angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Jessica Clayton and Lynette Mathews with TalentStream

December 15, 2020 by angishields

GWBC Radio

Jessica Clayton and Lynette Mathews with TalentStream

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Jessica Clayton is the founding Partner of TalentStream and a member of the ownership group. She is a cum laude graduate of Clemson University with a Masters Degree from The Citadel.

Jessica grew up in the staffing industry and worked for a national staffing company before starting TalentStream.

In addition to leading TalentStream, Jessica enjoys giving back to the Greenville Community and spending time with her husband and three kids.

Lynette Mathews has 25 years’ experience in Engineering and Manufacturing Operations, providing TalentStream with strong industry experience in hiring, training, and retention.

She holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a trained Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Prior to joining TalentStream in 2016, she provided leadership in design, engineering and operations for several Atlanta based equipment manufacturers.

Lynette lives in Atlanta and is active in APICS Atlanta, Georgia Manufacturing Alliance and the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. She has three grown children, loves to read, travel, and is an avid sports fan.

Follow TalentStream on LinkedIn and connect with Jessica and Lynette on LinkedIn.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business, and this is going to be a good one. Today, we have with us Jessica Clayton and Lynnette Mathews with TalentStream. Welcome.

Lynette Mathews: [00:00:29] Thanks. We’re glad to be here.

Jessica Clayton: [00:00:31] Yes. Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about TalentStream. How are you serving folks?

Jessica Clayton: [00:00:37] Thanks, Lee. And a special thanks to GWBC for sponsoring this interview. So, TalentStream, we were founded almost eight years ago now and we are a WBENC certification – sorry – certified organization. We have two primary areas of focus. The first and, really, what we were founded on is our direct hire recruitment. And we do that in the areas of engineering, supply chain, and then skilled manufacturing, if you think of production supervisors. We work with a variety of clients in the Southeast, mainly, in the manufacturing and warehousing space.

Jessica Clayton: [00:01:16] And then, the second side of our business, which we rolled out about two years ago or really started to build out two years ago, is our Diversity Supplier Platform or DSP. And I’ll talk more about that later. But, really, it is an alternative to your traditional MSP, where we have partnered with large staffing organizations to help their clients meet their diversity spend through our platform.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:46] So, now, can you talk a little bit about the back story? What was the impetus to get involved, not only in just staffing, but also to specialize in the areas you specialized in?

Lynette Mathews: [00:02:01] Yeah. I can speak to that. I think, you know, every third party recruiting firm kind of has to figure out what their niche is and what their expertise is. We don’t want to be everything to everybody, and I don’t think we have the bandwidth to do that. But what we did is kind of assess our internal resources and figure out what we’re all good at and what areas we’ve actually worked in, in past careers outside of recruiting, and figure out who’s got what expertise and what network set up in those specialties. So, it really turned out that, from the inception, we found we had a lot of internal engineering supply chain and even some production operations and manufacturing operations expertise among our resources. And that just kind of drove the channels that we started to market in, that we started to find business in, and that we were able to expand in very successfully.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:58] Now, what is kind of the pros and cons when a company is thinking about when they need more talent? What’s kind of the pros and cons of going with recruiters as opposed to doing it in-house?

Lynette Mathews: [00:03:10] So, you know, some companies do have dedicated resources internally for talent sourcing, but, you know, if you only have two to three positions that are open a year, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense from a cost perspective to have a full-time person onboard that you’re paying benefits on that is exclusively managing those hires. So, really, what happens in some companies is that they push those activities onto their H.R. staff. And then, it turns out that in conjunction with their other duties, you know, benefits, staff development, safety, retention, compliance, succession planning, I mean, the list goes on. Basically what happens is, it’s kind of hard to throw that occasional recruiting assignment into the mix on those H.R. people. So, really what happens is it becomes sort of a cost benefit analysis. You know, why would we want to contract with a third party firm to get that hiring and talent sourcing best practices in place? And I mean, really, at the end of the day, if you’re in that situation, it makes a lot of sense.

Lynette Mathews: [00:04:23] The other thing that we find in our business, the reason that we get pulled in on a lot of job searches is, because of our expertise, you know, a typical H.R. manager who may be doing some recruiting on the side doesn’t necessarily know all the ins and outs of the engineering lingo or the supply chain lingo. And, you know, they may be operating on some key words that are fed to them via the hiring manager. But, you know, unless you can literally get somebody on the phone and prescreen them with some level of expertise in terms of the subject matter that you’re talking about and really be able to vet those candidates out against the requirements for that job along with the cultural fit, then, really, that’s where our value comes into play.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:12] Now, are the folks that you’re looking to hire or place, are they already employed? I would imagine the unemployment rate for these folks is pretty low. And I would imagine if you’re not doing this all the time, it’s hard to kind of vet and find the exact right fit.

Lynette Mathews: [00:05:31] Well, that’s kind of the other value of a third party firm like TalentStream, where, basically, a lot of the candidates that we are sourcing are passive candidates. They’re gainfully employed. Lee, I’m sure you’ve heard the term headhunter. We get poked with that term every now and then, but that’s really somebody who’s going out there and figuring out who’s got the exact criteria that our clients are looking for. And, oftentimes, they are working for other companies or competitors. And that’s not to say we’re in the business of swiping good talent out of other companies, but it’s about timing in someone’s career. Are they poised to make a move because of the progression they’ve made where they are currently? Has the market fluctuated in their industries such that they might be looking around because they need to, maybe, reposition in an industry that’s a little stronger right now in the market? So, yeah, we sort of are the radar. We bring the radar to a lot of talent that’s not necessarily inbound via some job posting.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:41] Right. I would imagine that that’s really a lot of the value. I mean, it’s one thing, the opportunity cost of the H.R. or internal person to be doing this kind of work or not. But the fact that you specialize in this, and this is what you’re doing 24/7, and this is what you’re thinking about, and you’re kind of learning where these people hang out. And what do you have to say to get on their radar to help them, maybe the talent, find that right fit that’s going to inspire them and to help them be the most they can be. I think you’re creating win-win situations everywhere.

Lynette Mathews: [00:07:17] Well, that and the fact that, you know, when you do this day in, day out for a while, the 80/20 rule finally kicks in, Lee. And we have a pretty robust network. So, it turns out that some of the really good candidates or prospects that are out there that may be gainfully employed, but that may want to start looking around will actually reach out to us and say, “You know, what do you have on your radar? I’m sensing some shift where I am, and I think it might be time.” And so, you know, a lot of it is serendipitous, it might be timing where the candidate reaches out and aligned with a job order that we have from a client. So, you know, we kind of are that broker in the talent sourcing arena.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:03] Now, has anything changed in your industry since COVID? I would imagine the work from home aspect of the job has impacted things. How have things changed because of COVID?

