angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

BRX Pro Tip: Fully Leveraging Your Podcast Appearance

July 10, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Fully Leveraging Your Podcast Appearance

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BRX Pro Tip: Fully Leveraging Your Podcast Appearance

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, what are your thoughts? What’s your experience, recommendations on fully leveraging the fact that you have been on a radio show or a podcast?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. This is something that I am a big believer in and I think this is – people are leaving money and time on the table by not doing this. But if you’re ever a guest on anything, radio show, podcast, if they wrote an article about you in a blog, or whatever the content you got in media, I recommend you take that content and put immediately – once it’s published, go to your calendar and then mark on your calendar over the next 12 months, 4 to 6 times that you’re going to mention this thing again to your people in your database.

Lee Kantor: So when you get the interview, put a calendar reminder to repost that interview on your socials every two to three months. You don’t have to always post new content. You can repurpose existing content. You probably have already done a ton of interviews and things in the past. Go back to that and then save yourself some time and headaches and just repurpose some of that existing content that you’ve already done.

Lee Kantor: I guarantee you there is a pile of content that you did already in the past that you can go back to and repurpose it, and it’s going to be new to the people on your socials. Because number one, all the people in your socials don’t see every single thing that you post. So there’s no harm in repurposing existing content. And if you did that, you would actually get more people to pay attention to your stuff because you’d be posting more often, and then you would just be able to build your following by just posting things that you’ve already done that’s new to the person that is reading it. So repurpose old stuff.

BRX Pro Tip: Narrow Your Niche

July 9, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Narrow Your Niche

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BRX Pro Tip: Narrow Your Niche

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, what counsel do you have around identifying and serving the right market for your business?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, this is one of those things. If you are out and about doing business and you’re getting frustrated or not happy with the results you’re getting, I think one of the first moves to make is to narrow your niche, especially if you’re in professional services. So instead of being a business coach, try being a business coach for dentists. You know, find a specialty, find an area of expertise that you can just narrow in on, and be the business coach for that group, or being the professional service provider for that group. You’re going to have less competition, and over time, you’re going to build up a lot of specific industry knowledge that will help differentiate you from everybody else, number one, and ultimately, you’ll be able to charge higher prices because you’re going to be kind of the guru in this niche.

Lee Kantor: So, this also works for your B2B podcast. If you’re not happy with the results of your B2B podcast, it’s probably because you haven’t narrowed your niche. And if you want help with a broken B2B podcast, you want to call Business RadioX because we specialize in fixing broken B2B podcasts, and we’ve helped a lot of B2B podcasters finally make money with their podcasts.

Stone Payton: Well, and I got to say, in my experience with the clients that I have out of the studio that I help run and operate, I’ve convinced people to pick a niche, continue to narrow it. But it doesn’t mean you can’t take another piece of good business that’s a little bit outside of your niche. It’s not shutting down the balance of the opportunity market, but it does seem to serve extremely well every time. But don’t think because you’ve picked a niche doesn’t mean you can’t ever do business with someone just a little bit on the other side of it as well, right?

Lee Kantor: Right. It’s not or, it’s and. But you just want to be known for something. And the tighter the niche is that you’re working in and to be known as the go-to resource for that, then sure, you can work for other people as well, but you’re going to be known in that area as kind of the go-to person, and that’s what you’re shooting for.

Stone Payton: Amen.

Dr. Michelle Thomas with The Exceptional Woman Enterprise

July 8, 2024 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Dr. Michelle Thomas with The Exceptional Woman Enterprise

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Dr. Michelle S. Thomas is a distinguished business executive and strategist, renowned for her expertise in eliminating growth barriers for women entrepreneurs, particularly those of color.

As the visionary leader of The Exceptional Woman Enterprise, she champions the advancement of women in business through strategic empowerment initiatives and Mastery Level business education.

Dr. Thomas combines over a decade of direct business operation experience with her roles as an author and speaker to drive innovation and excellence in entrepreneurial development.

Connect with Dr. Thomas on Facebook and Instagram.

The 2024 G.R.O.W.T.H Business Conference provides women of color a unique platform designed specifically to elevate your business acumen, expand your network, and take your enterprises to new heights.

The conference takes place in Dallas, TX on August 1-2 at The Gaylord Texan Resort & Conference Center. Find information about the conference and purchase tickets at https://growthconference.live/

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming back to the Business RadioX microphone. Author, speaker, coach with The Exceptional Woman Enterprise Dr. Michelle Thomas. How are you?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: I am doing amazing. How are you? Stone, thank you for having me back.

Stone Payton: I am doing well. It’s absolutely my pleasure. What a delight to have you back on the broadcast. We had so much fun last time when you were in studio. I’m really looking forward to this conversation. I know there’s an upcoming event that we want to dive into in a few moments, but I’m thinking to get things going, maybe remind us, give us a little bit of primer about your work mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So the Exceptional Woman Enterprise is a parent company of multiple subsidiaries that focus primarily on ensuring that women entrepreneurs, especially women of color entrepreneurs, receive the resources, the funding, the support and the networking community that they need to be able to achieve sustainable success. And so we focused in on this because statistically, I’m a data person. Right. And so research tells us that starting in the Covid era 2020, 2021, we saw a record number of women of color entrepreneurs to launch their businesses. Well, what a lot of people don’t know is the IRS has its own litmus test, right, of what they consider the difference between a hobby business and a successful business. And so the loose terms of it is, if you are in business five years or more, but you have to be profitable for the IRS to consider your business a true business, uh, mature business. Well, statistically, uh, a lot of women entrepreneurs launch their businesses, but within the first 12 to 24 months are forced to prematurely close before they can even realize their success because they don’t have the right access. It’s not just about money, it’s about access. And so the Exceptional Woman Enterprise, we have multiple different entities that help you achieve the access that you need to achieve the growth that you want to do. That’s the brief overview of what we do.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous and noble pursuit. I know I asked this the last time we talked, but remind us of what got you going down this path. Aside from the obvious need, how in the world did you find yourself in this, in this line of work?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: By pure accident? Let me say let me say how this happened. So, um, back in 2017, um, my husband and I are a blended family, and we have seven kids, six boys, one girl, um, two dogs, two cats. A partridge in a pear tree. If you look deep enough. I’m just saying, that’s just how my house be rocking. Okay. So now you know our kids are grown. But back in 2017, um, June 15th, 2017, we lost one of our babies. He was 19, we lost him to a car accident. And so immediately everyone flooded me with these grief books and things about loss or whatever. And I wasn’t ready for it. Right. So what I did in my own little cubby is I took my laptop and I wrote about what I knew, I just I wrote about blending the family because when my husband and I first got together, I called it the corporate merger because we were two business people that had kids. So it wasn’t just like the regular get together type of thing. You got two really strong, bullheaded leaders that now have to live in one house. It’s the corporate merger. Like there was a negotiation table just to get this to work, right. And so between the seven kids, multiple different last names, whatever, no one on the outside knew that we were blended family because that’s how we structured our family.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: And so when we had this tragic loss and Bryant was our middle kid with the biggest personality, he was like the sales person for my business, one of my businesses. And like, he was just that kid. And when we when we had that loss, it impacted my family tremendously. And because I have a house full of males, it was important for me to make sure that they were able to process their feelings. So I started writing in my own way about the experience of blending of family. So this little, this little journal thing that I created, a friend of mine was like, oh, you need to turn this into a book. So I reluctantly like the bad child. Reluctantly, I reluctantly published it, but I knew that we guaranteed was going to have eight copies sold, and that was it, right? Because I wrote my family, wrote eight deep just in this in itself. And so my mom and daddy was going to buy a copy. So, okay, that’s ten. We got ten copies to be sold and then we’ll let this go. Stone it went global. Um, I had especially what was really profound for me is I had more men to reach out to me and say thank you. If I had had this book, I probably wouldn’t be divorced now because I never understood and looked at it from that perspective.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So that began me speaking. People were calling me around the globe to do these conferences and do these speaking engagements. As I’m in the space and in these conferences, people begin, especially women begin to ask me about my professional career and how did I get there? How did I get with the Mark Cuban’s? How did I get with all of the Dan Gilbert’s and the Eric Thomases and the Tony Robbins? And how did I get in those spaces? And so I just would have these conversations. It wasn’t a business. I was just having these conversations. And it eventually the first entity that I created was the Exceptional Woman Tour, which was my event division, where we would go around from city to city. Instead of having people to pay to come to me, I would incur the cost to go from city to city and find the the, the women that were in that city that were hungry for professional growth and, and so what what began as just kind of a it was my own process of grief. And I actually spoke because I was giving Bryant voice. I wasn’t speaking for me. I wanted to give him voice because he thought that his mother was a superhero. And so I didn’t feel like a superhero, but because my kid thought I was a superhero, I’m gonna get out here and I’m going to keep this kid’s life going.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Well, it turned into so much demand for ethical, vetted, true business principles. That’s what we stand upon. We stand upon not just the hype or the drip campaign or the funnel campaign type of information. We stand upon true business practices that transcends any type of trends or fads or anything we process on the true business cycle. And and what I found was that a lot of people and a lot of women, this was a man thing. Most men, you guys do this organically, but from a women’s women’s perspective, we usually focus on the emotion of it instead of the hard core business principles. And so my three plus decades of executive leadership turned into the exceptional woman enterprise where I want before I take my last breath, I want to see sustainable, permanent change for us as women entrepreneurs to stand upon so we no longer have to keep looking backwards for the next six generations. That’s my goal, the foundation that we that we build through the exceptional woman enterprise. I want women, young women, young entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs to be able to stand on this new, strong foundation for the next six generations. And then my my work will be done.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous story and inspiring path. I got to ask, what was it like? Especially in the early days of becoming a professional speaker, where were you intimidated at all? Did you have to learn some, I don’t know, skills tactics on how to deliver your message effectively in that medium as well?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So for me, it was offered. I tried that stone, I really did, I tried, I tried to go and do the master classes and figure out whatever, but it didn’t fit. It didn’t feel right. I come, I come to my audience with a conversation. I want to make sure that I’m not. Whether you pay me to be the keynote or whatever my title is on stage. I want every person who sits in that office and that audience to feel like that. It’s just me and them having a conversation because I found that that resonates better than me leading with my expertise, me leading with my bank account, me leading with I’m all this. That’s kind of stuff in this day and time, because everybody has instant access. You can Google.

