because to your again to your point is, as I’ve been getting to know you and your story, I’ve been seeing more of my values in you and it makes me want to participate with you. That’s somehow I mean, base level is this call. But man, I have just really, really found you intriguing. And what you’re doing? Just a little gold mine. Not little, but a gold mine. And the gold mine is is the two of you.

Lee Kantor: And thank you so much for sharing that with us. And I think that, um, and this goes to the heart of maybe why we were open to doing an experiment like this. We we have a lot of skills. One of which we don’t have is we are not great at bringing strangers into the community like somebody like you. I know in your past that you have built community. And you, you did that wonderful, um, uh, that project that you were working on for many years, uh, you know, with around running and nonprofits and helping grow a big community. Yes, that we don’t have that skill. Both we. Stone is more of an extrovert than I am, and I am not an extrovert at all. So being around people and and doing like one of the first things we talked about when we joined forces Stone and I, Stones like, I can’t wait to do a retreat with everybody, all of the partners. And that was like early on. That was something important to him for me. That wouldn’t have even occurred to me. Like, I don’t think in terms of let’s, let’s get a hundred people together in person. Um, but that’s for him that that works perfectly. But we have lacked a person that’s a true community organizer and a community builder. And I think that’s a hole in our swing, because I believe we do have something compelling and worthwhile.

Lee Kantor: And it would work in communities all over the country. But we’re lacking a somebody on the team that is good at bringing lots of disparate people from all over into one place, which, uh, which in your past was something that you were good at and that, um, you were able to achieve. So thank you for sharing what you’re sharing. And I and I’m glad that what we’re doing and saying is resonating with you. And we just haven’t been able to get the escape velocity. And maybe it was because we weren’t sharing our story enough publicly. And so this kind of validates the importance of doing this kind of work so that we are getting on the radar of people like you, and we need to find you and more people like you to raise their hand and say, hey, what about me? Can this work here? How do I get involved? That that’s what we’re trying to get to that escape velocity where we have people wanting to join us in this mission, because we think the mission is so important to put people in communities, to be the storytellers, and to be the voice of business in those communities, to help, um, these small to mid-sized businesses get the word out. They don’t. In today’s media landscape, that’s lacking.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes.

Lee Kantor: There’s no one doing that from the sense of I’m trying to help you get the word out. Everybody is doing it in a way that’s kind of just appealing to anger and and catastrophe and bad things, negative things where we’re trying to just be, hey, this people exist. They’re doing good work. You should know about them. And that, to me, is more pure of heart and more positive and more beneficial to communities. If more and more people would lean into that and then create this type of outlet for those stories to be told.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: 100%. 100%. Uh. Anything else on that? Lee.

Lee Kantor: That’s. That’s all I got. So. Anything?

Stone Payton: No. Well said man.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, then. Stone, I want to go back over to you because I want to do, uh, we’ll call it a practice with you. Okay? You said that you wanted to have. You wanted to go out and get at. I’m not a baseball person. You want to go at bat more? Right?

Stone Payton: Right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Going a bit more. So, uh, how would you like to. Talk to me about being a partner right now and see what you see out of that conversation.

Stone Payton: So I’m learning. I really am learning and wanting to apply almost kind of the way you open this conversation. You know, you’ve you’ve expressed an interest in learning more. Tell me more about why or what it is that you’re trying to accomplish or what you would like to to see differently in your business in the coming weeks and months and maybe years.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, great. Great. Uh, thanks for teeing that up. And I’m gonna I’m gonna expand it out a little bit more Stone. Okay. Uh, it’s it goes past my business. See, my business is. It’s an expression of me, but it’s not me. You see, it’s what I was is my belief. This is what I say. This is my calling, okay? My. This is why I’m here. Is for people to discover their greatness. I really do believe I was put on the planet for that. Because I want people around me to elevate and to rise up and to get that they are extraordinary in their own right, and they can find their self-expression, whatever that might look like. They have no barriers. And so my professional career has all been some kind of expression of that. It’s looked different. I’ve had different roles, worked at different companies, but it’s all really been in service of that is having people rise up and get there. Great. And so to your question of what I see, right. Was that your question what I see?

Stone Payton: Yes. And um, kind of the why you want to have this conversation and yeah, what you’re trying to accomplish.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. So as I was listening and getting to know the two of you, not even in personally, we haven’t been in person. We haven’t been in a studio together. It’s only been audio. I’ve been listening and getting to know the two of you. I get that we are like minded and. And this is what I mean. I have a real passion for people, and I want people to have a bullhorn. And I want people to be known, and I want people to be to experience contributing in the community. And I am certain that most of us are inhibited in that. See, so I am a community builder. In one of my past lives, I built lots and lots and lots of teams, and it was to give them an opportunity to shine. And you do that. That’s what the two of you do. You give people an opportunity to shine one conversation at a time. A lot of ears might hear it at once, but you’re only having one conversation at a time, ever. That’s what we’re all doing. And that’s what interested me and is interesting. It is interesting is of interest to me in staying in communication and partnership and collaboration with the two of you, because we share the same values. Back at you, Stone.

Stone Payton: Yeah. No, no. That’s great. I’m I’m glad we’re having this this back and forth. I feel like the the balance of that conversation ought to continue to lean more into what you’ve been exploring. So I think I would ask, well, what kinds of strategies tactics are you?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: I’m gonna interrupt you Stone to interrupt you Stone. Let’s just have the conversation.

Stone Payton: Okay.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: All right. I would ask this, or the next part would be like this.

Stone Payton: Yeah. Okay.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Have the conversation.

Stone Payton: All right. So as you’re getting more and more focused on achieving those ends, what kinds of approaches, strategies, tactics are you exploring and what, if anything, have you started to see and what you’ve learned about us? That’s that’s got your interest piqued?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Uh, biggest thing I’ve been taking action on is getting on stage. I’m submitting proposals for speaking engagements. I will go to organizations and I, you know, I become the committee leader. And that puts me on stage. And I’ve just been finding out in my later years. Lee. Right. We’re all getting older and wiser. I’m finding out in my later years I don’t have a whole lot of time here. And so what’s the fastest way to reach a lot of people is to get in front of a lot of people. And so I’ve been going down this journey of get on stage so that I can talk to more people. Now, I could easily map that on to what you do. I don’t know how many people are listening to this right now, but there’s more than one. It’s a it’s a way to amplify my voice. And that’s what I’m interested in, is amplifying my voice, because I do have a message that people want to hear.

Stone Payton: Well, for what my opinion is worth, I think your instincts are right on on track. I do think that teaming up with us might help you amplify your voice, but I think more foundationally, I think it will give you more access to more people in a deeper relationship with them faster, just tactically. For example, if you want more speaking engagements, maybe you could take a few pages out of our playbook and instead of waiting to be chosen or applying to be chosen, if, um, you kind of choose yourself and use the platform to build relationships with the people who book those speakers, build relationships with the. Yeah. And then sort of take, take that model of serving them first, building that relationship. And our experience has been then being invited to speak, being invited to, uh, run workshops, being invited to, to contribute to strategic conversations in their organization that just seems to come a lot faster and a lot more organically. At least that’s that’s been our experience. So yeah, I think your instincts are on track with that.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Great. Now, let me tell you this because, like I’ve said, I like to get straight to the point. Time is of essence, right? Yeah. I’m going to tell you why I wouldn’t become a partner. Okay.

Stone Payton: Okay.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Because I’ve been thinking about this nonstop since I first got introduced. As I mentioned, is there’s why? To become a partner and then there’s. Why not to. It looks like a lot of work. It just. It looks that way. I don’t know if it is or not. I don’t know the see, but I, I have a pretty full schedule already. And so for me to fit something else in that’s foreign. Yes, I’d have the playbook. It’s a bit of a big bridge for me to cross. Now, I will say this because I do want to collaborate with the two of you. I mean, I’m I’m hooked. I do. I there’s no other way for me to say it. I’m like, why would I ever let these gentlemen bounce out of my life? That’s just ridiculous. So then I thought, well, you know, we already have a Houston business radio X. Uh, we already have one here, and that’s Tricia, and she does a bang up job with it. I know you because I came on her show. She followed your playbook, I’m sure. And I will go to the ends of the earth with that for that woman.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Then I thought, well, maybe there’s something for me to do with her, but not, like, have my own show again. It’s a bridge too far for me right now. Then I thought, well, what if. What if I just funnel people to her? I have no problem doing that. I can just send all my people that I want, you know? I want their voice to be heard. I’ll just send them over to her. She’s already doing the darn thing. And I thought, well, maybe she’ll let me co-host one day or two. I don’t know if we could have some fun with that. Maybe we’ll do that. It, and that’s about as far as I got. Okay. That’s about as far as I got because if I start to think any further, then it becomes Gabrielle. Once you start in on a project, you go all in. Slow down. I’m one of those people. I will not take on a project unless I am absolutely ready to deliver on it 100%, if not, exceed expectations. So I’m very particular about what I take on. So that’s where I am. Stone.

Lee Kantor: Now, can I interject one second? You said something that is, um, I don’t want to say it’s of concern, but it’s definitely an issue that we, we hear is that this seems like an awful lot of work, and you’re kind of self-selecting out just based on an assumption, rather than having data to really prove or disprove whether that’s true.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes.

Lee Kantor: Yes. Can you talk about what part of what you think we do or don’t do is kind of a lot of work. Sure.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: When? And again, as I’ve been listening and been hearing more of the particulars and the back end and all of that, I’m like, okay, they kind of take care of that. It still is not like baked in for me, though. And this is what I mean. I think of, okay, having one more platform to log into. Believe it or not, even though I’m a tech person, I’m like, one more thing to handle. One more password, one more set of conversations to manage. Are they coming on the show? Are they prepped? What are they? What do they want to get out of this? And then I got to follow up with them in full transparency. I have thousands of people in my contact list already. Thousands. And I’m already not following up with them to the degree I want to. So then I think if I did a radio show, I just have more people to follow up with. Oh my gosh. At this point, I don’t even want to go to networking meetings anymore, or I’ll only go if clients invite me. But I’m like, I can’t take on one more business card. I can’t do it now. It sounds, um, I sound dramatic about it and all, and there could be.

Lee Kantor: But you want the right people, right? Like, it’s not like you don’t want any people. Yes, the right people. And less of the wrong people.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes, yes. And to your to your question, it’s like, what is it that it seems hard at face value. But again, I’m getting to know you more. I will give you that. But it’s still there. It’s like um. It’s as if. It. I have a sense that I could get the right people in the room. I have a sense that we could build a relationship, and I’m still thinking, but how much work is it really going to take? I just I just am there. How many people are really going to have to come on the show? And then I think, well, it if I’m looking at it from a let me build my business perspective. But if I look at it from, I really do genuinely just want people to have a platform to share themselves, because that would be the reason I do it. I ought to be quite honest with you. It like, yes, business on the other side of it. Absolutely. I want to feed my family, but to take on something of this level that can make this kind of difference in this kind of impact, it’s. I’ve done it before. I’ve done it before. To your point, Lee. In my past life, I’ve built lots of teams. I’ve pulled lots of people together, and it takes something. And this could. I’m telling you right now, this could be the like. All right, well, Gabrielle, if you really are serious about making a difference and you really are serious about lifting people up, put your money where your mouth is kind of thing. And then I go, uh, yeah, I would do that first by just sending people to Tricia. And that’s just where my head is right now. But I’m glad you’re asking me the questions, Lee, because those questions need to be asked. Because I’m confident I’m not the only person who feels this way, I can’t be.

Stone Payton: Well, this is really helpful to me, because I guess it didn’t even get on my radar that people would be considering it to be a lot of work. They don’t know what I know about this, the system, but I could I could see me thinking that about any other thing that someone were were bringing to me. But what it’s reminding me of now that I reflect on this, I think one of the things that I found incredibly attractive about teaming up with Lee 21 years ago, I don’t think I have the work ethic that you do, because what I saw in this is a way to get a lot more done with a lot less work. For example, you mentioned networking. If you see me in a networking event, somebody writing me a check to be there, you know, other than this one little thing I do here, do here locally, uh, and I will tell you this, if I had a Tricia in my market, I would lean into I would lean into that too. So let me validate that first move. I, I appreciate that, uh, I, you know, look, I have a tendency to feel like Business RadioX is going to solve world peace.

Stone Payton: So I look at everything through that lens. But my experience has been, and I think you’ll find our other studio partners experience has been that they can build those relationships, genuine relationships, a lot faster, a lot easier. They get to choose themselves. They’re not, you know, scratching and clawing for a seat at the table or to be seen. They’re in control of it all. So they get to choose who they want to be in relationship with. And the time investment. I mean, you get you get to choose what the time and energy investment is. But our experience has been the return on that time. And energy investment is far greater, far quicker than at least the traditional approaches to that, that, um, you know, that I, that I’m aware of and, you know, we can walk through any of the pages of that playbook or any of that process you want to walk through. But what this is but and just side note, just knowing that that probably is something that people are thinking that really hadn’t occurred to me. I don’t know if it has to you or not. Lee.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, well, this is the thing I think that some of of what your concern is and some of what the reality of what we do is. What we do every day by interviewing people is what coaches call discovery calls. But we call it an interview, and they might kind of land in the same place at the end of the day, but we just call them different things. So like an interview with one of our guests, especially if it’s a targeted interview and like, say hypothetically, you were like, I want more speaking engagements. And I get those through, um, let’s say business organizations or let me get it right from the horse’s mouth. Where do you get your speaking opportunities? What type of groups do you, um, you know, ask you to speak? Typically?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Yeah. Really great. Okay. I’m gonna I’m gonna we’re gonna take a turn. Okay. Before I answer that question, because you guys have just given us gold here. Both of you. You started to ask me a question, Lee. And that’s key. You want to ask more questions? Now I’m going to go back over to Stone and Stone. We’re doing. This is real life here, right? This is a real life scenario here. And you’re listening in. Now, I want to go over two things. Now, Stone, um, before I do that, Lee, what did you get from listening to Stone talk to a prospect? Me about becoming a partner? What’s one thing you heard from that?

