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ATDC Radio: Steve Baxter with GATOREVIEWS

February 21, 2020 by angishields

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ATDC Radio
ATDC Radio: Steve Baxter with GATOREVIEWS
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Steve Baxter, COO and Co-Founder of GATOREVIEWS, is a serial entrepreneur. His last startup, Listen360, became the most successful customer review and Net Promoter software solutions with over 30,000 customers. Further, the software was licensed to NCR to become known globally as NCR CustomerVoice and deployed in 10’s of thousands of restaurants.

An accomplished software executive, Steve was also European Managing Director of CDC Software (NASDAQ: CDCS), with revenue responsibility of over $70m and over 460 staff.

Follow GATOREVIEWS on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • What kind of business outcomes is GATOREVIEWS providing for their customers?
  • Why has GATOREVIEWS moved away from traditional emailed surveys for feedback?
  • Are recommendations on Google and Facebook enough?
  • How do reviews impact local search and SEO?

Tagged With: GATOREVIEWS, lead generation, reputation management, reviews

ATDC Radio: Michael F. D. Anaya with DEVCON and Amy Love with Invest Atlanta

February 21, 2020 by angishields

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ATDC Radio
ATDC Radio: Michael F. D. Anaya with DEVCON and Amy Love with Invest Atlanta
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Michael F. D. Anaya is the Head of Global Cyber Investigations and Government Relations for DEVCON DETECT, Inc. (DEVCON). Prior to joining DEVCON, he spent approximately 14 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

He began his career as a Special Agent in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office addressing complex cyber matters for eight years, during which time he led numerous, expansive investigations including one that resulted in the first federal conviction of a US person for the use of a peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet. He then was named a Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) for the Leadership Development Program, charged with bringing together disparate divisions of the FBI focused on a workforce development initiative.

This resulted in a more balanced and inclusive program. After the implementation of the program, Michael went on to lead a cyber squad in the FBI’s Atlanta field office. There, he led a diverse group of Agents, Intel Analysts, and Computer Scientists in neutralizing nation-state and criminal threats. He secured one of the highest performance standards given by the FBI for the entire Atlanta cyber program, and he helped the program achieve a top-five ranking amongst the 56 FBI field offices.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

Amy Love leads the technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship efforts for Invest Atlanta. She leverages Invest Atlanta resources to support a robust innovation ecosystem where technology companies can launch, scale, and locate in the city, and create tech talent opportunities and community impact so all Atlantans can thrive.

Amy has spent the last decade focused on technology-based economic development, most recently at the South Carolina Department of Commerce as the state’s first-ever director of innovation, and at the Georgia Institute of Technology Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), where she grew ATDC’s statewide program to serve technology startups across Georgia. She holds a Masters in PR and Journalism from the University of South Carolina, and a BA in English from Furman University. Amy is a South Carolina Liberty Fellow, part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Connect with Amy on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • What role Invest Atlanta plays in the city’s ecosystem
  • How Invest Atlanta serves tech entrepreneurs and companies
  • Special initiatives or programs with Invest Atlanta
  • Observations about the criminal mind
  • The main threats Devcon thinks we should be aware of in the cyber arena
  • Concerns about the digital supply chain and current cybersecurity landscape
  • Why organizations should share with the government

Tagged With: cybersecurity and dynamic, Leadership, scaling innovation technology, Technology innovation entrepreneurship

GWBC Radio: Kim Wright with American Heart Association and Susan Gravely with Gravely and Associates

February 21, 2020 by angishields

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Atlanta Business Radio
GWBC Radio: Kim Wright with American Heart Association and Susan Gravely with Gravely and Associates
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KimWrightHeadshotSizedCropKIMBERLY D. ALLEN WRIGHT is a Vice President of Health Strategies for Metro Atlanta’s American Heart Association. Kim is an experienced leader with a track record of success in developing structural alignment, leading change initiatives and delivering innovative strategic solutions for both profit and non-profit organizations.

As the daughter of an Air Force intelligence specialist, she spent her childhood overseas living in Madagascar, Peru and Honduras. Her proficiency in Spanish later led her to serve as a translator for the Argentinian swim team during the 1996 Paralympic Games. She also performed as a stepper in the Welcome to the World segment during the opening ceremonies for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta under the direction of Kenny Ortega.

Kimberly graduated with honors from North Carolina A&T State University in 1992 with a degree in Banking & Finance. Upon graduating she accepted a job with McMaster-Carr Supply Co. in Atlanta, GA.

In 1999, Kimberly left McMaster-Carr to launch her own company, Castleberry On-Site Massage Inc., which provided chair massage and mobile spa services to corporations. Kimberly secured major contracts with high-profile clients such as Bell South, Jameson Hospitality and CNN.

Kimberly joined the American Cancer Society in the fight against cancer following her mother’s diagnosis with colorectal cancer in 2001. As the director of mission solutions, she was responsible for the development and delivery of constituent education program materials and mission-based tools. She was also the National Strategic Lead for African American Collaborations/Partnerships and a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society’s Choose You initiative.

In late 2012, Kim joined Pitney Bowes Management Services as a Business Development Executive where she worked with both profit and non-profit organizations improving their data analytics and integration, communication intelligence, messaging via multi-channels and print outsourcing.

Kimberly is an active member of a number of volunteer organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and serves on the board of the Junior League of Atlanta and the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame. She also served on the Visitors board at her alma mater and the advisory board for the Allen Etiquette Institute. In 2002 Upscale Magazine named Kimberly one of 10 Power Brokers of the Millennium. Kimberly resides in Atlanta with her two children Storm and JW.

