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 and my friend, Scott Hartsfield, Chief Development Officer at Focal Point and a leader in business coaching, leadership development, and organizational growth. With more than two decades of experience, God has helped individuals and organizations unlock growth, develop high performing leaders, and drive meaningful business transformation. At Focal Point, he leads strategic initiatives focused on expanding a global network of business coaches and helping professionals transition into successful coaching careers. In addition, Scott is the CEO of Supportive Education Group, where he partners with higher education institutions to improve enrollment strategies and outcomes. Known for his energy, maybe his laugh, insight, and practical approach, Scott brings real world strategies that help leaders grow their businesses, lead more effectively, and navigate career transitions with confidence. Scott, welcome to the show.

Scott Hartsfield: Thank you so much, Trisha. Appreciate you having me on today.

Trisha Stetzel: I don’t know how I haven’t had you on yet. I’m so stoked about you being on. So first let’s start with, tell us more about Scott.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah, absolutely. So thanks for the amazing introduction. I appreciate all of that. Um, so as you can tell, yes, I’ve been part of this focal point system now for 15 years, uh, leading development, working with individuals that are in the second half of their career that are looking to make a change. Uh, my team and myself like to work with those individuals to help them navigate that change. Uh, but just a little bit about me personally, I’m originally from Durham, North Carolina. If you can’t tell from the, uh, the southern accent a little bit, um, I’ve got, uh, three kids. Uh, my oldest is, uh, graduating from college in May. Uh, we’ve got two boys still in the house. 14 and ten. Uh, I’ve been married now for about 19 years. Coming up May 17th to my wife, who’s also a business coach who you’ve trained.

Scott Hartsfield: Yes. Um, but, uh, yeah, absolutely love the work that I’m doing here at Focal Point. Uh, and happy to be here today.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh. Uh, shout out to Theresa. We love her.

Trisha Stetzel: We might like you a little bit, Scott.

Scott Hartsfield: I definitely, definitely leveled up.

Trisha Stetzel: I would I love to hear what led you to doing this work with Focal Point. So give me some background on who Scott is and how you grew up in this leadership development space and how you actually landed here at Focal Point.

Scott Hartsfield: It’s an interesting story. It’s actually kind of serendipitous as you kind of think about it. So, you know, grew up, um, you know, my dad was, uh, my dad’s always been a strong business leader. He’s been in executive level roles for a very long time. But he started at the very bottom. He was a janitor sweeping floors in a retail shop and just, you know, kept trying to influence himself to get into positions. And my career started very similarly. You know, we we grew up in the church, so very faith based. And, um, I’ve always looked at, you know, things that allow me to serve and to help others. Um, but I started my career early on. I was working in property management. I had a job where I was leasing apartments. And uh, one day there was a gentleman by the name of Mr. Nello. He was the president of a university. Uh, he came in looking for an apartment. We met, uh, he asked me several questions that made me think. I was like, why is he asking me all of these detailed questions? He was asking me like, do I like my job? And how much money do I make and things like that? And so I didn’t realize he was at the time recruiting me. Uh, and he said, hey, I want you to come over to our university and help us to grow our admissions department. We want to help to recruit more students. And, you know, I didn’t know a lot about the role, but it sounded, you know, attractive. And so I took this job to go out and work as an admissions rep.

Scott Hartsfield: And so at this time, I was new to Jacksonville, Florida. I was living in Jacksonville, Florida at the time, and I was serving in the church. I was working with our Angel tree Ministry, where we worked with the youth, the inner city youth, and we these were the folks that their parents were typically away. Um, most of them were in prison. Um, and so I worked with those kids. And so when I took on this job, as much as I loved it, it really impeded on my ability to continue to serve deeply in the church. Right? So I had a meeting with our pastor, um, Pastor McKissick senior. And, uh, so I went to him with this challenge. I said, hey, you know, I really want to serve and I really want to help, but my job is not really allowing me to with the hours that I work. And he said, what do you do? I said, I work with students and I help them to navigate life and to help them to go and make a change through education, find their career path through education. He said, Scott, that’s your ministry. I was like, okay, well. And so I put a pause on the Angel Tree ministry and started using the work that I was doing in college admissions, um, really as my ministry. And so this, what I loved about that, that role was we weren’t just selling education, we were really transforming lives. We had people come to us from all walks of life where, you know, they were the first one in their family to go to school or, you know, all, all types of firsts for them.

Scott Hartsfield: And so there was a lot of, um, challenges that they were up against because they had just never gotten to this stage before. And I wanted to bring them hope. I wanted to make sure that they knew, hey, there is a better way you can do this. And a lot of it was sometimes us just believing in them. And so I progressed in that. I remember one day, maybe six months in, I had gotten a rookie of the year trophy for helping the most people, you know, get recruited into school. I didn’t even keep track of the numbers. I had gotten so involved into the people’s lives and their stories that I realized that was one of our top recruiters. And so one day my boss, his name was Montrez Lucas. Shout out to Montrez. He’s amazing. He is. He was very influential in my my growth. He called me in his office, Scott Hartsfield am I, I was like, oh crap, I’m getting fired. And so I go in his office and he said, hey, um, the corporate is putting together a team called the A team. They want you to be part of this and they want this team to be, they want you to do whatever you’re doing here and roll this out to all of our campuses at large. We had 11 locations. And so I took on this role overnight. I became my boss’s boss, which was pretty weird. Um.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s a whole nother conversation, right? That’s a whole nother conversation.

