angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

BRX Pro Tip: Price is Never the Reason

May 15, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Price is Never the Reason

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BRX Pro Tip: Price is Never the Reason

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, I’ve been at this a while, I know you have too. We have secured some deal. We have lost some deals. On those that we’ve lost, I got to believe, price is never the reason.

Lee Kantor:Yeah. Price is not. If somebody, if you’re losing a business because of price, I think you should be happy because you really don’t want to be that low price provider and you don’t want a client – your ideal client is probably not someone that is nickel and diming you and is that price sensitive. I think price – if all things are equal, price can be a factor. But since you know you shouldn’t be the low cost provider, you just shouldn’t kind of care if you lost that business because of price.

Lee Kantor: Most small business owners can’t afford to be the low price provider. So, you know, just don’t play that game. Just push the value you provide up so that your price is defensible and your prospect believes they’re going to be getting a better value for the outcome they desire if they work with you. They may not get a better price, but they should be getting a better value because you’re going to deliver more value than what they’re paying for so they should be happy about it. And it shouldn’t be an invoice that they’re dreading. They should be happy to be paying you because they know they’re making a lot more money from working with you than not.

Stone Payton: I loved what you said about all things being equal, price can have an influence or be a factor. So if that’s the case, then just don’t let all things be equal. Put some weight.

Lee Kantor: Exactly. Make value higher.

Stone Payton: Exactly.

Jessica Fialkovich with Exit Factor

May 15, 2024 by angishields

Buy a Business Near Me

Jessica Fialkovich with Exit Factor

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Jessica Fialkovich is a Business Exit Expert, Author, Speaker, and Small Business Advocate. When she sold her first business a decade ago, she had no idea where to start. Fortunately, she was able to exit successfully and then buy her next business — a business brokerage office.

For ten years she has built her Transworld Business Advisors franchise to be the fastest growing and most successful business brokerage firm in the U.S. But she realized that most business owners that decide to sell are not prepared, and although hundreds of experts will teach you how to start a business, how to grow one — very few will teach you how to sell.

In founding her education firm, Exit Factor, she decided to pull back the curtain about how the business sales process works and give buyers and sellers the tools to successfully (and profitability) complete a transaction. She is an entrepreneur at heart and successfully built and sold two startups, along with my husband and business partner, Al.

When not at work you her find in the mountains exploring with Al and our dogs (Sailor and Moose), spending time with her new son, Brix, or attending as many Springsteen shows as she possibly can.

Follow Exit Factor on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business Near Me. Stone Payton here with you. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Exit Factor, Ms. Jessica Fialkovich. How are you?

Jessica Fialkovich: I’m great stone, I’m so happy to be here with you today.

Stone Payton: It is a delight to have you on the air. I know it’s been in the planning for some time. I got a ton of questions. Jessica. I know we won’t get to them all, but maybe a great place to start would be if you could paint for me and our listeners, kind of an overview, mission, purpose. What a what are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, no, I’d be happy to share. So at Exit Factor, our mission is to improve the profitability and the operations of businesses so the owners can have more time, money and freedom currently, but also to make sure their position for the last phase of entrepreneurship, the exit phase, and ensure that they have the ability to sell and that they sell for top dollar.

Stone Payton: It sounds like noble and rewarding work to me if you can get it, but I got to know the backstory. How did you find yourself doing this kind of work for these kind of people?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, no, it’s a great question. So, you know, the real back story goes all the way back to actually my grandparents. Um, so my grandfather had a chain of pharmacies and was a very successful business owner and entrepreneur. Um, but unfortunately, he waited too long to prepare for the sale of his company, um, and really didn’t see the trend in the pharmacy world of, like, the Cvs’s and the eckerd’s coming in and absorbing a lot of the market share. So instead of being able to sell his business, he actually had to to close it down. Um, so it’s kind of like my origin story. Fast forward to, you know, I’m a young 24 year old first time entrepreneur starting and founding my own company. Um, and about three years into that journey, I find myself at the same situation where for different reasons and purposes, we have to sell the company, and I’m unprepared to do so. Um, so really, I keep coming back to this theme in my life and, and ended up going into mergers and acquisitions and owning a business brokerage firm for over a decade or so. But but really, about a few years ago, I decided, you know, really what I want to focus on is making sure that business owners have the preparation so they can get the maximum dollar on their exit for this thing that they’ve invested, you know, sometimes years, decades into, um, when it comes time to sell the business.

Stone Payton: Well, now that you’ve been at this a while and you clearly have what what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you?

Jessica Fialkovich: So I really think it’s working on the goals actually. So it’s so funny. Like we we talk a lot about the end of, you know, getting getting more money for people and getting businesses to sell that probably wouldn’t have sold before we worked with them. That’s rewarding. But I think the most fun part is working on the upfront, the goals. A lot of business owners don’t know if they’re going to sell or how they’re going to do it or when they’re going to do it. And I feel like as humans, we we tend to push off the future. Um, I heard this term recently into what I called like the rolling five, right? Where somebody asks you, when are you going to sell your business, or when are you going to work on that big goal? And you’ll say, you know, it’s in five years from now? Um, and then, you know, next year you ask the same question and we say five years from now, right. It’s the rolling five. So really the biggest benefit for me is helping people really hone in on what does that next phase of their life look like after the business. And, you know, coming up with a timeline, coming up with some goal sale prices and some metrics and really solidifying that future plan.

Stone Payton: Well, let’s talk about the work a little bit. And I’m a business owner or I own 40% of the business radio network, my business partner Lee Kantor owns the other 6,060%. And I got to tell you, I, I’m intimidated really a little bit about this conversation. I don’t even feel like I know what questions to be asking or what what levers to be pulling, much less when to start. You know, turning those dials and pulling those levers. Yeah. Talk a little bit about the work particularly. I’m particularly interested in the, in the, in the early part. Like what you know, what do we do first.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, it’s a great question. And you know what, Stone? I feel like all of us as entrepreneurs aren’t well educated in this phase, right? A lot of the schools and resources we look at, they provide great education on how to start a business, how to grow a business. But this last phase of exit is a complete unknown. Um, and so I think for to start, the best thing to do is to just have an assessment done on your business. We call them exit assessments. You can have business valuations done. But really what we’re we’re looking at trying to do is figure out where is the business today, what’s working in the business and what’s working well. And you know what what’s not operating very well or may need a little bit of even an operation. Right. Um, and I think that’s the first start is just having an outside perspective of, of what is this company worth from a financial asset perspective? Um, and I found that there’s and we can talk about this. There’s a few buckets or a few levers that you can pull in every business. But the individual tactics within those levers are different for every company, which makes this work so interesting, because it’s like putting together a new recipe book every single time to figure out what are these magic factors that make a business so much more valuable, not just to the future owner, but the current owner too.

Stone Payton: So I feel like I’m probably just self-aware enough to recognize that Lee and I probably think this thing of ours is worth a lot more than it is. Do you ever run into that?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yes. Unfortunately, that’s most of the conversations we have. It’s funny because we either when we talk to business owners, they either think the company is not worth anything at all, and they’re usually wrong. Right? Almost every company has some value to it, even the very small ones. Or um, most of the conversations are they think it’s more valuable than it is. And, um, I think that’s switching that mindset of when we’ve built something and you hear this analogy all the time, like when we’ve built something like a business, we do have a personal connection to it. We feel like it’s a our baby, an extension of ourselves. And when you put a value on something that’s that important to you, you tend to overvalue it, right? Right. Um, but if you take a step back and you say that a business really is just a financial asset, and when you look at the value of a financial asset, you usually look at things like ROI and market value. And just like you would a stock. Right. So it’s typically when we have that conversation about switching the perspective that those value expectations come more in line with the market. But also I see this almost like rebirthing of the business owners of, of like, oh yes, this is what it is. It’s not an extension of my identity. It’s just a financial asset. And as a financial asset, it should be doing things for me, um, in terms of producing that time, money and freedom.

Stone Payton: So are there some non-financial factors that do have some merit, as you’re kind of laying all this out for a client?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, yeah, there are. So I call it, you know, there’s a quantitative portion, which is the numbers, the earnings, what the business produces. But there are also qualitative factors and a business that’s going to improve its value. So some of those buckets of those qualitative factors that that we identify is, you know, the operations of the business, the people in the business, the owner’s role. Those are are really important in the qualitative assessment of a business. And then like the growth opportunities of a business to I say all the time, no one wants to buy a business and just keep it stagnant. Right? Every every new owner wants to grow a business that they buy. So if there’s established growth opportunities within a business or a market that will drive value to. So again we’re looking at, you know, processes people owners role. And then the growth opportunities are some of the buckets that we see that drive those qualitative factors as well.

Stone Payton: Yeah. So it sounds like we can we can attach some real value to that. And maybe maybe some of these things we’re not even we take them for granted because they’ve been, you know, really well baked for a while. And it’s just part of our ethos and part of our thing. But that could be that could really be valuable to the next person.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yes. Yes. I mean, like, look, when say, well, let’s say we’ll take a plumbing company, for example. And there could be two plumbing companies that do 500,000 in revenue, throw off 100,000 in net profit for the owner. You know what makes one more valuable than the other? If the numbers are the same, it’s those qualitative factors. It’s the brand history. It’s the people that work for them. It’s the processes they’ve built within it. That’s really what your differentiators are.

Stone Payton: So for exit factor, what? How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a practice like yours? Like, do you find yourself getting out and shaking the bushes and marketing, or are you with so many years in it now, or does it come to you through referrals? I’m always curious how the whole sales side of things works for business.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, yeah, that’s a great question. I think, you know, this is a definitely an emerging field. Um, so it’s not like we have people that are just sitting there googling, you know, find me an exit consultant. Right. Um, there are some, but there’s not a lot, um, primarily a lot of our, um, lead and sales generation is through, uh, partnership partnerships and, uh, partnership development. So typically when a business owner is starting to explore these conversations, they’re going to have conversations with certain people in their lives, their trusted advisors. Um, and we have a network of those trusted advisors that will come to us when they know that they have a client that’s in need.

Stone Payton: So I touched on this a little while ago, but I would like to get your insight and perspective on it. And maybe the answer is different and it’s very idiosyncratic. But timeline, you know, I shared with you, you know, my business partner and I, we have a good it’s a good, fun, profitable business. I mean, how far out do we need to start thinking about these things and planning? Are we talking about a year, five years?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah. It’s actually, um, that’s a great question. And sometimes one of the myths I remove from people is the need to have this timeline because. Unfortunately, 95% of businesses business owners sell before they think they’re going to. And we we talked a little bit about like a business as an extension of us. But as a small business owner, our personal lives impact the business too. So most business owners sell for personal reasons. Um, the number one reason for sale is burnout. Um. Or mental distress? Um, but business owners sell for illness, relocation opportunities. Um, you know, retirement. Those are those are those are things that we typically maybe retirement we can plan for, but typically we don’t plan for. Right? So that being said, I tell people that the best case scenario is that you run your business like it can be sold at any time. There is no timeline, right? Um, but if someone says, okay, well, that’s great, but I want to have a plan in place too. You need, at a bare minimum, three years ahead. Um, usually five is the best. So when you go to sell a company, when the buyer looks at the valuation of the company, they’re going to look at the weighted average of the last three years of performance of the business. Right. So from a numbers perspective and even an operations perspective, you can’t just have one great year and expect to exit at a premium value. You have to have three years of proven history that this business is consistent over time. Um, so that’s where I go bare minimum three better practices, probably five.

Stone Payton: I am so glad that I asked, because I it’s helpful to, to understand that, that that part of the timeline and it just sounds like really good, solid counsel. Uh, run your business so that you could sell it. Yeah. It reminds me of getting some advice about recruiting, and I forget where I got it about. You should always be recruiting. You should, you know, don’t. Don’t wait till you gotta put a, uh, somebody in that, uh, in that seat. I also feel like. And I don’t know if it was another interview or if I read it, but it seemed like a very sobering stat to me that, you know, something like, you know, eight out of ten businesses end up not selling. Is it because they don’t team up with someone like you or. Well, a is that true? Am I remembering that right? And if so, why? Why?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, that that is true. So it’s actually more than eight out of ten businesses in the US end up closing their doors instead of having some type of exit or transition to the new ownership. Um, and it’s not really, you know, it’s it’s great if they team up with exit factor, but it’s really about they’re not planning in advance and they’re not running their business like they can sell it at any time. Um, so like I mentioned, this isn’t like something where you can just pull a few levers and then six months later, sell the company. It doesn’t work like that, right? Um, and so what ends up happening is that those eight out of ten that have to end up closing their doors didn’t do any pre-preparation in advance, um, to position their company like it could be sold. And so when they get to that life event that I talked about and they can’t go on owning the business, um, really the only option they have is to try and fire sale it. And most of the time that doesn’t work out.

Stone Payton: All right. So going kind of back to the I come from the training consulting world a long, long time ago when I had something closer to a real job and I would call it an engagement cycle. So there’s the early work of identifying things, doing this, this exit assessment, and particularly if someone kind of buys into this mindset of get the business ready to run it so that you could sell it, then you just hang in there with them and then help them look for opportunities. Or where does your thing start and end, if I could ask?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah. So once we have an exit assessment, um, done on a company that gives us that magic recipe that I was talking about, like, how do you maximize value for this company? Right. Um, and typically when we do that, we’re evaluating about 62 different factors of a company. So typically in any business we’ll say, all right. Of those 6240 things need work in this company. Right. And I find if you give an owner that much work, it’s very overwhelming and nothing gets done. So what our consulting does is we break we break those 40 items down, prioritize them with the owner, and we start systematically improving them one at a time over the course of the relationship.

Stone Payton: So I like it. So it strikes me, I guess I was coming into this conversation and I’ve interviewed business brokers before too, but I was coming into this conversation, even though I knew that you had this consulting practice with the idea that your work was far more transactional, it doesn’t sound like that to me at all. It sounds like the work you do, the trust that you must have to cultivate, and the it must be so heavily grounded in, in relationship. I mean, these folks have to trust you. You got to get to know them. It’s a it really is much more of a relationship oriented enterprise. And I guess I anticipated is that accurate?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah. That is really the very accurate. Yes. Um, we will work with clients like typically our consultants are working with clients an average of two years. Um, so we really get to know their business as well, their personal goals. Well, and, um, just, you know, it is it is a relationship business and helping guide them through not just this phase of working with us and improving the value, but typically when our relationship ends, we’re going to hand them off to the right people to execute that exit. So it might be a business broker, or it might be if they decide to sell to employees, just a lender and some and some lawyers to get the deal done. Um, but really helping them guide through what that next phase looks like.

Stone Payton: So early on. And particularly you must see some of the same. It’s probably unfair to call it pathology, but but some of the same mistakes or challenges like you almost always know I know we’re going to be doing these five things. Yeah, yeah. Are there some of those more common mistakes I guess we’ll call them.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah. There’s definitely so you know, I’d say really the top three, um, that we see in almost every business and it’s not all businesses, but almost every um is there is one is there’s a value expectations gap. And we talked about that a little bit about, you know, perceived value versus real value in the marketplace. So there’s usually some work we have to do around that more a mindset shift than actual, you know, physical tactical work. Um, the second is focus on the numbers and financial records of a business. I have yet to see a business that has perfect financial records. Um, lots of them usually need a lot of sprucing up, um, before they are positioned well for an exit. So we usually do some work around there. And then the third is really around that owner’s role, and the owner being able to let go and delegate and elevate their employees and their team. So the business becomes about the company and not about the owner.

Stone Payton: Boy, I have a feeling that if and when we were to become a client, I think that that letting go would be the stone oriented workshop. That’s a personal challenge for me. It has been, and even trying to lead teams, you know.

Jessica Fialkovich: I know me too. You know, it’s always a challenge. Again, it’s it’s something that starts as an extension of us. Right. And there’s, there’s so much of our personal identity tied up into it and it’s hard to let go. Um, but there is I know I’ve done this myself, too. There’s a lot of freedom in making that transition.

Stone Payton: So have you had. I know the answer to this has to be yes, but I’d like to dive into it for a minute anyway. Uh, but what I wanted to ask is, have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way, as you’ve continued to, to hone your craft?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yes, yes, actually, I’ve, I’ve three key mentors that I talk about a lot. They’re all entrepreneurs. Um, you know, two of them are, are business partners, um, at this point. So I’m very lucky in that regard. But, um, Ray Titus, who’s the CEO of United Franchise Group, has really guided my journey as an owner. Um, same with Andy Kenyatta, who. Was a CEO of Transworld Business Advisors. He’s also my co-host on my podcast, The Deal Board, and then also Heidi Ganahl, who was the founder of Camp Bow Wow. Um, so I have the pleasure of, like, I still work closely with all three of them. I’m in business with Rei and Andy, but all three of them have given me a different perspective on business. That’s been helpful. But also, you know how business you balance it with your life, too.