Speaker4: Anything if.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: If, if I’m gonna take the time out to go and get dressed and go to an event or go to a conference, I need that conference to deliver to me something I cannot Google. Does that make sense?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: And so for me, I didn’t want to resemble everyone else on stage. I wanted that by the time we left that event, or whoever walked out of that space that I was in walked away understanding that whatever they think they can do, they actually can do.

Stone Payton: It seems to me, for outside looking in, you’ve got so many irons in the fire, so many plates spinning. But they include, uh, I want to make sure this is accurate above and beyond the writing and the speaking and providing all these resources in a, in a variety of ways for people to access them. Am I right? Do you also find yourself in direct coaching relationships with individuals and groups, as well as part of your practice?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Absolutely. One of my we actually own two corporate office and one of my corporate office, which is called Success Industries. We named it after our six kids at the time, but it spells six six Success industries is a minority consultant firm where we go into small, midsize and corporations, and we dive into the operations of that to help them to streamline and better create an effective operations so that they can achieve money to the bottom line. So we spend our time really in multiple industries, different industries. Um, but we drill down to what the problem is, and then we offer the solutions so that instead of you having to throw money at the problem, we find out where the core of the problem is so that you can strategically place your resources where they need to be so that you can get a result. So we do consulting, I do coaching. We also have now started, um, we haven’t launched the Universe Personal. Hear about it. We’re going to be launching an academy called Melanated Moguls Academy, where from people around the country who have experienced their success and their growth, but also understand the barriers that are still out there, the micro biases that we all experience. Um, I wanted to pull together an academy that just didn’t focus in on women, but focused in strategically on professional growth. So you don’t have to be an entrepreneur. But if you want to grow yourself to the VP status or the C-suite status, the Melanated Moguls Academy is going to get you not only the mentorship that you need, but the resources that you need to grow.

Stone Payton: So you touched on this earlier in the conversation, but I wonder if you would would say some more about your decision to specifically focus on serving women, and particularly women of color. I mean, because some of this is surely strategic, some of it is certainly born of the heart. But say a little bit more about that decision.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So through my research, I found that a lot of people only did surface level research of what was actually causing women of color businesses to fail, and they always wanted to equate it to our financial stability and the lack of funding that we got. Well, here’s the thing about business. Business doesn’t really care what color you are. Business doesn’t care what gender you are. All business. The big cog of business has been around for centuries. All it cares about is that you can do what you say you can do, right? That’s how business works. That’s the bottom line principle. And so for women, what was happening because it’s so few of us that actually have these C-suite positions and actually watch how business actually works from behind the scenes. We don’t have access to those tables, so we tend to enter in our entrepreneurial journey or our small business journey from the experience and the mindset of an employee. Even if you were a manager or a leader in it, you still make employee type decisions because someone else gave you it was a pass down effect. You learn what you needed to do because it came from the owner or the key person that you never got a chance to sit with. So what I do is I take my 30 plus years of experience at those tables with some of the most prominent people, and I convert it into language and operations and strategic movement that is tailored for a specific entrepreneur and a small business owner. So I convert that corporate lingo and that corporate operation and move it into a space that any entrepreneur, in any small business owner, can grab on to implement into their process and achieve big business success.

Stone Payton: So now that this work has snowballed like it has and you’re clearly have hit your your stride at this point, what is the what’s the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you these days?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: To be able to hear the stories of people or meet people that I may have met five years ago, six years ago, maybe they attended one of my conferences. Maybe they heard me speak somewhere that I have never physically met before. But when I’m in a space and they get a chance to actually come and tell me their story, and I hear the shift and the impact that that conversation that I had, not directly with them, but they received it and were able to achieve success that they weren’t ever able to dream of. Because a lot of us are first generation, right? We are sitting in spaces and we’re navigating in in spaces that our parents or no one in our family has ever stepped into. This is a venture that we can’t call our uncles or aunts and be able to say and ask, how did they do this? Because we’re first generation. And so when, when, when when it’s that group of people, the underrepresented communities. My joy comes from taking a person that statistically has been led to believe that they could never have this level of success and watch them blossom into their true self, utilizing the very skills that they were born with. They just need to sharpen them a little bit and get a little bit more business experience and watch this person achieve something that no one ever believed that they could do.

Stone Payton: Well, that has to feel good. You must sleep incredibly well at night, not just as a product of all your work, but the the impact that your that your work is having. That’s fantastic. All right I want to hear about this event. You’ve got one coming up in in August. Walk us through it. What can we expect to see there.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Oh my goodness. The 2024 Growth Business Conference is going to be and what I call home, um, in Dallas, Texas, August 1st and second. Um, I called Dallas home because I spent 16 years in Dallas. Uh, most of my kids were born in Dallas. And so I grew up from a business perspective in Dallas. Dallas took a broken girl from North Carolina that drove in with no job and no money, and taught me how to own my space, not try to skate off of it, but really own my space. And so coming back to Dallas is really important for me. And so the 2024 Growth Business Conference is going to focus in on getting our entrepreneurs and our attendees to not only learn the essential resources that they need, but we are actually implementing in every step that we’re doing, action items that they’re going to implement during the conference. Here’s what I find out. During conferences, we make people feel invisible for one, two, three, or four days, right? When you’re in that energy, you’re in that space. You feel like that you can accomplish anything that you want to.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: But then the next Tuesday, when you’re at home and all the bills are coming in and everybody’s pulling and tugging at you, see, somehow something happens with that energy, it dissipates real quick. And now you’re trying to figure out how to get that back. Well, what we’re going to do is while you’re in the seat, while you’re in the presence of the experts, you’re going to execute it in your own business. Bring your laptop, bring your phones, bring everything that you got, because we’re going to implement it right there so that you can become the expert of the skill. And when you go back to your office or go back home, you can now sustain it and grow it. That’s the key. You don’t walk away confused. My guarantee for all of my conferences is that you walk away with three resources and steps that you can implement immediately, and receive results from those things. We don’t do drip campaigns. We’re not giving you anything that you got to pay me more money to find out more about. We give it all. We give.

