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How Core Values Drive IT Excellence

August 21, 2025 by angishields

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Cherokee Business Radio
How Core Values Drive IT Excellence
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Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors

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In this episode of Cherokee Business Radio, Joshua Kornitsky interviews Chris Chao, co-founder and president of Centerpoint IT. Chris shares his entrepreneurial journey, highlighting how his finance background shaped Centerpoint IT’s customer-focused approach to managed IT and cybersecurity. The discussion covers the importance of proactive security, employee training, and building strong company culture. Chris explains how Centerpoint IT tailors solutions for small and midsize businesses, partners with internal IT teams, and maintains top customer satisfaction.

Chris-Chao-bwChris Chao, President of Centerpoint IT, is a serial entrepreneur & finance guy that experienced “bad IT” and believes businesses deserve excellent IT support.

Chris is happily married to college sweetheart Beth and they are now empty nesters with Abby & Nathan spreading their wings.

Chris volunteer at a local church working with business owners to grow businesses & walk with Christ.

Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • Chris Chao’s entrepreneurial journey and background in finance.
  • The founding and evolution of Centerpoint IT.
  • Recognition of Centerpoint IT as the Best IT Service in Atlanta for 2024 and inclusion in the Inc. 5000 list.
  • The importance of proactive cybersecurity measures for businesses.
  • Common misconceptions about cybersecurity risks for small businesses.
  • The role of education in helping clients understand IT and security risks.
  • Customization of IT solutions based on client needs and risk tolerance.
  • The significance of company culture and hiring practices in building a successful IT service.
  • The impact of technology evolution on IT needs and security threats.
  • Strategies for improving employee awareness and response to cybersecurity threats.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Joshua Kornitsky: Welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. I’m your host Joshua Kornitsky professional EOS implementer. And today’s episode is brought to you in part by the Community Partner Program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors defending capitalism, promoting small business, supporting our local community. For more information, go to Main Street warriors.org. And a special note of thanks to the title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David, Inc.. Please go check them out at diesel. Com. Well, welcome back for another episode. I’m thrilled to share with you. I’ve got in the studio with me, Chris Chao, co-founder and president of Centerpoint IT. Under his leadership, the company has earned accolades, including being named the best IT service in Atlanta in 2024 and landing on the Inc. 5000 list. Chris brings a really strong finance and business mindset to managed IT cybersecurity, and he focuses really and truly on simplifying the complex technical challenges for businesses so that they don’t have to understand that. Well, welcome, Chris.

Chris Chao: Good to see you, Joshua. Thanks for having me today.

Joshua Kornitsky: So it’s really exciting to have you here in the studio with us. Um, can you tell me a little bit about your background? Tell me about the the journey that led you to Centerpoint?

Chris Chao: Yeah. You know, I’m a non IT guy in the IT business. I’m a finance guy.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s a rarity.

Chris Chao: Yes, it’s a rarity. It’s, uh, I’m seen to be a celebrity when we go to conferences with it. People, they ask me more finance and accounting questions, and that’s funny Did anything. Uh. But, uh. But I’m a serial entrepreneur of, uh, founded several businesses. And, um, kind of a funny thing about the entrepreneurial journey. I’ve had some wins, some losses, you know, learn from all of those. But, uh, Center Point, we’ve been doing this for about 20 years. Really? Yes. And, uh, so my, uh, my, uh, co-founder, uh, Fred, as a former CPA. So we’ve got a couple, two finance guys finding it, founding an IT company, and we’re both serial entrepreneurs. And what we found is we couldn’t get good IT support and the businesses we owned. And we said what a great opportunity to, you know, fill a gap and a need for businesses to say, hey, listen, let’s just make the it’s, uh, situation simple, right? For, for for businesses that are, you know, under 500 employees and, uh, and make them feel, hey, listen, they matter. Uh, and, um, and, uh, you know, the, the level of customer service is that, you know, that they’re getting is is something they can feel they can feel good about.

Joshua Kornitsky: So that’s really the the magic of a successful entrepreneurial endeavor is finding that niche that nobody’s in. Uh, how valuable, though, because you shared it with us. How valuable are the failures in your journey?

Chris Chao: Oh, wow. You know. You know, certainly a hey, sometimes you win, sometimes you you learn. Right? So it’s, uh. It’s true. And certainly, you know, you know, I’ve had a I’ve had a seven figure failure. You know, and, you know, it’s those struggles, you know, some of the days I, you I don’t know if I can get out of the bed today, you know, that sort of thing. And you kind of work through that. And it really just takes the fear out of it. Once you kind of work through those failures and process it and learn from them. Uh, you know, I think it just makes you a bolder but also smarter. Right? And in making those, those risks and also getting the right people around you, uh, to, to speak into your life and say, hey, listen, you know, hey, you know, here’s some good wisdom on some things. And I’ve been blessed to have, uh, several good mentors that come alongside me through the years and, uh, and good friends that will speak into me. And I’m willing to accept that and in humility and and learn from those things because it’s just, you know, not only, you know, you know, you can learn your own lessons or you can learn from other people’s, uh, you know, journey as well.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, that’s the saying I’ve heard is that a smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from others mistakes.

Chris Chao: Amen to.

Joshua Kornitsky: That. It just takes. In my particular case, I had to. It took me a long time to find wisdom. I hadn’t watch a whole lot of mistakes and make a whole lot of mistakes. Um, but you said something interesting that you and Fred both come from a finance background. How did you. Well, first of all, if you’ve made the the best of it in Atlanta, I guess you’ve cracked the nut that is providing the the right quality of service to in order for your your customers to appreciate the work you’re doing. But how did you and and Fred, presuming he too didn’t have a strong IT background. How did you conquer an industry that you understood the the math of so to say, but didn’t have the skills or abilities yourself? Because most often it’s the entrepreneurs themselves that that put the shovel in the dirt, right?

Chris Chao: Yeah. Yeah. You know, in our previous businesses, before we found a center point, we were in the periphery of the technology space. Uh, but got not in the IT support space, so. So, you know, we’re in that area. We kind of knew the, you know, knew some of the needs and some of the people there. And, uh, and once we started investigating over a couple of years, we’re like, wow, there’s a great opportunity here. And so what we really went out initially is, hey, let’s put together an all star team, right? Uh, the right kind of people again. And people that were customer service focused. I mean, that’s what we look for in the IT business. A lot of people are looking for technical, technical, technical proficiencies. But we’re saying, hey, number one, hey, uh, do well, our customers enjoy working with with this, this, this team member. And once we did that, then we weren’t worried about the technical piece of it. And then beyond that, just Fred and I, uh, just going through in the, in the IT space, most people are trying to do the latest, greatest technology. We were saying, okay, let’s get good processes and systems in place that are repeatable.

Joshua Kornitsky: Okay.

Chris Chao: And let’s build a company culture around that. Again around values, vision and mission that says, hey, listen, we’re going to make it simple for our clients. We’re going to we’re going to be a trusted partner, right. We’re going to, you know, and build those around and build that into our culture and hire people based on a cultural fit, not not a technical fit.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and so obviously, as an iOS implementer, core values speak to me directly. It’s it’s the heart of it. And I know you run your company on iOS, but before iOS, just in general, how did core values factor in for you? Is it. Can you help us understand that? Because I think that you’ve put your finger on something that I’ve heard a lot on the show, that a lot of successful businesses are seem to be understanding that if they put the culture ahead of the profit, it seems to work out really well.

Chris Chao: Right. Right. Well, absolutely. I mean, so really, I mean, a business, you know, in, in, in all the businesses I’ve owned and been successful with. And the ones I haven’t been, I haven’t, you know, I had to learn this lesson. It’s about people and it’s about the right people and the right seats. Right. So, um, it’s really understanding what you want when I ask, you know, people, hey, what do you want? Most people don’t have an answer. They haven’t really thought about it. And, you know, in this particular instance, the right people. What what did we what we identified the right people. And we actually started testing for personality profiles, you know, cultural fit, understanding who we were and who we wanted to be and aspired to that and, and and drove to that.

Joshua Kornitsky: So with the team that you have, uh, do you have a lot of turnover?

Chris Chao: No, actually we have almost no turnover, which is great. So, you know, good, good healthy culture, uh, you know, it’s fun to go to work with.

Joshua Kornitsky: And, and that and the reason that I asked that question is because I think you’ve just hit the nail on the head. Right. If, if, if you’ve hired people that align to the organization’s outlook, its goals and its values, in all likelihood you’re going to have people that are happy to come to work every day.

Chris Chao: Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: So thank you for sharing that perspective. I’m curious, though, because I am an old IT guy from a long time back. Not not. Nothing current to offer the world today other than as a consumer. But having borne witness to the last 20 years of technology, how have you seen it change from the from the owner’s side of a support business? What’s been some of the big shifts you’ve seen over time and if you’re willing to. Where do you think we’re headed?

Chris Chao: Yeah, yeah. You know, when we first got into this business again about 20 years ago, get really the needs were pretty basic, right? So again, they just needed, you know, responsive IT support. Um, the basic tool sets were having if you had anti-virus, a firewall and patched things occasionally, everything worked right. Right. And and now it’s now what we find is we’re in a, we’re in a situation again. We’re going to cloud, you know, how do you leverage the cloud. People want to do a lot more consulting. Salting. Right. And as you have a distributed workforce, certainly post-Covid. How do you secure that environment in, you know, where it’s distributed. And so there’s all kind of multiple layers of security tools and things like that that we’re getting into and doing a lot of, say, security consulting now and uh, and putting those buttons and those things. That’s one of our growth areas, really just rapid growth areas. Uh, because the, you know, the threats are that the threats are getting, you know, pretty intense.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, let me ask you, because that that’s a that’s certainly, uh, something that’s in the news all the time and, uh, usually not for good reason. Yes. Uh, and if your company is impacted, not yours, if someone’s company is impacted by a security concern, it has a tendency to to, at the very least, be life altering, if not life ending. Some organizations. So so what are some of the the services you’re able to provide now that that a small business may think, oh, this doesn’t apply to me.

Chris Chao: Sure. Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people think, hey, listen, these things will just kind of take care of themselves, right? So, uh, you know, and, uh, sticking your head in the sand and being an ostrich is not going to work. Uh, you know, and, you know, a small business, a lot of times I hear the statement, hey, listen, we’re just a small business. Who’s going to bother with us, right? And try and try to, you know, compromise our security. Well, that makes you a perfect target, because even a small business, you know, they can be a six figure ransom. It can be whatever those things are. And there’s usually some and it can be disruptive and even business ending. Right, right. So what we sell say, hey, listen, as a small target, you’re an easy target. If you’re not doing the things you want, you know, you’re supposed to be doing again, patching things, having, you know, multiple layers of security. You want to be the least attractive target for cyber thieves, so they’ll move on to somebody else. And so so really, you know, it’s one it’s about peace of mind. You know, people want to know hey. And that’s what I hear once people kind of understand it. Hey I do like the peace of mind. They also see that if they aren’t having all these issues and they’re taking care of the maintenance of it, just like you would on a car, hey, everything runs better, you know?

Joshua Kornitsky: Sure, that that makes sense. And let me ask this question, because it’s something I used to hear all the time. Um, you know, we get our servers are hosted at Microsoft, our servers are hosted with with Google Cloud. They take care of all of that, don’t they?

Chris Chao: Yeah, I wish so. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So disaster recovery right. They you know, they you know, if you read the fine print, uh, they, they don’t they don’t guarantee the backups. So if you aren’t doing your own backups, you know, would be a good example. Uh, they’re not doing your security unless you set it up. So those are fun things. You know, you got, you know, people kind of take for granted.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, right. Because because I’m not thinking about, um, using a, a Google or an, uh, a Google hosted workspace or a Microsoft hosted exchange or office 365. I’m saying if I’ve got servers of my own that are hosted at Google or, or with with Azure, those virtual machines, right? They don’t come with any protection or updates or anything, do you?

Chris Chao: Yeah, they they don’t. They give you a blank slate. And so they’re giving you a hey, here’s here’s your environment. You’re responsible for all those other things. And yeah, and you know, even how you access those kind of, you know, those cloud resources, uh, you know, now now, you know, if you’re not having some sort of multifactor or some sort of encrypted transfer or those kind of things, that’s where we’re seeing a lot of that, a lot of the compromises where they’ll get into into that remote session, they’ll get into your resources. And then now they’re starting either get your data, your customer data, or they’re using that to do nefarious things. And, you know, and those are all things you can you can button up with some, you know, just some smart tools and a few few layers of security.

Joshua Kornitsky: How important do you think it is with with the people that CenterPoint works with, with the client center point works with, um, is the education aspect because.

Chris Chao: Yeah.

Joshua Kornitsky: If I, if I don’t know what I don’t know, I imagine I can pay you to teach me or at least know it for me to help protect me.