Scott Hartsfield: And so, um, so I did that for a while. I was helping other institutions do what we were doing, transforming lives and making the work that we were doing in college admissions, more about the people and their stories and less about just the numbers and the profitability that came with that transaction. And so being part of that. I got a tap on the shoulder and somebody said, hey, I think you could do what you’re doing at a higher level in franchising. Okay. Now I had, you know, never really looked at franchising before, didn’t really know much about franchising. I had always had this entrepreneurial mindset. Everything we did growing up, I started a business around it. And originally I was going to reject this opportunity because I said, you know, I don’t want to be selling franchises to people. I want to, you know, I like, I like what I’m doing. I’m changing lives. He said, no, I think you could make the same life change just on a different stage. And so my wife, um, Teresa, my girlfriend at the time, um, she said, I think you should take this on. I think you would do really well on this opportunity. And so it was really that advice that encouraged me to step into this new space. Right. And so got into doing recruitment for franchising, helping people navigate the world of business ownership, did that successfully for 5 or 6 years with a consulting company that was based out of Europe.

Scott Hartsfield: Uh, had a lot of fun, learned a ton. I learned a ton. Um, and during that I bumped into, uh, Steve Thompson, who’s the CEO of Focal Point. Um, focal point was just coming on the scene. Then I think this was probably like around 2006. Uh, I bumped into Steve Thompson and when you asked me about like, what? How did I get the focal point? When I heard Steve talk about the work that we do at Focal Point, it really took me back to the work that I was doing in college admissions. They were really about the impact transformation. They had this whole saying around the pebble on a pond, and that really resonated with everything in my core. I was like, this is what I like to do. This is me. And so I got to know Steve, um, ended up coming on to be a recruiter and ended up taking over our recruitment department for focal Point. Um, my, I became a franchisee at Focal point. So I do some coaching on the side. My wife became a franchisee. And so that’s just been kind of my, my journey of how I got to focal point, the long version.

Trisha Stetzel: The long version. I think the short version this time. Scott. We still have time for more questions. Yeah, I heard you say something that really resonates with me, and I heard the reason why I asked you on the show is because you said this before, and it’s people and their stories. Can you expand on that? Why that’s so important to you? It really sits with you to get to know the people in their stories.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s something for me. I’m a curious person by nature. I’m the type of person if we meet. I’ve never met a stranger. And when we meet, I like to really know who you truly are. Like, I don’t like to just say, hey, how are you doing? I really am genuinely interested to know, how are you doing? Right. Um, and I know that, you know, a lot of the people that because a lot of what I do is in the business world and a lot of people, this is more of a corporate environment, sometimes things tend to stay at the surface and we never get to the, to the core and the why. And I’m genuinely interested in what that is. I’m always like my my kids always laugh at me. I’ll ask, I’ll ask people when I meet them right away. What’s your middle name? My kids are like, why are you asking what their middle name? Like, I want to know. Like, I really want to know. I asked you your middle name before, right? And so I just have this interest in really understanding what that is because to me, that’s the driver. And a lot of the times, because of our environments, we have to hide who we are, right? Um, and you know, I call it, you know, kind of marrying your why with your what? Like I like to be in roles where I can be my authentic self, get to know your authentic self. And that can still be part of my job. But I want to be able to really unpack kind of what’s driving that why and that purpose, because to me, that’s the engine for who we are as people. Um, and there’s no need to cover that up, right? And once we can really tap into what that is, that’s when you can really start to go places that you never thought you could go. Um, and so I love really getting, getting down to that root cause of what’s that driver.

Trisha Stetzel: That I thought you were just making middle names up. That’s what I liked about not just make middle names up or a middle initial?

Speaker 5: Middle initial.

Scott Hartsfield: There you go. Absolutely. Yeah. So we I’ve always worked at work to get to those. I appreciate you asking that.

Trisha Stetzel: Of course. Um all right. So I do want to jump into coaching. But before we get there, I know there are some folks out there that would love to connect with you, Scott. So what’s the best way to connect with you?

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah, best way to connect with me would probably be on LinkedIn. Um, you can just go right to my LinkedIn page, type in Scott Hartsfield. So you may be able to share this as well after the show as well. But yeah, hit me up on LinkedIn. We’d love to have a conversation or explore anything that might be on your mind.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. And if you can’t find them, just reach out to me. I’ll make sure you get connected.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And of course, it’ll be in the show notes. So if you’re sitting at your computer, you guys can just point and click and go straight to his profile. All right, Scott, if it’s okay, I’d like to jump right into coaching. So one, I want you to tell us what, uh, what focal point is as a franchise. And then I want to talk about the types of people that we attract as franchisees.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah. So Focal Point is a business coaching and executive leadership coaching franchise model. And you know, the word franchise. I know sometimes people hear that for the very first time, we think about, you know, chick fil A and Burger King and all of these different types of things. You know, franchising is really just a word to describe, you know, a proven system and a process that provides support. That’s really what a franchise is. And so the franchise that we have is business coaching, and it’s a structure around people that want to become a business coach. And so all of our franchisees themselves, they are business coaches. These are typically folks that are looking to leverage their experience. And I’ll share a little bit more about that when we talk about the profile. Um, but we’ve structured the way people can get into business coaching by providing curriculum, by providing, you know, a system and a process for people to follow that’s proven when they’re working with individuals to increase their business revenues or help them with their challenges. Um, and we provide training and support to people that want to do this, that don’t want to build from scratch. Um, and so I’ve been part of helping to grow this, you know, focal point community for 15 years now.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And I think it’s all your fault that I’m here.