Stone Payton: Yeah. And I don’t know how you find the balance. You’re an author, you’re a speaker. You’ve got your you’ve got your own radio show. So what’s the tell me a little bit about your radio show.

Jessica Fialkovich: Oh, yeah. So, um, The Deal Board is a podcast about behind the scenes of what goes on, um, in the mergers and acquisitions world, specifically for small to mid market companies. Um, and Andy kinda and I started the deal board about four years ago, um, and have consistently been doing podcasts every other week, just about doing that, pulling behind the curtain. What actually happens in these mergers and acquisitions deals and how do they get done? How do they get financed? Who buys the companies and a whole other host of topics?

Stone Payton: Well, and I would think that such an important aspect of your work is to you really do need to educate to a certain degree before you can consult. Right? So so they even have a frame of reference for the for the topic. So I would think that would be a marvelous resource for potential clients and and and existing clients.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, you’re right. It is a balance of education and consulting. So um, in X-Factor two, we actually have a full online curriculum, um, that our clients have access to because, you know, we might in a consulting session, we might drop some acronym or specialty term that we don’t have time to go through in that consulting session or it’s not, you know, a good use of the time together. Um, but we want our clients to be fully educated, too. So we have a full online curriculum that supports all the consulting work.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. Okay. Like I said, I, I don’t know when or how you would find the time, but I am interested to know passions, interests, pursuits outside the scope of your work. I, uh, a lot of our listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Uh, do you have a tendency to nerd out about anything, or do you even have the time?

Jessica Fialkovich: So, yeah. So I mean, right now, um, you know, most of my time spent on building our business, I also have a two and a half year old son. Um, so, you know, we’re very busy at home, but I’m a huge, um, Bruce Springsteen fan, so anyone who knows me knows that when Bruce is touring, I’m a complete nerd. And, um, we’ll be on a plane to see him. Typically somewhere between 7 to 10 shows a year. Um, I’m actually getting on a plane to go to Dublin, Ireland on Friday. Um, so I can go see him play in Dublin. My first time seeing him play in Ireland with my sisters. Um, but that is that’s my one thing I geek out over. I’ve, I think I’ve been to over 70 shows at this point in my life.

Stone Payton: Fascinating. I am so glad that I asked. All right, before we wrap, I’d love to if we could leave our listeners with a couple of actionable pro tips. Something to be reading, something to be doing, not doing. And listen. Gang, the number one pro tip is reach out to to Jessica or someone on her team and just have a substantive conversation with them, and we’ll make sure we get some contact info for them here in just a moment. Uh, but yeah, maybe a couple of actionable tips we could leave them with.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, I would say, look, everybody asks what’s the first step? And I think the first step is having an exit assessment or a business assessment done on the company, and it shows you where you’re at today and where you’re going in the future. Um, it also, if anyone’s interested, I did write a book on the topic called Getting the Most for Selling Your Business, which dives into kind of those qualitative areas that we talked a little bit about as well.

Stone Payton: Okay, I was going to wrap, but now we can’t I got to hear about this book. I, uh, I the contents of the book I’d like to hear a little bit about, but I’m interested in what was it like, you know, committing your ideas to, to paper. Was that an arduous, uh, set of task or did it come together pretty easily for you?

Jessica Fialkovich: Um, you know what? I think I had a good basis, so we had already written the online curriculum for Exit Factor before I wrote the book, so I had some good basis of my ideas. I also, I give full credit. I had an amazing, uh, coauthor that really did the legwork of taking my ideas and formulating it into a book format. Um, we did calls every week together on zoom to talk about stories that we’re going to infuse into the book. So, you know, start to finish, I’d say it was about a six month process. Um, and it wasn’t arduous or painful. It was actually quite enjoyable.

Stone Payton: Did you find that, uh, investing the time and energy to do that and put that work together? Did you find that? Sure. It’s it definitely. I’m sure it’s serving other people, but it it also help you kind of solidify, crystallize your own thinking and make. You that much more effective in your consulting work?

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah, definitely. I think there was some focus to it. Right. So, um, one of my goals that I have for the book was that, uh, and the book’s two sections, there’s a content section, and then there’s like a section of top ten reference lists, and I wanted the content section to be less than 150 pages, because I know business owners are busy. Right. And, um, so there was some discipline about like, okay, what are really the key concepts and the key focus areas. And that’s helped me communicate what we do, uh, to business owners. And it’s really helped me focus business owners and not spread our thinking across a lot of different items.

Stone Payton: Okay. Let’s make sure that our listeners, I want them to be able to, to access this book. I want them to be able to to tap into your work and visit with you or someone on your team. So let’s leave them with some coordinates, some easy ways to do that.

Jessica Fialkovich: Yeah. All of our information can be found at our website. Exit factor.com. Um, the only other resource outside of that is we are franchise company. So if you’re interested in franchise information you can go to exit factor franchise.com. Um but on exit factor.com there’s a link to the book. Um there’s some free resources things like that.

Stone Payton: Well, Jessica, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show. Thank you for your insight, your perspective. Keep up the good work. What you’re doing is so important and we sure appreciate you.

Jessica Fialkovich: Well, thanks so much, Joan.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Jessica Fialkov with Exit Factor and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying, we’ll see you again on Buy a Business Near Me.

Author Diana L. Sharples

May 14, 2024 by angishields

Cherokee Business Radio

Author Diana L. Sharples

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Diana L. Sharples lives with her husband and daughter, and a house full of rescued pets. She holds a degree in communication design/illustration from the Atlanta College of Art and has won awards for her work in science fiction and fantasy illustration. She has been writing stories, however, since her early teens, and switched genres from fantasy to contemporary young adult when her daughter was a pre-teen.

She brings her artist vision for details and her love of characters to her writing. She won several pre-publication awards for her debut novel, Running Lean, which was released by Zondervan/Blink Books (a division of Harper Collins) in 2013.

After battling breast cancer, Diana resurrected her writing career in 2018 with five new novels, including the sequel to Running Lean (Running Strong), the first of a new series of mystery-infused novels (Finding Hero) and a series of independently published YA mystery novels (Because…Anonymous, Because…Vengeance, and Because…Paranoid). The prequel to the Because series (Because…Broken) was published in April, 2020, and she plans to publish several new books in the near future.

Diana is a Christian, a Harley rider, a sometime percussionist, and the super proud mother of a professional dancer.

Connect with Diana on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX Studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: Thank you for joining us on Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. We talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And today in the studio we have an author who also has a degree in art. She combines her love of art and storytelling and has won numerous awards for her work. And just now, today has the second book in a series, uh, published today. So I’m very excited to have Diana Sharples on the show. Welcome.

Diana Sharples: Thank you. Thank you for having me today.

Sharon Cline: I’m excited to talk to you about these books because they have motorcycles in them, and it makes me so happy. And it’s interesting too, because I met you this past weekend at International Female Writers Day. There was an event in canton and you had a booth set up, which was so smart, uh, to find a writing day to focus on some writing books.

Diana Sharples: It it was very serendipitous. I had walked into the store the day before, and I had a motive. I was looking at motocross clothes because I’m going to a conference at the end of the month, and I’m thinking they have a costume thing going on. They do. So I’m looking into clothing and all that. Um, and they mentioned that they were having this thing and I went, can I set up? And the manager said, yes. And so I just came. So one day, one day notice.

Sharon Cline: I mean, that is it was amazing. Yeah.

Diana Sharples: It was so much fun, you guys. You made it fun. Oh, that whole group of women that were there.

Sharon Cline: We do have. Yeah, we do have a really wonderful group of of writers. And it’s not a motorcycle club. It’s just a collective of women called the leader’s. The leader’s Atlanta. And we’ve been really lucky to have just some of the best people join and kind of go through life a little bit together. Once a month we have a ride and then we have a bike night. Um, if.

Diana Sharples: I still had my Harley, I’d be with you, I promise you that.

Sharon Cline: Well, we were talking about that a little bit on Saturday. Um, you know how important it is when you really have an opportunity to ride that, you take it. It’s easy for life to get in the way. Yes. And and I know that. And weather and and weather. And it did rain on Saturday, too. Um, but you were talking about how you have, like, a physical limitation right now and how much you miss riding. And it actually is important for me to keep in mind that when I, I’m healthy, I need to take advantage of when I, when I can ride. So I get that completely. Um, but how cool is it that you were able to come and kind of highlight a genre of book that is very interestingly not considered publishable or advantageous to publish? How do you want to phrase this? I’m not sure how we want to talk about it.

Diana Sharples: The publishing industry has its tropes, and especially with romantic suspense and any sort of romance novels, but with romantic, romantic suspense, um, they have what I call hero heroes. And those are male characters, sometimes female, that just by the sake of their occupation, you go, oh, that’s a hero. And this is like police officers or military or cowboys or Coast Guard or K-9 units or whatever, you know, whatever happens to be trending, um, at that particular time. And they seem reluctant to get away from that because it sells. And that makes sense that they would do that. If it sells, then why? Why break it? You know, um, so coming at it with my hero being a professional motocross rider, uh. Okay.

Sharon Cline: It’s just thrown them.

Diana Sharples: Off a bit, it throws them off a bit. And so I had a I had to self-publish because I could not get an agent to even look at my work. And I had an editor a year ago when I was working on the first book, tell me it would never be published.

Sharon Cline: Really.

Diana Sharples: Because of the motocross. And I’m like, y’all don’t see what I see. When every weekend I see stadiums, football stadiums, professional football stadiums filled with motocross fans watching a supercross race. There are readers in that group.

Sharon Cline: There are, and I love that you focus a lot on women, too, because the the demographic of women writers grows every year. Yes, which is amazing. I love hearing that. It’s not so much the, you know, grizzled sort of biker guy with the long beard. It’s it’s a lot of different people. Yeah.

Diana Sharples: Um, I started writing when I was, um, in my early 20s, and I had my silly little one, 85 Suzuki. You know.

Sharon Cline: It’s a legit bike if you’re getting started. It was a street bike. It was, you know.

Diana Sharples: It was not even a dirt bike or anything. It was a street bike. It was legal. It had headlights and turn signals and electric start, for pity’s sake.

Sharon Cline: Wow. You didn’t even have to do the.

Diana Sharples: Didn’t even have to kick start.

Sharon Cline: It started, you know?

Diana Sharples: So, um, yeah, I got that in my early 20s and, and then it was very unusual for a woman to be writing, and I was.

Sharon Cline: That made you want to ride then? You know.

Diana Sharples: Um, I was with a guy who wrote, and I really enjoyed it. Of course, I always wrote on the back with him, and I want, I want to do this. It felt freeing. It felt, um, like I was in control more than sitting in a car. Um, and. Yeah, so I started off with that little bitty bike and went for a long time.

Sharon Cline: What other bikes have you had since then?

Diana Sharples: Um, I had a 350 Honda. Nice. And then I quit for a while. I had a scary accident. Oh, and didn’t get badly hurt, but it was scary. And so I kind of lost my nerve for a little while. And this is a very funny story. Um, I was writing my first book, Running Lean, in which the character rides a, um, an old Yamaha 250. It’s an enduro enduro bike. Um, and he had restored it and all this kind of stuff. Um, and so I always went to the bike shop here in, in, up in canton to find, to ask stupid questions because I know how to write, but I didn’t know how to fix a carburetor or something, you know, and, um, so that was at the time when the gas prices were $4 a gallon. Oh, wow. And my husband had many miles to travel to go to work, and he’s a computer programmer, or he was he’s retired now. But, um, and he was like, looking at all these bikes going, I’m thinking about getting a scooter. He saw that tag that said, 100 miles to the gallon. And I went, honey, do you really want to perpetuate your geek image? I said, if you can ride, get a real bike.

Sharon Cline: Did he get a Harley?

Diana Sharples: Then he didn’t get a Harley. Then we started off slow. We went to this place that has used bikes and, um, he got a Suzuki and I went, he said, and you can ride on the back and be my motorcycle. Mama and I went, no way, Jose, once you had your hand on the throttle, you can’t sit in the back.

Sharon Cline: I would think so, yeah.

Diana Sharples: So yeah, we both got bikes and, uh, I had a little, uh, Kawasaki 500 called it baby blue because it was blue. And, um, that was a great little bike. But when we went riding with the, the, the people from church on their Harleys, I had it wide open just to keep up with them.

Sharon Cline: Oh, I know, right.

Diana Sharples: And. Yeah. And so, you know, um, so I graduated up to a 900 Suzuki or Kawasaki. Excuse me. Oh. Um, a little.

Sharon Cline: More power there.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, that was more power. Yeah. And all of a sudden, my bike is 100 cc’s bigger than my husband’s. He’s like.

Sharon Cline: Right.

Diana Sharples: And so we rode around on those for a year or so, and then we went to this Harley shop. Just stopped in and, and I was sitting on this heritage and, um, the saleswoman came up and said, you know, I can bring the paperwork right over to here to you so you don’t have to get off the bike. And I said, oh, can I just have a test ride? And my, our friend said, told my husband, if she comes back smiling, you’re in trouble. I came back smiling. And you know, I did the heritage for a couple of years and then I fell in love with this deluxe CVO. And those are nice bikes.

Sharon Cline: I have a 2005 Fatboy that very much looks like a heritage. It has the passing lights on the side and everything. So yeah, it’s got a same look and feel. I think, um, they’re great bikes to ride. Oh yeah, they’re big bikes.

Diana Sharples: That, that deluxe that I had was a dream. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah I miss it so much.

Sharon Cline: So you got to use all of this motorcycle riding knowledge that you have. In your books, which the first book is called Power Shift, which came out? Was it last year that it came out?

Diana Sharples: No, it came out in April.

Sharon Cline: April? Oh, so you’re doing them kind of back to back, I got you.

Diana Sharples: I planned it that way.

Sharon Cline: Got you. Well, what’s cool is Double Clutch came out today, and then I like that you have two more books coming, and they all have that same sort of, uh, play on motorcycle riding, like the titles of them. Um, but so interesting to me that there is such reluctance to publish this kind of book, given that you are a published author. I mean, we can talk let’s talk about some of the books that you already have published out there with Harpercollins. I know your your first book, Running Lean, which is an interesting it’s a young adult. I don’t want to speak for you, but I know it’s a young adult novel, and it has a themes of anorexia in there, which is such an it was in 2013 that it came out such an interesting sort of look at teenager ness. It’s not just romance, it’s actual real problems that a lot of teenagers face, right?

Diana Sharples: My young adult books are are really just dealing with, um, teen issues or, or just writing young adult is so much fun because they.

Sharon Cline: Ask you.

Diana Sharples: They have permission to be, um, to do dumb things and to do wild things. You know, it’s not as it doesn’t feel as restrictive as adult fiction.

Sharon Cline: You can be irresponsible because kids are. Yeah. So you can pretend for a little while. Yeah, but that was a very well received book. Um, Running.

Diana Sharples: Lane did fairly well. Yeah. Um. It wasn’t as much as the publisher had hoped for because they were branching into a new market. It was a Christian publisher, Zondervan, and they were trying to branch into the general market, and they were just starting this and didn’t quite know how to do it. Gotcha. So, you know, it didn’t take off the way they had hoped, but it did pretty well.

Sharon Cline: Was it challenging to find a publisher? How how did you approach that? Because you were a new author at the time. How did you approach, uh, being published?

Diana Sharples: That was um, I went to a lot of writers conferences and, um, met with editors and talked to agents and took a lot of classes and improved my craft. And it took a while. Um, about five years, I think. And, um, then I entered my, um, story running lean into a contest, and it didn’t win, but it was nominated. Amazing. And, um, so yeah, that was that gave me a little bit more of an in to talk to an editor. And I talked to the editor from Zondervan and they were saying, yes, we want, um, we want stories that are sort of Christian lite is what they say, right?

Sharon Cline: Not heavy.

Diana Sharples: On it. Right. Um, that they could take into the general market where there was a broader audience, and they also were looking for male protagonists, um, like. I’m here. Here I am, yes. And so with, um, with the nomination for this award and this completed novel, um, she wanted to see it. And that’s how it all worked. And it’s like I hit a home run my first time at bat.