Chris Chao: Absolutely. You know, and we mentioned core values earlier in one of our core values is just having the heart of educators, because that’s a lot of what we do. Uh, because, again, we’re dealing with businesses and to know what they know. And they do what they do. And so they, you know, they want to be educated, but, you know, but they don’t want to be the experts. So our, our, our focus is even from the, the technical level or engineers, they take the time to explain, hey, here’s, here’s what’s going on. Here’s why you want to do this. Here’s here’s the next step. So they have a good vision, a good roadmap for, you know, what they’re doing and for the future. And I think most people understand that okay I understand why people just yeah. Hey what’s the why here. You know and then and then what’s what’s the what. And and once we explain that, it’s usually a pretty good, uh, you know, pretty good conversation. It’s a good relationship going forward. If they value that.

Joshua Kornitsky: It sounds like. Is it more of or is it a one size fits all or or is it more tailored?

Chris Chao: You know, there’s some things that, you know, everybody’s got to have. And, you know, we’ll say that’s just the entry level, you know, to, you know, to get into the game. Uh, but but beyond that, usually is a love of customization to, uh, you know, what is their risk? What is their security, uh, exposure or things like that. And so what we try to do is customize that, you know, and what what risk are they willing to take on what risk they want to eliminate? Uh, you know, and even asking a question, simple question. Hey, what does downtime look for you? Is that is that, you know, is five minutes of downtime life ending, you know, for your business or is it, hey, that’s just a minor inconvenience. So, you know, we can customize that so they can, you know, something they can afford that also meets their business, you know, initiatives and needs and SLAs.

Joshua Kornitsky: And is that something that that idea of understanding the value of the downtime? Excuse me. And I’m sure that’s because you come to it first and foremost with a financial mindset, um, not to reduce everything to dollars, but when you’re looking at the operation of a business, there is a dollar value associated with everything you do. That’s right. Is that something that’s often in the forefront of the the folks you you meet with? In other words, are they thinking about that or is that something you helped them understand?

Chris Chao: Yeah, we usually have to pull that out, you know. And once you once you start talking about maybe the last year or two and you just kind of see what’s been going on in their business, things come to the forefront of their mind. Oh, wow. Yeah. We did have this issue. We did have multiple issues. Hey. How much time did that that that eliminate, you know, how much inconvenience how many people were impacted. Right. How many customers you know were impacted. So I think once they kind of do the math, they’re like, oh, wow, I really do need to be paying attention to these things. They just never, you know, skipped a beat and said, hey, let me think about this.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, and I think that’s got to be a big value add, because one of the challenges that entrepreneurs across the world deal with is the fact is understanding what is important. And if it costs you 20 grand to be down for a day, it’s probably worth looking into ways to be proactive about that.

Chris Chao: Absolutely. You know, and we get called into and we’ll say security emergencies as well. So we’re kind of coming in remediating and and doing those kind of things and, you know, that’s after the fact.

Joshua Kornitsky: So even if I’m not a client, I can pick up the phone.

Chris Chao: Yep, yep. So we we do that for clients as well. And I say new clients. It’s, um, a good way to meet new clients when they’ve got an emergency. Right.

Joshua Kornitsky: Good. Good and bad.

Chris Chao: Yeah. Good and bad. Get to know each other really quick. Um, but but, you know, when we see those situations where, you know, again, they maybe haven’t thought about these kind of things and put things in place, it’s usually just more, you know, say more catastrophic, you know, and it takes a lot more time to recover, uh, if they can at all. So that’s, you know, we try to get people hey, listen, let’s let’s get the let’s get this out to folks. Let’s get people thinking about it. And, uh, and, uh, you know, putting some basic things in place.

Joshua Kornitsky: So if they’ve taken the right steps and they’ve taken, uh, presumably the right proactive guidance, does it mean a life without fear or worry or it just means a well protected organization?

Chris Chao: Yeah. You know, I’d say we’ll go with well protected, uh, because, again, nothing in life is, uh, guaranteed. Sure. And certainly it security falls.

Joshua Kornitsky: In that because there’s something new nobody’s thought of already happening somewhere.

Chris Chao: That’s right. And a lot of times some of your threats are internal. And you know, hey, you know, how do you take care of those kind of threats where you have people within the organization either. Sometimes we’ll say being being careless, okay. You know, would be or sometimes it could be malicious. And so, you know, are there, are there, you know, safeguards in place to take care of that, you know, and, and, and those sort of things. So those are things that, you know, even even in a well-run IT organization, you know, some of the larger ones we deal with might have, you know, you know, maybe a staff of six people or something like that, you know, we can come in and be that, that extra set of eyes and ears and use AI tools and, and other people watching that so they know instantly when things you know or you know, are looking, looking fishy.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, so I don’t want to ask about malicious intent because malicious. And if someone’s bent on doing that they’re going to find a way to do bad. So tell me, can you give me an example of something that might be, uh, an accidental or an unintentional security, uh, breach or opening, because I think that’s the kind of thing going going under the, the mantra of I don’t know what I don’t know someone who’s hearing this right now, what’s what’s an example of something that can happen without it being, you know, ignorance or unintentional.

Chris Chao: Sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I would say, you know, the most common threat we see today is, is business email compromise, right. And that a lot of times that’s coming in from some email phishing. Right. So so again somebody an actor is trying to get you to, you know, click on something, do something, those kind of things. And yet again, not malicious intent on the employee. A lot of times the trouble is the most helpful employees are usually the most susceptible because they want to be responsive quickly. They’ve been.

Joshua Kornitsky: Asked. That’s an interesting thing to keep in mind.

Chris Chao: It is. And you know, and you hate to see these folks with big hearts. Yeah. Hey, listen, I just wanted to help out and do this, and I clicked on that or I did that. And, um, and so, you know, so training and, you know, that’s one of the places we try to start, start with our clients is, hey, let’s just get on a regular monthly training rhythm. So we kind of show your employees, hey, how to recognize, uh, some of the threats. Um, because, again, your your most vulnerable, uh, spot is your people again. And if you invest in them and you show them how to do that, it’s amazing. We can go. I think, you know, from a stat perspective, I love numbers. You know, I think when we go in to test people on phishing campaigns, 70, 17% of people click.

Joshua Kornitsky: Oh, so it’s a service.

Chris Chao: You are it’s a service. So so we will we will, we will we’ll call it fake fish people and uh, our clients and we’ll train them. And then when we do the training it goes down to sub 1%. So it takes I mean, so you’ve just shrunk.

Joshua Kornitsky: That’s a pretty uh that’s what’s the word in shrinking of the exposure.

Chris Chao: Right, right. Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: Taking it from the side of the barn to the front of the car.

Chris Chao: That’s absolutely. So so again, we’re putting him into that. You know, we’ll say it a safe environment so we can train them and teach them. And when they do click on stuff, we can we can just teach them. And again it’s not something that’s going to be catastrophic at that point. So.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, sure. And if you’ve got the if they’ve worked with you to put the the prioritized right protections in place, then even if it gets all the way to somebody, once they click on it, there’ll be the right protections in the backside to make sure it doesn’t do what it intended to do.

Chris Chao: Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: Um, so who does CenterPoint work with? What? What types of companies.

Chris Chao: Sure. Yeah. So so again, coming from the, you know, the heart of entrepreneurs, we we work for a lot of small businesses, midsize businesses. Um, you know, probably our, our average business is probably around 50 to 100 employees. That’s probably our typical. But, you know, sometimes we start with small guys and they grow and but I I’d say more than anything we’re looking for companies that hey, they recognize. Hey, listen, we need some help. They’re open. Open to ideas. Okay. And they’re really looking over time, not necessarily right away to get to best practices in their IT, support it, you know, security infrastructure. Um, and we try to do it in a way that customers can do it a la carte, and they can kind of work their way as. As their budget allows to, to get the right things in place over time.

Joshua Kornitsky: So if I’ve got an IT department, do I just fire them?

Chris Chao: Yeah. You know, you could because we we do all we do all of that. But most likely, you know, as we get larger in client client size, you know, maybe it’s like a 500, uh, user client will come in and fill a gap for that IT department that they, they say, you know what? We just don’t have the expertise in this area okay. And so we might say, hey, listen, let’s plug the security piece for you. Or maybe it’s a disaster recovery piece for you or just a consulting piece.

Joshua Kornitsky: So you’re able to augment what they have rather than simply advise that they remove it. And and I gather that that’s an internal decision anyway.

Chris Chao: That’s right. And in fact, about 60% of our business is some sort of augmented, you know, not a full hey, we’re the IT department for everything we’re doing, you know. You know, maybe half or more, uh, you know, of their IT department. But again, just just partnering with them to make sure things run smoothly.

Joshua Kornitsky: How often do you have to send people on site?

Chris Chao: Gosh it’s funny. Back in the day, we used to have bunch of vans running all over the place and now it’s you. Gosh, I want to say probably 2 or 3 times a week, and it’s usually something they’re adding. Right. Uh, because it’s cool. Yeah. Yeah. It’s, you know, it’s just, you know, stuff just really doesn’t fail. And if it does, a lot of times things are disposable. We just ship another, you know, piece of hardware out and they plug it in and they’re rocking and rolling.

Joshua Kornitsky: Well, I can’t thank you for everything you’ve shared with us. I do want to ask as as you kind of look back over the journey that that center point it has been on. Um, are there any moments that that stand out? So if someone’s listening to this and in full disclosure, Chris and I do know each other fairly well, and I know that he’s much more of a collaboration over competition kind of guy. But if I’m a newer IT support company or a managed service provider, what are some of the things that they should look out for that that are traps for them?

Chris Chao: Sure. Yeah. So so I you know, I would say for us, uh, you know, some of our breakthroughs have been in systems and processes and just making sure we have good repeatable systems and processes. And what you measure gets done. And one of the big measurables we’ve done is we measure customer satisfaction, uh, real time. And so we get probably about 600, uh, responses. Uh, we have one of the actually we have the highest customer satisfaction in our, in our, in our.

Joshua Kornitsky: Uh, best of Atlanta. I mean.

Chris Chao: In our business. Right. So which is great because we look at it and we coach to it and we reward to it, we gamify it and we have fun with it. So I think some of it is, hey, listen, let’s let’s just make sure we measure the right things and have fun.

Joshua Kornitsky: It sounds to me like you take good care of your staff and you take good care of your customers, and, and, uh, it sounds all the way around like it’s an organization. An operation that that is well worth engaging. Well, Chris, how do people get Ahold of CenterPoint?

Chris Chao: You know, I think the easiest thing to do is just go to CenterPoint itv.com and gauge us. We gauge a lot, quite a bit in LinkedIn. So just, just just look us up on LinkedIn. And several of us, I have leadership that I’ve passed the mantle over to. So I and but I’m still involved in the business. But I’m a little more of a coach and a supporting role.

Joshua Kornitsky: And clearly, you’re the spokesmodel.

Chris Chao: Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, that’s fun too.

Joshua Kornitsky: He’s in a tuxedo today.

Chris Chao: That’s right, that’s right. Absolutely.

Joshua Kornitsky: We will also share all of the links to Centrepoint. It, along with a phone number in LinkedIn and all the rest when we publish the broadcast. Chris Chow, co-founder and president of Centrepoint. It. Thank you so much for being here with us today. It was a lot of fun and we all learned a little bit of something. And remember that Centrepoint was best of best IT service in Atlanta for 2024. They’ve already been on the Inc. 5000 list. Cybersecurity managed it. Really and truly they focus on simplifying the complex technology challenges for business. Thank you for being here today, Chris.

Chris Chao: Thank you Joshua. I appreciate the time.

Joshua Kornitsky: It’s really been a pleasure. So today’s episode was brought to you in part by our community partner program, the Business RadioX Main Street Warriors Defending Capitalism, promoting small business, and supporting our local community. For more information, please go to Main Street Warriors. And a special note of thanks to our title sponsor for the Cherokee chapter of Main Street Warriors Diesel David, Inc.. Please go check them out at diesel David. This has been another fun and exciting episode of Cherokee Business Radio. I am your host and professional EOS implementer Joshua Kornitsky. Thank you for joining us and we can’t wait to see you again next time.

 

BRX Pro Tip: Stuck is Not Stopped

August 21, 2025 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: Stuck is Not Stopped

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, talk a little bit about getting stuck.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. You’re reading a lot lately about a lot of people that are feeling stuck, that they have hit a point where they don’t know what to do next so they kind of are in a state of suspended animation where they know things aren’t going the way they like them to go. They would like things to be different, but they don’t know what to do next.

Lee Kantor: So, a lot of times people look at this moment and say, “You know what this is the end. You know, this is – I tried and this is all I got and this is all that there is,” so they quit. But being stuck is not permanent. It does not have to be permanent. It’s really a symptom. And if you look at it as a symptom rather than an endpoint, you realize that there are ways out.

Lee Kantor: I think a good way to start if you are stuck is to take some sort of an action, start moving somewhere, do something. And if you look at being stuck merely as a pause, you’ll realize that there are still cards to play. You still have moves to make. And remember, you’re not permanently stopped unless you refuse to take action. If you quit and if you refuse to make any type of change, then you have been stopped. But being stuck is not the end of the road unless you want it to be.