Speaker 5: Yes.

Scott Hartsfield: I indirectly had something to.

Speaker 5: Do with it. Indirectly, yes. Indirectly. Uh, and.

Trisha Stetzel: We’re glad that you did. We’re so glad that you did. It’s such a fantastic community. Let’s talk about the I’m just going to be real high level focal point coach profile, or the people who might like to be in this business in the first place.

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah. So, um, I speak with every single person that comes through focal point that’s considering this opportunity. And there is a, a standard and a profile that we are always looking for. Um, there’s two words that come to mind when I think about our coaches. Number one is leadership and number two is serve. Right. Those are the two, one, two punches that I’m looking for in every single person that I speak with. So when we look at leadership. Most of our most successful coaches are folks that have come from some type of a leadership role, whether it’s in the military, whether it’s in the business world. They’ve led at some capacity. It doesn’t really matter what they were leading in. The common theme is they’ve been a leader. Um, and as a leader, you’re doing a lot of coaching, development and mentoring, um, and strategy. Um, and so there’s a lot of traits that come with leaders and that really lend itself well to the work that we do. Okay. So we really, you know, attract people that have been doing that for a long time. And most of our coaches have led for, you know, 25, 30 plus years in whatever they’ve done. So they have seen it. All right. Um, and secondly, which I think is, is really the glue to it all is there’s this, this heart to serve others. They, they’re, they want to use that experience for good. They don’t want to just tell old stories about what it was, but they genuinely want to use that to serve someone else. That’s our ideal coach. Um, and, uh, as I talked about earlier in my career, that’s something that’s very important and meaningful to me is servant servant leadership. Um, and so we attract and look for those types of people.

Speaker 5: Okay.

Scott Hartsfield: And so Trisha, you shared that as well. Yeah.

Speaker 5: Yeah. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, let’s take a deeper dive into that about what actually makes a great coach. And I think the question that I have for you is, what separates someone who’s just interested in coaching from someone who can truly build a successful coaching business?

Scott Hartsfield: Yeah, that’s a really good question. So when you start thinking about and that’s actually perfect, you know, taking that unique skill that you have and channeling it towards coaching, building a business around that is different than just being the coach, right? Because a lot of folks will leave corporate and just, you know, say, I want to go out there and coach. And they don’t really get very far because they haven’t really built the infrastructure around the business side of how to have that business and what their marketing is going to look like, what their curriculum is going to look like, what their sales process is going to look like, what their coach processes look like, their website, their tech platforms. And so that’s the business side of coaching that a lot of folks don’t think about when they’re out there trying to do it on their own. And so the reason why they find so much success at Focal Point is because that infrastructure has already been pre-built. We’ve been doing this now for 22 years, right? We’ve built out curriculum. We have curriculum on top of curriculum processes that have been tried and true. And so through through Focal Point, you can invest in what we’ve already built instead of trying to start at scratch. And I tell everybody, you know, try to do it on your own, doesn’t mean you’re doing it for free. Um, you know, and so although there’s an investment in focal point, that investment isn’t something that’s been tried, trusted and proven right. Doing it on your own. You’re, you know, wishing on a prayer and, and trial and error and, and developing things on your own. And so, um, we have found that most folks that go down this path tend to have a much more successful coaching franchise. And the most common feedback that I get from people that join is, man, I wish I would have done this ten years ago. Um, and so, uh, so yeah, that’s just a little bit of the differentiation between doing this on your own or, you know, partnering with somebody like focal point.

Trisha Stetzel: Love that we talk about the culture. Uh, you mentioned earlier, pebble on the pond. Let’s expand on that and tell me a little bit more about the culture in Focal point man.

Scott Hartsfield: Um, so one of the questions I get asked often because you don’t really see it a lot anymore is, you know, what’s kept you at focal point for as long as you’ve been here? I’ve been here 15 years. Right? And it’s the word that you just described right there. It’s our culture. Uh, it’s real. Um, one of the things about focal point that impresses me the most is before we built out the structure of this business with curriculum and content, the culture was predetermined. They said, we want a business that represents these culture points, right? And those culture points have really been woven and intentionally designed in every single thing we do, from recruitment to the time that our coaches are running their practices. And so our, our, the couple of things that I’ll talk about with our culture. Number one, it’s real. Um, number two, it comes from the people. So when we recruit great people that fit that culture, it just continues to multiply. Um, we have our annual conferences where we all get together. It’s literally a family reunion. Um, we’re, uh, you know, we have one coming up in a few weeks here in San Diego. Um, but it’s a very collaborative, um, culture and a lot of it’s because of those two things we brought in the right people that are leaders, we brought the right people in that want to serve and that starts to blossom this culture. But for me, there’s a few things that really stand out about our culture. Number one is integrity. Integrity is one of those culture points that all businesses will love to put in their mission or vision or whatever, but it’s one of those integrity is tough because that’s doing the right thing no matter what.

