Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits. Dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruett.

Brian Pruett: Good, fabulous Friday. It’s another fabulous Friday. And we’ve got two fabulous guests this morning. We were supposed to have three, but somebody had an emergency that couldn’t be here. So we’ll bring him back on. So it’s nice fall weather out there this morning. So looking forward to actually staying fall. So our first guest this morning. Well, first of all, this is your first time listening to Charitable Georgia. This is all about positive things happening in the community. And so we’ve got, as I mentioned, two fabulous guests. And our first guest this morning is Stephanie Diamond from Diamond Chick Consulting. Stephanie, thanks for being here this morning.

Stephanie Diamond: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here. First day of.

Brian Pruett: Fall. There you go. So I like the the name of your business, obviously, with your name and stuff like that. But you and I sat down and talked and you have a passion for helping people in many different ways. But what caught my attention was being a volunteer at mostly Mutts for several, I guess, several years. You still do some of that right now? Absolutely, Yeah. So if you don’t mind, just share a little bit of your background, then we’ll talk about Diamond Consulting.

Stephanie Diamond: All right. Well, just to give you a little bit of background, I do have two children that are both at KSU right now, and I’m super proud of them. They’ve been doing Yeah, Go Owls. I I’m a military brat. My dad was in the military, so we traveled all around when I was growing up. We grew up primarily in Greer, South Carolina. I moved to Atlanta in 1999 to get married, and then we started having children. And then I graduated from college. College of Charleston was a theater major, went into the nonprofit world after college because theater is not where you make money, although nonprofit is not where you make money either. However, I used a lot of my skills that I learned from being in theater and arts management in the nonprofit world. So I worked for a community foundation for a few years and then had my children and then went back to work at a school for dyslexic children. For ten years, I worked in the admissions and outplacement department and what a fulfilling job that was. I mean, I was able to talk to the parents who were were just at their they had exhausted every resource. And I was able to provide comfort and solutions and resources. And that was a great position for me. Things change as we go down the road. And I needed to find something a little bit more lucrative because I was having to support my family on my own. So I went into the insurance world. Wow, what a sharp contrast. That was quite amazing. But what I realized is that the insurance world needed me because I brought humanity back into it. And I’m someone who is going to listen to what someone says and listen to what someone wants and really figure out what someone needs and not just put them in what I want them to be put in, which is what a lot of people do these days. So it’s been nice to be able to bring my non profit attitude to a for profit world.

Brian Pruett: So so share a little bit about more about the non profit. So the community theater stuff that you did, right? It was community theater.

Stephanie Diamond: It was Community Foundation.

Brian Pruett: Foundation, right. Can you share about that?

Stephanie Diamond: Yeah. So what I came in as the administrative administrator of assistant and absolutely loved the job. I love the people I worked with. I loved the waking up every morning knowing I was doing something really good for the community. A lot of what we did was go into other non-profits to make sure that they were doing all the things they were supposed to be doing and that the the people creating the endowments and providing those donations, their money was going to the right places. So we did a lot of I got to know a lot of the community. We had a lot of community events that brought in all kinds of people from different communities. And down in Charleston, South Carolina, that was that was quite a it was a very interesting eye opening experience because. There was a lot of people that I met that I never would have met if I had not been in that role. So and that’s really what my passion is, is just meeting brand new people almost every day. I’ve I try to I try to be as active and proactive in my networking and meeting people as I possibly can because you just never know what that person’s going to bring to your world.

Brian Pruett: Right. And that’s one thing I love about, you know, guys listening. If you don’t know that’s what I do, is community fundraising events. And that’s what I love about the events is the fact that you do get to meet a lot of people that even going out and networking that you wouldn’t meet because a lot of the folks don’t either know about networking, know how to network or scared to network or whatever. So it’s great to have and that can be a networking in itself. So. Right. Um, you currently still volunteer for mostly Mutts?

Stephanie Diamond: I do. I started volunteering, so back in 21 when everything was so exciting and wonderful in this world, I needed a pick me up and volunteering was the way I needed to do it because like I said, I came from a nonprofit background and I hadn’t been able to do that since being having this role. So I and I’m a huge animal lover and I walk dogs every Monday morning from 8 to 10. And it is the best way to start a week. What a great way to just get myself out of bed and start with a positive attitude. And it’s been incredible. And I’m going to be I’m having surgery on my knee next week. I’m having knee replacement. So I am having to step down from that role for about two months. But I’ll be doing other things too, to compensate for that because that organization needs help and I love working with them and I encourage other people to reach out to volunteer as well.

Brian Pruett: So you don’t want the dogs walking you when you’re after you have your surgery.

Stephanie Diamond: Exactly. And I have had dogs Walk me before.

Brian Pruett: So can you share a little bit about mostly mutts where they’re at and other things they do?

Stephanie Diamond: So mostly Mutts is a shelter in Kennesaw, Georgia, obviously. I guess we’re all here and they it’s off of Cherokee and Ben King Road. They bring it. They rescue animals from the different humane societies and really just remediate the animals, find homes for them. And the fostering program there is it’s it’s unbelievable. I’ve actually there are more dogs in foster than there are at the shelter, which is amazing because that’s where animals are going to do better when they’re in. Foster So again, I do any time I talk to anybody, I try to encourage them to somehow get involved in any way you can. But the other way, the other program that mostly Mutts just opened was their market, which is off of Bell’s Ferry in 92. And I’m going to tell you what, if you’re a thrift shopper, that’s the place to go. So I highly recommend they take donations and they they sell the things that people are donating. And it’s a but it’s all run by volunteers. So that’s why it’s so important for our community to to pitch in.

Brian Pruett: Do you know when the hours might be for that? They open certain.

Stephanie Diamond: Times. They’re open from, I believe, 10 to 4. I could be wrong and I should have written that down. I apologize. Thursday through Saturday. Okay. The market is the the shelter is open. Obviously, we are year round. But you can go and check out our cute little animals during the week. I believe it’s from 10 to 3 when you can go and and meet some new friends and there’s cats as well. It’s not just dogs and we had a goat and I think we’ve had some fish. So. Awesome. It’s mostly mutts.

Brian Pruett: There you go. There you go. All right. So let’s talk a little bit about being involved in the community. You’ve already mentioned about being in Charleston and stuff and you love being a part of the community. Why is it important to be part of the community?