Lee Kantor: Well, he bubbled up a concern of yours.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: How’s that?

Lee Kantor: Um. I think when he asked you about, well, you I think you, I don’t know, did you share, like, why you wouldn’t do it on your own? Or was that something prompted by what he asked?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: No, I shared, I said, like, hey, I want to do this somehow, but I don’t want to. It’s too much work and I just send everyone in Trisha or co-host with her.

Lee Kantor: Right. So when you I mean as a fly on the wall, it’s easy for me to see opportunities. Maybe he isn’t seeing when you’re when he’s kind of doing what he’s doing because he’s he’s focused in on the conversation and I’m just listening. So to me that was an issue that had to be expounded upon. Yes. And that’s why I brought it up to ask, you know, what you thought about it. And then I asked again for you to tell me how your process works. So then I can see if there’s a place for our system to kind of work into your existing kind of way of doing what you’re doing currently.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, beautifully. You asked what it is like for me now so that you could have a conversation with me, Lee, to see what the mapping is of how you can make a difference with what I’m dealing with. That’s what you just like. I’ll summarize it that way. Does that sound on target?

Lee Kantor: Yeah.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, now you’re being a fly on the wall is invaluable, Lee. It’s invaluable for Stone, because now I’m gonna just go straight for the jugular here with you. Stone. Okay.

Stone Payton: Um.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: When I said, uh, when I said, God, it just looks like so much work, a question you could have asked was. Lee, what would you have asked when I said, man, it just looks like so much work.

Lee Kantor: I would ask you, what do you think that that entailed? Like, I’d ask you something about what you’re thinking work is.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And here’s another one. Here’s another possible question for you to ask. What would you need me to show you? To demonstrate how much work it is? What do you need me to show you? Because I already have. I’m being fully transparent with you. I already had in my head. I wanted to ask you, Stone. Well, can you just have me talk to one of your people and just let them tell me candidly how much time they spend on this sucker? I wanted to, like, ask you for that. And so, absent asking me questions, you’re going to give me information that might not apply now. Your I’m going to say it this way. You’re selling your product. Well, what I found is this. And you can see this. And when you do this, it. But see that that’s giving me information that I’m not necessarily ready to hear. Because what I wanted to hear at that moment was, what do people what amount of time do people actually spend on this? And see, Lee, if you’re a fly on the wall, you might be able to hear that. Now, I’m not suggesting that you’re being every sales call together and I’m calling them sales cars is just sales calls to make it, you know, simple. But you record all your conversations.

Stone Payton: We certainly can. Yeah. We have the ability to do this. Right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Which means then what?

Lee Kantor: That we can listen to it and see where opportunities are there that maybe, um, were kind of ignored at the in the moment.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And to put it more succinctly, listen to listen for the missed opportunities so that you don’t what miss opportunities. Exactly. It’s such a leading question. It’s such a not coaching thing to do. Okay. See, you two together are a super team. Lee has got the listening. Lee, you listen. I’ve been listening on these calls to how you listen and you listen. And Stone, you are the Energizer man. People want to be around you. People want to be your friend. I want to be your friend. I want to work with you. I want to be a part of of what you’re doing because you’re energetic and you just like you suck me in. Now, what are ways the two of you in real time, not conceptually, not on a process diagram in real time can maximize your superpowers. What y’all got?

Lee Kantor: Uh, we could do more of these episodes.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes. In terms of what? What specifically?

Lee Kantor: I mean, it’s it’s communicating with people, um, by sharing what our view of things and, and kind of leveraging our individual superpowers, um, simultaneously.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes. And then. And then what? We’re just spitballing here. I’m not, like, looking for a specific answer. I’m just. I’m getting you to think.

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, ultimately, we have to get more people to, uh, be studio partners. That that’s that’s where the rubber hits the road. I mean, we can do this all day long, and we can get people fired up and and express interest and say, that’s intriguing or that’s interesting, or I wish that I could do that, but if they’re not kind of joining the team, then this is all kind of performance art, right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: And what has people join the team?

Lee Kantor: They have to believe that this is real and that it’s doable and it’s going to benefit them.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: What else what actually has people say, I want to and will be on the team. What actually has that happen?

Lee Kantor: I mean, they have to believe that what we’re saying is true.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Keep going. Now I am looking for a specific answer. It’s totally leading.

Lee Kantor: What actually help me out here. Because that’s I mean, that’s to me what I think is lacking. They’re not believing what we’re saying.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: I already believe I.

Lee Kantor: Already you’re not believing enough to throw your credit card across the table.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Right? So what’s actually going to have me be a partner.

Lee Kantor: We have to say.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Just said it. Just said it.

Lee Kantor: Gabrielle, do you want to be a partner?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Thank you. That’s what it takes. You asked me if I want to do it or not. And you get my credit card. Lee. That’s the only thing I promise you. That is the only.

Lee Kantor: So you’re you’re you’re hypothesis is that we’re not asking directly. Do you want to be a partner?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And why do you. Why do you think I. What what has. Yes, that is my hypothesis. And what proof do I have of that?

Lee Kantor: Well, so far in this conversation, no one has asked you that. And and then and Stone to her point for you, a lot of what your background and belief is, is that you want people to want to be a partner enough that they ask.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Thank you. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: What? Stone, what’s your take?

Stone Payton: No, I think that’s absolutely accurate. And this is really challenging my my thinking. I want to be available to address their concerns, their fears, their risks, but I this is kind of an, um, encouraging me to go ahead and ask. And even and even in the asking, I mean, even from the old days of learning how to trial clothes, just if they say no or, you know, I don’t know or you’ve given me something to think about at. Least I kind of know where I am in the conversation. And then I can ask. I can ask more. Um, more questions of it, but, um. No, you’re absolutely right, Lee. I probably play it out to, uh. Too long and wait for it to organically develop and for them to throw the credit card across the table. Before. Even before I ask.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And can I add something to that or. Lee, did you have something else you wanted to say?

Lee Kantor: Well, I just I mean, in your estimation, Gabrielle, do you think that that has to be that direct, or is it possible to build systems where people are like, hey, where have you been on my life, you know, how do I sign up? Because that’s a different type of positioning. And I know that in Stone’s Heart of Hearts, that’s what he prefers. He prefers to build something so attractive that people want to participate rather than have to say, you know, do you want to buy this?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Yeah. Well, how’s that gone so far?

Lee Kantor: It’s not going well.

Stone Payton: Not going well.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: You already have something beautiful that people would love to participate in. They just don’t know about it. The only reason I know about it, to the extent that I do, is because I have spent close to 12 hours studying the two of you. And for what purpose? So I could coach you for 55 minutes. Other people may. I could be wrong, but I don’t think other people are going to make that kind of leap.

Stone Payton: Right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Now. I’m going to go back lead to the word you chose you use, which is great, which is hypothesis. So you said my hypothesis. Is that what I’m that y’all aren’t asking for the credit card. Is that what you said? Or some version.

Lee Kantor: That we’re not asking? Like, do you want to do this? You know. Yes or no?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And then I and then I said, well, what evidence is what evidence do you think I have of that? And then you said, whatever you said, here’s the evidence. You don’t have any nos. If if you came, if you two came to this call and Stone, you said, yeah, I’ve been out there, I’ve been hustling, I’ve been talking, I’ve gotten 17 no’s. I would know that you are asking for. Will you please give me your credit card or some version of that?

Stone Payton: Right, right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: But you didn’t. What are you now? See in that Stone?

Stone Payton: I think I need to ask more often earlier. And then and even even in the course of that conversation. Truly, my experience has been even when they say no or I’m not sure that doesn’t necessarily end the conversation, it just allows us to go a little bit deeper. Also, I can see, you know, framing up some of the conversation where I go ahead and, and and ask them, um, not just, you know, what makes you want to explore this, but, you know, why wouldn’t you do this? What are some things that would hold you back from doing? Go ahead and just hit it right up front. You know, hit it on the nose.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Beautiful. Now can I give you another one? Because again, I’m playing, you know, I’m kind of teetering on two roles here. Okay. Yeah. How about this. You’re having a you jump on a call with someone and you say, hey, look, I’m going to be so bold as to tell you how I want this conversation to end. It’s going to end when my asking you to be a studio partner. But before we get to that, let’s talk about you.

Stone Payton: Right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: And then now what have you done? If you did that.

Stone Payton: Well, you’ve set the expectation and it’s perfectly appropriate that I’m going to asking that question at some point.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And then you better ask it right. Because you told him you would and they’re waiting to answer it. And most likely, most likely how they’re in that call is thinking about how they’re going to say no. And then they bounce into thinking about, well, I could say yes. And then they bounce into no, but I’m going to have to tell him no because it’s too expensive, blah, blah, blah. And they, they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re ruminating on all that stuff which you want them to do.

Stone Payton: Yeah, I really do. And they and they don’t want to tell me no because they, I am kind of a likable guy. They they don’t want to. Yeah.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Sure. And most often a lot sometimes this is what I found in my coaching practice. A lot of times people will tell me no or I want to do it later because they are just not ready to be their big selves quite yet. I and I, You can laugh at that. I say it little chuckle sometimes as well. But that’s true because then when they eventually do become a partner or a coaching client of mine, they say something to that effect. Yeah, I just wasn’t ready. I just wasn’t ready to actually step out and start that business or sell that business or get acquired or what? Like they just, you know, okay, well, when you’re ready for that result that you say you want, you come back and talk to me because I’ll be here. I’ll see if I don’t ask them. Hey, you want to come and do this? Are you in? I won’t know, and it takes, it takes, takes muscle building Stone. But you got it. You’ve been in sales before.

Stone Payton: Yeah, but.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: It does take asking. Okay, Lee, you’ve been nice. Quiet over there listening to every word. Where are you?

Lee Kantor: I’m I’m on board. I mean, I what I want more knows 100%.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Oh, there you go. Okay, so then then, Lee, what are you going to do to make sure y’all get more knows?

Lee Kantor: I’m going to remind Stone that he has to ask more often.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Very good. Yeah. Very good. Stone, what are you hearing? What are you taking away from this?

Stone Payton: I’m. I’m taking away from this a commitment to ask early and often.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Great. And you know what happens the more you do that.

Stone Payton: Right?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: What happens?

Stone Payton: You’re going to get your nose. But some of them are going to say yes.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. And you’re going to get more comfortable with it. Stone.

Stone Payton: Right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: And then what’s eventually going to happen.

Stone Payton: We’re going to get more studio partners.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Which then has what happened.

Stone Payton: Going back to that legacy we’re trying to build and meeting that need that we’re seeing that wide open void.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Thank you. So if you really want to build that legacy, start asking.

Stone Payton: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: What about you, Gabrielle? Are you ready to build the legacy with us?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: I am, and it doesn’t look like this right now. Being a studio partner. Not yet. I need more. Learn more. I need to learn. I need to learn. Um. What it’s really going to take, I do, because, again, when I take on projects, I go all in and I gotta know what I’m going all in for. And so.

Lee Kantor: Would it be helpful if we got a studio partner, or you communicated with a studio partner and understood what a day or a week looks like?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. It would. And I’d love for that studio partner to be Tricia, I really do. I do see I can see doing something with Tricia. I made up like, oh, first thing, I just send her people and then maybe do a co-host, if she’s even willing to do that. I mean, who knows if she would want to do that? I can see kind of getting to know the system and the process and like finding out where I fit and most, most important, Stone and Lee seeing and feeling and experiencing what this does, I start to see and feel and experience my people rising up. You give me a few of those. I’m good. I gotta see it though. I gotta feel it. Right.

Lee Kantor: Well, you felt it from a guest standpoint because you went through with, uh. So that’s what a guest experience feels like. So you’ve experienced that, but you haven’t experienced it from a I invite somebody on I asked. You know, I interviewed them and I shared their content and you get the feedback from them individually.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, I haven’t experienced that yet. That would be a next step for me. Like that would be part of like the proof in the pudding, right? Because I’m not going to go into something that I am not clear about. I just said.

Lee Kantor: Right now, you.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Shouldn’t.

Lee Kantor: I mean that there’s no reason to do it, and everything’s set up in a way that that’s something that that’s a dream that can come true. So I’m sure we’ll be able to make that happen.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now I’m going to give you two an extra credit question. Okay. I’m going to give you two an extra credit question to answer how you want to answer. What are you noticing about how I am with this opportunity? What are you noticing? Like how am I about this opportunity? Just give me. I’m not again. Say whatever you want. But how am I about it? How am I being about it?

Lee Kantor: I mean, you’re intrigued.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: 100%. How else?

Stone Payton: And. And at the same time, skeptical or, um, just unanswered questions about how this fits into the rest of your world?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yes. Very good. Lee, did you hear that, man? His listening rights shifted. Lee. His listening shifted. He heard something that I never said. He could hear my skepticism. Stone, you do more listening like that. No one’s going to be able to tell you no.

Stone Payton: Good.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Because if you hear my skepticism, then what can you do?

Stone Payton: I can find ways to to remove it or at least lessen it a great deal.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: There you go. You can work with me as a partner, as a collaborator, as someone who cares for me, to get me over a bridge that, you know, is a pretty awesome bridge to get over. Aren’t you clear about that Stone?

Stone Payton: Yes, I think so.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Then help me out.

Stone Payton: Well, I was just thinking, Lee, you know, we were talking about. Hey, we can make that happen for you, can’t we? In our systems make it pretty easy for her. Even at this point where she’s not actually a studio partner, to reach out to some people she really wants to build relationships with or rekindle relationships with. Use our stuff and invite them to be on like High Velocity Radio or something. And and in this case, maybe, you know, maybe at this point we’re not positioning her to do the interview, but she could certainly have a pre-call with them to help them get ready for the interview.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Now you’re talking, now you’re talking.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I mean that. So something we’ve been playing around with. And tell me your opinion on this. If this would be if you would go along with this if during the call, if Stone said, hey, I’m going to put into the chat, here’s a note you can send right now to some people on your LinkedIn to see if they’d be even open to doing with you.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, yeah. What’s your question if I would do that?