Lynette Mathews: [00:08:18] Well, certainly we are seeing a lot more remote work options even in the interviewing arena. We’re seeing a lot of video interviews being conducted as opposed to bringing people on site. I still have a lot of clients that are at that kind of last mile interview is required onsite because a lot of our job orders are so tied to manufacturing, that many of these openings sort of require from both parties to take a good look at, you know, expertise on the floor, cultural fit, and all that kind of thing.

Lynette Mathews: [00:08:55] But you’re right, I mean, a lot of the remote work situation has changed the dynamic. I think the good news is – you hear the word disruption all the time, Lee, and, you know, disruption is either good or bad, right? Despite some of the job losses that have occurred because of COVID, I think a lot of companies have done some internal inspections, some reassessment of their current resources, and decided, you know, do we have the best people onboard? Are we really helping develop our employee retention and growth trajectories? And in some cases, they’ve seen some people jump ship because there’s been some uncertainty in the market. And I think companies are taking some very strong looks at how do we best fill our positions and retain our real strong talent.

Lynette Mathews: [00:09:49] So, some of the disruption due to COVID has caused some internal reassessment. But I also think that in the fields that we place in, it’s been pretty steady. To be quite honest with you, over the last five years, the median wages for the college educated type recruitment that we do has steadily gone up. In fact, it’s increased by about 18 percent since 2015. So, we’re not seeing any downside in that. And then, I also think that despite COVID, I mean, our unemployment rates are still lower than they were, say, in 2010 by still about four percent. So, you know, the market looks grim sometimes when all you do is read the news or listen to the media. But, quite frankly, I think we’ve seen still some healthy growth in a lot of the sectors.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:42] Now, being a woman-owned or minority-owned business as you are, why is that kind of maybe an advantage for your firm as it is compared to other firms?

Jessica Clayton: [00:10:57] I’ll jump in here on the kind of minority-end or women-and organizations, and I think that when you kind of think — partner with a woman-owned organization, first and foremost, is social responsibility. And we strongly believe that a strong supplier diversity program that really reflects the demographics of an organization’s workforce is going to resonate both with external and internal stakeholders. And as we all know, diversity and inclusion is a hot topic right now, as it should be. And partnering with women-owned and minority-end owned firms is one way to show an organization’s commitment to really changing the world for the better.

Jessica Clayton: [00:11:40] And while social responsibility is clearly one of the most important reasons that we encourage companies to partner with us on either the direct hire side of our business and the third party recruitment services, but also with our diversity supplier platform. We also encourage clients and reinforce that there are a lot of other advantages to partnering with a WBENC certified organization from growth opportunities and business opportunities, access to certain RFPs that they may not have had access to before. And then, of course, the federal, state, and local tax incentives that they receive for conducting business with certified women in businesses. And, again, they can get those advantages on both sides of our business, the third party recruiting and our DSP.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:34] Now, let’s talk a little bit about kind of how this industry has evolved over the years. This isn’t your grandfather’s supply chain or manufacturing anymore. This isn’t like a male only industry. I mean, it’s a primarily male, I would imagine, but there’s a lot of opportunities for females in this industry. Do you have any advice for that young female that, maybe, hasn’t had engineering or supply chain or manufacturing on their radar as a career path? It’s evolved now where this is more, maybe, female friendly.

Jessica Clayton: [00:13:07] Absolutely. And I think as Lynette, our resident mechanical engineer, Georgia Tech grad – Lynnette, you may be more suited to answer that question on just some advice for young women engineers.

Lynette Mathews: [00:13:22] Well, and I mean, I don’t know whether you’re asking us about opportunities for women in recruitment or whether you’re talking about how we’re filling these roles with some diverse resources.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:35] Well, I’m just trying to let women, especially young women, out there, I would like them to be aware that there’s so much opportunity. These are really good jobs and that they should consider manufacturing, engineering, and supply chain as an area to pursue as a career that they may not be thinking about, because in their head, they’re picturing it in this old school way of, you know, “I got to lift heavy objects. It’s dirty.” And that world has changed dramatically.

Lynette Mathews: [00:14:08] Oh, absolutely. And, Lee, you know, one of the things that has changed that dramatically is the overlay of automation in all of the manufacturing environments. Industry 4.0, which is really getting a lot of data from your equipment, from your machines, so much is computer driven and PLC driven. You know, the old days of the wrench and hammer just kind of gone. And that’s not to say that people, you know – I mean, I used to work in a sheet metal fabrication shop, Lee. I mean, I was a roll up your sleeves, get out there with the welders, and do some inspection, and that kind of thing.

Lynette Mathews: [00:14:49] But, quite frankly, you’re right. The industry has changed, particularly in high volume manufacturing environments. Now, so much of it is automated. We have so much more robotics in play in some of the manufacturing operations, vision systems, you’ll see so much feedback control. So, a lot of times it’s really being able to – I mean, certainly the software, the data driven, the analytics, six sigma had a lower variance in your operations. So much of that is what’s really driving the continuous improvement within the manufacturing environments these days.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:29] And so, that means that it is available. The skill set necessary is something, obviously, that a female could easily handle. It’s not something, “I have to be super strong and I’m going to have to lift a ton of things.” It’s not that environment anymore. Like you said, it’s clean, robotic, automated. There’s a lot of other things that go into having a successful career in engineering and supply chain and manufacturing that maybe it did 20 years ago.

Lynette Mathews: [00:16:00] Oh, absolutely. And surprisingly enough, because I do maintain a healthy relationship with my alma mater, Georgia Tech, I mean, last year they had just short of 50 percent enrollment of women in the school and about 30 percent of those were in engineering fields.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:21] Which is a dramatic shift because that wasn’t the way it was 20, 30 years ago.

Lynette Mathews: [00:16:28] Well, and if you look at the U.S. Labor statistics, careers that are still growing and that have, you know, as far as the wage rates are going and the salary increases are going, certainly engineering is one of the top professional career paths. I mean, you see, certainly, a lot in the software fields. I mean, that’s huge, anything computer engineering and data driven. But supply chain has so much of that in it now that it’s got a huge overlap with all of the data analytics and demand planning aspects that go into the software systems.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:08] Now, let’s kind of dive into this diversity supplier platform that this is a relatively new offering. How is that kind of working for you and how do you help and partner with your clients to help them kind of get the most value from that?

Jessica Clayton: [00:17:24] Thanks for asking about the Diversity Supplier Platform. It is a newer offering for us and we’re really excited about it, and have seen some really good traction even over the last six months. Obviously, everything kind of paused there for a little bit in 2020, but we’re starting to see a lot of traction and have signed on quite a few more clients, both on the staffing side and the end user client side in the last month.