Follow the American Heart Association on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

SusanGravelySusan Duncan Gravely is President of Gravely and Associates, LLC, a women-owned company specializing in providing insurance products and risk management services to women-owned businesses as well as corporate clients who have a need or desire to do business with other women-owned entities. The intent is to develop and maintain professional relationships with those companies that have a diversity-based focus with their vendor partners. With 40+ year’s experience of servicing clients in the commercial property and casualty industry, she has been identified by corporate risk managers and international insurance brokers as very capable of filling this service void.

Gravely and Associates is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) through the National Women’s Business Enterprise Council, the largest certification council in the United States. Gravely and Associates has been a member in good standing of the Regional Partner Organization, The Greater Women’s Business Council since 2006.

Susan obtained her CIC (Certified Insurance Counselor) designation in 1989, the CPCU (Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter) designation in 1999 and the CRM (Certified Risk Manager) designation in 2004.

Follow Gravely and Associates on LinkedIn.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:05] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio: Conversations to Grow Your Business. Now here’s your host, Roz Lewis.

Roz Lewis: [00:00:25] Good morning.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] Good morning, Roz. This is Lee Kantor joining you here at GWBC Radio: Conversations to Grow Your Business. And February is Heart Awareness Month. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, Roz.

Roz Lewis: [00:00:38] Yes. And my heart has always been beating.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:42] So, you were gonna have a thematic show, right?

Roz Lewis: [00:00:45] We are. We’re gonna have a great show this morning because of who our guest is. And our guest is Kimberly Wright with the American Heart Association, who is going to give us some insight and tips on how to protect your heart. Our theme this month is talking about how do you protect your heart, as well as, not just your heart, but also the heart of your business. And we also have with us Susan Gravely of Gravely & Associates.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:20] So, she’s in charge of the business part, and Kimberly’s in charge of the heart part?

Roz Lewis: [00:01:24] I think they both have a heart.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] They’re both. There’s going to be [crosstalk]-

Roz Lewis: [00:01:27] They both have a heart.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] … referencing there.

Roz Lewis: [00:01:29] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] So, who do you want to kick off with?

Roz Lewis: [00:01:31] Let’s get both.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:31] But first … well, you know what? Before we get too far, this is our first show of 2020. Any updates on GWBC that you know about?

Roz Lewis: [00:01:38] Yes. 2020 is our 20th anniversary. We have been certifying women businesses for 20 years, providing them-

Lee Kantor: [00:01:47] Wow!

Roz Lewis: [00:01:47] Yes, The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council certification. And for you women businesses out there, this certification is a national certification. So, whether you’re certified here in our region, Georgia, North or South Carolina, you will be able to utilize this certification with over 350 major corporations who accept this.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:13] And that’s around the country.

Roz Lewis: [00:02:15] That is around the country that accepts it.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:18] And then, there’s no reason not to do this. This is just opening doors for you to grow your business.

Roz Lewis: [00:02:23] This is a great opportunity, number one, for you to network with other successful women businesses. As a matter of fact, today, after we leave the show, we’ll be on our way to Tables of Eight. This is a luncheon where women connect in order to support each other. I have a special saying that’s by Madeleine Albright.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:46] Go ahead.

Roz Lewis: [00:02:46] There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women. That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:51] So, Tables of Eight will kind of alleviate some of those issues, right?

Roz Lewis: [00:02:55] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:55] They’re going to get together and help each other.

Roz Lewis: [00:02:57] Exactly. Is going to be at the Agave Restaurant. So, if you have time to stop by, by all means, come. There is opportunity for you to meet some very successful women.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:10] And then, is that something that’s going to be ongoing?

Roz Lewis: [00:03:13] Yes. We do this once a quarter, but we have other events too. So, I always encourage you to visit our website at gwbc.org just to learn more about how you can grow and develop your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:28] Good stuff. So, who do you want to kick off the show with?

Roz Lewis: [00:03:30] Let’s kick out the show Kimberley this morning. Let’s get right into the heartbeat.

Kimberly Wright: [00:03:37] Good morning. Good morning.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:37] So, Kimberly, tell us about the American Heart Association. How are you serving folks?

Kimberly Wright: [00:03:41] Oh, well, first of all, it is Heart Month, and we are excited to celebrate your heart this morning and the heart of women. And so, we are a relentless force focused on extending the lives of all people. And so, February is important to us, especially it aligns with Valentine’s Day.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:05] That’s probably a coincidence, right?

Kimberly Wright: [00:04:07] Yes, it is a coincidence. Yeah. It makes sense. A lot of red, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:04:14] So, now, what’s your work at the American Heart Association?

Kimberly Wright: [00:04:17] So, I am the Vice President of Health Strategies for Metro Atlanta. So, what that means is we focus on all things health, in particular, blood pressure control, physical activity, and healthy eating, a lot of policy work focusing on tobacco, especially with his vaping epidemic that we have with the youth in particular. So, I get to wake up every morning focused on how I’m going to save lives. Fancy, huh?

Lee Kantor: [00:04:45] And then, how are you doing that in conjunction with businesses? How are you collaborating with the public?

Kimberly Wright: [00:04:52] Yeah, we partner with businesses, individuals, other nonprofits as well. We partnered with the city’s Councils in Marietta or City of Atlanta focusing on policies as well.

Roz Lewis: [00:05:06] So, how can companies support the American Heart Association and their employees?