Speaker4: It all.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: On stage two days. Day one is the first day is the general session where our speakers, our experts are pouring all type of financial knowledge, operational knowledge and people knowledge. That’s sales, that’s customers, that’s your employees. We’re going to pour all that into you. Day two, August 2nd is strictly to drill down what you learn on day one and to break out sessions so that we can really answer your questions and really implement that and instill it into your operations. And so our conferences have a different experience to them. And I’m not saying that because it’s mine. I’m saying that because that’s the feedback that I get from everyone in attendance, that it’s a whole different experience than they’ve ever had. So this year is going to be August 1st and second. It’s going to be at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center. I’m encouraging every entrepreneur, every business professional to attend this conference. But we did something different, Stone, that we haven’t done in the other five years of doing this. We are going to have a business expo and we’re going to have an Authors Corner. So I want to speak right now to those business owners who need customers, who need to get their businesses out there, who want to find the people who need the products and services that they are selling. Get a vendor booth here. We are going to strategically drive sales to you. That’s our job for our indie authors out there. If you have publications, if you have a book that you’re putting out there, if you have, if you just want to poll the audience to find out if your concept is going to work, get your indie author book booth so that you now can meet the very people who are going to buy your publication and your book, and your best seller.

Stone Payton: I love it because while you are clearly the the grand master of this, uh, this this event, it’s not the Doctor Michelle show You have people with specific expertise and experience in these different domains. So they’re getting the best of the best, and they’re getting a platform to practice application in a safe environment. And they’re getting an opportunity to share their own stories and promote their own work while they’re there, aren’t they?

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Absolutely. And when I say, I mean, you hit the nail on the head, it is not. I warn my audience, people, you might find me sitting beside you because I take more notes than I am on stage. I because again, I want to make sure that people understand that we at the Exceptional Woman Enterprise, we walk our talk. I’m not going to stand there and tell you I know everything, but what I do really well is position my business and position myself around people that have more skills and strengths in areas that I am weak in. And I make sure that we are shored up in that way, so that the experts who need to be able to pour into you are the people that are talking to you. So this is how we strategically place this conference, so that if I don’t have an answer for you, there is someone in the room that has an answer for you. But it’s more than just you sitting in the seat taking notes. I want you to feel involved and action oriented. So there’s going to be a portion of this conference. I’m letting everybody know because you’re my friends. Don’t nobody else knows about this where we’re actually in the middle of the conference. We’re going to stop everything and we’re going to help you find your next customer, your next employee, your next business partner. Right in the middle of the conference, you’re going to walk away with some work. You’re going to walk away with a sale. You’re going to walk away with a new business partner during this conference.

Stone Payton: Wow. Okay. So at this point in early July and this thing is in early August, there’s still some registration available. There’s still, uh, booth space available. Yes.

Speaker4: Yes. Okay. Yes.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: So I, um, I actually put this in the chat so you could share it with everyone, but everyone can go to Growth Conference, dot live, live. And you can secure your vendor booth, your author, your indie author author book. You can get our VIP pass, which will give you a whole lot of access to our experts and some expert things that really behind the scene, things that you’re going to get as a founder or someone that wants to be in that VIP room. Um, our general session. But we even broke our tickets down this year because I know not everybody may have two days to spare to a conference. Right.

Speaker4: So you get to choose.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: You can a la carte however you want to attend this conference to things that are specific to what you need. So you make that choice. And I wanted to make sure that I got on your show, and I talked to people globally to make sure that if you need to be in this space, we have a room for you.

Stone Payton: All right. Let’s make sure that we give them that website once again, and let’s give them some coordinates to tap into your work in general. And maybe at some point, if they want to have a substantive conversation with you or someone on your team, let’s leave them with some of those coordinates as well.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Absolutely. So the website for the conference is Growth Conference Dot live. And you can get all the information about the conference there. If you want to connect with me, you can connect with me through Exceptional Woman Network.com and all of our information. If you want coaching, mentorship, if you need someone, if you want to do specific coaching packages through me, then you can email email me at ashaunna a s h a w n a. That’s a s h a w n a at Michelle s Thomas comm. That’s m I c h e l l e the letter s as in Sam t h o m a s com. So I’ll get all of this information to you soon so that if they needed it, they missed it on the the live. You guys can post it, but find me if you want to find everything out about me, you can look at Exceptional woman Network.com. And you’ll always. They’ll get you to me. And we’ll find the resources that you specifically need to get your business where it needs to go. And again, I just want to plug in. This conference is for people who are tired of the predatory like promises that are plaguing us so much about I can make you rich in 37 days, those type of things. This is not that conference. This is not the get rich quick conference. This is true business principles that you can rinse and repeat throughout any industry to help you grow.

Stone Payton: Doctor Michelle, this has been, as I knew it would, an absolute delight. I’m so glad that we had you back on the broadcast. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm, and the the nature of your work and the impact that you’re creating. You are doing such important work and we sure appreciate you.

Dr. Michelle Thomas: Thank you so much, Simon. And anytime. Listen, I’m all I love being on your show. This is amazing.

Stone Payton: Absolutely. My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for Doctor Michelle Thomas with the exceptional woman Enterprise and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

BRX Pro Tip: Improve Your Clarity

July 8, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Improve Your Clarity

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BRX Pro Tip: Improve Your Clarity

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, let’s talk about improving your clarity.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:11] Clarity in communication is critical. Here’s a symptom that maybe your communication skills need some work. If you are constantly getting frustrated that people aren’t doing what you want them to do, it might be you. It may not be them. Maybe you haven’t explained it clear enough. Maybe you haven’t persuaded them that the value is there if they do what you’d like them to do.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:41] But whatever it is, if you’re constantly being frustrated that people aren’t doing what you want them to do, look in the mirror and try to explain things to them better and more efficiently. Pretend you’re trying to explain something to your mom or to a child, somebody who isn’t familiar with what you do, and put it in terms that anybody can understand. If you’re having trouble doing that, you know, you’re going to have a lot more problems down the road. You’re going to get frustrated. The work is not going to be done and it can derail your whole business.

Stone Payton: [00:01:13] So, I was participating in a workshop just about this time last week, and one of the things this gentleman shared was that, communication is really about the response that you get. It’s not necessarily the stimulus you provide. The true measure of communication is the quality of the response you get. So, now, I’m hearing you speak about this.

Stone Payton: [00:01:41] And then, another thing I came across while listening to some leadership development stuff on YouTube, which I’ve been known to do, one of the guys just said unabashedly, to be unclear is to be unkind. And I think that’s probably true.

BRX Pro Tip: How Do You Encourage Clients to Refer?

July 5, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: How Do You Encourage Clients to Refer?

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BRX Pro Tip: How Do You Encourage Clients to Refer?

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, here’s something that I think is really important if you’re going to have a sustainable business. It’s a question that comes up quite a bit, I think. How do you encourage your existing clients to refer new clients to you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] Yeah. That’s everybody’s dream, to have that one client you have now have them refer other clients to you. That way you don’t have this big, you know, customer acquisition challenge. You just have to do good work and then your client’s going to refer other clients to you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] You know, that’s what we all dream to happen. But in order for it to happen, you have to put systems in place and processes in place that encourages your clients to refer new clients to you. This doesn’t happen just by magic or just because you want it to. A lot of clients don’t want to refer you other clients because they’re afraid that if you’re doing work for them, that somehow you’re not going to have time for themselves. So it’s kind of self-serving in a way that they don’t want to refer you because they want to keep you their secret.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:08] So, a way to encourage your clients to refer new clients to you is something that we do is we always ask our guests to suggest and reach out to other people like themselves to also be a guest. Make it very easy for them to refer guests to you, and guess what? They will do it because it makes them look good. They get to be a hero that they connected somebody to be on a show. That helps them kind of feel good about themselves, and they don’t mind making that referral.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:40] They’re not necessarily saying, hey, buy Business RadioX’s services, but they are suggesting somebody who probably meets the right profile that could be a client. And then, now it’s up to you to be able to move them into becoming a client. And since we spend a lot of time reverse-engineering our clients shows to be about their best prospects, anybody they refer obviously, any guest they refer will typically be a good prospect for us. So that works very well in our favor.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:12] This way, by doing this, by creating this kind of simple way to help our guests help us, it’s a win-win. It helps them look good. It helps them serve their community, but it also helps us get in front of people who might be able to benefit from our services. So if you can create a system that is a win-win, that helps your client get something that they desire and also help you get something you desire, which is a new client, then you have a great system in place and a great chance to grow your business organically through your existing clients.