BRX Pro Tip: Case Study – BRX Association Show

August 20, 2025 by angishields

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Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, today’s case study or use case is the Business RadioX Association Show.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. We’ve been fortunate to serve quite a few associations over the years and we’ve shared with them how we recommend an association use show. So, I thought it would be a good idea to kind of detail some of that for the folks that are listening.

Lee Kantor: An association show that we typically do spotlights their members and it creates a compelling educational information that can benefit all of their members. So, what we do for these association shows are we interview their members and we have roundtable discussions about the topics that are most important to the members. So, the combination of this helps our clients get lots of testimonials from their members and creates lots of thought leadership from their members to share amongst all the members.

Lee Kantor: So, this is one of those things that we help facilitate member generated content that serves multiple purposes throughout the association. It nurtures existing relationships. It creates testimonials to attract new members. And it creates thought leadership to educate all members and prospective members. We also offer them the opportunity for the association team to create thought leadership directly from the leadership team as well that helps them attract more people to the leadership team by giving them an opportunity to spotlight what they know and the work that they’re doing.

Lee Kantor: So, by doing these kind of facilitated conversations around topics that are important to our clients, it’s helping them check a lot of boxes when it comes to marketing, it helps them check a lot of boxes when it comes to member retention and membership growth.

Raj Khedun with Keep Fit Kingdom

August 20, 2025 by angishields

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Raj-Khedun-Keep-Fit-KingdomRaj Khedun is a London-based wellbeing and transformation coach, and a passionate leader at Keep Fit Kingdom, an organization on a mission to help a billion people live happily to 100 years old and achieve the healthiest version of themselves. With over 15 years of experience in relationship and personal transformation coaching, Raj combines ancient wisdom with modern insight to guide others toward peace, purpose, and potential.

Raj is the creator of the 3:3 Metaverse Breathing Method, a cornerstone of his 7 Minutes 2 Bliss program, which rapidly reduces stress, anxiety, and even insomnia in just 1–3 minutes. His method blends breathwork with spiritual and physiological insights, honed over 25+ years of studying yoga, metaphysics, and human evolution.

In his conversation with Trisha, Raj shared his journey from a curious child fascinated by dinosaurs and the cosmos to becoming a global wellness advocate. He reflected on the role of breath as the foundation of vitality and highlighted the contrast between traditional wellness practices and modern medicine’s symptom-focused approach. Raj’s uplifting energy, spiritual depth, and commitment to human flourishing make him a powerful force in the wellbeing space—helping others not just survive, but truly thrive.

Connect with Raj on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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. I’m thrilled to welcome today’s guest today. Raj Khedun joining us all the way from London. Raj is an inspired manager at Keep Fit Kingdom, whose bold mission is to help a billion people become happy, healthy centenarians. What does that mean? Living to be a hundred and even beyond. While thriving for over 15 years. Raj especially specialized in relationship coaching and well-being transformation, and he’s also the creator of the three by three metaverse breathing method. Part of this part of his seven Minutes to Bliss program. It’s a breakthrough practice that’s helping people dramatically reduce stress, anxiety and even heal insomnia in just minutes. Raj brings such an infectious energy and passion for helping people unlock their potential and truly make their dreams happen, and I can’t wait for you to meet him. Raj, welcome to the show!

Raj Khedun: Wow, that was a great intro, Trisha. Very colorful, larger than life, very American.

Trisha Stetzel: I love to do this because we don’t use this type of language about ourselves. So I love to build this up. And I in in the conversations that you and I have had already, I believe all of these things and I’m so excited to get started today. So, Raj, let’s talk a little bit about you. So I’d like to learn a little bit more about you, or let the audience learn a little bit more about you. And then I think we’re going to get into some practice today, which will be very exciting.

Raj Khedun: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So thank you for having me. Really, uh, thrilled to be here, uh, with a Houston audience. Texas. We love it. Uh, so I’ll take you into a bit of a Genesis backstory where it all started. And, uh, the reason why I talk about this is because we, I believe as kids, when we’re children, we all have dreams. We have kind of an idea of what we want to do. Like, we want to be, you know, run for president or we want to, you know, change something in society and be well known and leave a legacy or something. You know, we always have these great national be a great physicist or something. And I think what happens is that we lose touch with that dream as we get older and we get pushed through a system which is not really designed to help you fulfill your potential. So then you kind of lose that dream becomes dimmer and dimmer, and then you just get, you know, just, you know, stressed out with all the practicalities of life. You’ve got a husband, you’ve got kids, your wife, or you’ve got mortgage and and and all that stuff. So, um, I it all started for me when I was three years old, and my mother takes me to the nursery or kindergarten. It’s, uh, you call it, uh, in London for the first time when I’m three and we’re getting rolled, we’ll look at the playground, look at the classrooms and everything, and we end up in the library and the first two books I ever pick up off a bookshelf in my life was two books. One about dinosaurs and one about planets. Right? Yeah. And the Thomas the Tank Engine, the Mister Happy Mister Sad books. I didn’t touch those.

Speaker4: But for whatever.

Raj Khedun: For whatever reason, these images imprinted themselves so deeply on my memory that I can remember it as if it was yesterday. And these believe it or not, these images guided me more than my entire education did. Right. And you say, why? What’s so fascinating about that? Well, dinosaurs. Because of evolution. Like, how do species evolve from a crocodile? You know, nowadays, we know crocodiles still look like dinosaurs. Right. Their design hasn’t changed much. But dinosaurs. And then, you know, as evolved animals become, you know, dogs and then elephants and dolphins, they have this ability to communicate and cooperate in a group, in a family. I’m thinking, what? How does that happen? Where does that intelligence come from? How does that decide it? And then I started thinking, well, can humans evolve their own brain then? Can they evolve their own level of intelligence and sentience to higher and higher levels? And of course, the answer is yes. We can’t do that if we are determined to put in the effort, the consistency, the, you know, the willpower to to do that, you can do a lot. Um, so that was the, the, the dinosaur aspect. The planets came in, for example, when I was thinking about there’s all these beautiful planets out there Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars. Right. It’s Jupiter itself. The king of planets spins at 47,000km/h. Right? And you can fit 1300 planet Earths in there. And I’m.

Speaker4: Thinking.

Raj Khedun: Wow, what? What must it be doing there with all that energy spinning that fast? How does it impact other planets and humanity and animals and what is going on? I was asking myself these questions as a kid. Right?

Trisha Stetzel: Wow.

Raj Khedun: Yeah. So that kind of if you look at Mars on YouTube, you can go on Mars and see the videos about the robots on Mars examining Mars. You can see the sky is red. The ground is red, rocky red. But there’s no water, there’s no plants, and there’s no dinosaur bones of any kind anywhere. So why is there an empty planet there? Yeah. Earth, which is right next to it, is full of life with. Billion humans and all the animals and all the fruits and all the bitch and all. Everything is here. Like what? How does that make sense?

Trisha Stetzel: So how did that experience as a young child really lead you to the work that you’re doing today? Raj?

Raj Khedun: Well, I wanted to understand, like the the how things are created. But why? How are humans? Why are they different? What makes one strong? One week, one happy, one sad? One takes their own life. One lives an amazing life. One has a.

Speaker4: Free.

Raj Khedun: Life. And some can inspire others. Some can’t even inspire themselves. I was wondering like, what is that all about? Where does that come from? How can you change it or not? So if that helps to kind of, um, understand how that evolutionary process was for me, then you get a sense of, oh, he was asking those kind of questions earlier. So you were meant to go some way to answering them?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So how. What? Tell us what it is that you’re doing today with your with your clients. And I think we may even practice a little bit here, do a demonstration. So why don’t we go there next.

Speaker4: Sure, sure.

Raj Khedun: So, um, again, a bit of background. I studied yoga and metaphysics for 25 to 30 years. Right. And when you come across laws like electromagnetism, light, you know, energy, these kind of things, then you begin to realize there is an underpinning, uh, in the universe, which humans are a part of. And breath is the most important energy that you need to understand for your body, your mind, your everything. Because you can live for 40 days without food, for days without water, but only four minutes without your breath. So if breath is the most important fuel, why don’t we talk about it? Why isn’t it being discussed in school and things like that? Yeah. So yeah, your guess is as good as mine on that front. But I get into conspiracies, but, you know.

Trisha Stetzel: And even the idea that our doctors are not talking to us about wellness in general. Uh, you know, it’s always, oh, treating a symptom. Let’s dose out a pill. And then that pill provides us with more side effects, and then we have to have another pill. So it’s a very interesting space that we live in particularly. Um, I’ll call it, you know, here in the, the Western world. Uh, it’s more about treating the symptom versus treating, you know, being well. And I think as business owners, as leaders, as entrepreneurs, we need to be well. We need to feel good. We need to create that great energy. We need to learn breathing exercises so that we can lower the stress in our bodies in order to be great leaders and entrepreneurs. Yeah.

Raj Khedun: Totally. Totally. So to to get back to your question and to answer that in a bit more detail. Um, I’ve been studying very complex breathing methods for years, but that’s great if you want to commit your life to that. You almost live a hermit like life and kind of almost monastic like like a monk monk mode, as they say nowadays. So I was a monk for eight years, right from 22 to 30. And it’s like, okay, Raj doesn’t go to parties. He doesn’t watch films in the cinema. Like, what does he do? And like, I practice breathing. So, um, I was, you know, coaching women, as you mentioned in the intro, uh, and they would panic a lot when relationships weren’t going well in the pandemic because you couldn’t meet and they would send me awful WhatsApp messages. Oh, well, he said this, what shall I say? And they get panicky and I’ll do the breathing methods with them. But the problem was there when they would go home and they would face another kind of crisis scenario. They would forget the breathing and they would just get all panicked again. Right? I said, you did the breathing with me? Yes. It worked. Yes. Then why aren’t you doing it in your own space then? Oh, it’s not part of my lifestyle. I forgot, it’s too complicated. That’s what they would say. These are doctors and lawyers and teachers. Okay. What do you find so difficult about breathing anyway? I then set upon designing something so simple and easy that anyone can remember it.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Raj Khedun: So that’s how we’ve developed the three three, which reduces stress, anxiety, and suddenly within 30 to 90s three minutes and people, all that stress disappears. They’re getting flow state. They fall asleep if they need to. So that’s how they vote.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, well, this sounds very special. Um. I’m excited to learn more about it.

Raj Khedun: Okay. Shall we try it for a minute? Would you like.

Speaker5: To. Let’s do it. I’m ready.

Raj Khedun: Okay. Wonderful. What you do first. Do you do? First of all, Trisha, do you do any breathing methods at all in your own?

Speaker5: I, I.

Trisha Stetzel: Am familiar with box breathing, um, and breathing from the belly. So I know that that’s very important versus trying to fill up our lungs. We want to fill up our diaphragm. So that’s the extent of what I know about breathing.

Speaker5: Okay.

Raj Khedun: Wonderful. Do you do cold plunges or Wim Hof? Have you seen any of that stuff?

Speaker5: No, I have not.

Raj Khedun: Okay. All right. So what we do first, Trisha, we check the nostril flow first. So we block one nostril, okay? And we breathe in and out of the other. Do the same on the other side. So mine are 5050 at the moment. What’s the ratio roughly for you? Would you say it felt.

Speaker5: Yeah, it felt a 5050 to me. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Good, good.

Raj Khedun: Um, and on a scale of 1 to 10. Trisha, where one is terrible and ten is amazing overall, how would you say you feel right now?

Trisha Stetzel: Because I’m here with you. And we had such a great conversation before we started. I’m totally at an eight right now. Maybe pushing nine. Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good this morning.

Raj Khedun: Love it. Okay. Awesome. All right. So this breathing method to three three. Um, it’s also known as the three three insomnia hack because people love it for sleep.

Speaker5: Oh, I’m.

Trisha Stetzel: Totally I’m totally using this so that I can get to bed faster than I normally do. Yes.

Speaker5: Yeah, exactly.

Raj Khedun: We’ll go through an experiential, uh, moment right here. So. All right, so what you do is you breathe in three parts through the nose like this. I’m not sure if the zoom is going to cancel out the noise, but it’s sniff sniff sniff and then ha ha ha without the vocal cord. So.

Speaker5: Okay.

Raj Khedun: Sniff. Ha ha ha. Without the vocal cords.

Speaker5: Okay.

Raj Khedun: Open them up a little bit more because a ha comes from the back. Yeah, yeah. The ha comes in the back. Yeah. Perfect. Comes from the back of the throat. Activates the vagus nerve. You’ve got it. You got it. Okay, what we’re going to do, Trisha, we’re going to do it for one minute together.

Speaker5: Okay.

Raj Khedun: With the eyes closed.

Speaker5: Okay.

Raj Khedun: It’s going to help you feel everything that’s going on inside, within the mind, in the body, Everything okay?

Trisha Stetzel: I can already feel a shift. Just doing that for a few seconds.

Speaker5: I can see your physiology.

