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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to today’s guest, Janneh Wright, CEO of Primus Business. Business management, a firm that helps nonprofits and small businesses grow with clarity, structure and purpose. With over 25 years of experience, Jennie and his team streamline streamline operations, finance, and HR so leaders can focus on what truly matters. Mission and impact. He’s a first generation entrepreneur. He’s passionate about helping organizations build systems that create freedom, not chaos. Today we’re talking about scaling with intention, leading with purpose, and building businesses that last. Janneh, welcome to the show.

Janneh Wright: Thank you for having me I appreciate it.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, it’s very nice to have you on.

Trisha Stetzel: So tell us just a little bit more about you.

Janneh Wright: Uh, sure. Um, I am a I mean, I, I learned recently that I’m no longer a first generation, uh, entrepreneur. I found that my grandfather ran a business that’s similar to mine years ago, which is really exciting to me that this is part of my journey. But, you know, I, I started over 23 years ago in 2002 when I graduated college and I graduated, I’m in New York, and I graduated college right around, um, September 11th in 2001. And when I came back to New York City, there was really no one hiring somebody with an economics degree from from University of Buffalo. So I took my own initiative to really just start doing things in my neighborhood. Right. I started I had a minor accounting. I had been building computers my entire life and I understood how business works. So I started helping people in my neighborhood through their accounting, set up their systems, move things around. And that’s when I learned just from that, because one person would tell somebody else about me and tell somebody about me. So while I was doing this for free, I was being passed around to different organizations to help them get these things in order. That’s what I realized. There was a niche here, right? People start businesses because of the love of a craft or a trade that they’re in. And the reality that they learn is that the business section of it is a lot more arduous and a lot more strenuous than they wanted.

Janneh Wright: So that’s usually the part that causes them the most issues. So what I did was take primates, take what I was doing as a volunteer work, and just helping organizations and really creating a business from it, creating a system to help people really, uh, be able to focus more on why they started the business and not the business aspect of it, but over the years, you know, you start doing things that are all part of business. So I was doing marketing and it and the entire gambit. But you realize that that’s not sustainable. There’s just too many parts of running a business for me to do it myself. So me and my team took some time to really focus on what are the things that business owners really need assistance with, what are the things that really help them drive their company and would take a lot of pressure off their backs? So that’s why we started focusing on HR and accounting and just operational management. And that’s what we’ve been doing for the last probably like 10 to 15 years. That’s all we’ve been managing those three aspects, whether it’s consulting or or taking the entire thing over as an outsource fractional department or just helping with training and supervising other people.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, fantastic. So I’m curious, before we dive into Primus and some of the other topics around that particular part of the business, I’m curious about how your mindset shifted when you found out that your grandfather was also an entrepreneur.

Janneh Wright: It was awesome. It was awesome. I started asking so many questions of my uncles and it just as you start to realize, especially since my grandfather started a, um, a credit union, right, to help local, uh, local individuals in the neighborhood, local businesses. He also had a supermarket that he used to help with. So when I realized that the core of what he wanted to do was help individuals and help them grow their businesses and help them have the resources they would, I realize, wait, is that in my DNA? Is that is that like in the genes of what we want to do? So that made me very excited. It, you know, knowing that you are part of a legacy that is that is out there to support the world and support others in your community. It really made me feel really, really good really good about that.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Well, how fun for you to have learned that even maybe just since the last we spoke together, right? Uh. That’s fantastic. I would love to dive into this three C’s model that you talk about. So can you take us through what that is, um, how you developed it and how it actually helps organizations create healthier and more effective teams?

Janneh Wright: Sure. So the three C’s model came about with one of my, one of my employees, my number two in the organization, the CEO. Um, as she was doing work in the HR section of the organization, she really started to think through, you know, how can we help clients really get up to speed quicker? Right. And what is what are the mechanisms that will help us really put things in place to understand where it goes? So we took that initial workflow. We started really working on it and massaging it and getting better at it. And what we realized was as we walk into an organization, the first thing that should be on our minds is ensuring the organization is safe and secure. As an organization. So that became the compliance side. Right. So compliance is like that foundation for an organization. So we want to make sure that, you know, none of the none of the acronyms is coming to get, you know, IRS no doll. We want to make sure all that is really in shape and position and even even take it a little bit further. When you talk about compliance, we want to make sure that the compliance items are easily accessible, that you can get things because if if you’re about to get to go after a grant or you’re going after a loan, they’re going to ask you for all these things.

Janneh Wright: And most times, what we realize as we’re talking to individuals when we first start talking to them, hey, where is your, uh, your your your bio for your organization. No one knows where’s your incorporation paper. No one knows. So making sure that we we can see it, touch it, and then put it into a folder where it’s easily accessible. That means the strength of the organization becomes a lot more because now your foundation is secure. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to do to be a business owner, right? You have all the right insurances. The government is not messing with you and you’re you’re confirmed. So that’s the first part. So that’s the compliance part. And what we say is the foundation organization. Then we have to talk about you know as a business owner what is the interaction between between your organization and your employees. What’s the interaction with your organization and your customers, your organization. And anybody who is a stakeholder, whether it’s your banker, your funder, or however you see it, how do they interact with you? And that’s what we call the culture, right? The culture is really about the soul of the organization, the heartbeat organization. And you want that you need that to be as strong as possible, because that’s what helps people build the trust in you, build the idea that this is someplace good to work or someplace that is honorable, and somebody has that kind of ethics that aligns with them.