Hawaii WBE Feature: Friendship through WBEC-West

July 4, 2024 by angishields

WIM-Friendship-Through-WBEC-West-Featurev2

Women in Motion

Hawaii WBE Feature: Friendship through WBEC-West

00:00 /

In today’s episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor, Dr. Pamela Williamson, and their guests Cora Spearman-Chang and Bernadette Rivero, discuss the impact of WBEC-West and the significance of friendship and community in business. Cora, CEO of Coradorables, and Bernadette, President of The Cortez Brothers Inc., share their experiences of support and camaraderie within the WBEC-West network. They emphasize the importance of authentic connections and collaboration, especially in male-dominated industries. The episode highlights how genuine relationships and community support can drive business success and personal fulfillment, with Dr. Williamson underscoring the organization’s role in fostering these meaningful connections.

Bernadette Rivero is President and Executive Producer at The Cortez Brothers, Inc., a Los Angeles-based creative production company specializing in bringing branded content to life.

She started working at an advertising agency while in high school, then segued into journalism, with stints at CNN International, NPR, The Marketplace Morning Report and the Weather Channel, where she chased hurricanes as a one- woman-band.

Since opening its doors in 2005, her content production company has worked with ad agencies and Fortune 500 brands across the United States, filming campaigns all around the globe.

Recent clients include Cadillac, Nissan, Honda, Kraft, MGM Studios and others.

Follow The Cortez Brothers on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Cora Spearman-Chang is the CEO and Founder of Coradorables & Cora Spearman Hawaii, Hawaii’s first product-based certified B corporation. Made in Hawaii retail brand that evokes a mid-century modern Hawaiian-kissed getaway lifestyle for men, women, and children.

Despite her battle with head/neck and brain cancer, Cora’s resilience and determination led her to found Coradorables in 2010, inspired by the birth of her first daughter. Her journey from adversity to success is a testament to her strength and serves as a powerful inspiration.

Recognized as 2024 Hawaii Power Leader by PBN, SBA Small Business Champion, and the Emerging Designer of the Year at the 2013 Hawaii Governor’s Fashion Awards, her designs now grace the shelves of 5-star resorts and hotels, online platforms, and upscale specialty shops worldwide.

She was also honored as a 2020 Pacific Business News Women Who Mean Business Honoree & a dedicated for the past 5 years Mentoring Monday Mentor. Cora’s WBENC-certified brand was Hawaii’s first featured retailer at Saks 5th Ave Waikiki, is a former Academy Awards Gifting Suite attendee, and a featured Made-in-Hawaii brand at Hankyu Department Stores Japan. Her creations, all designed, sourced and manufactured in Hawaii, have been worn by the stars of various television shows and featured in the pages of Vogue UK, Tatler, ELLE, Essence and beyond.

Cora’s commitment to sustainable fashion practices is not just a part of her colorful fashion, but it’s the ethos of her entire company. As a 2022 United Nations Climate Ambition Accelerator Graduate & Global Compact Member, she is a leading voice in the industry, frequently invited to speak on the national stage about sustainable fashion practices.

She has shared her insights on the 2022 NRF Retails Show’s “Future of Sustainability” panel alongside industry giants like LVMH and Macy’s, and her expertise has been recognized in Inc. Magazine.

Today, Cora lives in Honolulu with her husband, Kalanialii, and their two children, Izzabelle Ka’iulani and Zoe Heimakaokalani. Together, they bring a made-in-the-islands aloha spirit with them wherever they go.

Connect with Cora on LinkedIn and follow Coradorables on Facebook and X.

About Our Co-Host

Dr. Pamela Williamson, President & CEO of WBEC-West, is an exemplary, dedicated individual, and has extensive experience as a senior leader for over twenty years.

She has served as the CEO of SABA 7 a consulting firm, overseen quality control at a Psychiatric urgent care facility of a National Behavioral Health Care Organization where she served as Vice President and Deputy Director,and has served as the CEO of WBEC-West, since 2008.

Her extensive experience in developing and implementing innovative alliances with key stakeholders has enabled the organizations to reach new levels of growth and stability. Her ability to lead and empower staff members creates a strong team environment which filters throughout the entire organization.

She takes an active role in facilitating connections between corporations and women business enterprises and sees a promising future for WBENC Certified women-owned businesses.

Dr. Williamson holds a Doctorate in Healthcare Administration, a Master’s degrees in Business Administration, and bachelor degrees in both Psychology and Sociology.

Connect with Dr. Williamson on LinkedIn.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Dr. Pamela Williamson, another episode of Women in Motion, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. And today’s episode is an exciting one because this is – we’re going to really dig into the impact of WBEC-West and friendship and community. And we have folks here, Pamela, that really encapsulate that.

Pamela Williamson : We do. I’m excited by this episode, and I know I probably say that about every episode that we do, but this one I’m excited about because one of the questions I get asked a lot is just what are one of the benefits? So, a lot of the benefits of being part of WBEC-West or any community of women is the connections that you make. And when I share some of the stories, people often look at me like, well, that just can’t be true. You cannot build that type of relationship with someone who might be a competitor. And I say it happens. And so, I think the two women that we have on today kind of encapsulate that being. And so I’m excited for both of them to be on. So, I’m going to start with you, Cora. So, Cora, can you kind of tell us a little bit about your background and what inspired you to start your business, and anything else you think we should know before we kick off?

Cora Spearman-Chang: Well, sure. Aloha. My name is Cora Spearman Chang, and I’m the CEO and founder of Coradurables and Cora Spearman Hawaii, Hawaii’s only product-based certified B Corporation. And luckily, not only WBENC certified business, which we’re very proud of. We are all locally sourced and manufactured. We’re an heirloom fashion brand for people who aspire to a joyful, bright, vibrant, Hawaiian-kissed lifestyle, like, for men, women, and children. We’re sustainably manufactured and sourced all here in Hawaii. And basically, when you invest in Coradurables, you’re helping to support over 30 locally family-owned and women-led businesses. So we’re very, very excited about that. You can find Coradurables on your luxury cruise ships and luxury resorts, as well as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s, soon nationwide, but right now, in New York and online.

Pamela Williamson : Thanks, Cora. It’s – again, thank you for being here. And then, I also want to introduce Bernadette. And so, Bernadette is someone that you met actually at one of our conferences. So, Bernadette, can you talk a little bit about your background, what inspired you to start your business?

Bernadette Rivero: Sure. My name is Bernadette Rivero, and I am the president, executive producer, and co-founder of the Cortez Brothers, Inc., a production company based in Los Angeles, California. We film everything, and my primary clients are Fortune 500 brands, their advertising agencies, and film and television studios. You can find more about us on cortezbrothers.com.

Bernadette Rivero: What inspired me to get into the industry was starting to work in advertising when I was 14. I was working in a grocery store. My English teacher in high school at the time was horrified that I was up until 10 or 11 at night a few times a week and helped me get a job in a local in-house advertising agency. So, I’ve worked in content creation in one way or another for what feels like my whole life, and I’m lucky to get to do it on a daily basis for a lot of really great brands and entertainment studios.

Pamela Williamson : Thank you, bernadette. I think one of the biggest questions that I have before I pass it on to Lee is how important is it to have other women in business to connect with. Cora, I’ll throw that one to you.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Oh, it is paramount. You can’t – there is no better relationship that you can have than with another woman who’s going through the same thing. It’s like when moms bond at the playground or over their kids going to school together, or when it’s the same for the business owners, you know, because we’re basically birthing these, our figurative babies, which are our businesses, and we’re chatting over our labor pains and all the different things that go on. But it’s unique to find like minds and like hearts, you know. And so, for me, meeting Bernadette has been the best part of any cohort, any meeting, any conference that I’ve ever gone to because she is now my family; she is now my ohana.

Pamela Williamson : And Bernadette, what about you?

Bernadette Rivero: Oh, I feel the same way. I am so blessed and fortunate to have met Cora throughout the course of participating in WBENC and being a women business owner, and it’s because I remember how lonely it felt before that. There was a time when I – for a few years I was working as a journalist because, again, I’ve always worked in content creation and I’ve worked for CNN and NPR and The Weather Channel, and I was covering breaking news in a disaster zone. And there were hundreds of journalists gathered around an earthquake, you know, recovery zone. And I remember looking out and looking around and seeing hundreds of journalists, and I was one of only two women with a camera in her hands and thinking for the first time, oh, it’s a little lonely out here. This is weird.