Lee Kantor: Right. So if we were we’re having this conversation. Stone popped in the chat here, send this note to five people on LinkedIn right now.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Um, and then you’d see for yourself in a day or two when people say, yeah, man, what do I have to do?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, I would, yeah, I would, I would totally do that. And I heard that on your call with Tricia, And I was like, right on. That is such a smart idea. Wow, that is so smart. And quite frankly, to be quite candid with you, I was waiting for the one one of you to ask me to do that right now. Because as soon as I say I gotta see it work, I want to feel it. I want to touch it. I want to be able to, like, experience it. And I want my people to rise up. I was waiting for one of you to say, well, here, open up your LinkedIn. Here’s the message. Put it in. Now, Gabrielle, you’re so curious about this. Let us give you something right now. You see, there’s something about you all won’t. Um, there’s something about that. That. There’s just something about that that hasn’t clicked yet. Because I am really interested.

Lee Kantor: And it’s so funny because you’re saying you’re really interested. And I’m hearing at some point you say that, but at other points I hear you say, I’m not ready to pull the trigger.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So you’re obviously both it’s not you’re both and you’re not either or you’re you’re and it’s not or.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: I.

Lee Kantor: Am. And for us both Stone and I, I don’t know why, but we’re very sensitive to the hesitation part. And that’s the part we’re acting on, not the enthusiastic part.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay.

Lee Kantor: And that’s an area Stone. I think that we have to get better at. We have to err on the side of if they’re both enthusiastic and skeptical, we have to lean into the enthusiastic side and that if we do that, then that’ll probably alleviate some of the skepticism.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Beautiful. Yeah, it is an and it’s both. It’s both. And the enthusiastic part of me is, man, if I can get people in my community to have a bullhorn and have people just know that they freaking exist and have some people love on them and, you know, have my community build that way, that’s just great. And then I’m like, what do I have to do?

Lee Kantor: Right in your head, it seems like that sounds good, but it seems impossible. And then we have a tactic that is simple that, like, Stone could pop in a note right now into your into the chat, and then you would have a note you could send right now to five people and you would know in a day or so, um, if this works or not. And here’s the note Stone.

Stone Payton: Just say, look. What Stone did.

Lee Kantor: You took action.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Thank you. I, I love you guys. I am I’m like, help me out.

Lee Kantor: I told you it was a dream that could come true. So now you have to take action and actually send that to five people. And then we’ll all know in the day or two if this works or not.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: All right. Let me read this thing. I’m putting the spotlight in an area I’d love to feature an upcoming episode. Simple. No pitch, no cost. Just create an existing relationship. Okay. I’m more existing. I’m sponsoring a Business RadioX. Uh, I’m sponsoring a business radio X show. Ah, that makes me sound important, I like that. Okay. This lady I knew immediately came to mind as someone who liked spotlight. Uh, yeah. I’ll send this right now. I don’t know who I’m gonna send it to, but I’m gonna open up my LinkedIn.

Lee Kantor: Right. If you send that to five people. See how many people at least say, hey, tell me more. And again, from a coach. Just put on your. We’re asking you to put on your your the media hat, which is now I’m the media. So now I have to find guests for my show. Right. Because I’m the media. That’s what the media does. Yeah. And then if you look at it also through again an and not an Or and I’m also a coach who do I want to meet and who would benefit from this. And whether that’s an existing client or a, you know a prospective client when they get the frame of, hey, I’m hosting this show and I thought of you. Their sales radar isn’t on there. Oh, I’m I get to tell my story radars on and someone’s giving me a gift. And then. So now your positioning is different. Um, a lot of things change when you’re the media and the coach. Yeah. And that’s what the. That’s what our offer is. When you’re the media, the media has some benefits. And this is one of them. You get to send notes like this rather than, hey, I’m a coach. Would you want to be coached?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Wonderful. I love everything you just said. Now, can I give you some feedback on that?

Lee Kantor: Lee, please?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay. When I said, oh, yeah, sponsoring that makes me feel important. Oh my God, yes, I’ll do this. You kept talking. What’s something else? What’s another kind of response you could have to that enthusiastic like, oh, look at what these guys just did for me. What is another possible next step for either of you to take after I react that way?

Stone Payton: So there’s one that has to do with maybe asking a question about that and diving into that. But one immediate for me is I think I’m going to rewrite the first one so that it also just says you’re sponsoring, because that really seemed to.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah, yeah, that’s totally, totally right now. But I’m now I’m your prospect. And your prospect just says, oh my God, this is so great. Oh, little wonderful. What’s one possible next step for either of you to take after I react that way? Another possible next step.

Lee Kantor: I mean, I don’t have an answer, but I do have a question. What? What about the word sponsoring? Got you so excited.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Makes me feel important.

Lee Kantor: So by being a sponsor, you feel important?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Anytime I’m sponsoring something, it makes me look like I’m, you know, out in the community, uh, putting putting my money where my mouth is and being a part of something bigger than I am. Because if I’m ever sponsoring something, it’s it’s something that I’m not in. I’m now putting my money in logo and name on it, because now I’m going to be part of that community. That’s what sponsorship really is. So it’s like, oh, wow, she’s sponsoring a radio show. Wow, that’s pretty cool. And. And she’s a she. Out of all the things she could sponsor, she’s sponsoring a radio show. And then out of all the people she could invite on the show, she’s inviting me. Oh, and it’s Gabrielle. Oh, because they already know and love me. I’m only going to people who don’t love me. I mean, love me, you know, colleague kind of way.

Stone Payton: Yeah. And what you’ll discover and what might be worth having a conversation about right there in the moment or after some positive experience actually doing this, you’re going to find that people that don’t never heard of you are also going to want to do it.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay, Lea. Did I answer your question about thank you, Stone Lea, did I ask you a question about sponsoring?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I mean, it’s funny because, I mean, we use the word a lot and then you you probably don’t use the word a lot. Um, no, just it it it has a different semantic weight to you than to us. And and I think that we’re seeing it differently than you’re seeing it. And, um, I think we’re underestimating it. And you’re. Yeah.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Totally, totally, totally. What is one possible next step y’all could have taken after I was jumping up and down in my chair, so excited about this opportunity.

Lee Kantor: I don’t have the answer.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Great. Uh, you want me to tell you, please?

Stone Payton: Yes.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Stop talking and let me send the messages. Because I literally I got the message, got excited, opened up my LinkedIn, started to go through the list. And then Lee, you were still talking to me, so I stopped and then I started listening to you. And the message is still have not gone out because you’ve not given me an opportunity to do it.

Lee Kantor: See, son, I told you that’s why you have to be in charge of this.

Stone Payton: No, I think we found plenty I can improve on too. But she’s absolutely right. You know, I did have a mentor years ago. He used to say, once you make the sale, don’t buy it back. Thank you.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Thank you. Okay, so now I’m your prospect. How are you going to end this call?

Stone Payton: Get those messages out. Let’s circle back around. I want to hear how it goes.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Beautiful, beautiful. Okay. You want another way to do it?

Stone Payton: Yeah.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay. Gabrielle, I know you got to go. And I know you want to get those messages out. When can you send them out? And let me tell you, um. Or when are you going to send them out? I know you’re excited about this. When are you sending them out? And I’ll say today. Great. But I gotta say, today, you leave it open ended. Stone, you’re. I’m gonna go convince myself not to do it after I go get a cup of coffee.

Stone Payton: Right. Okay.

Lee Kantor: So when are you sending him out?

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Thank you. Lee. Yes, yes, I’m sending him out today before 3 p.m..

Lee Kantor: All right. And at 301, we’re going to call you.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: No, you don’t even have to do that. Here’s what I like to do. This is what I do with my coaching clients, okay? I go, hey, you want some extra credit? Of course I want extra credit. Will you text me once you do that? We just let me know because I’m so excited for you. I it’s going to be fun hitting that button. You’re going to be, like, nervous. And it’s going to be exciting at the same time. But how about you text me, let me know. Let’s close the loop. Okay. They always say okay.

Lee Kantor: All right. So text Stone.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Okay.

Lee Kantor: And, um. We’re excited.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: How about if I email both of you?

Lee Kantor: That’d be great. All right.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Great. All right. Beautiful. Yay!

Lee Kantor: Well, Gabrielle, this has been a joy. Thank you so much for doing this. This has made my day.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: In what way? In what way? Lea, what makes you say that?

Lee Kantor: Because I feel like we have a next step.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Which is.

Stone Payton: Actionable.

Lee Kantor: We will ask for more sales more often. And the next coach that comes on can ask us about that. And we will have a number, not a. Yeah, we should do that.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Beautiful. Uh. That’s great. I love it, so definitive. A lot of power in that. Lea. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Let our listeners know how they can connect with you. If they’d like to have a conversation with you at some point.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: You bet. Great way is to find me on LinkedIn. I’m the only Gabrielle Bachmeier there. Uh, and if that if, you know, somehow the connection request doesn’t come in, just book a call with me on my website. It’s bachmeier coaching COVID-19 bau may wire coaching. There’s a book, a call button. It’s really simple. I want to talk to you, and you should definitely book a call if you’re thinking I shouldn’t book a call. So I look forward to hearing from you.

Stone Payton: Thank you so much, Gabrielle. We’ll be talking again soon. I’m sure this has been an absolute delight and incredibly helpful.

Gabrielle Baumeyer: Great. Likewise. I’m so glad to have been with you. Thanks.

Stone Payton: Alrighty. Bye bye.

Speaker1: Thanks for listening to scaling in Public. The next Business RadioX 100 markets. Are you ready to enjoy a steady stream of discovery calls? And finally, stop being a best kept secret? It’s time to step out of the shadows and watch your coaching business grow. Let’s fill your calendar ten discovery calls in a month, guaranteed. Go to Birr to download the free Business RadioX playbook.

BRX Pro Tip: 7 Mistakes New Coaches Make

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BRX Pro Tip: 7 Mistakes New Coaches Make
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BRX Pro Tip: 7 Mistakes New Coaches Make

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, what counsel, if any, do you have for people that may be a little bit new to the coaching business?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. This is some advice for new business coaches. I think one of the mistakes a new coach makes is not knowing their niche. A lot of new coaches try to appeal to everybody. And they’re casting this super wide net. And I think it’s much better if you kind of focus on a specific target audience that you can best serve.

Lee Kantor: A second mistake I see is undercharging and undervaluing the coaches’ value to the client, and that a lot of times that’s due to lack of confidence. A lot of new coaches set their prices too low, which I think can actually deter potential clients because they think that if it’s that low, it must not be good. So I wouldn’t be afraid of charging more than you think initially.

Lee Kantor: Number three is they shy away from discussing pricing because they are insecure or uncomfortable. A lot of times they don’t kind of just talk about the pricing and you have to talk about the money. Otherwise, your client’s going to think you’re not professional. Of course, there’s money to be talked about.

Lee Kantor: Number four, you don’t have a clear offer or a clear call to action. You have to explicitly invite potential clients to work with you. And you have to, you know, be direct and ask. You can’t just say stuff and just hope they figure it out on their own. There has to be a call to action.

Lee Kantor: Number five, I think a big mistake is they just rely on social media for their marketing and they’re just, you know, throwing this stuff out on social media. And they’re not diversifying their marketing efforts beyond just sharing stuff on social media.

Lee Kantor: And number six, they share their offer only once or just occasionally. I think it’s so important that you have to realize that potential clients are going to need you when they need you, so they have to have multiple exposures to your offer so that they can decide to buy when they’re ready to buy. So if you think that, “Oh, I made an offer and then I’m done,” you’re not done because the person just might not have been ready to buy from you today, but maybe in a month they are ready for you to buy so you have to send that offer again but you didn’t because you think you’re done. So send the offer a lot more often.

Lee Kantor: And the last thing I think is so important is most new coaches try to do everything alone by themselves, and they’re not seeking help or guidance from mentors or other experienced coaches to help them shorten their learning curve. A lot of people just struggle too long because they’re not asking for help themselves sooner.

Crystal Tenney: The Subtle Behaviors That Quietly Destroy Trust at Work

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Houston Business Radio
Crystal Tenney: The Subtle Behaviors That Quietly Destroy Trust at Work
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Crystal M.TenneyCrystal M. Tenney, DBA (Hon.) is a Neuroscience Practitioner, Executive Coach, and Leadership Strategist transforming the way leaders think, communicate, and lead.

As Founder and CEO of STRATOVANCE Leadership Intelligence Institute, she brings over 15 years of experience at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and emotional intelligence — equipping organizations to develop human-centered leaders who drive both results and trust.

With a foundation in therapy and applied psychology, Crystal is known for translating complex brain science into actionable leadership tools. Her bestselling book, Are You an A$$hole Boss?, explores the hidden toxicity of micro-negativity in leadership and earned her an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration for its pioneering contribution to leadership science.

Through her signature NeuroVance™ Leadership Certification Course, Crystal offers a neuroscience-backed, self-paced program for executives and rising leaders, blending emotional intelligence, communication training, and strategic insight. StratovanceLeadershipLogoDesign-CrystalM.Tenney

Her core belief — “when leaders heal themselves, they heal their culture” — is reflected in her mission to cultivate conscious, compassionate leadership in every organization she serves.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/crystalmarietenney
Website: http://www.stratovancellc.com

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest, Crystal Tenney, founder and CEO of STRATOVANCE Leadership Intelligence Institute, a neuroscience practitioner and executive coach helping leaders strengthen culture through emotional intelligence and brain based leadership. Crystal is best known for her coining the term micro negativity, which we’re going to talk a little bit about those subtle, often unintentional behaviors that quietly erode trust, safety, and performance inside teams. She brings a rare blend of applied psychology, neuroscience and leadership strategy to help leaders build self-awareness, improve communication, and lead with clarity. She is also the author of Are You an Asshole Boss? Micro Negativity in Leadership, and creator of the Neuro Leadership Certification, designed to help leaders rewire how they think, relate, and lead. Crystal, welcome to the show.

