angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Comcast RISE: A Lifeline for Small Businesses in Nashville’s Underserved Communities

May 22, 2025 by angishields

Nashville Business Radio

Comcast RISE: A Lifeline for Small Businesses in Nashville's Underserved Communities

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In this episode of Nashville Business Radio, Lee Kantor speaks with Mike McArdle, Regional Senior Vice President of Comcast, about the Comcast RISE program. This initiative supports small businesses, particularly in underserved communities, by providing technology upgrades, educational resources, and monetary grants. McArdle discusses the program’s origins during the COVID-19 pandemic, eligibility criteria, and the comprehensive support offered to winners. He shares success stories, emphasizing the program’s positive impact on Nashville’s small businesses and community. The episode concludes with a call to action for eligible businesses to apply before the May 31st deadline.

Mike McArdle is the Regional Vice President of Comcast’s South Region, which includes Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, Business Alabama reports.

In this role, McArdle leads a multifunctional team of more than 3,500 members, including operations, customer experience, business strategy and development, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, government relations and community investment.

McArdle started his career at Comcast in 1996 as a customer account executive and progressed into roles including senior VP of national customer care for customer experience strategy and operations and senior VP of customer care and customer experience for Comcast’s central division.

Follow Comcast on Facebook and Instagram.

Episode Highlights

Overview of the Comcast RISE program and its objectives
Importance of small businesses in local communities
Origins of the program in response to COVID-19 challenges
Eligibility criteria for businesses to apply for the program
Support offered to winners, including technology makeovers and educational resources
Success stories of previous program winners and their community impact
Role of small businesses in fostering vibrant neighborhoods
Comcast’s commitment to community investment and engagement
Additional initiatives by Comcast to support digital access and resources
Call to action for eligible businesses to apply before the deadline

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Nashville Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Mike McArdle, who is the regional senior vice president with Comcast. Welcome!

Mike McArdle: Hey, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to be talking to you about this great program Comcast is doing called Comcast RISE. Do you mind sharing a little bit about it.

Mike McArdle: Yeah definitely. And thanks for giving us the opportunity to get the word out. Um, we’re really proud of this program. And it’s part of a whole package of things we do to be invested in the communities we serve, like Nashville. Um, we’re bringing Comcast rise to the Nashville community specifically to support small businesses, because we know how important it is to have thriving small businesses. They are the foundation of the communities we serve and where we live and work and play. And this is all about supporting small businesses. And Nashville was one of five markets across the country that we serve, um, picked to do this program. Um, so we’re really excited about it and had an amazing kickoff a few weeks ago. And, uh, want to get the word out.

Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea, uh, to serve the community in this manner?

Mike McArdle: Yeah, it really, um, culminated at the height of Covid. Um, I think we can all agree probably the most impacted parts of our communities were small businesses in Covid when we had to shut down and, uh, shelter and, uh, deal with the, the pandemic. And that was really the genesis of, uh, Project Rise in 2020 to support small businesses in our communities, and we’ve continued to advance the program and deploy the program every year since. Um, across the country. And it’s really a comprehensive package to help small businesses thrive. And what I’ve learned, and having been involved in this program for a few years, uh, there’s tons of great entrepreneurs out there, great ideas, great innovations, and just a ton of hard working people that want to change their life. Um, and they just need a little bit of help. And that’s what we’re doing. And we have a number of facets of, uh, of the program that are directly geared to supporting small businesses.

Lee Kantor: So let’s kind of get into the weeds a little bit about the program. Like, um, who is open to participating and what kind of qualifications make a person kind of go through the process and be successful?

Mike McArdle: Yeah, great. Great question. Um, so we will be selecting, um, from all of the applicants. And again the application process is open until May 31st. So the clock is ticking. So for any of your listeners that are interested, get into our portal at Comcast Rise Comm and begin the application process. Um, this is targeted at small businesses, um, independently owned and operated small businesses with less than 100 employees, um, in the eligible zip codes in and around Nashville. Um, and they need to be in business for at least two years. So a couple of very targeted small business, um, criteria. But I can tell you, for those that are selected, um, it’s a comprehensive package of support that include, uh, a technology makeover, uh, support with, um, production and media and actually running a um, ad spot for 90 days. Excuse me, 180 days. Um, and then educational resources. So getting them connected with business consultation, training, um, as well as a monetary grant and coaching sessions. So really a comprehensive support to these businesses, and we’re really excited to bring it to Nashville.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this something that they have to be already a Comcast customer, or is this just if they meet the criteria then they can apply.

Mike McArdle: Yeah, they have to meet the criteria. We love for every one of them to be a Comcast business customer. And um, they’ll have opportunities to get our services through the program. Um, but it’s not limited to that. And it’s really about being in the eligible areas. And, and in this year, being in Nashville, um, because it’s such an important market to us.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that this has been around for a while. Has it been in Nashville for a while?

Mike McArdle: Um, it has not been in Nashville specifically, but, um, during our kickoff, um, we used to run this nationwide and select from across the country, and we actually had some prior rise winners that are in Nashville. Um, that, uh, came and spoke. Um, this program, the way we’ve modified it over the years is we’ve added, uh, that list of things that the winners get. We’ve added to that list every single year. Um, and we’ve started to target 100 applicants and winner, 100 winners from specific cities like Nashville. Um, so it’s, uh, it’s pretty exciting that we continue to grow the program and continue to provide more availability in specific cities like Nashville. And, uh, the stories we hear from prior winners are just transformative. Um, in fact, um, we had, uh, Tremaine Crook, who runs a business, uh, punches and bunches, um, at one of our recent events promoting, uh, the application and Project Rise in Nashville and really talked about he was a former winner when we did it across the country in total. And, uh, he talked about the impact that it had with the technology makeover, how he’s using that technology, um, and even how it opened up a whole new revenue stream of virtual training and, um, supporting students before, Or, um, the training program actually doing their homework, um, and kind of building a blend of, um, continuous education after school program and bringing them in, um, to his business. So it was really, really impressive story. Um, and we even had slim and huskies. You may be familiar with.

Lee Kantor: The, the pizza chain.

Mike McArdle: Huskies. They’re they’re a former winner as well. And they helped us kick off the whole program a few weeks ago.

Lee Kantor: And so there’ll be a hundred winners in Nashville.

Mike McArdle: That’s correct, that’s correct. So, um, we select 100 winners from each of the cities, each of the five cities across the country. So, um, most important thing is, uh, get your application in. The clock is ticking. You know, we got ten days to go. Um, we want to make sure we hear from all of the small businesses that are looking for for help. And we’ll be awarding 100 winners in the city of Nashville.

Lee Kantor: Now, how did you kind of determine the, uh, like you mentioned, it’s for select zip codes. How did you determine the the geographic areas that were going to be eligible for this.

Mike McArdle: Yeah. We, um so every year it’s a it’s a it’s a fun process across the country. As you know Comcast we we serve all over the United States, um, and tons of major metropolitan areas. Um, I’m responsible for, um, essentially all of the southeast and um, areas like Atlanta, Charleston, South Carolina, little Rock, Arkansas, obviously Nashville, Knoxville. Um, and we we go to our leadership and tell our story about why each of these communities are important to us and why we want to invest there, uh, invest with this program. And Nashville was, um, the area that we submitted because of the growth in that area, because of our relationship with the city and with the mayor. Um, and, um, candidly, we have our own employees that live and work there and serve our customers. So it’s a it’s a thriving area, as you know. Um, and that’s why we made the case to bring it to Nashville. And we’re really proud to, uh, to be able to do that and invest locally.

Lee Kantor: And then you’re, uh, there’s an emphasis on these kind of underserved communities.

Mike McArdle: Yeah. I think it’s, um, it really is about building up communities. And we know one of the best ways to build up communities, excuse me, is to support small businesses. Um, if small businesses are thriving, that means the local restaurants thriving. Uh, the local gym, uh, the local art store, the retail store. That just makes for a really vibrant community. And, you know, that’s a big part of what we’re looking to do here is support, um, you know, help our communities become what they want to be. And that’s a growing areas and that’s that’s good for business. Um, but it’s also, for me, one of the reasons why I’ve been part of Comcast for almost 30 years, um, I think we bring a unique approach to, um, this public private partnership and the partnership with our communities doing programs like Rise. Um, we also have a comprehensive set of programs to invest in the community. We call it Project Up. And that includes our Internet Essentials program. That includes investing in what we call lift zones, actually enabling high speed Wi-Fi and community partners. So think, um, community centers, continuous education training, um, locations. So so we do a whole host of programs. Project rise is just one facet of that.

Lee Kantor: And like you said, the impact is real. Um, if you can help one of these entrepreneurs get to a new level, it not only impacts their business, their employees, but they could impact their family and their community as well. So it’s really a multiplier effect.

Mike McArdle: Absolutely. From the jobs they create from the upward mobility of their own families, expanding businesses. Um, you know, the slim and husky story was incredible. They, um, they were a rise winner and actually built a moving company. Um, but then made the decision to pivot their business plan. Sold that business and began doing, uh, the slim and huskies, um, pizza chain. Um, and they’ve actually been expanded into Atlanta, so they’ve grown to multiple locations. And that means they’re employing more people. They’re supporting more people. They’re, um, leasing space and, uh, you know, filling up commercial real estate and in the communities that they’re serving. So, yeah, it definitely is a multiplier effect. And we’re we’re just proud to play a small part in that.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned being part of Comcast for a long time, the culture to want to serve the community like that. Has this been around since the time you’ve been there? Is this a new emphasis?

Mike McArdle: No, I started in 1996 as a as a frontline agent in our call centers and our retail stores. Um, and I can tell you, one of the things that really hooked me about the culture of Comcast is this this focus on community investment. And for a long time, for, for decades, we had a program called Comcast Cares Day where the entire company would come together in our local communities and invest in, you know, fixing up a park or, um, painting a school, um, all around the country. That has evolved and become even more robust with our Project Up program that now includes volunteerism programs like, um, the ones I mentioned, but is also extended to our, um, lift zone investment with um, partners in the community and certainly Comcast rise. So it’s become it’s only become bigger over the, the 29 years that I’ve been here and which I love because I think it, it really underscores, um, how we’re a unique, um, partner and service provider in the communities we serve. It’s clearly about fast, high speed, reliable internet, which is critical. Um, and that’s our that’s our core product. Um, but I think we’re really unique in that we try to take it one step further and invest in the communities that we serve, beyond just the fiber in the ground and the connections in the home and businesses. It’s programs like this that, um, makes me really proud to be part of this company for so long.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re executing the, uh, what the winners get in those grant packages are the business consultation and the education. Are those all coming from, um, Comcast, or is that coming from the partners that are part of the the whole program?

Mike McArdle: Yeah. So it’s a combination. So you know, obviously the monetary grants and and the help with the production, um, we play a direct role in but we also work with such a wide range of partners, um, to, um, connect the businesses to. So, you know, when you think about educational resources and supporting the digital makeovers, um, it’s both, um, our experts in the company, um, as well as our investment, um, but also the partnerships. I mean, one of the the cool things about being a big organization is you work with a lot of different business partners that bring a lot of unique expertise. So that’s another benefit of the winners is they’re going to get exposure not just to us, but also to these other partners that we have, um, that work on educational resources, creative production, distribution, certainly the tech makeover. Um, and we consult with the winners on what is their need based on their business and then, um, kind of tailor that to their needs.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned a couple of the, uh, the national winners. Has there been any story, uh, that you heard of maybe in Nashville or maybe not in Nashville? That really kind of, uh, was maybe most rewarding where you saw that? Wow. This program really is personally impacting a lot of folks that this is just worth doing just for the human interest story that that comes about the impact we’re making for these individuals. Has anything stood out for you?

Mike McArdle: Well, you know, there’s so many and, um, I think the two, most recently and specifically in Nashville, are the two that I mentioned. One is to have, um, the owners of Slim and Huskies at our kickoff and hear their story about taking one business, reinvesting that, having the courage to sell it and and build a new business. You know, and largely, um, connected to their initial rise. Participation is one. And then, um, and then for Tremaine Crook, who was at a recent event, um, owner of Punches and Bunches. His story, um, and I heard from the team and kind of saw his his clip for the, the, uh, program we had just, just this week, uh, his story of not only building his business and creating new revenue streams because of the partnership with Comcast. Rise. Um, but also giving back, you know, running an after school program, um, for kids and making sure they’re getting their homework done and have the connections to do that and then going off and doing, you know, the physical activity and training and exercise. You know, for me that that that’s right there in Nashville, those are two incredible examples, right, in Nashville, two businesses that, um, you know, are really, um, growing and kind of that force multiplier, you kind of kind of alluded to. And, uh, like I said, we’re just we’re just proud to play a small role in that of helping jumpstart both of their ideas and businesses that have led to growth and led to more locations and other revenue streams. And, you know, and also giving back to the community from those small businesses as well.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Mike McArdle: Well, the most important thing we need is, um, getting the word out and just reminding everyone if you if you even think there’s there’s a small need for you and you qualify, go to ww.com. Get all the information about how to apply. Who’s eligible. Um and most importantly put in your application before May 31st. The cutoff is May 31st. From that point forward, um, we are then reviewing all the applications. We have an independent organization that refused that within the company. Um, and they’ll be making those selections, and then we’ll be announcing those winners, um, in the August time frame and then start engaging those winners, um, with all of the facets of, of the award. Um, so most important thing is get the word out, go to Comcast. Com and apply today. That’s the most important thing to tell your listeners.

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

Mike McArdle: Thanks, Lee I appreciate the time.

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

Tim Fagan with 1-800 WATER DAMAGE

May 22, 2025 by angishields

Denver Business Radio

Tim Fagan with 1-800 WATER DAMAGE

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Tim Fagan is the President of 1-800 WATER DAMAGE and Blue Kangaroo Packoutz. Tim holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree and a teaching certificate from the University of Michigan, where he was Captain of the Wrestling Team.

Tim also holds two post-graduate degrees in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University. Tim also holds a builder’s license as well as the prestigious Certified Restorer and Water Loss Specialist designation from the Restoration Industry Association, the highest level of certification in the restoration business.

Tim’s varied work experience includes eight years as a Sheriff Deputy, 11 years as a high school football and wrestling coach, 7 years as a high school assistant principal and 15 years as owner of Coach’s Restoration LLC before Coach’s was acquired by BELFOR in 2010.

Tim has been married to his wife Sue for 30 years. They have six children, three grandchildren, and resides in Commerce Township, Michigan.

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn.

Navigating Gender Dynamics in Leadership: Insights from an Executive Coach

May 22, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Navigating Gender Dynamics in Leadership: Insights from an Executive Coach

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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, host Stone Payton interviews Dorothy Doppstadt, an executive coach from Surge Partners LLC. Dorothy shares her mission to empower leaders with clarity, confidence, and purpose, drawing from her extensive background in communications and leadership development. She discusses the challenges of starting her coaching practice, the importance of assessments, and the distinct approaches men and women take in leadership. Dorothy emphasizes building trust and rapport with clients and highlights the transformative power of effective communication.

Dorothy Doppstadt combines powerful communications credentials and extensive industry experience with a strengths-based approach to coach leaders across matrixed organizations in global Fortune 500 Companies. Understanding the subtleties of savvy relationship building, Dorothy uses direct feedback in powerful ways to help clients find their voice, strengthen their presence, and build stronger cross-functional coalitions for maximum business impact.

Some of the outcomes she’s helped leaders achieve include financial turnarounds of major business units, developing profitable new lines of business, and strategic shifts in employee engagement successfully lowering turnover costs. Her background spans different leadership roles as a national award- winning ABC News editor, faculty member at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and business trainer for diverse New York City employees.

Thriving on collaboration with leaders taking on increased scope, navigating transitions and organizational restructuring, Dorothy offers one-on-one executive coaching, team coaching to strengthen trust and change behaviors to drive performance, and organizational coaching to enhance the patterns and flow of communications within an organization for increased productivity and employee satisfaction.

Connect with Dorothy on LinkedIn.

Episode Highlights

Empowering leaders to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
The transformative power of effective communication in organizations.
Dorothy’s journey into executive coaching and her background in communications.
Coaching approach focused on one-on-one sessions with high-level leaders.
Challenges faced in establishing a coaching practice and building a client base.
Common misconceptions about coaching and the importance of direct engagement.
Gender dynamics in leadership and differences in communication styles.
Building trust and rapport with clients as a key aspect of coaching.
The coaching process, including initial assessments and goal setting.
Recognizing signals that indicate the need for coaching among executives.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Surge Partners, LLC, Dorothy Doppstadt. How are you?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Very nice to be here, Stone.

Stone Payton: It’s a delight to have you. So I think a great place to start would be if you could share with us just mission. Purpose? What are you really out there trying to do for folks, Dorothy?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Well, I’ve. I’ve been really kind of blessed in that in all my different ventures of work, I’ve always really believed in what I’m doing. So, you know, I’m a former award winning ABC news editor. So I always knew the power of communications, you know, to drive meaningful change. And as an executive coach, which I’ve been now for about 20 years, I helped leaders sharpen their communications, build relationships, elevate their presence, and cultivate more effective teams, which makes for happier people in the organization. So my mission is to empower leaders to lead with clarity and confidence and purpose in the hopes of transforming organizations and the people within them for lasting positive impact.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like noble work If you can get it, I’d love to hear a little bit more about the background in your journey to to get to this point. I bet it wasn’t a straight line, probably some some nips and turns.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Oh my goodness. It certainly was not a straight line. In fact, Stone. I had no idea I would ever be so affiliated with business. I, um, never interested me, right? I was liberal arts all the way. And yet, it turns out business is perhaps one of the most creative occupations there is. Who knew? I didn’t know, and so I never thought I would end up doing what I’m doing now, which is kind of fantastic.

Stone Payton: Well, say more about the work, a little bit about the mechanism. Is it one on one work? Is it group work? A little bit of both.

Dorothy Doppstadt : It. I just was in Utah, um, for some organization development with a wonderful agency called synergy. But usually I tend to do one on one with leaders. That’s where I find I have the most impact. And I also have found that my sweet spot is with high level leaders.

Stone Payton: So at this point in your career, in this point in the development of your practice, what are you finding the most rewarding? What do you what are you enjoying the most these days?

Dorothy Doppstadt : I really enjoy working with leaders who don’t really get their full potential. And by not getting, I mean that they might have some imposter syndrome, or they’re nervous about really being able to do the role to its full capacity and getting them to lean in more of who they are. Right. So I’m going to steal a line from Marshall Goldsmith, who’s a very well-known executive coach. When he says, I work with successful people to make them more successful. And that’s what I like to do. I mean, they’re at a certain place in their career, and they didn’t just get there by happenstance. So I could give you an example if you want it.

Stone Payton: Absolutely. Please.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Okay. Well, I recently finished a coaching engagement, usually there about six months. And, um, I, I coached a fortune 500, you know, pharmaceutical, you know, VP on her communications, how she’s showing up on her leadership presence, which is really very much interior and her storytelling. Um, and the outcome after her hard work was she was promoted to SVP and global clinical operations head leaning 11,000 employees in 50 different countries. So one of the things she was really nervous about was seeing if she could fill her predecessor’s shoes and she could indeed. Or how to speak in town halls with such diverse cultures, with people from different countries showing up. And it turned out that this she was a woman, was so agile and knew so much about the business that once she could get out of her own way and start to understand that really presenting like, say, in town halls or Or in different large scale presentations. It’s about storytelling.

Stone Payton: How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a practice like yours? Do you have a mature enough practice now that maybe it’s not even a challenge, but early on, when you began to transition to doing this work, was it? Was it tough just getting the business?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Oh, very much so. You have to have a lot of patience. Uh, people think when they start their own business and they’ll be an executive coach, and it’s just going to happen right away. One of the first things I did and women tend to over credential themselves, men tend to under credential. In other words, when there’s a job posting, women show up over credentialed and the men under credentialed. So one of the first thing I things I did was I needed to understand business and, uh, different industries and organizational systems. So I got my, um, executive and organizational coaching certification from Columbia University, which was a partnership with Columbia Business School for business Acumen, and then also with, uh, Teacher’s College for how adults learn. We learn differently than children. And that is why consensus and getting buy in from the client or the leader with his or her team is so important. It’s everything. That’s the only way we change if we want to.

Stone Payton: That is so true. So what, if anything, do people often get wrong or misunderstand about the nature of your work? Like are there some myths or preconceived notions when they’re walking into the idea of a coaching relationship? And you have to educate through that before you can really start doing any real work.

Dorothy Doppstadt : No, I really don’t spend time on what coaching is. I, I ask during chemistry meetings, which is how it starts to see if this is a good fit for them or for the coach. I say, do you mind if we dive right in and and we start. And I tend to be quite direct from growing up in a newsroom and asking questions. And also because I work with such high level leaders, I also I do some consulting as well. They want to have support and answers because it’s kind of crazy out there. Stone, have you noticed that?

Stone Payton: I have.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Okay.

Stone Payton: A moment ago, you were talking, uh, speaking to a couple of differences in men and women, men having a tendency to not get to be far less credentialed as you’re working with business owners and high level leaders. Do you find some distinctions in men and women in the way that they just approach the work and approach these conversations?

Dorothy Doppstadt : That’s such a great question. Um, one of the things I’ve noticed is a pattern, uh, with some men who don’t understand the importance of, you know, social equity and how important it is to take the time to get to know people, to have inner personal, positive relationships. They want to get right to the to the bottom line, which is usually money. And I had a wonderful experience with this man who just made CFO of a medical device company. He was terribly shy and introverted. He never felt he had the right background to speak to board members or CEOs and that kind of thing. He came from the military where he got his education paid for. He was this brilliant person, and it was just about starting to slow down and realize that he not only had the skill sets and the ability, but if he wanted to get where he wanted to, which was to move up and get CFO. I’m just so pleased for him. He needed to have better social interactions. People think communications is the soft stuff and there’s nothing soft about it at all.