Sharon Cline: So you have what? You’ve got a really cool history because you are also, um, you have your degree in. It’s like a communication but drawing as well.

Diana Sharples: Communication design.

Sharon Cline: Design. Right. Yeah. And but you’ve been you’ve focused on a whole other kind of genre with your drawings and design. Correct?

Diana Sharples: I do all sorts of things. I worked for, um, some time with a, with a couple of companies here in Georgia, um, doing graphic arts for them. And, um, then I kind of, I went back to school is what I did. I was going to.

Sharon Cline: Ask you, how did how did you did you always have this story about running lean in the background of your life? And that’s kind of the impetus for writing or how did the story come about?

Diana Sharples: Um, I didn’t, but I was writing. I used to write fantasy. Oh, amazing. And, um, and then I decided when my daughter was about 11 years old and I saw her approaching an age where she was going to be dealing with not child like in, you know, issues. Um, and so I wondered how I might be able to help her. And sorry for getting a little religious here, but the Lord had something greater in mind. Not just her, but others. And it was right at that time when I was praying, when I got the idea for the first book.

Sharon Cline: Amazing.

Diana Sharples: And, um, the first book is not the not running lean. It started out with a different story. Um, so that was part of the growth process over those five years. Was I had the first book, and I had to figure out what was working and what wasn’t working and fix things. And running Lean kind of came out of that whole series scenario.

Sharon Cline: It’s interesting. I love that you had legitimacy because you had won, but nominated had been nominated for some awards. So it’s it’s something, I’m sure many local authors here because you live on the outskirts of Calhoun, Georgia, it’s nice that you’re local, and there are a lot of local authors here who I’m sure would want to be able to have the same experiences as you to become more, um, um, widely distributed. So it’s great that you had that, that support that way. And then you learned along the way and studied a lot. It sounds like.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, well, writers conferences are very helpful, very helpful. It gives you, um, helps you to network and make contact with other people in the industry who can help you or, you know, taking classes or making, you know, professional contacts, editors and agents, that sort of thing. Do you still.

Sharon Cline: Go to them?

Diana Sharples: I’m going to one at the end of this month.

Sharon Cline: Oh, you were talking about that at the end of this month. So where is.

Diana Sharples: It? It’s, um, it’s up near Asheville. Oh no way. Um.

Sharon Cline: What’s cool too, is that your regional, like you used to live in, um, Andrew Murphy. Murphy. Murphy, North Carolina I was like, it’s not Andrews, right? But that whole area, that’s also part of where your books are set, right?

Diana Sharples: Yes. The new books. Um, I have one novel called Finding Hero, which I have to republish because the publisher went out of business. So I’m going to be republishing that as soon as I can. It’s ready to go. I just need to push the button. Okay. But, um, yeah. And that was inspired by Andrew’s amazing. Um, and I have a lot of, um, the character we were talking about this a little bit earlier. Um, the male character in that ended up being Cherokee. Wow. And so that’s a perfect area for him to come from.

Sharon Cline: So this whole area. So if you’re from this area, I’m sure it’ll be really nice to be able to read a book that you can identify some local places.

Diana Sharples: Yeah. And then the, the new books. I just envisioned a motorcycle motocross training facility in the mountains, and there’s plenty of places where it could actually exist. So, um, and even though we’re not living there anymore, I love Murphy. Murphy is just a wonderful place. Well, the mountains are many times.

Sharon Cline: Yes. So lovely. It’s good writing, for sure. Um, so interestingly, you also have some other books the because series. Correct. So you started with one sort of young adult teen novel and, and it translated to six or 5 or 6 more. Right.

Diana Sharples: I think a friend of mine called me the Queen of series recently. Are you? Because it seems like I write one book and then another idea will come out of that book or character that I really want to do something with. And Noah in the because books was one of those characters. He was the bad boy in Running Lean. I mean, he was a bad boy. And so I’m like, okay, I’m going to take him. I’m going to take him out of the place where he’s comfortable, put him someplace where he’s never been before with people he doesn’t know. So he’s not the popular kid anymore and then make him an amateur sleuth.

Sharon Cline: Redefine him, redefine him. What is it like to put that mind on, if that makes sense, that personality on as you’re writing as somebody else? Um.

Diana Sharples: It’s hard to explain it. I’ve done it my whole life. Um, from the time I was pretending as a kid, I used to make up scenarios of, you know, okay, you’re this person. And we did not play house. I had elaborate story ideas for what we were playing.

Sharon Cline: It’s a saga, not a house.

Diana Sharples: So it was not like I’ll be the mommy and you be the daddy, and here’s the doll. And would we be, you know, none of that. None of that. I was not into dolls. I’m into dolls now. But not then. Um, yeah. So, um, it just, I mean, it’s just imagination. And when I sit down to write, I kind of get into a zone. You know, and one thing I like to do is like, go to a restaurant or go to a park, you know, someplace where I don’t have my dogs barking at me and I don’t have dishes in the sink, and I don’t have chores that need to be done or phones that are ringing, and I can just focus on nothing but me and the computer and what I’m writing. That’s my favorite thing to do.

Sharon Cline: Do you have set times that you write? There are some authors I’ve had on the show where they’ve had to really make a very disciplined schedule for themselves to write.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, um, I’m not disciplined like that. I don’t think discipline is really part of my vocabulary.

Sharon Cline: Whatever you’re doing, it works, though. So, um.

Diana Sharples: You know, it’s it’s a passion. More than a discipline. And so, um, lunch time, obviously, when I can get out with my computer. But from there, I’ll, I can find a library and continue writing or Starbucks or whatever. And if I have to write in the evening, um, I can do that, and I can go till 2:00 in the morning. If I’m in the zone, that’s where I’m at.

Sharon Cline: Well, if you’re just joining us, I’m speaking to Diana Sharples. She is an author, a published author, and has a the second of a series of books that just got published today. Um, so when you are, um, I’ve heard authors talk about characters almost writing themselves in a certain way. Is that is that what you’ve been taking over the street? Yes. Like they have an idea of what they want the character to do, but what they wind up doing something else, which is so fascinating.

Diana Sharples: It’s when you’re in that zone and you’re just chick chick chick chick chick typing, typing away, and you’re trying to get from A to B, and something happens along the way and you think, uh oh, that’s kind of cool, you know, let’s see where that takes us, because there’s all you can always edit it out if it doesn’t work, you know? Um, so yeah.

Sharon Cline: It’s not wasted time, right? You’re just exploring.

Diana Sharples: And if nothing else, you find out something about the character that maybe you didn’t know before.

Sharon Cline: It’s like a real human in some way. A real person, definitely.

Diana Sharples: And in fact, um, I find that that’s necessary as part of the writing process to make the characters like real people in your head. You know, so that, um. I don’t know. You don’t force them to do something that they might not normally do. You know, it’s it’s fun. I’m sorry.

Sharon Cline: It’s just fun. It sounds like you’re to be so authentic to who they are. Do they have are they characters that you are writing? Do they sort of have an archetype to them, like you were saying, the bad boy or the ingenue or something like that?

Diana Sharples: To a certain degree, yeah. And to a certain degree, I’ll take bits and pieces from people I know. Um, the book that just came out today has a double clutch, double clutch clutch. It has a character in there that I don’t know where she came from.

Sharon Cline: Really?

Diana Sharples: Oh my gosh, she’s so evil. Oh my.

Sharon Cline: Goodness.

Diana Sharples: She she is, um, disturbed. And I’m as I was writing writing her I just was like, where is this coming from? This isn’t me. You know, isn’t.

Sharon Cline: It fascinating that you can have these different aspects of personality? I mean, even access, you know, a masculine side of yourself to write from a masculine perspective.

Diana Sharples: Yeah. Well, um, as I told you before, I grew up with three brothers. So the males perspective is second nature to me, you know, and I have a good idea how they talk and why they do things and how they do things. And, you know, especially with the teen teen fiction and Noah. Teenage boys do some really crazy stuff for no other reason than, okay, we’re bored, we’re going to go do this, you know? And that’s so much fun to write.

Sharon Cline: Have your brothers read your books.

Diana Sharples: Um, no they haven’t.

Sharon Cline: That’s okay though.

Diana Sharples: Um, yeah. One of my brothers passed away. Oh. I’m sorry, at age 59, he had brain cancer, and he was the one who would have read the books. Um, and another one is just. I don’t know what he likes to read, but I don’t think he’s read. I don’t know if he’s read my books or not. If he has, he hasn’t mentioned it.

Sharon Cline: So I’ve recorded 17 audio books, and I don’t think really anyone that I know has listened to any, which is completely fine because some of them are really can be really graphic and it’s like uncomfortable. And I’m like, my kids can’t listen to these. It’s fine. But it’s interesting how you’re either into it or you’re not. No matter if there’s a family member or what. Um, yeah. And so your demographic typically has been the young adult, and they and they do have some romance to them, but they’re pretty clean romance, right?

Diana Sharples: Yeah. The the young adult books are, are very clean, but also the I mean, they, they still deal with the things that teens are dealing with the, the, you know, um, hormonal pressures, let’s call it that. Sure. That exists, but, um, yeah, they’re they’re pretty clean.

Sharon Cline: But also the motorcycle books are they’re romance, but they’re not, like super graphic either. Correct?

Diana Sharples: No, no, I couldn’t write like that.

Sharon Cline: Some people can I don’t know. It’s very interesting.

Diana Sharples: I know I could I could probably make a lot more money if I did, but I, you know. No, you’re.

Sharon Cline: Staying true to yourself. Yeah. Which is awesome. Yeah. So where so you’ve got two more books that are, that are going to be coming out. You’ve got one next month and one maybe right after that.

Diana Sharples: Um, that one. I don’t even know what happens yet. So it’ll be a little while, but yeah. Um, Enduro Ridge is the next one, and it’s, um, I’m just waiting to get feedback from my beta readers, um, and to make the final edit, and it’ll get out.

Sharon Cline: You’re doing the editing, correct? Yeah. How is that?

Diana Sharples: Um. I tend to be hard on myself. So, um, you know, if something needs to be cut, it’s going to be cut. Um, if something isn’t phrased properly, I’m going to rephrase it. Is it tough.

Sharon Cline: To look at it from a third party perspective, or do you access a different part of your brain?

Diana Sharples: It’s accessing a different part. Yeah, I, I can’t sit down and write like first draft one day and edit the same day. You know, I have to. Put one book aside and start on the next. Come back and edit. Come. Go back and edit the second one. That’s how going back and forth like that.

Sharon Cline: And you have your readers who help inform.

Diana Sharples: I have I have some better, better readers.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, that’s amazing that they’d be willing to give you, you know, their opinion which which makes it more successful, I guess in the end.

Diana Sharples: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Their, their opinions are very valuable to me. Even if they say something I don’t agree with, it’s still kind of sinks in and I go, well, maybe, you know, do.

Sharon Cline: You sometimes change things or not change things.

Diana Sharples: You mean I yeah, sometimes I change, I say, no, you know that’s not right. I’m just going to keep it the way it is. And other times I’ll think again and go, oh, maybe I should change that. So yeah, it’s really helpful.

Sharon Cline: So how do you market yourself? You know, you are a self publishing these books. You obviously came to that event on Saturday. What is the what do you do on the other days that you don’t have an event to actually show up?

Diana Sharples: That’s the hardest question you could ask me. No, no, marketing is a bear, and I’m currently going through a thing with a writer’s group that I belong to, a wonderful group of women writers, um, and we’re calling it, um, Taming the Beast. And it’s all about marketing. Oh, wow. Yeah. And, um, social media marketing and, uh, Amazon ads and Facebook ads and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And there’s a lot of myths surrounding that. What are some of the myths? Well, for one thing, publishers, they want to know what kind of platform they have that you have. And, um, this is especially and actually important if you’re writing nonfiction. But if you’re writing fiction, your platform is your readers, you know, but they still want to they want to see that you have at least 10,000 followers on, you know, Twitter or whatever. And that’s not really necessary. Um, because fiction, a lot of it is word of mouth. And so what you really need first off is a good product, a well edited product, a good cover, a good blurb, and every step that that your reader would take to decide whether to buy or not buy has to be a positive experience. So that’s work that goes in upfront. And um, then I’m doing I’m doing Amazon ads. Um, I’m looking into Facebook ads. I’m looking into figuring out how I can sell something on Instagram. I’ve heard it can be done, but I’m still in the process of figuring all this out. And, um, my big challenge is not so much just to have my Amazon ads start working, but reaching those people who go to those motocross events. And so I’ve gone to two already this year. I’ve got another one planned for next for the, um, in September, we’re actually going to Las Vegas to the finale. Oh my.

Sharon Cline: Goodness. Oh, it’s.

Diana Sharples: Going to be awesome and exciting. Gosh. And I may go to some of the outdoor motocross events this summer if I can swing it. And um, just really talking to people there and hopefully, um, this is my dream. Anyway, they have a, um, they do a daytime program while all the guys are out qualifying for the nighttime race, um, called Race Day Life. And I’m hoping they often interview, like, businesses and stuff like that. I’m really hoping I can sneak in there somehow. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Did you have to learn just a tremendous amount, obviously, about motocross riding, which is different from like, you know, street riding, what we do. Yes.

Diana Sharples: It is another animal altogether. There’s just two wheels. That’s the only similarity. Yeah, really. And you got a brake and a clutch in the same place. Um.

Sharon Cline: And romance men and women.

Diana Sharples: So it’s a totally different thing.

Sharon Cline: Learn about.

Diana Sharples: It. I asked a lot of questions. I went to these races and I said, okay, I can’t be shy. And I went and talked to these riders, and I talked to their mechanics, and I talked to whoever would give me two minutes of their time. And I met some people who were extremely helpful. And if I can plug someone, please do. Um, AJ Catanzaro has a, um, a business he calls Moto Academy. And he trains writers. And he’s a he was a writer, I guess this year he’s retired. I don’t know. Um, but, um, yeah. And he was awesome. And his academy is awesome. And he posted, uh, YouTube videos and there’s all kinds of information in there. And so really, just for me, just watching that and getting information wherever I could find it and really be being observant during the races. So I come at it from a fan’s point of view, I don’t claim to be an expert at all, but it works.

Sharon Cline: Well if you did not take that initiative though, when you think about that, like that opened up a bunch of different doors for you. And it did. I just love that you didn’t sort of say, I have this dream and then you didn’t do it. You actually took you were brave. It takes a lot of guts to go in front of people and say, you know, I’m writing this book. I know you don’t. This isn’t your deal. But, like, would you mind sharing some information? You know, I mean, how wonderful that people are generous with their time as well. Oh, yeah.

Diana Sharples: And the funny thing is that, um, and a friend explained this to me. I was like, kind of amazed by it. And she said, well, um, they were so thrilled to talk to me. Oh, and I’m thinking, wow, these are really nice guys. And they are. But my friend told me, well, to them, you’re the celebrity. Oh, oh.

Sharon Cline: Interesting and interesting dynamic.

Diana Sharples: Altogether, I’m just me. I didn’t think of it that way, you know? So, um. Yeah. And so that was that was really great.

Sharon Cline: I’m thinking what it would have been like to approach these people and, and say, you know, would you mind? It’s what they love to, you know, it’s a subject they love to, to talk about if they’re in it. So it must have been really nice to hear what they had to say. Yeah.

Diana Sharples: Oh yeah. Yeah. And I found the same thing with cops. Oh. Because, you know, it’s a romantic suspense. Crimes happen. I need to know what the police are doing, you know? True. So, um, in fact, I’ve got one, um, gentleman in Murphy who’s going to read all of Enduro Ridge for me to make because one of the characters is a cop in that, um, so he’s going to make sure I get everything right, and they’ve every time I’ve gone to talk to them, you know, you think, oh, they’re going to be really busy and they’ve got much more important things on their.

Sharon Cline: Minds to solve.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, crimes to solve and stuff. But they have just been so open and and friendly.

Sharon Cline: Well, you know what? It’s interesting too when I because I read a lot. And so if something has a ring of inauthenticity, it does take you out of the book. And it’s kind of amazing how that can be. So I love that you care enough to make sure that as much whatever you are doing rings true.

Diana Sharples: I was reading a reading a book recently, um, that the author got something wrong on page one.

Sharon Cline: Oh no.

Diana Sharples: And it was something that Google could have fixed. Oh, and it completely took me out of the story. I’m like, oh, what a what a shame.