Kimberly Wright: [00:05:13] Sure. So, there’s several ways that you can. So, we have actually Workplace Health Solutions, which is a toolkit for companies. A lot of times, companies will decide to have a healthier, which is great, but it’s not sustainable. So, it’s that, “Now what?” So, we really encourage companies to adopt policies of putting their health first. Specifically, tied to women, in particular, we are the chief medical decision makers in our households. So, if women are healthy, the house is healthy, businesses are healthy. So, in particular, we definitely encourage women-owned businesses to focus on putting your health first because there’s a sense of guilt that we tend to have when we focus on ourselves first thinking that it’s selfish when indeed it’s not.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:07] Now, is there some low hanging fruit that a business can do along these lines?

Kimberly Wright: [00:06:12] Sure. So, low hanging fruit is you can do an assessment of your environment and think about what are some of the things that we can take on. Low hanging fruit if you want to encourage and incentivize individuals to park far away, or have healthy meetings, make a decision that you’re going to ensure that you have water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages. We need a little pizzazz, offer infused water perhaps, healthy snacks, again, physical activity, encouraging people to go to the doctor and know their numbers. So, really giving. If you can free up a day to say, “You know what, we’re going to recognize this day as a day that we want everyone in the office to go to their doctor to get their physical and know their numbers.”

Lee Kantor: [00:07:03] Yeah, I know here in this building, they really do a great job. In the third floor here, they have a walking trail that you can walk around. And I’ve seen people have like meetings or instead of having a meeting in a cubicle, you can just walk and have the same meeting, and you’re outside, and you’re walking and moving.

Kimberly Wright: [00:07:18] Yes, absolutely. And a lot of people are working remote these days. So, if you’re working from home, you can walk around or walk on the treadmill. And if you are a leader of a business, encourage that. So, if somebody sounds a little bit winded from walking, celebrate and recognize that versus making them feel like they need to apologize for sounding a little winded.

Roz Lewis: [00:07:40] But we also want to make sure that they’re okay.

Kimberly Wright: [00:07:40] Absolutely, for sure. Yeah, we want to make sure that if you’re just sounding winded because you’re walking, but we definitely want encourage walking.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:51] And then, piggybacking on that okay part, is there a CPR element of this as well?

Kimberly Wright: [00:07:56] There is a CPR element as well. In the American Heart Association, we do offer an extensive CPR training. But we also, on our website at heart.org, you can access information on how to administer hands-only CPR.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:12] And that’s the recommended?

Kimberly Wright: [00:08:14] That is the recommended because it is an easy training and it’s something that you can do to help that individual that is in the middle of a situation to ensure that the emergency, the ambulance can arrive. But it’s not necessarily … it’s enough that you feel empowered to do something without feeling like, “Oh, my gosh, CPR is just too complicated.” And they’re fun videos too.

Roz Lewis: [00:08:42] So, how often do you have to go through training for CPR? I remember when I was a flight attendant, we had to do it every year, doing what was called recurrent training. So, of course, we had to know CPR. But for the day-to-day person, someone working in an office, what would you recommend, so that they hopefully you don’t have an opportunity to use it?

Kimberly Wright: [00:09:09] Sure. So, yes. So, if you’re in a certain field, it is recommended that you get the annual training. But anyone, including your kids at home, can look at this video. Honestly, it takes 10 minutes, and it’s usually to the rhythm of a fun song to help you know the rhythm and the compressions. So, truly, you can go on heart.org, and click on the video, and learn. If you’re in an office setting, I mean, you can make that part of your next meeting to say, “You know what, we’re going to download and start this meeting off by showing this video, so everyone understands how to administer hands-only CPR,” which a big part of it is yelling to someone and telling them to call 911-

Lee Kantor: [00:09:50] Call 911, right.

Kimberly Wright: [00:09:50] … you forget. And so it’s just that reminder of pointing to that person and saying, “Call 911.”

Lee Kantor: [00:09:57] Right. It’s not just yell, “Help!’ You have to say, “Hey, lady in the blue dress, go and call.”

Kimberly Wright: [00:10:03] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:03] Right. Like that, they know it’s them.

Kimberly Wright: [00:10:06] Exactly. Indeed.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:08] Now, for you, when you’re doing this kind of work, is it a little frustrating in that heart disease doesn’t get kind of the press that some of the other diseases, even though the numbers of people who suffer from heart disease and die from that is much greater?

Kimberly Wright: [00:10:25] Yes. In fact, it is the number one killer of men and women. But the good news is 80% of it is preventable through physical activity, eating healthy, and knowing your numbers. But it can be frustrating because like I tell people, I’m in the business of helping to preserve your health. Everyone is born with a heart. We want to ensure that you have a healthy heart. So, when you have cancer, or something else, or diabetes, which is another chronic disease, that is something that is a disease where we’re trying to preserve a heart to prevent heart disease.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:05] Lifestyle.

Kimberly Wright: [00:11:06] Yeah, it’s lifestyle. So, we take February as an opportunity to celebrate life and your heart. So, that’s where this is an incredibly important month to make people understand, “You know what, there are small things that you can do. And we want you to survive.”

Roz Lewis: [00:11:21] So, how does the American Heart Association … because you mentioned about the healthy lifestyle, and drinking water, infused water. So, how does the American Heart Association work with the food industry to ensure that we are eating more low cholesterol items or have those options available to us?

Kimberly Wright: [00:11:45] Sure. So, well, we want to ensure that the healthy choice is the default choice. So, we want to sneak up on you and just make sure you’re being healthy without you even knowing it. So, with the food industry, in particular, when you go into the grocery store, you’ll see that there is something that says American Heart Association Certified with the check mark.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:06] Check mark, right.

Kimberly Wright: [00:12:08] Right. So, when you’re picking your meats for your sandwich meat for the week, if you know that you can hone in on anything that has that heart check because it lets you know that it has limited sodium, a great source of nutrients, it limits the bad fat. So, industries, we are proud of our brand. And so, for that check mark to to be on a box of healthy cereal or on sandwich meat, this low in sodium, that’s the way we partner with the food industry to encourage them to offer healthier options.