Janneh Wright: So they’ll continue coming back to your business and ensure that you’re getting the kind of, um, the kind of longevity that you want. The last part is the engine for your organization, right. How do we make sure this organization gets to 5 to 10 to 15 to 20 years? And that part is consistency, right? Doing the same things over and over again to make sure it’s done properly and really efficient. I always tell the story of of the rest of the restaurant we went to, and it’s something that I ate. I used to love to eat when I was younger, called Calypso Steak. Right. This is a very well marinated steak for one of my favorite restaurants. And, you know, I would go there at least once a week to sit there after work, get a steak. I remember the day that the chef left that restaurant, because that consistency in that steak completely changed. And I never went back. Right. Because that’s the only reason I was going there. Right. And that’s that’s the kind of things we talk about what consistency can bring to your organization. It brings loyalty. It brings devotion. It brings the kind of the kind of recognition of what you’re doing over and over again. Because now I can trust that, that you’re going to do the work properly.

Janneh Wright: I can trust that you’re not going to be unethical. I can trust everything in your organization. So that’s why we call it the engine organization. Because without that part, you’re not going to win. You can have the greatest culture, you can have the greatest product. But if no one trusts you, no one’s coming back to your business, right? And you know, when people start thinking about it, it’s it’s a kind of a circle. Because in this environment, things change so quickly, right? Ai is now the big thing in the environment, you know, and when you think about how you work, consistency doesn’t mean you stick into what you do all the time. It means you have now with this, with this framework, you have now the ability to go back and check on your culture to make sure the culture fits into what’s the current necessity for for the organization. And then you drive that back into consistency through creating SOPs, through training, through delegating, through all those aspects. So when we created this framework, it was really about how do I get the ownership of the organizations to really see their business in a much more community centric way and a much more longevity way, because you’re going to create the kind of things that’s going to allow you to be here for, for a very long time.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. I love that. It’s like full circle. I see how each part or each see contributes both forward and backward to the other sees that you have out there. It’s beautiful. I love this framework. Um, when you talked about yourself and how you got started, you were talking about working in a space where you weren’t getting paid for the work that you were doing, and even thinking about these nonprofit organizations and often not running them as though they are a business. And that will cause challenges, right? In these nonprofit spaces, especially in underserved communities, because they’re trying to give back to this cause, but they’re not thinking about running it as a business. So tell me your thoughts around working with, uh, because you have full span, right? Where you were part of an organization not getting paid to now assisting these organizations. So tell me more about those experiences.

Janneh Wright: Sure. I think that the one of the biggest things that we’ve noticed, especially with, you know, smaller organizations, that they’re starting to grow and starting to get to where they want to get to and where that that usual level of issues usually show up. Nonprofit does not mean not making a profit, right? I think that’s one of the lessons that people have to get in their head. A nonprofit does not mean not making a profit. It means that there’s no one person who’s going to accept that profit and put it in their pockets, right? You’re supposed to as a business, you’re supposed to make more revenue than expenses for a nonprofit. You do that and you take that excess money and you put it back into programing into the next year or the next factor. So the first part is, is understanding that as a nonprofit, you’re still a business. You still have to make a profit. But that profit is not going into anybody’s pockets. It’s going back into the community, back into the business. Once you start to understand that cycle, you start to realize that the things that other business does make sense, right? You have to you have to do things to make your clients happy. You have to do things to make your funders happy. You have to do things to make everyone who’s who’s supporting the business. You still have to accept their money and accept the way that that they’re looking for an organization to to run because you still have competition, right? There’s still other organizations who are doing the exact same thing you do. You’re going after the same funders for for funding. You’re going after the same people for clientele. So you have to think of it as still a business to be ran and a business to, to make a profit on.

Janneh Wright: Now the question of how do you do that? How do you really create the type of business mentality when you’re when you’re talking to individuals whose sole purpose is to save the world is a little bit harder, right? Because it’s it’s it’s a disconnect sometimes. Right. They don’t want to hear corporate talk or they don’t want to hear information. That’s like let’s talk debits and credits. Let’s talk accounting. They want to hear I helped X among the people this month. And if if I if my business goes out of business while I’m helping people they might be okay with that. But for me the longer your business stays intact, the more people you help. So you change the mentality from, I’m doing something to help the community, that I’m going to create this business to help a lot more people, because I’m going to run it in a much more effective way. And I think the other part, I had a conversation before of, you know, it’s not just your clients that’s being supported by this nonprofit, it’s your employees. So you have an obligation to create this business in a way that protects your employees as well and protect their future. So when when I’m working with with nonprofits, I’m trying to get that just across because I’m going to create the same financial reports I’ll create for a fortune 500 company, right? But I understand that I need to soften it a little bit and make it a lot more people centric than I would for a for profit organization, but it’s still being run as a business.

Trisha Stetzel: I know people are already ready to connect with you, Janneh, so can you just shout out your contact information so folks can connect with you if they’re already interested in doing that?

Janneh Wright: Sure. You can either email me directly at Jay Wright at Prime. Com or go to our website which is WW Prime US. Com as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. Thank you for that. And you guys know it’ll be in the show notes. So if you’re sitting at your computer watching you can just point and click and connect directly with Janneh. I would love and I know you don’t just work with nonprofit organizations, but it is a space that you hold very near and dear to the work that you do. Do you have a particular success story or a story you’d like to share about a business that you’ve worked with in the past?