Crystal Tenney: Thank you for having me, Trisha. It’s great to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m really excited. We have so much to talk about and I can’t wait to get started right away. Would you tell us just a little bit more about Crystal before we dive in?

Crystal Tenney: Sure. Um. Hello everyone. I am Crystal, I reside in the beautiful state of Maine. Um, I have my 14 year old son with me, a bonus daughter and my spouse. And we absolutely love it here. We We have the best of everything. We have the beach to the mountains, to beautiful hiking trails, and Maine will always be home for us.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, I love that. I can’t get you to come to Texas, Crystal. I’m just saying, it’s so, so warm here.

Crystal Tenney: Yeah, well, you’re warm weather is very, very enticing because we just had a fluke snowstorm, which is beautiful. And we’re hoping the snow will stick around for Christmas this year.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, I love that. All right, Crystal, let’s dive in, because I know everyone is curious, including me. What is micro negativity?

Crystal Tenney: Trisha great question and I love when I am asked this. Um, basically micro negativity is what I call the silent killer of culture. It’s not the big explosive behaviors we typically associate with toxic leadership. It’s actually the tiny, repeated moments people often overlook um, such as interrupting someone mid-sentence, taking credit for another’s work, dismissing or shutting down an idea abruptly and or prematurely. You’re looking at eye rolling, sighing loudly, um, condescending tones, which I know is pretty, um, widespread in company culture these days. Um, scapegoating is also a very, um, big one. Um, toxic positivity, which not a lot of people talk about, but it it’s it’s there, um, excessive micromanaging and just setting the subtle emotional message that makes an employee feel as though they’re not enough or they don’t belong there. And individually, these behaviors seem small, but collectively they create a deep psychological harm. From a neuroscience standpoint, micro negativity activates the brain’s threat response. So the amygdala fires up, signaling danger, and the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for creativity, collaboration and problem solving, starts to shut down. To the nervous system, an emotionally unsafe interaction at work is processed with the same circuitry as a physical threat. I’m going to repeat that. So two of the nervous system and an UN. I’m sorry. An emotional, unsafe interaction at work is processed with the same circuitry as a physical threat. So when these toxic interactions become someone’s daily environment, they don’t just get stressed, they emotionally retreat. And that’s where you’ll see quiet quitting, which has been a buzzword, um, probably in the last couple of years. Um, disengagement, burnout, low morale and a breakdown in psychological safety. And not because employees lack motivation, but because they no longer feel safe enough to fully participate or show up as their full self.

Crystal Tenney: What I emphasize in the book is that leadership toxicity rarely starts with oblivious or obvious aggression. It begins with the unconscious habits, emotional leakage. Um, some you’ll hear me say that a couple times. Um, but that’s also with tone and micro reactions, negative body language, and just unexamined stress responses that leaders have carried for years. Micro negativity is emotional erosion, subtle, chronic, and deeply damaging over time. But here’s the part that most people don’t realize. Um, many of the leaders I’ve coached and also interviewed for my book Run Asshole Boss. They genuinely care about their people and their teams. They want to inspire their teams, not hurt them. Yet they’re completely unaware of how their micro negative behaviors and moments are breaking down trust and loyalty. And so that’s why I always say self-awareness is extremely crucial because you can’t change what you don’t see. And a simple way to become self-aware of your own blind spots is to ask yourself questions. Um, a great question is, um, let’s say. Oh, here’s one. Um, do people show up differently around me than they do when they’re relaxed and comfortable with other people? And if that answer’s yes, there’s some insight there, and it’s a powerful place to start. Um, in my book. Um. Are you an asshole, boss? I actually break down 40 micro negative behaviors with their psychological root, um, neuroscience patterns and practical strategies to identify and correct. I actually give you short term, um, immediate solutions as well as long term solutions as well, because once you become aware of your own micro negative blind spots, then everything about the way you lead begins to change and so does the way that people will experience you.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. Okay, so number one, you’re going to tell us in a few minutes where we’re going to find your book because I need a copy of it. I feel like I’m over positive I heard you say that. And I’m sitting here going, uh oh, uh oh. Maybe that’s a challenge, right? Oh, absolutely. And please.

Crystal Tenney: So and I’ve had clients come to me and they say, I think I’m overly empathetic. You know what? What do I do? And I said, read the book and it gives you some wonderful insights.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, I’m so excited about that. All right, so we’re leading into a place that I have lots of interest in, which, um, I know that you’re known for helping leaders develop their emotional Intelligence. So how does EQ actually change the way someone leads or the. The idea of knowing EQ and how they can improve it, and how does it prevent this micro negativity that you talked about?

Crystal Tenney: Absolutely. So emotional intelligence is truly the ultimate leadership superpower. And I will probably say that until the end of my days, because it’s actually very true. It gives leaders the ability to understand what’s happening like within themselves, but also around them in real time. So EQ isn’t just empathy, which is a little bit, um, well, it’s accurate, but it’s not 100% accurate. It’s not what it is completely, um, it’s emotional mastery. My apologies. Um, it’s also the ability to stay grounded, um, intentional and clear when pressure is high. So when leaders strengthen their emotional intelligence, They’re actually rewiring their brain. Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain reorganizes itself around new habits. So when a leader pauses instead of reacting or chooses curiosity instead of defensiveness, they activate the prefrontal cortex. And that’s the part of the brain responsible for regulation, empathy, problem solving, and also thoughtful decision making, which in return calms the Magdala part of the brain, which is the brain’s thought system. And over time, it actually weakens those automatic reactive patterns like the snapping or interrupting I mentioned before. Shutting down silent treatments is also a very big one. Um, eye rolling, an even harsh tones. And essentially, if you remember anything, just know that emotional intelligence is the neurological antidote to micro negativity, because emotionally intelligent leaders show up differently. They validate ideas, um, acknowledge contributions, listen without judgment, communicate clearly, especially with their body language.

Crystal Tenney: And they handle conflict with tact and often, um, give feedback with compassion. Um, they adjust their tone and presence based on situations and creating that psychological safety and not a threat when you’re in their presence. And that safety is what fuels the innovation, creativity, as well as retention in a huge part of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. And this is going to be a word you’re going to hear me say probably a hundred times in, in our time together today because it is very, very true, um, understanding how you’re perceived, like how your tone affects others, what triggers your own frustrations and how your emotional state influences the entire team. So without self-awareness, micro negativity thrives in the shadows. With it, leaders can spot their blind spots early and then course correct quickly. And empathy, as I mentioned before, is another core component of emotional intelligence leadership. And it shifts the mindset from, um, like, what’s wrong with them to what might they be experiencing? So as I mentioned before, that curiosity instead of defensiveness. So that single shift, um, transforms the leader into an active listener, um, a patient communicator and an emotionally safe role model. And a great example of this would be, um, for instead of saying, you know, uh, what’s wrong with this employee? They’ve missed their numbers again.

Crystal Tenney: Um, an empathetic leader thinks. Mm. This is the second week they struggled. Let me check in and see how they’re doing and how can I support them. And often it’s it’s simple. You know, maybe their child has been sick and they’ve had a couple sleepless nights. We’ve all been there. Um, maybe they’ve been dealing with a quiet technical issue that’s slowing them down. Or maybe they’re just overwhelmed with their workload and they’re afraid to speak up. Um, but each scenario curiosity replaces judgment and supports replaces frustrations. So when leaders approach challenges from a place of empathy and helpfulness, employees feel safe to bring concerns forward before they become performance problems, and they feel valued and understood and supported rather than scrutinized or shamed. Um, one thing to note is that empathy doesn’t excuse poor performance. Um, I just want to say that right out of the gate, um, it reveals the root cause so leaders can address it effectively. Um, it’s also one of the most powerful tools for building trust, protecting morale, and preventing migraine negativity from taking hold in the first place. But here is a simple way to uncover your own blind spots. Um, becoming self-aware, obviously. But in doing so, pay attention to how people’s energy shifts when you walk into a room or when you speak.

Crystal Tenney: So if you notice people tense up or they go quiet or they start to overexplain themselves, there is valuable information to your own insight. And that’s the exact kind of insight that I walk leaders through in the book and through my coaching sessions. Um, recognizing the subtle patterns you can’t change until you see them. So ultimately, um, emotional intelligence doesn’t change what a leader knows. It actually changes who they are when they show up for their teams. So it upgrades their, um, internal operating system. Their presence calms rather than agitates. Their words empower rather than diminish, and their emotional state doesn’t spill over onto others. Their behavior builds trust instead of breaking it. So all in all, leaders who cultivate emotional intelligence actually reduce their team stress by 70%, 77 0%. Um, strength I know. Isn’t that amazing statistic? I have a few more, um, as we go through. They’re alarming, but also, it’s really great to have this information. Um, but it also strengthens cultures and eliminates micro negativity at the root, because micro negativity cannot survive in a leader who is self-aware, regulated, and emotional intelligence. And, you know, I want to end this part of the question by saying and making it known that leadership isn’t about authority, it’s about awareness. And awareness transforms influence, which is very, very powerful.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Amazing. 70%. I was thinking in simple terms for me. Don’t be judgmental. Be curious. That is like this. This place that as leaders, we should all be. And I love that. This is such a powerful message, Crystal. So as we move into the next session section, I would love for you to provide your contact information. I know folks are already interested in connecting with you or at least finding out about your book. What is the best way for folks to connect with you?

Crystal Tenney: Oh, absolutely. Um, the best way to contact me would be through my website, which is WW. Com, which I will spell out, um, s r a t o r a n c e LLC. Com. Um, and the book is actually, you can order it through my website. Um, it’s also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other online retailers. You know, worldwide. So if you can find it anywhere. And actually I’m very I look this morning Amazon’s having a bit of a sale on the book today. So if you were to order it um today or tomorrow, I want to say it looks like it was half off, which is amazing for anyone who wants to buy it right now. It’s a great holiday gift. I’m just going to throw that out there. Um, and it showed it would arrive by December 18th, so that’s even even great. Wow.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing. Thank you. Crystal. All right. Are you an asshole? Boss? If you’re looking for it, there are symbols in the S’s that look like dollar signs. So if you’re looking for it, that’s the one that you’re looking for. And of course, you can look up Crystal Tenney as the author and find it there as well. Her name is spelled c r y s t a l a t e n n e. Y’all right, my friends. You are a strong woman leading in business, and you’re also mentoring other strong leaders and advocating for this emotional intelligence leadership that we just talked about. How do you see women reshaping leadership in this new era?

Crystal Tenney: Oh, I absolutely love this question, because women are reshaping leadership in ways that are not only powerful, but they’re scientifically proven. And they’re not doing it by mimicking the traditional, outdated models of dominance and force or checking, you know, um, characteristics in a check box or, you know, that mold, um, they’re doing it by bringing forward what the modern workplace actually needs emotional intelligence, connection, psychological safety, empathy, and human centered decision making. Um, From a narrow point, a neuroscience standpoint, women often have stronger um activation in regions of the brain responsible for emotional processing, empathy, and social cognition. That means, naturally, they excel at things that directly drive performance today, like reading subtle emotional cues. We’re very good at that. Diffusing tension, excellent. Communicating with nuance, balancing compassion with accountability, and making collaborative, inclusive decisions. Um, these are not soft skills. They’re actually strategic neurological skills. And organizations that leverage them see real results higher innovation, better retention, stronger engagement, and scientifically, significantly healthier cultures. But here’s the part that I find the most inspiring is that women are giving leadership permission to be whole again, which is phenomenal. Um, intellectual and intuitive and empathetic. Ambitious and emotionally grounded. So when women lead this way, teams feel seen. People feel valued. And workplaces become places where humans can thrive and not just perform.

Crystal Tenney: So in my book, are you an asshole, boss? I actually talk a lot about the blind spots and micro behaviors. And this applies to women too. And a woman can be powerful positive influence, or she can unintentionally undermine herself through defensiveness, perfectionism, and over accommodation and emotional shutdown. But one quick way to check your own blind spot is to ask, do people feel more confident after interacting with me, or less? That question alone can be pivotal. And in the book, I actually walk readers through the most common micro negative behavioral patterns that shape leadership presence without even realizing it. What women bring to leadership when supported, seen, and self-aware. It’s not just valuable, it’s catalytic. So women don’t succeed because they’re tougher. Women succeed because they are emotionally intelligent and emotional. Intelligent leadership is a new competitive advantage, and I want to just bring a couple women’s names into the picture because they they they walk the line, they were the trailblazers. And they still continue to do this every single day. And they are truly inspirational. Um, Indra Nooyi, who is the former CEO of PepsiCo. So she proves that, um, empathy, vision and human centered leadership drive massive business success. Brene Brown we all know her. We all love her.

Crystal Tenney: She’s the researcher, author, leadership educator as well. Um, and her work reinforces the message that awareness, truth telling, and emotional skills are the foundations of great leadership. We have Mary Barra, we have Rosalind Brewer, um, Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble. Um, Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. We not only love her, but her product is amazing. Um, but across industries, whether it’s tech or politics, corporate entrepreneurship, these women prove that emotionally intelligent leadership is not only effective, but transformative. Transformative. Um, they’re living examples of what happens when women embrace the wiring that makes them powerful leaders. And to every woman listening who might be hesitant about stepping into leadership, your natural wiring is not a weakness. It is an asset. Your ability to connect is a strength, and your empathy is influence. Your intuition is intelligence, and your presence has the power to transform a room long before you even speak. So that is phenomenal. Um, as I teach leaders, especially women, um, how to lead with grace, groundedness, and grit all at the same time. Because leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice, it’s actually about being the most emotionally aware. And when women lead with both heart and science, they don’t just change organizations or performance or culture, they change people’s lives.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. I feel so empowered right now. Crystal, thank you for that. That was so amazing. Um, and also exciting. Now, can we talk as we get to the end of our conversation today, I would like to talk a little bit about that transformation that you talked about. And so for even for the gentlemen who are listening or the women who are very interested in moving from being unaware as a leader to an emotionally empowered leader, what is the process actually look like that you take them through?