Roz Lewis: [00:12:42] So, what about taste test? Because at the end of the day, it’s all about the taste.

Kimberly Wright: [00:12:47] Yes. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And also, you can find in our heart.org, we have a tool kit or a resource that’s called Healthy for Life. And it’s all about food discovery experience, while at the same time learning something new. For instance, if we talk to people about you need to lower your sodium, okay, great, that’s wonderful. But now what? What are the different options that I have?

Lee Kantor: [00:13:16] Right. Like, what’s a lot of sodium? How do I-

Kimberly Wright: [00:13:17] What’s a lot of sodium, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:13:17] I don’t even have any context for that.

Kimberly Wright: [00:13:19] Exactly. And more importantly, what else gives me that satisfaction the salt gives me that is not salt? So, through the Healthy for Life, we have a program that’s really a taste test. For instance, there’s cauliflower rice or adding citrus. So, we provide options on what you can do around healthy eating and encourage people to taste. And so, that’s something that a business can do. So, it’s a great tool kit. You may say, “You know what, we’re going to offer a session and have a little competition on everyone preparing this healthy recipe or snack.” You can have popcorn that has no salt and none of the bad fat, but you can add some fun seasoning to it. And somebody may say, “Oh, I didn’t like the parsley.” We’ll try rosemary. It’s a win-win situation. And so, now, people are introduced to healthy options.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:12] Now, are you finding people are more open to trying different seasonings? You see so many ethnic restaurants, food from all over the world where salt isn’t used. They use lots of herbs and seasonings.

Kimberly Wright: [00:14:25] In some communities. Some communities are ready to just expand and taste some of the things. But for instance, there are certain communities that don’t have that same access. If you’re living in the middle of a food desert and the closest place that you can get food is at the corner gas station that has things that are high in salt, it is a preservative. So, that’s where we partner with school systems or community centers to offer these healthy options to get these kids to try-

Lee Kantor: [00:14:58] Right. Because they’re just not aware, right?

Kimberly Wright: [00:14:59] They’ve never been exposed to it. “Oh, what’s that?” You would really be surprised. So, it’s also about the exposure, and then knowing. I have to tell a story that there was one kid that they said, “You know what, I didn’t know that bananas were really yellow. I thought that was just on television,” because he gets his banana from the corner store fresh fruit, not necessarily available at the corner store. By the time they get to it, it’s sitting there for a while.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:30] Turns like Brown.

Kimberly Wright: [00:15:31] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:32] Right.

Kimberly Wright: [00:15:33] Right. So, giving them that exposure, but also tying it back to business and the children. It really lets them know what else is out there and exposes them. And they may have a passion for, how can we, a school in a certain neighborhood, partner with a local farmer’s market or a farmer to, now, have fresh fruits and vegetables that the kids can taste?” So, we also focused on empowering communities that don’t necessarily have the same access as others.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:03] Now, are you seeing more or more farmers markets pop up?

Kimberly Wright: [00:16:08] We are. And we are partnering with farmer’s markets. So, for instance, with a lot of the faith-based organizations, a lot of them you’ll see will have pop up farmer’s markets on site after service or donate a lot of their fresh fruits and vegetables to the pantries that are in the churches. So, we are seeing that. But I also want to mention that, sometimes, again, in the interest of time, some folks don’t have time to get that fresh fruit and vegetable. So, we also empower people and let them know frozen is a great option. You can’t get canned with that heart check that says low sodium. But if you can’t even get that, you can rinse things off. So, we really try to meet people where they are, so that everyone feels empowered and knows that there is one small thing that I can do no matter where I live, no matter the zip code. What can I do today to help extend my life and the life of my family members?

Roz Lewis: [00:17:07] Well, think about the things that you’re saying regarding the salt content that’s in a lot of our foods. And I even understand it’s even in milk. So, what are the silent signs that a business owner can look for when it comes to their employees as far as being healthy? And it’s always a fine line, right? We’re between an employer and employee. But more than likely, they’re caring about their teammate. So, are there any signs that any of our owners out there can be aware of or start noticing?

Kimberly Wright: [00:17:56] Right. And you bring up a good point because you want to respect people’s privacy’s, and someone may have the best of intentions and end up making a comment that, now, you have a new whole nother issue on your hands. So, what I would say, I would ask the business owners to not look for the signs but make a decision to be proactive. So, again, it goes back to if you are a business owner, ensuring that in our office, we always have fresh fruit. And so, every day, there’s someone in the office, they go and they get the fresh fruit, and there’s always fresh fruit in the break room. So, I would offer that up or having walking meetings.

Kimberly Wright: [00:18:38] But also, if you see somebody that is looking tired or if something’s going on, not necessarily approaching them because everybody may not want that, but that is an opportunity to reflect to say, “Okay, I noticed that this person’s a little bit tired, and maybe you might want to think, am I overworking them? Am I giving them an opportunity to get up and get moving?'” So, instead of having the conversation, you say, “You know what, let’s have a walking meeting today,” or “Walk with me today,” or something. So, that’s the way that I would. I go back to we want to ensure that the healthy choice is the default choice because there is a sense of guilt, especially for women when we take time out for ourselves. So, we don’t want to add that burden onto them to say, “You know what, you’re just not looking right today.” So, how do we turn it around and empower them?

Lee Kantor: [00:19:28] Now, what about stress? That’s kind of like a silent thing that affects a lot of business people.

Kimberly Wright: [00:19:34] Oh, my goodness.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:34] They feel like they have the weight of the world, responsible for other people. What are some things that people can do to alleviate stress in their business life and life?