Stephanie Diamond: Because we live in it. We want to know who’s who we’re living around. We want to know who’s making decisions. We want to know how those decisions are affecting people. I, I mean, I have I have just. Dived. Use the right term right tense into the community in Kennesaw. I’m going to tell you, I’ve lived there for two years and that is an amazing, amazing community right there. They welcome especially small businesses with open arms. Acworth the same way, Woodstock, all this area out west of Atlanta has just been unbelievable. So. Yeah. I don’t know if I answered your question.

Brian Pruett: Yeah, you did.

Stephanie Diamond: I can go off on tangents, so that’s fine.

Brian Pruett: Let’s talk about the networking piece too, because we always talk about networking is really part of the community as well. But there’s a lot of I mean, there are some negative to to networking, but mostly positive stuff. Yeah. And it’s very powerful as well. Can you share a positive testimonial for networking?

Stephanie Diamond: So can I share a little bit about. Definitely my big networking? Sure. So I am involved, heavily involved with the BNI and I actually just became an area director with this region up here, which I’m super excited about.

Brian Pruett: Congratulations.

Stephanie Diamond: Thank you. Thank you. I just finished up my year as president with my home chapter, and I’m going to tell you, it has been the the view that I have seen all year or that I’ve had all year to be able to see a group, a room of, of small businesses work together so intentionally to help build each other and and encourage each other and empower our each other even when we fall down and bump our knees. But we’re there to watch everybody pick everybody up has just been amazing. So networking, I think, has a connotation of you’re looking for business. For me, I’m looking for personal relationships, not personal relationships, but cultivating business relationships personally, if you will. So I’ve been able to really to be able to see that from my view, this past year has been so inspiring and to just to see how much has changed. I mean, our chapter went we had we had I mean, every every group has its issues. So it’s been great to to see everybody pitch in and work together.

Brian Pruett: So you talk about BNI and that’s for those who don’t know. Bni is a closed networking group. There are a lot of other groups out there that are free and open networking, and there are some folks that have maybe misnomers or don’t like the closed seats and everything like that. So can you maybe debunked anything about the closed networking?

Stephanie Diamond: So the closed networking to me is kind of where you go to learn how to network. I mean, it’s a place where there are so many tools and so many resources that are available with a membership. Through an organization like this, you’ve got you’ve got professional development, you’ve got podcasts, you’ve got presentations, you have I mean, there’s just there’s. It’s a it’s a well-oiled machine if you do it the right way. And I forgot what the question was because I had so maybe debunked.

Brian Pruett: Yes.

Stephanie Diamond: So if you are if you are someone who is. If you’re someone who’s been in business for a long time, you’ve done all the professional development. You’ve created your your, your book of business. That may not be the right place. Maybe it’s really for people who want to improve, not who want to stay still or just earn business. It’s for people who want to propel themselves into the next level. And I think that’s that’s what I have seen. And that’s where when people are excited about being I, that’s where they’re talking about. It’s how it took them to from here to there. And sometimes you don’t even see it until it’s a year or two and you look back and you’re like, Oh my gosh, look how far I’ve come. But when you can use the tools that you learn in that closed networking group to go out into the into the real world, it really just helps. It helps boost who you are and it makes people wonder where you learned how to do all that.

Brian Pruett: So can you maybe explain for those listening who may not know the difference between a closed networking and an open networking group?

Stephanie Diamond: So closed networking is you’ve got a group of people who there’s one person per industry in that room and that is your referral partner. You are you’re what you’re doing in that in those rooms are building relationships. So, you know, like and trust the people that they will represent you well and that you can represent them well. And you’re really intentionally looking for work. You’re you’re learning you’re kind of a sales team for your for your members. Open networking is where you go out and you again, talk about the people that you know in your chapter that could help people out there. So you go to networks and you ask, you hear you’re on the listen out for those trigger words that you’ve been you’ve been trained to listen for by your referral partners. So it’s referral partners versus networking. That’s that’s basically that’s that’s really the the the short of it.

Brian Pruett: Would you also agree maybe that there are certain industries that the close networking may not be as good for as versus some of the open networking? In my experience, I’ve found that some of the industries, especially some are even the smaller versus the even small businesses. It’s to me, some of the smaller the closed groups may not be the right platform, whereas starting out in an open networking and again, this is just my opinion, but starting out in an open networking group and then you build it that way, then eventually you could go to a small. But would you agree with that, that there are some industries that may not be as a good networking or as a good platform?

Stephanie Diamond: Do you have an industry in mind that you’re thinking of that may be?

Brian Pruett: Well, for instance, my my industry, right? I even though I need sponsorships for events. Some of the people may look at the upfront cost to join like a BNI group to that and say, well, I don’t have the money. And so it may not fit, but I’m just thinking there are um. I don’t know. I can’t think. I don’t know. There are. I just think some of the smaller industries that I mean obviously the service industries, the insurance, all of those bankers, that could be a good platform for BNI there. I just feel like there might be some others that are. Just very niche.

Stephanie Diamond: So I think one of the things that really stuck with me and why it worked well with me, it was because it was an investment. I put I mean, it’s not cheap, but I put in the I’m putting in the time, the effort and the money. I’m going to I’m going to really take this seriously. I’m going to I’m not going to, you know, just kind of go to the meetings and be done with it. I’m going to do all the little things that they tell me to do. I’m going to I’m going to take their advice. And I think that with businesses that are starting off that may not have that that that foundation, one, we have options. We have payment options to that may just be the thing that gets you over that hump and it may be the thing that gets you to to that next level. I think when you when you are part of an organization like this and you’ve never done networking before, it’s hard to go to those open networking events because it’s hard to know how to, one, read the body language or jump into a conversation with someone that you don’t know. If you’re a part of BNI, you’re kind of. You are. Yeah, you’re groomed to go into these and just to walk up and be able to start a conversation or get yourself involved with a conversation. I think that it’s I think there’s more value going from BNI to open networking than the opposite, just because you’re learning.

Brian Pruett: What about somebody who’s strictly a B2C versus a B2B?