Crystal Tenney: Yes. Um, another great question. Um, so as you know, transformation is one of the central themes, um, in my book because it truly is the heartbeat of effective leadership. Um, leaders, as I mentioned before, they rarely set out to hurt or discourage the people they lead. Um, harm happens when leaders become unaware and unaware of their emotional patterns, um, how they how their presence, um, shifts in a room and unaware of how their behavioral is silently shaping the emotional climate of their team. And the good news, um, that is that transformation. Transformation is not only possible, it’s predictable. When leaders follow a clear process grounded by psychology, neuroscience, and emotional intelligence. And for the sake of our time here, um, that process unfolds in, we’ll call it three powerful phrases. So the first one, awareness 101 times I’ve said that, um, so far. But that’s the honest mirror moment. And this is the most challenging, but it’s also the most courageous step because it requires leaders to pause and ask themselves uncomfortable but necessary questions. Um. Such as like how do people actually feel after interacting with me and not the what did I mean? But what did I create? You know, the feeling, the emotion, etc.. So in neuroscience, this is actually called metacognition. And this is the ability to observe your own thoughts tone reactions as they are happening. Um, but leaders who lack these skills operate on autopilot, um, repeating emotional patterns without understanding their full impact.

Crystal Tenney: So awareness is liberating because it turns the invisible into visible. It reveals blind spots that have been quietly shaping culture, morale, and performances. Um, and here’s a challenge for some listeners is that if your team grows quieter, overly agreeable, agreeable, guarded, or tense when you walk into the room, you’re not inspiring trust. You’re actually activating their threat response, and that blind spot is worth exploring deeply. Um, number two for phase number two is accountability. So, um, without shame but with ownership. So accountability is where the transformation begins to take root. It’s not about blaming yourself or feeling guilty. It’s actually about taking responsibility for your impact. Um, accountability sounds like, um, even if I didn’t intend to harm, I understand that harm may have occurred and I am committed to doing better. So this requires leaders to connect critical, um, internal dots, if you will, of how their stress patterns spill into communication, how insecurity, shape, tone and decision making, how old leadership conditioning affects Effects responses and how emotionally reactive reactivity disrupts psychological safety. Um, psychologically, this is the moment where self-awareness because becomes self-honesty and accountability. Accountability. Awareness leads nowhere. So without accountability, um, growth becomes um, not inevitable. But with accountability, growth becomes inevitable, if that makes sense. Um, and number three would be rewiring the emotional operating system. So this is where change becomes visible and sustainable.

Crystal Tenney: Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain can form new pathways, meaning leaders can retrain their emotional responses and behavioral patterns. Emotional intelligence becomes a skill and not just a personality trait. So emotionally empowered leaders will learn how to pause before reacting. Um, regulate their stress response quickly. Respond with empathy instead of defensiveness. We talked about that already. Communicate with clarity and steadiness. Create emotional safety in every interaction and model that calm they want. Reflected in their teams. So the shift is so profound that you can feel the difference in energy in the room. So unaware leaders drain energy. Empowered leaders elevated. Unaware leaders create fear. Empowered leaders create safety. Unaware leaders silence voices where empowered leaders amplify them. And so what does this actually mean? So transformation doesn’t require you to become someone else. It actually invites you to become more emotionally aligned, grounded, intentional version of yourself. So someone who regulates instead of reacts, empowers instead of intimidates, inspires instead of drains, builds trust instead of fear. Um, this emotionally empowered leadership and it’s wonderful and it is amazing. And you will watch your teams thrive. And it’s also the kind of leadership that transforms teams, families and communities. So leadership is not about perfection. It’s about progress. Every single person listening has influence. Whether you are leading a team, um, a business, a project community or just yourself, the same emotional principles apply everywhere.

Trisha Stetzel: I have enjoyed this conversation so much. Crystal, I think you’re going to have to come back so we can have another conversation around some of these things. It’s so wonderful to hear the connection that you’re making around this human interaction, whether it be at work or at home, and being more self-aware of the things that we’re doing. Thank you so much for that. Now, I know you have your book as well as your program, so tell us a little bit more or remind us where we can find your book. And I’d also love for you to tell us a little bit about your program so that we can cue that up for listeners as well, if they’re interested in joining that.

Crystal Tenney: Absolutely. And thank you so much for having me. This conversation has been really, really great. Um, so Where to Find Me is, um, my book. It’s also, I meant to mention it’s available hard copy and e-book as well, so you can buy it directly through my website at w-w-w. Com. I’ll spell that again s t o v a n c e LLC. Com. It’s available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble um, major book retailers. And then if you are ready to elevate your leadership or develop your team, you can also book services through my website, um, to explore leadership coaching, um, emotional intelligence training, corporate development programs, speaking opportunities. But if you want to dive deeper into a more transformational experience. I created Neurovance. It’s a nine module, self-paced emotional intelligence course where it helps you rewire the emotional and behavioral patterns that shape leadership. And it ends with a personal one on one coaching session with me so I can help you support your growth. Um, and answer any questions you have. And, um, once you complete the program, you will earn your new Neurovance leadership certificate, which recognizes your commitment to leading with conscious and emotional. Um, magistrate. You can also find me on LinkedIn, Crystal Anthony. And there I share, um, neuroscience based insights, leadership tools, and weekly content to help leaders not just succeed but matter.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s been fantastic. Crystal, thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation today. And you guys remember you can go to strata LLC to find all of the resources that Crystal was talking about. And are you an asshole, boss? You can find it. All of the the places that Crystal named off. I will also put links to both of those in the show notes. As always. Crystal, again, thank you so much for spending the time with me today.

Crystal Tenney: Thank you Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today, guys. So if you found value in this conversation that Crystal and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. And as always, be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. And remember, your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer: The Daily Practice That Changes Everything

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Houston Business Radio
Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer: The Daily Practice That Changes Everything
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Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer is a USA Today bestselling author, international speaker, executive coach, and the founder of Bentzen Performance Partners. With more than 30 years of C-suite experience, she guides leaders and organizations through high-impact transformation by blending strategic clarity with deep human insight.

At the heart of her work is the belief that people—not just plans—drive results. Cynthia’s signature frameworks like the Human Capital Investment Strategy, Now-Near-Next Career Pathing, and the 7-Minute Pivot help leaders align purpose with performance, unlock untapped potential, and build sustainable momentum in both career and culture.

A respected voice in leadership and growth, Cynthia brings real-world wisdom, authenticity, and empathy to every conversation—whether she’s advising Fortune 500 executives, speaking on international stages, or mentoring emerging leaders. Her most cherished titles remain mom, sister, CeCe (grandmother), and guide to those committed to intentional growth and legacy leadership.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcynthiabentzenmercer/

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer , a USA today best selling author, international speaker, and executive coach with more than 30 years of C-suite experience helping leaders and organizations unlock human potential. She’s the founder and CEO of Bentzen Performance Partners, creator of Human Capital Investment strategy. We’re going to talk a little bit more about that then now near next career framework and the seven minute pivot, a powerful daily practice that helps professionals move from stuck to strategic. Cynthia works at the intersection of strategy and soul, helping leaders reclaim purpose, elevate performance, and intentionally shape the careers and cultures they want. Cynthia. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Trisha. It’s so exciting to be here. Thank you for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m very excited to have you on. So tell us just a little bit more about Dr. Cynthia.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Oh, yes. Well, um, you summed it up nicely in that, in that lovely introduction. I would say in addition to that, I have two grown children, um, three grandchildren and a fourth grandchild on the way. So, um, in rounding out that, which is all things Cynthia, you know, there’s there’s the part of me that is also a mom and a CC and, um, those are some of the most important jobs that I have.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that I always love to know what we want the grandchildren to call us. So CC is right in the top five that I’ve heard. I love.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : That.

Trisha Stetzel: Beautiful. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, I’d love to dive right in. In your introduction, I talked a little bit about strategy and soul. So what does it mean for leaders who feel misaligned or even burned out when you talk about strategy and soul?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. You know, in studying leaders and and I’ve done the most of the study I’ve done is women leaders. Um, but I but this absolutely generalizes to men as well, is that we can have a vision for our career, our future, what it is that we want to do. Um, but sometimes there’s a disconnect or misalignment to your to the point of your question to does it really align with my sense of purpose? Does it really align with my core value system? And I find that when I’m coaching women and men, um, they think they know their own personal mission, vision and values. Um, but until they put pen to paper, they don’t actually know, you know. They think that they sort of have this intuition around it. It’s an exercise. And, um, those become your non-negotiables. So then you can bump up career transitions, progressions, etc. against how does this fit in with my sense of purpose, my sense of values, my mission. Um, and those can evolve and change, right? As we grow and mature and have different experiences. Um, but it gives us our true north. And and to me, it’s it’s always a both and proposition.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, I love that. So when we think about potential and permission, especially with women, where do you see the biggest gap in the way our minds work when it comes to potential and permission?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : It’s such an important question. You know what we know from data and evidence from the studies that that we did with my thought partner as part of my first book, now near next and and many other studies that preceded our work, is that statistically, women, um, one tend to wait to be invited us to expect that this myth of put your head down, work hard, and wait to get tapped is the is the right path, um, versus leaning into our potential. Right. And again, and there’s of course, the study around women C ten requirements for a job and feel that they have to tick all ten boxes. Men tick three of the boxes and they’re like, hey, fake it till you make it. Um, by the way, not an indictment of the man listening. In fact, my advice always is we need to steal a page out of our incredible male counterparts playbook, because it’s not about waiting for permission. It’s about self-advocating. It’s about not leaving your agency in the hands of or lap of someone else. Um, and it’s leaning into the possibilities in your potential. Not necessarily the confidence that you’ve accomplished everything. And that’s a leap for a lot of people. Women and people of color in particular.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, yeah. It’s as you’re talking through that. I’m even thinking about Cynthia, the idea of the people we surround ourselves with. So how important is it that we allow the right people in our room?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah, well. Hugely important. What’s the phrase? If you, um, you’ll you’ll never saw with the Eagles if you hang out with turkeys or something like that. Um, I used to tell my kids that, um, you know, it’s a couple of things. I actually, we actually covered this in now near next about. There’s people that give you energy. There’s people that, um, maybe are pretty neutral. And then there’s those that suck energy, right? Um, so who you surround yourself has lots of layers. Number one is surround yourself with people that are pouring into you. Right. And it’s not a one way street. You’re pouring into them as well. Um, but with positivity and affirmation. Um, not people that are sucking the life out of the room. Uh, now, sometimes those are relatives or people we have to spend some time with, and I, you know, that’s a different conversation. But that’s when boundaries become important. I think the other thing is sponsorship and allyship and advocacy don’t always just happen organically. It happens when we again use our agency to seek people out that can can say our name in rooms that we’re not in. But people are not mind readers, you know. Trisha, if if if I have an aspiration to do something really amazing and don’t tell anybody, no one’s going to know that. But if I happen to tell you, like, hey, I’d like to do something that I’ve seen you do someday, and I’d love to get your advice. Two months from now, you may be in a room where somebody is looking for that exact competency and you’re like, you know what? I just talked to a gal that’s looking for that exact thing. Let’s let’s line that up. So, yes, surround yourself with people that give a give you positive energy and that are going to say your name and rooms you’re not in.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Oh that’s so important. Thank you for bringing that out. Uh that a lot of us who advocate for each other out listening for not only opportunities for ourselves, but for those that are closest to us and that we spend time with. It’s so important. Um, let’s talk just for a minute about now. Near next. I know people have heard you say it a couple of times in our conversation already. So tell us a little more.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. So now you’re next. Um, my first book with coauthor Kimberly Roth came out in March of 24, and it was really, um, dedicated for women, high professional, high achieving, ambitious, overextended women. And in a nutshell, the through line is start working on your future today. Do your day job with excellence, but identify your next whatever that is for you, and start working on it today. And it doesn’t have to be massive steps. It can be tiny incremental shifts or pivots to get you moving there. Um, the brief backstory is when I set out to write this book, I was in a CEO position in a large organization. This was kind of something I was doing in the margins in researching and studying. Women around the globe learned that to a person, these high functioning, ambitious, very successful women, not one of them was intentional in their career journey. Um, and so many women aren’t and don’t have the luck. Serendipity. Right place, right time that the women we studied had. And so it became so clear to me that you have to start working on your next right now, not after the kids go off to school or graduate or the significant other gets their perfect job. And it saved the day for me when my position was eliminated two and a half years ago during a CEO change. Change of control. Had it not been for the research I had done and drinking my own champagne, I started journeying with the reader and building what was to be my next. I thought 3 to 5 years from now, when my job was eliminated, I was like, okay, well, I can either go find another C-suite job, which sounds exhausting as a single woman, empty nester, or I can accelerate this plan that I’d already been working toward. I would have never had had that option had I not been following this framework of in the now. Identify your next.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that and I love that. Drink your own champagne. I’ve never heard that before. I’m just going to say Cynthia coined that.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. Fair enough.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. I think that’s fantastic. So is now a good time to talk a little bit about the seven minute pivot?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. It’s a it’s a perfect segue because here’s here’s what we learned from. And again for the for the man listening. Let me just say this. If you’re if you have a sister, a wife, a a girlfriend, a mom, a daughter, a female coworker, please don’t tune this part out. This is this is for you as well. Um, and all of the all of the concepts of now near next work equally well for men. It just happens that they tend to be better at it Naturally. Mhm. Right. So they absolutely work but they just tend to lean into their agency more than women. Um the very first thing we heard is when we talked to women and we were on stages promoting the book and talking about the research is they’d say, listen, Cynthia, I love it. It makes all the sense in the world. I don’t have time, right? I don’t have time because whether you have children or you don’t have children, we pour into someone our church, our community or sandwich generation. We’re caring for aging parents, our community, somebody, you know, we’re leaning into. And so where the seven minute pivot evolved is this everyone has seven minutes a day, it’s more than five, it’s less than ten. And when you take seven minutes and remove all distractions, put a timer on so that it’s limited to the seven minutes. Put a timer on. Get out a piece of paper and a pen.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Because we know neurologically this really connects with that frontal lobe and starts to get us thinking in that creative head space and creates clarity and focus. And ask yourself a prompt, what is standing in the way of my next? That could be the prompt. And for that seven minutes, you’re journaling about that. But here’s the thing. You ask yourself why three times? Because most of us will go, I don’t have time. Okay, end of end of seven minutes. I still have six minutes and 55 seconds left. Right. Um. Why? Well, because of this. This and this why? And so you get underneath the thing. That’s underneath the thing. And then the beauty in the seven minute pivot is at the end. You choose one small incremental thing, just one baby step to move you slightly forward so you don’t have to make massive changes. But you’re saying, I’m going to make that phone call. I’m going to update my LinkedIn profile. I’m going to set this new boundary, whatever that one small thing is. You do that every day for a year. That’s 2555 minutes. Imagine how far off course a plane would go with just that tiny incremental shift over time. It ends up 300 miles in a different direction altogether. That’s what can happen for us in the steps that we can absorb. For those of us that are overextended, busy doing life.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, life. I’m thinking about my calendar right now. Cynthia. I think I can find seven minutes. I’m just.