Kimberly Wright: [00:19:44] Well, you know what you can do? We recommend you do? Take a deep breath. Stop, pause, inhale through your nose, exhale. Okay. Just stop and take a moment. It sounds simple. And getting enough sleep, we encourage sleep. You have to rest.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:11] Right. Some business owners pride themselves on, “Oh, I only sleep two hours a night. I’ve been working 24/7.” And that’s just not sustainable, right?

Kimberly Wright: [00:20:11] It’s not sustainable. And honestly, are you really being productive? So, that’s the question going back to the business. Are you asking yourself, do we … sometimes, we talk about- especially women – that super woman syndrome.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:32] Right. I got it all under control.

Kimberly Wright: [00:20:33] And I’ve got it all under control. And that’s great, but that can shorten our lives. So, we also need to look out for the super women in our lives and make sure that we’re not taking on too much and saying, “That’s great, but how can I help you?”

Lee Kantor: [00:20:50] Are there any kind of physiological clues that maybe something’s not right? Like is there heart kind of symptoms that someone could see, like, “I’m having trouble. I used to be able to walk up the stairs. And, now, I’m having trouble.” Are there some clues that people can hone in on?

Kimberly Wright: [00:21:06] Yeah, there are some. Those are some. Like, if you’re winded, you’re walking, if you’re feeling tired all the time. I mean, honestly, it’s just those basic clues. But for heart attacks, in particular, or in stroke. So, for stroke, we talk about the acronym of FAST, face drooping, arm drooping, you can’t smile. And if not, then it’s time to call 911. So, those are some of the outward signs, but the challenge is, again, going back to women, “Oh, you know what? I just had this little tingle,” and we ignore it, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:21:42] Right

Kimberly Wright: [00:21:42] So, what I would say is watch. Listen to your body. Listen to the signs. If you’re feeling tired, rest. Don’t ignore the signs.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:53] But they happen like so gradually. Like, you don’t know. It’s a little thing that just kind of builds over time. It’s hard to discern like, “Oh, this is something really big,” or, “This is something manageable.”

Kimberly Wright: [00:22:03] Right, right. And so, yeah, I mean, and everybody’s body is different, and it could be something not necessarily heart health related. So, that’s why we do say it’s important to know your numbers. That’s the best indicator. I mean, truly knowing your numbers.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:19] And your numbers, that’s your blood pressure. What are the other numbers that are important to know?

Kimberly Wright: [00:22:24] They are blood pressure, knowing what your weight should be. So, connecting with your doctor, so that they can even communicate to you what your numbers should be, and establish some goals and metrics.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:37] And that way, you can see trends.

Kimberly Wright: [00:22:39] You can see trends. Yeah, yeah.

Roz Lewis: [00:22:41] But what about the difference between women and men? Because there are some signs that women should pay attention to. Historically, the signs have been more geared towards men. And today, we really have some signs that our women need to be paying attention to. I say the first sign is to lower, to your point, the superwoman cape.

Kimberly Wright: [00:23:04] Right, right, right, yes. And then, if we’re talking about heart attacks, in particular, for both men and women, of course, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, you have discomfort in the upper part of your body. But for women in particular, women experience some different signs of which one in particular is that shortness of breath, if you’re nauseated or vomiting, and back or jaw pain. So, imagine how it could or could not be, right? So, you’re just thinking, “Oh, I was lifting my baby, and it’s just my back,” or “Oh, my jaw. I was clenching my teeth.” So, that kind of goes back to listen to your body.

Roz Lewis: [00:23:52] Right. So, this month is also Go for Red Month, right? So, tell us a little bit about the Go for Red Campaign.

Kimberly Wright: [00:23:59] Right. So, the Go Red for Women. So, it’s important because, like I said, women are the chief medical decision makers in the household, and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women.

Roz Lewis: [00:24:15] Not breast cancer.

Kimberly Wright: [00:24:16] Not breast. That’s exactly what I was getting ready to say. It claims more lives than any form of cancer combined.

Roz Lewis: [00:24:24] Wow!

Kimberly Wright: [00:24:24] Right. And so, something else to consider is that women continue to be underrepresented in research and experience the inequities that come along with treatment. So, the research dollars, we need to ensure that more dollars go towards research in women, in particular. So, that’s one thing that we focus on. We have something, STEM Goes Red, which is really exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:51] That’s a great idea to combine those two things.

Roz Lewis: [00:24:54] Exactly.

Kimberly Wright: [00:24:54] Absolutely. And that’s focused on young ladies, young girls. So, we partner with local businesses. And it’s a day where each business takes a letter, the S, the T, the E, the M. And the young ladies are exposed to science, technology, and so on, and so forth. And so, it really is about ensuring that women and young girls stay interested in that field. So, ultimately, we can have more women research writers and medical experts.

Roz Lewis: [00:25:25] But is it also about women volunteer for certain test or-

Kimberly Wright: [00:25:25] Right. Yes. So, I would say that women make up less than half of the clinical trials.

Roz Lewis: [00:25:38] And that’s the word I was looking for, clinical trials.

Kimberly Wright: [00:25:41] Yeah. Clinical trials, right.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:42] So, why is that? There’s more women than men, why would they do the trials less?

Kimberly Wright: [00:25:48] Well, I think there’s a number of reasons. One, that ties back to if there’s fewer women, fewer dollars that are going towards women research and women than some women may not qualify for certain clinical trials. But there are a number of factors, but we just need to be more aware of that and know that clinical trials can be an option, but then ensure that more dollars go towards research for women, so that we will have clinical trials that are focused on women.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:22] Right. Because like you said, it’s not the same. Like the disease affects people differently.