Stephanie Diamond: I think that there it just depends on what you’re wanting to get out of it. If you’re wanting just business, if all you need is just business, then go to open networking. But if you’re wanting professional development, if you’re wanting to, to cultivate those relationships, BNI is where you go because it’s a weekly meeting, it’s a there’s accountability. There’s a lot of they’ve got. So yes.

Brian Pruett: And I would say, too, that even even the open networking, it’s still about establish a relationship don’t go in. Like I mentioned before, when I first started, I wanted to go and hand every single business card, get every business card, try to sell everybody. And you don’t want to do that. It’s all about learning and building that relationship well.

Stephanie Diamond: And that’s something that you learn in BNI and you learn how to strategically go and network and you learn not to go in and hand out your card and sell to everybody. And then the more you do, the better you get at it, the more comfortable it just it’s a it’s, it’s basically you’re practicing open network to me is practicing what I’ve learned in Barry. So.

Brian Pruett: All right. So let’s talk about Diamond consulting.

Stephanie Diamond: All right Stick with the plan.

Brian Pruett: Yeah. There you go. So share about what you do. I mean, you mentioned a little bit about the insurance, but share about what you do, who you’re working with.

Stephanie Diamond: So I am I was a captive agent. I’ve been an insurance agent for five years now. I was captive for about three of those years and realized I was turning away so much business because not everybody could was qualified for the the policies that I had. So I said, you know what? I got to get myself. I got appointed with all the main carriers and I got I’m doing okay. I pretty much anything I could sign up for and get appointed with I did, which is a good thing and also a bad thing. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t even know if I that I there’s a lot of things in my my toolbox I don’t even know I have yet. But when I do and I that that came to that because every conversation I have about insurance is different. There’s never the same conversation. It’s never a quote unquote lay down where it’s just you need insurance done. It’s not like car insurance. So what I what I bring to the table is I help. I’m not selling insurance. I’m helping people purchase their insurance. And I really am focusing on small businesses who have been around for about 2 to 3 years who have. But maybe they’ve been in the corporate world for their whole life and then during the pandemic, had to change everything up and they became their own bosses and they didn’t need.

Stephanie Diamond: Well, they might have purchased insurance for themselves and that kind of with their family and everything, but all of a sudden they’ve got a staff of people who they need benefits, they need something to keep their employees on on staff. If you want to if you want to attain and retain good employees, you need to be able to give them something. And it can be very overwhelming for a business owner to start shopping for insurance. I mean, it’s I don’t know if you’ve ever shopped for insurance, but it’s it’s it’s overwhelming. And they do that on purpose. So I would like I I’m strictly working or not strictly I am really focusing on those businesses that need someone to give them that push to say you need to do this. This is what I recommend and I’m recommending this because of this. It’s not set in stone, you know, just kind of calm their nerves and make sure that they understand that it’s not the end of the world. And you know, it is affordable. And again, it’s reinvesting in your in your business and in yourself and in your employees as well. So I try to bring that humanity side back to back to insurance. But yeah, so.

Brian Pruett: This is we’re talking about health insurance. Health insurance. Yes. You mentioned the word captive. You’re a captive. You said for a couple of years. Right, Right, right. Can you explain what that is?

Stephanie Diamond: So a captive agent is someone who works primarily or works just with one insurance company. So they can’t they can say that they can shop all the plans, but they really can’t. They can look at them. Anybody can look at most insurance. Now, private insurance is a little different. Private insurance is great for those that are actually people who live in prosperous areas who are not prosperous, actually do very well with marketplace insurance. However, if you are in a if you’re in a not so prosperous area and you’re one of the more prosperous people, your insurance rates are going to be out the roof. So it’s nice to know that there are options out there to bring that cost down. And, you know, again, just alleviating that anxiety and letting people know it’s not the I mean, things can change. We can talk about this in six months and we’ll you know, I’m here to make sure that you are that you’re covered. You know what you have. You know how to use it. And if I see something that might be better, I’m going to recommend it for you as well.

Brian Pruett: So and I think that’s important because even when you’re talking about somebody that’s in the property casualty type of insurance, you know, a good example of my when my parents and I moved here in 79, we had a guy that was with a particular agency and he passed away unexpectedly. And then we got a letter in the mail saying that he passed away and this is your new. But we’d never seen him. And that’s been 20 years ago. Yeah, right. So it’s nice to know that there are people out there in health insurance, other insurance groups that, you know, you can call and talk to and then are proactive and helping, you know, the clients as well.

Stephanie Diamond: And sometimes that’s all people want is someone to talk to when something has gone wrong with your insurance, whether it’s your commercial home and auto health, whatever, it’s usually a bad situation. So they really have a touch point and someone who’s going to pick up the phone and say, Dang, I’m really sorry that happened. Let me let me help you out with this. I may not be able to adjust all the claims, but I can at least hold your hand and help you get to the next to the next person that will be able to make that make those changes. So.

Brian Pruett: So if a business individual is listening, I’d like to give I’d like for you to give some a couple pieces of nuggets, if you don’t mind. So first of all. There are some people out there that think, well, you know, and this may be true, I don’t know, but it’s cheaper for me not to have insurance and just go pay out of pocket. But can you maybe give a benefit of why you should carry insurance?

Stephanie Diamond: So I actually agree with that. I think that most of our most of our health coverage, most of the health coverage people are worried about are your doctor visits. And that is not why you get insurance. You don’t get insurance for your car insurance. You don’t get insurance. So you can take it to get its oil changed or even the tires fixed or even a new air conditioner. You get it when there’s something major. If you shop for health insurance in that same way, the money you save generally is astronomical because cash pay is king. Cash is always king.

Brian Pruett: And when you’re gone.

Stephanie Diamond: Well, until it’s gone. But if you don’t have catastrophic, catastrophic is really where it’s at. That’s kind of what you want is insurance. So that if you go to the doctor and they find something, then you’ve got coverage. You don’t go to the doctor having, you know, your doctor visits free. They’re not free. You’re paying for them somewhere. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Right? And you can’t take advantage of the system. The system is too smart. So what you can do is be smart and know how insurance should work. And it’s funny how when when I talk to some people who’ve never had insurance or haven’t been insured for a while, they start asking a lot of questions like, what is it? Does it cover this? Does it cover that? Can I go here? Can I go? I’m like, What have you been doing for the last ten years? Let’s think about this here, you know, so it’s yeah, so that that would be one of the things I would recommend. And if there are, there are a lot of. Advocacy groups out there now because of the state of our world and our society. People and because the cost of insurance has gone up, some people a lot of people have just said, forget it. I’m not paying for it. I’d rather just, you know, I’ll go bankrupt, whatever. There are programs out there that will help those that have that have outstanding medical bills if something major does happen. So that would.