Raj Khedun: The way it was responding.

Speaker5: Like. Wow.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I’m. Yeah, I’m already already going there. Okay, so I’m ready. Let’s do this.

Speaker5: Okay.

Raj Khedun: Let’s do the three, two one with the eyes closed. Let’s go. Stop there. Keep your eyes closed, Trisha. Just relax. Just gently observe what’s happening within. Just relax. Keeping your eyes closed. Trisha. Tell me what you notice and how you feel.

Trisha Stetzel: Much more relaxed. I did.

Speaker5: And.

Trisha Stetzel: During the exercise. Get my. No. No vision. Of course, as my eyes were closed. But dark black with colored small spots came to to my vision while I had my eyes closed and it became harder for me to concentrate on what I was doing because I was really started to relax.

Speaker5: And I.

Trisha Stetzel: Had to consciously tell myself to continue the breathing because I wanted to just stop and feel what was happening in the.

Speaker5: Moment? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Raj Khedun: And do you feel any gentle pressure points around the head, the brain, prefrontal cortex, between the eyebrows anyway. Like that?

Trisha Stetzel: I do. Right. I would consider it in between my eyebrows.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Which is normally where I’m squinting. Right. So when I have stress, that’s an area where because I have those lines, the three lines in between my eyebrows. Right. So, uh, I can definitely feel a point there. And then just above, like the tips of my ears. Right.

Speaker5: Mhm. Right. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Not in a bad. Not in a bad way, but.

Speaker5: Certainly.

Trisha Stetzel: More conscious of. Yeah. The feeling there and here between my eyebrows.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Raj Khedun: The pineal gland activation there. That’s fantastic. Um, okay. And did you notice, Trisha, your heart rate slowed down a bit.

Trisha Stetzel: I truthfully, consciously know, but I think based on the way my body was reacting to the exercise, I’m sure that that happened. Um, because everything felt like it slowed down for me.

Speaker5: Yeah. Yes, exactly.

Raj Khedun: Now, do you feel the monkey mind chatter? We call it, you know, sort of ADHD mind.

Speaker5: Yes I do. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you for asking me about that. Because there’s this chatter in my head worried about the people who are listening. Like I felt like I needed to that chatter.

Speaker5: Right.

Trisha Stetzel: I needed to say, okay, if you’re only listening. You can do this too.

Speaker5: And.

Trisha Stetzel: Feel the same thing, but don’t do it while you’re driving. This is the chatter. And if you’re only listening, you should absolutely go to the YouTube channel and see what’s happening. Because I’m. My eyes are still closed. I’m sure anyone watching Raj would see how my body changed as we were going through that exercise. So we would encourage. That’s the noise. I would encourage anyone who’s just listening to either play along, right, or do the exercise with us. So long as you’re not driving, because you may. Don’t close your eyes and drive.

Speaker5: Yeah, and.

Trisha Stetzel: I want them to experience or see what happened with me while doing the exercise.

Speaker5: Yeah. Mhm. That was.

Raj Khedun: Yeah. That mental chatter. Did it sort of get less sort of usual.

Speaker5: Oh yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh yeah. Bye bye. By the time you said time all of that was out of my mind.

Speaker5: Yes.

Raj Khedun: Good, good. And did you notice an expanse of mind beyond the body? Like there’s a growing sense of awareness that you’re not just flesh and bone. Did you feel something like that?

Trisha Stetzel: I’m wondering so consciously. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m wondering if that black space with all of the colored dots that I experience may have been that?

Speaker5: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: I wouldn’t know how to explain it or connect it.

Raj Khedun: I know because the first time you’ve done it, yeah, I know. And you said you felt an eight out of ten. What would you say you feel now? Trisha?

Speaker5: Oh, so much better.

Trisha Stetzel: I would I would push myself to more like a nine, nine and a half.

Speaker5: Wow.

Trisha Stetzel: And the other thing that’s happening this phenomenon is my eyes are watering.

Speaker5: Wow. Really? Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: My eyes are watering, so when I open them back up, I hope I don’t.

Speaker5: I may look.

Trisha Stetzel: Like I’m crying, but I’m not. My eyes are just watering.

Speaker5: Right.

Raj Khedun: Totally, totally. And just a quick couple of things, Trisha. Um, are you surprised at how quickly this worked and how quickly this.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, most definitely, because, you know, I’ve done the box breathing before, and I. I know how to calm myself through that I can even lower my blood pressure through that type of breathing. Um, and that takes some time. This was so quick, and to get me from there to here is very interesting because I am I’m in such a calm state.

Speaker5: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: And not even conscious like I have good posture. So I sit up straight, but I wasn’t even conscious about holding myself up. If I had been in a totally relaxed state. You know, I may have kind of hunched over.

Speaker5: I.

Trisha Stetzel: All I don’t even realize any of that. And it’s so calming.

Speaker5: Yeah. So it’s a calm.

Raj Khedun: Exactly. Now, the other couple of quick things here. Um, do you feel like you’re in a flow state? No.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. When we finish, I’m totally going to go do some creative work.

Raj Khedun: The scientist. The Hungarian scientist. Um, Mihai Mihai says you need to practice a craft for 10,000 hours before you get into a flow state where we help get people into flow state in 60s.

Speaker5: Oh.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Raj Khedun: Yeah. And the other quick thing is, Trisha, would you feel like if someone’s having difficulty sleeping, they do this method before bed? Do you feel. Do you see how it could help them drift off to sleep?

Speaker5: Yes. Yes and.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. And I’m totally doing this tonight.

Speaker5: Yeah. And I like.

Trisha Stetzel: Because I think it will work. Box breathing helps, but it doesn’t always, always clear my mind. And I think that this could be very beneficial at clearing all of the. I call it head trash project.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: A great way to clear the head trash in a very short amount of time.

Speaker5: Excellent.

Raj Khedun: Okay. You can open your eyes now.

Speaker5: Okay. All right. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. That was an experience. And, um, for those of you watching, it was real, like, not practiced. Raj and I didn’t practice this. He said that we were going to do this today, and I was completely open to it, and it’s something that you guys can do as well. So Raj, thank you for sharing that. And I would love for and I know we’ve all we’re already almost to the back end of our conversation. And I still have one big question for you. But before we get there, if people are wanting to already connect with you and have a conversation or learn more about this practice or other things that you’re teaching your clients, how, what is the best way to connect with you?

Raj Khedun: Best way is to go to keep calm. So keep calm. They’ll see there a tab, um, around the three three products. We even have a, um, product they can buy on there. Download the resources. Helps to teach them a lot about this method and how it can transform many areas of their lives. They can email us. They can WhatsApp us, get questions all day, every day from all over the world. And we’re helping people with their various challenges. So that’s the.

Speaker5: Best.

Trisha Stetzel: That thank you. And if you’re looking for Raj specifically, uh, Keenan is his last name and spelled k h e d u n. Of course I will put all of his links and contact information in the show notes, so you can just point and click and connect directly with Raj. Thank you for taking me through that. I feel like the rest of my day is going to be the most amazing day ever, just because we spent this time together. So as we finish up today, I love to hear one of your favorite stories. It could be about you or one of the clients that you’ve worked with. What bubbles up for you? And who would you like to tell us about today?

Raj Khedun: Um, I would have to say it was a pivotal, life changing experience. I have to mention this because it’s so unbelievable that even I’m blown away by thinking about it. When I was 18, I went to India and I meet this avatar, right? A full blown avatar like you’ve heard of Avatar and James Cameron’s films, or Avatar The Last Airbender on Netflix. These avatars exist. They are real. And I met one who was a almighty power avatar who just told me everything about myself. When I was three, I picked those books up. He knew everything. I know why you’re here, son. I know I’m the one who brought you here. I know everything you know. I’m going to teach you everything you need to know to do something very significant on this planet. And I was like, oh, my God, you got to be kidding me.

Speaker5: This is not this.

Raj Khedun: But he said, look, don’t worry about it. He’s electromagnetic power got into me because I was right next to him several times. And I know that when you were in the presence of someone like that, the reason they do it is because they need people to spread something positive for humanity before we die. So I have to mention that people want to know me and get close to my energy because of the proximity I have to an avatar. So that’s why I’m here to share as much as I can with as many people as I can.

Trisha Stetzel: So thank you for sharing that. And I want to. I’m going to say this out loud in front of my audience. I want to invite you back to the show, Raj, because I really want to dig into this idea of energy. And I think that it’s so important to have that conversation around where the energy is coming from and why it’s out there, and why we’re attracted to certain people or certain things and why certain things happen to us. Uh, whether you believe it or not, it’s happening. And I would love for you to come back and let’s really dive into the energy that’s out there and how it affects all of us from a personal perspective as well as a business perspective.

Raj Khedun: Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker5: My friend.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited that you came on with me today. Our time went by so fast. I really appreciate your sharing this. Um, three and three practice with me. I will be using it. I’m going to give you some feedback, Probably tomorrow. I’ll let you know how this works tonight. I’m really excited about being able to go to sleep so much faster this evening when I lay my head on the pillow. Raj thank you. This has been wonderful.

Raj Khedun: Appreciate it. Looking forward to the next time as well.

Speaker5: Me too.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran, or a Houston business leader. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

 

Tagged With: Keep Fit Kingdom

Be A WBE That Leads Without Losing Herself

August 19, 2025 by angishields

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Women in Motion
Be A WBE That Leads Without Losing Herself
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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor and Renita Manley welcome Lisane Basquiat, founder of Shaping Freedom, to discuss how women can lead without losing themselves. Lisane shares her journey from corporate executive to coach, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, boundaries, and intentional self-care. She introduces her six-week online program, “Shape Your Foundation Core,” designed to help women align with their values and cultivate joy. The conversation offers practical strategies for balancing leadership and personal well-being, encouraging women to create harmony in their lives and lead authentically.

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Lisane BasquiatAs the founder of Shaping Freedom®, Lisane Basquiat guides individuals, entrepreneurs, and leaders in breaking generational cycles, healing emotional patterns, and stepping fully into who they’re here to be.

She’s also the owner of Hera Hub Carlsbad, a coworking space and business accelerator that supports women-led businesses through strategy, community, and purpose-driven growth.

With certifications in NLP (Board-Certified Master Practitioner & Teacher) and professional coaching, Lisane blends strategic insight with deep personal development. Her approach is grounded in truth-telling, legacy work, and the belief that when we change the relationship we have with ourselves, we change everything.

In parallel, Lisane serves as co-administrator of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, stewarding her brother’s legacy and co-curating the Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© exhibition to share his story and genius with the world.

Whether in the boardroom, a workshop, or a moment of stillness, Lisane’s mission is the same:
– To help people reclaim their power and live lives that feel aligned, whole, and free.
– To help people improve the quality of the relationship they are in with themselves so they can show up more powerfully in the spaces that matter to them – with family, at work, and in community.

Connect with Lisane on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

  • Challenges women face in balancing leadership and caregiving roles.
  • The importance of self-care for women in leadership positions.
  • Signs that indicate a woman may be losing herself in her roles.
  • The impact of hustle culture and technology on personal well-being.
  • Strategies for setting boundaries and prioritizing personal needs.
  • The concept of harmony versus traditional work-life balance.
  • The significance of living in alignment with personal values.
  • The role of community and support in personal and professional growth.
  • Tools and questions to help women regain control and clarity in their lives.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Renita Manley. Another episode of Women in Motion. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today’s episode is be A WBE that leads without losing herself. And our guest today is Lisane Basquiat with Shaping Freedom. Welcome.

Lisane Basquiat: Thank you so much. I’m so happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: Renita, this is going to be a great episode. This is an important topic.

Renita Manley: Yeah, it really is. I’m really happy to have Lisane in with us today. She is going to be helping babies learn how they can be leaders without losing themselves. Because a lot of our wives are moms. We’re caretakers. Some of us have 9 to 5 jobs, and we’re also involved in communities or they’re also involved in the communities. So listen is going to definitely be here to give us some tips and some guidance to show us how to be that leader without losing who we are.

Lisane Basquiat: I’m really excited to be here today. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for inviting me.

Lee Kantor: I guess we wanted to share a little bit about the background of your work, and, you know, the kind of the work that you do every day.

Lisane Basquiat: Absolutely. So I am a former corporate executive. I was in corporate working primarily in project leadership and leading these very large, enterprise wide organizational change management projects, along with technology and that kind of thing. And I fell into coaching while doing that, and very soon after decided that I could do the best work. If I were to step outside of corporate and do the work of helping people to fill or resolve the gap, the delta between what they want and where they actually are. And so I took my coaching and took my, uh, corporate background, the deep knowledge that I gained there and started a company called Shaping Freedom. And the goal and intention shaping freedom is to help people to contribute more positively to their environments, whether it’s professional or personal and really specifically within their families, because I think that that’s where everything kind of starts and ends. And so the work that we do is to help people to be in better relationship with themselves as they’re navigating their work and navigating the challenges that life presents to us always.