Stone Payton: Nothing I’m trying to in my shoes. And I’m not a coach or really a consultant, except to a very small group of people within our system. I’m trying to get my arms around the level of trust and confidence that you must have to endear with a prospective client, or certainly a client, to get any real work done. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Sure. Um, you have to build rapport. You have to really have the client understand you’re on their side. And so I often will say, why don’t you see how it goes for you? Why don’t you just try this? Do a yes and mindset and see what feedback you get and how it is. And actually, with this same client I was just talking about, I had him go back to his wife, whom he dearly loved and had known forever and ever asking her had she noticed any difference in his behavior? Because that’s all we have to go on is our behavior. And she said, yeah, it’s a lot better with you. She said, you seem a lot happier, a lot more relaxed, a lot more present. That made me very happy.

Stone Payton: Well, sure. So I know the answer to this question is probably yes, but I’m going to ask it anyway just so we can get on the topic. Have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way to help you kind of navigate this terrain of, of coaching and making a real business out of it.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Making a real business out of it? No. You have to keep in there. And, um, I tended to go to executive coaching agencies, uh, where the clients were vetted and the coaches were vetted with certain, um, credentials. And just to give you an example about how different my background was, and this this is just a little side detour, I promise, that is being interviewed for ABC News management. Never had HR get near us because they wanted certain people to be able to get into the newsroom and be reporter editors and to question authority and all of that. Whereas as an executive coach, you have to get ready to partner with the HR business partner of the client or of the organization. So that was so interesting for me. And like all things, some HR people are great. Some HR people are so-so. It just it just depends. So that was the choice that I made was to get on coaching benches so I could start to build a portfolio. Right. Because, you know, people are not going to just find me in my living room.

Stone Payton: So going back to your whole process, I’d like to dive in a little deeper if you’re up for it. So there’s that. I believe you you referred to it as as a chemistry meeting, a chemistry conversation. Can you walk us through some of the next steps in your process so we can get a picture of what an an engagement or a relationship with you might look like over time.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Sure. So the client has to choose the coach. That’s the way it works. I’m not famous enough to. I choose the client. No. And so, you know, we speak anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I have found longer is not useful. And seeing if it’s a fit and seeing if, um, what I’m saying makes sense to the person. I just got a new engagement from a top leader in in retail that he was finding what I was saying very helpful. So once they pick you, then there’s usually this engagement where it starts with, you know, the first session going over roles and logistics and outcomes and what they want to work on then seeing if there are assessments offered with the coaching engagement. I love the Hogan. It’s I call it the white male corporate assessment because it’s it’s really tough and it certainly changed me. And assessments are so great because you can it just starts to objectify language. This is what this is saying. I’ll say to a client, what do you think? And then hopefully I can get a 360, which really builds on my reporting skills, where the client and their manager pick 6 to 8 people all around them, you know, peers above direct reports and other stakeholders where I asked them all the same four questions.

Dorothy Doppstadt : And then I write up a report and what starts to happen is that clear patterns emerge. So let’s take the the recent, um, CFO client who just got that role, which is what he wanted. There was a pattern that he needed to a soften his edges. Right. You know. Hello, Stone. How are you? Didn’t that kind of thing. And then also not just read the data, but start to take a more leadership role in starting to help change the data? So a whole different way of thinking. And then we, after we’ve gone through all the very robust feedback of assessments and three 60s and unpacking stuff, we we just start meeting one on one to speak about what matters to the client, what’s important. Do you have a presentation coming up? Would you like to work on that? Do you have a is there a kind of a communications glitch with the stakeholder you Do you want to work on that? That kind of thing.

Stone Payton: I love the way that you talk about utilizing an assessment, because I’m getting the idea that, um, maybe assessments aren’t necessarily designed to be prescriptive. Maybe they shouldn’t be prescriptive, but what a marvelous catalog. Uh, catalyst for genuine conversation.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Exactly.

Stone Payton: You’re asking them, what do you think? And then you’re opening up the conversation. Yeah.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Yeah. I mean, I didn’t even know what an assessment was. So I got, uh, certified, I think in two years in, like, 5 or 6 of them. And out of them all, except for the, um, emotional quotient to the EQ. I liked the Hogan the best for higher leaders because it’s divided into different reports of your values. You always want to go over the leader’s values and North Star. And then it’s how the leader is showing up every day, how people see him and then potential leadership. Derailers. So but between all those reports, there’s a lot of info and data to get.

Stone Payton: So I’m going to switch gears on you for a minute, if I might. Before we wrap, I’m interested to know, uh, what are you into when you’re not doing coaching and consulting? Uh, pursuits, hobbies. What do you like to do outside the scope of this work?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Well, I’m. I love where I live, um, I live in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, and so I love to go to museum and art shows. I love to go to screenings with films because I got my MFA in film. I was a screenwriter for a little bit. I loved just to walk around the city and in the parks, and I love to go up to Maine, so I have kind of a lot I do. I think I always yeah, there’s a lot I really, really like. There’s some really great shows going on now in New York.

Stone Payton: So Yeah. Sounds like you stay busy. So what are some signals? If I’m an executive, um, what are some signals that I ought to at least be entertaining? The idea of having a conversation. Having a chemistry conversation with with someone. What’s happening in my world? That.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Oh. Great question. I mean, what I have found, and I do a lot of fortune 500 companies, so they’re global and all different industries, from tech to aerospace to telecommunications to retail to pharma. I have found that you need to get along. You need to be able to play in the sandbox. And what starts to happen is they tend to run into more conflict than need it, because it’s a really hard role to be a leader, because you have to bring people along and things are changing so quickly out there. Um, it said that there’s new technology every 11 minutes. Wow. And yeah, it’s it’s it’s so crazy. And this is where the social energy and having cross-functional relationships throughout the organization is so important. Leaders who can pick up a phone and get somebody on the other end are able to solve problems and find solutions quicker.

Stone Payton: All right. So what’s the best way for our listeners to reach out, maybe have a more substantive conversation with you? Tap into your work. What’s the best way for them to connect?

Dorothy Doppstadt : Um, well, I have a website that I need to update, and I think this interview is going to make me do it. And that’s my name, Dorothy Obstat. Uh, d o double P, as in Peter s t as in Tom, A as in apple, D as in dog, t as in Tom dorothy.stat.com. It’s my website and on it you will see a way to contact me. That would be the best way.

Stone Payton: Well Dorothy, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, and your vigor for the work.

Dorothy Doppstadt : Thank you so much, Stone. It was a pleasure talking with you.

Stone Payton: All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Dorothy Dobbs STAT with Surge Partners, LLC and everyone at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

Lessons in Resilience: How Personal Experiences Shape Business Success and Community Impact

May 22, 2025 by angishields

Cherokee Business Radio

Lessons in Resilience: How Personal Experiences Shape Business Success and Community Impact

00:00 /

Brought to you by Diesel David and Main Street Warriors

In this episode of Cherokee Business Radio, Joshua Kornitsky is joined by Jesslyn Rollins, Tom and Joanne Curtin, and Josh Monroe. Jesslyn, CEO of BIOLYTE, shares how her mother’s battle with breast cancer inspired the creation of a medical-strength sports drink. She emphasizes customer connection and the company’s growth. Tom and Joanne discuss their journey in real estate, transitioning from teaching, and the importance of coaching. They highlight their charitable organization, The Curtin Team Cares, which supports local educators. Josh shares insights on community involvement and personal development. The episode underscores the significance of community engagement and leveraging personal experiences for business success.

Jesslyn Rollins has a track record of bringing ideas to life. When her father, a board-certified Anesthesiologist and Pain Specialist, asked her to head up sales for his new hydration solution, BIOLYTE®, the IV in a bottle®, she hit the streets and sold it out of her Toyota Highlander.

Seven years later, Jesslyn has worked her way up from Director of Sales to now the company’s CEO. Under her leadership, BIOLYTE has grown into a multi-million dollar business whose products are available in 20,000+ retail locations. Jesslyn’s leadership style is understanding, creative, and a tidal-wave of energy.

Honored as one of Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Most Admired CEOs” in 2023 and one of Atlanta Business Chronicle “40 Under 40” in 2022, her main role is to ensure all aspects of the company are executing on BIOLYTE’s central vision – being a LYTE when our neighbors need us most.

BIOLYTE is committed to being a LYTE in our local community by supporting our neighbors. Working with hundreds of local charities, health centers, and schools, the BIOLYTE Family wants to make sure that everyone, especially the underdog, has a fighting chance. Since its beginning in 2017, BIOLYTE has donated over $1M bottles and over $100k to Cancer Charities in Georgia.

Jesslyn grew up and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia and majored in Theatre and Communications with a minor in Human Development. Jesslyn teaches high school Sunday School at her church, Northside United Methodist, and is an active donor to her alma mater’s theater programs: The Lovett School, The College of Charleston, and UGA.

She loves animals (especially her corgis: Cornbread and Pork Chop), handcrafted cocktails, and stand-up comedy.

Follow BIOLYTE on LinkedIn, X and Facebook.

Tom Curtin co-founded the Curtin Team in 2001, helping grow it into a top-producing group with over 2,000 home sales in sales.

A real estate investor and mentor, he’s passionate about financial freedom and work-life balance.

Tom lives in Milton with his wife Joanne and their two children.

Joanne Curtin, founder of the Curtin Team, has led the business to over 2,000 home sales since 2001.

She’s also President of Curtin Team Cares, the nonprofit she co-founded in 2018 to serve the local community.

Joanne lives in Milton with her husband Tom and their two children.

Follow The Curtin Team on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Josh Monroe is an Associate Partner and Wealth Advisor at Corient, a Registered Investment Advisor. Before joining Corient in 2019, Josh spent 8 years at a leading insurance and investment firm in a variety of roles including compliance and supervision.

Josh is passionate about helping his clients and making complex financial concepts easy to understand. Josh is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner and holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst® certification, administered by Investments & Wealth Institute and taught in conjunction with the Yale School of Management. He also holds the Chartered Financial Consultant designation and graduated cum laude from Georgia State University.

As a Chartered Special Needs Consultant designee, Josh works with families with special needs and understands the unique planning challenges they face. Through deep dialogue and thoughtful planning, Josh helps families develop a financial strategy tailored to the unique needs of their loved ones. Josh is a member of the fee-only National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA). He has been a contributing author to Kiplinger.com and CNBC.com.

Josh and his wife, Danielle, live in Kennesaw with their daughter, Emma and son, Tyler. As a foster and adoptive family, they have welcomed more than 10 children into their home. They are active members at Woodstock City Church engaged as community group leaders.

Josh enjoys exercising, being outdoors, and playing music and games with his family.

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Automatically Transcribed With Podsqueeze

Intro 00:00:07 Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:00:24 Good morning, and welcome back to Cherokee Business Radio. This is Joshua Kornitsky, professional iOS implementer and host of Cherokee Business Radio. We’ve got a wonderful group of guests here today. I want to start by welcoming them in and saying good morning to Jesslyn Rollins, the CEO of BIOLYTE. Good morning, Jesslyn. How are you?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:00:45 Good morning. I am so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:00:49 Thank you so much for being here. you know, you and I had the opportunity to meet at a couple of other networking events. And when you spoke at the Marietta Business association. And I was really, really struck by your story in the story of BIOLYTE. Would you mind sharing that with folks?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:01:05 Yeah, I’d be honored. So what? BIOLYTE is my family’s company. So a few years ago, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and when she was going through her chemo treatments, she was very sick and very dehydrated to the point where she couldn’t keep up with chemo without getting IVs.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:01:23 So my dad is a board certified anesthesiologist and pain specialist. Oh, wow. He’s got years of experience tailoring his patients IV bags with nutritional supplementation to help them feel better. So when sports drinks, children’s rehydration products, electrolyte powders were not working, my dad used his experience to combine the science of an IV bag with the convenience of a sports drink. And today we’ve got BIOLYTE, the first medical strength sports drink on the market.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:01:56 That’s just incredible. And a tier local in Georgia.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:01:59 Oh, yeah. It’s literally down the road in Marietta.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:02:02 That’s fantastic. Most important question how is your mom?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:02:06 Phenomenal question. Mom is doing. Amazing. And she gets to have the best job in the world, which is being a grandmother to all of her four grandchildren and one on the way.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:02:19 That’s fantastic. Congratulations to your family. And I’m most important, congratulations to your mom. So over the course of that journey, I mean, are you someone that has always been focused on business and driven to to get the strongest, best products out there? How did how did your journey with Violet happen?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:02:39 So if you would have caught me in a business class in at UGA or the College of Charleston where I went, it was because I was interested in one of the boys in that class.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:02:49 It had absolutely nothing to do with or my background has nothing to do with business, So I’m actually a theater major.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:02:58 Well that’s great.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:02:59 And so I majored in theater from UGA. And I had a string of different careers. I was a professional actress. I worked at the Laughing Skull Comedy Lounge selling tickets. I was a recruiter. And obviously, throughout this entire experience, I was early 20s, living at home. Thank you to mom and dad. And my dad had kept Violet a secret in our family. And so he approached me and said, hey, Jess, I know the comedy thing really isn’t working out, so could you help me grow this business? And first you had to explain what the product was and that it was showing up. we had over 5000 bottles showing up at my parents home in Atlanta. Wow. And so I actually put those improv skills, those theater skills to, to use And started selling door to door to high school football teams. And now we’re in over 20,000 locations across the country.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:04:01 That’s absolutely incredible. And I follow you on LinkedIn, and I happen to see a few weeks back when when you shared from some time back, just an email from Publix, and I was wondering if you would share that kind of strange story.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:04:14 Yes. Okay, so this is freaking wild. It was. It is not normal in our industry whatsoever. Typically what has to happen is you have to bang down doors to get these retailers to take your email, take your phone call. And back in 2019, I got an email from our director of logistics, Kelli O’Hara. And Kelly drove trucks for 25 years. And so email was not his strong suit. But in the top of the email it said, hey Jessalyn, Publix is interested in bio light. And I was like, dang it, Kelly, what are you talking about? I thought he was getting my hopes up. Sure. And it was actually an email in my inbox from Publix corporate saying, hey, we’ve seen your performance in Atlanta, we’ve seen your performance in Kroger, and we want to bring Violet in to all Publix.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:05:04 And that’s been a relationship that’s been going on ever since.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:05:07 That’s fantastic. What a what a crazy way for them to reach out to a little non-traditional wild.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:05:12 I mean, that email came in at 235 on a Tuesday, and I called the buyer at 235 on a Tuesday.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:05:21 So as, as the Violet story has, has, been building over, I think, about eight years now. Yes, eight years. What are some of the things that you’ve learned along that journey?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:05:34 Oh, gosh. I mean, where do you want me to begin? but since I don’t, I can’t take up everybody’s morning. Sure. probably the number one thing that stands out is, and this is, it’s it’s going to be something that you hear over and over and over again. But I really want everybody to turn their ears on when I say this, because it truly there’s a reason why people say it over and over again, which is you have to stay connected to your customer. So in those early days, from the formulation to the label to our marketing pitch, everything was built from personal interactions with customers when I was sampling in Publix and in Kroger.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:06:23 So everything that you see today is built off of those interactions where buyer light has ever got off track. It was we it was because we did not keep that open line of communication with our customers. We got insulated. We got, you know, we got a big fancy headquarters and we thought we were making all the right decisions, just like for people making those decisions. And that’s really when we got off the mark, was when we were not truly engaged and truly listening to our customers. And so Violet has since bought because it’s medical strength, hydration. We’ve bought an ambulance and we have trademarked it the third, the Thirst responder.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:07:11 So so I had that to ask you about because I think that’s just fantastic. So the first responder and I think you told me you’re going on tour.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:07:20 That’s exactly right. So the first responder responds to the thirst. You’re talking about high school football games. You’re talking about run clubs anywhere where people are thirsty. We are there to, quench the thirst. And we’re really, really excited about that.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:07:37 And just having personal interactions with our customers in a fun and engaging way.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:07:41 That’s fantastic. And going back to that, right. The connection to your customers. How do your how do your customers usually reach to you? through what medium is the best way?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:07:52 So if you were to call by customer service line, you’re going to get a real person.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:07:56 Really?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:07:57 I I’m not that old, but I’m pretty old fashioned when it comes. And southern, I’m pretty old fashioned and southern when it comes to good old fashioned customer service. And so it it brings me so much joy. We’ve got this individual on our team, Dylan, who is just such a light. and when you call in, Dylan’s going to pick up the phone and answer questions for you. And so and if you look at the studies, like having somebody pick up, even if it’s on like the fifth ring, if somebody picks up whatever strife or issue that a customer is dealing with immensely gets lowered by just having somebody on the phone.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:08:39 And so I’m I’m happy about that.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:08:41 I’m I’m convinced on that one based on my own life experience, but that’s fantastic to hear that you’ve got someone dedicated to just listening to the customer, and when that feedback comes in, that’s something that’ll that’ll make its way to your ears.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:08:54 100%. I was just on the phone with Dylan, actually, before this, before my time with you. And so I’m really, really excited and constantly interested in what our customers are saying.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:09:07 So you also had shared with me that that there’s a rebranding coming for Violet.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:09:13 Yes. Okay.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:09:14 So was that driven by customers?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:09:16 Oh, dude. So. So here, here’s the deal. Violet has had. This is going to be Violet 3.0. So we rolled out with Violet. And how I like to describe our first packaging is it looks like if scrubs was a sports Drake, like it was super medical, not very inviting. And then through those customer interactions, we reiterated it to say the IV in a bottle right front and center because that’s what grabbed customer’s attention.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:09:46 So we got on the phone with our buyer at Qty. So we’re in QuikTrip. And what he was saying was was that I love your product. I think it’s phenomenal. I think it’s the best thing on the market for dehydration relief. And I personally use it, but I do not think that your product commands your premium price point with your packaging. You have got to update your packaging. And I took that and met with I got a cold email from this group called ultra. I think they’re up in Minnesota and they are. I mean, they have done Hershey’s, they have done Reese’s, they have done nature’s way in regards to packaging. And I knew that it couldn’t be just me in a spreadsheet anymore. It had to get elevated. So the new packaging really premium premium ises our product and that That nod to the ivy in a bottle. My favorite thing about the new packaging is the line that runs through right front and center of the bottle, because it’s that nod. It’s that, you know, visualization of that ivy in a bottle.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:10:57 And then on the back, it talks about very briefly and very succinctly, that Violet combines the science of an ivy bag with the convenience of a sports drink to create a medical strength hydration solution.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:11:10 That’s fantastic. And it.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:11:11 Looks So good.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:11:13 And is it in market now or is it coming shortly? When? When? So, should we look?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:11:17 Right now we’re in first and first out because we we wanted to prioritize sustainability and not just tossing a bunch of bottles. And so we’re working that through the market. And so the first product that you’re going to see on the shelf is more than likely going to be the mixed berry flavor. And it’ll be mixed and in with the old bottles. And really It’s the way that ultra and I have described it is. It’s not a revolution, it’s an evolution. So you’re not going to be confused on what is what. You’re going to know that it’s a natural evolution of our brand.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:11:50 That’s fantastic. So it’s it’s already starting to arrive in the market.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:11:54 That’s exactly right. I was packing boxes yesterday and, you know, some, some of the boxes that we were doing had a mix of the old product and the new product, and we were like, hey, it’s still a great product. It’s still the same thing, but it’s going to be a mix for now.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:12:10 That’s awesome. And you’re obviously a very hands on CEO, right? You’re in there packing boxes.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:12:14 Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That’s that’s how we got started. And that’s how that’s how we’re going to grow.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:12:19 So where can people find going back to the first responder. Because I just love the name where where can people is is there a way to follow it on on social? How will I know where it will be? Or is it just sort of a pop up surprise right now?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:12:33 So that is a great question. And that is something that we probably need to do a better job of, because right now it’s very much like the first responder went here and then it was there and then it was there.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:12:44 It’s very like past tense where we probably need to bring it for front and center and focus on the future of, like, where would you like to see it? and so let me get back to you on that answer.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:12:56 Well, and we will, on our side for Cherokee Business Radio, we’ll have your, social links and ways to reach Violet and yourself. Yeah. So by all means, if you’ll let us know when when you decide, we’ll update the page. We’ll even bring you back on just so you can share the adventures. You should probably document those so that we can turn that into a fun video later.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:13:18 That’s a great idea.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:13:19 I can’t wait to see where that goes. I think it’s such a clever concept and such a wonderful idea.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:13:25 And if if I could say one more thing. If anybody has an event, a tournament, a run, clubs, just a birthday party, something where you want to see the first responder. We are building the schedule as we go, so please keep us in mind if you would like.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:13:41 What about a charitable organization that maybe is doing stuff helping people with houses, things like that?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:13:46 Oh, I hear it’s a very sweaty job when people.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:13:49 So we’ll we’ll get to that in a minute. But I, I got an inside track I think. so I do want to turn just a little bit more serious for just a moment because this is something that that matters a great deal to both of us, I think. And we had talked about, as you were evolving with Violet, and as Violet itself was evolving, we talked about, sort of your approach with getting advice. Yes. And, and if you would share a I really liked your outlook around how you take advice or how you solicit advice.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:14:24 Yeah. So as you can tell, I’m the type of person that I love talking to people. I love different experience and different backgrounds. But when it comes to advice. a lot of times that’s tripped me up because I have asked so many people for advice and really, even if they’re a great person, they’re not qualified to be giving me that advice.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:14:47 And there’s a quote that I want to turn to of, like, never ask a person for directions if they’ve never left their house. And so I’m getting I’m getting very selective on like if it is a, if it is a specific marketing piece of advice I’m looking for or, a growth strategy that I’m looking for. Not every person is going to be suited to give the best advice. So focus. So highlight who that person is and then go and ask them.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:15:18 I think that’s great. Great guidance. The the I jokingly offer advice to new parents that I also advice offer advice to some of my clients, which is simply don’t take anyone else’s advice because no one else runs your company. You can see guidance. You can seek inspiration. But at the end of the day, you’re the one that’s going to make the decision, that’s going to steer the organization or the child or the destination ultimately is up to you. So as as captain of your ship, you’ve got to get that informed perspective and then decide for yourself.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:15:51 Yeah. Because nobody else runs your place. Well, I can’t thank you enough for sharing your story and the story of of bio life. And I’ll try not to laugh when I say first responder, but I love it so dang much. That’s great. I can’t wait to follow and see where it goes and where it’s going to be. And, you know. Jesselyn Rollins CEO Bilott. Thank you so much for being here with us. I hope you’re able to hang out. We’ve got some very, very interesting guests that are coming up next. Do you mind?