Brian Pruett: And I think what you brought up too, about the catastrophic is important because people out there, while I’m healthy, I don’t I don’t go to the doctor that often. No, nothing’s promised. You’re just one second away from something. So.

Stephanie Diamond: And as soon as you say I’m healthy, nothing’s happened. You’re going to walk out the door and something’s going to happen. So be careful what you say. But no, it’s. Yeah, I think that a lot of us are overinsured and there are a lot of especially through Marketplace, those plans cover a lot of things that especially men, men aren’t even going to use half of it because a lot of it’s maternity. So you know look at what your what your plans include And again work with a professional who knows how to look at things and compare and can explain it to you. If you’re talking to someone who doesn’t know the difference between these one or this or that, that’s not the right person for you because that person’s probably looking to put you on something that’s lucrative for them, not for you.

Brian Pruett: So let’s give advice to a business owner who you mentioned working with business owners and being able to provide that for their employees. Yeah. So first of all, what size is a business would be that you would work with?

Stephanie Diamond: So a my ideal, my ideal size would be between 3 and 7. Okay.

Brian Pruett: So for that business owner who has never carried an insurance for employees, right? What does that look like? Do they pay for the insurance or do they walk through somebody who might be interested but say, my business can’t pay for that or whatever? What does that look like?

Stephanie Diamond: So there are several, several things we can do there. One, and I’ll go I’ll go ahead and just name one of the policies that I have is Aflac. I mean, Aflac is a great way to start offering benefits because it comes it comes out of payroll. So as a business owner, you’re not even seeing that expense because of the way that it’s, you know, all the taxes and stuff like that. So I would definitely recommend if you’re wanting to start there, Aflac is a great way to start. If you if you’re if your staff or employees want to have additional additional insurance or coverage, you can offer a 50% split, you can offer 100% reimbursement. It’s just really up to you what you as a business owner can afford and want to do. Now, the other thing is you can put them on a catastrophic plan. And if they want to add dental and vision or some other things, let that be an option to them. They can pay for it. But if you can, if a business owner can pay for the the meat of the insurance, that’s going to be what a great way to show your your employees that you care. And it saves your business, too. Because if something should happen to that employee, they’ve got coverage. I mean, it’s just there. It’s like I said, you don’t want to over insure and you don’t want to break the bank trying to give all these benefits, but you definitely want to make sure that your, your your peeps are covered, right? Yeah.

Brian Pruett: Yeah.

Stephanie Diamond: And you’re covered as a business owner, right? If you’re not covered, if you’re a business owner and you do not have insurance, we need to talk because big time we need to talk that and that’s that’s usually the people that need to talk the most but don’t have time to talk.

Brian Pruett: Well, you talked about this earlier that especially in today’s society, a lot of it’s it’s chaos out there. People are scared. They don’t know what to do. And so a lot of people just go without and thinking, well, that’s just the way to go. And it’s really, I don’t think the right thing to do.

Stephanie Diamond: Well, that’s why I like doing business face to face, or at least by Zoom so people can see who they’re talking to and they can understand that I’m you know, there’s a there’s a conversation there. And it’s not just it’s not a it’s it’s it’s not a quick transaction. It really isn’t. And if it is, then you’re not working with the right broker.

Brian Pruett: Right. So that’s a good question. Where are you all licensed? Where can you help people?

Stephanie Diamond: So I am licensed in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Ohio and Michigan.

Brian Pruett: All right. All right. So a couple of things I’d like to ask you to give us some advice on. So you spent some time in the nonprofit world. If somebody is listening and thinking about starting a nonprofit, what advice would you give them?

Speaker4: Oh, gosh.

Stephanie Diamond: Um. Start spreading the word. I mean, you got to make sure people know that you’re out there. And that’s a really good question. I wasn’t expecting that one. I’m going to have to. I don’t know how to answer that.

Brian Pruett: Well, let’s think about it.

Stephanie Diamond: Make sure you have benefits.

Brian Pruett: There you go. All right. So if somebody is listening and thinking about starting their own business because you’ve done this well, give some advice to starting their own business.

Stephanie Diamond: Again, get yourself out there. You cannot start your own business by sitting behind a desk. You have to put in the hustle. I mean, it is if you’re not if you don’t like the hustle, then maybe starting maybe starting your own business is not the right thing for you. Because it’s not it is not a stationary job. And there’s going to be ups and downs and you’re going to have to stay consistent and. Just I stay consistent that that has been the biggest lesson I’ve learned over the last few years. And I’m consistently in inconsistent. That’s been my my thing. So I’ve had a really, really work on that piece. And the. There. It’s been amazing to see the process work.

Brian Pruett: So the others have some backbone? Yeah.

Stephanie Diamond: Yes. Very thick skin.

Brian Pruett: Yes. Um, all right. So I had another question for you, then I forgot. Oh, is there anything coming up that you know of event wise for either mostly mutts or anything that you’ve got going on that you want to share?

Stephanie Diamond: Yeah, there actually is. There’s a concert happening in Acworth on October the 8th. I think that’s a Sunday. It’s a it’s called shebang. It’s a four different Nashville singers coming together to sing and play some music. And it is going to help support mostly Mutts and two other rescue organizations around. So I highly recommend. And that’s in Acworth. And if you go to my website, w-w-w, Diamond consulting.com, I’ve actually got links to a whole bunch of different stuff. Go to the diamond verse tab and I’ve got links to different things that I’m involved with and mostly Mutts has a tab there as well.

Brian Pruett: All right. Well, I was going to ask you to share your website, but if somebody else wants, is that the best way for people to get Ahold of you if they need your services?

Stephanie Diamond: Yep. They can schedule an appointment through there. They can. All my contact information is there as well. So I encourage you to to visit and let me see how I can help you. I do offer policy reviews. If you want someone just to take a look at your stuff, tell you what you have. I don’t. I’m not again, I’m not here to sell you. I’m here to help. You know what you have. And if you need to purchase something else, I can be that person. But I encourage people to know what they have before going to the doctor. Just that’s a there you go. Another little.