Speaker4: Yeah, I think I yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: I know what a wonderful piece of advice, especially for those very busy professionals out there. It just takes seven minutes to start that direction. And we see how that played out with you. So thank you for sharing that story. That’s so important. I think for people who are listening today, I know that folks are already ready to connect with you to find out more. What is the best way for folks to reach out or to connect with you? Cynthia.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah, so all the socials I’m Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer , which is a unique spelling and so I’m sure it’ll be in the show notes. Um, my website is easier. It’s Dr. hyphen com and you can connect with me there for a free coaching session. You can look up books, and I have a lot of free resources for the person listening that wants to audit how they’re doing on their own intentionality. There’s a free audit quiz, um, for the gentleman that’s listening that says, how can it be a better ally? There’s an allyship quiz. Um, so lots of free resources available and I’d love to connect.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Thank you so much, Cynthia. And by the way, her first name is spelled c y n t h I a, just in case you’re looking for that website. And of course, it’ll be in the show notes so you can point and click if you happen to be sitting right in front of your computer. Not driving. Not driving.

Speaker4: That’s right. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, why don’t we, since we’re on the topic of high achieving leaders and people who are busy professionals and, uh, love to pour into others, what predictable patterns do you see when high achieving leaders feel restless or even stuck?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. So it’s it’s a couple of different things. Um, again, there are some interesting dynamics from a gender perspective. Um, men for the most part tend to speak up. Um, put me in. Coach, is there something else? I really want this, you know, this is what this is the path I’m looking for. This is the next promotion I’d like to see. Um, which I love. I love that, you know, that they’re putting their agency for the most part, into the universe. Um, women tend to grow silently, restless, frustrated, stuck or stagnant and begin their search and take their ball and go elsewhere. And here’s why. And this is something leaders need to be very much aware of. We long have thought if if there’s a new position that opens up or a promotion, what have you, that if a person doesn’t raise their hand that well, they’re just not very ambitious, not necessarily the case. Women overindex on performance. We have been conditioned for the most part, but our heads down work hard and wait to get tapped. We expect that our performance and our work speaks for itself. So when the new position comes up, I’m expecting Trisha to come say, hey Cynthia, you’ve been working really hard and done all this amazing things.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : There’s this position Trisha’s expecting. Cynthia’s going to raise her hand and say, hey, what about me? And so we miss Opportunities, right? Which is why then we sort of silently take our ball and go elsewhere. So I think the the cautionary tale is twofold. Number one, all people should put their agency and their aspirations into the put their aspirations farther into the universe and be responsible for their own agency. Number one. Number two, as leaders of people ask those questions, what are your aspirational goals? What’s your aspirational next? How can I help get you there? What barriers do you see are standing in your way? You know, worst thing that could happen is somebody has a desire for something that you don’t see being a good fit podcast for another day, but there’s ways to address that and help align them better to their natural gifts and talents. Um, the worst thing you can do is not raise the question, not show a sense of investment, and then lose that talent to the competition.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, those are some great pieces of advice where we need to step forward and say, these are the things that I’m interested in. And as managers or leaders, we need to ask, what is it that you want to do next? So those are what I would consider things that are out there in the universe. What about what’s in between our ears? There’s a whole lot of mindset work, I think that goes that comes behind what we’re talking about today. So how do we shift the way we’re thinking or the way that we’ve always thought into these other spaces where we’re actually standing up and saying, hey, me?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah, well, so much of it is, um, what I refer to more as impostor phenomenon, right? I I’ve decided I don’t believe it’s a syndrome. Um, I don’t think it’s a clinical diagnosis. And I think it’s something that we can all overcome. I think it’s a phenomenon that, um, many of us have. I am still, you know, not, um, someone that that has has overcome all, all areas of of the phenomenon as it creeps in from time to time. So this is another excellent use of the seven minute pivot. And it is using it for purposes of your highlight reel. So you don’t put down in seven. Your prompt is not what are all the reasons I don’t think that I can do X. What are all the reasons that I it is what are all of the times when I have demonstrated getting through hard stuff, right? So you kind of do a highlight reel, um, and get yourself in the place of I can I’m worthy, I’m capable. Look at all the times I’ve done hard things well and succeeded. And what’s one small thing I can do today to continue to move forward in that positive direction? Um, the other thing and highlight reels I think work great.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : I think you can do those at the end of a day, you know, when you’ve had that day where you’re like, oh, that that one thing didn’t go well. If you’re like me, you beat yourself up about you can have 20 things go well. But that one thing that didn’t go well, it’s like all night long, you know, I’m replaying the fact that I called somebody by the wrong name or whatever it was. Um, what’s really happened with the client? And it was, you know, I stood over it. Um, but the reality is, it’s it’s to flip that thinking to what are all of the things I can be proud of, that I’ve done successfully, and put your energy and motion into that. Um, and how do I keep that momentum? So, yeah, there’s, there’s so much about our own self limiting beliefs and moving past that, I think oftentimes has to do with just reminding ourselves of how incredibly brilliant we really are.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Yeah. And I think as women we beat ourselves up a lot over this small things. And you know the reality is we’re all human and things.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yeah. You have to embrace grace, right? At the end of the day, you have to embrace grace and and over guilt.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: And surround yourself with the right people, as you mentioned. Have the right people in the room that support you when you find yourself in that spot. Right.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : That’s exactly right.

Trisha Stetzel: I’d love to shift to something new, if that’s okay with you. I’ve heard that you might be dropping a new book called Capital Investment Strategy. Can we talk about that?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yes, yes. So human capital investment strategy. And here’s how it links to the first part of the conversation. When when I was writing and then promoting now near next, one of the things that always would start with is, look, this is not a finger wagging at men. This is, you know, not about society, culture, etc.. Let’s just let’s just agree that there are things that hold women back that are systemic, that are somewhat out of our control. Now near next is about what we can control. What kept bugging me, having having spent over 30 years in human resources was. But there are things organizationally that are not only impacting individuals, but they’re impacting organizations in a negative way. And it’s this we use very arbitrary, um, criteria for selection and promotion that date back to the industrial revolution that are not predictive of future performance, age, years of experience, job titles, even even schools. You know what kind of pedigree somebody has when we use all of these non productive right. Non predictive measures of trying to figure out what future performance will look like. We narrow the pool, narrow the pool nor the pool to respectfully what often ends up being middle aged white men because we say you have to have 15 years of experience at this job level in this industry and this type of company, etc., right? We’re shrinking it down.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : What human capital investment strategy the through line is this. Invest in your human capital both as an individual. My human capital is mine to invest in my talent, my skill, my knowledge. And as leaders in and organizations, invest in the portfolio of human capital that chooses to come bring their gifts and talents to work every day with the same rigor and intentionality that you’re investing in your financial capital. And in doing so, find more predictive measures. Build around talent, teach skill and knowledge that is the true competitive advantage. And then what we will see is this melting pot of a portfolio of the highest performers up doing their best work that they love doing because it’s their gift and they’re wired to do it. And organizations thriving. Um, it I scratch my head sometimes because in some ways it seems so blindingly obvious. And yet organization after organization continue to fall back into what I frankly find is a really lazy way of bringing people into their company and how they manage people instead of the human capital.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Human capital investment strategy is dropping on February 3rd. Where might the listeners find this beautiful new piece of work of yours?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Yes. So I’d love for you to buy it. Uh, pick it up in preorder and pre-sale. You can do one of two things. You can go to Amazon. It’s available for presale right now on Amazon. If you go to Amazon and then you want to email me at Hello at Cynthia Benson. Com, which again will be in the show notes and just say purchased on Amazon. I’m going to email you $728 in free content to hold you over for the few weeks until you have the book in hand. Or you can go to my website at. Com and you can order the book right there, and you will automatically receive $728 in free content to hold you over until the book arrives in your hands.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s wonderful. Thank you so much, Cynthia. This has been so fun. I have one more question for you. So for those listeners listening today who have this, this thing inside of them, that they know that there’s something more, there’s something more for them out there, but they’re not sure where to begin, where what’s their very first step? What should they do?

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : The very first step. I’m going to give you a framework. I’ll go through it swiftly. It’s aces. So that’s how you remembered. If you’re driving, remember aces. We all have aces and spaces. So think about when you finish a day or a week and you reflect and you’re like, gosh, that was an amazing day. That was such a good day at work or whatever it was you were doing. So the way you find your natural talent is it’s affirming. It feels good when I’m doing it. We can all do lots of things we don’t love doing, but it feels good. I love hosting a podcast. It’s fun to do. That’s affirming, right? It’s consistent. It’s always something you do and you do it well. It’s spontaneous. Actually, I think the E comes next. You do it with excellence, meaning you do it better than most. It comes easy for you, and it isn’t because you took a lot of classes or went to school for it. It’s just sort of part of your DNA and it’s spontaneous. You can’t help yourself. You’re the person that walks into a busy room and thinks, you know, if they put a stanchion there and added a person there, this whole thing would be so much more organized, right? Versus the person that walks in and just becomes part of the chaos. So when you think about that, when you think about what are my aces, what are the things that feel so affirming consistently? I do with excellence, and I do spontaneously start to mind map that start to journal about that. And then how do you monetize that? That becomes how you start to isolate your next, then start working on your future today. You don’t have to quit your job and go do that, you know, become a writer or a, you know, movie star. Tomorrow you start working on your future today. Baby steps.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that aces. Aces, aces. Everyone who’s listening remember aces. And you can always come back and grab the show notes for what the acronym stood for. Cynthia, this has been so much fun today. I really appreciate your time. You have given us so much gold. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.

Dr. Cynthia Bentzen-Mercer : Oh, you are so kind. And I, my little uninvited guest is in the background barking, so hopefully you don’t hear that. It has been amazing. Thank you for this time. You are such a wonderful host and interviewer.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much, Dr. Cynthia, it’s been my pleasure to have you. All right, guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Cynthia and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate, and review the show. Of course, it helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

BRX Pro Tip: 2 Seth Godin Tips Worth Remembering

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BRX Pro Tip: 2 Seth Godin Tips Worth Remembering
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BRX Pro Tip: 2 Seth Godin Tips Worth Remembering

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, you and I really do enjoy following all of Seth Godin’s work. We read his books. I know you participated in the Seth Godin MBA program. He just has so much to offer, I think. And a couple of specific tips have surfaced for you that you felt like are worth sharing. Yeah?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I have a folder where I put all of Seth Godin’s newsletters, and I was going through that folder recently, and there were two tips that he had in there that I think are super important. And it really is critical for entrepreneurs, especially small business owners, to really understand these points.

Lee Kantor: The first one was, you have to tell your clients that they’re going to be paying a lot when they work with you but they have to know that they’re going to be getting a lot more than they paid for. You don’t want to be the low price provider. You don’t want to be the cheapest person in the industry that does what you do. And your clients should know that they are going to pay more for you, but they’re going to be getting a lot more than they paid for. And that clarity is going to help you attract the right people to be your clients.

Lee Kantor: And the second thing that’s important when you’re especially talking to prospective clients is that you have to tell them that you’re not going to lie to get the work. You’re not going to just say whatever it is you have to say in order to get the business. That’s so important. They have to believe that you are watching their back, that you have their best interests at heart, and that you’re not going to just say what you have to say in order to get the business.

Lee Kantor: So, if you kind of take these two points to heart and start sharing them with your next sales prospect, I think they’re going to appreciate your honesty and I think that you’re going to get more of the right kind of clients.

Story Over Script: Building Trust Through Authentic Video with Graham Kuhn

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Story Over Script: Building Trust Through Authentic Video with Graham Kuhn
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Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors

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On this episode of Cherokee Business Radio,  Joshua Kornitsky sits down with Graham Kuhn, Founder of Focus Films, to explore how authentic storytelling through video builds trust, credibility, and meaningful connection. Graham shares his journey from opera singer and wrestling coach’s son to full-time filmmaker, and explains why real conversations—not scripts—are the secret to powerful brand storytelling. The discussion dives into how businesses can use video strategically to stand out in a crowded, AI-driven world.

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Graham-KuhnGraham Kuhn is the founder of Focus Films, a video production company rooted in results-driven storytelling. He works with business owners who are tired of generic content and want videos that actually do something: build trust, convert leads, shorten the sales cycle, and educate prospects with consistency.

From law firms shifting public perception to homebuilders elevating their brand presence, Graham helps companies stand out by showing the human side of what they do. His storytelling is never scripted, he uses interview-based videos to capture authentic emotion, paired with smart strategy that aligns with business goals.

Before video, Graham spent 20 years as a professional singer and a wrestling coach. That blend of artistry and discipline is what sets him, and his videos, apart.