Janneh Wright: Sure. Um, it’s for profit or nonprofit. Either one.

Trisha Stetzel: Either way. Whichever direction you want to head. So yeah.

Janneh Wright: So one of one of my my I wouldn’t say my first, but one of my first five years of in doing this work, I had a client who was transitioning out of a fiscal sponsored organization. And what that is, is, you know, fiscal sponsorship organization, organizations who hold other nonprofits within them allow them to use their 500 1C3. The issue that they were having with this organization was really around culture, right? Because when you’re a smaller organization inside of inside of a bigger one, your culture doesn’t really matter as much as the bigger culture. And, you know, and getting information from that bigger organization is usually also hard, right? You you have your $100,000 in revenue. They have their $3 million in revenue, they’re going to spend more time on their $3 million revenue than yours. So as this organization starts to grow, what they wanted to do was really move away from them. So they came to Primus to help really design out and really run all of their back office services. So we became their accounting department, HR department and some operations. What we’ve learned over that time was because we were able to do this work for them and take these things off of the hands of the CEO and off of his staff. They were able to actually grow that organization like 100 times quicker than they would have if they stayed where they were, because now they didn’t have to worry about bills getting paid or employee concerns or employee issues because Primus was managing that.

Janneh Wright: So their ability to focus on their mission, focus on fundraising, focus on developing the program and the clientele made them a much stronger organization. And their growth rate was ridiculous, right? I mean, within the first like two years, I think they raised over like 2 or $3 million, which was great for them. One of the conversations that I love is, you know, as as the CEO of this organization was talking to other CEOs, one of his conversations always like, I don’t worry about accounting or HR, I don’t worry about bills getting paid. I worry about fundraising because I have the trust and knowledge with that. And his team are going to make sure that these things are being done appropriately and right. And the way I know that if something goes wrong, he calls me right away and say, hey, here’s the issue, we gotta fix it. This was going on. I don’t we don’t hold back anything. We’re very much, you know, very transparent as an organization because our job is to make sure that you feel secure in your work so you can continue pushing the organization forward. So their growth rate was was immaculate. They they developed an organization that was that was completely, you know, caught a lot of people off guard, how quickly they moved up and the amount of people they were able to help because they can focus on what was important to them was ridiculous.

Trisha Stetzel: That is amazing. And I, uh, you mentioned before the areas that you really focus on are operations, finance and HR. And a lot of us small business owners don’t like to do that stuff anyway. So thank you, Janneh, for taking care of the hard stuff for us so we can go and do the things that we love. Um, I’d love to talk about executive reporting or the data that you’re able to provide to these business owners to really catapult them into, um, strategically driving growth in their businesses, just like you just described. So talk to me more about how we can use that data to drive growth.

Janneh Wright: I think everybody has heard like, you know, the data is king, right? In any organization like the more information you have, the better you’ll be able to to make decisions for the longevity organization. So one of the things I talk to people about all the time is, you know, accounting isn’t just for tax season, right? You don’t have to do accounting from December to April and that’s it. If you have the right accountant and the right information, you design your accounting, your design, your chart of accounts appropriately. The information you can get year over year is very valuable. You can understand, like, you know, I, I have conversations with some of my clients now say, hey, one of the biggest problems we have is from February to to to May is a blank period. These are periods where none of our funders give them any funds, right? So as they’re going after new funding, they’re trying to go after funders who fall within that line because of the the information I can give them from the last four years of data, because we know exactly what’s going to happen. And even on the other side, expense side, we slow down spending during those times because we know it’s the slow period for your organization.

Janneh Wright: So data helps you really see information from a longer point of view and understand what’s happening. The same thing with HR. If you’re tracking, um, retention rates in HR, if you’re tracking information about manager evaluations and you start to see things like employees are leaving at a certain rate or a certain time period, employees are saying for the first couple six months. You can now go and do more investigation, understand why this is happening. So that way you can break it up, because the most expensive thing to your organization is trying to replace an employee, right? It can it can end up being $1,000 because you’re losing the productivity. The employee who left, now you’re spending time interviewing, and you have to spend time training after you hire somebody. So you want to use that at all times to understand what’s happening within and outside your organization. That way, you can make better decisions on how to tackle things and move the organization forward as quickly as possible.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. It’s so important. So did you guys hear that those of you who are afraid of the numbers, you don’t want to deal with all of the stuff you need somebody like Johnny and his company to come in and help you with that. And the bottom line. Right. Uh, we need to let you do what you’re great at so that we can go and be passionate about the things that we’re good at exactly. As entrepreneurs. Yeah, thank you for that. So, um, where where those listeners right now are thinking, gosh, this would be fantastic. Where do they start, Janneh? Like how what is it that they need to have in their business or get organized with? What’s the first thing or first piece of advice that you would give to people listening today who really want to move into this growth, but they don’t quite know what they need to do first to get there?