Sharon Cline: I think one of the best things about reading is how immersed I can become in another life, you know? And so when something kind of does take me out of it, I’m just like, oh man, I will skim the rest of it. Like, I’m just I’ve lost some things. So I don’t know, I think I can be kind of critical that way just for myself, because I read so much and so and I have since I was a kid. Um, so that’s what’s kind of fun about today, is to talk about not just a love of books and what it’s like to be you and being an author, but but riding motorcycles, too. It’s like a marriage of several things that make me super happy. And it’s interesting too, that that I’m just sort of flabbergasted that there is not this belief that this kind of genre of book would, would be publishable or worth publishing, you know, in a in a larger sense, I mean.

Diana Sharples: A while back it was unheard of to publish vampire novels. And then Twilight came, right. You know. Um, you know, before that there was a stint with Anne Rice, and she did great, but not a lot of other people were writing that, and especially not for kids, you know? And it really just takes the first book breaking out to start a trend.

Sharon Cline: What was this that sort of what was the impetus for this motocross theme for you?

Diana Sharples: Well, um, okay, I was researching the other books. Um, not running lean, but Running Strong, which is the sequel. And, um, the kids were riding motocross bikes, and I was like, okay, I need to I need to get some of this on me. As a friend of mine says, you got to get some on you. And so I just what.

Sharon Cline: You mean by that.

Diana Sharples: That’s I found a motocross training facility in that part of North Carolina where the books take place. And I went, well, my characters could come here. So I went there on a weekend. They let me stay for free in one of their cabins. This was the Jimmy Weinert training facility in in Mooresville, North Carolina. Awesome people. And, um, yeah, they let me stay for free and I just got some of it on me. I woke up hearing the bikes going by, and I smelled the, the two-stroke fuel and and got the dust on me, and and I realized while I was there that this is a there’s a lot more to this than I thought, you know, and that was kind of the start. And I met a friend there, a new friend. And, um, it just got me started. And then I started watching supercross, and Ryan Dungey was winning everything. And so I just got drawn into it. And that’s where every Saturday, you know, tell me, I got to do something on Saturday. I got to check. When are they racing? You know? So, um, yeah, I just became a super fan. You know.

Sharon Cline: I can imagine it’s like, um, putting on new clothes or something. Do you know what I mean? Like, you start to become almost a character itself in that world, and then do the characters just kind of unfold for you?

Diana Sharples: They do. They do now, um, power shift. There’s an interesting story behind that. My daughter was in college and she was taking a class where they were reading the Greek tragedy Antigone, and she had to write a paper, and she’s like, I don’t even know what to write about, you know? And my daughter’s not a writer.

Sharon Cline: So she’s a dancer, professional dancer.

Diana Sharples: She’s a professional dancer. And, um, so, you know, obviously I couldn’t write the paper for her, but I sat down and I read the read the play, and as I was reading it, I got excited. I really there’s a cool story here. There’s some stuff going on here, some human psychology stuff that’s really interesting. And I wonder if I could put this in a modern setting now. Antigone, people die. It’s a tragedy. Everyone dies. Um, but there are two brothers and they battle to the death. Well, I can’t have that in the modern setting, you know? But what if one of them is accused of killing the other, and it’s sort of evolved from there? And I tied it in with motocross and it all came to life.

Sharon Cline: Sounds like a perfect, I don’t know, mix of alchemy, I guess. Things.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Cline: What do you think people don’t really know about authors? What do you think people don’t appreciate enough about what it’s like to be you.

Diana Sharples: How hard it is and how much time it takes and how much devotion it takes, especially to do it well. Um, you know, the so many people say, oh, I’ve got a great idea for a book. Okay. What are you going to do? You know, sitting down and actually doing the work is very hard. Even if you’re just starting out and you’re writing your sloppy copy, and it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, you’re just getting it out there. It’s still hard. It takes a level of, um, focus and dedication that not everybody can do. And, um, yeah, that’s that’s one of the things. And when people go out and, um, they buy book cheap books, cheap $0.99 for an ebook or something, I’m not sure they always realize what is behind that book, the amount of work that went into it. And, um. I don’t know, I think that’s. That’s what.

Sharon Cline: Kind of. It’s like a sadness, too, because it’s like, do you? So when I have an audiobook that I listen to, I feel like I. Because when I read, I speed read, um, an actual physical book. Um, my brain is just going way too fast sometimes. And so an audiobook slows me down and forces me to experience the book the exact way the author had intended. And I actually have a different appreciation for an audiobook that way than when I have a physical book that I’m like, I don’t. I don’t need to hear the description of this, you know, or something, because I get impatient. Um, so it’s very interesting to me, and I it’s, it’s, uh, it’s a whole appreciation for a book that I, I actually value tremendously because if it’s up to me, I just want to know more and more. So I go through faster. But when I’ve actually listened to an audiobook, I feel like I, I have that sense of, wow, that they really cared enough to describe and to set up the background so that it’s a real, full understanding of a character, as opposed to my saying, okay, she’s a woman, she’s a cop, whatever. You know, I don’t appreciate I mean, I have to make myself slow down, but that’s just my brain is fast. So, yeah, I think that’s interesting that I don’t know that when I have a physical book in front of me, that I actually take the time to really appreciate every little aspect of it. But you are having pointed that out to me, makes me want to. So thank you for sharing that.

Diana Sharples: Well, that’s an interesting perspective on the audiobook too, that I hadn’t heard before. Um, I hear a audiobooks are becoming more and more popular. Oh yeah. And people are using them while they’re driving or while they’re doing housework or, you know, whatever. And, um, so, I mean, that’s that’s great.

Sharon Cline: I know it’s actually something I appreciate. And audiobooks have actually that listening to them was what got me started in the voiceover world anyway, because I thought these characters, you know, I’m listening to these people read and I’m like, I wonder if I could do that. You know, in my head when I read, I imagine my own voice. So that’s what got me started in that world. And, um, yeah. So if it weren’t for audiobooks, I don’t think that I’d be even sitting here right now talking to you. Yeah. I mean, it’s definitely something that I, I have an appreciation for and, um, for sure, uh, I know it’s become a bigger and bigger part of the market, and I do actually clean and listen to books as well, because now I’m lost. I would get excited to get in my car to drive home from wherever I was, because I couldn’t wait to hear the next part. You know, it made driving like a happier experience for me when I used to drive every day downtown. So, um, for sure. But stories like this, I think what’s kind of cool about it is, again, like having having it set here in a local area that I could actually even imagine and knowing it’s got some motorcycles to it, and also knowing you and kind of what makes you feel, um, thank you. Like satisfied with what you’re doing? Um, I don’t know. I’m excited to read them because I feel like I can imagine being you for just a little bit and imagine what it’s like to play around in your brain, you know? And also, I like learning something new. So for me to understand what it’s like in the motocross world, that’s really cool. You’ve done that work. So I get to appreciate that side as well. Okay. All right. Great. You’ve got one book, another book that came out today, and then you’ve got another book and then one more. Right?

Diana Sharples: Yeah. Um, Enduro Ridge will be out next month and, um, brake check will be out someday. Well, probably hopefully before the end of the year.

Sharon Cline: Was there anything that you think would be really important for an author who’s getting started in this industry that you would like to share with them before we wrap up?

Diana Sharples: Keep going. Yeah. Um, I’ve known so many people, especially young people who think, oh, I’m going to write a book, and they think it’s going to be fun and great and all that. And then they they get to the part in the middle that’s sagging. And they’re not, as you know, excited by the story as and and they quit and they drop it and they start something else or they drop it all together. So the first advice is keep going, finish it, even if it doesn’t go anywhere. You’ve got that accomplishment because so many people will start a story or start writing a book and never finish. So that’s the first advice is just finish it, just finish it.

Sharon Cline: Even if you don’t love it.

Diana Sharples: Even if you don’t love it, yeah, get it done. And then you’ve got that under your belt. And that’s an accomplishment. It really is. And the second advice is, um, well, like I said earlier, attend writers conferences. If you’re serious about this, be serious about it. Don’t don’t treat it as a hobby. That’s my biggest advice is don’t treat it as a hobby. Treat it as a job, even if you’re only doing it for an hour a day. Make it important.

Sharon Cline: Like I was saying, it’s so easy for anything to come into my life that seems to be more important than some of the things that I do on the side, as well as, I mean, voice over auditions for sure, but also even riding my bike, I can find a thousand things to do that could take that place. But I guess you do make time for what you really think is important. That’s really great advice to look at it as a job and not just a hobby.

Diana Sharples: And it’s really hard because so many people seem to think any sort of creative endeavor is a hobby. You know, I’m also an artist and, um, you know, I’ve had conversations with people, oh, I don’t want to buy that piece of artwork. I’ve got to make my car payment this month. And I’m like, so do I. Yeah. And, you know, hey, that that painting took me 40 hours, you know, and I spent so much money on my education and, um, you know, my husband is a musician, and that’s how we met. We were both in. We were in a band together. I used to play the drums. I do not anymore, but I used to play the female drummer. I love it. And, um. Yeah, there was this thing about growing up with three brothers. Yeah, I guess so.

Sharon Cline: It it did well for you, you know, rubbed off a little.

Diana Sharples: Yeah. Um, yeah. And, um, so he’s, he’s. And his father was a musician, too, and it was like, people don’t want to pay you because they think, well, you’re just having fun, right? It’s just a hobby, right? You could be sitting.

Sharon Cline: On a front porch playing or whatever. It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have to pay you. Yeah. Interesting.

Diana Sharples: And, you know, all the all the hours that my, my husband still put, he’s been playing, I don’t know, since he was 12 or something. And he’s still putting in at least an hour a day just practicing.

Sharon Cline: What does he play? Bass. Bass.

Diana Sharples: Bass guitar.

Sharon Cline: So what was the kind of music that you did?

Diana Sharples: Oh, we did rock and roll.

Sharon Cline: You had to with the motorcycle. I don’t know, I just picture it. That’s amazing.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, I was in a wedding bar band up in Illinois, and then I moved down to Georgia because it’s nice down here. Yeah. It is.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, it is.

Diana Sharples: And then I met him and we we were in a band together, and it just kind of blossomed out of that. So romantic. Yeah, yeah, it was romantic. Um, but people still appreciate.

Sharon Cline: Sort of like the effort. I guess that’s another side of of being a creative that I think people need to have an understanding of is that this is not just a hobby, not just, you know, in my spare time, but if it’s something you have passion for, it’s a reflection of your soul, you know?

Diana Sharples: Absolutely, absolutely. And but you’ve got schools cutting arts programs out of their agenda and, and, um, you know, parents who are telling their kids who do art or writing or music or whatever, no, you need to go to college and study something that’s going to pay the bills. And that’s all very logical and, you know, thoughtful and caring advice. But I spent years working as a secretary because my dad, who I loved dearly, told me, no, I know you want to be an artist, but you’ve got to learn something you can that’ll pay the bills. So I spent all that time working as a secretary and hating it or hating it, and I just kind of lived for lunch time when I could take a pen and paper and scribble out a couple of pages. This hurts.

Sharon Cline: My heart to hear or.

Diana Sharples: You know, go home and and sit at my drawing table for an hour and, you know, um, so I got to a point in my life, I said, this isn’t working. You know, I need to do something else. And someone gave me an opportunity with a publishing company to to do their graphics, you know? So I’m just doing typesetting or whatever, but it was so much better.

Sharon Cline: You were happy to create something?

Diana Sharples: Yes.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. That’s out there in the world.

Diana Sharples: Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Cline: And now you get to do it in a different way. You still get to create things that are out there in the world. Yeah.

Diana Sharples: And my husband, God bless him, um, he has allowed me to do this. He is he’s a musician, but he’s not an artist. But he has an appreciation for anything like that. So with me and with my daughter and her desire to dance, we let her choose. We didn’t force her. We let her choose. As long as she loved it, you know, she could do it. And we sent her to college. And college is a lot more expensive now. Yeah, yeah, we sent her to college and watched her go on tour. And now she’s living her best life and she doesn’t make a lot of money, but she is happy.

Sharon Cline: Well, there is something to be said about, you know, there’s. You can’t buy happiness that way. Do you know what I mean? If you’re like being a secretary, you can have all the money in the world. But yeah, you know, the joy of life isn’t there for you. It’s a different price to pay, you know? Yeah.

Diana Sharples: And it’s also for a creative person. It’s also being told, okay, you do this, this, this, this, this, this and this way, you know, and this is your boss and this is how you speak to these people, and this is how you have to dress. And da da da da da da da. And it’s corporate. Yeah, yeah. And so it’s like a sense of being restricted and creative. People just want to be free.

Sharon Cline: And you are free. I look at the fact that you get to just play, you know, in your mind and how how fun that must be.

Diana Sharples: It is fun. It’s also hard. Yeah. I’m not going to lie. It’s hard, you know.

Sharon Cline: But it’s worth it hard.

Diana Sharples: It’s worth it hard. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Ah. I have just so enjoyed having you on the show today. Diana. Thank you so much for coming.

Diana Sharples: Oh, it was my pleasure.

Sharon Cline: If someone wanted to get in touch with you, how could they do that?

Diana Sharples: Um, my website is Diana sharples.com, and there’s a contact form on there. Um, I saw.

Sharon Cline: You on Facebook.

Diana Sharples: Too. Look me up. Facebook. Facebook has my middle initial. Diana L Sharples um, yeah.

Sharon Cline: Hopefully. Um, if there’s anything I can do to help you along the way. I’m just such a champion for people following their dreams. And I think it’s so inspiring to hear just this, just.

Diana Sharples: Being able to put this information out there about the two new books. Powershift double clutch.

Sharon Cline: I love the name Endura Ridge. Yeah.

Diana Sharples: Um, you know, that’s people hearing about the books. That’s what’s important. That’s that’s marketing. So yeah.

Sharon Cline: Well, I’m honored to be part of it. And I feel it was so much serendipity that I got to meet you this past weekend and hear about what you’re doing. And I hope that this gives you just, just this experience of being able to put these books out and seeing where they go, that this gives everyone a belief in a different kind of genre of book that is marketable and who knows where it will land. I mean, like you said, one one new kind of genre can open up a whole other world, but someone has to be the first. So I hope it’s you.

Diana Sharples: Thank you. Thank you so.

Sharon Cline: Much. You’re welcome. And thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. And again, this is Sharon Cline reminding you with knowledge and understanding we can have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

WBE Feature – Women’s Health Awareness: How Women Are Making a Difference

May 14, 2024 by angishields

Women in Motion

WBE Feature - Women's Health Awareness: How Women Are Making a Difference

00:00 /

In this episode of the Women in Motion with Lee Kantor and Dr. Pamela Williamson, the focus is on mental health awareness. Michelle Beltran, a spiritual teacher and intuitive life coach, shares her journey from being a therapist to helping clients globally tap into their intuition through her podcast, The Intuitive Hour. She emphasizes the importance of reconnecting with childhood passions and discusses her own transformative period that led to her current path.

Tamika Lewis from Women of Color Therapy talks about the recent opening of her wellness center, which offers counseling and wellness services to women of color. She shares her personal catalyst for starting her organization—losing friends to suicide—and highlights the growth of her team and the community’s increasing openness to therapy. Both guests stress the significance of self-care and authenticity in their work and lives.

Tamika Lewis is the Clinical Director and founder of Women of Color Therapy. WOC Therapy is a thriving mental health and wellness community uniquely designed for teens and women of color. We are committed to providing a safe and nurturing space where our clients can feel seen and supported throughout their healing journey.

The women we support go on to pursue their dream careers, experience deeper and more meaningful relationships, and learn ways to manage stress more effectively. Our services include counseling, energy healing, body work, school-based advocacy, and corporate wellness. Clinicians with WOC Therapy are trained in Somatic Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the Grief Recovery Method, Liberation Psychology, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Connect with Tamika on LinkedIn.

Michelle Beltran is a best-selling author, globally celebrated intuitive expert, transformation trailblazer, and spiritual teacher. She has become a leading international authority in the spirituality arena specializing in intuitive functioning, performance mindset coaching and remote viewing.

Having appeared at numerous spirituality and wellness summits, in magazines like USA Today, Forbes, and Hay House World Summit, and hosting a popular psychic development podcast, The Intuitive Hour: Awaken Your Inner Voice, she has worked with thousands of people across the globe. Michelle’s greatest joy is seeing people engage in more fulfilling lives and teaching them how to awaken, amplify, and trust their inner voice.