Jesslyn Rollins 00:16:17 Yeah. Duh. I’m here to learn. I’m gonna go get my notebook, actually.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:16:20 And one last thing. Shout out to all the theater kids. There absolutely is a bright, shining future down the way. You just have to be creative.

Jesslyn Rollins 00:16:29 And break.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:16:29 A leg and break a leg. There you go. Well, thank you. Jesslyn Rollins, CEO of BIOLYTE. Next in the studio is, I can honestly say, two people that have changed my life.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:16:41 I have in studio with me, Tom Curtin, CEO of the Curtin Team, and Joanne Curtin, the founder of the Curtin Team and also the president and co-founder of the Curtin Team Cares, charitable organization. So good morning and welcome to Cherokee Business Radio.

Tom Curtin 00:16:57 Good morning.

Joanne Curtin 00:16:57 Thank you so much, Joshua. This is exciting. I’m very impressed.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:17:01 Well, thank you guys for being here. And the reason I can say they changed my life is many, many years ago, when my wife and I had our first home. this. I don’t even remember the year. We. It sat and sat and sat and sat and I went to this place called Google and said, who’s the best realtor in Cobb County? And a month later, my house was gone. Which leads me to Tom and Joanne. So, Tom, Joanne, tell me, what is the curtain team?

Joanne Curtin 00:17:27 Well, the curtain team is a an evolution of, just me starting the real estate business and honing it into a life that I wanted to live.

Joanne Curtin 00:17:43 You know, a life worth living. real estate can eat you up. And you learn this as you’re in the business. but I got into real estate, in 2001 because I just was five years into teaching. I have a master’s in early childhood. Ed, and, I taught school for five years. Tom had me do all the QuickBooks and pay all the bills, and I was like, wow, we don’t have much left. After, you know, a year. having a master’s degree of teaching. And we were on the wedding circuit one after the other, every weekend was a wedding And everyone was telling me I should get into the business of real estate. And one of the people I really looked up to growing up was in real estate, and I just loved her life, loved her kids, and decided I would get into real estate and asked around. Got advice. People said have thick skin, have much reserves and always be closing. so anyway, got into real estate. I told my principal I wasn’t coming back and he was like, next time I see you, I’m sure you’ll be driving a Lexus.

Joanne Curtin 00:18:59 And I was like, whatever. That’s a pipe dream. but got into real estate in 2001, and started with a coach, and, just needed to know the skills because I’d never been trained how to be an effective realtor. so it started out with a coach, and then I just became very coachable and, and then grab Tom about a year and a half in and said, I really need help. And that’s when Tom jumped in. And I think 2002, you got your license. Tom. And Tom and I interrupt each other’s sentences constantly, and I know he’s ready to jump in.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:19:42 So, Tom, tell us, tell us. So Joanne brought us brought us up.

Tom Curtin 00:19:46 To.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:19:47 Joanne, brought us up to here making making the big elementary school teacher money and and from there, all all jokes aside, because Lord knows we’d all be up the creek without the elementary school teachers. But I do want to ask if if that early childhood education helped you in the real estate business.

Joanne Curtin 00:20:05 Well, yeah, I mean, it was, it’s definitely a, I mean, I, I love teaching.

Joanne Curtin 00:20:10 I mean, I’m very, I, I love to teach and I know what instruction should look like, and I have influence, and I don’t care what anybody tells you, but the best teachers out there have influence. How else can you get kids to learn during a school day unless you have influence? So influences is really, I think, what teachers have.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:20:32 So that’s great. So I’m sorry, Tom, I cut you off, not Joe. That’s all right. I wanted to hear your side of this story.

Tom Curtin 00:20:38 So, the. Well, the funny thing I always joke about is I was telling Joanne to get into real estate, but she had to hear it from somebody else. Of course, that’s how it works, right? With husband and wife. So, anyway, I was in the corporate world, and, worked for a large corporation that was getting acquired. And part of that acquisition was they laid off a lot of folks in the regional offices, which I was in Atlanta regional office.

Tom Curtin 00:21:06 my intent, because at that time, Joanne had not yet even had a closing. Right? I mean, she was brand new in the business, right. was to just go back into the corporate world, and keep that, you know, quote, steady Income. Secure income. Well, about a week after that layoff happened was when nine over 11 happened. and so all of the interviews, everything I had lined up, went, went out the window and I started to look around and say, well, I need to figure something else out. Like temporarily was always the the idea. So I did, briefly do mortgages. Had an acquaintance that had. So we thought that would work well together. Sure. and then in the background, I was starting to help Joanne, like, on the business side. Like. Oh, let me just do that. Let me do that. You know, I could do that marketing thing. I could do this, that. And I was taking on a lot of pieces.

Tom Curtin 00:21:58 to where one day we looked up and I was like, you know, I feel like we’d make a lot more money if I just went all in on this, with you. And that’s kind of how it started. So we always had that sort of division of labor, right? Where I was like the back end guy.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:22:13 And clear accountability. We call that clear accountability.

Tom Curtin 00:22:15 So it was like, you go keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll clean up all these messes on the back side, right. Was how we started.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:22:23 So one and the team’s been successful. It’s it’s grown and grown and and and that leads me to the question is, is it? It grew beyond Tom and Joanne. And you actually did start a team. Why why did you start a team.

Joanne Curtin 00:22:37 Well, we so I mentioned the coach earlier and I’m I’m a coachable person. I think that’s why I’ve loved education so much. And every coach I ever had, and I’m a maximizer like that’s my strength finder. If anybody does strength finding, that’s one of my high ones activators another.

Joanne Curtin 00:22:54 So I like to create the chaos. That’s why Tom, you know, cleans it up. But the the coaches have always helped me find where I can maximize time, money, talent. And I would just write all those down on a piece of paper. And then on the other side was everything I was terrible at. Right. Or that wasn’t working. And I would pull the paper off. Rip the paper in half and create a new job with that piece of paper. And that that first rip was Tom’s role when he came on board. Because I didn’t know what all of these things were in inspections. And so Tom did all of my inspections. And in the real estate world, everybody was like, I need a Tom. Like, because we have to deal with inspections. Nobody likes that. Sure. so that was kind of the first rip. And then we created a lot of momentum with just that one, leverage piece. And then every year the team was created because now Tom had to maximize.

Joanne Curtin 00:23:52 Now we’re both in coaching and the papers keep getting ripped. And then the the team has to grow to actually service clients. Well or else you’re just not doing you’re not even maximizing what you could be doing for your clients 100%.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:24:07 And Tom, you and I had talked previously to to some level, and I know how important the leadership aspect of it is to you and that coaching in that shaping of your team. So can you speak a little bit about that and how you work the internal mechanism to keep it running?

Tom Curtin 00:24:24 Yeah. so I mean, a couple of things I’ll say. I think, like Joanne said, we’ve always tried to fulfill our strengths, right? And work on our strength. and we have different skill sets. So I’m. I’m a achiever on the strength finders, Joanne. Number one is, activator. So those two work well together. Yeah. as you know.

Joanne Curtin 00:24:45 There’s a book called Rocket Fuel.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:24:46 I read that.

Joanne Curtin 00:24:48 That’s that’s actually our marriage.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:24:50 Okay.

Joanne Curtin 00:24:50 Yeah. Or that was building our business.

Tom Curtin 00:24:53 So, you know, with that, I there’s certain things that I can do that I have more patience or tolerance for. So the one on one kind of coaching of agents. And Joanne loves to teach, but to a certain extent. Right. Like, she’s going to she’s going to teach, but not necessarily do the one on one coaching. Right? So that was something that I stepped into. I think also from a, from a leadership standpoint, just the hiring. Right. And kind of the systems and creating creating the job roles that we’ve created over time. really the like the business building side of it has always been like my side of it. Right. Joanne’s super, great at sales, high energy. You know, people love to follow her, including myself. Right.

Joanne Curtin 00:25:48 And I love I love challenges. So I would kind of run towards a challenge. but Tom, naturally, is like a supporter like that. Supportive patience.

Tom Curtin 00:25:58 Right. So I don’t think it was always like in the beginning it was to be successful.

Tom Curtin 00:26:03 Right? And like, let me help her do that. And then at some point, she didn’t want to be the one going out on and doing the sales side of it. And we had to figure that out. And that was, you know, part of what I had to figure out was like, okay, how do we keep the business going when Joanne’s not the one sitting at the kitchen table anymore?

Joshua Kornitsky 00:26:20 Well, and that leads to a great question, which is, you know, what happens. How do you prepare for a future where Tom and Joanne maybe aren’t at every kitchen table? Well, because I think we’re probably there already.

Joanne Curtin 00:26:33 Well, you can’t shortchange it because I tried. I tried a.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:26:37 Lot. There’s no shortcuts to what you’re saying.

Joanne Curtin 00:26:39 I had babies. I mean, I had I don’t know how we did it, Tom. We did it, but. Wow. you just can’t shortchange it. And and I did try. So at the end of the day, you cannot expect a client to trust someone that you do not trust.

Joanne Curtin 00:26:58 And you have to genuinely say, this person in your home with me right now is better than I am at this. I know because I’ve trained them and they’ve done more of this than I actually have. So until you really believe that that person is going to be better at whatever it is that you are, then you don’t have the right to be to be leveraging them. and, you know, like I said, I, I tried that, but then it always came back and then I had to finish it up. It always came back to me. So I got my job back. And the minute you get your job back. You’ve taken their resignation. I mean, they have to go because they can’t. They just don’t have the trust.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:27:40 Tom.

Tom Curtin 00:27:41 yeah, I mean, I, I think to just with that growth, I mean, it’s been painful in some cases because we do lose people, right? There’s turnover. It’s natural. You have to deal with that. and you have to be willing to, you know, go through it multiple times.

Tom Curtin 00:27:58 And in our case, you know, it took, probably going through that 2 or 3 times to find kind of the right mix of having Joanne being able to step out confidently and not get pulled back in. I feel like we’re there now. but, you know, it took a little bit.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:28:15 Well, it it makes sense. You’ve got to kind of iterate till you get there. But but, you know, earlier Jessalyn said something that I happen to know is a hot spot for both of you and in a very positive way. Just. And you had mentioned how important it is to be connected to your customers. And I know as a former curtain team customer, I am I am reached to consistently, but not annoyingly. And I want to say that in front of you guys because it’s not too much. It’s really, I think, a well-honed just enough. Right. So I know that if I have a need, there’s someone there. And if I think I have a need, there’s somebody there.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:28:56 But it’s not like, hey, how are you today? So can you talk to what what brought you guys to that level of customer focus?

Joanne Curtin 00:29:05 Oh, gosh. I feel like, I mean, I’m, I the reason I didn’t love teaching so much is because you would teach the children, and then they would leave, and then you’d have to start again, start from zero, teach them how to read again. But with clients like there’s relationships and you have those for so long. And I’m just like, I had a pencil box when I was like in third grade and it said third grade to college. Like, I believe in loyalty, like, and just staying the course and never giving up. So I expect like all these relationships, to stay there and I want to be able to help them. So I took it personally and I feel like taking your business personally. Some people think that’s a negative. I think everything should be taken personally.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:29:56 It’s hard not to.

Joanne Curtin 00:29:57 Yeah, because they’re people.

Joanne Curtin 00:29:59 So I want to know, like what can we do to help? That’s basically what we do. What can we do to help? Hope that we did care calls after Covid. That was just one of the most humbling, you know, experiences to call and just listen. So anything you want to add to that, Tom?

Joshua Kornitsky 00:30:18 Oh, well, so so from there, right about that caring, we, we arrive at curtain team cares. So so would you tell us what curtain team cares is about and who it helps?

Tom Curtin 00:30:31 so we started Curtain Team Cares in 2018. And prior to that, you know, we were always leaning into the community and doing different things, but it was sort of a shotgun approach, like, you know, we were wherever somebody raised their hand, we were kind of all over the place. And Joanne and I had talked about it and decided, you know, maybe we should form our own nonprofit and try to really figure out a course. and so over since 2018, we’ve, we’ve developed what we feel like is our niche, right, with what we do.

Tom Curtin 00:31:05 so we definitely focus on local, right? It’s very localized. And what we started last year, and do every year, I’ll let Joanne dive into a little bit more, but it’s called our home refresh project. and it does tie together her background in education because we do focus on giving back, to local educators. but also then ties into real estate. So.

Joanne Curtin 00:31:30 Yeah. Well, and when I look back, you know, 2018 was a dark time in real estate. I mean, it was just it was just apparently it was, a great reset when you look back. But at the time, it just felt very hard. And there was a lot of change going on. And the that’s when the nonprofit started. And I feel like that was the natural place for like a helper to go, when sometimes you were helping in your business, but nobody appreciated it. Everybody was beating you down. And this nonprofit was a way to just love what we were doing. And I think it was, you know, it was a healing time, in a way, for when I only when I look back on it, I didn’t quite know what was happening at the time.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:32:18 It’s always clear when you’re in the rear view.

Joanne Curtin 00:32:20 Right. And that was the time that I reached out to just local schools, and I was a mentor to just an individual student. I felt like I needed to help somebody because I needed to feel better. And that was just a natural. I was doing it just with one student. And then we found out our business was trying to create this within multiple, ways to help teachers. So the Home Refresh project, we were, really inspired by, an agent in Boise, Idaho that does this in her home town. And we did a zoom call with her with our team, with our board know, with our team, actually, and then shared it with our board. But, the home refresh is it’s tied into, for us local educators and staff members in our Roswell Area School district. Okay. And anyone can nominate themselves. they can nominate a coworker, a fellow teacher. It can be anonymous. You can put your name on it.

Joanne Curtin 00:33:24 We get both. And, we interview them once we’ve chosen the winner, which has to have a few criteria with it. kind of location’s a big one because this home refresh project is completely donation based. There’s no money that, is needed from the recipient. the vendors give their time, tools, and their labor at no cost. And we take donations to provide furniture, what have you that the the winner ends up needing. And so the refresh is really to interview the winner and ask, what do you feel like you need in your home right now? And it’s not up to us. We see homes every day and I could I could guess what I think you need, but I would never because it’s not what they need. They need something completely different. or they may ask us, you know, some, some advice, but mainly it’s very clear what would improve their property. And, last year it was more of a home office place to actually have some respite, you know, come and, be surrounded by family photos of family members.

Joanne Curtin 00:34:38 And, it was it was so moving to know how we helped them. And one of the, participants and volunteers knew, knew the backstory of, the family and how to specifically help in ways that we never did. So if someone is, has a relationship to the recipient, that really brings some Intel to level up the experience that we provide.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:35:08 And if, if, if an existing. So you would share, Tom, that you leverage your existing vendors that that you work with now.

Tom Curtin 00:35:15 Yeah. So they, you know we we lean into what depending on what they need in this last one, you know, was a lot of painting, interior or exterior, needed some things fixed. We had to put in a new sidewalk.

Joanne Curtin 00:35:29 and they did it in the rain, in the freezing cold. And I have videos, I tell you what. And they weren’t that thirsty at the time, but we will. I mean.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:35:38 But when they were done, they.

Joanne Curtin 00:35:39 Were. Yeah, this is in November when we do it.

Joanne Curtin 00:35:41 So we do it really kind of home for the holidays. I mean, everyone’s in a very giving spirit. And that was just a, a little aside of.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:35:50 So when do you open your nomination?

Tom Curtin 00:35:52 It’s open now. so yeah, we’re we’re receiving nominations now with our goal is August 1st to August 1st. We’ll choose, you know.

Joanne Curtin 00:36:01 The project and the way that the way that the word gets out. I go to peer bar, and my peer bar always ends the workout with, you know, reminding everyone to make nominations or donate if they choose. And, but that’s only because one of our board members asked them to to put out the QR codes for donation. But the way it’s run is the we have liaisons on the board, and someone is a liaison for each school, and they communicate directly with the principal. And we do throughout the year, whether we need to fund a field trip or a sleepover. You know, of a slumber sleepover field trip that the fifth grade has just recently done.

Joanne Curtin 00:36:41 But then they, they put it in their newsletter and put out in their, teachers. I call it the tornado room. And, you know, they’re the ones that share the message. And then we take donations directly. They email us directly with their nomination form.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:36:57 Well, and that brings up a great point, right. If if someone does want to donate or if someone is is in the contractor space and wants to offer their time, what’s the best way for them to get Ahold of you to to reach out if they want to send money or donate time?

Tom Curtin 00:37:11 Yeah. I mean, we’ve got all the details there in the forms on our website. team cares.org. Okay, perfect. The website.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:37:20 So that’s just fantastic what you’re doing with certain teams care. And as we wind down, there was one other thing that I had really wanted to ask about, and I want to tie it into a question and simply say, you know, what’s next for the curtain team? And I know that you talked about Tom, investing in real estate.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:37:41 I wanted to give you a chance to share what you’re doing there.

Tom Curtin 00:37:43 Yeah. I mean, that’s that’s really was kind of the start of it. Joanne read the book. Rich dad, poor dad. when she was still teaching. And that led her to say I, you know this. Something’s got to change. we have to build. Well, when we originally got into real estate, we’ve always looked at it through the lens of investing. and over the years, as, as we’ve done our own personal investing, we have taught clients, we teach, have taught classes on this, we’ve helped a lot of clients take that first step into investing in real estate. I think everybody should own at least one investment property. and so, you know, for us, we personally built a real estate portfolio that, really will will allow us to step back, you know, from the real estate sales if, if and when we choose to tour.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:38:36 And I gather that that even now, regardless of the economic times, real estate, sort of one of those things that doesn’t go away.

Tom Curtin 00:38:43 No.

Joanne Curtin 00:38:43 Oh, even more, I mean, the I mean, this market, if anything, should have showed people why they should have invested in what was inflating. Hello. It’s all about the property I need.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:38:53 I need a time machine.

Joanne Curtin 00:38:55 Yeah, and.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:38:56 It’ll make a big.

Joanne Curtin 00:38:57 Difference. It’s not going backwards. It’s not going.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:38:59 Back. Yeah. No, it rarely does. Well, Tom, Joanne, thank you guys so much from the curtain team for for sharing your insight. And as mentioned earlier, we’ll have all of the appropriate contact information for the curtain team for curtain time cares with phone numbers and emails on our site. But if you’ll go ahead and give us your website so that we can get people to you.

Tom Curtin 00:39:21 Yeah, it’s just curtin team.com. So c u r t i n t e a m.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:39:28 That’s fantastic. And I see I misspelled it here on the paper but nobody sees that. Put me.

Tom Curtin 00:39:32 Right.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:39:32 Well, I apologize for the misspelling. I found out a few weeks ago I had a guest on who I’d known for two years, and I’d been saying his last name wrong the entire time.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:39:40 So we all live and learn. But thank you for your graciousness. Thank you guys for sharing your incredible story. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And if you’re able to, please stay. We have one more guest, and I’m so excited to have him. So. Josh Monroe. Josh Monroe is is a financial advisor that works with the loved ones of special needs folks, from the organization Corriente. And I have to before I even say anything. The first day that I began my new life as as an iOS implementer, I had to get out of my comfort zone and walk into, 3 or 4 networking meetings the first day, the very first human being I met on the very first day at the Kennesaw Business Association was Josh Monroe. Josh, tell us about yourself.

Josh Monroe 00:40:30 Yeah, well thank you, Joshua. I’m so excited to be here and just such wonderful stories that that we’ve heard this morning. yeah. So I, I’ve been in the financial planning business for about 15 years now.

Josh Monroe 00:40:43 And a few years ago really, Lee, started honing my focus on serving families that have loved ones with special needs, most often children. typically middle school and high school years is when parents reach out to me and we start that planning. so I have done planning for years for families normally focused on retirement or helping send kids to school and, now get to help families prepare their children with special needs for a lifetime of support and, just stability.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:41:20 It’s it’s incredible work that you do. If I can ask you to, to help those of us who don’t live in that universe to understand what are some of the unique financial needs and the planning needs for for these families?

Josh Monroe 00:41:34 Absolutely. So I mentioned retirement and, you know, education planning, those priorities still exist for families that have a child with special needs. But very often there’s a reality that that child may never be financially independent. So that adds a huge additional responsibility for mom and dad. They’d like to be able to retire, but now they’ve also got to make sure their child can be supported for their whole life.

Josh Monroe 00:42:00 And what we’re seeing with a lot of advanced treatment and medical care, a lot of these kids are living full life expectancy.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:42:08 Which is wonderful.