Janneh Wright: Sure, the first thing I usually tell I talk to organizations about is the leadership, right? The CEO, where we’re usually that’s the biggest bottleneck in any organization, especially as a founder like myself, we have too much control over every aspect of it, and for good reason. Right? We’re the ones who built this. We we ran with this for how many years? So yes, of course there’s going to be we’re going to be the person who wants to make all the decisions that can’t last. Right? So the first thing I tell people when you’re talking to a CEO, especially a founder, is I want you to sit down and write out your to do list, right. I want you to write it out like a job description of all the things that you are responsible to do inside the organization. Now, you take that list, and I want you to circle all the things you actually want to do within that list. Write the things that you don’t want to do are things that you need to either. Find somebody else to do it. This is the outsourcing side or the delegating side because one, you don’t want to do it and you’re not in your wheelhouse. It’s not something that you’re strong at. And if you spend the time that you’re doing these things you don’t want to do on the things that you’re good at, your organization will grow, right.

Janneh Wright: So understanding that that’s one of the first parts of this, like you need to understand what exactly it is that you’re good at and the things that you want to do out of your entire list of things. And our list as founders is long. And once you realize that, I think that’s when you’ll start to understand where do you put all your energy and time in growing your business? What is what is the best utilization of your skills, your visionary view of your business? And it’s definitely not doing the accounting right. It’s about programing. It’s about raising money. It’s about the service or the project that you’re making. So once you develop that as the first part, the second part is now what do you do with that list of the things you don’t want to do, right? Having a number two in your organization is an important part. Who’s that person who’s helping you get things done right? Do they have the specialty to do anything on that list? If they don’t find someone else, outsource it. That’s why necessarily that’s what promise was created, right? You could outsource the entire HR and accounting process to us.

Janneh Wright: Now you and your staff can focus on program, focus on service, focus on products. I think developing that is one of the first things we talk about. I learned this, um, this phrase from one of my mentors a few years ago. It’s something he developed called today versus tomorrow. Right. And today versus tomorrow is an ideology that as a CEO of the organization, my job is about tomorrow, right? My job is to grow the company is to see the vision, is to move the company forward, to make this work. You need somebody who’s responsible for today, who’s going to keep your clients happy. He’s going to make sure the product goes out on time. Who’s gonna make make sure everything inside the organization is done in a way that enhances the building of the organization going from today backwards. So once you develop those two things right, you start to understand where you need to live. For me to grow your organization, who you are inside the organization, how the organization is going to survive with or without you because you should go on vacation every once in a while too. And once you realize you divide, you make that distinction is possible.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, I love this. And yes, we should all get to go on vacation. The business shouldn’t be completely dependent on us. And I, I love that you’re helping other businesses with that. Specifically where we need to let go of some of the things, especially if we’re the founder owner, uh, and the doer of everything. Right. And creating that list. What a what a great way to get started. So your entrepreneurial journey has spanned a couple of decades plus. What? What’s a lesson that has really stood out for you? Uh, it could be the hard, you know, the hard ones or the easy ones. But what really stands out for you as you’ve gone through your own journey?

Janneh Wright: I think one of the things that I usually talk about for me is the discovery of the difference between being a business owner and a specialty business owner. Right. And to explain a little bit is like, you know, by trade, I’m an accountant, right. And for many years before I added on all the parts, I ran an accounting business as an accountant, I understood that that’s what my business Lane was. But I didn’t want to be just an accountant. I wanted to be a business owner. So my ability to pivot and bring in other places and other aspects of the organization that was valuable to, to, to my clientele was part of what changed me from being an accountant business owner to a business owner who does accounting. Right. So now I can see where where my clientele needs were. Right? The HR part, it was a need that I saw came on. The admin part would need us all came up. But if I was only solely focused on being this one thing, it puts your organization at risk, right? Because anything can happen that can that can jeopardize one part of your revenue source. So understanding what you want to accomplish is more important than the skill level that you have in that one area, right. What is the longevity? What is the what is the end result? What do you want to do with your business? Because I’ve seen organizations who go out of business because the environment around them changed, right? You have an organization who sells a certain product to a certain demographic in a certain neighborhood. If that neighborhood demographic changes, do you shut down or do you adjust your your product offering to accommodate the new people in demographic, in your demographic? I think that’s where a lot of people get themselves in trouble when they get really too focused on one item, not realizing that pivoting and expanding is part of this journey of being an entrepreneur.

Trisha Stetzel: Diversification, right? Good word. Diversification. Alright, as we get to the back end of our conversation today, I have one more question for you. Um, when you think about the leaders that you’ve worked with throughout your journey, both in your business and those in that you’ve worked with, uh, on your business, um, what’s one piece of advice you’d share about leading with purpose and building something that lasts?

Janneh Wright: So it’s a it’s a weird piece of advice. I think it was the greatest piece of advice that I got. Um, someone asked me, what’s the end result of this business? Right. What is my what is my exit strategy? Where do I want to go with this business? And as a business owner, sometimes we don’t think about that, right? We’re not we’re not thinking about. Oh, as my business shutting down or or am I passing on to my kids or am I selling it? We’re not really thinking about that. But to think about that is an important part of this journey as well, right? Because it if you’re selling your business the way you I’m going to go into the accounting side of my brain right now. If you sell your business, the way your balance sheet looks would be different than if you’re trying to transfer this business off to your kids, right? Because if you’re if you plan to sell the business, you want to reduce how much loans you have, you want to reduce how much liabilities you have. But if you’re trying to transfer this business to your kids, getting more debt so you can grow, the business is part of it because you’re trying to expand and get bigger. So all these things are part of that conversation and trying to figure out exactly what it is that you want to do at the end of the business retire, sell it, pass it on to someone else. It helps you really create a vision for the company and what you want to do.