Currently, Michelle is based in Northern California. When she is not deeply immersed in authoring her next engaging read, you’ll find her dancing the West Coast Swing to the current jams of the day or on her Orbea, summiting the biggest mountain she can find.

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

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: [00:00:07] 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: [00:00:27] Lee Kantor here with Dr. Pamela Williamson. Another episode of Women In Motion, brought to you by WBEC-West. This month’s theme, Women’s Health Awareness Month, and today’s topic, mental health awareness. Dr. Pam, exciting show.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:00:44] You know what? I am so excited for this broadcast today because mental health is something that I am very passionate about. And I guess I should frame that is mental health wellness I am very passionate about. For those of you who don’t know, my background is I came from mental health. I was a therapist for years and a counselor, so it’s just something that I have a passion for.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:01:10] I am very excited for our two guests today. We have Michelle Beltran from RWM,LLC, and we also have Tamika Lewis from Women of Color Therapy. And as everybody knows, women have a very unique set of mental health care issues because we are balancing so many things at the same time, tend to be caregivers, and a lot of times we don’t take care of ourselves, especially with mental health issues. So, I’m excited for both of you to be on the show.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:01:45] Michelle, I’m going to start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about your company, what you do? And I am so interested in how you incorporate what you do into corporate America.

Michelle Beltran: [00:01:54] Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. I am a spiritual teacher. I am an intuitive life coach. And I’ve been doing this formally for about maybe 13 or 14 years. No surprise. It’s sort of been integrated and woven in my whole life calling since an early age to support and help and guide and influence. And I just love being able to do that and walk alongside people and support them in their life journey.

Michelle Beltran: [00:02:25] I have a podcast called The Intuitive Hour, where I teach people to tap into that source that we all have, that inner kind of gut sense about who we are and our next steps in life. And I also have written a book on the topic. And I’ve been inspired on this topic of tapping into that subconscious and using it in life since an early age. No surprise, then here I am doing it in life, in any event. So, my clients are global, and clients that come in, we talk about all manner of issues from health and wellness, to career, to subconscious development and learning, and accessing that intuition.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:03:07] Okay. Thank you. Tamika Lewis, can you tell us a little bit about your company, what you do and how you incorporate what you do into corporate America?

Tamika Lewis: [00:03:19] Yes. Thank you so much for having me on the show. It’s so timely because we are literally coming off the heels. Last night was the grand opening of our WOC House, which is a wellness center that we just opened for teens and women of color here in Valley Glen. And we provide counseling, we provide retreats, yoga classes, a menu of wellness services for women. And it’s targeted to women of color because we need safe spaces, I think, to come and process some of the unique challenges that we experience as women of color.

Tamika Lewis: [00:04:04] And these are some of the services that we bring to the corporate experience as well, whether it’s a workshop or working with employee resource groups to help offer just a place for folks to be able to process and talk about some of the challenges in their workplace.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:04:23] I think both of the services that you provide are very unique in this marketplace, and so I’d love to hear both of your journeys around how you came up with the concept, how you incorporated it into a business. Because it sounds like for both of you, this is really a passion, and I think our listeners would love to hear about how you turned such a passion that appears to be such a personal passion into a business. Michelle, can you [inaudible] that?

Michelle Beltran: [00:05:00] Yeah. It’s interesting how when I’m working with clients, I guide them to go back to what they were doing when they were 9, 10, or 11 years old because so often that’s what they’re doing in life now going forward. That’s where our passions really were and they don’t always though then evolve. So, I formerly raced a bicycle professionally, and a woman that I raced with at nine years old, for example, drew herself with an Olympic gold medal around her neck and went on to win several gold medals. So, that’s such an important time in life I always go back to.

Michelle Beltran: [00:05:38] And that was the same for me at that young age, as I mentioned earlier, I was just so intrigued with the mind and the power of our mind and accessing that. So, again, this passion has always been in life where I’ve noticed that people were coming to me for support. I worked as a probation officer for years, so I was offering supportive care in that field as well, in coaching, bike racing as well.

Michelle Beltran: [00:06:08] And then, though, in my 30s, I went through a time where just one thing after another was kind of falling apart. I was in a career change, relationship change, financial shift, move all at once. And as is often the case, those sorts of things in life, they rattle us from the core, and it certainly rattled me. And so, it made me go within and I started to think about what do I really want to do, how do I really want to show up in the world, how do I want to be perceived, what is my calling.

Michelle Beltran: [00:06:45] And that was the catapult for me into creating. I just put it all together. I put life together and I created this life coaching business and just never looked back, and then forth came the podcast and the book and clients. And, for me, it was nothing more rewarding than being able to help others find their own passions and callings. And so, for me, it was that pivotal time where I was sort of cracked open. But, you know, I think we need to be cracked open. The world needs to see us open. We go through tough times sometimes and it reshapes us. And so, that was the catalyst for my business launch.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:07:26] Tamika, what about you?

Tamika Lewis: [00:07:29] Yeah. I love that word, Michelle, catalyst, because it’s usually like some life event that creates the shift, that kind of sparks the shift. For me, it was the loss. I lost two very dear friends, college mates. They both passed from suicide. And these were women who were highly perfectionistic on the surface. And I think, you know, again, as women in business, entrepreneurs, we can understand what it’s like to feel like you have to go above and beyond and to kind of keep this presentation of functioning and perfectionism.

Tamika Lewis: [00:08:15] And I decided that I wanted to create a space for us to have this conversation about the disconnect between who we really are as women and who we’re presenting to the world and how can we find a way to integrate the two and live more honest easeful lives. And so, that was really the catalyst for me creating Women of Color Therapy. And it’s a proven concept because we’ve just grown. We opened in 2019 and we started with a team of two therapists, and now we’re a team of nine. So, I think I’m just so excited that our community is more and more responsive to seeking healing services and therapy. And it’s just we’re simply meeting the demand. That’s really kind of what’s happening, so it’s really exciting.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:09:13] And then, I’ve always been curious around what do you really feel is the secret sauce to your success?

Tamika Lewis: [00:09:29] That’s a really great question. And I think as leaders, a couple of mantras that I use or we use in our practice is being human first, leading with being human. And that means that before I’m the expert, I’m the therapist, I’m all the roles, I am simply human. And from that place, I think we’re able to forge authentic connections with clients because we’re just two women sitting across from each other, one who is in the role of the guide, sort of, but both being equally open to learning and growing together.

Tamika Lewis: [00:10:14] And I think that is the mark when we talk about culturally competent therapy, it is creating an open for someone else to be the expert on their life and to be able to offer information about what shapes them and to honor that their lived experience and wisdom and to invite that into the healing space.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:10:43] I like that response. I think as women, sometimes we shy away from that, and so I would love to hear from you, Michelle, what are some things that our audience can do to kind of step into that space fully?

Michelle Beltran: [00:11:01] Yeah. So, I feel like intention is so huge for me. And even without all the knowns of a business and the structure in place, which are very important for launching a business and such, just having that intention, that desire, that commitment, tapping into what your true calling is, and just what makes you grin ear to ear and do it, find that and do it. There’s things like commitment and tenacity and fortitude and being driven that are part of business launch and success as well. But I feel like these are things that are sort of embedded within. They aren’t things we put on. You know, it’s not an emotion that bursts out from us. They’re innate things that we pull forward in who we are that help us to create and build the business.

Michelle Beltran: [00:12:02] I would also say that one of the fundamental things I’ve always had in place with the business growth is continued learning and development. My own learning and my excitement about that and helping others and this topic, it’s just, as I’ve shared, such a passion, so I’m always giving to the continued growth for myself as well as a means to help those that I’m working with and for.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:12:32] Well, I think listening to you, one of the things that I’m struck by or one of the things that goes through my head is that failure is so scary and success sometimes you have to get through the failure, and I think that as women, we internalize so much. I’m curious from both of you what advice you have for women who are thinking about starting a business, who get paralyzed because of failure, and then suggestions on how they work through that failure?

Michelle Beltran: [00:13:09] Yeah. I feel like you have to be kind of queen of plan B, right? Because there have been many things in the business that I’ve started and didn’t quite go as I wanted, but that’s okay, plan B got shifted into place. And so, I’m not sure I would call it a failure. I would say they are opportunities that you stepped into and maybe didn’t quite go the way you wanted so now you just sort of redirect. So, I feel like there’s got to be somewhere in there where there’s a mindset of being able to put in plan B and redirect when you need to.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:13:52] Tamika, I see you nodding your head, so I’m excited to hear your thoughts.

Tamika Lewis: [00:13:57] This is very fresh topic for me around because, you know, in trying to raise the funding to get this house, it was challenging learning that when you talk about venture capitalists and investments and funding that’s available out there, it’s not readily available or given to women, especially women of color. And so, I learned a lot. The learning curve, there’s just so much that I immediately had to discover.

Tamika Lewis: [00:14:32] And one of them being organizations like WBENC because I realized, well, I need to move in circles among more women, more successful women. And it’s truly been those connections and then just keeping a circle of other strong ambitious women around me who set a bar, truly, and who allow me to see all of the struggle and some of the strides that I’ve had to go through. Some aspects of that is normal because that’s exactly what they’re doing. We’re all doing the same thing. We’re all operating at a similar frequency. So, I think as you’re growing, you want to be very mindful about who you’re surrounding yourself with and to what extent they are lending to all of the things that you need to be able to build and grow or detracting from that and being very discerning about that.

Tamika Lewis: [00:15:37] And I like what Michelle said, it’s just the reframe on failure. I am very eager to learn quickly what’s not going to work so that I can get on with the business of redirecting and finding the path that is going to work. So, I don’t even flinch anymore about, you know, doors closing. Actually, just show me the door that’s going to close so that I can get to the door that’s going to open.

Michelle Beltran: [00:16:04] Yeah. I love that. Can I add really quickly, too? In terms of funding and seed money, it’s so important to launch a business. But I didn’t start that way. I started with testimonials for my offering and I also had referrals from my teachers and educators, and then it just took off from there. So, seed money is important, but don’t let the fact that you don’t have money necessarily stop you. There are other means for that.

Michelle Beltran: [00:16:30] The other thing I would add is that you have got to stay seen in this business venture, and it can be a little scary, you know, getting yourself out there on social medias and networking and so forth. But it is so important to get seen. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, maybe they would be so well served to create a budget or else make sure that, you know, blog writing, they’ve got a podcast, maybe they’re speaking or networking. They’re really getting out there and being visible because, you know, we have to work that angle. It doesn’t cost a lot of money. It’s just, again, that intention inside and that passion to just be known and be seen and share your message and just not be afraid to.

Michelle Beltran: [00:17:17] I would say that it’s scary. And if someone would have told me, you know, 15 years ago that I was going to be doing what I have, I might have said don’t sign me up, because to think then what I have done now in terms of authoring and speaking and so forth and various opportunities, it would have been a little scary. But I think that you come to these things when you’re ready. And so, let them find you and I think they come in time and seize the moment in terms of being visible with it.

Tamika Lewis: [00:17:48] I really love that. It reminded me like on those times when I did want to retreat and just disappear, you know, because there are those days where you’re like, “Oh, my God. This is not happening.” Let’s retreat and I want it to shut it down. And I just said, “Tamika, you have to keep moving. You have to stay in motion, even if it’s just a tiny, tiny move.” And that’s actually part of the title of a book that I’m working on, Tiny Moves. But if you can just stay in motion because then you can continue with the momentum and you feel like there’s forward movement.

Tamika Lewis: [00:18:28] But with that, there are times where silence and stillness are key. Because you also have to be able to tune in and listen to your own body wisdom and what it’s telling you, how it’s telling you to move. So, I think it was the balance of that. The tiny moves just keep going, but then not being afraid to sit in the silence and the stillness of hard thoughts and hard decisions so that my body could register and know the right thing to do.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:19:06] I love what you said about tiny movements, because I think at times people feel that it has to be this drastic big motion to have an impact, and that’s not always true. So, sometimes the biggest impact is the smallest things that you do. And I think as women, we tend to just want to make a splash because we feel like that’s going to have the biggest impact or the biggest momentum to where we want to go. So, I love how you said that. And then, just sitting still and letting some things come to you. So, I’m wondering if you have any advice on how to get to that point because we are always in motion. And if we’re not in motion, we feel like something’s wrong.

Tamika Lewis: [00:20:01] Well, listen, I am still working on that. Being able to just making a practice of sitting down, I think, some of the work that’s been helpful is the work of Tricia Hersey, who is the amazing thought leader behind The Nap Ministry and this movement, especially among black women to be able to rest, to be able to invite rest back into our daily language and how we move throughout our days or weeks. It is usually about overextending and hustling and overcompensating. But what about if we can just slow it all down and take a nap and rest on occasion so that our bodies, our nervous systems are not perpetually revved and anxious, but then we can actually find pockets of peace and space to be able to sit still.

Tamika Lewis: [00:21:10] So, I think that’s been a very important lesson for me to learn about. And a lot of what we’ve been talking with our own clients about, who all of us are quite similar, we’re all often powerhouse, ambitious women who want to do great things in the world, but we’re tired. We’re tired and we want to feel human and we want to feel held and we want to feel valued. So, how do we strike the balance among all of those desires and rest.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:21:47] And not feel guilty. Not feel guilty about resting.

Tamika Lewis: [00:21:50] Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:21:53] And so, I am probably one who always feels guilty when I’m resting. I feel like I always have to be constantly doing something. And so, I know I would love some advice on how not to feel guilty about resting. So, I’m going to take the stance that if I have that question, our audience has that question. So, what suggestions or thoughts do you have around that to help women not feel guilty when, you know, 2:00 in the afternoon, they’re overwhelmed and they need a nap?

Michelle Beltran: [00:22:27] Yeah. You know, I’d love to respond to that. I feel like your own personal quality rest time is non-negotiable. And everyone is going to have that time for themselves different – of course, for me it’s sport and athleticism – but it’s non-negotiable. And to me here’s why, I don’t feel like we can be 100 percent for those around us that we’re serving if we’re not 100 percent within first. So, I need to feel full and then come to the table, otherwise I’m giving you 70 or 80 percent.

Michelle Beltran: [00:23:04] So, I’ve just learned over the years that time is non-negotiable. And I made the mistake early on. I was working around the clock with clients coming in globally, and I was so driven that it was okay, but for a while it did come to a point where the measure became, is this sustainable? And I need to be able to do that, something that’s healthy and sustainable for the long term. And relationship was coming in and life changes with relationship and various things and family, so I had to strike that balance.

Michelle Beltran: [00:23:40] And for me, it just became making that quality time for myself as just a way of actually giving self-love and care. But, also, for me, the meditation, quieting the mind – I think we touched on that a little bit earlier – and just being in that quiet space is so valuable. And what’s so ironic is that when we really want to tap into that gut sense or that intuitive side of us that we all have, that subconscious self, the way to access that very easily and clearly and allow that in is in this kind of no thought space where we’re at ease and peace.

Michelle Beltran: [00:24:23] And we can call it meditation, but meditation can be achieved, runner’s high is a similar sort of meditation, a walk in the park, what have you. But definitely I would also support that quieting of the mind sort of space. I achieve that on my bicycle, so that helps me find that space and then I’m filled up to go forward.

Tamika Lewis: [00:24:51] I would add that let’s be flexible with what the idea of rest looks like. So, I think about my grandma, I called her Big Mama, and she would just sit in her chair and sway a little bit, sometimes she’d read scripture, sometimes she’d hum. And those were moments of rest for her, or maybe it’s a walk.

Tamika Lewis: [00:25:21] So, Dr. Pamela, I imagine you and many women, you think about resting, it means you have to stop, carve a time out of the day to do this thing called rest. When rest could be that you take a few extra steps in a walk to your car in the morning, or you do some things that allow the body to settle a little bit more, and for your mind, the thoughts to stop kind of racing.

Tamika Lewis: [00:25:53] And so, rest looks different for everyone. It’s same with meditation. It doesn’t mean sitting for 20 minutes and just being in thought. It could just be swaying or just folding other kind of creative somatic things into your day and that could be the beginning of it.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:26:16] I love that. So, to share a little bit about me, I used to belong to a drum circle, which I absolutely loved. That was probably one of the most relaxing things I did in my lifetime. And so, I love the whole thought of rethinking, rewiring, and really just figuring out what works for you in order for you to have that stillness or that relaxation time.