Renita Manley: That sounds really good. So it’s 2025. We’re about to go into the fall and holiday season. Let me ask you a question. How do you see women right now losing themselves? Like what’s what are some signs that you’re you you’re lost yourself. You’re gone. You just completely lost yourself.

Lisane Basquiat: The biggest sign, and that was kind of the point for me, is when you realize that you are doing more for other people, that you’re open and willing to show up more for other people. And as the shiro and other people’s lives in a way that you’re not willing to do so for yourself. That was a turning moment for me. I was in a really busy day working in corporate at the time and had like a chat going and a meeting going and and had this one moment of realization that as a mother, a very busy mother, mother to two children, as a wife at the time, as a colleague and and running a business, um, in parallel to my corporate role, I was showing up for every one of those roles and wanting to do it exceptionally well. But the one person that was on in my life that I wasn’t willing to step onto the stage for was myself. Uh, and so I think that in 2025 and this is like 20 years later, this is still the, um, position that so many women and so many professional women find ourselves in. We do all the things for everybody, and we expect ourselves to show up fully for these goals and objectives that we have. But if we don’t take care of ourselves, we are, first of all, not modeling for the people that we care about. What what life can look like when we’re willing to take care of ourselves. And and we’re trying to really pour from an empty cup. And I know that sounds cliche, but I really believe that we need to learn how to type a differently.

Lee Kantor: So what do you see as a as like something actionable for an individual? Like how are they recognizing that this might be them, that they might be the the person we’re speaking of? Are there some symptoms, some signs, some signals that are clues that lets a person know that they haven’t been kind of in balance or in harmony with, you know, kind of being the them that they want to be?

Lisane Basquiat: That’s a great question, Lee. The first is when you find yourself stepping away from what you know, you truly believe in meaning when there’s a misalignment from your values. If your value is family. If your value is getting things done with authenticity and you find yourself kind of stepping away from that, that’s probably one sign. And that’s kind of like a sign to the extreme. But it happens in little ways. It’s when you, uh, choose to, um, do more than, you know, you actually can accomplish when you’re feeling overwhelmed is a good one. Uh, if you find yourself losing passion for something that you know is truly, truly important to you, when another sign is when you see that the relationships around you are starting to suffer because you are kind of out of harmony with the things that are important to you versus the things that you also want to accomplish. Uh, another sign of getting to burnout is when you, um, find that you’re not doing things that are fun anymore. Like when you just don’t have time for the things that keep you going. For me, it’s when I go weeks and weeks and weeks of just sitting in front of a computer or thinking about just work, just the things that I know I want to accomplish professionally and, and find that I have weeks and weeks of not being in contact with people that are important to me.

Renita Manley: Oh yeah, that definitely.

Speaker5: Sounds familiar.

Renita Manley: Especially to me. I’m really bad at myself. All I have to ask you this, I do feel like a lot of babies and small business owners. We do know about burnout. We know about being reactive versus being intentional. But yet we all find ourselves in this cycle of pouring more than what we have to offer. So how can we stop that from even happening in the first place? I know we you just talked about the symptoms of it, but how do we actively go about stopping ourselves from putting ourselves in that bad place in the first place?

Lisane Basquiat: Yeah, I think that I think that a lot of, uh, a lot of what gets us to that place is this deep seated belief that we have to prove something, that we have to prove something to people outside of ourselves that we can’t say no. That say that being selfish is a negative thing. And, uh, and that when it comes down to a choice between ourselves and what someone else needs or wants in that moment that we choose, that we have to choose that other person. So the ways to put a stop to that is a to make sure that you’re clear about what your priorities are, what’s important to you. Very often we set off into our day with our list of 3 to 5 things that we’re going to accomplish for the day. And before you know it, we’re responding or reacting to a sense of urgency that’s coming from other people. Everyone’s trying to get all their things done. So I think it’s really important to make sure that you’re very clear about what you are going to accomplish, and that you stay focused on that, and that takes practice. Another thing that you can do is to take a break, take a moment. You don’t have to. And I know some of this sounds overly simplistic, but it is. It’s these little teeny steps that get us into that ditch of burnout that we really have to watch.

Lisane Basquiat: So one is making sure that you take a couple of minutes to just breathe in the middle of the day, or if something when something happens, making ensuring that you give yourself time to process the information that’s happened. And a really good thing that I want to share with all of you is three questions that you can ask yourself when you’re confronted with a situation where you know that you’re doing a little more than you should be doing. The first is what’s really going on here, right? So when you’re really busy, when you’re feeling overwhelmed, and those moments where you feel like you’re being pulled in a thousand different directions, as many of us are while we’re working and also dealing with our families and different things that are going on. Taking a moment to stop, to ask yourself what is really going on here and giving yourself a second to actually hear the answer. Sometimes what’s going on is that you’ve had back to back meetings every day for seven days in a row, and you just need a break. Sometimes what’s really going on is that you’re saying yes to projects, or to doing things that you just simply don’t have the bandwidth to do. So taking a moment and asking yourself, what’s going on here? Can have incredibly positive, um, an incredibly positive impact on the moment.

Lisane Basquiat: The second question is, is this thing mine or is it theirs? Someone comes to ask you for something. Sometimes we get sucked into getting involved in something that, quite frankly, is not ours. So taking a moment to really ask ourselves whether this is for us or whether it’s for someone else, or is there someone else who can do this thing for us? And then the third thing is to ask yourself the question of what is really the truth here. Um, it’s a it’s a very powerful question because a lot of times when you ask yourself what the truth of a situation is, it cuts right through the things that you believe you have to do or the things you believe that you should do. And it gets down to what is real for you if you’re going to take the proper care of yourself that you need to in order to really accomplish the things that are important to you. We go through the week and very often we accomplish a lot of things for a lot of people. And if we’re not prioritizing our piece and prioritizing ourselves as the ones that we’re expecting to drive this car, we wind up places that we really don’t intend to be.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you think that, um, this kind of hustle culture and grind culture is really not working out for a lot of folks that were being kind of, uh, slaves to our, our devices and our tools. And those are are engineered and designed for just continuous use. You know, they’re made for you to scroll forever. They’re made for you to you know, your job nowadays is for 24 over seven. Everybody has to be working nowadays. Uh, but don’t you have to kind of learn how to take control of some of these devices and have them start working for you again, like they were originally designed to do.

Lisane Basquiat: Lee, thank you so much for bringing that up. I yes, I was traveling, as I mentioned to you all before we started with my granddaughter, uh, over the last couple of days. And she’s eight and at one point she held up her iPad and were on the plane, and she had, um, uh, her mom, my daughter had put a little limit on her phone on her recording in progress. And so it said, uh, and so it said screen like screen limit over or something. And I think that that’s just it, where we learn how to be great friends to other people. We have to learn how to be great friends to ourselves. We’re amazing parents, most of us to other people. We really have to learn how to parent ourselves. We have to put limits on the amount of time that we’re willing to scroll endlessly. We have to move ourselves away from that. And sometimes it’s harder to move away from something that it is than it is to move toward things that bring you joy. If what you’re looking to do is to relax, and if part of that is checking in with people that you care about or looking to see what’s going on on the internets, do that for a limited amount of time and get rid of unfollow.

Lisane Basquiat: Do not like the things that are not bringing you joy. The things that are that are making that relaxation time harder than it really needs to be. We don’t. These are just suggestions. These are suggestions that we look at the endless bits of information that are scrolling out there. We have the ability and if we want to be in internal congruency, it’s important for us to make the decisions and take conscious. Take a conscious moment of decisiveness about what it is that we’re going to allow in to ourselves and what we’re not going to allow. And scrolling about all kinds of the horrific things that are happening are just not, um, helpful. And you know it in your body as you’re scrolling, as you’re going through your scrolling. Pay attention to what you’re feeling. And when you’re feeling crappy, get rid of that. So that’s a great question, and I think that more of us need to understand that, uh, these devices are tools. They’re tools for us. And I think we’ve turned it around. We have it a bit twisted.

Renita Manley: It sounds really good. And it makes a lot of sense that, um, we’re supposed to be taking advantage of these devices, but, yeah, it seems like we’re allowing them to take advantage of us. So I do want to also ask you something. Um, for lack of better words, you you’re presenting yourself as a vessel of information for. For small business owners, for babies alike who are trying to ground themselves. If I might ask what? What makes you the special vessel that can deliver such a powerful word to our babies who might be feeling like they are losing themselves or they might need a stronger foundation? How are you qualified? What makes you the one to to break through and tell us what we already know? But we’re just not listening? Yeah.

Lisane Basquiat: Uh, that’s another great question, Renita. Um, what makes me the the guide? I would see myself more as a guide because we all have to do our own, our own work. And what makes me credible in sharing that is a I have 23 years of experience working within a corporate environment. I know what it looks like to work these 12 14 hour days to that to to be, to multitask. To do this as a mother, to do it as a former wife, and to want to do every single thing excellently. I so that’s what has me understand what it’s like to live the life of a very busy entrepreneur. I’ve been an entrepreneur since 2008 full time, and so I know what it takes to navigate the nuance of entrepreneurship the feast, the famine, the, um, the work ethic that it takes, the hard work that it takes. Most of us who are entrepreneurs have that locked down. You don’t need me to tell you about that. What I can help you with is how to bring quality into your life experience I can help you with. How do you shape a foundation? A personal foundation that has you rooted in what your values truly are, what a boundary is, how to set one with yourself, and how to set one with other people.

Lisane Basquiat: I can help you to understand what the strategies are that you’re currently running in your life, that are getting you, the results that you want to have, and the strategies that you may be implementing on autopilot that are getting you to the places that you don’t want to be. Um, ineffective relationships, horrible communication, um, uh, not standing in your truth and your power and your confidence as you’re navigating your role as an entrepreneur. What I can do is help you to get to a place where you are confident about your ability to navigate the emotional and mental aspects of life. And what makes me credible is that I am not just hanging a shingle and saying that I know how to do it. A I’ve done this work myself. There’s nothing that I’m teaching that I’ve not tried and mastered for myself. I am in this practice right along with everyone else. I am a certified coach and have been for many, many years. I am an advanced practitioner and teacher of neuro linguistic programing, which is NLP that a lot of folks have heard of, which is really just the ways that we use language to program the our, our brain waves and I’m sorry, language to program our, um, psychology and the ways that we actually show up in the world and the ways to use language to deprogram the things that take us away from where we want to be.

Lisane Basquiat: Um, I am a teacher of that. I am an advanced practitioner of it. I’m an advanced practitioner of theta and a slew of other things that I bring to the table to ensure that I have more than enough in my toolkit to support very busy, very accomplished, very smart, very intentional women just like myself. I’m doing the work too. It’s a practice. And I also know the difference between showing up in the world as a person who is unhappy and unfulfilled, even while grinding away, hustling away, wanting to have all the best relationships, business results, family, and the folks who are willing to do the work to actually get themselves there. So I’m in it. I’m in it with you. I’ve been there. I can share more about my story and the ways that these tools have helped me. Once we get into a room but I want us, I believe that we can more positively contribute to ourselves and to our families, to our neighborhoods, to our state, to our country. And I think that it all starts with ourselves. And so if you’re willing to do the work, I can get you there. And I have lots of experience doing it.

Renita Manley: I once heard Shonda Rhimes say that years ago when she was scandal, scandal was extremely popular. Shonda said that when she is in season and she’s writing, she’s not going to be the best mom, and she has accepted that. And then she said, then she is being a great mom and and therefore her family. Then the producers and directors are going to be upset because she’s not going to be showing up there. What do you feel about how she’s balancing that thing? Well, that thing called life and how? Well, what do you think about her approach? I just wondered.

Lisane Basquiat: About. Yeah, about what she’s saying. I think it’s a very common challenge that a lot of people put themselves. I think it’s an illusion. I think balance is an illusion. When I was in corporate, that was all. That was the corp speak. It was, you know, work life balance, work life balance. And then someone told them, I heard someone say something years later, and it was that there is no such thing as work life balance. There’s no such thing. There’s harmony. Right? What we can do is we can get to harmony, especially for those of us that don’t have lives that are so prescriptive, where it’s like you spend eight hours working, you spend eight hours doing other things, you spend eight hours sleeping. That just is not the reality for most people either, within corporate and certainly not for folks who are entrepreneurs. Right. So if you’re looking for work life balance, you’re always going to fail Because life does not work out that way. You can line it all up and then one kid gets a cold, it throws off the whole thing, or you have a teenager who needs you and it’s going to, you know, pull your energy there and throw everything off else off. What you can do. And what I strive for is harmony. And what that means is I know what my priorities are, and I know within my priorities the difference between, uh, I have adult children now, but the difference between someone who just needs something from me, um, and someone who really needs me and all of me in that moment.