Episode Highlights

  • From Farm Kid to Filmmaker
    Graham’s path began in small-town Wisconsin, shaped by hard work, music, and athletics. After years as a professional singer and church video producer, his side hustle in video storytelling grew into a full-time business built around authenticity and human connection.
  • Why Scripts Kill Connection
    Graham doesn’t use teleprompters or scripts. Instead, he relies on documentary-style interviews and real conversations to draw out the “why” behind a business—because people connect emotionally with stories, not polished sales pitches.
  • Storytelling Isn’t Passé—It’s Powerful
    In a short-attention-span world, authentic storytelling still engages the brain more deeply than facts and data alone. Emotional connection builds trust, and trust drives buying decisions.
  • Video Strategy vs. Viral Hype
    Focus Films doesn’t chase viral reels. Graham emphasizes strategic video assets—brand stories, testimonial videos, and website content—that convert viewers into clients, rather than just generating social media views.
  • Authenticity in an AI World
    As content becomes more polished and AI-generated, genuine human presence stands out even more. Imperfections—“ums,” pauses, real emotion—create relatability and strengthen trust.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I am Joshua Kornitsky, your host and professional implementer, and I’ve got a great guest in studio with me today. But before we get started, I want to remind everybody that today’s episode is brought to you in part by our community partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Warriors. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Mainstreet Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Inc. please go check them out at dieseldorff. Well, as I said, I’ve got a fantastic guest here in the studio with me today. I’d like to introduce everybody to Graham Kuhn. He is the founder of Focus Films. His work centers on helping business owners think intentionally about how they show up, communicate, and connect with their audiences. He operates at the intersection of storytelling, trust, and personal presence. Graham brings a practical, human centered perspective to how business visibility and credibility should be. Welcome, Graham. Good morning.

Graham Kuhn: Good morning Joshua.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thanks for being here, man.

Graham Kuhn: I know everybody says happy to be here, but I really am. I’ve been I’ve been looking forward to this. So I’m excited to chat with you.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, let’s begin at the beginning. I always like to hear the origin story. How did you get to where you are? What inspired you to do what you do?

Graham Kuhn: Well, going way back, I mean, I grew up in in a small farming town in Wisconsin, um, you know, hard work, blue collar. My grandparents had a farm, you know, baling hay, driving tractors when I’m eight, ten years old. Um, so, I mean, that really instilled a work ethic in me that I still have to this day, where my wife is like, you’re a workaholic. I’m like, I don’t, I’m just driven, man. I just I like to work hard. Um, and then, um, when I got to, like, middle school, high school, I had a love for music. So, um, I started singing, and I became, you know, I got, like, the lead in the musicals, and I was, like, on stage, like, oh, that’s kind of what I want to do with my life. That’s awesome. So I went to college, um, and I studied opera and I wrestled in college. And so it was an interesting dichotomy of the right brain and the left brain and the emotion and the tough guy and all that kind of stuff. And I just, um, I had been shooting videos for my father, who was the wrestling coach at my high school.

Graham Kuhn: Um, because he said when I was like in sixth grade, he’s like, hey, um, we need somebody to to film the the high school wrestlers. Do you want to do it? I’m like, yeah, sure. And I liked it running the camcorder on the tripod. This is like 1986 and, uh, uh, you know, the old school camcorder. And then at the end of the year, I’d like throw the, the best moves together into, like, a highlight video and on the VHS tape. And we’d show it at the banquet and everybody would cheer and be like, that’s so cool. I’m like, I like that. And then when I was wrestling in college, my college wrestling coach was like, hey, I heard you made some highlight videos. Would you do that for us? Sure. Right then, through music, I auditioned for a singing group, a professional acapella group in Atlanta, and they let me in. So I moved to Atlanta in 1999. Um was a professional singer for 20 years. Wow was, uh, working at my church doing music, worship leader and also video production because they also got wind that I had done some videos.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s amazing how word gets around.

Graham Kuhn: I know, and it was like, I mean, it was the Catholic Church. So in 2010, they decided they wanted to be on the cutting edge and start doing videos. But um, so then from, gosh, 2009 or 10 until 2020, I was cranking out 2 or 3 videos every week.

Joshua Kornitsky: Wow.

Graham Kuhn: So I got pretty good at it. And it was through that that I that I discovered this, like, authentic storytelling kind of vibe. Um, just letting people be themselves that really resonates with people when they’re watching videos. And, um, so then long story short, my side hustle video business just got too big because people from the church were calling the office, like, who makes the videos? I need them for my business. They’re really good. I need them for my business.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s awesome.

Graham Kuhn: So then my wife and I just, you know, we had some we had some conversations. We’re like, am I gonna quit my job and do this full time? And so we did. We we left the salary and the benefits and went full time into this. And, uh, it’s been really great.

Joshua Kornitsky: I mean, it sounds like it was born of passion and genuine love and interest. And when it comes to starting a business, those are not uncommon reasons, but they are usually difficult to become sustainable. So it sounds like it’s got its own momentum. And you’ve been at it now for a number of years, plus all the many years of experience getting into it. So let’s talk about storytelling, because I, uh, in my heart of hearts, I want to retire to the hills and just be a storyteller in storytelling competitions. It’s a it’s a passion for me.

Graham Kuhn: That’s very.

Joshua Kornitsky: Cool. Um, I just think it would be a lot of fun. But when you talk about storytelling, you’re talking about your words, right? The authentic person in front of you, how do you help them go from being? I’m afraid of being on camera, and I hate the sound of my own voice to getting to the point where you’re actually reaching that person.

Graham Kuhn: This is going to sound scary to people, but the biggest thing is I don’t script anything. There’s no there’s no teleprompter, there’s no script, there’s no reading. And I mean, the real the real secret is that most of the videos that we make are interview style, like a documentary style where, like the conversation you and I are having right now, there’s no script, right? You’re asking me questions. I’m answering, and we’re having a conversation and it’s the real me. Whereas if we were doing this for a video project, there would just be two cameras off your shoulder that were filming me.

Joshua Kornitsky: And a teleprompter behind my head.

Graham Kuhn: And we’re just and we’re just talking for like an hour. And the real key, though, is I’m not asking when I’m talking to my clients. I want them to connect with the viewer on an emotional level, a psychological level. If, for instance, you’re if you’re a roofer, I’m not asking you about shingles and gutters and siding. I’m asking you like you asked me about my origin story. I’m asking them why they do this. Why are you so passionate about this? And most of the time for, say, a roofer, it’s going to be because I know that home is where the heart is, or home is where they make memories. It’s more than windows and a roof. It’s where a family is safe and all that. And that’s the passion behind it. It’s not. I love to put this kind of shingle on a roof. It’s because they want to help people and help them make memories. That’s the story and the way I get them to open up is literally have a conversation with them. We do a one hour deep dive pre-interview, if we will, a week before we ever shoot. Then I already know their story, so I can help guide them by asking them questions to pull out what they need to get. Um, and then we really they’re never looking in the camera. They’re always looking at me. We’re just having a conversation, and I’m really trying to focus on why they do it. And then we’ll touch on, you know what? What do you do? How are you different from competitors. But really that why is what connects with people. That’s emotionally. If I hear somebody saying, I do home building because I grew up working in the woodshed with my grandpa and he really inspired me, you know? And again, I know that home is where people are going to make memories. That’s what connects versus we’ve got this architect and we’ve been doing this since 1998, and we’ve been it sounds like everybody else, but it’s really the conversation and just leading them to talk about who they are, why they do what they do.

Joshua Kornitsky: Why it’s right.

Graham Kuhn: I mean, it’s it’s almost cliche these days with Simon Sinek and all, but it is. That’s what resonates. I want people to watch my clients video, connect with them on an emotional level and go, hmm, I would trust them with my money.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and ultimately we do business with people we trust, right? Absolutely. And stories are what connects us at a human level to better understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing. Yeah. Um, you and I did have a pre-show discussion, and one of the things that I distinctly remember, because it’s something I think we have in common, is, uh, that we both like to focus on education and helping people understand. I’m less concerned, and I feel you’re less concerned about getting to the here’s your invoice and much more concerned. Talk to me about how you educate and what it is you educate because I well, there’s there’s another question here, which is probably what are the assumptions people make about what you do. And then let’s talk about how you educate them, because I imagine kind of like when Facebook got popular, if you had a DSLR camera, you put yourself out there as a wedding photographer, right? And as, as someone who’s been burned by a wedding photographer. So what are the assumptions people make? First.

Graham Kuhn: I have no comment. I was a wedding DJ for 13 years and I’ve heard some horror stories about photographers and videographers. Anyway, um, the misconceptions people have is when they hear, oh, you own a video company with how the world is today with TikTok and Instagram, and they assume it’s a bunch of 32nd reels, or it’s, um, you know, you’re going to write a script and we’re gonna come up with a skit, you know, because that’s what. Well, that’s absolutely not what we do. Um, that may be the first step in a strategy, right? Because I firmly believe that those, um, social media reels and social media, Facebook and TikTok, that gets eyeballs, it gets engagement. But most of the time it’s not going to lead to business. It’s not going to lead to conversions. That’s your first step. You get eyeballs and then somebody goes, huh, I think I’d like to check out their website and maybe hire them. Then they go to the website and there’s nothing but text there. And like, my dad and I started this business in 1992 and we’ve been around for this many years, and there’s no emotion or psychology. There needs to be a deep like brand story video, almost a documentary about the why. Like we were talking about testimonial videos from clients because we use emotion. We buy with emotion. Sure. And then we use the logic to justify it. But if it’s just a website with text, it’s like logic, logic, logic, logic. They saw these great videos on social media. They go to the website, nothing there. So biggest misconception is that we do social media content. That’s not it. It’s storytelling videos, marketing assets that are going to drive business because I firmly believe if you’re going to hire us, you better make that much money back and more. That’s why we’ve got a pretty stringent pre-qualifying process, because if I don’t think it’s going to be effective for you, we’re not doing it.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I think that’s a really upfront way to represent yourself, because I feel certain that anybody can get a camera for hire. Uh, anybody, certainly with modern technology, can just record, right. But what you’re offering is a whole lot more than that. But you also want to make sure that, uh, as we say in my universe, that the expectations are aligned to the outcome. Right? Otherwise, you have someone who is expecting. And one of my marketing is is a hobby. It is not a focus of mine. But I’m I’m always fascinated by by reading thought leader’s perspectives. And, and one of the things that I’ve read is anybody that promises you that they can get you viral, fill in the blank, uh, move along. There is. If anyone knew the recipe, everyone would be following it.

Graham Kuhn: Yep. Yeah. And I mean, I would say I tend to know what works in my universe. Like this will probably get results, but I will never guarantee this is going to happen.

Joshua Kornitsky: 70 million people are going to watch you do this.

Graham Kuhn: You never know. And then from. But that’s part were you asked about educating is um, also part of the strategy in that I like to teach people how to create videos, how to use videos in their business, whether it’s I’ve got a couple clients who own DSLR cameras, but they never use it. And I’m like, hey, I’ll help you set it up. And then other people are like, well, we don’t have the gear, we don’t have the it doesn’t matter. You’ve got a phone. I’ll help them talk about what kind of content they could do. Or here’s some ideas. Or if they want to set it up on a tripod with nice lighting and microphones, I’ll help them do that. Like, I will educate them on that if you want to talk about gear setting up, but then it’s really about educating them on getting out of their own way and just being themselves on camera, getting over that fear of, oh, people are going to judge me and oh man, you just gotta do it, you know? But the way that benefits me if we want to be selfish, is that I tell my clients they don’t have to pay me for everything. You’re paying us to do, say, a brand story video, maybe three testimonial videos. You don’t need to pay us to do social media content, but I’ll help you teach you how to strategy. Yeah, because then the the more content they’re putting out there, it’s going to work better for them. And they go, wow. Graham with Focus Films really helped us. And video works great where they’re not paying me for everything. I educated them on how to use video. Everybody wins. I mean, which is really my my driving why and passion is just I want everybody to win, man. I want everybody to be happy and joyful and full of gratitude. And I want everybody to crush, you know? And so if I’m a part of helping a business owner win, especially the little businesses beating the big guys, bro.

Joshua Kornitsky: It it is among the most satisfying things that I’ve gotten to experience professionally is, is when I see the the teams that I work with Achieve the success that they were always capable of. They just needed guidance to get there because it’s not my success, it’s theirs. And when you see that, that’s immensely satisfying. It’s immensely rewarding. And oh, it usually helps a whole bunch of people at work for that company have a better life. Yep.

Graham Kuhn: And it also, not only does it help the people working for the company, but it has it has an impact on the clients that hire them. Like if they’re doing a service or a product that’s going to help people. The more people that are doing business with them, it’s helping more people. And I, I mean, I love, I, like I said, I love people winning. I love to see people helping. And so if we’re promoting a company that helps other people, the more promotion they get, the more clients they get. Right. They’re making more money, but there’s more people being helped. So I just think that’s that’s really what I love about what I do.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and and so I want to go back to something you said about and my words, not yours. Where where you work with a prospective uh, customer to understand their expectations and to make sure that that your deliverable will align with what they’re after. What is, uh, I don’t want to say the ideal client, but who are your clients? What type of business? What size business? Um, and I’m not asking you to rule anybody out, but on average, what are the types of organizations you work with?

Graham Kuhn: Yeah, I would say if you want to know industries, typically attorneys, healthcare, um, construction, uh, would be three of the main industries. Um, and if you want to get specific about why like, especially like, let’s say a personal injury attorney, why it works well is because personal injury attorneys have a have a stigma attached to them. You say Pi attorney people have negative connotations, negative ideas. When you see a brand story video of this person being authentic and real on camera, talking about their story and why they do what they do and that they actually care about helping people? Yes, they get paid and they get paid well. But when you hear them talking about how much they love to help people and get them results, all of a sudden that stigma goes away. In those the the connotation that you have goes away. So it builds that trust. Um, so that’s why video does really well with like attorneys. Um, and then more larger companies typically like 5 to 10 million revenue, um, probably has at least a marketing person, whether it’s a director of marketing or if you’ve got a chief marketing officer and a director of marketing and a couple people that do social media, um, working on retainers and outsourcing to, to us has been a great relationship for us, too. Um, so the small business and then, you know, the, um, the little bit larger business that’s already got maybe a marketing person, but not to go off on a tangent, but most marketing people don’t understand how to use video. And I’m not saying that to beat my own chest. It’s just they understand the overall marketing strategy. And okay, we need video, right? But I understand different types of videos for different types of purposes and different results. And you know, so it’s like it’s just going a little deeper with that. And that’s why you would put somebody like us on a retainer, just like larger companies would put a marketing agency on retainer. They’re not going to bring in a logo designer and a social media and put them on their salary.