Tamika Lewis: [00:26:44] So, just a funny thing I love to do with my son is we play Bananagrams, and I think it’s such a silly random thing, but that’s rest for me because it’s play. I think that play is in that same cluster with rest and letting the body restore. And so, laughter and play I think are really key parts. Especially as women entrepreneurs, we can’t take it all so seriously. My therapist actually had me set an alarm on my phone that goes off and says at noon, “Girl, it’s not that serious.” And it’s a reminder in the day with all the things that feel so epic that it’s just all not that serious.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:27:35] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and you mentioned your son, and so children, elderly, animals, there’s such ease and no thought and fun and play in that space, so I appreciate that. I echo that as well. It’s just a place to just kind of just laugh. I feel like, you know, as we’ve all heard, laughter is kind of one of those best medicines. So trite, but so true, so true.

Lee Kantor: [00:28:05] Now, for the listener out there that’s never gone to see somebody kind of human to human, but maybe they read a lot, they listened to podcasts, but they’ve never actually gone and seen somebody to help them with whatever they’re struggling with, are there some symptoms or breadcrumbs that you’ve learned over the years that kind of are signals that, hey, maybe it’s time that you have to go and you’d be better served by seeing a human or having a relationship, like with a caregiver or provider like one of you. Michelle, you want to go first?

Michelle Beltran: [00:28:46] So, I find clients are usually coming in to visit and sit in session with me because they’re at a stuck juncture in life, and it could be career, it could be relationship, health. And so, they’re kind of in this lull. And maybe stuck isn’t even the best word. It’s more like a lull or a rest period or they’re spinning their wheels. So, I would say that if anyone’s feeling any of that spinning of the wheels, not knowing what’s next, those are all indicators.

Michelle Beltran: [00:29:21] Because we all know what that yes energy is about life and what we’re doing. And if we’re not feeling that, then we’re just at this space where, again, we’re spinning our wheels, we just need some support and direction. That’s not a bad thing at all. But that’s where it seems like clients will come in to me and we just sort of brainstorm and look at things in terms of planning ahead and such.

Michelle Beltran: [00:29:47] And by the way, I have had points in my life where I feel like I’m in this rest. And I know about myself that I just pay attention and kind of know what to look for personally. And so, I know that that knowing will come and it will feel like, yes, there it is. And if it’s not there, it’s okay. But sometimes it takes a year or two and we don’t always have time. But I would say if you’re feeling any of those emotions of spinning your wheels, that’s the time to invite someone into your circle and just see what’s there, and don’t be afraid to do that.

Lee Kantor: [00:30:36] Tamika?

Tamika Lewis: [00:30:37] I really like that question just because I think what I see happen is either the two extremes, the person that’s constantly over diagnosing themselves and kind of pathologizing everything. So, we like to say, instead of asking the question what’s wrong with me, ask the question what’s happened to me. Why does it make sense that I’m feeling x, Y, or Z? And then, the other extreme is those who minimize what they’re experiencing and just go far too long without reaching out for help.

Tamika Lewis: [00:31:15] So, another mantra that I live by is let nothing compromise your sanity or your sexy. And what that means is your sanity, your mental health, if there’s relationships, if there’s a job, if there’s any life circumstance that is impairing your mental wellness to a point where you’re not sleeping, you’re not eating, all the basics are being compromised, then it’s time. It’s time to try something different. And you’re sexy, how you show up in the world, how you feel, how you look. It’s the only thing that we can really control, our confidence.

Tamika Lewis: [00:31:53] If that’s starting to feel compromised, then it’s time for a shift. And I don’t know if that means reaching out to a therapist, or reaching out to an amazing coach, or reaching out to start doing some yoga, whatever the entry point is, there has to be some shakeup in what you’re doing because the current mode of operating isn’t working.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:19] Is there a story you can share that maybe kind of is the most rewarding – I don’t want to say success story, but maybe the most rewarding moment of your practice where you did make a difference? Obviously don’t name the name, but maybe share the challenge that they were having and how you were able to help them get to a new level. Tamika?

Tamika Lewis: [00:32:45] Yeah, sure. Yes, I think I’m still just reveling from last night, because in the audience, there were friends, there were family, there were clients. The person standing next to me co-hosting this event was a client who is now 27, 28, and I started with her when she was 16. And to watch the arc of transformation unfold in that way to where now I’ve watched her kind of evolve and go on to accomplish so many incredible things, and then for me to be able to reach out to her and ask her for her support, and for her to be fully equipped and just so well adjusted and ready to be able to do something like that and to stand next to me in front of almost a hundred women who are all seeking, for us to be able to do that, there was so much synergy and just beauty and the arc and witnessing the arc of healing happen right before our eyes. And I think it is the part of what we get to do is to be firsthand witnesses of that arc of transformation in people on a daily basis.

Michelle Beltran: [00:34:21] Nice. Yeah. So, I would add – gosh – so overall, I tend to work a lot with women who are in relationship. And there’s often a sense of losing who we are and our sense of autonomy and our personal power and what we’ve got going on in the world when it comes to relationships. So, from overall, generally, I just had a number of clients who I so appreciate seeing the shift of reclaiming that sense of autonomy and who they are and knowing that they create their happy within, not someone else. Sure, a partner might help us be happier, but at the end of the day, it’s who we are and feeling tree top tall and showing up that way in the world. And so, from a general perspective, I love to see that shift routinely among women and men that come into session with me.

Michelle Beltran: [00:35:22] And I want to go back to a specific example and this has been years ago that just came to mind, where I was in a session with someone, and it was a few sessions, and I don’t remember all the details, but when we were done, this person came back and said, “Thank you. Before this, I didn’t want to live. I just didn’t want to live.” And they said, “I want to live now.” And it gives me chills now even today to talk about it, to be walking alongside that person and help them make that shift, to know that life is just so full of opportunity and goodness. And so often it’s our our perspective about things or our beliefs or our thoughts we’re telling ourselves. So, that was long ago, but I’ve never forgotten it as a very meaningful session.

Lee Kantor: [00:36:20] Now, is there anything actionable somebody could do right now regarding their mental health if they are struggling today? Like what would be kind of a go-to first step for somebody that is struggling right now?

Tamika Lewis: [00:36:40] I would share personally when I was going through the roughest patch in my life coming out of my marriage, I was now facing single motherhood with two kids, and it was a really critical time for me. And I remember the first thing important for me to do was to sit down and create some kind of visual of every person that’s in my life who’s going to be on my team. And that was everyone. That was folks that were kind of the medical team, folks that were on the emergency babysitter team, parents, family. I think sometimes we forget who is actually in our orbit who’s there ready to help, and for whatever reason, we’re not reaching out.

Tamika Lewis: [00:37:42] And so, we can immediately grab a piece of paper and start to reflect and write down who is there for me right now, who is really there for me, and who can I, in this next hour, pick up the phone and call to just let them know what’s going on. Just to have the courage to be able to do that initial step is huge. And it’s a tiny move that will likely lead to the next layer of support and it will just build from there.

Michelle Beltran: [00:38:22] Yeah, nice. I would definitely echo that whole team dynamic for sure. And I think that ripples out in business as well. As I was sort of sitting and pondering today, one of the things I wanted to share was that don’t try to do it alone and create that team and those alliances. Particularly in business, when you’re not the expert at something, hire out, bring in that team and create those long term relationships with those folks. So, definitely, I would concur that the team around you, we’re not alone. We’re not alone in business. We’re not alone in life. We have that immediate resource around us.

Michelle Beltran: [00:39:05] Sometimes I do have clients who actually don’t have or feel like they have someone right there. And there’s the organizations out there that support counseling local, state, and otherwise, or depending on their various issues, so I will refer out organizations that are right there ready to help as well.

Michelle Beltran: [00:39:26] One of the things I did also, though, as I was coming out of this time where my world seemed like it was sort of tumbling in all these areas I mentioned earlier, the idea of actually therapy wasn’t something that came to me right away, but what did and I find actually it also is very meaningful for clients are books and learning and reading on your own. I’m a big fan of The Gottman Institute. They do great work on therapy and counseling. So, reading books and learning about what’s happening.

Michelle Beltran: [00:39:59] I work with a lot of people who are grieving through loss, and they just don’t understand that they’re grieving. And there’s actually steps in this process of loss. And once they understand that, they say, “Oh, okay. Here’s what I’m going through.” And that’s helpful for a lot of people to just know what’s happening. It’s much less scary for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:40:19] Now, you mentioned books, and, Michelle, you are an author of a book, and, Tamika, you said you’re in the process of writing a book, why don’t we start with Michelle, can you share maybe some lessons about the process of writing a book that you’ve learned from going through that, and maybe that’ll help Tamika, but also explain why that was an important decision to invest that much time and energy to author a book.

Michelle Beltran: [00:40:47] So, it was a combination of clients coming forward asking for development tools to learn more about their intuition and their spiritual self and how to grow in that aspect. And, also, a lot of writings that I had created and just started putting together and passion and so it all went into the mix. And here came this book about tapping into that resource, that internal knowing that we do have to guide us. I would say that definitely it’s an investment in time. I had to redirect a couple times in there.

Michelle Beltran: [00:41:33] I didn’t do this alone. I had a team, for sure. A book will take a village. So, I had editors working with me, designers. And so, definitely it was not something that was a solo thing. I don’t really feel like there were necessarily mistakes, but I would say it takes a village, take your time.

Michelle Beltran: [00:41:57] And, personally, I didn’t do a mainstream publisher. I worked with a private publishing. And for me, that worked. The next book will be probably through more mainstream. So, it’s definitely a journey, but it will push you and it will help you grow. It certainly did me.

Tamika Lewis: [00:42:28] Michelle, I’m curious, like, how did you stay disciplined just with you know just the follow through.

Michelle Beltran: [00:42:35] The follow through, you know, it was just a passion to get that book published and get it out there. And by the way, I published it and I just put it out on my podcast. It was never about money. Because sometimes I think people do think that when they publish a book, lots of money is going to come in, and that is a possibility. But it also takes time and effort and expense and advertising. I just decided to put my book on my podcast and offer it as free material to those coming in wanting to know more about this because I was so passionate about this topic.

Tamika Lewis: [00:43:16] I’ve heard that as well, I mean, it’s not about making money around the book. The book is your platform. And it’s like [inaudible].

Michelle Beltran: [00:43:29] Yeah. You end up teaching it. Yeah. You definitely you end up teaching it, for sure.

Tamika Lewis: [00:43:36] Well, I started my book in 2020, if you can believe it, or 2021, and I’m still working on it. And I think it’s because at some point and the story behind the WOC House is I went on a plant medicine journey in Peru a couple years ago and I felt a calling. Because it was so beautiful to do all the healing that we did in the garden and outside and in the Sacred Valley and I felt this calling to come back and bring that experience to our clients. And then, it all lined up with a friend of mine who was selling his house, who ended up selling me the house way below market value. Doors were just opening and aligning for me to answer the call for me to do this house and that just took over. So, I sort of had to pour everything into building that.

Tamika Lewis: [00:44:33] And now I feel like that’s done and it’s time for me to come back to the book. And I think what’s challenging and what I’m learning is it comes back to sitting with yourself, just being with yourself. Because that can be a scary thing when you’re writing a book, especially when you’re sharing about your life, is you got to sit in all this stuff and be with all the things, and actually move through it again and talk about it. And so, I think I’m excited to get back to it.

Tamika Lewis: [00:45:10] It’s tiny moves and the defining moments that change us. And it’s a collection of stories of other women who, because of a tiny move or those sliding door moments when they made a choice, a choice that at the time it could have been small, it could have felt big, but it changed the trajectory of their entire life. And for me, that was when I made the choice to go it alone and leave my marriage, and in a succession of other choices. But I’m excited to celebrate the stories of other women and to continue finishing out my own story. But it definitely requires discipline and the ability to be with yourself and to make time for that.

Michelle Beltran: [00:46:00] Yeah. But let it be fun. Let it be fun. And let it find you. Because we are those driven women and we just want to push and rush and get her done. But I think the magic is in space to let it create, and I think you probably know that. But anyway, I’m excited to know more and read it.

Michelle Beltran: [00:46:26] One of the things for me is I thought, Well, who’s going to want to read my book? Really? You want to you want to know my story and my journey? And people do. They really do. They want to know who you are, and I realized that fairly early on. And so, it’s the epitome of putting yourself out there. But it’s beautiful. Beautiful. Find that. Yeah.

Tamika Lewis: [00:46:50] Right. You tell people you’re going to do something, I think that’s that’s maybe a tip, right? If you’ve been sitting on an idea, as soon as you declare it and you tell someone that this is coming, then folks around you, they hold you accountable. They want to know. They want to see it. So, I always say, don’t wait. Set a date. Just set a date for the event or set a launch date or whatever it is, because then you have to deliver.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:22] So, Tamika, if somebody wants to learn more about your practice, what is the coordinates, website, social media?

Tamika Lewis: [00:47:29] Yes. You can visit us at W-O-C-Therapy, woctherapy.com, and you’ll learn more about all of our services, you can watch a video where you can see the new WOC Wellness Center. You can also follow us on Instagram, @woctherapy or @wochouse.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:51] Michelle?

Michelle Beltran: [00:47:53] Yes. And so, I’m at michellebeltran.com and all my services are there, the book is available there. I teach intuitive development and offer sessions, of course. And I’m excited to share, I recently launched a Body Mind page at the website, which integrates health and wellness with our intuitive development and tapping into that inner source we have through our senses. And so, that’s a program, the Body Mind page at michellebeltran.com. I invite everyone to come take a look at as well. The focus is on mental mindset performance coaching and so I think that might be an interesting place for listeners to go visit.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:40] Dr. Pam?

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:48:42] Yeah. Great episode. I want to thank you both for joining us today. And I think my biggest takeaway was that it’s okay to sit still and it’s okay to take a break. And whatever that break or moment of rest looks like for you, it’s your moment and you should embrace it and enjoy it and just be okay with it. So, I appreciate your wisdom and just your willingness to share who you are and what you do with us today, so thank you.

Tamika Lewis: [00:49:21] Thank you. Thank you for this space. It’s just more of what we love, so thank you.

Michelle Beltran: [00:49:29] Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Dr. Pam. Appreciate it. Wonderful time.

Dr. Pamela Williamson: [00:49:34] And, Lee. any last words?

Lee Kantor: [00:49:36] No. I think that’s a wrap. Thank you both again for sharing your story. You’re both doing important work and we appreciate you. This is Lee Kantor for Dr. Pamela Williamson. We will see you all next time on Women In Motion.

Truist Insight: How Small Business Owners Are Navigating Economic Uncertainty

May 14, 2024 by angishields

Atlanta Business Radio

Truist Insight: How Small Business Owners Are Navigating Economic Uncertainty

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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Truist representatives Scott Stearsman, Katie Saez, and Mike Skordeles join Lee Kantor to discuss the findings of the small business pulse survey. The survey highlights the resilience and adaptive strategies of small business owners amidst financial challenges and economic uncertainty. Scott discusses Truist’s investment in technology and market expansion, while Mike talks about the Southeast’s robust growth, particularly in Atlanta. Katie speaks to the optimism in Atlanta’s business community, driven by the city’s growth and diversity.

The conversation also covers Truist’s commitment to providing personalized support and resources to small businesses, emphasizing the importance of building strong relationships with bankers for business success. Follow Truist on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mike Skordeles is head of U.S.economics and a senior vice president at Truist Advisory Services, Inc. He’s responsible for analyzing the U.S. and global economies and financial markets as well as helping formulate and communicate investment strategy, and publishing commentaries for our clients.

Mike is based in Atlanta as part of the firm’s Investment Advisory Group. He is a sought-after speaker, sharing his insights with investor and industry groups as well as C-suite executives. He’s been quoted in Bloomberg, the New York Times, and CNN.com, and has appeared on CNBC, among other media outlets.

Mike joined Truist predecessor SunTrust in 2012 and brings more than 25 years of investment experience to the Investment Advisory Group. He came from Morgan Keegan (now part of Raymond James), where he was a managing director and market strategist for over five years, writing extensively about the markets and the economy. He was a memberof the firm’s investment strategy committee and helped managed about $1.6 billion, serving as the portfolio manager overseeing the group’s tactical portfolio.

From 1999 to 2007, he was with McDonald Investments in Cleveland,Ohio, in a similar role as an analyst and strategist. He was a member of the firm’s investment policy committee and other investment steering committees. Previously, he was a financial analyst at KeyCorp and began his career with Prudential.

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn.