Brian Pruett: Nugget. I wish I could go to that concert, but that’s the day my stepdaughter is getting married, so I guess I need to be at that. So nice.

Stephanie Diamond: Well, hopefully other people. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: Stephanie, thanks for coming and sharing. We’re not done, so don’t leave. I can’t let you leave anyway. So the door’s closed. So. All right, we’re going to move over to Tommy Honrine from Ameris Bank. Tommy, thanks for being here.

Tommy Honrine: Absolutely good to be here.

Brian Pruett: So I got to tell you, first of all, of all my networking days, I’ve I’ve known some commercial bankers, the network, and those are very far in between. But I’ve never known a personal banker to network. And Tommy, that’s where I met Tommy is Acworth connections and networking. And I also feel like Norm every time I walk into his branch because. Brian Absolutely. You know, so that’s, that’s pretty awesome. So we’ll get to, to the more of the bank here in just a second. But you you obviously have a passion for help people not only with their banking needs and stuff like that but you you play a role and being a caretaker as well. That’s right. Would you just mind sharing your background?

Tommy Honrine: Yeah, my background. So I’m a Georgia native, born and raised in Georgia, grew up in the Norcross Peachtree Corners area, went to school at Georgia Southern, and I’ve been in banking for, I guess a little over 20 years now in one form or another. I started out with HSBC Bank and consumer lending, so we did, you know, refinances home equity lines, auto loans, personal loans did that until 2008 when the whole housing crisis hit. And then at that point went to work for Wachovia and at that point got my series 663 Life and Variable Licenses, became a financial specialist with Wachovia that they merged with Wells Fargo. And and then I ended up going to work for a community bank, which was the best decision I ever did at that time. It was Fidelity Bank. Fidelity Bank merged with Ameris Bank in 2019, So I’ve been with Ameris for 11 years. But but yeah, my dad was in mortgage banking, so kind of out of college. My first interview was with HSBC, who he retired from, and I kind of didn’t know what I did, what I wanted to do. I majored in business management and he was like, You know, I can get you an interview. So I just kind of went into banking and never got out. And, you know, like I said, going going to work for a mayor and a community bank was really the best thing I ever did. It’s, you know, I mean, just being able to learn about small businesses, help small businesses. I love.

Brian Pruett: It. Well, so obviously, you have to be a people person when you’re in that industry as well. I mean, like Stephanie, you got to be a people person. So yeah, we talked we I mentioned that you’re a caretaker, so you spent a lot of time also taking care of your girlfriend.

Tommy Honrine: I do, yeah. Yeah. I love my girlfriend, Evan. And I live with her and my my dog Holly and. But yeah, Evan, she perfectly healthy. And then 2019, she was. Well, we didn’t know what it was. It was. They thought it was spinal stenosis. At first it didn’t. Present itself with symptoms of what she ultimately has as metastatic breast cancer with a really rare neurological disorder called Paraneoplastic syndrome. So yeah, we, you know, 2019, it kind of surfaced and, you know, almost started presenting itself in something kind of like Lou Gehrig’s disease, like ALS started dropping things, stuff like that. Went to emergency room a couple times. They’re like, oh, you’re you know, it’s probably just, you know, everything’s I mean, I think they’re just looking for a more immediate, you know, basically got the impression that they couldn’t find anything. And her speech was impacted probably 4 or 5 months after she started having these symptoms. Then they thought it was something called spinal stenosis. Turned out not to be that. And she even ended up having a surgery that apparently she didn’t need. I don’t know. And but ultimately went to Emory and they have a special diagnostic program. And they they basically did every test. It’s almost like the show House, if you’ve ever seen it. They basically, you know, ran every test under the sun and basically found out it was metastatic breast cancer and the the Paraneoplastic syndrome, basically the the cancer cells, I guess, create an antibody that attacks your central nervous system. So it kind of allows her where she can’t walk and doesn’t have good use of her hands and affects her speech and stuff like that. But yeah, you know, it’s when something like that happens, you just dive in and you know someone you love, you just take care of and and that’s what I do. So, yeah, you know, her parents come and take care of her during the day when I’m out at work. But then at night, as soon as I get home, I’m a caretaker.

Brian Pruett: Now, so obviously it’s in the name of your community bank. Yeah. And obviously what you just shared with your girlfriend and everything, but So why is it important for you to be part of the community?

Tommy Honrine: I think, you know, everything is is, you know, the community. You see business owners every day that are trying to grow their business, that are trying to, you know, get their name out there. They look to their bank to help them financially to help their business grow. So I think it’s important to be involved in the community with small businesses to help their businesses grow and being involved in the community in other ways. For instance, in October, in October, November, a marist does a canned food drive every year called Help Fight Hunger. And, you know, every branch participates. So, you know, stuff like that I think is really important to not only be involved in the community, you know, helping small businesses grow, but also to help the community for other needs as well.

Brian Pruett: So as I mentioned, I feel like, Norm, when I walk into your branch. So is that typical for all American banks?

Tommy Honrine: It is. It is. We’ve kind of got a slogan, you know, small enough to know you, but large enough to help you. Meaning that, you know, like the bigger banks, we offer all the same services, whether it’s online wires, you know, positive pay, whatever services you’d find at a larger bank we offer. But we really cherish our our community bank background and want to know our customers get out and see our customers when they come in, know know their name. And that’s that’s, you know, an important factor of our culture.

Brian Pruett: So another thing that I think is cool, as I mentioned, you got network, but you also take the time to actually, if you need to, they want to sign up with you, but they can’t get to your branch. You’ll go to them.

Tommy Honrine: Absolutely.

Brian Pruett: Yeah. So I mean, share about that because you don’t find typically bankers that will do that either.

Tommy Honrine: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, they kind of as a branch manager role at Ameris, it’s kind of a little different than some other banks where, you know, you’re in the branch 100% of the time. They kind of factor in being able to get out. They kind of want you to get out and, you know, network. And also, you know, if, like you said, if someone can’t get to us, get out there, learn about their business and any way we can, you know, help you as a small business, that’s what we want to do. And I love that aspect of it. Just getting out and, you know, whether it’s a factory and touring it and seeing how they, you know, how they do business and but yeah, absolutely we’ll. I’ll go out anywhere to. To meet with you if you can’t come see me.