Jessica Clayton: [00:17:54] So, as we discussed earlier, TalentStream is a certified WBENC organization and we’re proud to have held that distinction. We’re Going on seven years now. And in addition, we formed a strategic alliance with Talent Code, which is a certified MBE organization, to offer our Diversity Supplier Platform. So, I’m not sure, Lee, if you’re familiar with an MSP. But an MSP is a Managed Service Provider that often has a variety of staffing firms that they bring to an end user client. And that end user client manufacturer, really, call center or whatever it may be, is able to gain the advantage of using a variety of staffing suppliers. And what we’ve done is kind of create an alternative to that traditional MSP. We provide many of the same benefits, including a single point of contact, we have centralized billing, enhanced compliance through third party audits.

Jessica Clayton: [00:18:56] But the difference is, our platform is fully integrated with our staffing partners’ front and back office, allowing the end user client to still work with their trusted staffing provider without the duplication of processes that often impact cost of services. So, we are integrated with our staffing suppliers platforms. We then work together and partner together to provide staffing for the end user client. And they are able to then claim that spend as diversity spend with a woman-owned partner. And we partnered with some of the largest staffing organizations in the country thus far and it’s been really exciting. We’re continuing to add new staffing organizations and end user clients on the platform. Our current alliance serves a variety of clients, including one of the largest automotive OEMs, global 3PL logistics company, large call center, one of the largest packaging companies in the world, just to mention a few.

Jessica Clayton: [00:20:01] So, we’ve seen a lot of benefits for both our staffing partners and end user clients for them to be able to really meet that social responsibility that we spoke about earlier, as well as get some of the other benefits that come with partnering with a WBENC certified or MBE certified organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:21] So, what could we be doing to help you? What do you need more of now? Do you need more folks to jump on that Diversity Supplier Platform? Do you need more talent to place? Do you need more clients? How can we help you?

Jessica Clayton: [00:20:35] We always love more clients. You know, we are committed to growing and continuing to grow. We’ve had an exciting last three to four years and really see a lot of opportunity for the next 10, 15, 20 years. So, you know, introductions to clients that can use and see the benefits of using a third party recruiter on the direct hire side that have those positions that are just hard to fill. Or that their H.R. department is having trouble filling because of all of their other responsibilities and they’re looking for that time back. That’s one introduction that would be great.

Jessica Clayton: [00:21:15] And also just those companies, maybe, on the staffing side that run into situations where they’re looking for a solution to be able to partner with a diverse-owned company and bring that partnership to their end user clients. Those are the companies that are best suited for this diversity supplier platform.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:44] Now, if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what’s the website or best way to get a hold of you?

Jessica Clayton: [00:21:52] Yes. Our website is www.talentstream, like a river, staffing.com. And we also are both on LinkedIn, Jessica Clayton and Lynette Mathews, and that’s Mathews with one T. And you can find our company page on LinkedIn as well, TalentStream.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:14] Well, Jessica and Lynette, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jessica Clayton: [00:22:20] We appreciate your time.

Lynette Mathews: [00:22:21] It was great speaking with you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see all next time on GWBC Open for Business.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business.

GWBC^® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Tom Bartholomew with Bartholomew Media Group

December 15, 2020 by angishields

Detroit Business Radio

Tom Bartholomew with Bartholomew Media Group

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This episode is brought to you in part by Activate Your Great Consulting Agency

It was 1999 and Tom Bartholomew, Owner of Bartholomew Media Group, built his first website for his family construction business. Taking over after his father retired, Tom focused on digital marketing and it paid off.

Building an Exterior Remodeling business in Northern Michigan, Tom knows the struggles of marketing a construction business and what it takes to make it successful.

Follow Bartholomew Media Group on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mark Wilson with Chime Solutions

December 15, 2020 by angishields

Atlanta Business Radio

Mark Wilson with Chime Solutions

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Entrepreneur, Mark A. Wilson is the President and CEO of Chime Solutions, Inc. based in Atlanta, GA. Chime Solutions is a leading provider of business process outsourcing services, primarily focused on customer care.

Wilson has over 25 years of experience in the business information services industry and has held senior level sales and operations management positions with companies such as D&B, ABF Freight Systems and Whirlpool Corporation. Wilson also served in roles responsible for strategic marketing, service process improvement and customer service within the call center and business information services industries.

Wilson’s success as an entrepreneur has been highlighted most recently by his leadership with eVerifile. After acquiring eVerifile, a contractor screening company in 2012, Wilson was responsible for driving double digit growth while
making significant technology changes within the company. Wilson was also responsible for establishing eVerifile CS, a subsidiary that was focused on BPO services. Wilson acquired eVerifile CS in May of 2016 and merged the operation with Chime Solutions.

Prior to acquiring eVerifile, Wilson founded RYLA Teleservices, Inc. a true start-up launched in his basement and named after his two children Ryan and Lauren. As President and Chief Executive Officer, he established RYLA as a nationally-recognized customer support and contact center with more than 3,000 employees and revenues in excess of $100 million. Wilson sold the company in 2010.

Beyond growing his businesses from an operational perspective, Wilson focuses on building an employee-centric culture seeking to provide “the best job you’ve ever had.”

Wilson’s vision and leadership has earned him a number of prestigious honors, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award® for 2010, TiE Atlanta’s 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year and induction into the Hall of Fame for the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University in 2014. His latest accomplishment includes recognition as the 2016 Small Business Person of the Year by The Atlanta Business Chronicle, for his work at Chime Solutions.

Wilson serves on the US Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Georgia Board of Advisors for Kaiser Permanente. He is also Chairman of the Wilberforce University Board of Trustees, serves on the Kennesaw State University Coles College Advisory Board, as well as on the Steward Board at Turner Chapel AME Church.

A native of Arkansas, Wilson and his family now live in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned his degree in Business Administration and Management at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce Ohio. He is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Wilberforce University and a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

What led Mark to launch Chime Solutions
What sets the culture at Chime apart from other call center companies
Chime’s social mission
How corporations or community organizations can outsource with purpose
How the $30 million investment Chime received will be used to grow the organization
Advice for entrepreneurs who are in the process of launching or growing their business

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Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

LaShon Bowers with Toastmasters International

December 14, 2020 by angishields

Detroit Business Radio

LaShon Bowers with Toastmasters International

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This episode is brought to you in part by Activate Your Great Consulting Agency

Distinguished Toastmaster, LaShon Bowers, began her toastmasters’ journey in 1994 with a speech impediment which caused her angst for many years. She is currently a Lead IT Security Specialist employed by the government.

When she began her government career, she was that told she was best suited for a nonverbal position. LaShon was placed in the mail room. That was many years ago. In her current position, she communicates daily with customers and trains team members on security procedures.

LaShon was elected District 28 Director in 2016 and was responsible for directly overseeing the District’s day-to-day operations. Recently, she was again elected District 28 Director and will service in the position until June 30, 2021. As she serves, she also mentors others by hosting Youth Leadership and Speechcraft programs designed to help improve communication and leadership skills.

LaShon credits the toastmaster’s program and her fellow toastmasters for the vast improvement in her leadership and communication skills. Their evaluations and mentorships were key to her professional growth.