Scott Stearsman is the head of small business banking for Truist Financial Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for the small business banking segment and the delivery of financial products and services to more than 1 million small business owners and entrepreneurs.

His responsibilities also include oversight of Truist’s Small Business Virtual Channel, which offers consultive expertise and tailored advice via a large network of banking professionals.

Enhanced by Truist’s digital capabilities, the team is designed to meet small business owners at all points of their business life cycle, including direct portfolio relationship management for small business clients up to $10 million and delivering SBA lending services through Truist’s SBA Business Development Officers’ advisory-driven approach.

Prior to being named to this position in 2022, Stearsman was the mid-south consumer banking market executive at Truist. In this role, he was responsible for leading teams across 800 branch locations in six states, providing personal and small business banking for the retail community banking segment. Stearsman joined Truist in February 2013 as the northeast market sales executive and served as the Head of Branch and Premier Banking prior to merger.

With more than 20 years of banking experience, Stearsman previously held several senior roles at Bank of America including northeast region executive, North Carolina market executive, and consumer segment strategy executive. Stearsman is passionate about giving back to the community and is currently a board member of United Way Greater Atlanta and the SCORE Foundation. Stearsman is a graduate of the University of Kentucky where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in finance and marketing.

Stearsman is based in Atlanta, where he lives with his wife, Julie, and two sons, Ryan and Sam.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.

Katie Saez is Executive Vice President and Georgia Regional President for Truist Financial Corporation.

In this role, Ms. Saez serves as the senior leader in the Georgia Market, responsible for directing and integrating client management business development efforts with privately-held companies operating in the commercial and middle market sectors, as well as nonprofit and governmental entities. Ms. Saez leads our Truist Atlanta Client Advisory Board and has direct oversight of the Truist Foundation and Trusteed Foundation Local Advisory Councils.

A 24-year veteranof the financial services industry, Ms. Saez joinedTruist (formerly SunTrust) in 2000. Previously, Ms. Saez was Head of Sales for the Corporate & Institutional Group, Wealth, and Specialty Treasury groups within wholesale payments. During her career at Truist, she has managed sales and marketing functions in multiple Lines of Business, developing successful programs to drive revenue, increase teammate effectiveness, and improve the client experience. She is a graduate of the SunTrust Commercial Banking Training Program.

Ms. Saez earned an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University and a BSBA in Finance from the University of Florida. She serves on the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of Georgia and the Woodruff Arts Center Board of Trustees. Ms. Saez is an executive board member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, an Executive Partner of Georgia Allies, and a member of the Atlanta Rotary. She also serves on the University of Florida Warrington College of Business Advisory Council.

Ms. Saez has been recognized by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as a 50 Most Influential Latino, by Georgia Trend as a 500 Most Influential Georgian, and by Atlanta Magazine as a 500 Most Powerful Leader. She is also a member of the Association of Financial Professionals, holding the Certified Treasury Professional accreditation. Ms. Saez is a native of Jacksonville, Florida.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by Onpay. Built in Atlanta, Onpay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at on Paycom. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have a trio from Truist. We have Scott Stearsman, head of small business banking. We have Katie Saez, regional president, and we have Mike Skordeles, head of US economics. Welcome, Truist fam.

Scott Stearsman: Thanks, Lee. I appreciate you having us.

Lee Kantor: Well, absolutely. Let’s kick it off with Scott. Um, we’re here to talk about the Small Business Pulse survey, that report that was just released. Uh, can you tell us some of the takeaways?

Scott Stearsman: Yeah. Again, Lee, thanks for having us on today. And just for background, we conduct a tourist and annual survey every year that gives us insights on how our small business owners are feeling, the challenges they’re facing, and just overall small business sentiment and what’s on their minds. And that insight allows us to really determine how we can best support our small businesses. So similar to prior years, what we saw is financial and economic concerns remain top of mind for our small business owners. Uh, that showed up in a few different ways. First, rising costs with persistent inflation. We saw economic uncertainty as rates have been higher for longer, which is impacting the small business cash flow. And then on the related to growth top of mind is just finding new customers has mainly been a focus. So as you’re thinking about how do we offset these rising costs and economic uncertainty, there’s also a focus of our small business owners on how they can really attract and grow their their client base. And so while that optimism that we’ve seen decreased from prior years, on the whole, though, what we saw is that while there’s concern about that macroeconomic environment, small business owners we see are continue to be resilient and are still more positive about the future of their own business. So being able to control what they can control and the ways that they’re being able to do that is investing in technology. And then, as I said before, expanding into new markets as we’re thinking about that growth mindset. And so, Mike, maybe you can talk a little bit about the macroeconomic environment and how that overall in general for the regional and Atlanta is also impacting the sentiment.

Mike Skordeles: Absolutely. Thanks, Scott. So I think there’s a couple of things that stuck out to me from the survey, not the least of which is and you hit several of them, Scott, is the ongoing inflation and stress that business owners are, are feeling. Um, those kind of do mirror some of the things that are going on nationally. That said, that optimism of what’s going on for, uh, the survey respondents. Absolutely reflect what’s going on in the southeast. So the southeast is growing faster than the overall US economy. Um, and then you zoom in a little further into Atlanta, and Atlanta is growing faster than the region and the state. Uh, there’s a number of reasons for it, not the least of which is we have a very dynamic business community. So it’s not just one industry. It’s not just a banking or or finance or what have you. It’s things like fintech that are cutting edge and that are adding to not just Atlanta or the state or the region, but also nationally. And some of them are internationally. And then you have some of the other bigger, more established players, certainly the Delta’s and the UPS and what have you. And again, very different industries. So transportation versus leisure and hospitality. Um, and then you layer on another one that’s a huge thing for not just Atlanta, but also for Georgia is the film and television industry, of course, restarting, uh, this, this past fall after the the shutdown that happened in 2023 is a big boost for businesses generally, but also for the small businesses. So there’s a lot of things that are going on for the region growing faster. But then there’s some Atlanta specific things that are growing a lot faster.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned, like Truist, the survey was based on Truist customers, I believe. Is that accurate or is this kind of getting a temperature of the small business community in general, or are they solely Truist customers?

Scott Stearsman: No, it is a it’s a nationwide survey that that that reaches out to all of our small business community. So it’s not just Truist clients, it’s really just the the Truist or the small business community at large.

Lee Kantor: And then from a truist standpoint, small business community is an important constituent right.

Scott Stearsman: Absolutely, yeah. Our purpose is to inspire and build better lives and communities. And if you think about the economic impact our small business owners have for that local economy, you know, two thirds of every dollar that is spent at a local small business gets reinvested back in the local economy. So if you if you think about a thriving community, you’re going to see a thriving small business community that’s that’s really uplifting that. And as we know, Lee, almost half of all US jobs are employed by a small business. So it is absolutely critical that we support and and really help grow these small businesses.

Mike Skordeles: And to put a little finer point on Lee’s point there. More than half of the employees are in small businesses, but the growth of those jobs is also coming from small businesses. So if small businesses are doing well, the national economy is going to end up doing better as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, Katie, as was mentioned previously, there’s an optimism despite some of these, what appear to be headwinds is that just kind of human nature that individually people think people are doing. Individually I’m doing okay, but my neighbor, not so much. Is that just how humans operate? Like they, you know, they can see themselves clearly and they may maybe they’re pessimistic about the the world around themselves.

Katie Saez: Yeah, I think that’s that’s a good point. We, I think most business owners, small business owners have such immense pride in their business and what they’ve built. And so there’s a natural bias to have optimism about what is possible within your own business. I mean, you see the inside, you understand the customer base. You understand what your employees are dealing with on a daily basis. You’re running that business from, you know, the moment you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed at night. So you are personally invested in the success of that business and, and the future of, of your customers and your employees. So yes, there’s going to be that bias and optimism. I think there’s something special about being a business owner here in Atlanta. Atlanta is a great place to do business. There’s over 6 million people who call Atlanta home. We’re number three in the United States for population growth, or the number one most livable city in the United States. We’re also the number five moving destination in the country. So that explains a lot of the optimism, too. People choose to be here in Atlanta, to live here, to work here to have fun here. There’s a food, arts and music culture that makes Atlanta really special. And and Scott said this earlier, small businesses really have, I think, an extra, um, enhanced chance to thrive here. And we saw that in a survey. You know, small businesses here in Atlanta are over investing in their sales and marketing efforts to grow business profitability and take advantage of that growing and evolving Atlanta, you know, business and consumer base. And by the way, this Atlanta centric optimism is the same result that we saw in last year’s survey. As you know, we do the survey, um, on an annual basis, Atlanta continues to outperform compared to other regions, even within the southeast. And we saw that in the optimism of business owners to.

Lee Kantor: Now, I’m fortunate that all I do is interview business owners, so that’s all I talk to every day. I’ve been doing this for close to 20 years, so I. I too sense there’s always it’s always a good day when you have a business. Sure there’s frustrations, but at least when you’re talking to me, you have a happy face on and you’re proud and there’s things to be optimistic about. I interviewed people all over the country and Atlanta and Georgia. Tend to have a different, I believe, secret sauce, and I believe collaboration is part of that secret sauce. I think the diversity of the economy that you mentioned earlier is part of the secret sauce. The fact that we have, you know, a world class port, a world class airport, universities, um, that all that infrastructure makes it a Georgia specifically, a very good place to do business in a wide variety of industries. And because of that, that gives us some protection. If there is a downturn in one of those industries, invariably two other ones are doing fine. Um, what how does Truist play in this ecosystem when it comes to this level of collaboration and the ability to work with entrepreneurs? Because when I got here 25, 30 years ago, Georgia was more of a real estate town, and now it’s more of a technology town. And there’s a ton of startups now. The investment dollars are kind of moving a little differently than they were, you know, two decades ago.

Katie Saez: Um, look, Atlanta has seen a lot of changes over the last few years, both, you know, on a political landscape and on the economic landscape. And let’s not forget the memory of the impact of the Great Recession here in Georgia over the past, you know, 4 or 5 years coming out of the pandemic. Um, most of our clients have shared with us that that, you know, we always live in this sense of unknown, like, what will the unknown future look like and what will the impact be on their business? And what are those key drivers that will help, you know, change how they do business? Um, you know, we saw in the survey, uh, there’s a lot of data around the impact of rising costs and inflation. As he talked about, Atlanta continues to be a thriving economy. We have, um, significant investments that are being made across the entire state. And yes, we have tremendous levels of support coming from, um, you know, our government partners. Uh, I think Georgia is a great example of the power of public and private partnerships and what that can do for economic development and supporting large corporate development, um, here in Georgia, but also small business creation here in Georgia. So I think, you know, all of that contributes contributes to the thriving economies. Most of the businesses that we work with are continuing to focus on how do I grow top line revenue while protecting margins, because margins are very much, you know, under pressure right now with the rising cost, not just of, you know, cost of the goods that you’re selling, but the cost of labor and access to labor and talent.

Katie Saez: So some of our clients have a bit more of an ability to absorb those rising costs by passing on those increases to their customers. Um, but, you know, that’s something that our clients have been navigating ever since the pandemic. Um, and, you know, I think one of the things that that is special about being here in Atlanta, I mentioned just the challenges that we continue to hear from our client base around access to talent. So we know Atlanta is a highly competitive market. It’s moving quickly, and being able to be proactive with both labor and talent is really, you know, a competitive advantages that advantage that small businesses have. Um, you know, Atlanta is a strong market for talent, especially in those specialized industries that you mentioned technology payments, you know, payments. This is this is the place to be if you’re in the payments industry, in health care. We have a very robust and broad health care, um, network across the state. But unfortunately, there is a shortage of those specialized workers. But we have access to a very robust higher education system here in Georgia, and that is our competitive advantage and that serves small businesses well. Each year we see graduates coming out of University of Georgia and Georgia Tech and Emory and Kennesaw State and Georgia State University. Agnes Scott, all all of whom are choosing to graduate and stay here in Atlanta and start their careers. So I think that’s a great testament to, um, you know, the thriving industries that we see across the state, but also the desire of, of young professionals, um, to make Atlanta home.

Lee Kantor: Now, how does Truist play in this ecosystem, though? What are what’s true is doing other than, you know, putting their name on a stadium? What are they doing to help that small business person grow? Because, you know, it’s good for Truist to advertise everywhere. But how does that trickle down to the small business owner to help them kind of get the, the, the resources they need to get to the next level?

Katie Saez: Well, look, I mean, we strive to meet business owners wherever they are in the life cycle of their business and then provide the solutions, the advice, the partnership and the support that they need to run their business. Um, you know, we believe that your banking partner should be accretive to your business and not create additional stress or something additional to worry about when you know that you have a business, a banking partner who’s available and who stands ready to provide ideas and advice and is dependable and times of uncertainty, certainly over the last year would be a great example of that, that stress reducing. So, you know, we really focus on, um, on, you know, understanding where a business is in a life cycle of that business because we know, I mean, our, our bankers work with, you know, hundreds of different clients, you know, throughout the year. And we know that the needs are different depending on where you are in your life cycle. If you are in growth mode, um, your, your cash flow is, is is generally positive and you’re looking to maintain a profitable, you know, status quo, you’re looking for resources for growth, uh, versus, you know, a company who might be more established and, um, or perhaps looking to transition to, you know, exit the business or reinvent the company or, you know, um, make a transformative investment, the needs of that business are going to be a little bit different. And I think that’s where we play a role, is to have the right dialog engage and then bring forth ideas and solutions. One thing that that we pride ourselves on here at Truist is, you know, we are local. We are here, we partner with businesses here in this community. And, you know, you can count on us to be there by phone virtually or in your office. We’ll meet you where you need us to be.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a sweet spot in terms of a small business client? Like, do you want that person who just started, or do you play better with enterprise level folks that you know, they have more, um, complicated needs and you’re able to provide a variety of services to help that person or those individuals, rather than maybe kind of that aspiring entrepreneur that’s just getting started that needs more of a roadmap rather than, you know, kind of sophisticated financial products.

Katie Saez: Well, that’s that’s one of the benefits of being a, you know, a large bank, a sixth largest bank in the United States now is that we’re set up in a way to meet you where you are. Um, and whether that’s early stage, um, you know, uh, really emphasis on, on establishing your target market and making sure that, um, you know, you’re early and creating that, that business or you’re in an active growth mode or really you’re just doing some organic growth. We have resources and people in different parts of the organization that stand ready to support, no matter where you are in that life cycle.

Scott Stearsman: Yeah. Just to add on to to that, Katie’s exactly right. I think, Leigh, what’s special about this is whether you’re just starting your business, whether you’re expanding and growing or transitioning. We have the capabilities, no matter where you are in that life cycle. So here in Atlanta, you’ve got a branch that’s close to you. So if you prefer to go in and see someone in a branch, we have a branch leader that’s very capable about helping you and your small business. If you prefer digital capabilities, we have a team of virtual bankers that you can go to our site to schedule an appointment. You don’t have to leave your business. You can meet one on one with that small business banker. We have digital capabilities to be able to help you self-serve. Uh, a team of call center that specialize in small business. So no matter where you are in your life cycle, whether you’re, like I said, just starting out or you’re transitioning in the commercial space where Katie’s got a dedicated team of commercial bankers that specialize in larger businesses. No matter where you are, we have the the skills and capabilities to be able to serve those businesses.

Lee Kantor: Now, what advice would you give a business owner who maybe doesn’t have that personal relationship that you’re describing with their banker right now? What are some questions they should be asking their banker if they’re not? If, like number one, they don’t know their name, that’s probably a red flag. But how do you build a relationship that’s fruitful for the business owner and the banker? Um, what are some tips that you would recommend, uh, a business owner do to build a good relationship with their banker?

Scott Stearsman: Yeah, it’s a great question. And I’ll jump in and Katie, please pile on. Uh, what I think is really important is just understanding that your banker wants to be a trusted partner with you as a small business owner. That’s that’s what we care about. That’s what’s important to us. Certainly, we’re there for the financial services and needs of that as well. But we also want to be a partner along that journey. And so we believe that critical partners in small businesses are the CPAs. It’s your attorney. It’s also your banker. And if you don’t have a relationship, it’s as simple as going into one of our branches, meeting with that branch manager at the local branch who specializes in small business. And just start that conversation and they’re ready and capable of being able to help that small business, no matter where they are in that stage. If you are more comfortable of having the phone conversation, we have, uh, the numbers and ability to make an appointment. And it’s simple of just consultation. Just we’re here to be able to help answer questions. Uh, I’ll take a, uh, you know, what we learned from the survey? And we did see in the survey where small businesses are increasing revenue 20% year over year. So we do have that upper end where they’re growing and expanding fast. And one thing was very clear that those businesses have a formal, written out business plan, and they’re clear about their strategy. And our bankers are able to sit down with our small business owners and help them create that plan. We have, uh, financial education seminars. We have webinars that you can download and view as well, or attend in person to be able to help create those business plans or thinking about future borrowing. Uh, so it’s not just focused on the products that we deliver and solutions, but it’s also about how we help with that education of the life cycle of that business owner.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with one of the bankers at Truist, what is the easiest way to do that?