Lisane Basquiat: And so I know what’s important to me my children, my family, the friends, my community are, are so important to me. And I also know how important my work is to me. And so I’m showing up 100% for everybody with 100% of myself. And what that means is that AI, in learning and setting boundaries and in speaking clearly and in communicating with people. It helps me to get myself out of this illusion that I can break myself into very neat quadrants and be everything for everybody. I can show up here for you in this conversation. Me, Lee and Renita having a great conversation. I am right here. If one of my kids called with something big that was going on, I’d probably ask you to hold for a second so I can deal with that. But I’m here with you. I’m not thinking about the other things that are going on, because guess what? When we hang up, those things are going to be there waiting for me. And I’d rather be in communication and connection and present with this conversation here so that we are all where the three of us are creating a space that’s going to be helpful to other people. There’s enough time. We believe that there isn’t, and there is enough time for the things that are important to us. And some of the things that we spend our time doing are not like other people’s agendas, other people’s sense of urgency, other people’s, you know, antics online.

Lisane Basquiat: If we don’t have time to actually scroll for those. Learning how to set boundaries, understanding what your values are and how to live in alignment with those, um, healing up the parts of ourselves that are running the show in a way that we don’t want our show to be run, and forgiving what needs to be forgiven in the past so that you can clean up the space between yourself and your past, and the space between where you want to be and where you are, enough so that you can bring 100% of yourself into, uh, into your future and into your present And the ultimate thing is joy. And I think that’s something that we believe is nonsense or or fantasy. And I am here to tell you that you can live in joy. There’s a difference between happy, which is maybe what happens when you’re at a club or a party or, you know, hanging out with friends and joy. Joy is I know that I can handle anything that’s coming my way. I know I’m in the driver’s seat of my life. I have quality relationships with every single person I’m in relationship with. Doesn’t mean everything’s rosy all the time, but it means that I know that I’m doing the work to bring quality into my life. And the more you bring it towards you, the more joy you feel and the more peace you feel. And that’s what most of us want now.

Lee Kantor: To lead a life that is closer to joy or includes joy. Uh, can you talk about the six week online experience shape your foundation core that you’ve created just for web, uh, West certified women entrepreneurs? Uh, because I think it’s so important. We’re touching upon a little bit now, but this six weeks online experience is going to really go deep and really give, uh, make an impact on a lot of people. So can you talk about what your objective is for that course and also how people can sign up?

Lisane Basquiat: Absolutely. Um, so my objective is for us to spend six weeks, it’s two hours a week. I think one of the sessions is 2.5 hours, and there are two hours a week over a six week period where we are going to go really, really deep into who you are, what you want, what’s standing in the way, what your beliefs, what the beliefs are that are helping you to accomplish the things that you’re accomplishing. So we’re going to look at what’s working for sure. And we’re going to do more of that. We’re going to look at the things that are not working. And I’m going to teach you how to release those things from the story that you’re living out every day. We’ll look at some programing, meaning how are you, how were you programed and how are you programing yourself toward having the results that you’re having right now? We’ll look at patterns. We’ll look at limiting beliefs. We’ll look at um, uh, as I mentioned before, your values, what do you value and how you actually bring connection between what you value and what you want and what your actions are every day in support of that or taking away from it. We’ll look at the behaviors that, um, that you’re putting into your life story and, and the behaviors that are getting you. The results that you are that you want to have will go through. Some of it will be looking at energetic systems as well. The energetic systems, the chakra system within our systems that help us to get clear about where we are in different facets and aspects of our lives, we will. It’s it’s a journey. It’s an incredible journey of doing what they do. When you build a house, it’s like the potting, making sure that the potting is all taken care of.

Lisane Basquiat: You can’t. It’s not about going in and blowing everything up. It’s about taking a look at things one piece at a time and making sure that you have a strong, clear foundation and that you’re not operating simply from your will, but from an undercurrent of confidence and knowing that you have the tools that will allow you and get you to a place that you truly want to be. Um, many people have gone through this program. The results have been incredible. It’s a safe environment. This isn’t about walking out feeling heavy or any of that. It’s about getting in. We’re going to do the work together, and you will leave with a completely new and fresh approach. There’s not any one way anyone who says there’s like this one program that’s the end all and be all. I don’t know that that’s true, but what I do know is that this is a program that is developed with you in mind. I know what this world looks like. I know what it feels like, and I know that I have watched myself, and the clients that I’ve worked with over decades go from being resentful, overwhelmed with anger as their home, emotion, Motion frustrated? Um, not maybe putting all of their intention and attention into work because they, um, were confident in their ability to have quality personal relationships. But we’re going to look at is all of it, because how you do one thing is how you do everything. And my intention is for you to walk out of this clear, clean, ready to move forward, confident and with willing to take on, to receive a little more joy from yourself.

Renita Manley: Right? You really got me excited when you mentioned the word chakra, because now I know that really means you’re going to be tapping into some some more inner inner elements for these who are out there that are interested in those different aspects of your wellbeing. And one final, very brief question that I want to ask about the workshop that’s coming up, um, for any VBS that I’m interested in signing up, is this going to be more like a Individual personalized experience? Or do you have more of a group approach to the workshop?

Lisane Basquiat: So we’re doing this as a cohort. So we’re going to come in together as a group. It’s going to be online. Uh, I, we, uh, we, we bank is actually handling the registration process. So I think you can, you know, put the information in there for them. Uh, this is a program that I’ve shared publicly, uh, many, many times that we’re bringing specifically for this group of, of individuals. And so we’ll do it as a group. Um, it is a safe. I am known for curating safe environments for people to grow and to learn. Uh, there’ll be some meditation included in it, and, um, and it’s, again, it’s an environment where it’s safe. So it’s not about coming in and, and feeling like, uh, you will feel welcomed. You will feel seen, you will be heard and you’ll be supported toward the next level of your personal growth for sure that I can guarantee you.

Renita Manley: Perfect. And if you’re listening to this and you are interested in signing up for this program, um, if you’re listening to this before October 16th, um, I guess I should ask listeners, should listen, should we be signed up? Um, the program begins September 11th. That’s right. Can anyone happen in the middle of the program, or do you recommend we start from September 11th through October 16th? Every Thursday, every Thursday, September 11th through October 16th. Should we be signing up on that for that first week and then attend every Thursday? Or can we be hopping in the middle and then finish it out?

Lisane Basquiat: You’re signing up for that first week, and you’re going to be on a journey with the other bees that choose to join. This is going to be a we be only space, and it is a program that’s specifically designed to build on itself from one week to the next. So you’re not hopping in and out of it. You’re going to come in for a start. We’ll get together on the 11th of September. We’ll start this journey. Um, you’ll I’ll share more about what the program’s going to actually look like over the six weeks. We’ll go through the six weeks together and then 30 days after, because a lot of times we go to these programs, we get all rah rah, and then we walk away and we forget about it. I don’t want that to happen. What I want is for you to take this information, to apply it practically to your life, which is what you’re going to be doing from one week to the next. There’s no homework, but it’s more about awareness and consciously practicing the tools that you’re going to be learning. We’ll get together 30 days after and we’ll look to see how you’re doing and check in and tweak and course correct whatever needs to be course corrected. My goal, my intention is for you to get this information to solidify your foundation, the core of your being, the core of who you are and how you’re showing up so that you can leave this so you will leave this program and positively impact the other folks that are around you, your family, your community, your work.

Renita Manley: So for certified listening, go to Rebecca West website WBEZ. Hyphen. Events or calendar? I might be messing up, but at the top of our website there is a tab. Go to the events tab. Go to the month of September. Click September 11th and sign up for Shape Your Foundation. It is going to be amazing! Lee. You can take us out.

Lee Kantor: All right. Um, listen, um, if somebody wants to learn more about your business or connect with you, is there a website? Is there an easy way to connect?

Lisane Basquiat: Absolutely. Go to. Com. We’re also on all social media platforms. I also have uh, Shaping Freedom with Lee San Basquiat podcast. Uh, that is an amazing, amazing resource. Uh, talking about all of these things as well. So just look up shaping freedom or listen Basquiat and, uh, and we’re out there. You’ll find information.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today, doing such important work. And we appreciate you. Thank you. All right. This is Lee Kantor for Renita Manley. We’ll see you all next time on Women in Motion.

Speaker6: Come sit down with. Me.

 

Tagged With: Shaping Freedom

BRX Pro Tip: Profit First

August 19, 2025 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: Profit First
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BRX Pro Tip: Profit First

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, today’s topic, profit first.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. We’re big believers in the profit first philosophy. We’ve been doing it in our business for a long time. And I think it’s important to periodically go through what that means, and why it works, and why it works for us.

Lee Kantor: So, typically, a business, historically, I guess, they’ve run where they’re saying sales minus expenses is profit. Which means that anything left over is your profit. And that’s how most businesses operate and they’ve operated for a long time that way.

Lee Kantor: In our model or in the profit first model, we use the same kind of variables, but we just adjust the order of things. So, in our world, we prioritize paying ourselves first. So, it’s about anything left is the expenses. So then, you cut the expenses before you stop paying yourself, in other words. So, in our world we are taking profit first before expenses. And anything left over are the expenses.

Lee Kantor: So, we do the adjustment on the expenses side, not the profit side. So, once you’ve determined what the profit percentage you want to have in your business, now you just adjust your expenses so that that profit is there for you when you need it each month.

Lee Kantor: So, I think that by doing that in our business, at least I can speak for us, is that, we’re in business a lot longer and with a lot less stress because we know that there’s the amount of money coming in that we want to come in each month. So, I think it’s something for a lot of entrepreneurs to consider profit first, go by the book, check out the website, and learn how to implement it in your business.

The Mosquito Shield Playbook: Strategies for Growing a Thriving Franchise

August 18, 2025 by angishields

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Franchise Marketing Radio
The Mosquito Shield Playbook: Strategies for Growing a Thriving Franchise
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In this episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, Lee Kantor talks with Brad Sutliffe, franchise owner of Mosquito Shield of Southern Delaware. Brad shares his transition from a 20-year insurance career to entrepreneurship, detailing how he and his wife researched franchising and chose Mosquito Shield for its recurring revenue, seasonality, and growth potential. He discusses building brand awareness, scaling operations, and leveraging franchise support, as well as expanding into additional franchises. Brad highlights the rewards and challenges of business ownership, the importance of community engagement, and involving his family in the business, offering practical insights for aspiring franchisees.

Mosquito-Shield

Brad SutliffeBrad Sutliffe is from Lewes, DE, where he lives with his wife and business partner, Kristi as well as their three children – Nate, Emme and William.

He has spent over 20 years in the corporate insurance world. Over the past 4 years he has become an entrepreneur in the franchise world owning local territories for Mosquito Shield, DonutNV and Frios Pops.

Follow Mosquito Shield on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Episode Highlights

  • Transition from a long career in commercial insurance to franchising.
  • Reasons for choosing franchising over independent business or continuing in insurance.
  • The process of selecting a franchise with the help of a consultant.
  • Operational aspects of running Mosquito Shield, including initial roles and responsibilities.
  • Benefits of the franchise model, including support, training, and infrastructure.
  • Marketing strategies and customer acquisition methods, including SEO and community engagement.
  • Importance of understanding the seasonality of the business and planning accordingly.
  • Balancing multiple franchise businesses and managing growth effectively.
  • Personal commitment and hard work required for franchise success.
  • Involvement of family in the business and the personal rewards of entrepreneurship.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio. It’s Franchise Marketing Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Brad Sutliffe. He is a franchisee with Mosquito Shield of Southern Delaware. Welcome.

Brad Sutliffe: Thanks for having me. Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar. Tell us a little bit about Mosquito Shield.

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. So Mosquito Shield is a residential mosquito control company. So primarily, you know, when I don’t know your age, Lee, but when I grow up. Right? Certainly, people. This wasn’t an industry that was around, right? I always joke your parents sent you outside, you got bit, or you sprayed the off, and you put the lotion on and you went about your day, you know. So this is an industry that’s really taken off, I would say, in the last 15 or 20 years, 95% of what we do is residential mosquito control, and the whole goal is really to just allow people to enjoy their their out their lawn and their outdoor space for the season.

Lee Kantor: So now let’s talk about kind of your journey into franchising. What were you doing prior to franchising?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. So historically, I’ve always been in the commercial insurance business close to 20 years. The funny story on that is, you know, I worked for one of the top 3 or 4 insurance agencies in the company or in the world. Excuse me. And, you know, my wife had been a stay at home mom for close to ten years. We have three kids that are now 15, 12 and nine. As she said, once our youngest was starting to get into the school world, I think I’m ready to start to talk to adults. Right. And then that conversation kind of led to we were being truly honest with ourselves. Lee, in terms of, you know, if we put everything on the board, you’re kind of starting over in a profession. Do you know what you want to get to? She wasn’t sure at that point. We said, hey, you know, honestly, the salary that you’re probably going to make, you were probably going to make this much money, you know, but now you’re going to have two weeks vacation. We’re going to have to put kids maybe into daycare or summer camps. And when you really looked at that on paper and we were kind of like, you know, man, this may be causing more problems than it’s worth. Not that we didn’t want to do it, but, you know, again, just throwing everything.