Janneh Wright: Right. So I go through this process every couple years and I that I create, like a five year game plan. Right. So the five year game plan is where I want to see this company in 2020, in 2030. And I’m going to follow that game plan all the way through. Same thing when get 2030, I’m gonna create another one, because I’m getting close to the point where I want to be done and retire. What’s the next problem? And for me, part of what I want to do with this company is pass it on. Maybe not to my kids, but pass it on to somebody else. That way there’s always going to be an organization out there that’s clearly focused on supporting nonprofits and small businesses, but I don’t want to see that idea die out, and I want to see it expand even more. So my goal is to to to pass this on to somebody else, whether it’s family or not. So the way I’m designing out this company is for that is for that reason, right. So it’s really designed to be able to give it on to someone else, but it’s helping me focus on what I want to do and why I’m doing what I’m doing going forward. So that was the biggest advice that I’ve ever received, and I think it was one of the most precious things I hold dear to. Someone who said to me is like, understand what you want to do with this business at the end of your tenure with that business?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Begin with the end in mind. That’s such good advice. And many of us don’t think about that. We don’t think about ever leaving the business because we’re so busy working in it. Right. Or our heads are full all the time. Janneh, this has been so thoughtful and I appreciate all of the, um, amazing bits of advice and information you’ve brought to the conversation today. Thank you.

Janneh Wright: Thank you, I appreciate it. This was great conversation.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Tell us how they can get in touch with you one more time.

Janneh Wright: Sure. So you can email me directly at J, right. W r I g h at com prime seo com or just go to our website, see what we got and send us a message at Prime. Com ww.com as well.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that and let Johnny and his team do the things that you’re not good at, and you don’t want to do the things that you did not circle on your list of things that you’re doing today. I love that, Johnny. Again, thanks so much for spending the time with me today.

Janneh Wright: Thank you for having me.

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

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest is Terry Hess, principal at Trident Capital Holdings, a strategic investor and capital partner dedicated to unlocking growth in small and midsize companies. With more than 20 years of leadership experience as a CEO, CFO and investor, Terry has helped businesses scale profitably while managing risk building systems and driving enterprise value at. Terry and his team. Invest in companies with revenues between 30 to 100 million, providing not just capital, but the strategic and operational horsepower to help those businesses reach their full potential. From leading turnarounds to structuring over 1.1 billion in transactions, Terry brings a hands on, disciplined approach to growth, helping business owners turn vision into measurable. Terry, welcome to the show.

Terry Hess: Thank you. Trisha. Very nice to be here. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: Nice. Nice to have you today. So tell us a little bit more about Terry.

Terry Hess: Um, well, I, uh, start off with this sort of a similar introduction. I’m a mutt. Uh, my background does not make a lot of sense, but, uh. Yeah, I majored in finance, went to Wall Street, uh, was on Wall Street for four years selling European equities. I was actually terrible at it. Um, what sort of, you know, put me into a different area, but, uh, so then I went and moved on to a, uh, a hotel brokerage firm in Manhattan where we were, uh, brokering, uh, either the sale of an asset or equity or debt financing for trophy assets, mostly in Manhattan and Chicago. Um, I, uh, shifted from that, actually, to take, uh, control over a family business, uh, down here in Atlanta and got into the secondary education space. So after high school, it was a skilled trade company. Uh, ran that for about nine years as the CEO. And, uh, after when that ended, then became a consultant to, I don’t know, it’s probably 30 plus companies across various industries. Again, I get back to I’m a mutt.

Trisha Stetzel: So, you know, these days, Terry, we don’t call them mutts. We call them designer. I’m just saying.

Terry Hess: Work with that. Even better.

Trisha Stetzel: Sounds fancier. Right. Uh, let’s talk a little bit about, um, Trident Capital Holdings. I know I, uh, gave a lot of surrounding information around, but what would you like for the audience to know about? Ach.

Terry Hess: Yeah. So TSH got really. It’s, uh, impetus was I work, you know, when I got into those advisory roles for the 30 plus companies, uh, you know, inevitably you get surrounded by other advisors, and most of us are in the sort of fractional space. So fractional CFOs, chief operating officers, uh, VP of sales, HR, etc., so any, any folks on the C-suite level. And, um, there was a common frustration that we shared, which was, uh, not 100% of the time, but in many cases, we would get into these companies, provide this professional management and leadership and watch them be successful. And, um, so, you know, there’s a compensation structure with that. We got paid. Well, uh, but in many cases we wanted to, you know, get a further a bigger stake in the upside of those companies. So Trident, um, we got a lot of our interest, if you will, from these advisors. And, you know, myself and my colleagues were part of several advisory networks, but that’s the idea. You know, these folks are in companies. A lot of these companies are at various stages of growth. And, you know, they either need additional capital to kind of scale and grow and, you know, fulfill their vision. Um, and so that’s how we got started. So we’re trying to, you know, bring not only capital to the to the table to help these companies grow and scale, but also the advisory piece of it.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Interesting. So tell me more about the companies you support.