She knows from experience that Toastmaster is where leaders are made.

Follow Toastmasters International on Facebook and Twitter.

BRX Pro Tip: Build Standard Operating Procedures

December 14, 2020 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Build Standard Operating Procedures

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BRX Pro Tip: Build Standard Operating Procedures

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, a lesson that we’ve learned and begun to really take to heart as we continue to scale and expand the Business RadioX network is build standard operating procedures.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Yeah, I think the sooner you can do that, the quicker you can be scaling and growing. And the reason they’re so important is because they allow you to delegate. And once you can delegate, now, you can get stuff off your plate, so you can focus on the more important things that only you can do. And these high-leverage activities are the things that will take your business to the next level.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] So, I think we’ve said it before that if you do something more than twice, you should be writing it down, and you should be building a standard operating procedure around it. And if you’re doing things every time feels like you’re kind of recreating the wheel, that’s not good. That’s a waste of your time. Your time can be better served doing more important things. So, you got to get that stuff off your plate and think in terms of kind of as if you were franchising your business, whether you’re franchising it or not. I think it was Michael Gerber who talks about this a lot in his book, the E-Myth. And just build these kind of standard operating procedures, so that you can do that high-leverage work and not waste time doing work that can be delegated.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:29] I am a big believer of delegation. You just got to make sure that you do it right. And if you have the mindset of, “I’m going to build standard operating procedures,” then you’re going to be able to build a structure that you can build, and scale, and grow.

Karwanna Dyson with She’s Got Goals

December 13, 2020 by angishields

Bay Area Business Radio

Karwanna Dyson with She's Got Goals

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Karwanna Dyson, CEO of She’s Got Goals, is a female Black entrepreneur helping other women and minorities build successful and sustainable businesses by becoming government contractors. Her path to success, however, wasn’t an easy or straight one.

Growing up in San Francisco, Dyson’s environment was far from idyllic. Stepping outside her home was an obstacle course seeing her dodge bullets, step over alcoholics sleeping off their latest bender on the sidewalk, avoiding the drug dealers hanging around on street corners and mourning yet another friend murdered simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Not wanting to be yet another statistic in her neighborhood, she made the decision to study hard, finish high school and go to college so she could move to a better area.

Follow She’s Got Goals on Facebook and Twitter.

Tangela Davis with CEHT

December 13, 2020 by angishields

GWBC Radio

Tangela Davis with CEHT

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Tangela Davis is the COO and Co-Founder of CEHT, LLC (Cyber Experts Highly Trusted). She has 30 years of IT and Business experience with emphasis in program/project management, software development, cyber security, business process management, education/training, business intelligence and information management and IT professional staffing services. During her career, she has worked in banking/finance, commercial real estate, retail, government, security services, non-profit and technology industries.

She currently has a Cybersecurity Consulting practice that specializes in Cybersecurity Consulting, Customized Training and Solutions to enable enterprise-wide success and revenue growth. She brings this broad-based expertise to the commercial and government marketplace.

Her background includes overall responsibility for staffing key IT resources at various levels of the client’s organizations. Tangela currently assists client companies with their cybersecurity and information technology needs, serving as an external consultant and trusted advisor, which allow her to bring current behind-the-scenes information and expertise to further increase their growth and performance.

Tangela completed her MBA at the University of Phoenix and Bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She currently serves as President of the Board of Directors for Trinity Strategic Consulting, Inc. and formerly Board of Directors for Unique Caring Network and Unique Caring Foundation. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for Mitchell Community College and has served as a faculty member for the University of Phoenix and Mitchell Community College.

Tangela has been published in the Mecklenburg Times, Charlotte Business Journal, Charlotte Woman Magazine, and The Black Pages and interviewed by various other newspapers and publications. She has published an eBook, “If I Knew Then What I Know Now, An Entrepreneur’s Guide for Avoiding Costly and Dumb Business Mistakes”.

Connect with Tangela on LinkedIn.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business, and this is going to be a good one. Today, we have with us Tangela Davis with CEHT. Welcome.

Tangela Davis: [00:00:28] Thank you, Lee. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about your work. Who do you serve them and then what are you up to?

Tangela Davis: [00:00:36] Well, I am very happy to announce that we are CEHT, which stands for Cyber Experts Highly Trusted. And we are considered an advanced IP cybersecurity innovative company. And we serve global markets in the areas of manufacturing, health care, sports and entertainment. And we also service the retail area as well. What we’ve been doing, as you well know, with 2020, we’re seeing unprecedented times right now with cyber attacks where we’re seeing companies are deploying all of their workforce remotely and virtually. So, that has really increased our spike in cyber attacks. So, we have been helping our clients in that space, really, to be more diligent in protecting their data networks. That’s what we’ve been up to.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:37] Now, how did you get into this line of work?

Tangela Davis: [00:01:39] Well, one of the things that we did was, we took a look around and really saw there was certainly a need for a company such as ours. I am actually the co-founder as well as our co-founder is a service disabled veteran woman-owned, who spent 25 plus years in this space working at the highest level in the Pentagon. And we decided to form CEHT because we saw there was a very big need in this space. Not only there was a lack of female in this space, but there was also a lack of minority females in this space. And so, we felt that with our combined efforts and the experts and teams that we have worked with over our careers, that we could really bring something of tremendous value to our clients. And that’s, hence, how CEHCT came to be.

Tangela Davis: [00:02:39] Now, what is something that maybe a CEO doesn’t fully understand when it comes to these kind of cyber attacks and these kinds of threats when it comes to, you know, even their supply chain or, like you mentioned, these remote working opportunities now. There’s an assumption, I’m sure, of safety for a lot of folks that maybe there’s a lot more threats out there that kind of the lay person doesn’t really understand the scope of things.

Tangela Davis: [00:03:09] Well, that is something that we do ongoing with our clients. There are three core areas that we support our clients around. One is consulting, the other one is customized training, and, finally, the last, are solutions. And some of the areas that we work with closely with our CEOs, CIOs and CISOs, which, obviously, are the chief information security officers, are ways to really keep, not only their enterprise, but their supply chain secure from cyber attacks. So, some of the things that we have to think about is how do they demonstrate due diligence on the ship of effective management when it comes to matters of cyber risk. We are asking them to think about, are their risk maps developed to show current risk profile as well as timely identifying emerging risks so that they can get ahead of the curve? Do they have the right leadership and organizational talent? Because that is extremely critical.

Tangela Davis: [00:04:17] And so, those that have some familiarity of this space, there is a shortage of key cyber talent globally. And so, we have been fortunate that we haven’t been faced with that issue and we have been able to be successful in helping our clients identify the right cyber talent to fill those gaps. Some other areas that we’re helping them to think about is, beyond the enterprise systems, who is leading their key cyber initiatives related to their incident command systems and connected products. Also, they need to consider a more established and appropriate cyber risk escalation framework that includes their risk appetite and reporting thresholds. There’s just many things, Lee, that we work with our clients around that they should consider.