Bernadette Rivero: And I really haven’t felt that since becoming involved with WBENC and then meeting Cora because I always have someone I can talk to now. There’s always someone who else who sort of shares the journey and knows the ins and outs and the ups and downs, and it’s been really great having someone who’s first and foremost, you know, a friend, but also a sounding board at the same time. And it’s – and I can’t – I can’t tell you which came first, the chicken or the egg in that case, but just having someone else out there who’s another women business owner, sort of on the same journey, although we’re in very different types of businesses, has been invaluable.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Yeah. No, I remember the first time we met at a WBENC conference. I must have looked like a crazy person, like running up to you after you and Suze Monroe had spoken and I was like, you are my tribe. You are my people.

Bernadette Rivero: All right. So from my point of view, you have to understand it was, you know, I had stepped off the stage, we were doing a discussion about, you know, working for Disney, I think. And out of the corner of my eye, I sense what I can only now describe as sort of a ball of tropical energy coming my way.

Cora Spearman-Chang: A hurricane.

Bernadette Rivero: Of color. There was just this explosion of color in an otherwise very staid conference room. And that was Cora, someone – the next thing I know, someone’s putting –

Cora Spearman-Chang: Chocolate.

Bernadette Rivero: Cookies. Chocolate-covered macadamia nut cookies in my hand, which is a great way to skip right to my heart, you know. But you never think going into a business conference situation. You’re going to come out with something so fun and joyful as a friendship.

Cora Spearman-Chang: A sisterhood. I mean, now – I mean, I just couldn’t imagine. I couldn’t imagine. It was the best thing. And for us to be able to talk about our ups and the ebbs and flows of business, you know, and it’s been for years now. Like, literally now, Bernadette is the godmother of my youngest daughter and so – and she’s flown out for the baptism and first communion and confirmation of her – of Zoe Dodd or Zoe as she calls her.

Cora Spearman-Chang: And oh, my goodness, it’s even – even when it comes to parenting. And I say, hey, you know, she’s getting straight A’s, but you know what she’s hanging out with a little bit of kolohe girls. And I was just like, get comadre on the phone. So I call up Bernadette and she’s like, let me speak to her. And then they will Zoom, you know, and my daughter go in her bedroom and just have FaceTime with Auntie Bernadette. And it’s definitely a community. It’s definitely a tribe. And as they say, it takes a village, you know.

Bernadette Rivero: Cora has taught me what the word ohana means, right? It really does mean family. My kids know her as Auntie Cora. And that’s how we extended our family across an entire ocean. I’m in Los Angeles, Cora is in Hawaii, but it feels like there’s no distance at all. So business, I’ve learned, doesn’t always just have to be business. A lot of times it’s life and friendship too, at the same time.

Lee Kantor: Now, Pamela, can you talk a little bit about things that WBEC-West does to kind of foster these types of relationships? Because this is special and it’s not common. And there has to be some things that you’re doing as the leader of the organization that allows this to foster and to grow.

Pamela Williamson : I think one of the biggest things that we do is we really push for authentic relationships, meaning we try to create experiences that allow people to show up as their authentic selves and build real relationships by getting to know each other in different states. And I don’t mean states like location, I mean states of who they are.

Pamela Williamson : And so, one of the things that we do is we have an event that’s just about connecting and cooking. So it’s not really about your business as much as it is about getting to know people’s likes and dislikes and how they interact with each other under different ways of being, different types of stressors and just really finding out who, for example, Cora is as a person, not just about her business. I think that’s the biggest thing that we do.

Cora Spearman-Chang: And I think that a lot of it is it’s always in a business when you look at a business, the trickle-down effect. It’s the management, it’s the leadership. And you, Dr. Williamson, are the epitome of sisterhood. And you lead with such grace. You lead with such kindness, such compassion. Like I said earlier, it’s like you’re a phone call or a text or an email away, and you always have our backs, and to me you’re extended family as well. And so it’s sort of the vibe that you’ve created throughout the entire network, you know, and I think that has a lot to do with who you are as a person and how you lead. And just kudos to you for that. I’m very grateful.

Bernadette Rivero: And echoing what – I didn’t mean to cut you off, but echoing what Cora said, it’s true. There’s very much an emphasis on stepping away from being business-oriented 24/7 and actually connecting with people on an authentic level. I struggle a lot with trying to keep a business facade on it at all times, and never talking about anything personal, and Cora has helped me open up and talk more about life, what it’s like being a mother, having kids, talking about where we’re from, what we’ve done, and it’s the sense of openness that I think that’s come under the leadership of Dr. Williamson that’s again trickled down throughout WBENC, you know, through WBEC-West specifically. There’s something special in those waters.

Lee Kantor: Now, Bernadette, can you share – you talked about how you met, you know, coming off the stage and being greeted by Cora? How did the relationship evolve after being – you know, when you met each other, it seems like very frenetic? But how did you kind of slow down and deepen the relationship and realize, hey, this is somebody that is going to be a part of my tribe?

Bernadette Rivero: We were locked in conversation, and I was also very distracted by the cookies. So I wanted to know more about Cora and we ended up walking together to lunch. I think there was a lunch session, you know, right as we were finishing, and I wanted to keep talking with her because she’s fascinating and it was just a really good conversation.

Bernadette Rivero: We sat together at the next session that came, at a big round table, and I saw some of her catalog pieces. I was looking through it. She was sharing, you know, sort of what her company did, because it’s one thing to say you have a fashion company, it’s another to actually see it in front of you. And little did I know that one of the models in the catalog would become my goddaughter one day. When I look back on it, all I can do is smile. You know, things are destined, I guess, for a reason.

Bernadette Rivero: And we had this amazing session where she’s very outspoken and she’s very confident and assured, and it’s hard not to be, you know, deeply involved in wanting to have some of that energy in your life because it’s so positive and it’s just glows. And then after that, Cora, I can’t remember when did we end – we ended up at a spa together somehow.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Yeah, well, that was at another conference.

Bernadette Rivero: Oh, another conference.

Cora Spearman-Chang: That was another WBENC conference. And, it was – we were so – we would always – WBENC would be our set meetup when we first started our relationship, when we first started meeting and greeting each other at these conferences. But we were at a spa, and that’s when you announced to me that you were pregnant with Evie, Evita. And I was just like, “Oh, my gosh.” You’re like, “No one knows yet.” I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” And so we were so excited that she was birthing this new baby and scaling her brand, and she was doing all this cool stuff. And it was like, “All right, when are you going to have this baby so that you can come to Hawaii?”

Cora Spearman-Chang: And that’s when we started having that conversation because actually, I had asked Bernadette to become an advisory board member of mine. And so, it was – I deeply valued her opinion on all things, you know, business and all things, you know, motherhood, you know, as well. We have – we’re both Midwesterns. So we both came up in the Midwest and now we live both on the West Coast. You know me a little more. But we bonded over several different things. We were both Rotary Youth Exchange students when we were young. And so coming out of the Midwest and becoming Rotary Youth Exchange students, it’s like its own little tribe, right, Bernadette?

Bernadette Rivero: That was what caught me off guard, I think, at the first WBENC conference that we had met, we continued the conversation and we ended up, I think, getting drinks in the lounge later that night.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Yeah.

Bernadette Rivero: And it was one of those conversations –

Cora Spearman-Chang: And Suze Monroe was with us.

Bernadette Rivero: Susan Monroe was there.

Cora Spearman-Chang: But she wanted us to be quiet because she was watching the game.

Bernadette Rivero: It was. It was a very sports-oriented night. But the minute I found out that Cora had had a rotary experience as well, because I had come through the Rotary International scholarship program and we’d sort of had that experience of going to another country and having to be an ambassador from the Midwest, and I couldn’t stop talking to her. There was just a lot that we had in common. And the conversations continue –

Cora Spearman-Chang: And full circle, full circle. Right now, your daughter is in Japan, where I was where I went to high school for Rotary. She’s there right now.