Terry Hess: Um, so I guess, uh, so it is across the map. Um, I’ll just kind of share some of the stuff that Trident in particular has, has spent some time on. So we’ve worked with, uh, underground utility rehabilitation companies. Um, we’ve worked with transportation companies that are sort of advising, advising municipalities and state Dot’s. Um, there are several companies within that purview that, you know, could use, could could come together, if you will. Uh, we look we look at distressed commercial real estate? Uh, a commercial laundry operation that that’s very disruptive to the way that the industry is currently done. Um, we look at petroleum refinery carbon credits, uh, farming in Colombia. It’s all across the map. Um, of those that I just mentioned, I should say that it really took us evaluating about 80 plus projects to kind of whittle it down to those that we, you know, we see an ongoing interest, if you will. Okay. Um, yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Uh, so pretty broad. Do they all have some common challenge or challenges in common? And the reason why they’re, uh, interested in working with you?

Terry Hess: Yeah, the common thread is all of these folks, we vet those 80, 80 down to this is that they have a viable, um, entity that, you know, has a significant growth opportunity. And, um, many of these projects, um, you know, so in the publicly traded world, there’s a, you know, risk reward, the higher return, the higher the risk, if you will. In our case, many of these things are, you know, we try to de-risk them as much as possible. And also we retain those that, you know, are going to generate above average returns. Um, typically that means that there’s some sort of, uh, collateral component that’s tied to it. And if it’s not for that specific investment, when we combine all these together, there’s a collateralization benefit to the portfolio as a whole. Sure.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Totally makes sense. So, uh, you guys go way beyond just simply investing capital. I know you’re often embedding leadership. You talked about fractional positions at some somewhere along the journey and probably internal to teach as well. Um, so embedding leadership strategy and systems post investment. So can you unpack that model and what active ownership looks like in practice?

Terry Hess: Yeah, absolutely. That’s an excellent question. And I should preface this. This also ties back to your original question. The other common thread is this every investment that we look at, there’s someone in that that’s, you know, bringing this idea to the table and there’s significant expertise in that vein. We can’t get comfortable unless somebody, you know, there’s been a career with with that individual, their team. And again, we it helps us to gain visibility into the future uh, future picture relatively quickly. So it all starts there. You know, we our team we’re not trying to deploy advisory. That’s not the mission. The mission is to support the folks that are, you know, bringing these investments to the table. And they have the vision, and they can convince us that if they pair with us and we put capital to it basically afterwards, once we deploy the capital, we’re just trying to keep the train on the tracks. Um, it’s a very, very supportive role. Um, and so, you know, they they may need us. So a fractional visor for six months or 12 and then they go with a permanent solution. Um, so we’re, they’re able to pull a lot of levers to, again, just keep the train on the tracks.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So through that, um, you know, through the, the turnarounds or the rapid growth or growth or even, like cultural rebuilding in these businesses. Um, when you step in, how do you because you’re in an advisory role as well, how do you identify which levers to pull first? You know, we’ve got people, processes and even product in some cases.

Terry Hess: Yeah. So in any in any of these ventures, um, uh, really there’s never been less than probably a year to three years of either them or us, you know, really having a lot of conversations. And, you know, it all starts with sort of underwriting or putting a projection together. And frankly, we go back and forth and test that, you know, we try to poke holes in it. And, you know, we add our other ideas, they come up with ideas, etc. so it’s a very iterative process to gain that level of comfort. Um, and really that’s where where it all starts. And, and then in that process there’s also assessment of, hey, what are your needs? Um, and then the other side of the coin, I think this is not uncommon. It’s what a lot of investment firms do. But we also bake in a lot of, you know, just sort of there’s unknown risks, right. Whenever our plan is never no plan ever goes the way that anybody ever intended. So, you know, provided that you put in sufficient, uh, you know, resources so that, hey, when a mistake does happen, we’re not all trying to go raise another round of money. We’ve got, you know, substantial capital on hand that we can sort of correct and fix a problem or spend additional money or what have you.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So tell me more about the the values or guiding principles, if you will, around your due diligence to mitigate as much of that risk as you can.

Terry Hess: Yeah. Um. I think the, uh, in my position and I think for a lot of my partners, the guiding principle is really the relationship. Mhm. Um, the reason I say that is this is, you know, we’re not doing we’re not we’re not reinventing anything. It’s, it’s putting money to work. Right. Um, but I think that one of our gifts, if you will, is being able to have what many people perceive to be uncomfortable conversations quickly upfront to try to gain and establish a level of trust so that they see, hey, listen, you know, we’re not just here to put money to work, walk away and make make money again. Like I get back to keeping the train of the tracks. A lot of people come up with wonderful ideas, and then when they get $30 million in their bank account to move forward, it’s not not everybody, but some people get an ego or this big boost of confidence. And again, we’re here to say, you know, don’t we? There’s another day that we gotta, you know, wake up and do the right thing. And so, yeah, not a lot has changed. Like everything you said, everything we’ve been talking about and trying to work for, uh, we just, you know, stay on the path. Obviously, we make adjustments and trajectory changes along the way, but, um, it’s a relationship guided, uh, endeavor. That’s the key. That’s the principles that all of our advisors have as well. And that’s how we’ve been able to get work with so many different clients across many different industries and maintain them. And so, yeah, relationship is the driving principle.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we share that in common too. It really is about relationships and, you know, knowing and understanding people and sharing values, sharing guiding principles for sure. I know people are already interested in getting to know more about you or having a conversation. So, um, Terry, tell me the best way for folks to connect with you.