Scott Hartsfield: No matter what. When somebody’s not looking, doing the right thing, when somebody is looking, doing the right thing. And if you’re going to be a business coach that’s influencing and helping others, you need to always do what’s right and focal point as a culture where that’s at the center of what we do. We have a very transparent arrangement with our clients. We’re not here to sell coaching or do something that just benefits us as a coach. We’re here to benefit what our client’s needs are. And that to me is pure and it’s raw and it’s what I love. Um, I also love the fact that our culture represents legacy. You know, when you talk about this pebble in a pond, this is actually bigger than the client that we’re coaching. Because when we coach that client, there’s a ripple effect that happens. We start to create change within their office, which starts to create change within their community and their families. You know, I’ve seen so many different coach stories. We do these interviews at conferences where we interview our clients that have been coached by our coaches. And I’ve watched so many of these interviews, and most of them typically are emotional with tears attached to them. And they talk about that ripple effect. And sometimes our coaches don’t realize that until they’ve gotten involved. So I love the fact that legacy was something that we wanted our coaches to be able to participate in, and it’s what our coaches are looking for when they’re doing something like this. So I could go on and on about culture, but those are just a few that really stand out.

Trisha Stetzel: On and on.

Speaker 5: And on and on.

Trisha Stetzel: Do you have some really great coaches? And, um, I appreciate that you and your team are really vetting for the right people to be a part of this culture because it is special. It’s very special. And the pebble on the pond is something that resonates with all of us who are a part of Focal Point.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, okay.

Speaker 5: What’s next?

Trisha Stetzel: What’s next for Scott Hartsfield?

Speaker 5: So you’ve.

Trisha Stetzel: You’ve done a lot of things and a lot of it has been around, uh, coaching, mentoring, um, bringing people to the right places, being involved in the right things. What’s next for you?

Scott Hartsfield: That’s so awesome. That’s the big that’s the big question, right? Um, you know, I’ve got a I’ve got a wonderful team around me, um, of people that I’ve been leading and developing over the years. Um, I own a coaching franchise with focal point. I own another company as well. And you know, as, as I do all of these different things professionally, my family is growing. I’ve got three kids, you know, ten, 14 and 21. And I start to think about, you know, how I’m there for them. I coach flag football. I’m very involved in their in their lives. And my daughter is looking to go off and be an attorney. And I told her, hey, you should go into franchise law so I can leverage you. Um, you know, but when I, when I think, you know, kind of further out, um, you know, when I’m ready to pass this baton on one of my team players that’s on my team, I’m probably going to be a coach. This is what I see myself doing, I really do. It comes so natural. Uh, one of the first businesses that I ever started, I was in middle school. Um, and, from there, every single thing that we did that we found interesting, we turned it into a business. That business that we started back in middle school was a street hockey league.

Scott Hartsfield: Um, and it all started because, um, I decided to get a pair of rollerblades for Christmas. This is when they first came out. Inline skates. When people were, you know, this is dating myself. This was back in the 80s. And, uh, my friends all got rollerblades. And I said, you know what? We started playing and then we picked up some hockey sticks and started playing hockey in the, in the, um, the neighborhood. I said, we ought to start a league. Right. And so, and I was like, I think I was like 10 or 12 or something like that. Um, I said, well, if we’re going to start a league, we need to get a sponsor. I didn’t even really understand what sponsors were. I just knew that if you had a league, you needed a sponsor. I didn’t realize that the relationship with the sponsor. So I rode my bike down to this place called Life Cycle Fitness. It was a local place that sold bikes at the store. And, um, I said, hey, we need a sponsor. And he said, okay, great. What do you guys need? I said, what do you mean? I said, we need a sponsor. He said, no, what do you need? And I was like, oh, wow. Okay. I said, well.

Speaker 5: Since you’re asking my shopping list. Yeah.

Scott Hartsfield: We need jerseys. We need. And so we ended up starting a league. We ended up having 12, um, uh, teams in this league. Uh, we rented out space, um, at the local school, Hope Valley Elementary School. Uh, we had referees and so I’ve always had, like everything we’ve ever touched, you know, once we moved on from them, we got into skateboarding. I started some skate TV show. We wanted to create. We wanted to be on TV doing skateboarding. And so everything’s always been a business, right? Every single thing we touch. And so naturally, I just have this affinity towards business ownership and entrepreneurship and helping people get into this space because it’s so freeing. You don’t have to have a job. And so, um, I see myself long term, really just playing heavily into this coaching space and leadership.

Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we can let go.

Trisha Stetzel: Of the J.o.b..

Speaker 5: I love it. Yes.

Scott Hartsfield: Put that behind you? Yeah, there’s a better way.

Speaker 5: There’s a better way. Oh my goodness. All right.

Trisha Stetzel: Last question. As we get to the back end of our conversation, for someone who is listening that’s feeling ready for that next chapter, whether that’s growing their business or even stepping into coaching as a business, what’s one step they can take this week to move forward?