Tangela Davis: [00:05:12] And I’m not going to go into some of the more detailed areas, but I think I’ve given you enough. Some of those, our audience and listeners might get an idea of some of the more critical things that they should be considering when they’re looking at securing their enterprise.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:31] Now, when it comes to securing the enterprise, are the threats more likely to come from an outside source or an internal source, like a disgruntled employee or some vendor or something like that?

Tangela Davis: [00:05:48] We’re seeing that it’s coming from an outside source. And, especially, if we’re talking about domestically here in the United States, we’re seeing that it is occurring outside of the United States. And those that are seeking to do undue hardship to our supply chain or anything that would impact our financial systems, that’s what we’re seeing. So, some of the things that we are very diligent about is keeping our clients, as well as some of our audiences, apprised of some of those threats that we’re seeing on the horizon, some of the malware that’s coming, and ransomware that’s showing up. And we have a publication, it’s actually a biweekly publication, called Cyber Insights, where we’re keeping our audience and our clients up to date on some of those critical things that we’re seeing and coming through. So, those are just some of the things that we’re seeing out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:53] And this isn’t something that’s a set it and forget it solution, right? This takes due diligence every single day in order to stay ahead of the bad guys, right?

Tangela Davis: [00:07:03] Yes, it does. And, Lee, you have nailed it. And what we’re also seeing, and this is a part of how they are leveraging CEHT, is, because we’re facing these unprecedented times, we’re seeing high stress levels when it comes to the sideburn leadership as well as their cyber workforce. And so, some of the things that we are proposing and supporting in how they can manage their stress levels is to really develop a framework that identifies minimal level of organizational capabilities, such as in the areas of managerial, operational, and technical. We’re also asking them to map out their supply chain for business continuity scenarios in the event of a threat. That is very, very key.

Tangela Davis: [00:07:53] Also, they should adopt a standard set of rules that apply to all firms along the way of their supply chain, because there are customers that we have that may have in excess of 30,000 vendors that is a part of their supply chain. So, that is not always an easy thing to manage, any security around their vendors, so that’s an area. We have a block chain solution that really helps to help our clients manage both the large and global supply chains.

Tangela Davis: [00:08:26] Some other areas in terms of how they can help manage those stress levels is to apply rules to regular, enforceable, digital security and audits to prevent lapse in downstream suppliers and also to adhere to the standard set of definitions for whatever security protocols have been developed. More importantly, to really involve cyber and privacy breach reporting practices, policies, and controls. Because with some of the upgrade protections for organizations, there is also the sharing of information and be able to share some of the cyber incidents that are occurring.

Tangela Davis: [00:09:05] So, those are just some of the ways that our clients, or even the audience that might be listening today, can help manage some of the stress levels. And then, more importantly, obviously, to contact us, where we can come in and give you some advisement and insight in navigating the tremendous wave of some of the risks that may be occurring within their current enterprise.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:31] Now, do you find that during these kind of crises, whether it’s a pandemic or even just the fact that it’s, you know, the holidays, that those kind of situations open the floodgates of bad guys trying to penetrate, using that as a lever, to kind of get into, you know, either through phishing or some sort of hack into somebody’s website. They’re kind of piling on to this onslaught of information you’re seeing and hearing. And you don’t know that someone’s being sneaky during these kind of chaotic times.

Tangela Davis: [00:10:09] You’re dead on. You’re dead on, Lee. And that is attributed to the fact that a lot of people are distracted right now with what’s happening with the pandemic, what has been going on with our election, post-election, the holidays occurring. Also, we mentioned the virtual remote workforce. You have the workforce that are working virtually there. Also, being the baby sitter and helping to support the educational initiatives for their children that are at home. So, when you have those kind of distracters, you may not have people that are as intuned or attentive to the things that are required and necessary to help secure your environment. And, particularly, now that we are in a more remote environment setting, their control, we’re having to have more control measures in place to be much more strategic in securing the environment.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] Now, is there any kind of low hanging fruit that an organization can do kind of on their own? Or is this something that you really do need an expert to kind of audit what you’ve got going on and then have an expert kind of just check to make sure that you’re protecting yourself to the best of your ability?

Tangela Davis: [00:11:37] It’s actually going to take a blend of both. But there are things that the organization can look at certainly on their own. But if they feel that it’s over their head and they just don’t know where to start or really have a better control over it, that’s where they can turn to us. But to really look at how organizations can further strengthen their cybersecurity posture within their organization, I’m going to give you or give the audience a few highlights of some things that they can do. The first is to remind employees to stay focused and diligent. That is very, very important. And we’ve already talked about their distractors that are occurring right now that really prevents people from really doing that. But we have to continuously remind them, remind employees that security policies are still in place to protect corporate information and to build mechanisms to reinforce policies. And then, also seek staff augmentation to support the company’s already stretched resources. Because of the climate that we’re in, a lot of companies are still working in a very lean capacity, despite the fact that the workforce is remote.

Tangela Davis: [00:12:56] There are some industries where they’ve had to cut back. And as a result of that, they may not have the level of support that they once had to manage and navigate certain initiatives within the enterprise. Add a security operation center support as an extension to their existing monitoring. We’re finding that our clients may already have 24/7 monitoring, but there are still gaps that they’re experiencing where they’re still turning to us. We have a 24/7, 365 days a year security operation center. It’s actually based in the State of North Carolina. But we are here to be that extension as needed.

Tangela Davis: [00:13:40] And then, finally, conduct testing to identify gaps, which is something that we do frequently for our clients just to stay ahead of the curve and to kind of help identify some of the cyber attacks that might be heading our way. But those are just some of the things that we would encourage companies to be proactive on their own, to really do for themselves. And then, leverage our services and leverage our company and support and expertise as an extension of that. We consider ourselves to be that extended family, so to speak, that extended support.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:20] And this level of due diligence or diligence when it comes to this, your radar has to be kind of distrust first, like if you get an email, even. I heard recently someone told me this, that they got an email from somebody that it looked like it was somebody they knew, a vendor they knew. But when they looked closely at the email, two letters were switched. So, at a glance, it looked like the firm’s email. But it really wasn’t. It was some other URL, you know, on the email side. And then, they were trying to hack into their system and get information by sneaking this through. And these bad guys, this is what they’re doing every day. This is their job. Like, this isn’t, like, a 14 year old hacker, you know, eating Cheetos in the basement. These are professionals that are doing their best to trick people.

Tangela Davis: [00:15:16] That is correct, Lee. And to your point, when you’re looking at emails that are coming, particularly if you’re in a situation where you have lots of emails that are flowing through on a daily basis, or if you are seeing links that are coming through, you really have to be diligent before you click on that link, before you open that email. And particularly some of those emails that come through that have attachments, because some of that malware could be embedded in the attachment of that email. So, you do have to operate from a perspective of not being trustworthy.