Scott Stearsman: Uh, perfect setup. So walk into one of our branches, talk to a branch manager, or go online to truist.com/small business. And on that site you can make an appointment with one of our small business bankers virtually. And they’re standing by ready to assist over the phone.

Lee Kantor: Well. Scott. Katie, Mike, thank you so much for sharing your story today, doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Scott Stearsman: Lee, thanks for having us on.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Outro: Today’s episode of Atlanta Business Radio is brought to you by Onpay. Built in Atlanta, Onpay is the top rated payroll and HR software anywhere. Get one month free at onpay. Com.

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BRX Pro Tip: 2 Simple, but Not Easy Ways to Turn Clients Into Raving Fans

May 14, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: 2 Simple, but Not Easy Ways to Turn Clients Into Raving Fans

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BRX Pro Tip: 2 Simple, but Not Easy Ways to Turn Clients Into Raving Fans

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, what have you learned about converting clients into raving fans?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:12] I think it’s essential if you’re in professional services, especially in order to grow your business, you have to do a great job, you have to be the go-to resource for your clients, and you have to be referable. And that’s kind of the leap that kind of from good to great, I think, when it comes to professional services.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] So, number one, if you want to get your client to be a refer partner or a raving fan, I think you have to over promise and over deliver. You have to go above and beyond when it comes to delivering customer service and value to your clients. You can’t just be good enough. It has to be something exceptional. It has to be something memorable so that they will refer you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:54] Second, you have to kind of go out of your way to create shareable experiences that make it easy for your client to refer you. You have to kind of coordinate these experiences so that they think about you at that time when they run into somebody that might benefit from your services. So, you want to create that authentic, mutually beneficial relationship with your client so it’s easy and organic for them to tell others how awesome you are.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:22] So, if you do those two things relentlessly, you’ll find that you’ll be able to grow your practice and you will get a lot more referrals.

Pricing Tip for Your Next Product or Service

May 14, 2024 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: 2 Ways to Create User Generated Content to Attract More Clients

May 10, 2024 by angishields

WBE Feature – Women’s Health Awareness: On Point Beauty

May 9, 2024 by angishields

Women in Motion

WBE Feature - Women's Health Awareness: On Point Beauty

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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor welcomes Priya Burkett, founder of On Point Beauty, who discusses her journey in creating a natural hair care line. Inspired by her Indian heritage and her family’s experiences, Priya emphasizes the importance of healthy ingredients and caters to diverse hair textures. She collaborates with a cosmetic chemist to combine traditional and modern health practices, aiming to improve women’s health outcomes.

Priya Burkett is a wife, mother, leader, and business owner based in Denver, Colorado. She is the founder of On Point Beauty, a hair and scalp care product line that integrates Ayurvedic and Black techniques and ingredients.

Ms. Burkett retired from her corporate role in 2019 after the passing of her grandmother who lost her life to cancer, and her younger brother who lost his battle with mental illness. She revaluated her priorities and set a path to achieve her aspiration to be available for her three kids during their teen years.

Previously, she led the Sales team for American Express Global Commercial Services for the West Region of US. Prior to that, she was with Xcel Energy for 15 years, with her most recent role as the Director of Strategic Accounts.

Ms. Burkett, who is Southeast Asian born in Washington DC, graduated from The George Washington University with a double major in Finance and Information Systems. Upon graduation, she worked for a multi-national consulting firm in New York City to program financial systems for investment banks, and her work has taken her to over 14 countries in Europe and throughout India leading business transformation projects.

Ms. Burkett moved to Denver from New York City, in 1999 with a consulting company, and subsequently worked for three start-up companies. She earned an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado. In 2018 she graduated from the Harvard Business School with a Certificate in Leadership Excellence.

She has served as a Board Member for Denver Public Library and Board Member and Chair for Denver Public Schools Foundation, among other nonprofits.

She has been named one of Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business in 2021, Top 25 Most Powerful Women by Colorado Women’s Chamber in 2018 and was a Finalist for 9 News Leader of the Year in 2018.

Follow On Point Beauty on Instagram.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] 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: [00:00:27] 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. Today on Women in Motion, we have Priya Burkett with On Point Beauty. Welcome.

Priya Burkett: [00:00:45] Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about On Point Beauty.

Priya Burkett: [00:00:53] Absolutely. While during Covid, I invested in a hair salon in a historically black neighborhood in Five Points Denver. And basically through that, I launched a scalp and hair care line. And here we are in 2024, um, with a strong e-commerce site selling on Walmart.com and just completed the Target Accelerators program.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:19] So what’s your backstory? How did you get into this line of work?

Priya Burkett: [00:01:22] Well, basically, when I left corporate in 2019 due to just having some instances that occurred in my life, one which was unfortunate, where my grandmother and my younger brother passed, and as a result, I had an opportunity to invest in a hair salon and learned that there’s a lot of ingredients in our hair care products that contain what we call acceptable levels of carcinogens that ultimately, as we know, could contribute to cancer. And as a result, I decided to take matters into my own hands and develop a foundational scalp and hair care line that was rooted in my Indian heritage. And as a result of my husband being black and me raising three black and Indian kids wanted to ensure that they had great ingredients for their hair care, which was more textured than mine.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:23] And then so what was kind of your baby steps into the industry? Like, did you learn like, I know it sounds like you were kind of thrown into this situation, but did you like how did you educate yourself on how best to serve this group?

Priya Burkett: [00:02:38] Yes. No. Great question. One of the things that I did was I did a lot of research on what was out there today. And when you go into your grocery store or Ulta, Sephora and other places, there’s a lot on the shelves. There’s a lot of confusion. And don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people that are super confused and always trying to figure out the next best product. I was not into necessarily looking into making styling products, but looking into ensuring that we had a healthy scalp that promoted like hair growth. And so coming from an Indian background, one of the foundational elements that we have that we grow up on is scalp massage, as well as using hair masks and hair oils and things of that nature. And so when my grandmother had passed, as I had mentioned, I had went to India and to close out her things. And as a result of that, I was more drawn to that culture. It was almost like came full circle from having grown up there as a child to now going back there as an adult and mother. And when I came back and, um, the opportunity to invest in a hair salon fell into my lap. And then looking into products that, um, add to our shelves, which is where I then learned there were many great options out there. I literally googled how to develop, you know, a hair and scalp care line.

Priya Burkett: [00:04:08] And I found, um, a website called the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. And I wrote to all the ones that I found intriguing, and I found one that had a background in, um, Ayurvedic hair care. And she’s based in Canada, so she was like, I love your mission. I love where you’re going with this. I am also, um, Indian. I am also a mother. I also want to be on this journey with you. And as a result, we took two years about to develop the whole line. Um, and we had the opportunity to test the different products on our clients at the hair care salon. Of course, them understanding and knowing what we were doing, um, because they too wanted to be a part of this journey of having foundational, um, hair and scalp care products. And so after that, we started selling them like crazy in our salon, which was amazing. Um, and then launched it on our website and word spread and realized that we may have something here. Um, and because of that, we then found a manufacturer, and now we’re making upwards of 5000 per SKU. And we are looking to now grow from here as to what that means. And I’m still working through what that means because, um, I am trying to figure out now how to make the right investments to get into stores such as target, which is the target accelerator program, which I just completed now.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:44] I think, um, something you said really struck me and I think is a great opportunity for other entrepreneurs out there. Um, when you went out to the world and you started trying to reach out to other experts in areas that maybe you weren’t that wasn’t your superpower, you were able to find somebody that was kind of philosophically aligned, and you were able to kind of work together and maybe create something that was bigger than both of you individually. Can you talk about, um, just kind of. The mentality it takes to do something like that, because that’s something that sounds easy, but I think it requires a humbleness and vulnerability that a lot of entrepreneurs aren’t willing to do. And I think they would benefit greatly if they did take the steps that you took.

Priya Burkett: [00:06:32] Yes. Thank you for that. I appreciate that very much, because at the time when I was looking into this and, um, decided to go forward, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. And but I was so determined to make this happen. And so I drafted, you know, just opened notes in my, um, on my computer and just started typing, like, what is it that I want to accomplish? And, um, after I did that, I realized, you know, what’s it going to hurt? Like what? What do I have to lose? Right. And so, um, a lot of I think a lot of that determination also comes from, from my experience, a loss in my life. And like I had already mentioned about my grandmother and three months later, unfortunately, my brother took his own life. So I was in this mental state of like, what do I have to lose? Like I’m gonna go for it. And so that was definitely a catalyst that made me go towards my passion and not. For lack of a better word. Stay. You know, in where I was, which was in corporate. And don’t get me wrong, fortunately I had a great corporate career. Um, but that made me reevaluate my, um, direction. And so I drafted an email, and I sent it to, like, all the cosmetic chemists, um, that association that I felt was aligned with natural holistic care. And I would say out of like, the, I don’t know, I’m going to maybe 75 to 80 emails. Seven wrote me back and out of the seven, three were interested in like pursuing it further because, you know, who was I? Nobody like a woman in Denver, Colorado, right. That invested in a hair salon. Um, and one was really like, as you had mentioned, philosophically aligned. Um, and that was something that now, um, brought me to where I am today, where I am only doing this full time and working towards figuring out how to take it to the next level.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:41] So yeah, I think that’s amazing. And it’s one of those things in hindsight, it seems like, oh yeah, of course those two would work together, right? Like they’re doing a similar thing. So that makes sense. And then but to the journey to get there isn’t always as simple as that.

Priya Burkett: [00:08:57] Correct. And she had a love for Ayurveda. But, you know, Ayurveda, which is a natural system of medicine that originated in India more than 3000 years ago. Um, and it’s derived from Sanskrit. Iyer means life and Veda means science or knowledge. So Ayurveda translates to the knowledge of life. And as I mentioned, as I was like going through this. Traumatic time at the time. Um, I was trying to figure out how to balance myself. Um, and a lot of it was like finding my center and finding time to carve out self-care for myself. And let’s be clear, women are more in the process of ensuring that we’re caring for others and are available for others. And your own self-care kind of gets moved to the side. At least. I don’t want to speak for all women, but from for me and my experience, that’s how I was. And so, um, this brought me back to recentering myself so that I could be then even more present for my loved ones.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:08] And then how do you kind of see these kind of cultural factors intersecting with, uh, this type of health awareness?

Priya Burkett: [00:10:17] Yeah. So. Um, there’s a lot of factors that intersect with women’s health awareness from cultural beliefs and practices to, as I mentioned, are gender norms and roles. Um, and many cultures have rich traditions of herbal medicine, alternative therapies, and holistic healing practices that still work and hold true. And my whole thing is, how can we integrate traditional medicine with modern health care systems, right. That can then enhance women’s health outcomes and promote care. So one of the things that I really want to strive to do through my brand, through my, um, through on point beauty, is to develop a culturally tailored self-care routine that, um, practices. Um, like being connected to our heritage where we are. Um, our practices are also backed by science.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:19] So how do you find this entrepreneurial journey compared to your corporate journey? It seems like there are a little two different hats really, to wear when you’re in a corporate setting, as opposed to a entrepreneurial setting.

Priya Burkett: [00:11:33] So yeah. So that’s been quite a learning process. I would say. One is that I don’t just get a check at the end of the pay period, which I at times do miss. Um, however, understanding financials, um, having solid business acumen, relationship building and being consistent daily on the task that you have to complete continue to, um, resonate regardless of which hat you’re wearing, whether it’s on the corporate side or the entrepreneurial side. And it basically all falls on me. I don’t really have a team, per se. I do bring on contractors here and there as needed. Um, but a lot of my corporate background I have been able to rely upon as I work towards my entrepreneurial venture.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] Now, what compelled you to get involved with WebEx West? Why was that important to you?

Priya Burkett: [00:12:29] Um, it was important to me because I have realized that, at least from my experience, um, after or during Covid, um, there were a lot more, um, companies that were seeking women owned businesses and black and Brown owned businesses. So minority owned businesses and, um, as a part of their portfolio, right from Amazon to the targets to Ulta, they are all trying to meet a goal of bringing on these, this category. And so one of the ways that you can qualify to even participate and be a part of that portfolio is to come through programs like WebEx, um, and WebEx provides amazing opportunities to connect with other like minded women like myself that are also trying to navigate this very complex system where we barely get any percentage of, um, venture capital dollars. And a lot of it is bootstrapped through our own savings and, um, like through our families. So coming through WebEx, I’m able to, um, develop and find relationships of other women that are trying, you know, that have found, um, avenues that have worked for them that I can then work on and I can share what has worked for me, for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:53] Now, at this stage, um, is your products primarily hair care? Is that the niche that you’re in, or is it going to expand to other, um, products?

Priya Burkett: [00:14:05] Yep. So my niche is foundational scalp and hair care. Um, in the beginning when I was starting out, I was considering and did try to launch a curl cream and, um, a styling gel. Um, and what I’ve realized is that although those sold, the other five that I am currently selling now were my best sellers, they were like flying off the shelf. And, um, I continue to have great retention of my customers, um, of those same products. And so one of the things I learned from um, Target Accelerators program is you don’t want to be everything to everybody, and people want to come to you for what you believe you’re the best at. And I believe that as a result, I am the best at that scalp and hair care that are foundational. And so I decided not to pursue the styling care line. Um, because there’s so much out there that’s already amazing.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:05] Yeah. Lean into your superpower. That’s another good piece of advice for entrepreneurs.

Priya Burkett: [00:15:10] Yes, exactly. And I continue to refine my superpower. Right. Because now all my time is invested in, uh, the latest developments related to ingredients and practices and what people may be saying out there and how I can continuously improve my products and share that to my audience through whether that be Instagram or my website or a blog, so that they are up to speed. Um, because that’s where all my time goes, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:15:41] So you can go deep into that subject and then you can become that go to in that space.

Priya Burkett: [00:15:47] Exactly, exactly. And I think once people utilize our products and they kind of, you know, they understand, they see the difference and they know that there’s, um, longevity to their mental health, their, um, physical health because, um, there are studies that show that mental wellbeing and hair health are directly interlinked. Um, and so that is one of the key things that I’m like continuing to, I don’t know, highlight. Um, and also there are studies that show that, you know, healthy hair is the ultimate beauty accessory, um, and that people prefer to look natural and that their hair is the most important, creating their overall look. Um, and lastly, that people prefer a no fuss like beauty or grooming routine. And so those are all the, I don’t know, lovers or, um, like major things that we are focused on.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:52] So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Priya Burkett: [00:16:56] Um, I would love for people to follow me on my Instagram, which is shop on Point Beauty. Um, it’s also my website, so it’s shop on Point Beauty. Com um, and give it a try, you know, and you don’t have to. You can wait till your, you finish using whatever it is that you’re using. But I would venture to say many people are not using foundational haircare. They’re basically washing their hair, conditioning their hair a little bit too much because you don’t want to over wash. Um, and then they’re putting styling products on. Right. And that would be fine. In most cases. I would say, um, back in the old school kind of way of thinking, but from our heritage of many cultures, um, mine being Indian, my husband’s being black and other cultures, there’s something to be said about taking a minute and giving yourself a scalp massage, or giving it to others in your family that helps stimulate your scalp and your hair follicles, um, and ensuring your moisturize. And then, um. Also using things like leave in conditioners, which help with, um, heat protection if you use heat tools or even UV rays, um, and things of that nature. So it would be great for people to, you know, realize that linkage between mental health and hair health and that, I don’t know, like, I like the no fuss natural look as much as possible. Right. Um, and so there’s a time and a place to style your hair, and then there’s also like, something to be said to, um, value your natural beauty.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:34] Well. Priya, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Speaker4: [00:18:40] Thank you so much. I appreciate all that you’re doing to highlight.

Priya Burkett: [00:18:45] Um, the work that we women are out here making happen on a daily basis.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:49] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Women in Motion. No.