Scott Hartsfield: That’s a good question. Um, you know, a lot of people that I help, I’ll kind of address this from the recruitment side of helping people transition into focal point. A lot of people want our journey takes about 4 to 6 weeks to help someone figure out if this is the right move for them. And when they get to that and they do figure out this is the right move, they tell me, man, if you’d have told me two months ago I’d be starting my own business in coaching, I’d have thought you were crazy because it wasn’t on my radar. Right? I wasn’t even thinking about that. Right. So I would encourage you to take the very first step and just explore, right? We have conversations. They’re not sales conversations. We’re not trying to sell you anything. I would just say explore what it could look like for you. Right? We have a very open process where you get a chance to speak with coaches that have already done this before you. They’ll show you their story. So I would encourage you to hit me up on LinkedIn or connect with Trisha, you know, speak with me or somebody from my team and have an initial conversation just to explore if this could make sense for you. Okay. We’re going to always come back to that culture point of integrity. We’re going to make sure that this is the right move. It’s a mutual process. And so I would just encourage you to take the first step. You may learn that business ownership is for you. You may learn that it’s not for you. Right? And but you only will know unless you take the first step. And so I’d be happy to have that conversation with you at any time.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, I love that. Okay. And the best way to find Scott, as he mentioned earlier, is on LinkedIn. You can find him at SCOTTHARTSFIELD. Scott Hartsfield on LinkedIn, Or of course, you guys can connect with me and I’m happy to connect you with Scott. Thank you so much for your time today. This has been so much fun. I know you were probably like, you want me to be on your show? And I’m like, yes, I want you to be.

Speaker 5: On my show.

Scott Hartsfield: It’s an honor. No, I appreciate that. I appreciate the work that you’re doing, Trisha, and thank you so much for having me on today.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: This is so much fun. All right, you guys, it’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Scott and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. 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.

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’s my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Joe Bonavolonta,Bonavolonta. I’m good. Right, I got this. Yeah. Okay.

Joe Bonavolonta : You got it. You got it. That was perfect.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. Fantastic. So welcome to Joe Bonavolonta, principal at W1 Global and a former FBI executive with a distinguished 27 year career leading high stakes operations across the country. Joe served as a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Field office, where he led more than 1200 employees across a four state region overseeing major criminal and national security investigations. His career also included senior leadership roles in counterintelligence and cyber operations in both Washington, D.C. and Boston, along with extensive work targeting organized crime, including La Cosa Nostra. He’s led through some of the most complex and challenging moments in recent history, bringing a steady, disciplined approach to leadership under pressure. Today, Joe applies those same principles in the private sector as principal at WW1 Global, helping organizations navigate risk leadership and complex challenges. Joe, welcome to the show.

Joe Bonavolonta : Well thank you. It’s a pleasure being here. And you reading that bio. It was only three years ago. I left the bureau, but it feels like a lifetime ago.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s amazing how time really passes so fast, isn’t it? So, Joe, why don’t you tell us just a little bit more about yourself?

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So, you know, once again, a really the the majority of my early and mid adult life was spent in the FBI through New York, uh, city, Newark, new Jersey, Boston, with a couple of stops in headquarters at Washington DC. And really, you know, it all started for me, you know, just to go a little bit beyond the bio that you went over is, for me, it really was a family affair. Uh, my father was an FBI agent for 24 years. And so I grew up in that environment. That’s what I knew. And even though it was something that was never once even remotely pushed upon me by him, um, you know, I look back on it now at, you know, in my early 50s. And I know that just through osmosis, you know, through the atmosphere and, you know, being an FBI agent Really, it’s a way of life. It’s not just a job. And so I grew up with that. And that was something that obviously resonated very heavily with me. Um, you know, and so I look back now really with fond memories of that. And it was just a tremendous experience.

Joe Bonavolonta : It was a way of life. And it was, I just had the I was the lucky individual in being able to work with some of the most talented men and women, um, for decades, uh, you know, that I’ve ever met. So it was just a real, a real joy for me to be able to carry on, you know, sort of that family tradition. But, you know, I’m sure we’re going to get into this, but from a leadership perspective, um, you know, even speaking to my father now who’s in his 80s and, and he, he, you know, held some very high profile positions in the FBI. And we would compare notes a little bit. And really during my last position, which was as the head of the FBI Boston division for almost five years. Um, just going through that, in addition to all of the changes in so many major, major events that were occurring in this country right at that time really made for some significant leadership challenges. And, you know, and something I look back on is tremendous learning experiences.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And I was very interested in having you on this on the show, Joe, because you have so much experience leading in chaos. You’ve led through very major national security challenges. So what for you? What is effective leadership look like when everything feels uncertain?

Joe Bonavolonta : It’s a great question. And there was during that time frame, there was more uncertainty than I think any of us that were in those positions that were running large field offices, uh, you know, cared to, you know, have to endure. But really what it comes down to, you know, to try to simplify it the best I can is really just making sure that when you, you ascend into a position like that. I am a firm believer that you have to have already put in the reps or the repetitions. Um, I don’t think there’s any other way to get around that or to avoid that or even to fake that. And what I basically mean is especially, you know, having the position that I held is running the FBI field office, which was one of the largest field offices in the country, covered all FBI operations in four states in the New England region. And if you don’t have that basic foundation from which to draw from, positions like that can really creep up on you, especially when there is chaos and major crisis or significant events going on. And by that foundation, I mean, you know, have you put in the reps to have been a very successful, uh, investigative case agent for the FBI? You know, that’s the foundation. And then from that, you know, comes dealing with so many different issues with United States attorneys offices, prosecutors working in task force environments with other agency law enforcement partners.