Terry Hess: Yeah, the, uh, I’d say the easiest way is just through email, which it’s a tea or it’s Terry Hess. Sorry, Terry. At Trident. Com. And just to avoid confusion, Terry is t e r r y at Trident. Com. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Perfect. Thank you. Terry. And if you guys are looking for him anywhere else, his last name is spelled h e s. Of course, I’ll put this in the show notes. So if you’re in front of your computer, you can just point and click and connect directly with Terry. Um, you have such a diverse background, how it sounds like you’re using all of the skills that you’ve learned over the course of many years in the work that you do with teach. But what are some of the the real standouts for you from experience and expertise perspective that play into what you’re doing with teach?

Terry Hess: Um, trusting people. And, you know, I have a lot of us have a wealth or a body of knowledge. We can’t do it all. There’s not enough even there’s. Even though the skill sets. There’s not enough time in the day. So it’s really, you know, building strong relationships and, you know, putting people in place that can that can help. Um, again, I get back to the relationships. People have to feel comfortable and confident that you don’t always have their back in good times. But, you know, we anticipate that, you know, and frankly, not only do we anticipate that bad things are going to happen, we also try to anticipate, okay, we know the bad things are going to happen. What might those be okay. And when you can plan for those when they do come or some version of them comes, everybody’s that much more comfortable and calm and and it just breeds helps to breed success and you know, stay on the path.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So I’m sure that you’ve got all kinds of deep relationships with the people that you work with or you bring into, uh, an engagement that you trust. How do you go about building the relationship with your clients? You talked a lot about relationships. So how do you go about building that trust and relationship with them?

Terry Hess: Yeah. Um, for me, because we we do the same. It’s we have to be comfortable being candid with each other. Just very open, very honest. Um, I’m particularly interested in what are your raw emotions? I don’t need them polished or or. Okay. I don’t need them clean or unclean. I just need to know where you’re at. Um, again, it’s much of this stuff to me is just sort of touchy feely, if you will. Um, and I think that that kind of gets right back into the relationships. You gotta know where people are at. And, uh, I’m sorry to keep harping on that. It may sound. No.

Trisha Stetzel: No, it’s it’s good. And I think that some of us do get a gut feeling, and sometimes we don’t listen to our gut, which is like our second brain. Right. And we really do need to listen to it. And, uh, the people that, uh, we feel good about, typically we can build a relationship with them, uh, so long as they’re not faking too hard. Right? Yes.

Terry Hess: Absolutely. Yes. Which we all do to some degree.

Trisha Stetzel: Sometimes. Sometimes we fake it a little bit. Uh, if you don’t mind, I’d love to talk about your hobby just for a second, because I. I think it is a really cool hobby. So will you, uh, just I we talked about it before we started the show today, but something that you do for downtime, we talked about that we all have to step away from work at some point. So what do you do to relax or step away?

Terry Hess: Yeah. Uh, so I love woodworking. Um, and I’ll sort of share with you why I think that I like it so much. Um, I get back. So at one point, my career, I was the CEO, CEO of this, uh, the trade school. And you got to bear in mind our product was students. Okay. And so when you walk into any one of our buildings in any given day, you are literally surrounded by up to 500 different people. And guess what? Every single day, without fail, those 500 people each have their own individual set of emotions and experiences and motivations and intentions, etc. and to try to get all those people to go down, you know, a certain lane, if you will. You know, one is always stepping off it and then you have all these employees. Woodworking is there’s nobody chiming in. It’s just you and the wood. So all the mistakes that I make, which I make, I’ve made every single one you can think of. But all the mistakes, it’s up to me and you know, and time to correct them. It’s just. It’s peace and calm, if that makes sense. No. No drama.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love it. I think, you know, we just spent all this time talking about relationships and now you have relationship with wood. It’s okay. Right? It’s okay. It’s just you and the wood. Uh, I shared with you that I like to garden, so it’s just me and the plants, and it’s fine, right? I don’t need anybody to help me with that. Uh, good. Thanks for. Thanks for sharing that. Um, just circling back and thinking about how, Um, we’re in or you are in installing leadership disciplines. So, yes, there’s a leader in the business where you, uh, go and assist and you bring all of the people that you know and love and trust and to make this work. How do you build lasting capacity inside of those portfolio companies?

Terry Hess: Excellent question. So, um, there are many different leadership and management systems. Um, from my perspective, you know, 80% of them are saying 80% of their material. I should say 80% of the body of the work is saying about the same thing as any other system. So, um, you know, one of the ones that we use pretty regularly is called EOS, which stands for Entrepreneurial Organization Systems. And again, it’s basically just this apparatus. It comes with books, materials, forms, consultancy, uh, to instill how does this company train and sort of keep a platform for its leadership and management. Um, so again, like I would argue, I would argue that we’re agnostic, but you do have to have some system. Um, and again, you know, that’s sort of a, a good vetting point as well. So, you know, can we be candid, can we develop a relationship and then you, the founder or leader, are you open, you know, sort of take an extreme picture. Can I help you to understand that, to do the next step, it’s in the realm of possibility that you are going to your body of knowledge, and your impact is going to be you as an individual. It’s going to be much, much less. So how do we extend you and your brain and your knowledge to the rest of the group in a, uh, in a managed fashion? And it’s not an overnight solution. It’s a process for us in particular, they they sort of advise all their folks that it’s a two year endeavor to fully implement the US system. So, um, so but yeah, just it’s important to have a system in place.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. And, you know, I’m just thinking about change. Change is hard for everyone. And although there’s a leader with a vision, change still has to happen with them and their team as you’re integrating. You talk a little bit about change in these businesses.