Bernadette Rivero: She is. She got there early this morning. And all of my fears about having my child in an, you know, 11-hour flight away totally allayed because Cora has been there. She did that. She spent a year in Japan. We spent a lot of time at the first WBENC event talking about that, your experiences. I’ve loved Cora’s insistence that it is natural to do business internationally, globally. Because what I hear from a lot of clients is it’s very hard to find companies that know how to work on a global stage. And Cora makes it seem so easy because she had the experience living and working in Japan. Speaks fluent Japanese. Her business operates across, again, oceans as if there’s absolutely no border or separation there at all. And it reminds me as a business owner, it’s okay to be okay with that fluidness of doing business globally. She makes it seem very glamorous.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Oh, I’m just a mirror. And Bernadette does the same exact thing, except across the borders on South America, throughout Europe, you know, shooting campaigns, major campaigns that my daughter’s, like, still ooh and ah about. We have it as a screensaver of L.O.L., you know, commercials and dolls that you’ve done. It’s just – you’re hashtag goals this and I’m ever proud of you. I will ever be your biggest cheerleader. And I am so grateful to WBENC for having met you like that definitely brought us together. And shout out to our niece Lam, who was insistent on me becoming WBENC certified.

Bernadette Rivero: May she rest in peace. I have lovely memories of being with our niece and she’s just, was, and is part of that longer overall circle, I think, of bonding and friendship that I’ve been lucky to find through WBENC.

Lee Kantor: Now, can both of you share some advice? Maybe for either the person that’s new to an organization or is thinking about joining an organization. But how do you kind of lean into an organization like you have and not just get involved from a business standpoint and have business objectives from being part of it, but also elevating the relationships within them and finding those special people that you can kind of bond with beyond your business and beyond the organization? Any advice?

Cora Spearman-Chang: My advice is always to show up as your authentic self. You know, be – let your freak flag fly, so to speak. You know, because it’s like your vibe will literally attract your tribe. And, you know, people who are into talking about, you know, Star Trek will invite their Trekkie vibe. You know, it’s be yourself. Be authentically you. And those who are for you will be for you and will gravitate towards you. And your relationship will have the solid foundation that is needed for any relationship to thrive, you know, because you’re being your authentic self.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Be vulnerable, you know. Be open. Be honest. You know, have integrity. You know, it’s all the bases – all of the, I think, key base points of what you would utilize in forming a business you also use in formulating your relationships, especially ones that you want to last the test of time. And you can only do that if you show up as your true self.

Bernadette Rivero: On my end, the advice would be you’re not coming in to look for contracts, you’re coming in to build relationships. Because any time you join an organization, you have to start by letting people know who you are and asking questions to find out who they are. And finding out that there are other business owners that have things in common with your business helps make yours stronger.

Bernadette Rivero: Finding out that there’s other businesses that are completely distinct from yours and are completely on different journeys, you’re still going to learn aspects that apply to growing your company. But the best part of all is finding people, humans with stories that you can exchange stories with along the way because that’s what helps you refine your message, refine who you are, refine how you do business, and build again relationships and structures along the way that help you become a better business owner.

Lee Kantor: Now, Bernadette, one of the things Cora did early on was invite you to be on her board of advisors, I believe, or on the board or one of her boards. Is that something that were you like, “Sure, I’m in,” or was this something that you had to think about? Because it seemed in the storytelling it seemed pretty fast. It happened early on in the relationship.

Bernadette Rivero: It was a game changer for me because I’d never been invited quite like that to be on a board of advisors. And it wasn’t that it was fast. It was after we’d had conversations about marketing and advertising, which is what I can drone on about for hours unless you put a drink or a cookie in my hand. And so I think she knew that I knew what I was talking about. So it was easy to create a bridge and an invitation for me to have an excuse to know more about her company but more importantly about her.

Bernadette Rivero: And I said yes because it caught me off guard, honestly, and I’ve never had the wherewithal to try that on my end. I don’t have an advisory board. I should. I think about it all the time because Cora puts them together with such finesse, with such ease and professionalism. But what it did on a practical level was make me become invested in her company. And because I already liked her as a person, wanted to see her succeed, seeing her company succeed was an extension of that.

Bernadette Rivero: Where it really deepened was throughout the pandemic because production globally shut down for several months, and I really did not know if my company was going to survive, if my industry was going to survive. What I knew was going to survive were my relationships, and I had time to dedicate to making sure her company was as strong as it could be. And that made me learn more about her company.

Bernadette Rivero: It’s been an ongoing journey to learn the roots, who her customers are, who her clients are, where to position her branding, what advice I can give, and the advice that I can’t give because there are other smarter people on her advisory board who succeed in areas I don’t have expertise in. And it made sort of like a fabric of sorts. It knitted us together both personally and professionally in a way that I find really rewarding, and it gives me a thrill every time her company succeeds.

Bernadette Rivero: Every time she accomplishes something, it’s been a brilliant journey to be on with her because I’m a part of that advisory board. So, I have skin in the game, so to speak. I would care about her as a friend anyway. I would care about her as an individual as she’s succeeding. But having a small piece to play in that makes it all that much sweeter when she does incredible things. She’s flying out to New York today to go talk to a luxury, you know, chain like that’s – she’s rolling out some incredible levels right now.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Oh, but I don’t do any of it alone, you know, and it’s your network is your net worth, you know, and, goodness gracious, if you looked at my net worth right now, it’s because I have a powerful network of a person like you, such as yourself, Bernadette, and such as Dr. Pamela Williamson. And to have you all in my corner, it literally makes me feel, in a lot of ways, invincible or like Teflon. You know, I walk in with a probably like a false sense of self, but it’s like authentically who I am. I’m talking and like, oh, I’m breakable, you know, until I get broken. It’s like, oh goodness, I still have a lot to learn.

Cora Spearman-Chang: WBENC, I can’t say enough great things. You know, it’s not about joining just to talk to the Macy’s and to the Target’s. You do do that. And I do know that those relationships can take years. Again, it’s a relationship for people to get to know you, get to know your business and eventually, you to penetrate those doors.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Like, I met Diana Pawn online through a WBENC panel that we had. And Diana convinced me to sign up for Macy’s, the workshop at Macy’s. And I just completed that. And now one of the meetings that I have when I fly to New York today is with Macy’s. So all of that and again, that goes back to the WBENC. And the first thing they ask you or one of the last things that they ask you is, “Are you WBENC certified with Macy’s?” And it’s like, “Yeah, I am,” you know, so WBENC is the glue that kind of, like, ties us all together, you know, or binds us all together.

Lee Kantor: Now, Bernadette, is there anything that you’d like to talk about? Any project or launch that’s happening?

Bernadette Rivero: Let’s see. What do we have? We are constantly in a state of filming and bidding on jobs and shooting commercials and campaigns. We just shot a second unit on a very big feature film that will be out, that I can’t speak about, I think by the end of the year through a large studio, and that was a very exciting process. We just wrapped a rebrand for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a newspaper, and that was exciting because coming full circle as someone who used to work in journalism to come back to help relaunch the image, the visual image of one of the oldest newspapers in the United States was a really fun deep dive. And as someone who used to live in Atlanta, getting to capture and film Atlanta from all its different, you know, corners and aspects and the people really filled my soul, working with, you know, the ad agency and one of our directors there, because my company represents directors. We work with directors who each film in a very different way, are artists at the end of the day. That was exciting.

Bernadette Rivero: And I just always love and look forward to projects that allow us to take someone’s idea that exists only on paper and bring it to life. Like Cora said, you know, hearing that her daughters have seen our L.O.L. Dolls commercial that we shot in Bulgaria and filled their lives with color and energy and excitement excites me. So those are some of the projects –

Cora Spearman-Chang: And you shot it underwater. That was amazing.

Bernadette Rivero: Yes. We filmed underwater because the only thing more fun than filming is when you get to dunk the whole cast and crew underwater at the same time.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Completely submerged.

Bernadette Rivero: Completely submerged. Yes.

Lee Kantor: So, Cora, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Cora Spearman-Chang: Well, we are – well, goodness gracious, I always welcome help, welcome any assistance, any support. Definitely, follow me, follow our brand on social media, on Coradorables, on Instagram and Twitter or X or whatever it’s called now, and as well as all the other platforms. But also support – I just got notified that I won 2024 small business champion with the National Retail Federation. And so, they’ll be flying me to DC next month, where I’ll meet with a lot of policymakers.