Tangela Davis: [00:15:56] And to your point, there are emails that are coming through – and I’m saying this because even our own company, we had to report this up to the highest level, once again, to the Pentagon, where there are those bad guys out there that are leveraging high level people within government, within corporations, and sending these emails out. The people that may not think twice to open, “Oh, such and such actually sent something to me.” Or, particularly, if it’s a small business and they’re seeking out new business opportunities, they may think that it’s a new opportunity for them and they click on that email.

Tangela Davis: [00:16:35] Or we’ve even seen a scenario with a customer where there was a bad guy that had sent an email for a job shipment of computer equipment. And after further due diligence, we found that the location where this – because it was actually in the form of a purchase order in how it was sent via email. And after further research and due diligence, it was all fake. And it was going to be a scenario where it was going to be, I think, it was like a $300,000 purchase order of computer equipment that would have been shipped at this location that wasn’t even real.

Tangela Davis: [00:17:17] So, it’s stuff like this that we have to be mindful and intuned to in terms of the fraudulent activities that’s all associated with the cyber attack. And so, I would just ask everyone, I know we have a lot going on right now during these unprecedented times and this turbulent climate, but let’s still remember to be diligent. Because not only is it protecting you and your family, it’s protecting your employer and your ability to earn your income. Because there’s a lot of damage that can occur when systems go down, when business go down, and people are not able to receive the level of service or care that’s needed. And if you can imagine, when we talk about care, speaking of health care, just imagine if their systems went down, the doctors and nurses and health care providers were unable to really treat their patients accordingly.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:20] Now, the show is GWBC Open for Business, can you talk a little bit about why it was important for you to be part of the GWBC community and join and become a member and a certified woman business owner?

Tangela Davis: [00:18:38] Well, I can’t tell you enough about GWBC. It has really enabled us to access channels that we may not have been able to access on our own. And Roz Lewis, who is the GWBC president, and her team, they are just phenomenal. There are no words to describe how they are such an advocate for women in business and really developing and being the trailblazer to enable us the opportunity to connect with the major corporations. What we’ve seen in our business is the ability to access those markets that we have a desire to access and really just present our solutions.

Tangela Davis: [00:19:28] And, particularly, with us being an MBE and services-abled business enterprise, it really has enabled us to just change the paradigm and bring just a top level of services to our customers that are just as passionate as we are in, really, the work that we bring, the innovation that we’re bringing. And I just can’t speak enough about GWBC. They’re just really doing tremendous work and continue to do this tremendous work to enable companies such as ourselves to access those channels and those opportunities that are there.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:12] Now, regarding your company, CEHT, what is the ideal client for you? Are you working primarily with the largest companies or do you work with companies of all size? I know you mentioned, you know, health care, fintech. You have certain niches that you serve. But what does an ideal customer look like for you?

Tangela Davis: [00:20:36] Yes. And we normally work with larger corporations. Lee, that is a good question. Our profile ideal customer will typically be $500 million to billion plus customer. They will be in the industries that I mentioned earlier, health care, finance, manufacturing, supply chain, sports and entertainment, and retail. Those customers, they’re typically looking for staffing support or block chain as well as stock services or that extension. And so, those are just some of the customers. If we’re talking about problems they’re seeking to solve, lots of times they’re seeking to solve problems in terms of just ensuring their networks and systems are secured properly. They will often have us come in to help do audits of their existing systems and everything, particularly from a supply chain perspective. I’ve mentioned already our block chain solution and how we’re able to track everything from inception to completion.

Tangela Davis: [00:21:53] And we have actually received awards for that block chain solution. But if I had to say why CEHT? Here’s what I’d leave with our audience today, we are a global service provider. We operate right now in five regions within the United States, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Singapore, Hawaii, Honduras. Also, our team is extremely advanced in terms of red and blue cyber teams and possession, [inaudible], professional expertise of penetration testing. We also understand the dynamics of the successful cybersecurity experience. And more importantly, we successfully navigate enterprise wide security solutions in extremely complex environments. We do what we say we’re going to do and we are very eager to work with you. We want to work with you. So, if we had to sum it up, why CEHT? Why should companies work with us? I would leave it at that, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:00] Well, congratulations on all your success. And thank you so much for doing the work you’re doing. It’s important and we appreciate you.

Tangela Davis: [00:23:10] Well, we are so happy to be a part of this morning’s radio, GWBC Radio. And I hope that the information shared with our audience will be something that will be extremely helpful. If they would like to learn more or feel that they need to certainly have some added support, they can reach us, of course. Visit our website, www.ceht-jv.com or email us at info@ceht-jv.com. And they can also find us on LinkedIn, we actually have a CEHT LinkedIn page. And, certainly, we welcome you to follow us for behind the scenes information about cyber security.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:58] Well, thank you again for sharing your story today.

Tangela Davis: [00:24:01] Thank you for having us. And certainly feel free to reach out anytime.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:05] And once again, that website is ceht-jv.com. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on GWBC Open for Business.

About GWBC

Laura Ann Davis with Laura A Davis Associates

December 13, 2020 by angishields

GWBC Radio

Laura Ann Davis with Laura A Davis Associates

00:00 /

Laura A. Davis is the CEO and Founder of Laura A. Davis & Associates, Inc., an Atlanta-based transformational executive coaching, leadership and team development, and DiSC assessment training firm.

Since 1998, Laura has been coaching leaders at all levels of Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies to become more emotionally intelligent, agile, and aware of their role in creating a healthy, engaged corporate culture. Organizations must become agile in today’s world of disruption and agile organizations are made up of agile, emotionally intelligent people.

Laura and her associates also focus on assisting teams within organizations to become more cohesive by building cultures of high trust, productivity, accountability, and collective results. Laura and her team offer leading-edge mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets needed to create high performance and inspired success.

Prior to starting her business, Laura held both line and staff marketing management positions at Exxon, Equifax, and UPS. She was an Adjunct Professor of Business Studies at Mercer University and holds an MBA in Marketing from Emory University. Laura earned the coveted Master Certified Coaching designation through the ICF in 1998 and maintains that credential through her ongoing study and dedication to the profession.

Her ongoing thought leadership is demonstrated in the talks she gives at professional industry conferences around the country. She is a contributing author to “A Guide to Getting It: Self-Esteem” and has published articles in leading industry publications such as Choice magazine, ATD newsletters, and more.

She has appeared on “Good Day Atlanta” and numerous internet radio shows to talk about emerging organizational leadership best practices. Laura A. Davis and Associates, Inc. is also a certified woman-owned business through WBENC.

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of GWBC Open for Business, and this is going to be a good one. Today, we have with us Laura A. Davis with Laura A. Davis and Associates. Welcome, Laura.