Brad Sutliffe: I’m kind of a planner. She’s more of a free goer by nature. And then we kind of said, well, hey, we’re in her early 40s. Let’s start a business. That should be fun, right? You know, we’ve never thought of doing that again. I was always a traditional W-2 employee for close to 20 years. And then the next conversation is certainly like, okay, well, what business are we going to start? You know, we didn’t have anything that we organically built or some creative marketing idea or anything like that. And that casually led. I knew nothing about the franchise world, and I think if there’s anything I can encourage people to do, it’s, you know, just learn and take 30 minutes to educate yourself about franchise. I always use the term I always thought the franchise world was, you know, the chick fil A models of the world, right? But you needed $2 million of cash. You needed a lot of liquid liquidity to be able to put down in a transition to that. I had no idea the plethora of business available out there in the market. And, you know, those newer businesses that are on the forefront, hopefully, of kind of breaking through and being household names, so to speak.

Brad Sutliffe: So we ended up just doing a little bit of research. We met with a consultant, educated us, as I said, hey, this could go a 30 minute conversation or we could have further conversations into this. But you know, you know, the beauty of franchising, if you can find the right brand, it’s that really it’s diving into that turnkey process. Right? So my wife and I, we did not want to, you know, pick a color for our brand. We did not want to pick a logo. We wanted something that was super turnkey, um, and ready to go. Right. Because I’ve always been a salesman by nature. So I said, hey, if we can find a good product and something that we both love and can kind of get into. Um, you know, finding that key with the franchising space is, is, was was awesome. And we kind of hit a home run. Um, moving forward with that. I do joke, though, and that could probably lead you in a further conversation. What about mosquito shield? You know, I always laugh with people. I said four years ago, if you had told me I was in a residential mosquito control industry, I would have said, what are you talking about on that end?

Lee Kantor: Now, why did you choose franchising when you were in insurance? A lot of folks just would have organically just said, oh, I’m going to just open my own insurance office up. I got my wife here. We’ll make flexible hours. I’m already know everything about the ins and outs of this. How come you didn’t take that path?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. So I have gone a little bit out in that route and kind of now that I’ve gotten into the entrepreneurial stage, as I say in my life, I have gone out of my own. So I do dabble a little bit in that with a small handful of clients. In all honesty, if I’m being completely honest and I think a lot of people at my age Kind of go through the same kind of concepts, right? You’ve been in the same industry. You do pretty well. Start doing pretty well financially. You start to have kids. As somebody explained to me, then you add the more valves on, right? So the more payments of, you know, starting to save for college, bigger mortgage, uh, second car, all the additional kids expenses and you kind of sit there saying, I’m making probably too much money to kind of step away or to start something completely new because I can’t go from, you know, a six figure income to $25,000 because I want to be a baker. Um, and I and frankly, I was very good at my job, and I still think I am, but, um, you know, you get bored over the years of constantly ringing the bell, um, doing the same thing over and over.

Brad Sutliffe: So my wife would probably tell you if she was on this call, you know, over the 4 or 5 years before this, she could tell I was kind of bored. I was still good, still very productive in my job. But, you know, I’d kind of come to her saying, man, I’d love, you know, to do something else. And and again, financially, that’s always the tough conversation. But if there’s one thing I’ve always learned for that and will certainly preach my kids, it’s, you know, I think everyone should have a side hustle, business, side hustle, passion, something that they can. You know, again, if you got to have the, the, the W-2 salary, the benefits for a period of time, but try to find something that you can build on your own. The rewarding and gratifying gratification of that. What I didn’t want to do is to be 70 years old, stay in insurance at a W2 job for 4050 years, and then say, hey man, I never took a shot or a risk. And I you finally got to a point where you said, what is the worst thing that happens if the worst thing that happens is we hate the business and we want to sell it, or we don’t do well in it, and we’ve lost a little bit of money.

Brad Sutliffe: Hey, at the end of the day, we can at least look at each other and we always felt, hey, we can go out and get a job if we needed to down the line. But, you know, we were in a position and now I kicked myself for just saying I should have started this process ten years ago. And again, that’s where it gets back to, you know, a lot of people that I talk to. Or younger professionals, I’m always in their ear just saying, hey, you got anything on the side that you want to start to build? You know, especially before you start to have kids and the responsibilities and the other stuff. Because again, I always look at to these people, if the worst thing that happens is that side hustle is so, um, it takes off right, and becomes so successful that you now have to make a decision, oh my gosh, I can’t stay in my W2 because my time involved and my side hustle, um, is taking off and I need to devote more energy to that. And I always look at people and say, that is a great problem to have. And I think you’d agree.

Lee Kantor: Now when you were going through the okay, so now you’re getting a little burnt out in insurance, you’re kind of curious about franchising. Uh, you talk to, I would assume, a franchise broker or some consultant of some sort, and they show you a variety. Um, they probably make you do some sort of an assessment to see what you like. Don’t like things like that, and you kind of narrow it down. Were you going all in where you’re like, okay, here’s my two weeks notice and now I’m doing this thing? Or did you kind of ease into it, like you were saying, as a side hustle and then kind of work your way? And then when it was kind of financially stable, then you kind of pulled the ripcord.

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah, definitely. It was, uh, because again, I’ve been in sales, I’ve always been able to set my own schedule, make my own, um, on my end. Um, this was going to be 100% for a job for my wife in terms of, you know, especially in the business, she was going to be investing whatever the 40 hours of the week, so to speak. Um, I was going to be behind the scenes, obviously still looking to do my W-2 job. Um, as, as long as we possibly were able to do that, obviously fill in nights, weekends or as needed. Um, but she was totally invested from the start to be able to build, um, to devote that, you know, that 40 hours of, of time on that end and like you said, yes, we did use a consultant, um, one to just be truly educated on what is franchising, what is? When people talk about the franchise disclosure documents, the F9 team, all that kind of important stuff that again, as a newbie, you don’t know anything about. Um, and having that, um, using that consultant to obviously represent brands. Right. So again, we evaluated probably 12 to 15 brands. Um, we did a fun exercise where again, a lot of it does come down to financially, how much are you able or willing to kind of invest. Right. Uh, do you have any, uh, certain industries that you’re maybe kind of more passionate? So are you more artistic or are you more business, or are you more sales? Um, and so we did a fun exercise where I took we took all the information home. I picked my top three. Kristy, my wife picked her top three, and then our consultant picked what their top three was. Um, and on that end, it was funny because, uh, mosquito shield, both ranked in our top three. So, uh, we actually locked in on that pretty quickly to the point where I said, you know, are we going through this process too fast? Because, you know, it just seemed like it was checking so many boxes for each of us.

Lee Kantor: So what about mosquito shield was so attractive to all of the parties involved here? Was it, um, is it a hands on? I’m not that. I know I’m kind of seeing the brand, but I don’t know what the actual how you deliver the service. Um, what what part attracted you to it?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. So a couple things that were definitely for us were, uh, home runs. Um, so the seasonality business of it. So our season typically goes from, uh, April through October. So obviously you’re doing, um, planning throughout the winter months and developing your marketing budgets. So it’s not like there’s nothing to do but the true service or deliverables of having technicians, um, provide the services, uh, April through October. Um, so again, a seasonality business, we were kind of really excited to say, hey, 15, ten years from now, you know, we could be able to set this up where if we want to go to Florida or somewhere for 4 to 6 weeks a year, it’s okay to do it because we we have that business, um, on it, I my mentality in the insurance world. Um, I was a commissioned employee, so I was used to the guaranteed renewal ability. So I love the recurring revenue stream. Right? So I looked at us to say, okay, if we got 50 clients our first year, we can get a 150 year two. I understood the math that, hey, at the end of the day, if you’re putting on more clients than you’re losing every year and you’re delivering strong customer service, then at the end of the day, that that recurring revenue stream hits every single year. And, you know, you can kind of scale up and build this up as you possibly could. And then I did we did a little bit of market analysis. So we said, hey, where we live. And I know you don’t necessarily know our area in Delaware, but we were we’re about two hours from Philly, two hours from Baltimore and two hours from DC.

Brad Sutliffe: Um, it was right around post-Covid. Um, and we saw a mass exodus of folks from the cities move out to where we are in the coastal beaches of Delaware. So we saw mass construction, um, uh, boom, out here. We saw very limited competition in terms of we do have one residential mosquito control company out here. Um, and but a couple other pest control companies that we thought, hey, opportunity to be able to grow this. There wasn’t a ton of competition. So those are probably the three main drivers, um, that I would say when we really looked at it, we were like, yeah, we think we have some really good potential in this. And then certainly again, financially it was a fairly lower started compared to some of these franchises. On the end, you could base the business starting out of your house, right? So at the end of the day, you needed one truck, right? Uh, you didn’t need a huge space or a big, uh, rent to be able to pay in a, in a commercial space. So, um, as you go through this, you can scale it up. The goal is to get to that level where we need 4 or 5, six trucks. We need a bigger commercial space. Uh, but you could, you know, in your first year or two basis out of your home, um, and control some of those startup costs, um, that obviously come into play.

Lee Kantor: So now when you’re delivering the services is something that you and your wife had to be the deliverer of the service as well, or is this something you immediately hire somebody to do?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. So that that’s everybody’s different. Right. So it comes down to, um, um, you know, how you, how you kind of structured and build it out. So for us, year one, uh, I ended up doing the tech work. So I went out about two days a week, one week and three days the next week. So I tell people, uh, we finished our first season with 75 clients on the books. So I went out spring two days, one week, and three days the next week. So it was two, three, two, three kind of the schedule for the season. And again, I had the flexibility through through my work as a commissioned sales person to be able to do that. My wife handled all of the, uh, sales calls. Um, we do have access to a call center. They do a solid job, but we felt, hey, at the end of the day, nobody knows the area better than us. She was active in the PTO. Um, we were just. Her close rate we just saw was through the roof in terms of just being able to talk about the service, because, again, so many people weren’t aware of the service, um, that we provide.

Brad Sutliffe: Um, and then as we’ve grown out, you know, like this year, I have sprayed maybe under five times. Um, we now have a full time general manager who is a year round employee. We have a second full time technician. We have two vehicles. So again, back to my previous point about scaling this thing up. Um, you’ve got the ability. Uh, my goal this year was to start to work on the business and not in the business, so to speak. Um, so I want to do more of the high level stuff. So obviously the marketing, the budget planning, the the infrastructure, how do we build this up? Some of the training to get my GM to the level, um, you know, to be the lead technician to take, uh, some of the training aspects, some of the day to day stuff. Um, and leading all the tech work. But that’s how we’ve kind of grown and expanded, you know, over those first two years.

Lee Kantor: Now, is is the selling happen? Um, because they inquire from an ad or some marketing, and then your wife has to kind of explain it and close them. Is that the is that the marketing kind of flywheel or funnel you’re using?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. The biggest thing I would tell people in franchising is, is just getting your name out there. So, uh, again, SEO search engine optimization is great, right? Everyone runs to Google, but you also have to get out there. You gotta wee wee wee pound signs out the door. Uh, the biggest thing you have to do is to educate people on who, frankly, who is mosquito shield. And then what do you do? And then how do you differentiate yourself in the marketplace? Um, you know, when you’re, when you’re going against your competitors. So, yeah, our first year was to just brand ourselves and get people to understand that we’re one we’re out here and then to educate people on, on, on, uh, you know, what service that we can provide them. So that can include putting out 4 to 500 signs in our territory that will include going to home shows, um, and just educating people. But yeah. Typically a lead comes in. My wife would be reaching out to them pretty quickly. Same day, if not within 24 hours at the latest. Just giving them the education of how to how what is mosquito services? How does it work? Our biggest differentiator with mosquito shield is that we come out at a 14 day cadence. Industry standard is typically coming out closer to 21 days. So we’re never going to typically be the cheapest on the piece of paper. But we’re typically coming out about 50% more often over the course of the season. So competitors typically come out, you know, 7 to 8 times. And we’re more in the 12 to 13 because we just looked at the data as a company. Um, and uh, mosquitoes really start to start activity around day 14 to 21. And we just said, hey, we’ve got backpacks that are efficient, our routings efficient. Um, and we want to really start to come out and give a truly better experience by coming out more often, more regularly than competitors.

Lee Kantor: And when you deliver the service, you don’t need the resident to be there, right? Like, you can just walk around the yard front and back and then knock it out. Or do you need the the the homeowner to be there?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. The we try to say you almost kind of set it and forget it. Right. So we have a very great system in terms of we send out a text message the night before that says your scheduled service is scheduled for tomorrow. So again, that gives the client to some heads up of, hey, I’ve got a construction guy in the morning. Is there any way to move it? Or, you know, we have had situations where they said, hey, tomorrow really isn’t going to work for me because I’ve got, um, we’re we’re building a deck in our back. Is there any way to move it? So we try to give them the feedback of, hey, if you if you know, we can’t be there, um, then please let us know. We also send messages out about 15 minutes before they come. We typically want to meet the person on our first service just to say, hey, let’s walk the property together, right? If there’s any areas that you want to point out to us, let’s walk the property line. Because a very important thing, obviously in our business is, you know, adhering to our state regulations on, you know, adhering especially to property lines, right? So we can’t spray into the neighbor’s yard.