Josh Monroe 00:42:09 Absolutely wonderful. But that means there could be a time when Mom and dad aren’t here anymore, but they want to make sure that there’s still resources and someone watching out for their child. so we also move into government benefits. There’s some great government benefits. A lot of them are outdated and grossly in need of some updating for inflation. but a lot of people don’t even know what’s available or what their child might qualify for, so there’s some education around that. And then very importantly, how assets are left for an individual with special needs. Special needs trusts are really important for several reasons. One, it can protect the child from being taken advantage of by someone else. Sure, maybe the child doesn’t really have the ability to manage their money on their own. So it’s placing a, you know, conservator or somebody in that role to oversee the money. And also a lot of these government benefits have very low asset caps.

Josh Monroe 00:43:12 So for example SSI, which is supplemental Social Security income, if you have more than $2,000 of cash, you now have too much money to qualify for that. Pretty modest benefit.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:43:27 Absurd.

Josh Monroe 00:43:28 So a special needs trust can be a way that grandparents can leave money for a child, or mom and dad can leave money for a child and it not end up hurting them by now, kicking them off of a government benefit that’s really vital for their daily life.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:43:41 Sure, that that makes perfect sense. So, Josh, how did you get into this? What? What brought you here?

Josh Monroe 00:43:46 Yeah, it’s a good question. There are really two things, that happened around the same time in my life. in 2017, my wife Danielle and I became foster parents. And over the course of the years that we’ve, had kids in our home, several of them have had some level of special needs. So we saw firsthand just the, demand of juggling multiple therapy appointments and additional doctor’s appointments. And it’s a lot when, you know, when children in foster care, the state is paying for those, but it’s still just a lot emotionally to manage.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:44:24 Absolutely.

Josh Monroe 00:44:25 Much less when you have the financial responsibility as well. And around the same time, in my financial practice, I got introduced to, a couple that had a 17 year old son with special needs. And when we started talking, all of their questions were around what was going to happen for him next and what would happen to him if Mom and Dad weren’t here. And I really wanted to be able to help them, and I didn’t have all the answers. So I reached out to some some other people that work in this space, did a lot of research, and as we solved some of those big problems together, I saw a emotional weight lifted from those parents shoulders that had never seen before. Yes, planning for retirement can be impactful, but the mom told me for 17 years I’ve been lying awake at night worried about what’s going to happen to our son, and now we have some of those answers. And that’s when I knew. This is the type of work I want to do if I can make that difference for more families.

Josh Monroe 00:45:28 So I went and found a designation program, Chartered Special Needs Consultant, and it builds on the Certified Financial Planner program. So you’ve got tax planning, insurance planning, retirement planning. But it starts to get into understanding special needs trusts and the importance of them. I don’t draft these legal documents, but I need to be able to help my clients understand how important they are and the the purpose that they’re going to serve. And then it also educated me on a lot of these government benefit programs like SSI that I mentioned, some other Medicaid and other waiver programs, and that has helped me educate my clients on a lot of what’s out there. And it even opened a lot of, conversations on the emotional side of how to advise parents when they’re carrying this very heavy.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:46:24 I can’t imagine what an emotional dialogue it’s going to be.

Josh Monroe 00:46:27 So, so it’s been about four years now that I’ve really focused on this is where I want to grow my business. This is where I want to have an impact.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:46:35 So a lot of thoughts come to mind.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:46:39 The first one is, is is just because this is, for many people, an understood but abstract concept. The need for a chartered special needs consultant. Right. Can can you without obviously tying to anybody’s specific personal case, can you share with us where where in your experience doing this where this type of planning made a made a difference?

Josh Monroe 00:47:03 Yeah, I’ll share a story. I’ve worked with a family whose child was late in high school. special needs. Probably not going to be financially independent. Very good chance that there will be some work income for their child. But we had to have the conversation around guardianship. And when this child turns 18, if mom and dad don’t take any steps, otherwise this individual is viewed by the state of Georgia as a full fledged adult with all the responsibilities and decision making. So an important question that I ask families once their child is 15, 16, 17 is, you know, are you comfortable? Do you feel like they have the mental capacity, the emotional capacity to make these decisions? Or should we engage with a, you know, a special needs attorney to really investigate the need for guardianship and guardianship just means that mom and dad or another, you know, named loved one can continue to be that primary decision maker.

Josh Monroe 00:48:12 And that can be really important for for medical treatment for this child.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:48:16 All kinds of.

Josh Monroe 00:48:17 Decisions. You’ve got financial decisions, medical treatment. You know, once you turn 18, if you say, I don’t want to go to that doctor’s appointment anymore.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:48:24 You don’t have.

Josh Monroe 00:48:24 To. You don’t have to. You don’t have to take your meds. So, so just walking through that decision and that can be a really tough conversation. you know, so often these parents have focused on the positive milestones, the things that their children have overcome and achieved. And for a few moments, they you need them to stop and focus on the things that their child may not be able to do for themselves.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:48:51 Which is a hard discussion.

Josh Monroe 00:48:52 It’s a really hard discussion, but it’s so important. so this particular family, we decided we we did need to pursue guardianship. And then, you know, you go through the conversations of who should that be? Who should the successors be? And a very common, conversation we have is the desire to name a sibling as a contingent or a backup successor.

Josh Monroe 00:49:17 And that can be the right fit for a lot of families. But if this sibling is 22 or 20.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:49:24 They’re not any better equipped to handle.

Josh Monroe 00:49:25 Right. So also just helping families think through that. And you know, there are, you know, professional trustees that that can step into those roles. And there’s a lot of, different solutions there. But I think it’s just helping families think a few steps ahead of where they may not have thought before, and then trying to help them make the right decision for their child. with all planning, we want to have flexibility because our hope is that their child can be as independent as possible. So we don’t want to put so many guardrails in that, well, now they can go get a job, but we’re going to choose not to know. We always are looking for more restrictions. We can take off the plan and support their independence. So, this family now, they’ve found a college program that is working for their child. And, you know, we’re just excited to see what the future holds.

Josh Monroe 00:50:20 But we’ve walked through some of these big decisions. Yeah. Big milestones.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:50:24 Thank you. That I think that puts it in context to help people sort of digest and understand it. So. So it leads me to to my last two questions. And the first one, may sound crass, but it’s just reality, right? So do I have to be a millionaire in order to make this work? Because it seems like there must be a lot of, financial challenge.

Josh Monroe 00:50:44 Yeah, that’s a great question. And no, you don’t have to have $1 million or more to to have a conversation with me or even to do a lot of this planning. there are a lot of government resources that can actually be easier to qualify for when you have less assets. That’s great. but there’s still so much red tape. And just navigating that, that’s really important. and I’ve had the conversation with some families that more money doesn’t always solve all the problems. One of the interesting things about Medicaid is they have some unique access to certain therapies or certain day camps that you can’t get to on private pay, and that can be a humbling conversation for a mom and dad that have worked really hard to build up a lot of money, thinking that’s going to solve all of their at least financial trouble, and they still need to find ways to qualify their child for Medicaid.

Josh Monroe 00:51:37 so I’m always happy to have a conversation with anybody. I, really believe that when you help others, good things are going to happen, and I agree. I’m just so passionate about helping this, this population that if there’s anything I can share that opens a new avenue or a new benefit that that could help them, I’d always love to have that conversation.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:52:00 So that brings me to the last logical question for you, which is what is the best time for a parent or a loved one connected to someone with special needs? When should they reach out? Should they wait till they’re 1516 years old?

Josh Monroe 00:52:14 In general, the earlier the better. But the reality is, I’ve noticed the trend is in those early years, there’s so much just Understanding what the diagnosis is and getting all of those therapy appointments and the IEPs at school, that that’s really overwhelming. So I’ve found that middle school and early high school is most often when parents have the just the mental bandwidth, the emotional bandwidth to start planning long term and get a little bit more perspective than just making it day to day.

Josh Monroe 00:52:46 so as as their children start to reach those early teen years, middle school, I think that’s a great time to engage. But like I said, the earlier the better. You can always do more planning.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:52:56 Sure. Well, Josh Monroe, certified financial planner, but chartered special needs consultant with Orient. I can’t thank you enough. How how should people get in touch with you if they. And again, we’ll have it on our website. But if you would share.

Josh Monroe 00:53:10 Yeah, absolutely. You can reach out to me directly. My phone number is 400 485-7109 eight. Or you can email me at Josh Centcom.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:53:23 And Monroe is Monroe. That’s right. Showing that I can spell some names correctly. And as my last name is Quincy, I think I’d pay more attention. My apologies to all. Josh. I can’t thank you enough. So, we’re we’re going to wrap up for today, but I want to thank all of my guests today. Jessalyn Rollins, CEO of firelight, Tom Curtin, Joanne Curtin of the Curtin team.

Joshua Kornitsky 00:53:47 Thank you both. And Josh Monroe, certified financial planner and chartered special needs consultant. I, I am humbled by what you’ve shared, but, feel really, really positive to know that there’s help out there for folks. So this has been another episode of Cherokee Business Radio. I can’t thank you enough for tuning in, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

BRX Pro Tip: Should Your Business Have a Welcome Committee for New Clients?

May 22, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Should Your Business Have a Welcome Committee for New Clients?

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BRX Pro Tip: Should Your Business Have a Welcome Committee for New Clients?

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, let’s chat a little bit about this idea of your business actually having a welcome committee for new clients.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think anything you can do to onboard somebody efficiently and effectively is super important in today’s world, especially in professional services business, like coaching.

Lee Kantor: Anything that you can do to smooth that process from them, buying something to actually getting started and effectively using whatever it is you’re selling as fast as possible should be a priority, and a welcome committee is a nice step to add that really holds the hands of your client to help them go through the process. And it allows you to be proactive and thoughtful, and you can onboard that client in a way that is going to set the stage for a positive and long lasting relationship.

Lee Kantor: So, if you’re thinking about creating an effective welcome committee, here are some ideas to get that going. Number one, this is a team effort. You have to have team members involved in the welcome committee to build these relationship building moments with the new client, introducing themselves, and then providing value to that new client.

Lee Kantor: Schedule an initial meeting to align, obviously, on goals, expectations and timelines, that should be part of what the welcome committee is doing. And then, never forget to add an element of surprise and delight. Anything you can do to personalize and to elevate the experience from something transactional to something relationship oriented is going to serve you.

Lee Kantor: Don’t forget to do, you know, kind of the blocking and the tackling when it comes to sending some branded items like notebooks, pens, or mugs as part of a physical welcome packet, that, too, will help nurture those relationships and get the relationship off on the right foot.

BRX Pro Tip: Ways To Make Things Easier To Do

May 21, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Ways To Make Things Easier To Do

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BRX Pro Tip: Ways To Make Things Easier To Do

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, I remember a commercial campaign that influenced some of my language some years back. I think it was Staples. It was one of these office supply companies and they talked about the easy button. How can we apply some of that mentality to our day-to-day?

Lee Kantor: I think philosophically that’s a great mindset to have, is, always try to make things easier to do. You should always be figuring out ways to simplify tasks, simplify process. And really that goes to your personal life and it goes to your business life.

Lee Kantor: Simplification doesn’t mean cutting corners. It’s not about taking shortcuts. It’s just eliminating as many inefficiencies as possible. It means clarifying objectives, make things clearer. And it’s about optimizing workflows.

Lee Kantor: And there’s so much technology here to help you, and you should really think about kind of figuring out ways to leverage some of these new technologies and these new systems to do things like streamlining your processes. Because if you streamline processes, that’s going to save you time, which usually saves you money.

Lee Kantor: Is there ways to simplify the workflows? Is there ways to reduce redundant tasks and make sure that your resources are focused on the most high priority activities? That’s worth auditing from time to time, your processes. Can you get rid of some steps? Can you replace one thing with another to make things happen faster and more seamlessly?

Lee Kantor: Number two, simplified systems provide a clearer picture, which is going to enable you to make faster and better decisions. And that is super important, the faster you can make a decision with the information you need, again, saves you time, saves you money.

Lee Kantor: And number three, by identifying inefficiencies and automating processes, you’re going to be able to reduce costs. And this is a mindset that you should be consistently looking for ways to make things easier. And it’s not just about convenience. It’s just a strategic way of thinking that’s going to enhance your productivity almost immediately. You’re going to feel better by pruning some of the processes, pruning some of the systems, make things happen faster. Decisions are going to be made faster. You’re going to be able to get more information faster.

Lee Kantor: And again, it’s one of those things that build upon itself where you’re going to be able to just do a lot of things that’s going to reduce your stress, it’s going to save you money, and it’s going to ultimately drive innovation.

Building Confidence: How Career Coaches Transform Job Search Experiences

May 20, 2025 by angishields

Association Leadership Radio

Building Confidence: How Career Coaches Transform Job Search Experiences

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In this episode of Association Leadership Radio, Lee Kantor talks with Marie Zimenoff, CEO of Career Thought Leaders. Marie discusses her organization’s role in supporting career coaches, resume writers, and personal branding strategists globally. She highlights the evolution of career coaching, the importance of community among coaches, and the essential skills needed for effective coaching. The conversation also addresses the challenges job seekers face in today’s competitive market and the proactive strategies they should adopt. Marie emphasizes the need for legitimacy in coaching, combating misinformation, and the value of modern tools and continuous learning for career coaches.

Marie Zimenoff is known as a pioneer on the leading edge of career industry trends and technology. She began her professional career as an advisor and recruiter in higher education while completing her MEd in human resource studies, career and counselling development. In 2008—the peak of the Great Recession—Marie left the university to start her business.

Inspired by a passion to make a difference in the industry, as CEO of Career Thought Leaders and Resume Writing Academy, she trains career professionals around the globe in resume writing, career coaching, and business development through webinars, certifications, and weekly Trend Tuesday Live videos on the Career Thought Leaders YouTube channel.

She is known internationally for sharing practical tools and technology tips that prepare audiences for the future of work.

Connect with Marie on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

The role and significance of Career Thought Leaders in supporting career coaches and job seekers.
The evolution of career coaching from its historical roots to its current state.
Challenges faced by job seekers in a competitive job market, especially during economic uncertainty.
The importance of empowering clients and building their confidence in the job search process.
Essential skills and qualities that make a successful career coach.
The misconception that optimizing resumes and LinkedIn profiles alone guarantees job success.
The necessity of proactive networking and relationship-building in job searching.
The value of community and collaboration among career coaches for sharing knowledge and best practices.
The impact of misinformation in the career coaching industry and the need for credible advice.
The diverse backgrounds of career coaches and how this diversity enhances the coaching experience.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Podsqueeze.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro 00:00:02 Broadcasting live from the business radio X Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor 00:00:20 Lee Cantor here, another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Marie Siminoff and she is the CEO of Career Thought Leaders. Welcome.

Marie Zimenoff 00:00:33 Welcome. Thank you for having me. I’m glad to be here.

Lee Kantor 00:00:36 Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Career Thought Leaders. How you serving folks?

Marie Zimenoff 00:00:42 Yeah. So Career Thought Leaders is an international organization that serves, I always say, people who help people find jobs. So career coaches, resume writers, personal branding strategists, people that help individuals move into a new job or move up in a job and find something that makes them happy and feel fulfilled in their work.

Lee Kantor 00:01:05 Are there a lot of those folks out there?

Marie Zimenoff 00:01:07 You know, it’s kind of surprising. So we serve individuals in about 40 countries. You know, anywhere you can think of there are people that are doing this kind of work.

Marie Zimenoff 00:01:19 We have people who have gone through our certifications that are in India, Singapore, Nigeria, obviously all across the US and Canada. It’s just amazing to see the different way that careers are talked about in different places, but that we’re all doing the same basic kind of work, trying to help people find a way to use their talents and earn a livable wage.

Lee Kantor 00:01:50 Now, this type of career coaching is this kind of a new phenomenon, or has this been going on for a long time, but maybe only like a few people were taking advantage of it, but now it seems like more and more it’s been democratized to a certain degree.

Marie Zimenoff 00:02:03 You know, it’s interesting. So, I mean, the roots of this work are the vocational counseling that was being done in high schools. You know, ever since probably the very early 1900s, and then got a kick up in 1950s when especially people were coming back from war and trying to figure out what they were going to do. And you saw some of the assessments, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Marie Zimenoff 00:02:27 And those types of things came more onto the scene at that time. The independent career practitioner has been well, well and thriving, I would say at least since the mid 80s. Career. Thought leaders was in founded as Career Masters Alliance in the mid 90s, and then changed names to Career Thought Leaders in 2009. So I’d say at least since the early to mid 90s, there’s been a fairly large market for resume writing career coaching for an independent, and in addition to the work that’s been going on at universities, community colleges, high schools, workforce centers around the U.S., but also around the globe, and there’s similar types of activities going on.

Lee Kantor 00:03:17 So what’s your backstory? How did you get to the point where you’re now kind of over a membership group that’s helping serve all these folks?

Marie Zimenoff 00:03:26 Yeah. So I started in in college, I wanted to be a counselor. I thought I wanted to be a school counselor. And then, as you know, as we find things happen, I took my first school counseling class and heard the other people in that class, many of whom were high school teachers, becoming counselors, just talking about their work and and how they were mainly creating schedules and working with parents.

Marie Zimenoff 00:03:51 And I thought, well, that wasn’t quite what I had in mind. So I got an opportunity to do an internship at a local community college, as well as work in an academic department at Colorado State University, and started to get into, okay, maybe I could work at a college. And then while I was in my master’s degree program, I had an opportunity to do a internship at a private practice. And, I really enjoyed the diversity, and I was working in the private practice with private clients. I was also teaching at the local workforce center because it was the Great Recession of 2008 at that time. And so I just saw the opportunity to go out on my own, contracting with Workforce Center, working with different resume writers and, just, you know, one thing happens, falls into another. I became president of a national organization. And they got to know the owners of career thought leaders through that role. And so in 2015, I actually just celebrated my ten year anniversary. I took over the leadership of Korea Thought Leaders and Resume Writing academy in February March of 2015.

Lee Kantor 00:05:11 So you started out through like the, I guess, the classics through the school system, and you got to sample each of those. But then when you went into private practice and you saw the the variety of different individuals at different stages of their career, that was more rewarding and that resonated with you.

Marie Zimenoff 00:05:28 Yeah. And just the opportunity, to bring because I’ve always been a learner and, and, you know, had the opportunity to go out and get training in all these different methodologies and modalities and was bringing that back to my university colleagues as well as the local workforce center colleagues. And I saw that they sometimes just didn’t have the thirst for it, or oftentimes didn’t have the funding for it. And that opportunity to have a bigger impact by up leveling the other coaches then by, you know, not just impacting individual clients one by one, but impacting all of the clients that they were serving as well. And that was I really enjoyed that creating curriculum. I started training coaches in, you know, 2010 or so at the workforce centers and was developing courses for them to use with their individuals coming through the workforce Center.

Marie Zimenoff 00:06:30 A lot of them had never seen mid-level professionals coming through the workforce center, right. They were serving more of the the TANF population, folks that have been unemployed, folks that were more entry level blue collar roles. And then when the Great Recession hit, you had engineers and scientists and all of these folks coming into the workforce centers, and they didn’t have the tools to to help them. And so that was really where my thirst for knowledge met the need of this audience, who needed new knowledge and new tools, and created a bunch of programs that then got rolled into career thought leaders when I took over the leadership for the organization.

Lee Kantor 00:07:13 Now, what is kind of the clientele of a typical, career coach? Are they are they focused locally or are they the world’s their oyster. Like, what type of clients do they go after, or do they have a niche like they specialize in engineers or how does that work?

Marie Zimenoff 00:07:31 Yeah. That’s interesting. We were just doing a lead generation class with our coaches, and it’s very similar to what we teach our job seekers that the more defined you are, the more proactive you can be.

Marie Zimenoff 00:07:44 That doesn’t mean that everybody needs to niche down in every area. But you’ve got Geography industry role level. You can pick between those things. You know, how specific do you want to be? If you want to be local, then you can have more breadth than some of the other ways because you’re promoting local, you’re marketing through local channels, those types of things. If you want to be international, then you probably have to be more focused in terms of industry and role so that you can break through the noise and have some proactive marketing channels that you can find and use. So some people, you know, do target more and age group or level some people target more. The industry, you know, they’re really into. We have a colleague that’s really into the program management project management industry. And there’s a lot of different ways to to pick a niche. But there are coaches that serve every niche from, you know, all the different levels, all the different types of careers. And, you know, people who are not high earners are still paying for these types of services because it keeps them out of work, you know, less time and those types of things.

Marie Zimenoff 00:09:01 And then there are quite a few people in our industry who focus on executives, but there’s definitely an option for everyone to get help because people don’t know how to navigate the landscape to find a job today.

Lee Kantor 00:09:17 So now in your group, is it, it’s targeted towards people that are helping other people get into a new or, their current career, finding a job in some manner?

Marie Zimenoff 00:09:30 Yeah, yeah. So our coaches are mainly career coaches, job search coaches, interview preparation, resume writers, as well as, some leadership coaches. A lot of times the leadership kind of crosses over with career now.

Lee Kantor 00:09:48 How does it how do you differentiate yourself from like a recruiter?

Marie Zimenoff 00:09:52 Yeah. So recruiters work on the company side. Recruiters are paid by the company. They’re trying to find candidates for a company. And there’s very few headhunters that a job seeker can pay to find them. A job that’s really not a thing. Most of the time, when a job seeker is approached by someone who says they do that, it is either a scam straight up, or it’s a recruiter who’s guaranteeing interviews.