Joe Bonavolonta : And then as you ascend into the leadership roles, whether you’re a squad supervisor or you, you get into the the beginning stages of executive management. I was always a firm believer that getting the reps really would would make becoming a special agent in charge and being able to do that job much easier. Because when a crisis does occur, um, you can, you know, draw back on actual real life experiences. You could draw back on things that you did, you know, that worked very well or just as importantly, things that were done in the past that may not have worked very well, but you learned from. And so once again, there’s a lot of different dynamics to, you know, successfully leading, you know, such large groups or offices or entities. But what it comes down to is nothing can mask having that foundation or that experience to draw from. And I think that’s really vital when individuals are making those decisions to either enter into leadership positions or if they’re being recruited or mentored by others to enter into those positions. I think that, you know, being really self-aware in terms of where you’ve been and what you’ve done, and is this a position that you would be suited to fulfill?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So at its core, there’s always this question, Joe, are you born as a leader or do you become a leader? What are your thoughts around how someone lands in even an early leadership position? Were they born and meant to be there, or is it something that they went after and they actually learned it?

Joe Bonavolonta : Yeah, that’s the whole, uh, you know, nature versus nurture type, uh, concept, which is, it’s a great one. And really, you know, not I’m not in any way trying to be, you know, um, uh, evasive in answering the question, but I, I think it is, it’s a mixture of the two. I, I do firmly believe that early on, there are individuals that clearly show signs of, of having the potential to be very good leaders. You know, even as an investigative case agent, if you are a special agent in the FBI, because there’s many different job roles that are not special agent roles. But for the purposes of this discussion, if you’re a special agent, you start off as you investigate cases. You know, you’re you’re what they call a street agent or a brick agent. But even in that role, uh, you can absolutely exude leadership capabilities in the way you handle yourself and how you, you navigate certain challenges and issues. Um, and then you can build on those. So I do think there is some sense of an innate ability to, to be a leader. And a lot of that has to do with early life experiences. You know, the one thing about the FBI is remember that the average age of a brand new special agent over time generally tends to be about 30 to 31 years old. And that’s actually because the bureau always is looking for individuals with significant life experience behind them before they come in.

Joe Bonavolonta : And there’s good reason for that. So there’s a lot of individuals who come in that have already had experiences, whether it be military, previous law enforcement or corporate America where they were leading teams already. But to answer your question, I do think there’s a combination where some individuals seem to have it in their DNA, where maybe they were raised, you know, a mother, a father, a mentor, you know, a coach, uh, somebody early in life, um, you know, who really instilled those values with them and they just took naturally to it. But then there’s a lot of the nurture part, which is, you know, really aligning yourself with individuals that you see are very respected leaders and trying to learn as much from them as you can. And that’s what I did. You know, I look at, you know, growing up, you know, I’ve used my father as an example. I thought he was a former special Forces, um, you know, team leader in the Vietnam War. And then from there he went into the FBI. So I grew up with an individual who exuded a very confident leadership type abilities. Um, and then when I got into the bureau, I also made sure that I attached myself and worked with individuals that were much more senior than I was, who were greatly respected throughout the ranks. And, and that, in my opinion, that combination, I think, is what can make a very effective leader.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I heard you thing I heard you say things like getting in the reps and that really is getting out there and doing the things that and being the person that you want to be in the future and learning the things that you need to learn to just get better at the craft that you’re in front of. The thing that you want to do. And then you mentioned something about a lot of the agents coming in or on average, are 31, because we want them to have had life experience. So can we talk about decision making under pressure, because I think that is part of why we want more mature people in some of these leadership positions is because they do have life experience. So when there’s no such thing as perfect information, how do you make the right call under pressure?

Joe Bonavolonta : Well, you hit the nail right on the head, whether it’s information or intelligence that you’re relying on. Um, you know, waiting for the day for any of that to be perfect, that will make a potentially difficult or challenging decision seem easy. Um, you’ll be waiting a very, very long time. So, you know, it’s one of those things, you know, and I can give you a real life example is during my tenure as the head of the FBI Boston office, um, you know, let alone take away any other current event that was going on at the time. If you just put that aside for a second, it was one of the highest operational tempo offices in the country once again for states, um, all different kinds of national security and criminal threats that we needed to address on a daily basis. Um, so just the operational, uh, you know, atmosphere and tempo in its own right with literally hundreds and hundreds of active cases and operations going on at the same time during that five year period. And so with that comes a significant amount of strategic planning. In other words, where are we going to devote our personnel and our resources to best address all of these threats? So these were decisions that myself and my executive management team had to make, relying very heavily on, uh, intelligence and operational, uh, information and activities and try to combine them and make the best decisions there.

Joe Bonavolonta : But then there’s also working with a number of different task forces like Joint terrorism, task forces, safe streets, gang task forces, cyber and counterintelligence task forces. And then of course, there’s working with the prosecutorial entities, you know, different United States Attorney’s offices and doing a lot of proactive outreach to corporate America, academia, things along those lines. So when you take all that into consideration, then when you add on to that during the time period that we’re talking about, it’s incredibly significant in some ways, unprecedented. Um, current events were happening. You had the out, you had the Covid outbreak, which tremendously affected even the way government was operating at that time, let alone the rest of society. And then you also had, you know, uh, George Floyd, you had, uh, January 6th, you have all these different things that are occurring that are causing significant polarization within the country. And so you, when you factor all of these, you know, out things on the, on the, you know, the atmospheric things in to the everyday operational issues, it can create really significant leadership challenges in terms of how do you effectively manage and lead a 1200 plus employee workforce to make sure that in addition to everything else that’s going on, you can stay focused on the mission and the strategy? Because at the end of the day, I always took this to heart every single day is that I considered our boss to be the American citizen, the American taxpayer who expect a certain level of of professionalism from the FBI.