Brian Pruett: He likes to eat too. So I’m a big eater. So the other thing I think is cool, too, is not many bankers do this either, is you’ll give your personal cell phone. So, you know, when I first started my business and I got my first check and they’re like, well, we’re going to have to hold this because and I’m like, What? You know? And then I was like, And by the time he’s like, Well, just tell him to call me. So we did. And I mean, it took care of it right there. So you don’t find that either. So it’s pretty awesome. Absolutely. You also come and supported and played golf in a golf tournament for fundraisers. So we appreciate that. So absolutely. I’d like to ask this on the banking side. So some of the bigger banks and I don’t know if the other community banks are doing this as well, but some of the bigger banks are getting rid of tellers. Right. It’s becoming almost all virtual or sort of self-serve and stuff like that. Or community banks, I hope are not going to that extreme, are they? No, I.

Tommy Honrine: Don’t think we you know, I think that’s that’s part of our culture is having someone in the bank that that can take care of you. And, you know, I hear I see customers coming over all the time from a lot of credit unions or larger banks where, you know, it’s a it’s a virtual teller or, you know, they don’t have anyone to talk to when they come in the bank. So, yeah, I mean, I don’t see that ever happening with a with a community bank.

Brian Pruett: All right. That’s good because it’s a little scary when it is. It is. I can remember this has been in several years. I mean, we’re talking early, 2000s. I have a buddy of mine that stopped going to a bank and went to the first one that was, I guess, ever online. I’m like, why would you even do that? You can’t see you can’t talk to anybody. You don’t even know if your money’s going.

Tommy Honrine: And if you deposit cash, I mean, it’s easy and and you don’t have anyone to advise you. I mean, I think that’s really important. From from the tellers to personal bankers to managers, you, you know, you have someone in there that can can tell you can advise you and and you don’t have that with with strictly online banking.

Brian Pruett: All right. So for a small business owner and they’re thinking about either not happy with their current bank or they need a bank, what all can you offer a small business for their banking needs?

Tommy Honrine: Well, we have you know, on the personal side, we have a checking account with no no monthly service fee or minimum balance requirement essentially on the business. We we don’t call it a free checking, but it is free. You get up to 200 transactions a month free, which almost all businesses don’t really exceed that. Even if you’re a restaurant and you do, you know, 500 transactions a day, you batch it out in 1 or 2 merchant service batches. So it’s only 1 or 2 transactions. So most businesses you have to or most banks, you have to keep a minimum balance. You have to meet certain criteria to avoid a monthly service fee. We don’t we make it easier for you. Also, like you said, I think just the personalized service, you know, my good clients or, you know, networking or anything, I give my cell phone to where they can reach out to me. Also, you know, all the services that we can offer, a small business that a larger bank does, we have that too positive pay, which is helps to combat fraud, basically allows the business owner to upload a file of checks they’ve written.

Tommy Honrine: And if we see something that comes across that isn’t that check number or that that amount, we reach out to the customer. We don’t pay it or reach out to the customer and they have it on their end where they can decline it. If it’s not on the list. Services like that, online wires makes it easy for the customer. And typically our fees are lower than, you know, than other banks. Lots, lots of of reasons to bank with emphasis on the business side. For attorneys, we actually have, you know, attorneys a lot of attorneys have to have iolta accounts, which is like an escrow account where it kind of holds. It’s really the client’s money. And we actually will can can use those balances to offset fees for attorneys, which most banks don’t do. So we really I think, you know, I think the fee structure, I think the the personalized service, just like you said, being able to go into a bank and talk to somebody and get to know somebody and having them know you, I think that’s really what we offer. Well.

Brian Pruett: And I think even though some of the bigger banks that you could still walk in, but you’re not going to get necessarily the branch manager to talk to you. Right. And you’re mostly always there. Yeah. You know, and your door’s always open unless you got a meeting or something. So that’s that’s incredible, too. You still have your great promotion with your credit card going on. Can you share about that?

Tommy Honrine: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It’s we have several different credit card products, but one of the one of the most popular, it’s on the personal or business side so you can do it in your name personally or you can do it in the name of the business. It’s 0% for 15 months. And that’s on not just balance transfers, but purchases. So we see a lot of customers that they have a home improvement coming up or they need to buy a new AC unit or, you know, or, you know, want to put in a sprinkler system or whatever the case may be 0% for 15 months on purchases. And you see that sometimes on balance transfers but not purchases.

Brian Pruett: So and that’s been huge for a small business for me as well because I had to get some stuff and I’ve been able to do that. So it helps on the cash flow too.

Tommy Honrine: Absolutely. Yep, sure.

Brian Pruett: Does. So let’s talk about the networking piece, too, because obviously, like you said, we met at networking. You go to networking, what positive? Testimony. Can you share about networking?

Tommy Honrine: I know. I know the group that we’re in, Acworth Connections. I love it. I mean, you know, that’s an open networking group and it kind of goes back to what you said, Stephanie. Like, I’ve been in closed in networking groups and I like them like master networks and stuff like that. And you’re right, know, I guess I’ve been in banking well for I’ve been in retail banking as far as a branch manager for about 11 years. And when you first start networking, you’re right, you’re handing your card out to everybody and trying to sell everything, you know. And I think it’s really, you know, the testimony I would have to our networking group is just building relationships, being there, I think every week, meeting. Meeting, you know, new people, growing the relationships you have with existing business owners or anybody that’s there. And that’s been huge for me. I think, you know, I know when I need a product or service first, you know, first thing I look to is people in my networking group to do that. And I think they do that with me. And I think, you know, it builds a trust. And I’ve gotten so many contacts that have gotten, you know, have grown to trust me and really, you know, trust sending their clients or referrals over to me. So that’s been huge.

Brian Pruett: The other thing I’ll say, too, is you also will let somebody know if if certain product or service isn’t best for them because, you know, some some of the people go into and talk to even at a bank, be like, you know, you need all this and then all the carriers that you’re there and the money’s there. But you you actually take the time to to talk to them and make sure that you’ve got the right thing.