Marie Zimenoff 00:10:21 But that’s because they’re they’re got employers they’re working with, so they’re really not guaranteeing the job. There’s a few specific industries where there actually are valid headhunters that an individual can hire to go out and find them a job, but recruiters are typically working for the company to hire someone. A coach is working with an individual not just to find a job, but to learn the process of job search and to be more confident. To understand how to network, to understand how to reach, you know, reach out to recruiters. To understand how to communicate their background in a strategic way. So they’re working on the individuals side to give them the skills they need to find a job.

Lee Kantor 00:11:12 And to make them as marketable as possible.

Marie Zimenoff 00:11:15 Exactly.

Lee Kantor 00:11:17 Because I run into so many people that, they never get asked, like recruiters are never finding them and they’re always questioning, like, what am I? What do I have to do to get someone to pick me? And that’s a very vulnerable position to be in. And I’m sure it’s very frustrating.

Marie Zimenoff 00:11:36 It is, you know, and people will say, oh, this must be a great time for your business with the market. And I’m like, well, not really. Like coaches want to be empowering. We want to help people who are employed, but looking to make a move from that position of power. Working with people who are laid off, unemployed, struggling. Like, of course we want to do that work because it’s important work to get people back to work and feeling like they’re contributing to their family, their life, all of that. But that is very emotionally hard work to do for both the candidate and the coach. It’s very important work, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a great time for our business because it is. It’s hard. It’s not easy to find a job right now in some sections. It’s, you know, it’s very all over the place. But it it is more challenging of a market. And that means that, you know, we’re dealing with people who are, as you just pointed out, struggling with the Identity part of it, and do I matter? And how do I get people to pay attention to me? And all of that just gets even more frustrating during this time, during these times of economic uncertainty.

Lee Kantor 00:12:54 So what are the qualities of a good career coach? What are some of the must have qualities?

Marie Zimenoff 00:13:01 So the challenge for a career coach in particular, is that we’re constantly walking the line between consultant and coach, because people come to us and because they want our expertise in how to find a job. But when it comes right down to it, each individual is an expert in their own personal approach, their own will and will not dos right? Their own industry, perhaps. And so we are a guide, but we do have to provide a little bit more direction structure sometimes information than then some other types of coaches do. Because there is a structure to career transition to career exploration. There’s a pattern to it. And so we’re holding this container for the pattern while being very careful not to step too much into that advisor or consultant role to the place where we disempower the client from driving their own success. Right. We can’t go to an interview with them. We can’t go to their job for them.

Marie Zimenoff 00:14:08 And so they have to make those decisions themselves. Even though when they initially come to us, they think we should tell them how to do it right. so it’s a it is a place that requires a lot of, self-knowledge and being able to recognize when we’re giving advice and when to switch back into the coach role. So you have to have strong coaching role skills. You also need that knowledge of the career development process, the career change process. Job search. You have to know those things, but yet be almost confident enough that you don’t have to rely on your knowledge of those things to add value to your client, because you understand the real value you add to your client is leading them to find their own answers. Even though there are best practices and those types of things out there.

Lee Kantor 00:15:05 Now, I would imagine in today’s world, some of your work has to be around how to optimize your LinkedIn profile or or have a good, you know, submission of a resume or cover letter, things that are the blocking and tackling, I would imagine, of today’s job search.

Marie Zimenoff 00:15:22 Yes. Yeah. And to help job seekers not get stuck there, because in some ways those are a false focus. Because no matter how much you optimize your LinkedIn profile. The idea that you’re magically going to get found by a recruiter is is somewhat hooey, right? I mean, yes, we want an optimized profile. We want those keywords in there. But when it comes right down to it, your job search is going to be proactive. Researching people, networking with people, making connections so that someone refers you to that, to that recruiter. Because even the best profiles are one of a million, you know, maybe one of a couple thousand, depending on the type of work you’re aiming for. And so yes, we need that piece, but we also have to help people not get hyper focused or stuck there because it’s kind of like a business, right? You got a business, you got a website. But if you just sat around optimizing your website, in today’s world, you’d still have a hard time getting found.

Marie Zimenoff 00:16:32 You’ve got to go out there and drive traffic to your website, right?

Lee Kantor 00:16:35 You have to build relationships. You have to be proactive. You can’t. I think a lot of people are looking for that silver bullet where like, oh, I’m going to optimize my LinkedIn. I’m going to, you know, submit so many things on these job boards. And then I’ll just sit back and wait for the offers to come in. But I think that, like you said, it’s those even the weak ties amongst your network that’s going to get you your job more likely than just submitting and then being picked. Right.

Marie Zimenoff 00:17:06 Exactly. And it’s a balance because you do need to apply to things that are a good fit, and you have to have strong documents to be able to do that. And yet when people get stuck there too much, then they get disheartened because they’re not hearing back. And it’s like, well, there’s really nothing wrong with what you’re doing. It’s just that we’ve got to get some other plates spinning here as well.

Lee Kantor 00:17:29 But are those plates the ones that, as a coach, you have a harder time getting the people to do that kind of work. The, you know, go and meet somebody or have a conversation with a human being and talk about it. Or if you know somebody in that company, even though they’re not the hiring manager, still meet them because they might know somebody that is hiring, like, you know, all that kind of legwork that helps you just increases your chances of being referred in by somebody and having a leg up. So you’re kind of differentiate yourself.

Marie Zimenoff 00:18:01 Exactly. And so we give our coaches, I like to liken it to a menu. So there’s many different job search tactics that people could apply. you know, warm networking, cold networking, outreach, volunteering. There’s just there’s all these things that they could apply. Talking to recruiters, we want to help people choose the things that they’ll do, because it doesn’t matter if it’s the best strategy on earth, if you won’t do it right.

Marie Zimenoff 00:18:29 Right. We want to help people figure out how to execute those options in a way that they can execute. so there’s, you know, we were just talking about, you know, all the different ways to quote unquote, network. And so a coach is getting here’s the menu of things that you can do to be most effective in your search. Where do you want to start? What feels like a good fit for you. And then even inside of those those tactics that people might choose, there’s nuances in how they do it that they can align with their personal style, with their industry, with their role, with their level. Everything is is going to be done just a little bit differently, so that it’s something that that they can consistently execute. Because we know that’s really the difference, right? When you’re in business, whatever it is. Execution is the secret sauce and it with job search. That’s maybe even more true because no one’s going to do it for you.

Lee Kantor 00:19:33 And I would think that this is where your association is so important to the coaches out there, because you’re hearing and learning of best practices and these little nuances and tweaks that might be occurring to stay as current as possible, that an individual doing this by themselves, without the help of a community like yours, that they would be falling behind and their things might become more obsolete faster than what you’re learning, kind of on a day to day basis.

Marie Zimenoff 00:20:00 Exactly. And it’s the power of the community that helps keep each other up to date, because it’s a lot in our field. Right. We’re talking economics, political, you know, the rate of change in a job, the rate of technology that’s changing all jobs, there’s a lot to know, which makes it exciting for most of us. But it does make it challenging to make sure we’re not giving outdated information, that we don’t get caught. You know, I like to say that we talk about trends, but not what’s trendy, because what’s trendy can actually hurt people. you know, kind of put them on a path that isn’t going to be successful right now, but it’s what’s going on are the trends that we really need to pay attention to versus what’s just trendy and is going to come and go.

Lee Kantor 00:20:52 And also and it gives the, coach the legitimacy because like you mentioned, that in this world, you’re unfortunately dealing with some people that are making kind of false promises and that that you don’t want to be kind of lumped in with that type of a, of a recruiter or career coach.

Marie Zimenoff 00:21:11 And it’s challenging because there’s a lot of people out there who say, oh, you know, this coach doesn’t know what they’re talking about. And it’s, you know, a lot of it’s context and what they’ve experienced. And there are people giving advice that I don’t agree with. Does that necessarily mean they’re wrong or bad? We have to talk more about the context. I do see things that I wish oh, people wouldn’t say that in such a broad, sweeping way because part of what they’re saying might be true. But the overarching impact of it is sometimes harmful. Like the whole, you know, your resume has got to be optimized, or these data points that people throw around 80% of of resumes never get seen by a human. It’s like, where on earth did that come from? That is not true. Yes, there may be a percentage of resumes that is not seen by human, but it is nowhere near 80%. And so those fear tactic statements and sometimes unfortunately coaches share that with the best of intentions.

Marie Zimenoff 00:22:07 Right. Trying to help people be more thoughtful in what they’re doing. But when we share those data points that are false, it ultimately backfires. So those are definitely things that make it challenging in our space to communicate the strategies and the need for coaching, but not to do it in a way that that, continue some of those false narratives.

Lee Kantor 00:22:32 Now, is there a story you can share, maybe one of the members that you have that you work with, that they started at a certain level. And now being associated with the association and their learning and the community that they’ve been able to, you know, maybe do some interesting things as their career has evolved.

Marie Zimenoff 00:22:51 Yeah, it’s been thinking about some, one individual who’s just getting into career space. So one of our main topic types of, of clients is a coach who may have coaching training but not career specific. And so they come in and they’re like, okay, I’ve been helping people with this, but it’s like kind of the blind leading the blind, right? We’re we’re wandering around out here and, and we’re doing some things, but we’re not getting there very quickly.

Marie Zimenoff 00:23:19 And most of our work is to create structures and programs that people can use with their clients so that they’re not spending as much time teaching and doing those things in the sessions. They’ve got worksheets and a structure that the client can do. Then they come into the session and we’re having more focused conversations, more reflective conversations that move the work forward instead of the spiral, which is in some cases inevitable in the career space. But, we have that, that, that process and structure kind of laid out for us so that then we can pay more attention to the human inside of it as we go. And so this woman, you know, has great coaching background, wanting to figure out how do I help people change careers in a more structured way, and now has been doing it for a few months, maybe about almost a year. Seeing that process and the, the the Process and the progress. That’s what I was looking for, the progress that the clients make. Faster with just a few, just a few tweaks to this.

Marie Zimenoff 00:24:37 The structure. So that she can help people go through it and still, you know, managing it when clients have kickbacks. Right. Or back setbacks.

Lee Kantor 00:24:48 Setbacks. Right.

Marie Zimenoff 00:24:50 Yeah. But you’ve got this structure that you can lead people through. And so you’re getting better results with clients, which means they’re happier. They’re referring more of their friends and family to you. And you’re feeling more successful because you’ve got that structure to, to lead to their outcomes that they wanted.

Lee Kantor 00:25:07 So what is your biggest challenge right now? Is it to get new members, to, you know, to grow and have, you know, more coaches throughout the world be part of your organization? What do you need more of and how can we help?

Marie Zimenoff 00:25:23 Yeah. I mean, our mission. So in addition to being a membership organization, we’re also, you know, a think tank. We have a lot of free resources out there available, like our Career thought Leaders YouTube channel. And, you know, our mission is to provide those resources so that everyone doing this work, whether they’re a member of our organization or not, that everyone doing this work is got the best tools, the latest information, and therefore getting the better outcomes for their clients of all ages.

Marie Zimenoff 00:25:56 So we’d love to get more eyes on our YouTube channel, especially more people engaging with those resources free and paid because things are moving quickly. And if they are coaching with job search methods from ten years ago, they’re likely missing out on a lot of the tools that they are job seekers could be using to do the parts that can be done faster, faster and spend more time with the challenges, the fears that keep people from doing the work that really matters.

Lee Kantor 00:26:31 Now, what is kind of the the person that isn’t a career coach yet? What are they doing before they become a career coach? Usually, do they come from HR or do they come from coaching?

Marie Zimenoff 00:26:43 They come from all over. So we get people that have been managers or leaders in organizations. We get, you know, teachers. We’re getting some university folks who are getting let go. With the swift change in educational funding, both in the US and in Canada. we do get HR professionals, some recruiters that want to add this type of work to their recruiting practice.

Marie Zimenoff 00:27:11 it is a variety of backgrounds. Like I said, we got the project manager turned career coach that focuses on helping people in that industry marketers brands. Yeah that and it’s that’s part of the beauty to is that you people from all over come to be coaches and then they can help people. Not only, you know, where they’ve been all over the place, but they can help people specifically that are coming out of the same place as they’ve been.

Lee Kantor 00:27:41 And does your work happen all virtually or online, or do you have chapters around the world?

Marie Zimenoff 00:27:48 Yeah, we are 90% virtual. we all we’ve been. So before my time, we were doing tele classes where we mailed things to people and had tele classes. so we’ve been doing zoom since before it was a thing, before everyone else was. And and like I said, 40 different countries around the world. We get together in person once a year, and have that opportunity to deepen the colleague relationships. chips, but we get together while our membership group gets together every Tuesday virtually around the globe.

Marie Zimenoff 00:28:25 And we have that opportunity to to learn from what other people are doing, all around the globe.

Lee Kantor 00:28:33 And do you have any advice for other, association leaders out there when it comes to engaging a remote, virtual membership? Are there some do’s and don’ts you’ve learned over the years in order to keep people engaged and keep people excited about being part of it?

Marie Zimenoff 00:28:50 Yeah. So we have, we have a really engaged group. I’m, I’m told from my members that part of what makes it so inclusive is that I am, well, I, I try to practice what I preach. So I am leading the group, but I am not I am not the focus of it. And I think as an association leader, that can be challenging because you want to put together the structures and those types of things. But when it comes right down to it, you get more engagement if the if your members have ownership. And so like we have just one example. We have a Facebook group. And I don’t have to comment on every post.

Marie Zimenoff 00:29:34 I don’t have to do any kind of campy. Oh it’s Tuesday. Share your favorite technology types of posts. It grew very organically because we didn’t create a sage on the on the stage feel. It’s not about me. It’s not about me being the the most all knowing person. it’s really about the community coming together and sharing with each other, which as adults, when we get to share, when we get to be the teacher, that’s really when we learn. And so we try to step back and create those opportunities for the people in our association.

Lee Kantor 00:30:14 Good stuff. Well, if somebody wants to learn more, get Ahold of you or somebody on the team, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Marie Zimenoff 00:30:22 Yeah. Career thought leaders. Career thought leaders. And like I said, our Career thought leaders YouTube channel is, always cranking out new content there, as well as our LinkedIn page, obviously, since we’re in the career space, career thought leaders LinkedIn page, and individually independent, my personal page, happy to connect with people there as well.

Lee Kantor 00:30:46 Well, Marie, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Marie Zimenoff 00:30:52 Well, thank you so much. It was fun to to chat with you for a little while.

Lee Kantor 00:30:55 All right. This is Lee Kanter. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.

BRX Pro Tip: Ways to Reframe Getting Fired

May 20, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Ways to Reframe Getting Fired

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BRX Pro Tip: Ways to Reframe Getting Fired

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips, Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, it’s no secret in our organization with many of the folks that I hang out with, that in my earlier career in the management consulting arena, I was fired a-half-a-dozen times by some of the most prestigious training and development, change management consulting firms on the planet. I thought I handled it reasonably well, but how would you approach getting fired?

Lee Kantor: Getting fired, it’s never fun, but it’s one of those things that’s almost a rite of passage for everybody. You’re going to get fired at some point in time in your career, if you’re doing any type of interesting work. And it could feel for some people, they take this as some sort of a setback. And it can definitely feel like a setback, I don’t want to minimize that. But if you can reframe the experience, you can really turn it into an opportunity for growth and transformation rather than a setback.

Lee Kantor: So, number one, instead of viewing being fired as an ending, just look at it as a chance to reevaluate your career path and maybe pursue new opportunities. Number two, detach your worth from your work. Recognize your value as a person is not tied to your job or your job title.

Lee Kantor: And number three, trust that better opportunities are ahead. Believe that being fired is not the end. It’s just the end of a chapter. And your career journey is long, so it might be the end of this job, it might be the end of this project, but it’s not the end of your career.

Lee Kantor: And having a more optimistic attitude about this helps shift that focus from loss to possibility. It’s definitely challenging, but if you can reframe it to being an opportunity for growth and self-reflection and a new beginning, then maybe you can make this into a positive turning point rather than the end of something, by focusing in on gratitude, learning from your mistakes, reassessing your goals, lean into being resilient. If you can do all those things, I think you can move forward confidently towards a better opportunity.

From Renters to Homeowners: Creative Solutions for Today’s Real Estate Challenges

May 19, 2025 by angishields

Cherokee Business Radio

From Renters to Homeowners: Creative Solutions for Today’s Real Estate Challenges

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In this episode of Empowered Voices, host Olivia J. Price, leads a discussion with Johnathan Crego and Jordan Nutter about the evolving real estate landscape. Olivia emphasizes the importance of community involvement and financial literacy, while Johnathan shares his transition from law enforcement to real estate, highlighting mental health challenges and community service. Jordan discusses her journey in the lending industry and the impact of social media on real estate. The episode covers creative financing options, the future of down payment assistance programs, and the potential role of cryptocurrency in real estate transactions.

Johnathan Crego is a husband, father of 2, Georgia REALTOR, former Dekalb County police officer, renovation company owner, investor and director of 2 local non-profits.

Some achievements have been being married for 11 years, fathering 2 boys, Rookie of the year (NAMAR), REALTOR of the year (NAMAR), Officer of the year (Dekalb county police), Georgia association of realtors Rising star award, multiple life saving awards, 3 years as a real estate coach and 3 years as a GAR and NAMAR state director.

Connect with Johnathan on LinkedIn.

Jordan Nutter is a powerhouse in the mortgage lending space, known not only for breaking records in her first year of business but for continuing to exceed goals year after year.

Through consistent value-driven content, Jordan has grown a loyal social media following of over 300K, turning her online presence into a powerful tool for education, connection, and lead generation.

Her digital impact has helped scale her business exponentially and opened doors to speaking opportunities on stages across the United States, where she shares her expertise and inspires others in the industry.

Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Empowered Voices, empowering the next generation of leaders through real estate, business, and life lessons. Now, here’s your host.

Olivia J. Price: Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. This is your host, Olivia J. Price on business radio with all things real estate. Now we are here with some fabulous, fabulous, fabulous industry leaders in the room that we’re going to be introducing. And also they’re going to be our co-host. Now, our biggest mission for all things real estate is that we want to touch on some really uncomfortable conversations, real conversations Stations and ways how we can make a difference within our community, and actually being able to make everyone’s lives more profitable. At the end of the day, right, considering that we are in real estate now, I am a Georgia realtor. I am a former board director for the Georgia Association of Realtors, the Northeast Atlanta metro Association of Realtors. I was the first vice president for the Women’s Council of Realtors of Gwinnett. I also served on my, um, city council on their development authority. So when it comes to community, I am very big on that. So having this opportunity to speak on a broader scale is going to be amazing. And I just want to go ahead and hand it off to you. Um, Johnathan Crego, would you be able to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your mission and why are we here?

Johnathan Crego: Absolutely. So I’m Jonathan Crego, and I’ve been in the business for about five years. Uh, I started in 2020. I’ve now also kind of run a flipping business as well. And, um, I’m also a Georgia Association director. I’ve been one for 3 or 4 years. Uh, I sit on the the NAMAR board. I’ve done that for about 3 or 4 years. Um, um, yeah, I’ve done a lot in a little time, but I really also I’ve always been very community focused. Um, ever since I was a police officer in DeKalb, I’ve always been very about the community. I’m a part of two different nonprofits, uh, directors for both. That’s just a big part of me. So, um. Yeah, I hope to bring a lot of that to the table as well as, like, the flipping world and all that. And also what we do, you know, when we work with buyers and sellers.

Olivia J. Price: And one thing too, I want to say, um, and I’m going to mention you as J.R.. Okay? Yes, please. Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: I hate when I’m called Jonathan. Like, just call me J.R..

Olivia J. Price: Yes, J.R., um, I do want to touch on a few things, because that’s what made me reach out to you in terms of this opportunity. Because honestly, um, I believe everyone at this table were under 40, and we’re doing some really big things that I think that a lot of people within our age range aren’t doing or they’re emerging. So, um, when I think of us, I think of us as the future. I think of us as real estate moguls in the next 15, 20 years. So I’m excited. And to know that you literally came in, I came in in 2019 into real estate. So I was right.

Johnathan Crego: Behind you at 2020. And, uh, no, and I agree. And do you know, per Nar National Association of Realtors, the average age of an agent is 54.

Olivia J. Price: That’s. Well, well, to be honest with you, did you know that 71% of agents didn’t sell last year?

Johnathan Crego: I know.

Olivia J. Price: So when it comes to this industry right here, just knowing that we’re still here and in business and doing it at a high level, I can be nothing but grateful for that. So, um, and also to piggyback before we move to you, Jordan, Would you be able to tell me a little bit more about your background coming from the servant position and being in the force?

Johnathan Crego: Sure. Yeah. So I spent seven years as a DeKalb County police officer, um, in 2017. Well, let me back up. So I did started in 2014, uh, spent about eight months in training academy and whatnot, and got on the road from there. And in about a year’s time, I was asked to join the, uh, the fit team, which is kind of like a fugitive team that we go and basically look for murderers, armed robbers, things like that. So spent five years of my life doing that. In 2017, I was the officer of the year, and in 2018 I had two back to back really bad experience happen. Uh, I lost my my best friend, my mentor. He was on the team with me. We, uh, were in a fight with an armed robber, and basically it was a long fight. We got him in custody, and. And Miguel went home and passed away from an unknown heart condition. Right after that happened, I went to a horrible call involving kids. I don’t want to get too involved in it, but, uh, it really led me to, um, kind of understanding. I needed to change careers. Um, due to. I had kids coming on, you know, my own kids and just being involved so heavy into mental things. It really put me in a depression.