Joe Bonavolonta : So with all these things going on, you have to remember, and this was the biggest thing I learned is that FBI agents. You know, they’re not robots. They’re not machines. As much as you know, the general public may view them that way. They’re human beings. Their mothers, their fathers. They’re taking care of elderly parents every day. Um, they have children or relatives that live with them that have significant disabilities. So they have the same financial stresses, you know, that a lot of people do. So in and around these significant issues that were occurring in, in addition to having to carry on in the mission and execute it. Um, you know, from a leadership perspective, I just always kept that in mind to the best I could that you have to definitely strike that balance in terms of making sure the mission continues, but also making sure that the employees know and really believe that you care about them and that you’re also going to be making decisions based on that as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh. Yes. We’re all human and sometimes we forget, right? In this public entity that we expect to go and care for us and make sure that we’re protected, that it’s full of humans and not robots. And we should consider that when we’re thinking about that. Thank you for sharing all of that. It’s so, um, sounds so complicated. So, so many moving parts and you having to make decisions around all of those things that are happening around you. And thank you for your service. Really appreciate what you’ve done in the past. And I want to move into transferable lessons and your transition out and into entrepreneurship before we get there. I know that there are folks who probably want to learn more about Joe. So what is the best way for people to reach out or to connect with you?

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So I’m on LinkedIn. You could under Joseph Bonavolonta, but, you know, you could look me up on LinkedIn. And then our current my my firm W1 Global. If you just simply, you know, very easy, just type in W1 Global incorporated and we have a website where you can see what we do and the bios of not only myself, but my fellow principals in the firm.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Thank you for that. All right, you guys, if you’re looking on LinkedIn, I’m sure that you’re going to be able to spell Joe’s last name. It’s BONAVOLONTA, so that you can find him on LinkedIn, or as he mentioned, you can go over to the W1 Global site. So, Joe, I want to talk about W1 Global, um, and how the transition was for you. So you retired. You’ll have to tell us a little bit about the transition from retirement into entrepreneurship and the transferable lessons that you brought with you.

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So, you know, leaving the Bureau, that’s something that’s been an age old, uh, source of major stress for so many FBI agents that, you know, are my colleagues and friends over the years. Because when you devote, whether it’s 20 or 30 plus years to a very, an incredibly mission driven, uh, agency like the FBI, um, you know, making that initial move into the private sector can absolutely be a daunting one. And everybody feels it. And especially for FBI executives, you know, historically there’s two, you know, there’s there’s always variables to this. But, you know, for the purposes of this discussion, there’s two, you know, general pathways that FBI executives follow when they do go back into the private sector. One is the pure corporate, you know, security route where, you know, they’re very well versed or adept at going into head of security, Global head of security for a major corporation, things along those lines. Um, there’s another pathway where it’s more the consulting or the entrepreneurial pathway just to do something completely different than what they may have done in the FBI, I was presented when I started to, you know, when it became firm when I was going to retire from the FBI, I had some really good, insightful conversations with a couple of trusted former mentors of mine that were FBI agents, you know, and had a successful transition into the private sector. But more just as importantly, I reached out to a couple of really trusted individuals, um, who I had developed within my network over the years that were pure private sector executives in different industries.

Joe Bonavolonta : And the question I would pose to them is, you know, how do you think somebody with my experience, um, would best be able to transfer my skills effectively into the private sector? And it was really those conversations that sort of guided me much more toward the entrepreneurial and the consulting pathway, simply just because I had spent 27 years, all of which I just loved in the f b, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. But the FBI is a very big organization and it is a bureaucracy. And I was not necessarily looking to go back into a major institution or bureaucracy. I wanted to have independence a little bit more freedom to do things that I wanted to do, and really to continue solving complex problems, but for many different clients. So there would be a variety where I felt I could really draw upon my leadership experience, but also my investigative experience and everything else that I accrued during 27 years in the in the FBI. And, you know, it was a daunting move. It really is a leap of faith. And now that I’m more than three years into it and we’re doing extremely well at W1 Global, I couldn’t have asked for a better transition. But I will tell you, and anybody knows this who’s gone the entrepreneurial route when you’re really building a business is it’s it is, it is incredibly difficult.

Joe Bonavolonta : Um, you know, there are really hard days. It is a constant grind, but there’s nothing more satisfying than when you actually start to see all of the seeds that, you know, collectively, the team plants. And then all of a sudden it really starts building and the referrals come in, the word of mouth gets out, the client satisfaction is really high. You, you, you just have a sense of, of satisfaction that is hard to put words to, you know, when you’re in the middle of it. And so, you know, once again, very difficult decision because and I don’t mean this to be pejorative at all, because it’s not. Um, but when a lot of individuals that leave government service, in this case, the FBI, especially executives, many of them just historically are steered right into more, uh, they go from one institution into another because that’s what they’re comfortable with and that’s what they know. And they do a phenomenal job. But going more of that, that entrepreneurial route can be a little bit more daunting because there’s not as much security behind it. And you’re taking a little bit more of a leap of faith. But like anything else in life, when you start to see the success and you and I’m a firm believer that success breeds success. Um, then, you know, things start really making sense. And, and, and I look back at the decision I made and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing. Okay. Tell us what W1 Global provides as a service.