Kimberly Wright: [00:26:28] Right. There are biological differences that we can’t ignore.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:31] So, now, what do you need more of? What are some things businesses right now can do to celebrate Heart Awareness Month?

Kimberly Wright: [00:26:38] Well, there’s a couple of things that we’d love for you to do. And this is one, Heart Walk. We have our heart walk every year. And so, we’d love for businesses to participate. That’s a great team-building exercise. It’s a great way to be active together and just celebrate Heart Health. Also, we encourage businesses, if you want to call 1-877-242-4277 or simply go to cpr.heart.org and sign up your business for CPR training, the extensive one. So, that’s where if you want more than download the video quick hands-only CPR training, that’s something else that you can do as well.

Kimberly Wright: [00:27:24] Also, join us in the advocacy space. So, we spend a lot of time in our local markets. And so, you can join You’re the Cure. I’ll pull that information on how to text to join. And so, that keeps you abreast of all the policies that we’re focused on. We are incredibly excited to say that Atlanta is now smoke-free. And that was a result of the policy work that was done. And so, we’d love for businesses and community members alike to come along with us. And we, now, are focusing on … we have participated in Complete Street. So, if there’s new construction going on or renovation, ensuring that there are safe sidewalks for people to be able to to walk, but now taking it a step further, you have those communities that have the Complete Streets but it’s not safe for kids to walk to school. So, we call that Safe Routes to School. So, having business come along with us to really ensure, how can we ensure that kids can get to school safely?

Lee Kantor: [00:28:28] Imagine that, walking to school. Again-

Kimberly Wright: [00:28:30] Walking to school, physical activity. Fancy that.

Lee Kantor: [00:28:32] What a concept. Now, for you, what’s the most rewarding part of the job?

Kimberly Wright: [00:28:37] Every day, I wake up focused on saving someone’s life. And by trade, I’m a finance person. My background is in finance and operations. How did I end up, that’s another story, now that I said, right? How? But just knowing that I have purpose, and it’s a big job, but at the same time, it is incredibly rewarding when I go and I see that heart check at the grocery store.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:06] Or someone put that in their basket.

Kimberly Wright: [00:29:07] Yes, yes. Or people are talking about Zip Code Matter, and the disparity, and the life expectancy from one zip code to another, and the fact that we are participating in bringing awareness to that issue. And so, now, encouraging whether it’s businesses, city council members to come along with us to ensure that there is health equity. So, that excites me.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:32] Now, is there are ways for our listener to volunteer? Are there volunteer opportunities?

Kimberly Wright: [00:29:38] Say no more. There is always volunteer opportunities. So, I would go to heart.org. That’s really the best place to go. And there’s a place there where you can just click to volunteer, and they’ll connect you with your local market-

Lee Kantor: [00:29:54] Right, that’s near you.

Kimberly Wright: [00:29:55] Yeah, yeah, it’s near. Then, we want to plug you in with whatever space resonates most with you. But there are plenty. We don’t exist without our volunteers. We even have committee members that help to inform our where we go and what we should focus on. So, whether you just want to hand out information, or advocate, or serve on a committee, there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer. And definitely want to take a moment to thank all the volunteers that are out there. So, we really appreciate it.

Roz Lewis: [00:30:29] Well, most nonprofits cannot do without volunteers, right? They’re the extended team members. They are also part of the lifeblood of any non-profit organization. And I think you talking about the fact of what you were trained in versus where you are today, you have found your purpose.

Kimberly Wright: [00:30:51] Thank you. I think I have. I think I have. And there’s transferable skills, right? So, I started at a different nonprofit, the Cancer Society before, and I thought to myself, “Who am I, this finance and operations person, to come in alongside the Chief Deputy Medical Officer that I would see on CNN. Who am I?” But there’s the operation. So, I came into this space just really figuring out how to help nonprofits execute on the research. So, for instance, if the research says you need to consume X number of servings of fruits and vegetables a day, how do you translate that to the general public? How do you make it easy for people to understand what they can do? And really just the implementation, the budget side of it. So, at first, I didn’t understand my place. But now, I do understand my place in the nonprofit world. So, that’s another message too that where you start off in your career may not be where you end up, so.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:59] But it’s leveraging your superpowers in order to maximize the impact you’re making and your skills.

Kimberly Wright: [00:32:06] Right, absolutely. So, with donor dollars with the background, I’m always thinking about what’s a strong return on impact and return on investment. And I want to make sure we’re being responsible with our donor dollars. I take pride in the fact that if somebody says, “Where’s money going?”, “Okay, so glad you asked. I can share that with you, so you can see the return on investment and the return on impact.” Great. This is the output or what you paid for, but this also equates to X number of kids now being able to walk to school.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:41] And know a banana is yellow.

Kimberly Wright: [00:32:42] And know that a banana is yellow.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:45] Good stuff. Well, thank you for the work you’re doing. It’s so important.

Kimberly Wright: [00:32:48] Thank you.

Roz Lewis: [00:32:49] Yeah, we really appreciate it. So, Susan.

Susan Gravely: [00:32:53] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:54] You learned anything there?

Susan Gravely: [00:32:56] I learned a lot.

Roz Lewis: [00:32:58] So, now, here, we’ve talked about how we can help healthy employees and hopefully healthy business owners too. So, remember, it’s more than two hours of sleep. You need at least seven to eight hours. And I’m also talking to myself regarding that.

Susan Gravely: [00:33:15] I can relate.

Roz Lewis: [00:33:15] Yes. But let’s talk about the business and how important it is. And literally, tell us a little bit about Gravely & Associates. And you’re going to hear that I word business owners out there not thinking that that is truly your heartbeat.