Johnathan Crego: And that’s where I really got involved with the community. I feel like when you give back to the community, it helps you as well. And and so I started the community policing Unit with DeKalb, and there’s about ten of us, and we basically work with homeless people, uh, victims of domestic violence, fires, things like that. We would hook them up with a nonprofit. So we were basically kind of like the middle people of between the people that need help and the nonprofits that are looking to help people. So we kind of became the boots on the ground for them, essentially. Um, and that was a wonderful time of my career. That’s how I got involved in some non-profits, but that’s why it’s always been. A big part of me is giving back to the community, nonprofit work, that type of thing. But I always knew, ever since that 2018 awful year of my life, I knew I wanted to do something else. And so eventually my my, um, broker, Nakia Brooks, he we had been friends before. He’s from the force as well. He sat me down at the Ted’s Montana Grill at the Mall of Georgia, and he basically said, what’s going on with you? I can tell something’s up with you. Like, I was very depressed.

Johnathan Crego: I, you know, it was bad. And I told him and he was like, what do you think about real estate? I’m like, I don’t know. I came from construction, but like, I don’t know. I’ve never thought like I would do real estate. And so I took it home to my wife. We talked about it and I was like, you know what? I feel a calling to just kind of try this out. And I didn’t get licensed until literally Covid was hitting when I got licensed and I was like, oh man, this is a terrible time, right? It was when it was when the market was weird. Like the market dropped a lot when Covid first hit. And then we all know what happened after after about two weeks of time, it just skyrocketed. Insane. And I went from making barely any money as a police officer to all of a sudden, hey, I can I can afford, you know, life now with this. And I love life and I, you know, can see my kids more. I’m not chasing murderers and working 16 hours a day and, you know, doing all this crazy stuff. I can come home. I know I can come home to them by doing this. At least I have a lot better chance.

Olivia J. Price: Well, I’ll tell you this to to piggyback on that, um, because you really don’t see especially coming from where I come from. Okay. I didn’t come from the best neighborhood. So just knowing your story and hearing your compassion when it came to your job just makes me appreciate the force even more, you know, because you have to have compassion coming into real estate. Real estate isn’t an industry where you can just come in and do whatever, feel, whatever type of way and expect for your business to thrive, especially nowadays. Yes, especially nowadays. And we’re going to talk about that too. Right. What makes us different, especially when it comes to the sales floor? Um, but I do want to mention this when it comes to when Nakia, um, was speaking to you about, hey, like, what’s going on? And he was like, hey, what about real estate? I swear, situations like that, because my husband did that to me. I was selling insurance for State Farm at that time, and I was just like, oh, I’m just I wasn’t feeling it. Um, it just wasn’t the industry for me at that time. And he was like, hey, what about real estate? And it changed my life. So situations and conversations like that can just spark a huge, soon to be fire to ignite.

Johnathan Crego: Did you grow up ever thinking about doing real estate?

Olivia J. Price: No, never. My mom didn’t talk about it. My mom was in the medical field, so she’s like real estate. Yeah, it seems so impractical. It seems so, like, not, um, steady. And, you know.

Johnathan Crego: Did you know any agents growing up?

Olivia J. Price: No, I didn’t know any agents. People from my area didn’t do real estate. Yeah. So, I mean, I just feel like real estate could be endless, you know, especially once you start to get into it. Now, I want to pause on you. Um, JR. Because you were a whole book, and I want to touch on a lot of different things from you. I want to move on to Jordan, which is our other co-host. So I want to kind of give you a little introduction because, um, how we met was pretty amazing. Um, and I just think it’s the hustle, right? So when we first met, um, you were just getting into the lending world. I was just now getting into real estate.

Jordan Nutter: I remember. Like, a month apart from starting. Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: So, um, and then we met at the Chatelaine event, which is fabulous. I love that because I actually met some people there that I’m still friends with.

Jordan Nutter: Oh, wonderful.

Olivia J. Price: So, yeah. So I always tell people, um, the power of networking could change your life, right? Um, and meeting you has been that, um. I just seen your growth. I’m like, look at her. You know. I know you left. Came back, um, had children. And I know we didn’t talk about your babies, too. How many do you have?

Johnathan Crego: Two. A three and a five year old.

Olivia J. Price: Oh, yeah. You’re in the beginning, too. So we’re all new parents, which is amazing, too. So go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit of how was that experience coming into the industry? Traveling, coming back, having kids. And now Landon is here.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah, I mean I so yeah, I started in 2019 and I. Nobody would use me. Right. Like I was brand new. Nobody wanted to use this lender that was in her mid 20s that knew nothing about mortgages. And so I had to learn everything and anything I could about like credit, credit repair, first time homebuyers because that’s those are the clients that I was given, like the people that they couldn’t qualify through their like.

Johnathan Crego: The hard ones.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah. Those hard ones. Yeah. But I learned so much and I grew so quickly. And then, as we all know, Covid hit. So that really forced me essentially to be at home and do nothing but learn and educate myself. And I’m so grateful for that time because without it, I wouldn’t have, like, pushed myself into the career that I have now. Um, and by doing that, I was able to help so many first time homebuyers, you know, with all these misconceptions of you need a 700 credit score, you need 20% down. And I love that. But I realized that I was just helping that one. Now there’s not like I love any person that I can help, but I was like, my voice can be used to help more people, like, how can I make that happen? And so that’s why I started doing social media, because I was like, if I can help this one person and they’re using this information, I can put it out there and hopefully help more individuals. Um, and thankfully I did that because now I’ve been able to to help thousands of people. From the videos that I’ve posted and continue to post, which has been very just life changing for my business, and I’m so grateful for the partners that I have and everyone I’ve been able to to help. Um, and yes, we we did. We went, um, my husband and I went back to California for a brief period of time. Um, and when we decided to come back to Georgia, we were like, you know what? We’ll we’ll get we’re going to get an RV.

Olivia J. Price: Let’s talk about it.

Jordan Nutter: We’re going to get an RV. And I don’t know why this came into my head. And I’m now that I look back at it and I’m out of the weeds, like, I’m glad that we did it. But in the thick of it, I’m like, what are we thinking right now? Like, who are we? Because we are. Our first child just turned one, and we were getting in an RV that looked like a tour bus. It was the craziest thing, like my face was on it. But I taught financial literacy across the country. So I’m.

Johnathan Crego: So you were living in the.

Jordan Nutter: I guess I was living.

Johnathan Crego: In the one year.

Jordan Nutter: Old with my one year old and my husband, and he was like.

Johnathan Crego: Wow.

Jordan Nutter: The bee’s knees. Like he was like the driver, the mechanic, the chef, the babysitter, the photographer, the videographer. Like he was like, doing everything. So I appreciate him more than he knows. But yeah, we we literally went from California down all through the southern states, down to Florida, up to New York, and then came through Ohio and back down. And, um, I’m an ambassador with first home IQ. So their mission is to give financial literacy to the next generation. Um, so high schoolers, community colleges, anywhere we, we can get in to help bring any sort of financial literacy to that next generation. Um, so that’s really what I did across the country and helped agents as well with their business and growing it. So that was really a big undertaking.

Olivia J. Price: Let’s talk about it.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: With a baby. One year is right. Oh, yeah, on a RV. Yeah. And I can imagine because my husband has so many hats. Listen, I drive this man insane. I know I do, but he he holds it down, though. He’s really good. But just knowing that support and being able to take a risk and not really knowing where is this risk going to take me? I know I want to go up, right. Because that’s why you probably made the decision like, hey, I think this could change my career or whatever the case may be. And then to do it and to be in it and you’re like, oh my gosh. Okay, so I know, I know, this is my calling, whatever the case may be, because I’ve been in situations where it’s just, I’m here and we got to get through it. But then looking back, it’s like, wow, I’ve never seen anyone do that.

Jordan Nutter: I think with.

Olivia J. Price: The.

Jordan Nutter: Way with. Well, it was when I brought it to like my company and they’re like, um. What? And I was like, just roll with it. Just trust me. Trust me.

Olivia J. Price: No, but you got to have that type of. Yes, yes.

Jordan Nutter: Um, but I think in our industry, like you for sure have to have a supportive partner or else, like 100%. You can’t like. Oh, I gotta go show this house at 7:00 on a Saturday. Like I have to do this open house. Like there’s all of these things that our schedules like. Yes, we have the flexibility. But then there’s also like midnight last night, I have my Texas buyer’s agent who’s like, we’re going to win this if we can get these numbers to go through. And I’m like, all right, hold on, give me a second. And I’m like, okay, you’re good. Just go ahead. Here you go. Here’s an updated letter. Like you have to have such a supportive partner in this or else it’s hard. It would be really hard.

Olivia J. Price: It’s it can be. And um, having kids too I think makes that addition. Um.

Jordan Nutter: Yep.

Olivia J. Price: You have to think about your next move, you know, because there’s so many times I’m just like, oh, if I can just leave the house right now and do whatever. But having those kids and managing your career, especially on the mom’s side, yeah.

Johnathan Crego: I think it gives you a bigger perspective in life too. Like, for me, like I was growing up, I was like, all right, I’m going to be a, you know, police officer chasing murderers for 30 years of my life. And then I’m done. And then all of a sudden you have kids and you’re like, I need to get a pension. And I need to, you know, save for the future. And, like, these guys are my future. They need me here. And I can’t be doing this crazy thing 16 hours a day. So it gave me a whole different perspective on life when I had them. And and I knew I had to switch switch careers at that point, so.

Olivia J. Price: Well, I’ll tell you this, um, and one thing I took from both of you guys is stories, and your upbringing sort of is sacrifice. This industry you have to sacrifice. Like, I feel like the only reason I was able to actually do. This industry was because of the fact that I knew I would be willing to give up everything for it. Like, I’ll be willing to pawn my house if I could and say, hey, if it can get me to whatever level that I’m trying to get to, I will do it. And I think that you have to have that type of energy nowadays in this real estate market in order to be where we are now, like touring. Yeah. A tour bus with your kid and your husband. It’s hard. And preaching the gospel of real estate, I would say. Yeah, right. Because people need to hear these things and ways that they really can grow generational wealth. And, hey, you really can become a first time home buyer or whatever the case may be, you can actually do it and actually see it live in the flesh. That’s it.

Johnathan Crego: Now, are you going to high schools and.

Olivia J. Price: Like that’s amazing.

Johnathan Crego: Talking about financial literacy and things like that.

Olivia J. Price: On the go.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah, I wish I would have had that. We never had anything like that.

Olivia J. Price: Mhm.

Jordan Nutter: And there’s like so I’m part of the um Buford Business Alliance. And we just did the job fair at the high school and she’s like yes we have. I’m so glad that like we incorporate financial literacy. And I’m like okay great. Because if not I was going to tell you like please let me come in or or introduce this. But yeah, they more schools are taking on the idea of we need to educate our next generation on financial literacy. Like, I don’t know about you guys because we’re all pretty similar in age here, but like, I don’t need to learn how to sew a pillow. Like, do you remember in, like, home EC we had so, so the pillows I’m like, how do you do a checkbook? Like, how do you even teach? I don’t know, I went to get a notary done at UPS and he was like, okay, I need you to sign here, but only if you know how to. And I was like, excuse me? What? What does that mean? And he goes, well, like, you know, I just write my name out. And I said, you don’t like what is your signature? He’s like.

Olivia J. Price: They don’t teach it.

Jordan Nutter: He’s like, no.

Olivia J. Price: They don’t get out of the curriculum.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah. So he.

Olivia J. Price: Just years ago.

Jordan Nutter: No cursive.

Olivia J. Price: Oh, wow.

Jordan Nutter: I’m like, that’s your signature? And he said, yeah.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: So they had no idea.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah. It’s the it was the craziest thing to me.

Olivia J. Price: So I can go on and on about the school system.

Johnathan Crego: No, honestly. You can.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah. Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: You can.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah. It goes hand in hand.

Jordan Nutter: Says the woman who homeschools her kids for that. That’s I, I can imagine. So my whole high school.

Olivia J. Price: Um, is a under-funded high school. Mhm. Um, and I wish that we had more people like you and me who would come into these school systems and teach things like that, because that’s how I developed my mentorship. And I only do girls, and I teach them about financial literacy, entrepreneurship and how to get into real estate. Right. Either it’s an appraisal side or it’s coming in as a home inspection. I mean, home inspector side, or it’s coming from the London side or the agent side. There’s just so many positions that you can take within this industry, that you can actually use it, grow it and do whatever you want. Um, when it comes to the kids, I’m just so big on that because, um, financial literacy, we only had the option of, hey, you know what? Instead of going through, like, because I did like calc three, I was in all types of classes, and I’m looking back, I’m like, dang, did I ever use like.

Johnathan Crego: A squared plus b squared equals C.

Olivia J. Price: Lesson? Come on. Come on.

Johnathan Crego: But I never once learned anything about taxes.

Speaker5: No no no. That’s such an important part of our life. Like you go to jail.

Johnathan Crego: If you don’t do it right. But I know how to do a squared plus b squared equals c squared.

Speaker5: Right?

Olivia J. Price: But can you use that in real estate though. I just want you to give us an example of yeah go ahead.

Speaker5: How do you use a squared plus if you buy that for me. Yeah I can’t, but I’m just.

Olivia J. Price: Saying like there’s skill sets that aren’t really practical in terms of how we really can make money. And I think nowadays children are on that. These kids on social media are just like, hey, you know what? I had girls that were like, Olivia, I know that I want to get into real estate. I’m like, really? Like, yeah, my cousin is a real real estate agent and da da da, whatever the case may be, I’m like, wow. Because growing up, real estate, back to what you were saying originally. Well, actually, I think you asked, like, did you know any realtors growing up?

Johnathan Crego: That’s exactly why I asked that.

Speaker5: Yeah, because I.

Johnathan Crego: I had a mentor, um, I grew up with who was a police officer, and I wanted to kind of be like him. He was a wonderful man. Um, but I see that a lot with people they just don’t know. Like, I never even knew any agents. So I was like, I don’t even know anything about it. Or like, a lender, I never I thought you just went to a bank. Yeah, I didn’t know. And so now, like, I see, you know, like Jordan and people like that, like where it’s like, wow. Like you can teach so many people. There is little girls that are gonna grow up and they will be agents because of you.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: You are changing their whole perspective on life and their careers. They now look up to someone like you.

Olivia J. Price: Well, I’m going to stop you right here. Hear. Um, because just me personally, being a black woman in some of these schools, I’m like, the outcome is just so not good. It’s like either you’re going to do this or that, and I’m just like, oh, why these two? Because I have a lot of my friends who went down that path. Um, which now I look back on and I’m like, oh my gosh, I have to make a difference. I have to let these girls know that, hey, you know, I know that the world is kind of pushing us in this direction, but hey, how about this over here? You know, it might not be as shiny as some of the other stuff, you know, because sometimes we’re always looking for a quick thing. Some of us, we’re like, well, shoot, if I could do this, I could make it quick. Whatever. And it’s not always about the quick. No. It’s more so like, hey, let’s build, let’s create, and then let’s help.

Jordan Nutter: And it may not be tomorrow. Like, you got to put the time in. You got to put the work in.

Olivia J. Price: You had the vision first, right.

Speaker5: And I think.

Jordan Nutter: Like you have to have the drive and want to want more for your life and your future family and kids.

Olivia J. Price: And to see.

Speaker5: It.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah, I think ours is just more so seeing it like, oh, she came from somewhere like here and oh my goodness, she actually made something better for herself. So I think that’s so important for not only for you to hear it on TV, but actually see it. And that goes back to what I admire so much about you, Jordan. I was like, God dang, I got to go back to this tour bus, though, because I was like a tour bus.

Speaker5: Do you still have it?

Jordan Nutter: Um, we actually.

Speaker5: We.

Jordan Nutter: Actually. So it’s funny because it was just a traditional RV, right? But they were like, well, we need a we need to wrap it. And I’m like, wrap it.

Speaker5: Oh yeah.

Jordan Nutter: Like legit. Um, it was wrapped with my like, I looked like I was Lady Gaga on.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: Like it was so funny. It was so funny because I’d be sitting in the passenger seat and people would be like, just looking.

Speaker5: And I’m like, you get.

Olivia J. Price: A lot.

Speaker5: Of honk. Oh, yeah, I.

Olivia J. Price: Bet.

Speaker5: I bet, yeah.

Jordan Nutter: And, um, it was just it was something else. Or like, it’d be funny, like we, because we had our truck with us as well. So I would drive if we went somewhere short, I would drive the truck separate. So I’d like drive behind and like look at everybody looking at the bus. And I’m like, all right, this is cool. Like, I like this. This is really cool. So it was definitely an experience. Um, and then when we got back here, less my husband soul, bless his soul, I know he’s going to listen to this and he’s going to be like, yeah, babe, you you better love me. He that man. Because we got a quote for an absurd amount of money to take the wrap off and he’s like, no, we aren’t. No. So he was out there, waited till it was like the middle of Georgia summer so it would heat up. And that man spent a whole day unwrapping that RV.

Olivia J. Price: Oh wow.

Jordan Nutter: It was going to cost like $20,000 to unwrap it. I was like, unwrap it. We’re taking a sticker off, y’all. What? What is going on here? So yeah. That man.

Speaker5: Good for.

Johnathan Crego: Him.

Speaker5: That’s awesome.

Jordan Nutter: He was he’s a trooper.

Speaker5: He really is.

Olivia J. Price: I tell you this, um, and I want to touch bases since you’re already in leadership, you’re in leadership. I’ve been in leadership. Let’s talk about being a young entrepreneur within some of these rooms, especially when it comes to I can only imagine the conversation. It was when you went to your leadership team and said, hey, I have an idea. Okay, now don’t get me in that energy, you know, don’t give me any thoughts right now. Just listen.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: I think that we need to take this on the road. Like, who is is boldness like that? That when you look back on it, you’re like, wow. I feel like sometimes with the information that we have is being the younger generation is sometimes be. Um, alarming to other generations because they haven’t heard of heard of it or even seen it.

Speaker5: Right.

Olivia J. Price: So when you actually was like, okay, you know what?

Speaker5: Well, I.

Olivia J. Price: Made this happen.

Jordan Nutter: I’m grateful because the company I work for, we have the first division for content creators. So like all of our not the entire division, but a majority of our division creates content. So we help educate on social media. So we are the creator collective at Ncfm lending. And so we already have that like drive and innovation of like, what else can we do to help people and be a little bit different and what’s, what’s going to set us apart? Like what? How in what ways can we help? So it very much was outside of the realm of doing.

Olivia J. Price: And they implement that within the company. Is this like recent recent.

Jordan Nutter: The social media part? Yeah. So well, no, actually they’ve had the divisions been around since 2020, 2021. Um, and I came on in April of 22. So I just celebrated my third year at the company. Wow. And so whenever I’ve brought something to them, they’re like, okay, like it’s a little it’s either really out there like the the road trip or it’s not quite out there, but either which way, like we have this, they’re open to it. Like that’s what I love. Like okay, there’s obviously a reason Jordan wants to do this. Let’s figure out if we can make it possible and if so, like, how do we get there? Um, but generally I’m not just throwing out random ideas like, trust me, we won’t be doing another RV. Like, I’ll go. I’m happy to, like, drive anywhere in Georgia, maybe even Tennessee or Florida. But your girl is not going back.

Olivia J. Price: But to be honest, you probably don’t need to. I just think that some things that you do, you did it.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: And you were the first to do it. And maybe, hey, maybe you don’t want to do it again, but you did it and you completed it. I think that’s the biggest thing that I admire about people who said they were going to do it. They did it and they finished it. Yeah. It’s not just saying it right and even doing it because some people do it and they don’t complete. But completing it has just been, for me a a great marketing move because I’m all about marketing. For me, everything I do is marketing based from the events that I throw, and I love events. I love to have a good time. Okay, you can’t stop me from.

Speaker5: Having a good.

Olivia J. Price: I do, I do, um, I love to bring people together. Either it’s we’re learning about something or we’re really learning about something, because a lot of the events I do is going to be something that you’re going to take away from it either way, um, or another. But I do want to lead into you, J.R.. So how has it been within the different leadership positions you’ve had that, um, either very similar to Jordan’s, where, hey, we’re coming in as young entrepreneurs and as a situation where it’s embracing, or did she have to break some barriers to kind of get your, um, your insight in. Yeah. Like, what is that?

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: So on your side.

Johnathan Crego: I am I’ve been the Neymar’s young Professionals Network, um, chair for a couple of years now. And that, um, I will say for the most part, I’ve been very welcomed. And we always we’ve had a lot of crazy ideas. For example, I actually led a, a shooting, um, I wanted to train especially, like female agents. Um, like, if you want to carry, it’s your right to here’s how to shoot a gun. And so I introduced this gun safety shooting event just to, to show you here’s how you can carry it safely if you need to use it. Here’s how you can use it. Um, there’s a very famous Beverly Carter situation from Arkansas. She was a a female realtor who was, um, purposely basically led by a buyer and murdered. And he when they caught him, they asked him why he did it, and he said it was because I knew she would be solo and we’d be in a vacant house. And so I don’t want that. If I’m in a leadership position, I don’t want that to happen ever again. If I can, if I can help that. And so my goal is to bring this, you know, here’s how to properly train. And so we did it. And for the most part people loved it. I did have some backlash from some people and uh, about that. But for the most part it was it was really accepted by other leadership and GA it wasn’t as accepted with, I would say, older people in the industry. And so at the end of the day, I had to realize I’m doing this so that Beverly Carter does not happen again. That’s my only goal.