Cora Spearman-Chang: But last night, I happened to have been on a phone call with other female business owners and community activists, and they’re trying to push a Momnibus, as they call it, in regards to prenatal care as well as OB-GYN care and care for black women who are dying giving birth and throughout the birthing process. So that’s going to be a big mission that we’re going to be pushing on maternal health issues and advocacy within America, within our healthcare system. So definitely going to need our sisters of all races, creeds, etc. to help us to bring awareness to that and to push that bill forward as it makes its way through the Senate and the House.

Cora Spearman-Chang: So, definitely, advocating for female rights, female reproductive rights, and just the right to, you know, be able to do business and do business well and getting the support that we need in regards to financing, etc., you know, just all the different things that are being attacked with the Fearless Fund and with Hello Alice and being able to advocate for women just in general, just all of us need to pull together as a network and a consortium of like minds and like spirits to move the needle forward so that we can all do, make the world literally, without sounding trite, a better place.

Lee Kantor: Pamela, this must just fill you with pride, this conversation with two folks who met through your organization and through your community. And I’m sure this is just one of many that have, kind of, grown like this, but this just must make you beam.

Pamela Williamson : It does. You can’t even – I cannot even express how proud I am of them both, for all of their accomplishments, but also just the fact of the support that they give each other. And so, we know as an organization the value of having this type of relationship. We know it helps to lift you up. And that’s what we’re all about, lifting women up.

Lee Kantor: And the ripple effects that go beyond just their businesses, to their families, to their communities, it just keeps growing. The impact is real.

Pamela Williamson : The impact is real and the value of having a tribe is real. And so, I think that these two, their story definitely shows that.

Bernadette Rivero: I feel very lifted, so mission accomplished because I want to lift others, primarily Cora. But when I find other businesses that are women-owned, women-driven, that are giving opportunities to underrepresented voices, which is why my company is here in the first place. Right? That’s what is driving me. It’s not even a challenge. It’s an opportunity to lift others up as we’re being lifted ourselves.

Cora Spearman-Chang: It’s literally the fabric or the textile in which you make your business, Bernadette. It’s the voices and the amplification that you give other directors, young directors, specifically females who are starting in the industry and being able to highlight them and give them opportunities that they normally would not have access to is just who you are as a person. And, you know, I’m, like I said, honored to know you, let alone to make myself, you know, insert myself and be related to you by ohana, by hook or by crook.

Cora Spearman-Chang: You know, I’m just – I love you as a person. I love what you do with your business. And just it’s a testament to who you are. You know, it’s a testament to your spirit. And it’s a testament also to, you know, with me now, knowing your mom and your dad and how you were raised. So it’s definitely a legacy. And you do your legacy proud.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we wrap up, Cora, website, last time for ways to connect with you.

Cora Spearman-Chang: Ways to connect with me is at Coradorables and then my website is www.coradorables.com.

Lee Kantor: And Bernadette.

Bernadette Rivero: Best way to reach me is to go through our website, cortezbrothers.com, C-O-R-T-E-Z, Brothers dot com. We love having conversations with anyone who’s looking to film something anywhere around the globe. It’s what we love to do is put those together and film and make magic and make content together.

Lee Kantor: Well, Dr. Pamela, what a show.

Pamela Williamson : It was amazing. And I just – you know, I hope whoever is listening today, they walk away with just knowing that, you know, authentic, building authentic relationships is definitely one key to success.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor for Dr. Pamela Williamson. We’ll see you next time on Women In Motion.

BRX Pro Tip: Business Success is Not a Marathon

July 4, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Business Success is Not a Marathon

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BRX Pro Tip: Business Success is Not a Marathon

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, contrary to conventional wisdom, popular opinion, business success is not a marathon.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Now, business success is not a path that just goes on for a long time. And if you tough it out, then you’ll make it to the end. It’s more like a ninja warrior course. There’s going to be hurdles, jump surprises, things you’ve never seen before, things that seem impossible. You have to have a different mindset when you’re attacking a ninja warrior course than you are a marathon.

A marathon, you just have to have the mindset to just keep one foot in front of the other and you’re going to eventually succeed. In business, it doesn’t work like that. You know, putting one foot in front of the other, you could be just walking into a wall over and over again. You have to have kind of the creativity. You have to have the persistence, sure. You have to have the resilience, sure. But you also need the right team around you. You need supporters. You need mentors to show you a way to kind of identify the path around this.

So, if you look at your business more like a ninja warrior when you’re building your business and not a marathoner, then I think you’re going to find success a lot faster. Because if you watch Ninja Warrior, you see there’s people cheering for them every step of the way. They’re watching kind of others go through the course. They’re learning from other people going through the course. They’re kind of seeing different ways to attack what seems impossible and watch.

When you watch someone fail over and over again, you figure out, okay, maybe I don’t do that. I do this instead. And there’s those people around you in your business community. You’ve got to find those kinds of allies, you’ve got to find those supporters, find those mentors, and you’ll be able to kind of work your way around the course and get the success that you desire.

BRX Pro Tip: The Dream List

July 3, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: The Dream List

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BRX Pro Tip: The Dream List

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this morning. Lee, let’s talk a little bit about the dream list.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:09] Yeah. The dream list is the list of clients or prospects or guests that our clients should have on their show. And if you do this right, you should be setting them up for success. And it’s so important because it really gives some focus to your client or prospect to help them hone in on who is the most important person, who are the people that they want to meet that’s going to really move the needle in their business.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Now, in our model, we feel like the focus primarily should be on folks that are sales prospects. Eighty percent of the guests should either be a sales prospect or a referral source. And those referral sources include association leadership. So, they should be somebody that, if you meet more of them, over time, they’re going to move the needle in your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:02] But like everything we do here, we’re serving the entire ecosystem, so the other 20 percent of guests should be the rest of the niche that you serve, thought leaders, influencers, some of the smaller players, even competitors. So, you should be serving the entire ecosystem, but you better be making sure that, you know, you leverage that 80-20 rule. That 80 percent of the guests that come on the show should be somebody that’s going to write you a check or refer you to somebody that could write you a check.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:32] And you really want to make sure that you’re focused on those folks. Because, otherwise, if you flip it and 80 percent are people that are just nice to have, not must haves, then this is not going to be as effective as it can be. And you’re not going to get the results that we know that you can get if you focus on the people that will provide the green dollar ROI that we are constantly reminding our folks that that’s what they should be aiming at.

Hawaii WBE Feature: Brand Consulting, Art, and being a Working Mom

July 2, 2024 by angishields

Women in Motion

Hawaii WBE Feature: Brand Consulting, Art, and being a Working Mom

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In today’s episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor talks with Stacey Leong, owner of Stacy Leong Design in Honolulu, Hawaii. Stacey discusses her background in graphic design and her firm’s focus on authentically representing native Hawaiian culture through modern and classic design.

She highlights the importance of professional graphic design in branding and marketing, sharing insights into Hawaiian design elements. Stacey also talks about balancing work and family life as a single mother and caregiver.

Stacey Leong is a partner and the founder of Stacey Leong Design (SLD). As her firm’s creative director, she provides brand consulting, annual campaign planning, project budgeting, comprehensive account servicing, video production, concept development, art direction, design and layout.

Her creative approach is rooted in fully understanding each client’s goals. She believes in creating engaging and unique work to suit the needs at hand, and is adept at conveying clear and concise messaging in a variety of channels including video, photography and digital media. As a result, she has consistently produced a wide range of award-winning designs in print and web-based communications.

Stacey is inspired by the diverse cultures, talents, and levels of connection that surround her—she knows that everyone has a story to tell. Outside of SLD, she enjoys making others feel beautiful, designing handbags for her special project, Popo’s Collection, and above all, being a mom. Stacey received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Designfrom University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Follow Stacey Leong Design on Facebook.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. This month we are spotlighting WBEs from Hawaii, and we have Stacey Leong with Stacey Leong Design. Welcome.

Stacey Leong: Hi. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How are you serving folks? What do you do?

Stacey Leong: Well, I’m a graphic designer. We’re a branding and graphic design in Honolulu, a design company in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Lee Kantor: And what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in design?

Stacey Leong: Yes, I have. I went to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I have a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, Concentration in Graphic Design. So, I’ve been doing it all of my working life.