Susan Gravely: [00:33:34] That’s exactly right. Well, Gravely & Associates provides insurance products and risk management services to businesses, large and small. Where we plug ourselves in is working with women-owned businesses, minority businesses, smaller businesses that do business with corporate. Those individuals or those businesses have a need for someone who can go in and look at those corporate contracts, determine what coverage they need, and provide that coverage for them in an environment that is service-oriented.

Lee Kantor: [00:34:09] Now, what’s an example of some coverage that when you’re dealing with a corporate that a business may not anticipate needing?

Susan Gravely: [00:34:15] That’s a great question. We see and I see all kinds of contracts. We work with a lot of WBEs, work with a lot of corporate contracts, and those corporate contracts can change from year to year. And you may have had adequate coverage the year before, and then they change their contract requirements, and they’re required to have additional coverage. And it can range from anything from general liability, to umbrella coverage, to crime coverage, and fidelity coverage, professional liability coverage. Cyber coverage is now a big hot topic and a hot ticket for clients that are doing business with corporates.

Lee Kantor: [00:34:58] What does cyber coverage mean?

Susan Gravely: [00:35:00] Cyber liability coverage is basically coverage for those individuals, companies that have computer services, provide computer services, can’t retain any type of personal information for that corporate or for their clients. And if that service is breached, then you have to provide notification to your clients that you have been breached, and you have to meet certain state requirements in that responsibility. You can be held for ransom. They will hold your personal information for ransom. And these are third parties that hack into your computer system.

Susan Gravely: [00:35:46] And so, that’s why cyber liability is such a hot topic now because these corporations, we all do business through the internet. We all do business with computers. We all have smartphones. All of those things can be breached. And if they are breached, then personal information that you have on that website, or on that server, or on that smartphone can be used against you or can be used against the client.

Lee Kantor: [00:36:16] So, then, you have to have the appropriate insurance to protect yourself from that.

Susan Gravely: [00:36:19] Exactly, exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:36:20] Now, what about in health care? I would imagine there is a lot of regulations because aren’t the HIPAA laws such that third parties have to-

Susan Gravely: [00:36:29] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:36:30] … do a lot of stuff-

Susan Gravely: [00:36:30] That is so true. Medical providers are the ones that have the most stringent HIPAA laws. And they have to protect the privacy of that patient, of that client going forward. And it can be thousands and thousands of private information that’s kept on their server or in the cloud that can be breached. And yes, most health care providers, most doctor offices, I mean, it can go down the line.

Susan Gravely: [00:37:03] I’ll give you a great example. During the Christmas holidays, I have a health spending account, and my health spending account was used for my doctor’s visit in November. Well, I just happened to look on my smartphone. I was checking my email on December the 25th, believe it or not. And I had eight emails saying, “Thank you from PayPal. $80 has been taken out of your health savings account.” And I’m like, “I haven’t spent any money. I haven’t gone anywhere.”

Lee Kantor: [00:37:41] That’s weird.

Susan Gravely: [00:37:41] And oh, by the way, it was nail salons and clothing stores.

Roz Lewis: [00:37:44] Wow!

Lee Kantor: [00:37:44] Not exactly heath savings.

Susan Gravely: [00:37:45] Which is not health savings account. So, I immediately go to my bank, I tell them what happened, and the money was put back in my account, but my account was breached, and it was breached from my doctor’s office in November.

Lee Kantor: [00:38:01] And it may not have been the doctor. It could have been a third party that worked with the doctor.

Susan Gravely: [00:38:05] It could have been the third party. It could have been someone who hacked into their system. And so, I notified my doctor. I notified their office. They went and had to notify all of their patients.

Lee Kantor: [00:38:18] Right.

Roz Lewis: [00:38:18] So, when you look at time and effort to recoup all of this, how economical is this to have this insurance?

Susan Gravely: [00:38:27] The insurance cost compared to the exposure is minimal. And I’ll give you a great example. I have a client that we just secured a cyber liability policy for, and it’s three different companies, and it’s a temporary agency. They provide staffing for medical doctors offices and hospitals, general white collar corporate and employees and security. And they just secured a $5 million limit for $7500 a year.

Lee Kantor: [00:39:03] Wow!

Susan Gravely: [00:39:03] That’s unbelievable. And it had alternative coverages that were listed below there that the client hadn’t even really thought about. So, it’s a comprehensive program and the cost, fortunately, for the consumer right now, the cost is not caught up with what is actually going to be the exposure in the long term because everybody needs it. Five years from now, we’re going to see probably … the next three to five years, we’re going to see a big jump in cyber liability premiums because the losses are going to catch up with what people are paying in premium.

Roz Lewis: [00:39:41] Wow!

Susan Gravely: [00:39:41] So, right now, now’s the time to buy it, to get in on the ground floor, so that your costs are not going to be jumped up over a period of time. But if you wait three or five years from now, you may not be able to afford it.

Lee Kantor: [00:39:57] Exactly.

Susan Gravely: [00:39:57] Exactly. So, it’s a process.

Lee Kantor: [00:40:01] Now, any counsel for that new business? Like, what are kind of the basic insurance that they should be looking at?

Susan Gravely: [00:40:09] It really depends on the exposure and what their scope of operations is. And we’ll just take a main street business. A retail business would need coverage for their inventory and their property. They would need general liability coverage, which gives you coverage for bodily injury and property damage to a third party that comes on your premises, or you go to their premises. If they have a commercial auto that they use in the business, you would take commercial auto coverage to cover that exposure. And so, a regular, a main street business that’s just starting out. Those are probably the basics.