Olivia J. Price: So can I stop you real quick? And I think that goes back to initially what I told you. You have passion, JR. You have some passion because sometimes in this industry we can become really cold and kind of like, uh, especially if we’ve been doing it for a long time. You just kind of become, uh, it’s a normal day, regular day, you know, no changes. But you need to have that change, right? Um, especially being a young professional, coming into this industry and having that passion because I actually wanted to come to your gun safety class, but I couldn’t make it. But because I don’t know how to shoot a gun. But I think that if I had a situation.

Johnathan Crego: Change, that.

Speaker5: Friend. Look.

Olivia J. Price: Well, hang.

Speaker5: On, wait a minute. Hold on. But don’t you.

Jordan Nutter: Worry, I think.

Speaker5: I could.

Olivia J. Price: I don’t know, I think I’ll learn quick.

Speaker5: You feel.

Olivia J. Price: Me? But when you’re faced with situations, it’s flight or fight, right?

Speaker5: Exactly.

Olivia J. Price: So I think I’m going to choose the fight part on that one.

Speaker5: Right? Right.

Olivia J. Price: But I do think that we need to learn more about that, especially on the women’s side, because I’ve been in some open houses with some really interesting people, okay. And I’m like, you know, I was at this time I was pregnant. I was by myself. My husband couldn’t come with me. Usually stays in the car. And I was there probably for like two hours. And this one guy, he stayed in there for like 30 minutes and I’m like, hey, the house is only but so big, right? And at that time I was a newer agent too, and I was pregnant. So I was kind of I didn’t really know how to tell him, like, hey, let’s wrap this up, you know? Any feedback? Leave your information and we’ll get back with you type of thing. So I just let them linger. And he was just really interesting. Right. But at that time at open houses, I would always stay near the door. I’m. I’m near the door. Right. I’m not in the kitchen. I’m not in the living room. I’m somewhere where I can easily get out. So I knew that aspect of being, you know, having realtor safety at the forefront. But honestly, learning, learning how to use a firearm is just so important.

Johnathan Crego: And hopefully you never have to use it. Yeah, that’s my goal is hopefully you don’t.

Speaker5: Hopefully not.

Johnathan Crego: But if you ever are in that situation, you’re prepared. Even here in in Cobb County area, there was two Keller Williams agents that were were armed, robbed and, uh, yeah.

Speaker5: I.

Olivia J. Price: Didn’t hear about that.

Johnathan Crego: They were unalive.

Speaker5: Uh, about.

Johnathan Crego: About a decade ago right here in Cobb.

Speaker5: County.

Johnathan Crego: And so it happens a lot, unfortunately. And so that was one of my goals, is to just try to prevent that. God forbid, if I had someone that it happened to, that I knew that could have learned that like you. And that’s why we’re going to go to a range.

Speaker5: Right after this. Listen, listen, listen.

Olivia J. Price: Like, hey, babe, I need to go ahead and learn how to use a firearm right now.

Speaker5: Yeah. Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: Um, but overall, I’ve really been accepted, I think after that, because that was a big success. We did have some great feedback from it. People were like, I’ve like you, I’ve never shot a gun before. I’ve always been afraid. Now I feel confident at least to carry one. And that was our goal. So, um, after that, I’ve done a lot of other kind of crazy ideas. Um, that for the most part, I would say leadership at, um, Neymar and Gaga have been great about it. Um.

Olivia J. Price: But I do think that coming in after the pandemic, like kind of we all did, companies are more receptive to know that, hey, social media is a huge part of branding and, um, Relaying information. So I do think that in terms of when we came into the industry, it was kind of cool because they were already shifting. So now we can just enhance that shift that’s already happening anyways, right? So I do think from both situations.

Speaker5: Social media.

Johnathan Crego: Is everything.

Speaker5: Oh yeah, social media is hundred percent.

Johnathan Crego: You have to have social media to be successful in this industry. I don’t see how you’re not unless you’re working maybe for like HUD or something, but where you’re given up leads like there’s no way if you’re working your sphere of influence, there’s no way you can’t.

Olivia J. Price: So let’s talk about it though. So with social media, how do you think that it changed your business personally when it comes to sales and even when it just comes to being innovative? Because I can go on and on about social media.

Speaker5: Oh yeah.

Olivia J. Price: And how it changed my career.

Johnathan Crego: I think you both can. You both are better at it than I am.

Olivia J. Price: So but to be honest with you, you still have a presence, J.R. it’s one thing to not have a presence and then kind of sort of post. Not having a presence is just for real estate in 2025. I don’t think that it’s going to be efficient.

Speaker5: Right.

Olivia J. Price: In the next half a decade, I would.

Speaker5: Say.

Jordan Nutter: 100%.

Olivia J. Price: So you need to have at least a page and some presence, right? I know you post a lot about your family and things like that, which I love. Um, but ultimately, can you tell me a little bit within the last, I would say last two years? How do you think that social media has affected you?

Jordan Nutter: Well, um, I mean, for me personally, I’ve now amassed a little over 300,000 followers, so that’s completely changed my business. And I am grateful that I work with a company that we cover essentially all of the US except for New York. So that has really also helped with my business. But the fact that I can reach a lot of first time home buyers and educate them. It’s it’s interesting because that’s everyone does social media a little bit different, but my content is geared towards primarily that that next generation home buyer. Um, and so when that happens and I have clients that come to me that have followed me for years, which I think is also crazy, that I’ve never met these people. And they’re like, I am only using you like I have watched you for three years and you are the only person I trust. Yet they’ve never met me and they live out in Texas.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: And I’m like, okay, great. Then they don’t have an agent because they know you have to get your finances in order first. And now I have an opportunity to turn the tables, because you all know that traditionally the agent finds.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: Now I get to turn the table and be like, how do I build these partnerships with agents, like, make it to where it’s a two way street? And so now I’m so grateful to be able to have built these partnerships all across the US with agents that, you know, I don’t get to sit in a room with every day. So I have to.

Speaker5: Find and touch.

Jordan Nutter: Right. But I have to find other ways that I can touch them and help build that relationship. So I would say from social media. About 70% of my business is from social media. And what it.

Speaker5: Has.

Jordan Nutter: Done and like given me opportunities. Um, and I always tell people, think of social media as your brand, like we are building a brand, right? So you think of Nike. It’s a white background with a black swoosh. Right. Like that is how Nike started off. Yes. Maybe like you go and buy a pair of socks and they’re pink or. But traditionally it’s a white background with a black swoosh. You know that because Nike made their brand that way. So when you were going out there and you’re making your social media pages, you need to build, you like, don’t just post these houses because the houses are not going to open the doors to these other.

Speaker5: It’s you.

Olivia J. Price: Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna chime in on that because on the real estate side, we are infamous for posting these houses.

Speaker5: Yeah. And I’m like.

Jordan Nutter: Great, you post the house, but but it is you like Olivia is selling that. Olivia is the brand. J.r. is the brand. Jordan like we are the brand. We’re the person that they want to talk to and they want to hear from. And and if we are not authentic on social media and then we go and meet them and it’s complete opposite, they’re like, who is this person that I just asked to like, I just trusted to sell me a house or I trusted with my finances. Like, that is not who I thought they were. So building your brand on social media, you have to show your face. If you are real estate agent listening to this, you have to show your face. I know it’s really hard. Yeah, but you have to show your face.

Olivia J. Price: Also, it has to be in moderation too, because so much I’m going to be honest with you. I love to talk, I love to talk, I love to educate. And I think that’s one of the things that got me into the industry and set me apart. When I first came in, the only thing I was doing that I was focused on was open houses. That’s all I did. I killed open houses. I would do like 4 to 6 per weekend. I would set up my tripod. Camera. Yeah, I would set up my. And you can go on my Instagram and scroll all the way down and you’ll see. That’s all I did post in every open house I would get, I would do a run through of the neighborhood, and I would have like content for each day leading to my open house. So you’re talking about I had weeks I was posting every day.

Speaker5: I remember.

Olivia J. Price: Um, girl and I had my tripod, and I had my little spill about the house in the neighborhood. Then I go through the house and do my.

Speaker5: Little.

Jordan Nutter: Suit.

Speaker5: Jacket. Listen, I.

Jordan Nutter: Remember.

Speaker5: That red suit jacket.

Olivia J. Price: No one was at the open house. It was just me. And I’m like, hey, we had a great time.

Speaker5: We had. This was wonderful out the door line. Yeah, it was a line.

Olivia J. Price: Down the street. We had neighbors coming in and out.

Johnathan Crego: Everybody ate my.

Speaker5: Food.

Johnathan Crego: No one eats the food.

Speaker5: Listen. No one, no one, no one.

Olivia J. Price: And I had to learn, right? Because there’s levels to this thing, right? When you first come in, I had a charcuterie board.

Speaker5: Oh, yeah.

Olivia J. Price: No one touched.

Speaker5: It. Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: At the end of the day, um, when I, I would say I stopped doing open houses, like maybe going on two years ago. I just brought a little candy bags and some waters, and people took those candy bags all day. Right. I just think that it was just so much more efficient. But going back to the beginning, I feel as though between 2019 or maybe no 2020 to 2023, I was known as like the open House Queen. I met not only agents because agents started looking at my social media like, dang, I know she’s going to be in this area. And some people just stopped to say, hey! And also vendors. I have vendors that say, oh my God, I seen your sign. I seen you on social media. I’m coming back to your open house and just say, hey, you know. So that presence on social media for me has just been amazing. And I use it now as a platform to just speak my truth, to let people know, hey, this is what’s going on in real estate. This is how we can pivot. These are some ways as agents that we need to start really focusing on, you know, because real estate right now It’s not an industry that it used to be back in 2008, 2010, 2012.

Olivia J. Price: No, this is a real game. And now people are really starting to investigate you more. A lot of my business. A lot of them, they Google and they’re from Google. They go on my social media and I’m like, oh my goodness. I see the correlation because you can see the numbers like I’m like, okay, so from Google to Instagram it’s a direct and then a little bit on Facebook too. But a lot of people direct to my Instagram. And when I tell you I’m like your, your, your um, your page is like your portfolio now of like what you’ve done and you know, what are you doing and things like that. I think that people nowadays are going to start leaning more towards, hey, let me investigate these people before I just call it used to be back in the day, you just knew your neighborhood realtor. You’re like, hey Cathy, up the street is selling. I’m going to use Cathy. But now there’s so many other people.

Speaker5: In.

Olivia J. Price: The playing field.

Speaker5: Yeah, well, people.

Johnathan Crego: Use who they know, like and trust, and they build that from your social media. And so they’re gonna know you, they’re gonna like you, and they’re going to trust you off of that. So yeah, I think social media is everything.

Olivia J. Price: So this is my next thing here. Um, which is a hot topic. What are some ways how people can really be utilized in real estate if, um, home buying isn’t an option? Can we talk about some investments here? Because I think Atlanta is the hot spot for investments.

Johnathan Crego: And I would say it’s the number one right now.

Speaker5: Number one.

Olivia J. Price: Number one. And honestly, I think we are the new New York and the new LA.

Speaker5: I agree.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah this is it. I feel like Atlanta.

Johnathan Crego: Is it the last six houses I’ve sold minus one. So last five out of six houses I’ve sold has all been from people from California or New York.

Speaker5: I couldn’t.

Olivia J. Price: Believe it. I couldn’t believe it. They have the money, they have the capital.

Johnathan Crego: And that’s. Yeah.

Speaker5: Yeah, I mean, it.

Johnathan Crego: Is a big.

Speaker5: Thing. Yeah. That is a huge thing.

Johnathan Crego: They sell their one bedroom, 800 square foot condo for $8 million in LA, and they move here and they outbid us.

Speaker5: Georgia come on a lot.

Olivia J. Price: And I think a lot of my people, I have a house coming up on the market We’re we’re in a situation like that where I think they overpaid a little bit, you know what I mean? Now they’re trying to move very quickly and the equity just isn’t there quite yet. But I always tell people to in terms of when you’re selling, when it comes to the equity, you do have to be in your home for a little bit. Some people think, well, I’ve always owned the home for two years, I need I know it doesn’t work like that, you know, but, um, Georgia is that place for where you can come in as a no. One and come in as a millionaire, I swear you can. Can you tell me a little bit, JR, in terms of your investment journey, what made you want to get on the investment side coming from the sell side? How was that transition.

Johnathan Crego: So I’ll start with this. So my wife and I, we bought our house in Lawrenceville, Georgia in 2016, and we had no money left to our name like we had nothing. And we bought the worst house in a decent area. It’s at River colony off Duluth near Sugarloaf Mills.

Speaker5: Okay.

Johnathan Crego: And I come from construction. So we did a live in flip. This was Pre-kids. And so we did a live in flip.

Speaker5: I always wonder.

Olivia J. Price: How people go through that.

Speaker5: Too, especially with kids. Oh, man.

Johnathan Crego: Especially when you’re on the kitchen or like bathroom, you’re like, okay, I’m over this. You got microwave and everything. And yeah.

Jordan Nutter: In the.

Speaker5: Living room. Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: In the garage.

Speaker5: We’re like, where are the plates?

Johnathan Crego: Ramen for the.

Speaker5: Yeah, yeah.

Johnathan Crego: 10th week in a row.

Speaker5: Finish that thing.

Johnathan Crego: Come on. So, yeah, with kids, it’s a lot easier. So we did a live in flip and we bought in 2016. We sold in 2019.

Speaker5: Okay.

Johnathan Crego: And all of a sudden we sold it. And we made about $100,000 profit. And that was the most money I’d ever seen in my life. I never thought.

Speaker5: I would one time.

Johnathan Crego: Right. Probably ever. That was like.

Speaker5: But at one.

Olivia J. Price: Time that hits.

Speaker5: Yeah. You’re like, oh, I.

Johnathan Crego: Had, like, pennies in my name. Now I have a hundred thousand.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: Oh my gosh. And real estate changed my life. And that’s a big reason why I got into real estate. Because it changed my family’s trajectory.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: And so then we bought another house, and we’re now in Buford. We bought another house, and it needed a lot of work. And now we have kids. And so we were gonna continue to do live in flips until we got to, like, something crazy mansion. But then we fixed this one up, and now we’re like, well, we’ve got kids, we like this house. We’re just gonna stay.

Speaker5: But I’ve.

Olivia J. Price: Seen investors do that.

Speaker5: Too.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah, I’m like, I could tell. I’m like, hey, I think he’s probably just settled on this house.

Speaker5: Yeah, that’s exactly what happened was. Yeah, yeah.

Olivia J. Price: Let’s.

Speaker5: Enjoy it.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah. But I also got involved with Peachy Properties. Uh, they’re a flip company, and we focus primarily on, like, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Marietta, that kind of area, that north perimeter area and and also now on my own as well. I flip as well. And I would say the two hottest things I’m seeing right now as a flipping buyer’s agent is number one. House hacking, especially with veterans. And number two is seller finance. Um, that’s becoming a big thing or assuming a loan assumption loan.

Olivia J. Price: So last year, no, two years ago I started seeing loan assumptions back on the market. And, um, I had one of my clients almost get to the finish line. But when he looked at like the final turns, he was like, oh heck no. So can you give us a little information? And probably you guys can piggyback on that. Like, how does that look for assumptions?

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: So I see it creeping back in our market.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah. In fact I got one under contract. Now I’ve done several as well. And it’s a great opportunity for people that have the money.

Speaker5: Yes.

Johnathan Crego: Yes that’s the big thing. So yeah. Exactly. So let’s just use easy numbers. Let’s say Olivia.

Speaker5: You hold.

Olivia J. Price: On. Now we go back and what what.

Speaker5: Did you say a squared plus b squared c squared. All right. Let me get my pen and paper out.

Johnathan Crego: Squared.

Speaker5: Plus. Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: So you bought this house. Let’s say you bought a house in 2021 for 500 K. And you put 3% down and you’re on a 3% interest rate. And that’s that’s your biggest equity right there. Is that 3%. That is money to my ears. When you say you have a 3% equity or interest rate. So you’re on. We’re on 2025 now. Let’s just say you’ve got it paid down to 450,000. You still have that 3% interest rate, but you. So you’ve got $50,000 worth of equity. And then let’s say, hey, I need to move. I need to move to, I don’t know, New York, whatever. So you go ahead and put on the market, but it’s not selling and you don’t know why. It’s a great house. It’s just a tough market. Whatever. And so you go ahead and you confirm with your lender. That’s the biggest thing. Confirm with your lender. You can’t. Your loan can be an assumable loan.

Olivia J. Price: So quick question how often do we see that the loan could be assumable government loans.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: Government loans.

Speaker5: Va.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah FHA, USDA, USDA.

Speaker5: Always.

Olivia J. Price: Going to be.

Jordan Nutter: I mean I’ve never not seen one same assumable like when we when when we’re doing our disclosures, it always will say Assumable. So I’ve never had one as a government loan.

Speaker5: Gotcha.

Jordan Nutter: Um, I’m trying to even think of like, my down payment assistant ones. I don’t, I, I don’t even think about that. But conventional is where.

Speaker5: You probably.

Johnathan Crego: Some conventional, but.

Speaker5: Not all.

Jordan Nutter: It’s hard.

Johnathan Crego: To.

Speaker5: Get.

Jordan Nutter: A conventional loan.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: So that’s the hard part because FHA you’re going to have mortgage insurance. Usda you have mortgage insurance VA you don’t. But but hey, I’ll take mortgage insurance all day because my house that I still have at a 2.6% rate, I will keep that mortgage insurance for the entire 30 years of my life on.

Speaker5: That interest.

Olivia J. Price: Rate. Man 100 when we bought in 2018, I was like, the average is 4.75. But looking at it now, I’m like, whoo.

Speaker5: That’s okay.

Jordan Nutter: But yeah, that’s the kicker.

Speaker5: Like, you have to.

Jordan Nutter: Get somebody who will allow you to assume the loan.

Johnathan Crego: So you got to confirm. Yeah, you got to confirm it’s Assumable loan. And then so you’re going to go ahead and realtors need to look more into this because we need to start marketing this more. I have buyers right now that want to. We just can’t find anything that either one, the realtor or whoever doesn’t know it exists. Number two, it is it is kind of hard. It’s a harder process than a normal life.

Speaker5: I went through it. Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah, it’s definitely harder. I did one up in Blairsville. It took six months. Um, but that was when it was first starting. And so it was with Pennymac. They have their own division of assuming loan department, but they were just it was so new to the game because no one was assuming loans in 2021, 2022. But then now they are. And so all right. So you owe or you have 50,000 equity. So that means basically I’m going to bring you a buyer. They’re going to pay that $50,000 difference up front at the closing table. And then they’re essentially going to walk in to your monthly mortgage payment that you owe $450,000 left at the 3%. And so that’s dropping their monthly payments. Just an absurd amount, because they’re now going from 6 or 7% whatever interest rates are today. It’s fluctuating like crazy right now. But they’re going from this, you know, whatever it is to a 2.6 or a three. And that payment is just amazing. And so we’re seeing that more and more. Not a lot of people seem to know about it. So I kind of want to get the word out about that. But also I’m seeing a lot of house hacking or a lot of people that.

Speaker5: Want to help.

Olivia J. Price: Or wanting.

Speaker5: To.

Johnathan Crego: Yep, yep, that’s a big thing, especially with VA veterans. I don’t know why. I see it all the time with veterans, and I think it’s a wonderful thing. Um, but yeah, that’s I’m seeing those two things a lot.

Olivia J. Price: I think that the way that our economy is going, people are becoming more creative again. And I.

Speaker5: Think that is it.

Olivia J. Price: Now. And for me, I always feel as though in economies like this, it is room for us to become a millionaire, to be honest with you. Right? Just like you said, when you came in, you were like $100,000 insane.

Speaker5: Like.

Olivia J. Price: Come on in the walk, you know? But, um, I just think that now, just like you said, being creative is giving us the opportunity to say, you know, hey, way. If I can get that 2.7, whatever interest rate, I think I’ll be willing to put the capital for people who do have the capital.

Johnathan Crego: And that’s the.

Speaker5: Kicker. That’s the kicker.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah, it’s tough because some people might if they bought in 2021, they’ve got $200,000 worth of equity now in their thing. So not a lot of people can chalk that money up front. And and not a lot I’ve noticed, at least me not a lot will allow a second mortgage. I have one that is, but not. It’s 5050, it seems.

Speaker5: At least to me.

Jordan Nutter: Because there’s companies that are out there that let you that like let you look for the assumable mortgages in your area and they offer the second mortgage, but you have to find the company that you’re assuming the loan that will allow you to now carry the second mortgage, as opposed to you bringing the capital upfront.

Olivia J. Price: Okay, so Divvy Homes offered my client that divvy and.

Jordan Nutter: Uh romley. Is that the other one?

Speaker5: I don’t know, there’s.

Jordan Nutter: Another.

Speaker5: No. Rome.

Jordan Nutter: Rome.

Johnathan Crego: Rome. I think we might be wrong, but I think you’re right.

Speaker5: Well, I’ll.

Olivia J. Price: Tell you about divvy.

Speaker5: But.

Jordan Nutter: There’s. I know that there’s another one.

Speaker5: Divvy.

Olivia J. Price: I went through their program with my client. I was telling you about two years ago, and we were like, the first ones they did it on. So I was talking to, like, the execs at divvy. They were like, okay, Olivia, so we’re going to try this on your client. Um, but he ended up just buying himself because the numbers, he was just like, dang, if I’m going through that program, I might as well just buy.

Jordan Nutter: Because interest rate is quite high, is my understanding on the second mortgage. So even though.

Speaker5: It was.

Jordan Nutter: I mean, if you’re.

Speaker5: Very high.

Jordan Nutter: Let’s say $450,000.

Speaker5: For.