Tommy Honrine: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: So, um, can you maybe give some advice, maybe personal and business wise, on banking of what things do you need to look for? You mentioned some things already, but like even, you know, fraud or whatever, what are some things that somebody can needs to look for in a personal and business side that can give some, I don’t know, either peace of mind or just some advice on somebody on the banking side.

Tommy Honrine: Just like as it pertains to fraud or.

Brian Pruett: Or, well, anything. So I mean, what’s something that they need to let’s go let’s do the fraud thing first. But then maybe if you could say something about, you know, about a particular service. I’m sure everybody’s different on the services and what they need, but this is something that they might, for instance, like on insurance, you know, every not everybody needs I don’t know what’s something that not everybody needs on a health insurance side, but prescription prescription coverage. There you go. But something on a bank side that, you know, just kind of give somebody of I don’t know where to begin type of thing.

Tommy Honrine: Okay. I would say, you know, on the fraud piece, I think establishing well, they kind of believe it or not, kind of goes in hand. Establishing credit is huge, I think, on the banking side. So I think at an early age, one of my clients just came in and I’ve known him for a long time and he brought his 18 year old grandson in to establish a credit card. And that’s huge for a couple of different reasons. It’s going to help you throughout. You know, when you buy a mortgage, they pull credit for everything, insurance, if you get a cell phone, anything. So I think establishing credit is huge and that’s something we can help you do. You know we have a college card where it’s, you know, most of the time they they start you out with a credit line small so that you can help to establish credit on a college credit card. Also, we have a secured card where it basically you put your money down to establish credit and you know basically you can do anywhere from like 300 to $5000. Just say you did 300. It would pull that from your account issue you a credit card with for $300 credit limit. And you’re basically using your own money to establish credit. But tying that in into fraud, for example, the biggest fraud, you know, cases of fraud that we see are debit card fraud.

Tommy Honrine: You know, someone gets your debit card number either through a skimmer that’s placed on an ATM somewhere or a server at a restaurant, gets your credit card information or not. To say that, you know, obviously the majority of people are not like that. But we see cases like that all the time. So, you know, you you have fraud on your debit card. You come into the bank. What we’re going to do is freeze the debit card issue, a new one. We’ll file a dispute and you’ll get your money back. Sometimes it’s three, seven, ten days before you get your money back. What I would recommend is using a credit card for anything and paying it off. Every month you do that, you don’t pay any interest, even if you don’t do like the 0% for 15 months. Find a good. Rewards credit card that pays rewards that you can use for cash back or, you know. Restaurant gift cards or whatever. But doing that if if someone if your credit card becomes compromised, your cash flow is not not affected. So, you know, with a debit card, if someone has 150 bucks in their account and someone got their debit card and there’s, you know, ten charges that brought them down to $1, they don’t have any money for 3 to 10 days until that money’s from the dispute is put back in their account if they use a credit card.

Tommy Honrine: And just it requires discipline just to pay it off every month. But if they do that and the credit card is compromised, the credit card company or, you know, the credit card division is going to dispute that just like we would. But you’re not out the money in your checking account, if that makes sense. So I think that’s that’s a big thing. And we see a lot of fraud now with checks, written checks stolen out of the mail and that, you know, when that happens, it’s a little bit more difficult than a debit card because you have to close the account down, open a new account, order new checks. So I reckon in today’s day and age, if you’re a business, I recommend to do positive pay or limit the amount of checks that you’re writing and sending in the mail. Anything you can do, like if you’re paying vendors, you know, anything you can do. Ach pay with a credit card. I would recommend that just to expose less exposure to your account number.

Brian Pruett: Can you explain positive pay? Yeah.

Tommy Honrine: So positive pay. The business owner or office manager will basically upload so it’s through the business online banking and they’ll upload a file every day and there’s a cut off time of checks they’ve written. And so when they the next day and also the bank if a if the teller is presented with a check say it’s check number 501. And that’s not on their list. The teller won’t won’t cash the check. So also the business owner can see from their end know what checks were presented and not, you know, not not pay those have us not pay those checks. So it really protects your account, especially if you’re a business that’s writing checks and you really you don’t have any other options to pay other than, you know, there’s really no options for ACH or credit cards. And you’re writing a lot of checks. It’s positive pay is roughly about 100 bucks a month. But for a business that that writes a lot of checks, it’s well worth it for sure.

Brian Pruett: So I’m sure it’s probably this day the way everything’s moving forward, that direct deposits probably almost everywhere now. But is that is that something you would recommend to having as well?

Tommy Honrine: Absolutely. Yeah. Direct deposit. I mean, it’s you know, you’re more likely if a company offers that and they they write you a check, you know, maybe they issue their checks on Friday and you got to go to the bank a lot of times the direct deposits available earlier. So yeah, I would definitely recommend direct deposit.

Brian Pruett: So so there’s a couple of things I wanted to just mention there and ask a question about. So I’m, I’m kind of old school, but I always thought it was weird that to build credit up, you had to get credit cards and go in debt, right? And then, you know, so at one point in time, I had all my credit cards paid off and my credit card dropped because I was out of debt. Um, can you just talk about why it’s, I mean, other than you mentioned for mortgage and stuff like that, somebody who’s thinking about it and doesn’t understand why is that important to continue?

Tommy Honrine: I think that, like I said, you really, you know, it requires a discipline to I think it’s, you know, the credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, they have certain criteria they’re looking for and there’s certain things that will damage your credit. And some of those things are if you’re over 50% utilization. So if you have a total of all your credit line credit card balances is, say, $10,000 and you’re over the $5,000 mark, that kind of starts to bring down your score. Then if you’re over the 75%, the more the higher you go on the credit line utilization, it’s going to kind of bring down your score. So you want to ideally the best thing for your credit is if you have a credit card and just, you know, basically, you know, discipline yourself to to sort of correspond it with your checking account to where you’re. You’re not spending more than you have. If you can help it and just pay it off every month. So definitely wouldn’t recommend going into debt. But, you know, but to build your credit, just use it and pay it off. Some other things that can negatively impact your credit score is if you close accounts. So if you if you keep them open, you know, don’t have the urge to to use them. And you know, because I have that available, I’m going to go buy a new TV or or whatever. But but to really budget and just pay it off every month. That way you’re paying zero interest to the bank. You’re, you know, you’re you’re building your credit and, and and that’s how you get a good credit score.