Joshua Kornitsky: Because they don’t need them all the time.

Graham Kuhn: They’re going to they’re going to outsource it to retainer. So that’s what we do.

Joshua Kornitsky: That makes perfect sense to me. And I would I would only ask the question for anybody listening right now that doesn’t fall into that immediate, any of those immediate categories, should they still pick up the phone and ask?

Graham Kuhn: Yes. And I will tell you that. I mean, it’s it’s going to sound cliche, but if it’s not a good fit, um, I’m happy to refer. I’ve got a great network of other people, um, who I would never call them competitors. When I, when I first started out, I competed with everybody. I was very, very, what do you call it? Um, not small minded thinking, but not abundance. I didn’t have an abundance mindset. I had a scarcity mindset. And so everybody was competition. And then I learned through coaching and mentoring that, hey, you need to become friends with other competitors in your community because you can help each other. You can get resources. Man, I know like 7 or 8 other video owners in our immediate area that are great friends of mine who, if it’s not a great fit for us, I can refer to somebody else. Um, one of my friends called it collaboration and I absolutely. I love that.

Joshua Kornitsky: Collaboration over competition is really the secret to competitive success because, you know, there are a lot of, uh, organizations that I work with that have coaching needs outside of us. That’s all I do. So I’m happy to refer to any of the other coaches that I know that’s a good fit. Uh, or that would be a good fit, because the goal ultimately is to help the customer or the prospective customer or just the person who’s asked for help.

Graham Kuhn: And that’s what I say all the time. It’s like people, I love to go have a coffee with people or have a zoom call with some. If you want to pick my brain and ask me questions about how to use video in your marketing strategy, I am happy to have that conversation. Whether you hire me or not, whether it’s a good fit or not. I am happy to tell you what I know, um, and try to help you implement it into your marketing strategy. So even if you’re a solopreneur who just started your business and don’t really have a business yet, I’m happy to meet you and just give you ideas and strategies like I do. And I think I was having a conversation yesterday with somebody. I’m in my 50s, somebody who’s a little older than me, and we were really vibing on, you know, I just like to help people, and it’s not all about the money anymore. And I was like, you know, it’s cool being altruistic like this, but I think it just comes with time. The more success you have after you go years and years in a business and things are kind of going okay, then you start to move into, hey, man, things are okay. I’m comfortable. I can help people and kind of give away stuff. But I’ll tell you, six years ago I wasn’t like this. I was like, gotta get the money, got to get the money, but now I’m at a place where I’m just like, man, I’m happy to help. You know.

Joshua Kornitsky: And I would hazard a guess. You’re probably a happier person right now.

Graham Kuhn: Oh, yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: Because I think, uh, I think some, some people, myself included, uh, were just wired that way. Where, where that help first mentality is just a core value. And you just it’s not always, as we’ve said repeatedly, about putting money in your pocket, putting knowledge in your head is is going to do more in the long term, helping others better comprehend and understand. Um, so another question that I have that, that I, I want to try to articulate it as best I can, but I’ll probably not quite hit the mark. We live in a short attention span world, and you had mentioned earlier about helping guide people for the right application of video in the right place. So maybe this falls under that category is in current climate. Marketing climate is storytelling pass. Have we moved past the point where it resonates? Do people really listen to the whole story?

Graham Kuhn: They really do. And I think it has a lot to do with neuroscience and how the brain works. And if somebody is engaged in the story, um, you can go 20 minutes, 30 minutes. I mean, I’ve watched I’ve watched hour long podcasts on YouTube, you know, um, just because the content, the stories were engaging. Now, if I was doing a five minute scripted teleprompter thing trying to sell you, nobody’s gonna watch that. But, I mean, there’s all techniques with hook em in the first five seconds, you know, and all that. But if you’re telling a story versus facts and data, if you’re telling facts and data, you’re going to light up two parts of the brain. If we’re telling a story and people are envisioning and all that, you’re lighting up seven parts of the brain, so you’ve got more of the brain lit up and engaged. You’re gonna the person is going to remember more. Which is why when I’m telling stories about a client, how I helped them, people remember that versus me saying, I do this and we do this. And, you know, we show up and we shoot the video and it’s all data and facts.

Joshua Kornitsky: There’s a time and a place for.

Graham Kuhn: It’s all logic.

Joshua Kornitsky: Right?

Graham Kuhn: Whereas if you can get emotional, it lights up more of the brain. So no, storytelling is not passé at all, in fact. And maybe this leads into something else we’re going to talk about. But being authentic and telling stories and being real is what makes people stand out. Especially now with everything that’s AI. And everybody can make really cool looking images and perfect looking videos and manipulate things to look perfect, right? But that’s where being authentic and being yourself and standing out and being like, if we say um or uh, I don’t cut those out anymore in videos because it’s like, oh, that’s a real person humanized. And it connects so much better now than we’re. So everything’s sterile now. Everything is so produced and just. That’s why user generated content UGC does so well in like TikTok does somebody grabbing their phone, walking down the street. There’s no production. There’s no. But they’re telling a story and you’re engaged with that because it’s human to human. We want connection as humans. Um, so short answer no, storytelling is not passé.

Joshua Kornitsky: Thank you. And and I, I am very much of the kind of the Carl Sagan mindset that that we are all just gathered around the fire in the darkness. Right. And I think, I think it’s primarily part of who we are as humans that, that that’s just how we are wired. And I don’t think, uh, 11 second or 22nd or 32nd video shorts can change that to your point when it’s engaging.

Graham Kuhn: Yep.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you’ve talked about how you get to know somebody in their story ahead of time. You talked about how you conduct your conversations with them in in an informal way. Is there any type of coaching you offer or any type of advice that you give about authenticity? Because I imagine, right, to a lot of people, that camera’s a gun. They get nervous. They they are concerned how they look, how they sound, and a million other things. How do you help them be themselves?

Graham Kuhn: Well, if I’m there and I’m doing the video, it’s literally just having those conversations. It’s I’m on a chair facing them on a chair. We’re at the same level and we’re just talking. And the first 5 to 10 minutes might be very robotic, and they’re very in their head and they’re very worried about what they. And it’s horrible. But something magical happens. After 5 or 10 minutes, those cameras disappear and those walls come down and that insecurity, and they forget it’s there. And then almost to a person, when we get done with the interview, I’m like, all right, we’ve got everything we’ve covered, all the points. They’re like, that’s it.

Joshua Kornitsky: Where’d the time.

Graham Kuhn: Go? That was so easy. So that’s what I would say. If I’m there and I’m doing it’s really just I can I actively listen like you’re doing, I can tell that we’re actually having a real conversation here. I know there are probably points that you want to get to, but you’re actively listening to what I’m saying and you’re taking the conversation there that is so important versus the interviewer who’s got ten questions on their paper and they go, okay, great. Thank you. All right. Number two, what is your it’s not it’s not conversational. It feels like an interview. So that’s the biggest thing when I’m there. If they’re doing it on their own right. That’s the biggest fear. People are like I won’t be on camera, but you just got to do it. I have no great advice other than the first 20 times you’re going to suck at it. You just have to push through it, keep doing it, keep looking in the camera and doing it and doing it and picture one person that you’re speaking to, like, right now. I’m talking to you, Joshua. It’s just you and me. I’m not even thinking about the people that are going to listen to this. I’m just talking to you. The same thing as if I was looking in the camera. I would picture, let’s say, my wife or, um, a client of mine. And I’m giving that message to that one person. If I thought a thousand people are going to see this and I’m trying to, it gets really weird. Get in my head. So picture one person when you’re talking into a camera and you’re trying to record yourself, and two, you’re gonna suck. Just accept it. I like the more you do it, the better it’s going to get. And all of a sudden, one day you’re gonna go, dang, I’m pretty good at this.

Joshua Kornitsky: It I can absolutely attest to what you’ve just said. We, uh, we are approaching March. The end of March will be a year that I’ve been, uh, a host here. Uh, and certainly it has evolved enormously over that time, uh, and over all those conversations. And now we incorporate video as well. And you are 100% correct. You simply have to disregard your concern with the lighting or the camera angle. You do the best you can and you keep moving because as as I coach my clients, it’s not about perfection. It’s about moving the ball one extra yard down the field. And maybe next time we’ll buy a light. Maybe next time we’ll change the camera angle. If you get hyper focused on that now, I imagine that all you have is paralysis.

Graham Kuhn: I will say I tell clients if I’m mentoring younger videographers, I am anti gear. I don’t care about the gear. I don’t care what kind of camera you shoot on, what kind of lighting you have. It does not matter to me. First of all, none of that matters if we’re trying to connect with people. Um, let’s say we’re making a brand video for someone, um, or somebody. Somebody is shooting their own content with their phone. They’re worried. Is the lighting right? Is the framing right? None of that matters. What matters is the story, the content, what you’re saying, and connecting with people. Human to human. I don’t care if you’re on the bottom half of the frame. And it’s the worst lighting in the world. If we can hear you speaking and you’re telling a story, and that is all that matters to me. And then when you’re getting to my level with, you know, professional equipment and all that, I don’t care if it’s a Sony, if it’s a Nikon, if it’s none of that matters to me. If we’re telling the story and it looks good and it’s going to get results, that’s all that matters to me. Literally. I don’t care what I hire guys that shoot with me, they care about that stuff. Sure, I they geek out about cameras and gear. I can’t have conversations with them. I don’t care about that. Or you get with editors who are like, oh, I can’t wait to do all the color grading and all the editing. It doesn’t matter to me, right? What matters to me is telling the story that’s going to get my client’s results. And that can happen with an iPhone. That can happen with a $50,000 Hollywood camera. The gear doesn’t matter. The story and the content that connects on a human level, that’s all that matters.

Joshua Kornitsky: I mean, I think if if I were to distill this discussion down into a single statement, I think that’s it, right? It’s it’s far less about how and far more about what and and uh, in, in that instance or in that case. Let me ask one final question, because I think it’s important for anybody that’s listening to understand, um, we talked about the types of customers that you typically work with. We talked about the fact that you are willing to offer guidance and advice to to people who are who are reaching out to ask about it. But if you think video is the next logical step, or if either your internal or your contracted marketing people tell you video is the direction they need to go. What advice would you give that owner who who has made the decision that okay, video is the way for me? What are the things they should think about?

Graham Kuhn: Well, one think about being authentic and being real. And what is your story? I know we keep talking about story.

Joshua Kornitsky: But it’s the.

Graham Kuhn: It is like the heartbeat. It’s the oxygen. It’s the it’s the story. Don’t focus on like I make all these funny. Oh, I think they’re funny. I make these LinkedIn posts about all that matters.

Joshua Kornitsky: You think.

Graham Kuhn: It’s like, that’s that’s why.

Joshua Kornitsky: We’re entertaining ourselves, that’s all.

Graham Kuhn: That’s what keeps me going, man. But it’s like about how terrible your About Us page is on your website. And I do all these pictures of me, like laying around my house, like passed out, like on the floor of my glasses. Go like, this is me reading your About Us page on your website. Um, don’t focus on the, uh, on the benefits on on the on the features and benefits of your business. Focus on the heart of the business. Focus. I always say I like to tell the story of the person behind the brand. I don’t care about your logo. I want to know the person behind the logo. Really? And I mean dude, use AI, use ChatGPT to come up with ideas. Now don’t ever script it and copy and paste it. But to ideate and come up with ideas, what.

Joshua Kornitsky: Can a collaborative tool.

Graham Kuhn: What can I talk about? Right? It’ll come up with ten topics. Oh gosh, I never thought about that. And so if you’re thinking about doing it, I mean just start doing it, grab your phone and start making content. Or if you want to speak to somebody like me, let’s have a conversation. But the biggest thing is just, you know, getting, what is it? The, um, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today, right? Just get started. It’s gonna. You know, if you want to talk to somebody like me, great. If not, use ChatGPT or Claude or whoever. Come up with ideas of topics you can discuss in your industry, and then don’t worry about the production value. It literally doesn’t matter. Make sure we can hear you and we can see you. That’s that’s all that matters.

Joshua Kornitsky: Great guidance. Well, let me ask you this, Graham. What’s the best way for people to get Ahold of you?

Graham Kuhn: Uh, the website is Focus Films. Com. Um. Or. I love being on LinkedIn. I love making connections on LinkedIn. Graham Kuhn k u h um, and I love to just connect with people on there all over the country. We do on location videos. We do virtual videos that are very high quality. Like we can help anybody anywhere.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s fantastic. And we will share those links when we publish the interview. Uh, I really can’t thank you enough. I found this both fascinating and fun, and to me, those are the best kind of conversations to have. Um, I want to thank you again for being here. So today my guest has been Graham Kuhn. He’s the founder of Focus Films, and his work centers on helping business owners think intentionally about how they show up, communicate, and connect with their audiences. But let’s be direct. Clearly, he’s going to help tell your story, and he’s going to help you tell your story in a way that you probably haven’t thought about. And I think that’s the greatest thing that I can say. Uh, Graham, thank you so much. Let me also be upfront and thank, uh, the Community Partner Program. Today’s episode has been brought to you in part by the Community Partner Program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Mainstreet Warriors. And a very special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of the Main Street Warriors. Diesel. David. Ink. Please go check them out at diesel. Com my name is Joshua Kornitsky. I am a professional implementer of the entrepreneurial operating system known as EOS, and your host here on Cherokee Business Radio. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next time.

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