Jordan Nutter: The first one at two point, whatever percent. But then your second mortgage is at, let’s say, $200,000 at, I don’t know, I don’t let’s say they’re 8 or 9% like.

Speaker5: It’s kind of.

Jordan Nutter: Like your average right now, your average rate.

Speaker5: It’s like it makes sense.

Jordan Nutter: What does it look like?

Speaker5: Are you taking.

Olivia J. Price: It. It makes.

Speaker5: Sense. Right. Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: So I think every with any of we know this with real estate, it depends on the client. How long are they going to be there? What are their. What are they hoping for? What does it look like? So I mean, it’s worth exploring all of your options and having like an educated real estate agent, an educated lender that looks out for your best interest and makes sure that you understand the options that are available and what’s going to make the most sense for you because the shoe doesn’t fit everybody.

Speaker5: Very true.

Olivia J. Price: Very true, very true. And that’s one thing that my client was kind of exploring between the two. But I would say this because could you leave us with any tips or any type of things that people out here who are wanting to purchase can start doing to get themselves in position? Because I do, because I have a platform called birdie, and we focus on the community aspect of purchasing, because right now I think what the average sales price in Atlanta is, what, 375.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: 400,000. Right. And even 400,000 isn’t really 400,000, right? Because, you know, back in the day, probably when we were younger, like $1 million home was really like a $400,000 home. Probably. But that was $1 million home for us, right? It had the yard. It had the, you know, the driveway, the garages and all of that good stuff. Six bedrooms and whatnot. Now 400,000 is like, wow, you know, in certain areas, um, especially like in desirable areas, it’s not really getting us what we would hope so. Right. Um, I do feel as though right now we just need to really start pushing the pavement with people to make them understand that, hey, if you aren’t in a position to buy, let’s get you ready. Um, because we are, some of us are going to be, like, forever renters. And that’s a sad reality that I think a lot of us aren’t facing because I’m like, goodness gracious, you’re going to be in a position where some people like New York and LA where they could bought like 70s, 80s and now looking. You can’t even buy a one bedroom condo.

Speaker5: For.

Jordan Nutter: Less than a million, depending on where you’re.

Speaker5: At.

Olivia J. Price: Easy. So I feel like Atlanta is such a sweet state because there’s so much opportunity. But people, it’s going to pass a lot of people by and they could have been sitting on like my cousin, he has a property in, um, Brooklyn, his house. It’s like a it’s a little shit little shack, you know, little houses, you know. But the thing is like $7 million and I’m sitting here like, he’s not he’s a police officer, too. And, um, he refuses to sell.

Speaker5: I’m like, you have.

Johnathan Crego: A $7 million house.

Speaker5: Well, he had it for so long, though. No, he had it.

Olivia J. Price: For so long. He’s been in the family for so long.

Speaker5: Good for him. Right.

Olivia J. Price: But it’s a situation where it’s. We’re. It’s awesome to know that he’s just a regular Joe. Right? And he’s sitting on a gold mine that can change generations. Exactly right.

Speaker5: Eight.

Olivia J. Price: But people need to understand that, hey, if you have the opportunity, it needs to be like soon, right? Because it’s going to pass us by. I promise. I’m telling people now, like I can see now because my house in Loganville, I bought it for 200,000. Now it’s almost 500,000. And that’s without the renovations we’ve done and everything we’ve put into the home. And I’m like, goodness gracious. 500,000.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: Coming into the industry, I mean, coming into home ownership, I don’t think I would have wanted to buy a $500,000 house as a first time home buyer. But looking at the house, I’m like, goodness gracious, this was my first time home buyer house. And just knowing that what you could have gotten then versus now, and what you’re going to get now versus later, it’s a no brainer for me. So what can you say about that in terms of educating people that, hey, this is the time is is dwindling here in Atlanta at least?

Johnathan Crego: Yeah. Um, sure. Yeah. So I will say that, man, I’m glad I didn’t listen to the naysayers when we bought in 2016. During that time, for some reason, everyone thought that the market was going to crash. I don’t remember.

Speaker5: Why.

Olivia J. Price: Well, they think so now.

Johnathan Crego: Even now and especially like 2019, 2020. And I am so glad we didn’t listen to the naysayers because if we had, I’d still be I’d still be renting. And you know what? If, God forbid, I pass away today, I’ve got a house in Beaufort I can leave to my kids, and that’s huge. And then 22 years, it’ll be paid off fully, and that’s going to be worth a lot more than it’s worth today. I promise that, Mark my words.

Olivia J. Price: And people are like, it’s going to go down. I’m like, yeah, but it goes up.

Speaker5: It goes up too. Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: The same houses in 2008.

Speaker5: Were.

Olivia J. Price: Dirt cheap. Now fast forward and we took some dips between then and now. And the house is three times the price that it was originally bought for.

Johnathan Crego: Even if you bought in 2006 at the height of that time. Yeah. And you’re looking at today and you just kept it throughout the whole thing. You’re you’re definitely still in the green, even if you bought at the absolute height at right before the biggest recession we’ve ever seen, you will definitely be in the green still today because those prices do not compare to these prices today. Plus, those interest rates were a lot more back then than they are now, even even when they’re high.

Speaker5: Now that.

Olivia J. Price: Interest rates, it is what.

Speaker5: It.

Olivia J. Price: Is. It’s just it is what it is. Just like we were saying, oh my God, two point days, four point that at that time we were complaining to we were like, well, dang, it’s four.

Speaker5: I had people.

Jordan Nutter: That.

Speaker5: Were like, you.

Jordan Nutter: Can’t get me in the.

Speaker5: One. Oh.

Jordan Nutter: And I’m.

Speaker5: Like.

Jordan Nutter: I’m sorry. What? You’re you’re at a five right now. I’m getting a.

Speaker5: Two and a half. This is a good thing.

Jordan Nutter: I’m cutting you in half and you still want more?

Speaker5: Like what? What? Yeah, but.

Olivia J. Price: I’m telling you, I think just people’s perspectives, I think, need to start changing. Like you said, you didn’t listen to the naysayers. You were like, this is a a a power move for my family. Exactly right. Even though at that time it may not have seen like a power move because you came in broke, you know, which I did to me and my husband. Man, we were so broke. We were so broke. We were like, goodness gracious, we paid everything into this house?

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: And we did a lot of renovations, too. So my husband, um, is an entrepreneur. He is not a contractor. And he is not a handyman. When I tell you my husband was YouTube University.

Speaker5: Yeah. There you go.

Olivia J. Price: Listen. He was. Every night I would hear that man in the living room just listening. And that’s why I admire the hustle so much. Right. And just the home ownership journey. Like we did what we had to do.

Speaker5: Right.

Olivia J. Price: To be able to be in a position where if I wanted to take money out on my house, I could if I wanted to, you know, open up a business using the equity from my house, I could. Right. Or I could sell it and move to another state and have the funds, which I could.

Speaker5: Right.

Olivia J. Price: So also, could you piggyback on how some people are saying right now, like, um, I’ve had a couple of, um, big time people say, you know, I would never buy a house. I’m like, you would never buy a house, but you’re still going to be renting, though. So can you can you explain to me how do you feel about that when people say, like, you know, I couldn’t, I would never buy a.

Speaker5: House.

Johnathan Crego: Forever renter.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: Like it’s a, it’s a I mean.

Johnathan Crego: I I’ll say this I, it depends on the person. Like if you don’t have kids, if you’re moving every two years, maybe you’re like military or something and you got to move every two years. Maybe it doesn’t make sense. I would say nine out of ten times, though, you’re going to want to buy because especially if you have kids, because now I have something to leave to them.

Olivia J. Price: Or just if you’re traveling to an area pretty frequently.

Speaker5: Sure.

Olivia J. Price: You know, um, like if you’re going to be in that area like six times out the year, eight times out the year, you might as well just buy. Yeah, for me, I feel as though then maybe rent it out for the days that you aren’t there. You can be creative nowadays.

Speaker5: Right.

Olivia J. Price: But temporary housing.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah I have I have two thoughts on that. So the first one is there was an article that I saw recently that said the average person will pay $330,000 in rent before they purchase their first home.

Olivia J. Price: I can see that.

Jordan Nutter: That’s insane.

Speaker5: I could see that.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah. It’s insane.

Johnathan Crego: Um, and they have nothing to show for it.

Jordan Nutter: They have nothing to show for it.

Speaker5: Right?

Olivia J. Price: Those are. Those are the people like, hey, you know what? Wait a minute. Don’t buy it. That’s the worst decision. But I’m like, for people like me, I didn’t my I’m like, hold on, wait. Okay. For people like me, a lot of people I know they’re renting their parents rented, their grandparents rented. I’m like, okay. So for people like that, which is a lot of people, a lot of people are like, hey, no one really bought, you know, we’re just renting. They stayed in apartments, may stay in houses, you know, they rented. But purchasing a home, I mean, that just sets the pedestal for so much more.

Jordan Nutter: Well, you also have to consider, like J.R. was saying, like it may not work for everybody, but to to piggyback on that, I had a client who lived in LA. Her rent was $2,000 a month. She had been at this place for a long time. She wasn’t necessarily grandfathered in fully because it was a newer built, but she had been there long enough like and knew the people that she was somewhat grandfathered in. So for her to buy the same, to stay in the same type of living would would change her her monthly, um, housing expense by more than double. So in that situation, I understand. However, what I did tell her was, I said, why don’t we buy an investment property? Because you have the for how much you make compared to how much you pay per month. You’ve been saving so much up that you have the 20% down. So what we did instead was she bought an investment property in Northern California in, um, in more of a vacation. It was going to be a short term rental. And so that’s what we did instead. So instead of her buying her primary. So in this situation she, she bought where or sorry she, she rented where she wanted to live. Because I can understand as a younger individual, maybe you don’t want to live in the suburbs where it’s more affordable. So instead, she purchased an investment property. And then she got income from that every month. And so she’s growing that somebody else is paying for it. So yes, she is renting because she wants to live in that area and I understand it. Um, so in that situation I can understand.

Olivia J. Price: But there’s fine lines between all of.

Speaker5: That, right?

Jordan Nutter: 100%.

Olivia J. Price: Um, just like I will give, um, for example, here in Georgia, Gwinnett County have a lot of people who want to live in Gwinnett County but may not be able to really afford Gwinnett County. It can rent.

Speaker5: Right?

Olivia J. Price: Which is fine.

Speaker5: You can rent.

Jordan Nutter: Taxes.

Speaker5: Those taxes all county. Well, compared.

Olivia J. Price: To Warren County.

Speaker5: I mean, Barrow and Barrow.

Jordan Nutter: Yeah.

Speaker5: Yeah, it.

Olivia J. Price: Could be very, um, I would say, what’s the word I’m looking for? Um, discouraging for some people.

Jordan Nutter: 100%.

Speaker5: But I.

Olivia J. Price: For me, I just don’t like the narrative of like, yeah, you know, I would never buy. It’s like, well, you know, there’s.

Jordan Nutter: Never say never like, what can we.

Speaker5: You know?

Olivia J. Price: I just don’t like the way people put it out there. And now people are listening to that.

Speaker5: Like.

Olivia J. Price: It’s people that I’m like, no, homie, you need to buy.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Olivia J. Price: Like, I don’t know any other situation where you’re going to be able to come up with money like that. Like, you know, it’s people that I know that they’re working their 9 to 5. They’ve been at their 9 to 5 for years. And I’m like, you’re not going to make any more than probably what you’re going to be making now, if not less. So for people like you, which is a lot of Americans, you probably need to go ahead and get a house. That’s the best thing that you could do to put yourself in a position that you can take, you know, that can grow with you. Right, right. Without having to do anything extracurricular. Right. Because you always need somewhere to stay.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Jordan Nutter: You always need a place to live. Always.

Olivia J. Price: So why not? So for me, I’m more of the practical side, like, okay, you got those people, younger ones who come in and just want to be in the area for work reasons or personal life reasons, whatever the case may be, which I, I expect that. But a lot of Americans, I’m like, wait a minute, now, you got two kids. You’re still which a lot of us do, or at least have one kid, you know. Um, and I would just say that. For me, and I’m still going to stand on that point, that buying is just it makes it makes sense.

Jordan Nutter: And there’s so many down payment assistance programs like there’s so many.

Olivia J. Price: Quick question do you see in the future with you being on the lending side, how long do you think we’ll still have down payment assistance? Do you think it will be here in the next half a decade or so? Do you think it will be a program that could be taken?

Jordan Nutter: I mean, I definitely there’s there’s been a lot recently that have been wiped out, unfortunately. But when you look at the state like Georgia Dream is still around because that’s through the state. That’s not, um, federal like through the government financed, um, or funded, I should say. Um, and then we have grants throughout. There’s like still the $15,000 grant in Georgia, the 1705, like, so there’s still grants. Um, Texas. I have a wonderful one that’s just amazing. So each state I still have all of my down payment assistance programs. It’s just whether or not it’s, you know, how long are the funds there for? Like my Florida one goes out pretty quickly at the beginning of the year. And so it’s just a matter of, like you said, everyone needs a place to live and they’re building homes. So to be able to afford them, somebody needs to help out somewhere, some way, shape or form. And if the state can come in and have those available funds for first time home buyers to utilize and be able to get them into a home and therefore pay property taxes, which goes back to the state like, you know, it all comes full circle at the end of the day. Um, so I don’t foresee it going away. I could see things changing, and maybe there’s not as as much, um, available funds. So they may be tighter throughout the year, but 100%, I don’t see that going away, um, at least anytime soon.

Johnathan Crego: And I will say that I work with a lot of first responders and military, and there’s a lot of.

Speaker5: Of course you do.

Johnathan Crego: There’s a lot of departments that actually offer monthly stipends. So like, for example, if you’re a Dunwoody police officer and you live within the city, you get, I believe, $600 a month. And so, yeah, and I think Duluth has it.

Olivia J. Price: I think I’m in the wrong field.

Speaker5: I think. No, no, you.

Jordan Nutter: Can’t change your mind now.

Speaker5: Check this.

Olivia J. Price: Out. I also thought about going to the military. I said, you know what, babe? I think I’m going to go to the military for a little bit because military benefits are just amazing.

Speaker5: It’s amazing.

Olivia J. Price: Amazing. Especially in economies like this. You’re like, Thank God I actually have something that can help. You know, but back to what you were saying.

Johnathan Crego: Yeah. And on the military side, you know, like, if you’re 100% disabled, you get the tax benefits and things like that.

Speaker5: Yes.

Johnathan Crego: There is a lot of different opportunities for first responders and military. And that also affects EMTs, firefighters if you’re living in those areas. A lot of times nowadays, these jurisdictions are are giving you some type of benefit.

Speaker5: Or.

Johnathan Crego: Housing stipend. So.

Olivia J. Price: Well, I think that we’re going to conclude with this. You all. Um, and I want to say this is some great chemistry here. This is great. Um, I think people are going to want to hear more about.

Speaker5: This.

Olivia J. Price: Especially as we dive deeper into some real topics. Right? Um, next, I do want to talk about moving forward. Um, for our next episode, I do want to talk about crypto. I know, I’ll call you the crypto King. Right? Um, and I remember you did a crypto class.

Speaker5: Yes.

Olivia J. Price: What was that? It was the end of the year in 2023.

Johnathan Crego: I’ve done a couple, and I will say.

Speaker5: That was your first one.

Olivia J. Price: Though. I was gonna say that was your first one.

Johnathan Crego: The Buffalo’s cafe one.

Speaker5: I did 120, 23.

Johnathan Crego: I did one at in 2022. It was a brewery in Suwanee. Was it that one?

Olivia J. Price: 2022?

Johnathan Crego: Yeah, I did one at Buffalo’s Cafe in Beaufort.

Speaker5: It was your first one.

Johnathan Crego: The Hamilton Mill.

Speaker5: One.

Olivia J. Price: That was the one, because I remember we were talking about it when we were on Ypn. We were like, yeah, I’m gonna do this crypto.

Speaker5: You know.

Olivia J. Price: I’m gonna do this, and we’re going to educate and things like that. So I was in love with it.

Speaker5: Then you were just telling me for crypto as well.

Johnathan Crego: There’s a lot going on behind the scenes there.

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: So yeah.

Speaker5: We gotta talk about that.

Olivia J. Price: And also how you can use the currency to purchase real estate. Right.

Speaker5: Yes.

Olivia J. Price: Yeah.

Speaker5: We had to talk about that.

Olivia J. Price: Right. People want to hear the biggest thing I think that our listeners want to tune in is, first off, our beautiful voices. I think we sound great and we look even better. Um, and then next is just, um, seeing how can we put money into our listeners pockets with information that we’re giving? Because I made my clients money, which is purchasing real estate through through me. Right for you is more so on the real estate investment side. And how can we go ahead and start getting into these extracurricular things that can actually help us on the real estate realm? So crypto is a new wave there. There’s I still hear people kind of mixed feelings on it, but, you know, I still feel as though it’s kind of sort of still newer to the market. So some traditional people are kind of like.

Speaker5: So.

Johnathan Crego: What negative things you hear about.

Speaker5: It.

Olivia J. Price: Oh, we’re going to touch bases on it real quick. Well, I will say that I predominantly listen to a lot of traditional people and they’re like, well, you know, it’s not as safe as it is scam. Oh, okay.

Speaker5: Can you hear that? Let me ask you this.

Olivia J. Price: Can you? I didn’t hear about scam.

Johnathan Crego: Can you be scammed with US dollars?

Speaker5: Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: Every day.

Speaker5: Yeah. Yeah.

Johnathan Crego: So we’ll get into that more later on.

Speaker5: We’ll talk about taking over the market.

Olivia J. Price: That that leaves us with some good stuff. Right? Um, so we’re wrapping up today all things real estate. You guys. We’re signing off with Olivia, J.R. and Jordan, and we’re missing our buddy. Um, Rodney, I just want to follow up on Rodney, though. He’s a superstar. And, um, unfortunately, he had some things to do with his wife, which. And, you know, when when you have dreams, you know, dedicated to each other, you’re like, look, Olivia, I rarely get these days, okay?

Speaker5: Yeah, he’s got a good excuse. Listen.

Olivia J. Price: And also, um, he does investments with his wife, so they do it together. He took her out of her nine. Well, he got it for his 9 to 5 to do real estate, and he got his wife out of her 9 to 5 to do investments. So he she runs his investment property, well, investment company for his properties. And he’s number one with Keller Williams. I’m 16th ranked 16th in the southeast region for Keller Williams. And he is killing it. Um, he is um, a burst of energy. And I think that, um, he has a lot of insight in terms of the things that he is doing, literally. I remember when Rodney was selling CDs, he used to rap. Yeah, I’m like looking at him.

Speaker5: So many people.

Olivia J. Price: Don’t know that. They’re like, yeah, you know.

Speaker5: Rodney.

Olivia J. Price: I’m like, yes. Rodney used to be a hustler. And just looking at how he started from here and how all of that comes into full circle. You being from the force coming into real estate now, going into investment, it comes in full circle. You and I forget what you did prior to, um, lending. What did you do prior to lending?

Jordan Nutter: I was selling curtain rods.

Speaker5: Oh.

Jordan Nutter: I had three jobs. I was selling curtain rods. I was an assistant. And I did like catering jobs on the side. I had three jobs, so.

Olivia J. Price: Do you think that having that type of hustle has.

Speaker5: Helped.

Olivia J. Price: You to be able to come up with ideas like touring the nation.

Speaker5: And having you rap an RV for your.

Johnathan Crego: Curtain rods?

Speaker5: No. Oh, see?

Olivia J. Price: Nah, that was the nah. That was the finale. Okay.

Speaker5: No.

Olivia J. Price: But just I feel like everyone in their past life coming into now, it says something about your character and what you’re willing to do and how you do it, which right now in our industry, I just said 71% of agents did not sell last year, right? So not only are we touching the consumers, we’re touching agents too, to learn to hey, we’re still in it. We’re doing our thing and we need all our agents to come together, especially in this time, right? So all things real estate, you guys. Until next time.

Speaker5: All right.

Johnathan Crego: Thank you for listening.

About Your Host

Olivia J. Price is a nationally recognized real estate broker, entrepreneur, and advocate for financial empowerment. As the founder and CEO of the Olivia J Price Real Estate, a top 1% real estate team in the southeast region, Olivia has quickly become one of the youngest African American women to lead a top-producing real estate company in Georgia.

A proud graduate of East Side High School, Olivia’s early leadership skills were honed through her active participation in organizations such as Future Business Leaders of America and Junior Honor Society. Despite facing financial hardships that interrupted her college journey, she transformed her challenges into a launching pad for success — purchasing her first home at just 21 years old and building a thriving business soon after.

Olivia’s dedication and performance have earned her multiple prestigious accolades, including “Rising Star,” “Beacon of the Year,” “Best of Gwinnett,” “Best of Snellville” and top 3 rankings for closed units and closed volume across Northeast Atlanta. Beyond her personal achievements, Olivia served as one of the youngest African American board directors for the Georgia Association of Realtors, the NE Atlanta Metro Association of Realtors, the Women’s Council of Realtors Gwinnett, and the City of Loganville Development Authority.

Deeply committed to community impact, Olivia leads grassroots initiatives that promote financial literacy, real estate education, and career mentorship for young women in high school, especially those from underserved backgrounds. She offers free educational seminars, “Lunch and Learn” sessions for essential workers, and online real estate workshops featured on CBS’s Focus Atlanta.

Olivia J. Price’s journey — overcoming barriers of sexism and ageism — exemplifies the transformative power of resilience, leadership, and service. She continues to inspire a new generation to pursue homeownership, entrepreneurship, and generational wealth.

Follow Olivia on Facebook and Instagram.