Brian Pruett: I’m also in school. The fact that I don’t like and don’t have the Venmo and PayPal and Zelle and all that stuff. What are the advantages? And maybe one of the disadvantages of having those attached to your accounts?

Tommy Honrine: We don’t see we do see sometimes fraud with with those applications. A lot of times it’s people, you know, convince someone to give them their online banking credentials, which you should never do to anybody. But, you know, the bank goes through Zelle. So we you know, but but it’s you know, I mean, I don’t I don’t think there’s I mean, I guess I wouldn’t say I recommend it or not recommend it. I mean, I think it’s it’s something in the digital age where everybody’s going, you know, paying through Venmo or Zelle or Cash app. But I just say be careful and, you know, you know of scams and don’t give your online banking credentials to anybody.

Brian Pruett: So working at a bank and I’m sure this is just an opinion question or an answer for you. Do you see because I think we’re going this direction, but I hope we don’t get there. Ultimately, do you think we’re going cashless?

Tommy Honrine: I don’t think so. I mean, I think there are certain businesses that we still have businesses where cash is brought in every day. Gas stations. And, you know, I mean, just a ton of businesses where we still receive cash every day. So, I mean, you know, I can’t say that, you know, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, it’s not a possibility. But I don’t see it happening any time soon.

Brian Pruett: Awesome. Um, all right. So we’re all are American banks located?

Tommy Honrine: So we are on the retail banking side and we have around 170 branches or so. We’re in Georgia, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina, primarily in Georgia and Florida. We when they merged with Fidelity Bank, Fidelity was in Georgia and Florida and headquartered out of Buckhead, and they moved their headquarters from Jacksonville to Buckhead once we merged. But we’re all over the Atlanta area. Here in this area, we have two branches in Cartersville. We have a branch in Woodstock. My branch here in Acworth, Marietta has I think, 7 or 8 branches Bell’s Ferry, Barrett Parkway, Canton Road, old Piedmont area, East Cobb on Johnson’s Ferry. So we’re in Powers Ferry, Marietta Square. So we’re very strong presence in Cobb and and Bartow and and of course, Fulton and even south of Atlanta. We’re we’re all over.

Brian Pruett: So if somebody is traveling and they need to get cash out, how difficult is it if they’re not somewhere where you guys aren’t located to use and get an ATM? There’s a lot of fees for that.

Tommy Honrine: You know, with yeah, they could use any our debit card with any other banks ATM and you know there is fees associated with that. Usually the the bank the other bank is going to charge you, you know anywhere from $2 to $4 probably and then a Marisol charge you I think I think our fee is like $3. But we do have an account with depending on your relationship with us where if you have over 25,000 total and that could be loan balances combined with deposit balances. So if you had a HELOC with over 25,000, we have an account called an Advantage account and and that will not charge you fees on the American side and it will also pay the other bank’s fees. So if you go to a Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo charged you $4, it won’t cost you anything to access your account anywhere.

Brian Pruett: All right. So if somebody’s listening and wants to maybe visit a bank or even talk to you, how can people, first of all, find the bank and then how can people get Ahold of you?

Tommy Honrine: So, you know, just come in and see. My branch is located on 41 Cobb Parkway. It’s across from the new Racetrac gas station in Acworth, just south of Cedarcrest Road. So just come in, see me, see my staff. My email is a good way to get Ahold of me. It’s Tommy Horn. Ryan. That’s t o m m y dot h o n r. I n e at Ameris bank.com. And you know or call the branch 678905 2600. But yeah either one of those options you know come see us check us out and you know love to help you know businesses grow or or on the personal side you.

Brian Pruett: Mentioned already the things you do with the the canned, the foods and stuff like that. Is there anything else got you got coming up that you want to share you guys are doing.

Tommy Honrine: That’s that’s all I can think of in October we’ve got that the canned food drive and we also you don’t have to just you know you could bring cans to any branch. But also if your business wants to wants to, you know, participate, I’ll bring a box out to your business so that you and then at the end of the canned food drive come and pick it up. Awesome. So so that’s that’s the only thing that comes to mind that we have coming up.

Brian Pruett: You had something a long time ago where you gave people free hot dogs, anything like that.

Tommy Honrine: Yeah, yeah. We from time to time we do that, we’ll do either like a customer appreciation kind of thing and just, you know, grill some hot dogs and let’s me that’s one of my, you know, hobbies is grilling and smoking meats and stuff. So it kind of lets me do that too. Sometimes we’ll have like a, you know, we also provide merchant services, credit card processing. We partner with a company with Fiserv and they sell the I guess the biggest products they sell are clover machines, if you’ve ever seen those. So we’ll have like a clover demo day. Sometimes we don’t have one coming up. I probably should schedule one in the next few months where business owners can come in and, you know, look at the different whether it’s the clover go or, you know, different systems. And when we do that, we grill out hot dogs and stuff like that. So we’re overdue for that. I need to I need to.

Brian Pruett: I’d like a good hot dog so it soon. Absolutely. All right, Tommy, thanks for sharing a little bit of your story and what you guys do. So what I like to do before we wrap this up, I’ve got one other thing I’d like to ask both of you. I’d like to end this on you guys, sharing a positive quote, word or nugget for somebody listening that today and the rest of 2023 and beyond with. So, Stephanie, what you got?

Speaker4: Oh, man. All right.

Stephanie Diamond: You can’t make everyone happy. You’re not a taco.

Brian Pruett: Nice. That’s awesome. There you go. All right, Tommy.

Tommy Honrine: Man, you know, I can’t think of any other than, you know, I never give up. I think that’s, you know, with everything you mentioned, you know, everything going on with my girlfriend. And whether it’s that or whether it’s, you know, new business that you’re trying to, you know, to help or whatever, I’d say never give up.

Brian Pruett: The other thing I like to do is to thank you is a lost art these days. So, Stephanie, thank you for what you’re doing for the people and trying to assure them and get them the right coverage on their insurance and also everything you do for the non non profit world. And Tommy, thanks for what you do for the community as well as the business owners. Everybody out there listening. Let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.