Laura A. Davis: [00:00:28] Thank you, Lee. Great to be with you again.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:30] I’m excited to catch up. And for the listeners who aren’t aware, can you tell us about your work? How are you serving folks?

Laura A. Davis: [00:00:37] Absolutely. Well, we have been in business for 25 years. And my team and I help organizations strive through change. We help people to be more emotionally intelligent and more agile. And we do that by helping them understand how to really leverage their strengths and learn social and emotional skills to survive in today’s ever changing world of work. We work frequently with cohesive teams as well. Help make virtual teams more successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:12] Now, in today’s world, I guess, there’s a few different schools of thought when it comes to strengths. Is it better to kind of lean in and get the most out of your strengths? Or, is it better to shore up your weaknesses? Can you talk about the kind of the pros and cons of each?

Laura A. Davis: [00:01:31] Sure. I am of the camp that believes in capitalizing on your strengths. That said, we all have blind spots in areas for growth and development. So, you need to be aware of those. And that’s where emotional intelligence comes in. And a lot of people have heard of emotional intelligence, but they’re not really clear what that means precisely. And I would define it as, people really understanding how they react to situations, what their strengths are, what their blind spots are. And beyond just being aware of your own strengths and challenges, it’s extremely important to understand the strengths and needs of the people that you work with, so that you can adapt your behavior to meet the needs of the other person or persons if it’s a team, which generally is, as well as the needs of the situation.

Laura A. Davis: [00:02:28] And, too often, leaders and teams have been promoted or trained to only look at technical or functional skills. And where the rubber really meets the road or where people are successful or not is how well they can really relate to people. Do they have a high level of emotional intelligence, particularly in today’s virtual and remote environment more important than ever, to have these skills? So, that’s what we help people to develop.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:59] And aren’t these skills, even if you were great at in-person, maybe emotional intelligence, when you’re doing things virtually, that’s a kind of a slightly different skill set, right? Because you have to pick up cues in ways that maybe you hadn’t been able to rely on previously.

Laura A. Davis: [00:03:16] That’s very true. And most of us now are becoming very familiar with all the online platforms. And I happen to use Zoom in the virtual trainings and the executive coaching that my team and I does. But, really, there are ways you can leverage the tools to be more successful. I’ll give you one quick example, when you’re trying to create a psychologically safe environment – and by that, I mean an environment where people feel they can raise questions and concerns, and share dissenting opinions and have, what I call, productive conflict – sometimes you need to think about how are you phrasing the question. A poll, for example, can be a nice way to get candid feedback.

Laura A. Davis: [00:04:00] I’m doing some work right now with Habitat for Humanity International, and it’s a real privilege. We’re working through the five behaviors of a cohesive team, which is based on Pat Lencioni’s famous book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. And they have a beautiful concept called graceful candor. And what that really means is, it’s the intersection or balance of two mindsets, candor and grace. So, candor, of course, is being clear and direct and truthful in calling out critical matters. Sometimes that is hard to do. Virtually, it can be facilitated. And, again, the team leader or whomever is running the meeting, ideally, everyone on the team, helps to manage that by being graceful, by having kindness and respect, and listening intentionally. But those skills are hard. People are not often trained in how to give and receive feedback.

Laura A. Davis: [00:04:56] People, again, have challenges sometimes having an open mind and looking at diverse perspectives. If it’s not our own, it’s a very human tendency to look for data or evidence that supports our existing beliefs. So, all of these skills can be learned. That’s the good news. But there’s a level of finesse that needs to happen in a virtual environment. You’re absolutely right.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:22] And the level of nuance becomes extremely challenging, I would imagine, for those folks that aren’t trained or at least kind of aware that even these biases can exist in themselves and in others. And then, you multiply that by with, you know, kind of this world is flat, especially now with remote, where you’re having global conversations, and you’re dealing with cultural issues, and you’re dealing with gender and age, and all of these things coming into play. There’s, like, landmines everywhere.

Laura A. Davis: [00:05:56] Well, all is not lost. And, in fact, you bring up a great point, everything that we do in my company is about creating an emotionally intelligent, agile culture. And we start with the Everything DiSC assessment, so people see their interpersonal style, what their strengths are, and challenges, what motivates them, and what stresses them. And we do some facilitated sessions where people learn that, not only about themselves, but about their team members. And then, there’s a number of suggestions and concrete behavioral ways that you can adapt to meet the other person where they are and speak to them in their language, if you want to use that particular metaphor.

Laura A. Davis: [00:06:40] And it’s magic, you develop a lot more trust and teamwork. You can have more effective, productive conflict about the issues and not the personalities. And you get buy-in and clarity towards collective results. And I mentioned previously, the importance of peer-to-peer feedback. All of those things certainly can be taught. And when people practice them and experience the benefits, they’re sold. And we’re just delighted to introduce those skills to people because, again, often, as you say, they have not been exposed to them. And it makes such a difference in terms of their satisfaction and performance at work. So, all of the CFOs are happy too.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:27] Well, I’m sure they are.

Laura A. Davis: [00:07:28] Business case for social intelligence.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:30] Yeah. Because it, probably, becomes obvious pretty quickly. And this is one of those things where it might have been considered nice to have, you know, when we were all meeting in person and seeing each other day-to-day. And we can kind of get a feel just through body language and these other ways to see how people are doing. And, now, it gets that much more difficult. And if you’re not kind of on top of this stuff, bad situation and a bad culture can spread pretty rapidly, I would imagine.

Laura A. Davis: [00:07:59] Yes. And even in-person, sadly, the bias in many companies is on technical skills or on traditional performance measures, and all of that is important. That said, there’s a very clear connection between return on investment by investing in people, developing emotional intelligence, and understanding their behavioral personality style that we do with DiSC and so forth. It creates business results, and people are more engaged and more committed to the organization than ever before. And we’re seeing now a fair amount of attrition even in this job market. People have choices and they are moving to different opportunities. If the culture doesn’t support them, particularly millennials, then they will not stay with an organization. Perhaps, their parents did or their parent’s parents in many cases.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:03] And then, this is one of those things where people say, “Well, what if I train them and they go? And then, worse is, what if I don’t train them and they stay?” And if they’re not learning these skills, you’re hurting your organization, number one. But number two, if you’re training them on these skills, this is a gift to them where they’re going to appreciate it because this bleeds into their real life, too, not just their work life. These are skills that can affect their parenting, their being a good sibling, a good child. This stuff is important work foundational, I would think, for just human to human interaction.

Laura A. Davis: [00:09:41] Absolutely. And we take a whole person approach. And, in fact, when we conduct or have an engagement around an executive coaching initiative, we will ask people for a brief life history so that we understand their values and their beliefs and the context in which they work, because you do bring your whole self to work.