Joe Bonavolonta : So W1 Global is a. There are three main lines of businesses, but lines of business. There was the foundational line of business for when the firm was founded is Investigative Advisory services. So that’s simply just providing some very complex investigative um services, but also helping ultra high net worth clients and corporations resolve complex problems, whether it’s regulatory compliance issues, um, you know, other kinds of high end fraud, insider threat type issues, due diligence, you know, type issues, uh, KYC, those kinds of things. The other line of business that is exponentially grown is our security consulting line of business. So that’s things like executive protection, threat vulnerability risk assessments for individuals and corporations. Um, you know, really ways that we, you know, one of the lines of business through that service that is really grown sadly. Uh, you know, since the, um, the assassination of the United healthcare CEO has been firms that may not have a full time or a large security team have asked us to come in and do all different kinds of physical assessments, but also, um, serve as almost like a virtual or a fractional chief security officer. So they have a firm they can trust with a pedigree to go to for those services. And then lastly, we have our own in-house Global intelligence office and intelligence. It was this way when I was post nine over 11, when I was with the Bureau, and even more so in corporate America is having the ability to produce, um, in depth, uh, you know, intelligence, uh, desktop research, Osint, but also Humint, human intelligence. And with the network, we have, um, you know, we have a Global reach and that combination of open source intelligence and human intelligence is something that I’ve seen the need just dramatically increase from a variety of different clients. So those are the three main lines of business that we’re engaged in.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, wonderful. So as we get to the back end of our conversation, I want to circle back to something that we started with early on. And you talked about the people you surround yourself with and the alignment of that. I know because you and I had a conversation before this that you chose to work with people that you already trusted. So how important is the, um, that alignment when you were building this next chapter?

Joe Bonavolonta : Sure. So, you know, you mentioned the word trust. And to me, you know, if I if I were to have to answer that question in one word, that that’s what it would have been. You know, at the end of the day, the, the lines of service that we provide to clients are really derived from collectively, uh, you know, like well over 170 to almost 200 years of collective experience either within the FBI, the DEA or private sector, you know, as well. Um, you know, that is one thing in terms of, you know, actually executing the job and, and really cultivating clients and solving complex problems for them. But in, once again, in my opinion, based on the experience that I’ve had, that does not work well if you’re not working with a group where there is true inherent trust. And so when you look at our firm, The majority of us were individuals that actually knew each other from when we were in our early to mid 20s, when we were brand new investigative case agents in the FBI. And some of us were even Swat team members together. Where you over over the course of 30 years? You know, it’s a similar thing in law enforcement as well as military. If you’re working in the private sector with individuals that you worked with, whether it be law enforcement or military for almost 30 years, that level of trust is, is resolute. And there’s, there’s no doubting that. So when you’re going over a strategic vision for where you want to take the company, when we’re talking about whether to take on a certain client or not, or when we’re, when we’re talking about bringing, you know, growing the company and bringing additional people in, um, that inherent level of trust that already exists is is incredibly vital.

Joe Bonavolonta : And that’s one of the that’s really the main thing that every day I’m thankful for. And I know my colleagues are. And we talk about this amongst ourselves all the time to be able to effectively transfer our skills from the FBI into an entrepreneurial effort that is working very well, and to be doing it with like minded people, individuals that we’ve known for decades. What that does is that really negates, uh, the drama. There’s no personnel issues that we have to worry about. There’s no extraneous headaches that can take our focus away from doing the day to day job. And that’s something that in the private sector, and I’m sure, you know, Trisha, that’s not very common. Um, you know, to be able to work in an environment like that, um, is hard to put a price on. And so that’s why, uh, you know, looking back, uh, you know, I there’s no regrets at all in that level of trust is such an important part of what we do. And lastly, I can tell you unequivocally that in client engagements that we have when we’re on calls together and we’re talking through a problem, clients in corporate America pick up on that immediately when they’re dealing, or they’re engaged with an entity that they’re going to to help solve a problem for them. And they can just see by the way that that entity engages amongst each other that there’s really no tension, there’s no drama, and that they’re there to solve a problem, that that goes a long way because people are very savvy. Uh, C-suite level executives are very good at picking up on little nuances that can come forth if that level of trust isn’t there. Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And having that internal trust exudes the external trust that’s coming from your clients. This has been amazing, Joe. I know we’ve only scratched the surface. Unfortunately, we’re out of time today, so I may have to ask you to come back so we can take some of this stuff a little deeper. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I appreciate you taking the time to join me today.

Joe Bonavolonta : Well, thank you for reaching out to me. It was a pleasure. And also thank you. You know, I know you’re a veteran and, you know, it’s one of the the reasons why I agreed to come on because I really want to thank you for your service. And that’s something that’s very near and dear to me. So thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. I appreciate that so much, you guys. I will have the links in the show notes to everywhere that you can find. Joe, the website that I want you to go check out is w1-Global.com. That’s where you’re going to find more information about W1 Global. And then as Joe mentioned, you can pick or connect with him on LinkedIn at Joseph BONAVOLONTA. Did you see how I skirted saying your last name, Joe? I’ll spell it for everyone. Thank you again. I appreciate your time so much.

Joe Bonavolonta : Thank you very much.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Joe and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or Houston business leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show because it helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. 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.