Brad Sutliffe: And, uh, but again, getting that feedback from the, uh, from the client of, hey, they’re really starting to come from under my deck that I’ve noticed, or in my back left corner so we can make the proper notes. But after that, you know, we we certainly have clients where we haven’t seen again, you know, so it’s it’s more of we can come out. You don’t have to be there if you’re there. Great. Uh, but if not, it’s no, no big deal. And then the beauty of our services, we tell people, you know, once we leave the truck, our average stop is about ten minutes on a property, you know, let it dry for about 15 to 20 minutes and that’s it. You can come right back out and start to enjoy your property. So that includes kids, animals on the property. Um, it’s a very quick process because if you know, Lee, if you’ve ever done, you know, yard work or they’ve sprayed your lawn, right, and they put the sign up and you got to stay off the lawn for 24 hours, our process is a lot faster, and it allows employees to come out a lot quicker on their property and enjoy it.

Lee Kantor: So how did Corporate Mosquito Shield do in terms of training you, or kind of managing your expectations of what to expect? You know, when it is your business now and and it’s no longer, you know, something that you hope will happen. It’s happening and you’re on a clock as soon as that check clears, right? Uh, you gotta you got to get clients now and it’s on you. So how did they do in terms of setting you up for success?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah, that’s a great question. And that’s I think some people, you know, need to understand. Hey, at the end of the day, it is your business, right. The franchise is there to support, provide the feedback, help you build this. But hey, at the end of the day, some people I think, think, you know, the franchise is directly supposed to send them leads. It’s a turnkey. I always tell people, hey, at the end of the day, if you’re not willing to put the blood, sweat and tears into build your business, um, you know, at the end of the day, that success does fall on the business owner. So sometimes, you know, you hear the term semi absenteeism, um, which consultants try to use. And I kind of hate that term in terms of at the end of the day, if you could work a business that you’re just starting out 5 to 10 hours a week, b semi absenteeism, everyone in America would own this type of business or getting the franchise right. So can you get there? Absolutely. I think if you build it right, you build the team. Um, you can get to that level if you want to as an owner, um, to be able to say, hey, I put in the five years to ten years to kind of build this out. I’ve got a great team. I can take a step back and allow my, my employees to kind of lead this charge. I’m there for support and training purposes. But those first couple of years, you got to be putting in the work to to kind of build that out on the corporate side.

Brad Sutliffe: Right. Um, because our business is seasonal, seasonally, uh, we signed papers in January, and my wife and I both looked at ourselves and said, you know, hey, I’m on around April 1st. Really? People start to really, you know, lock in and say, okay, the weather’s turning, I got to buy this. And we just said, hey, we’ve got a, uh, you know, uh, depending on the corporation, they may say, hey, it’s a 30 day training, a 60 day, 90 day. We said, we are going to try to onboard this and get this done as fast as we can, because basically we want it to be ready to go for April 1st. So second, we sign those papers. Uh, we started to have an onboarding portal of all the training that the corporate was able to provide to us and, you know, marketing 101. Right. Some people don’t have any idea about how to set a marketing budget. I certainly didn’t I didn’t know anything about starting a small business. Um, how do we differentiate ourselves? How is if Brad, you’re going to be the technician, here’s videos and here’s tech training. So I actually flew out to, uh, North Carolina for two days and did basic tech training with people across the country because I never put on a backpack, I didn’t know how to properly spray. And just in the 2 to 3 days, you get so much better with just getting a couple sprays under your belt and how to operate the backpack.

Brad Sutliffe: So yeah, any good franchise? You know, again, as the owner, you know, they may not be proactively reaching out saying, hey, do this, do that. Um, but any good franchise is going to have that infrastructure where the support that you need, you can take as much of it or as little of it. Um, so I looked at myself and said, hey, I’m pretty good in these areas, but I definitely don’t know anything about, you know, marketing how to properly build a marketing budget for mosquito residential mosquito control in year one. So I leaned heavily on the marketing team at corporate for the first year. Um, and then on the tech side, uh, for the first year, and then again, as you get a certain couple years in the business, you know, maybe I’m not leaning them as much, but you’re still having your monthly calls to hear, you know, what’s corporate doing, how how the numbers look on an industry. We also have local what they call f a c meeting financial hour, uh, uh, where we meet regionally, uh, once a month to talk about what’s going on, successes, Is, uh, what’s working maybe marketing wise, that people, um, have spent dollars on that are leading to sales, all that kind of stuff. Where, uh, again, you as a owner, you got to be willing to attend, put the put the meetings on your calendar and attend them. Uh, because the more you get out of it, the more you can get to that level to build the business up as fast as possible.

Brad Sutliffe: Because at the end of the day, you know, we’re all in business to hopefully build this out in the, to make money. Um, and it’s, it’s how quickly can can you, can you, can you get to that level where um, you as a business owner can say, hey, I know for us, Christy and I, we reinvested all of the money for the first couple years into marketing because we said, hey, our goal is how quickly can we build this up to 3 to 400, uh, clients? Um, so then we can, as the owner, start to take, you know, a decent salary, right? And then the goal is, okay, if it took us 3 to 4 years to get to 400, right. How do we get that to 800? Is now what we’re starting to think? Can we cut that time in half. So our goal is, hey, if it took us now four years. Or give or take four years to get to 350 to 400. Can we cut that time in half to get to 800? And that’s where you really can start to see the business kind of take off. And and the good thing is, you know, you can see that light at the end of that tunnel and then that growth trajectory, um, again, assuming you’re doing the right things and putting the work in to kind of build it up.

Lee Kantor: Now as part of your, uh, entrepreneurial evolution, you purchased two other franchises. What was kind of the thinking behind that and of doing that rather than kind of doubling down on, hey, let me just get more mosquito shield territories.

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah. It was kind of, um, interesting. Right? So some people would say, you’re crazy, right? I’m sure my mother probably looked at saying, well, you’re adding more different franchise and different businesses. Um, on the mosquito shield side, basically, in Delaware, we were a small state. We are a small state. Um, so we had, uh, our what we call northern Delaware was already acquired and purchased. So when we did the initial acquisition, we did purchase three territories and we wrapped up the rest of the state. Um, the reason we didn’t expand into other states, uh, was really, um, because that does open it up to more state licensing, more state tests. Um, and we thought we had the opportunity to just kind of build out our three territories as big as we possibly want. Right. So a lot of conversations people have is can I start with one territory? Do I need to buy two? Three. Expand it. I always tell people, hey, at the end of the day, you know, um, you can start with just one. If financially you’re just more on the conservative side to say, I just need to see how this goes. Um, and then you can obviously expand. You know, obviously the faster you do the acquisition, you’re just limiting, you know, people coming in from maybe acquiring those certain territories. Um, but then as we grew and looked at this, we just said we thought we had some other opportunities with some other businesses. Um, and, uh, And that led us to the line of, uh, you know, expanding kind of our portfolio, I guess, in entrepreneurship.

Brad Sutliffe: So, um, you know, over the last couple of years, we’ve also acquired donut envy of southern Delaware. So we do hot, fresh mini donuts, uh, uh, fresh squeezed lemonade. Um, and then we also added, uh, frijoles pops. So it’s gourmet popsicles. Um, so to give you some perspective on that, you know, the donuts is a year round business. Obviously, certain months in certain, uh, weathers dictate, uh, better months of the year, but that is a year round business. And then the popsicles is truly seasonal, similar to Mosquito Shield, where that’s really kind of for us, uh, you know, April through October with June, July and August really being, uh, the super heavy months in the popsicle space. Um, and again, because of where we live, we’re in a coastal community, a lot of beach people, um, we just saw the opportunity in that, getting into that food and beverage space that we thought, hey, we can kind of build this out to. And again, the key is not letting it impact our growth on mosquito shield. We didn’t take our eye off the prize. Right. So my wife and I, you know, we’ve got solid employees. Uh, like I said, we we invested in bringing in a general manager on the mosquito shield side. So we’re we’re very invested in all three of the businesses. Um, so our goal was to not just, hey, be content. We put on, you know, we’re at 200 mosquito shield clients.

Brad Sutliffe: We’re okay. We’ve built that out. It’s hey, we still want to grow each one of these accordingly and put the the time and the effort to. But we just saw the, the ability to kind of expand that way. And we really loved I can tell um, tell you just from personal experience, don’t get me wrong. You know, you’ve had the sleepless nights. You’re a business owner. I always say you’re the last one to get paid, right. Everyone kind of knows that if they’re in that small business world, but the the opportunity to kind of grow into build, um, your own business and your own, you know, legacy, so to speak, I guess, you know, so if this is something that our kids want to possibly get down. Get into. Down the line. What we’ve seen is, again, I mentioned my kids. They’re 15, 12 and nine. We have all three of them that work in some aspect in terms of attending an event here, helping us here. Um, and just the payout on that to see them start to develop work ethic, which is I think is so important in today’s world. You know, handing out pops, learning some customer service skills, counting money, all these kind of things that, you know, again, in that that age, I think are so important to see kind of them kind of build and mature, uh, through that process. We’ve really enjoyed that process of getting into that business ownership aspect.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Role modeling. Being an entrepreneur is a gift you’re giving your kids. I mean, that’s for sure, because that’s the gift that keeps on giving. Learning how to sell and interact with human beings in person, that that’s useful no matter what they do throughout their lives.

Brad Sutliffe: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about what you got going on and connect with you, is there a best way to do that? Is it through Google Shield or LinkedIn?

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah, LinkedIn is probably the best way. So again, Brad Sutcliffe, um, obviously you can probably find us just doing a simple search and reach out through one of our emails, um, on any one of those businesses. But yeah, LinkedIn certainly is probably the easiest and quickest way to find us.

Lee Kantor: And if they need help with their mosquitoes, uh, mosquito shields website, and they can drill down to Delaware and find you.

Brad Sutliffe: Yeah, absolutely. So they can go to mosquito shield.com. Obviously they can put their zip code in and then that’ll link them to their nearest, uh, local franchisee.

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

Brad Sutliffe: Happy to help. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

 

Tagged With: Mosquito Shield

BRX Pro Tip: Capture the Story

August 18, 2025 by angishields

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Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, of course, we know from our work, but it’s no secret, any real thought leader in the sales and marketing arena is going to support and endorse this idea that stories really are incredibly powerful. So, we’re suggesting when you’re out there, capture the story.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And not only capture the story, it’s important for those stories to kind of permeate the culture of your organization. Those stories are important, obviously, when it comes to moving the prospect to becoming a client because they help them remember what you do. But it also helps your employees believe in their work and it helps your customers refer business to you.

Lee Kantor: o, it’s important to capture these stories, especially the foundational stories that are at the heart of your business, the ones that really made a difference to key people, that really set the stage for maybe how you’ve changed, or how you’ve grown, or how you’ve gotten to a new level. So, it’s important to be capturing stories all along because they build out kind of the cultural DNA of your organization. So, the more stories you have that you can use to help each of your stakeholders tell your story better, the better it is for your organization.

Lee Kantor: So, it’s important to really be mindful for the founder to craft a company story so that it is memorable, impactful, and, most important, shareable. So that it’s easy to understand, the people get it, and they want to get behind it and support it.

Lee Kantor: So, if you can create your kind of Genesis story, the story that launched you, the thing that created the organization, the why behind it, the better it is for you. Because that story becomes that foundational piece that everybody shares and that everybody wants to tell other people about because it’s so cool.

BRX Pro Tip: Results Driven Media

August 15, 2025 by angishields

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Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, you and I have been at this media thing for a while. We’ve seen a lot of different approaches. What is your perspective on driving results-driven media?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think we’ve been at the forefront of results-driven media. In fact, we might even be one of the kind of founding fathers when it comes to results-driven media. I think most media falls under the category of ego-driven media, where the people that are creating the media are doing it for themselves in their own selfish purposes. We find that results-driven media focuses more on creating value for the community that you serve than it does about kind of making you the star and making you kind of the center of focus.

Lee Kantor: I think that, ultimately, in results-driven media, you want to be educating, supporting, and celebrating the work of all of the constituents of your community. By focusing on telling the stories of the people who matter most to you, you will become that indispensable leader of your community.

Lee Kantor: Ego-driven media focuses on making you kind of famous, getting your name out there. And this is primarily, sadly, done by being provocative and stirring up controversy. And the folks that are doing this typically don’t care that much about the community, but they’re focused primarily on building a larger and larger audience for themselves by any means necessary. And when you do that, you’re typically focusing on kind of the least of people that you really want to get to know and serve. But when you’re putting yourself at the center of each conversation and you’re making yourself the star, you’re not really helping the community, you’re helping yourself. It becomes obvious. It becomes self-serving.

Lee Kantor: At Business RadioX, we’re really helping service-driven leaders build community by serving first rather than serving themselves.

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