Lee Kantor: And then, is your firm specialized in the Hawaiian culture, or is your design for anybody in the world? Like, who do you serve as clients?

Stacey Leong: We predominantly design for people in Hawaii. I mean, we could design for anybody, but that’s really our forte is that we’re, you know, able to graphically express the native Hawaiian culture and concepts and values authentically with modern and classic sensibility.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share for folks who are unfamiliar with some of the components of Hawaiian design?

Stacey Leong: Well, Native Hawaiian is a very unique culture. And it’s a very much appreciation for where we live, our honua, our earth. So, it’s very land based, which we call aina. And a lot of what we draw upon is our surroundings. So, these islands, when people visited, they just see it for its beauty, but there’s just so much more that it’s very deep culture. And we take all of these elements that have to do with the earth, and our surroundings, and the people, and the love that we have for this land, and we put it together graphically.

Stacey Leong: I know it’s hard to explain just verbally, but visually, it can be very strong, very calming and peaceful and beautiful, of course. So, there’s a lot of ocean and flowery things, but yet also imagery of our people and how we express our aloha or our love.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with your clients, is there a niche that you work with? Do you work in specific industries?

Stacey Leong: You know, we do not. But we happen to work with a lot of the native Hawaiian organizations because of our ability to express their culture authentically. But we have a lot of nonprofits that we do stuff for, educational institutions. We do some government work as well, and also some finance, and real estate. So, it’s kind of like all across the board.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice or tips for folks who maybe they’re not leveraging design enough in the marketing and branding of their business? Are there some do’s and don’ts when it comes to design?

Stacey Leong: Absolutely. I mean, first of all, I think that people need to value graphic design a bit more and how integral and important it is. So, a lot of times, we would work with a client, and a lot of times they may think that they can just do it themselves. So, that’s tip number one, is that they’re not trained and they can’t do it themselves.

Stacey Leong: Which I know for a lot of people, it’s hard to swallow because all of these tools and resources are so available to everyone nowadays. Whereas, before when I started out, these tools and resources and computers were not available, so not anybody could do it. But now, people feel that they can. And we as a professional, we would like to say you can’t. We’re actually trained. We have years of experience to do so.

Stacey Leong: So, to find a design partner that resonates and understands their company and business and gives them that level of service that they need to help their company grow and thrive is really important.

Lee Kantor: And that’s an important point because, graphic, it’s more than just picking the right colors, right, or a pretty design? Like it has to integrate with your values. It has to do a little more work than just look nice, right?

Stacey Leong: Exactly. It’s very strategic. We like to say that, you know, we’re not necessarily just graphic designers. We’re problem solvers. Designers find many ways to solve problems for them, for our clients. So, we hope that people look at us as problem solvers, that we’re able to do something.

Stacey Leong: So, say, for example, they’re not able to get to their target audience in a specific way. We really dive deep into demographics and looking at statistics and research to help us build a better story for them. So, it’s not just creating pretty pictures. It’s not at all like that.

Lee Kantor: And then, storytelling is important when it comes to marketing and branding. And for folks who have never done it before, when you’re working with a client for the first time, what are some of the questions you ask to kind of bubble up maybe some of the stories that they’re really trying to communicate?

Stacey Leong: You know, what we really try and do with our clients is we try and find what makes them special. How are they different? What makes them unique? Because that’s really what you’re trying to do, not just to tell your story. It’s how to tell your story in a way that engages people and makes that connection, but at the same time, what makes you unique.

Stacey Leong: Because I think it’s just human nature that we’re always looking for something different to gravitate towards. You know, it’s not always being the same. People don’t always necessarily want what everyone else is doing. So, it’s like how can we find that specialness and exude it to the world?

Lee Kantor: So then, what makes your firm unique? What are some of the unique characteristics of your design firm?

Stacey Leong: Well, like we said, in Hawaii, I know that it sounds a little strange, but there aren’t many firms that do what we do, which is we’re able to visually, I guess, represent the native Hawaiian culture. And I really want to say Native Hawaiian culture, a lot of things that people see, especially on the continent, they may not be created by Native Hawaiian people or really approved by them, that it could be more of a tourist way of looking at things. So, not many agencies can do what we do, so we stand out in that way.

Stacey Leong: And I think another thing that our clients absolutely love about us is we’re such task masters and that we believe in customer service, it’s one of our next highest level that people come to us for. And because we have so much heart that we really tell our clients that we’re a part of their family and they’re a part of ours, that their success is our success, and that we don’t want to fail, we want them to succeed. And I think that our clients really understand that and they can see it through the work and everything that we deliver for our clients.

Lee Kantor: Is there a story you can share? You don’t have to name the name of the company, but maybe how the problem that they had when they started working with you and how you were able to take them to a new level.

Stacey Leong: You know, we have so many stories. I can’t narrow it down. But I’ll just tell you about one of our clients that we’ve been working with them for just as long as we’ve been around, 20 years. And that really means something to us is that loyalty that they keep coming back to us. And, again, it’s showing the Hawaiian culture in a way that they can feel proud of and that they love to share what we’ve done to everyone because they’re so proud of how we’ve able to tell their story.

Stacey Leong: And one of the things that really makes us happy and we feel like we have a feather in our cap is that, when they look at the design and other people see it, that they know that our company has done that for them. And so, they seek us out because of that, that they see the work that we’ve done for them, that we’re able to give this feeling of, I guess, love and aloha and pride in what they see. They feel that it’s not just beautiful, but it represents their culture in a way that other people just aren’t able to do it.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to be part of the WBEC-West community?

Stacey Leong: You know, it’s not easy being a woman business owner in Hawaii or anywhere. And I felt that being a part of an organization that furthers women’s, I guess, experience and their level of excellence is really important. And we’re not only a women-owned business, we actually have no men that work for us fulltime. And it’s not by choice. It’s just that, I think, women work together in a way that it’s almost like we don’t even need to speak to each other. We just know what to do. We’re all hands in know what to do. It’s just very synergistic. And I just love being a part of any group that supports women.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you create balance in your life between your work and your family?

Stacey Leong: That’s one of the hardest things, I think, for any human being. I think it’s really important that women learn to take care of themselves because, you know, when you’re a mother – and I’m a single mother and I also actually take care of my elderly mother – a lot of times, you don’t put yourself first. You put other people’s welfare above yours. And when you’re a business owner, that’s just another component to it.

Stacey Leong: But I think to be a good business person that you actually need to carve out time to take care of yourself. Because if you don’t, it’s just like that whole thing that, you know, when you go on an airplane and if something’s failing and they tell you to put on your oxygen mask first then you put it on your child, I really believe that people need to do that in their lives daily, that they need to take care of themselves. And if that’s like taking a 30 minute walk in the park, having a swim or meditating, I think that’s just really important to do those things.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there any projects or initiatives you’re working on right now?

Stacey Leong: Yeah. We’re working on a bunch of great projects. We’re actually working with this company that’s been around in Hawaii for over 100 years. Their name is Kamaka Ukulele, and they’re one of the first ukulele makers. And we’re just so honored and thrilled to be working on their new branding campaign for them.

Lee Kantor: And then, when you attack something like that, what are some of the the things that you do to help them tell their story?

Stacey Leong: Well, they’re actually very revered in Hawaii and they have a amazing story to tell, so it’s so easy. So, one of the things about their company is they’re actually the most humble people in the world. So, they don’t like to brag about themselves, so the task is how to lift them up and share without having a braggy type of persona. And so, we have to do it in a very tasteful, classy way.

Lee Kantor: And I’m sure a lot of other businesses try to do that. They don’t want to sound braggy, but they still need to communicate their value. So, are there any advice for someone who is trying to thread that needle, how to do that in an elegant manner?

Stacey Leong: You know, I think one of the best ways is what we call testimonials. You have somebody else do it for you so you don’t have to say it yourself. And they have so many people, past customers that play their ukulele that they can just shine a beacon of light on them, that they don’t have to do it themselves. But we can use other people’s words to do it, so testimonials go a long way.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more about your firm and have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the best way to find you?

Stacey Leong: The best way they can contact us through our website, it’s staceyleong.com, S-T-A-C-E-Y-L-E-O-N-G-.com. They can visit us. We have Facebook and Instagram.

Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Stacey Leong: I appreciate you guys having me. Thank you so much. Mahalo nui loa.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.