Laura A. Davis: [00:10:02] But, you know, I wanted to comment on what you said, Lee. Even beyond being a gift to them, if they leave, “Oh, well.” They’re going to leave comments on Glassdoor, and your reputation as a company certainly is more transparent than ever before with social media. We see that, there are multiple examples of that that I could cite. But they will become customers and they will become advocates for your brand even if they are not employees anymore. So, I think it’s important to recognize that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:36] Now, can you share a story about maybe an impact you made in an organization? Maybe they came in, maybe, somewhat skeptical. And then, you went through this training and they got a result that was kind of more than they anticipated.

Laura A. Davis: [00:10:50] Oh, I’d love to. Yes. Fortunately, there are many such examples, and I’m thinking of an example with Dupont actually, where they were looking at trying to be more innovative. And, certainly, that’s a critical need that many organizations have today. And we worked with a team of life scientists and a team of material scientists. So, basically biologists and chemists. And this is just one example of many. But the people that were charged with working together and creating new products or services, they have very different backgrounds. They have very different worldviews, very different biases. And we introduced them to the personality assessment that I mentioned earlier, the Everything DiSC. We talked about collaboration skills, communication skills, set them up to really understand one another, and have more productive, real, candid conversations. And that was very, very powerful. I don’t have it off the top of my head, but they increased the number of new ideas that were brought to the pipeline to market, which was the intent of this, is to come up with a better generation of viable ideas that could be put into the new product development pipeline.

Laura A. Davis: [00:12:18] But we worked with many different industries. We did some work with top [indiscernible] last year, and Habitat, as I mentioned. Many, and they’re all mentioned on my website, which is lauraadavis.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:34] Now, Laura, you mentioned the importance of kind of creating this environment of trust and safety in order to be vulnerable to share. And I think that that’s critically important, because if you’re not feeling that level of trust and vulnerability and safety, you’re less apt to share ideas. And the ideas are the ones that matter for the organization to grow. Because if you can be getting ideas from your personnel reliably and predictably, some of those ideas are going to be good. I mean, you don’t know which ones are going to be good. The only way to get the good ones are to get the bad ones, so you’ve got to get all of them. So, if you don’t have an environment that lets those ideas happen, you’re never going to get the good ones that can really create exponential growth in your organization. You have the resources. You might as well do what you can do to get the most out of them.

Laura A. Davis: [00:13:28] Beautifully said. And these resources, the people who are closest to the work often really know what’s going on. They have the best ideas. So, one of the challenges, however, in hierarchies, is it’s not natural to speak up. Sometimes we’ve spoken up and perhaps the manager didn’t seem receptive or seemed to get angry that their position was challenged. And so, that can really dampen people’s candor. It’s important, not only for good ideas, it can be a safety issue.

Laura A. Davis: [00:14:02] Think about in a hospital – actually, I will mention one of my favorite resources is Amy Edmondson. She’s a professor at Harvard and she’s written a number of wonderful books. But her book, The Fearless Organization, cites a number of examples in various industries, health care, nuclear plants, mining, et cetera, where, because people didn’t speak up, they had a terrible accident or fatality. Where, that could have easily have been avoided. And, often, in the five behaviors programs that we run, we talk about the Challenger accident, and many of the challenges that NASA had with [indiscernible] psychological safety. It’s a cultural issue many times.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:54] Now, this show is GWBC’s Open for Business, can you talk about the impact being a member of GWBC has meant to you, maybe personally and your organization?

Laura A. Davis: [00:15:05] Yes. Absolutely. I have been a member for three years now. And every year, I think, my participation grows. GWBC has wonderful educational programs, networking opportunities, opportunities like this for me to talk with you and highlight some of the things I’m passionate about and the results that we create for our clients. So, it’s a wonderful organization. And I think that I would encourage anyone new to business or even experienced in business that hasn’t participated in the past to participate.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:39] Now, in your work with leaders or people who are trying to train leaders, can you share, maybe, that pain that they’re having where it might be a good idea to call you or somebody on your team to help them. Like, what are some symptoms of maybe problems or things that maybe they can get better or maybe not, and maybe not even necessarily problems, but just areas that could have an impact down the road that the result is to call you or somebody on your team?

Laura A. Davis: [00:16:09] Yes. That’s a great question. What are the catalyzing events? Well, often, when a leader is promoted, as I mentioned before, too often people have been promoted because they have the technical skills, but they don’t necessarily have the leadership skills and the teaming skills through no fault of their own. There is an art and science to that. So, transitions in leadership would be one. When teams are not as effective as they’d like to be, and that can take a variety of forms. People are coming on and off the team or the team is not getting the results. There are delays of time. Deadlines are not being met. Budgeting deadlines are not being met. When you’re trying to hire the right person for the right role. We also do selection and succession planning and hiring and so forth.

Laura A. Davis: [00:17:07] But, you know, many times leaders may experience attrition and they think they have the right product, they have the right people. What’s missing many times is an understanding of the interpersonal dynamics. And that’s what we can really help leaders and teams do, promote truly collaborative interactions – and as you mentioned, whether that’s virtual or in-person, either one – so that you have top performing individuals and great leaders of cohesive teams. And you reduce all the unnecessary politics, and the waste of time meetings, and all the pain and angst of people on a team not getting along with one another or passive aggressive behaviors. I could go on, Lee, but you get the gist.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:56] Absolutely.

Laura A. Davis: [00:17:58] That common everyday challenges that people have in communication and collaboration are what we help with to achieve those results.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:05] Well, Laura, if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or a member your team, what’s the website again?

Laura A. Davis: [00:18:12] Yes. It’s www.lauraadavis.com. That’s L-A-U-R-A-A-D-A-V-I-S.com. Or you can email me, it’s laura@lauraadavis.com. And the mobile phone for the office is 678-637-8977. And we’d be delighted to see if it’s a match, if we can help. And I’m very passionate about this work, as are my associates, because it does make a difference to your whole life, as you said. When you are happy at work and bringing your best self to the table, everyone benefits personally and professionally.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:53] Well, thank you again for sharing your story, Laura.

Laura A. Davis: [00:18:59] My pleasure. Thank you so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:00] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on GWBC Open for Business.

About GWBC

Ian Varley with Eagle Business Credit

December 13, 2020 by angishields

Cherokee Business Radio

Ian Varley with Eagle Business Credit

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Ian Varley is Founder and CEO of Eagle Business Credit, a traditional factoring company based in Atlanta, GA. Eagle specializes in both domestic and export receivables as well as purchase order funding facilities from start up to around $5Million funds employed and has a specialist transportation division called Cashway Funding.

Ian has 30 years experience in the industry both in the US and UK and is joined at Eagle by a team of seasoned industry professionals whose focus is on the delivery of expert and efficient service to all clients.

Prior to setting up Eagle Business Credit Ian was with Bibby Financial Services having previously run the Bank of Scotlands export factoring division and also worked in the retail sector for Barclays Bank.

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn and follow Eagle Business Credit on Facebook and Instagram.