Terry Hess: Yeah. Um. I’m trying to think of how I could collapse that into a, uh, a good how would I advise on that? Okay, so I guess let me say there’s sort of two extremes. There’s companies that, um, that do adopt the change. Um, typically, um, it is because those companies and the leaders have, you know, beat their head up against the wall. They’ve tried their method or their ego. And, you know, Frank, thankfully there’s been enough money in the business, has had enough success. So they can sort of still stay a going concern. But there’s a lot of frustration of, you know, beating your head up against the wall. And so those are typically the ones that adapt to the change the quickest. Right? Yeah. Um, I can’t remember the saying from one of my colleagues, but, uh, it’s something to the effect of the pain of change has to outweigh the pain of the status quo in order for a change to take effect. Uh, so that’s something that’s 100% true. And so that’s one of the distraction you get people that beat their head up against the wall, they’re willing to make a change. The other end of the spectrum is typically it’s young men.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Terry Hess: That have yet to beat their head up against the wall. Yeah. Um, you know, and but they’re just, you know, they they’re they there’s a lot of ego or bravado or they’ve had a lot of success. And they think because they had it in the past that it’s just going to continue going forward. But change is inevitable. I mean, I think, you know, for for society as a whole, it’s with, with, with AI and how fast AI is coming. And, you know, I think UPS laid off 48,000 workers this week. We need to get our head wrapped around what that means. So yeah. Anyways, yeah, but back to your point. You need to adopt change. And that’s also how we cull out those 80 that we you can sort of, you know, by talking with people and, and trying to see if you can establish a relationship if they’re not open to change. We just don’t bother.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Well, they have to be dissatisfied. There has to be some kind of vision, and you guys can come in and help them with those first steps, right. To help them, uh, start to move the needle. Um, what about a turnaround story that really stands out for you? Uh, yeah.

Terry Hess: I’ll tell you one of my favorites. Um, okay. This is a guy that start, uh, a very, very rough background. Um, you know, if, if you choose chose to get in it with him, you would wonder why he’s not in jail. Still, um, but I think that that, you know, at some, at some point the light bulb clicked for him that he doesn’t want to keep going down this path. He’s married, he wants to have kids. And I give him a tremendous amount of credit. He put he just put the bootstraps on and went to work in a very, very difficult, very dirty industry. And uh, seven years later had, uh, $3 million worth of equipment in his shop. And, um, he’s a guy that, you know, again, because because of that success, he thought he could, you know, continue to grow and scale. He’s a prime example of someone that beat his head up against the wall. So when I came in and when I came and got involved, it was a very, very toxic, uh, wildly profitable, so very profitable, but very toxic environment. And, um, you know, all the skills that, you know, the modeling and the looking at the business and the strategy and, you know, putting the right people in place, all that was done.

Terry Hess: But the real driver of changing that company was Basically just being a sounding board for this person. I needed to relate to him. There would not have been anything that we could have done unless he got started to take steps to get his mind correct. And, uh, again, I just, I tie it, you know, all the business acumen was there, but if we just let that be, it would have failed. Um, and now, you know, cut to two years later, what he is doing and what everyone else in the company is doing by repairing his psyche, for lack of a better word. It’s it’s phenomenal. It’s wonderful. I mean, just to give you one little metric that went from, uh, a visible pipeline of $1 million, I think for the next 12 months. And, uh, now I think again in two years, it’s probably close to $12 million of a visible pipeline, not to mention what we could get if we just keep going after it.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Wow. It is amazing what a mindset shift can do. Or the right partner, the right person to have those conversations with. Wow. Congratulations! It sounds amazing. I can’t wait to hear the rest of that story. Um, as we get to the back end of our conversation today, we’ve got one last question for you. For the entrepreneurs or leaders, owners who are listening today who feel stuck between that potential and the actual performance or the activity, right. That gets us where we want to go. What is one mindset shift or action step they can take in the next 90 days to move their business closer to its true value?

Terry Hess: Yeah, um, there’s so many resources, but I’ll just throw out two that I think would be helpful. Um. Uh, there’s I’m blanking on the name of the book, but there’s a, there are several EOS books. Um, and I can’t recall the name of the, uh, the bread and butter one. Uh, it might be rocket fuel, but anyways, I would recommend going on iOS, going on their website, their their series of books and the the foundational book is on there. Also, there are a list of consultants across the geographies. Are there available for people to review. So that’s one path. And then the other path is this is I would strongly recommend if you are in that place where you want a mindset shift, hire a business coach that that, uh, they will do volumes for you. You know, you are so many people in those leadership positions. They’re so used to and accustomed to being responsible and to, you know, keeping people accountable. Um, and because of that, they kind of, you know, get in this island unto themselves. But to have an outside individual that can be that for you, it may it’s that basic and simple, and many people just shy away from it because they feel like they don’t need it. I’ve seen a lot of examples. If you’re open to it, it does wonders.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. Well thank you Terry. This has been a fantastic conversation. I appreciate you taking the time to join me today.

Terry Hess: Excellent. Thank you very much, Trisha. I really appreciate it.

Trisha Stetzel: You’re very welcome.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And shout out to Steve Landrum for putting the two of us together. Uh, glad to have you. All right, guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation I had with Terry today, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate, and review the show and helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business, your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.