Susan Gravely: [00:40:49] Workers compensation, if you have two or more full-time or part-time employees, in the State of Georgia, you are required to carry worker’s compensation insurance. And if you don’t, and you have more of those employees, and someone is injured on the job, you’re responsible for their injury, and you can be fined up to $10,000 for not caring it. And that’s something that’s not really out there or advertised, but it is a state law. I mean, it’s part of what Georgia requires.

Lee Kantor: [00:41:17] What about service companies? Are there any insurance that they should be carrying?

Susan Gravely: [00:41:21] Yes. Service companies are a little bit different in the fact that if you are providing a service, you’re providing something that’s almost intangible. It’s based on your performance. It’s based on the services you provide. In that instance, you would need to carry professional liability coverage. And that professional liability coverage gives you coverage for that entity if that client that you are servicing suffers a financial loss because of something you did as a service.

Roz Lewis: [00:41:54] Is that like errors and omissions?

Susan Gravely: [00:41:54] It’s exactly like errors and omissions. Those two or simultaneous, professional liability and errors and omissions are one and the same.

Roz Lewis: [00:42:03] Okay. But explain a little bit more about why I, as a service business, should have errors and omission.

Susan Gravely: [00:42:12] Okay.

Roz Lewis: [00:42:14] And the difference between the two.

Susan Gravely: [00:42:15] Okay.

Roz Lewis: [00:42:16] If there is a slight difference.

Susan Gravely: [00:42:17] There really isn’t. Errors and omissions and professional liability really go hand in hand. You can call six one half does the other basically. But what you are looking at protecting is the service you provide to that third party. And let’s just take, for instance, a design firm, okay? A design firm provides you with a service. They provide you with a product as well. But say, for instance, that design firm goes out, and they make a drawing of your facility. They say, “This this is where we want the exits to be. This is where we want the restrooms to be. This is where we want. This is how we’re going to decorate. This is the color scheme we’re gonna use,” et cetera, et cetera.

Susan Gravely: [00:43:01] Well, they put all this together, and we find out at a later date or after it’s done that, “Oh, my goodness, we forgot to take into account the ADA Act.” And so, instead of having a handicapped bathroom, we don’t have a handicapped bathroom. And that particular client has suffered a financial loss because they have to bring it up to code. And if that’s not done, then the design firm that designed it in the first place should know that because they are servicing that client. So, it would go back to that design firm and their professional ability to pay that financial loss.

Lee Kantor: [00:43:37] Because they should have known.

Susan Gravely: [00:43:38] They should known, exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:43:38] Right. And that’s why you were contracting them, because they were supposed to be experts.

Susan Gravely: [00:43:42] Exactly. That’s why you contract. They are experts in their industry and they should know that.

Lee Kantor: [00:43:48] Now, we’re talking about things that are mistakes and things like that. Is there any insurance for like kind of acts of God, like the power goes out, no fault of anybody, and that’s disrupting business? Is there any for that?

Susan Gravely: [00:44:03] Oh, yes, absolutely. And that insurance, some policies do you have a power failure. And so, say, for instance, we have a power outage here during this, and it’s caused by a tree coming down.

Lee Kantor: [00:44:18] Right, like we’re doing work. Right, they’re doing work.

Susan Gravely: [00:44:20] A work down the street, exactly. So, that power interruption comes about. We’re off the air. And then, basically, we’re looking at a tree down over here, and it’s blown over-

Lee Kantor: [00:44:31] And it’s like no fault of anybody.

Susan Gravely: [00:44:31] But it’s blown over and it causes an immediate accident here, then there’s coverage for that under your property policy, under the policy that is provided for your property coverage. And it’s usually a sub limit. I have restaurants that have the power outage coverage because they can’t afford to have a power outage for more than 10 hours or five hours because they have food in the freezer that’s going to go bad. So, that’s a huge exposure. And they will have that, and they may increase that limit. You can buy it in increments of $1000, or $5000, or $10,000, or whatever you think is adequate to cover your inventory or to cover your loss.

Roz Lewis: [00:45:18] But for startups, do you think startups should have this insurance?

Susan Gravely: [00:45:23] Absolutely. And the reason I say that is because you don’t know if you are going to see a client, and you don’t have that coverage in place, you don’t have that general liability coverage in place, and you caused bodily injury or property damage to that client that you’re going to see, they are out of whatever bodily injury and/or property damage, they’re out of pocket. Your insurance should pay for that. And basically, that’s what they’re looking for. And it also lends credibility to the business that you have. You can walk in and say, “I can do this for you. I’m an expert in this field. This, here is my insurance information to tell you that I have already done my due diligence. I’m going to have an adequate insurance program that’s going to cover my exposure, as well as your exposure,” if that situation comes up.

Roz Lewis: [00:46:30] So, we’ve talked about cyber security. Let’s talk about the equipment and how important it is to cover any of the equipment that you have and how, sometimes, especially for startups, they think, “You know what, my budget is already tight, and I’m going to just wing it. I’m just going to take a risk on the fact that this is going to be okay,” where should this not be the number one insurance that they look for coverage on?

Susan Gravely: [00:47:03] It really should. And the reason being … and I spoke with a young lady this week who said, “I did not get the insurance program that you talked to me about a year ago. And guess what happened? I had all of my equipment stolen out of my car.” “I’m so sorry.” That was my first response. “I’m so sorry. but I tried to tell you.” And now, she’s come back to me and said, “I’ve learned the hard way. I know I need to do this. Can you help me?” And I said, ‘Absolutely. I’ll be happy to help you.” But it is very important. You don’t think it’s ever going to happen to you until it does happen to you. And then, it’s too late.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:43] Right. Now, what’s the process? Like you’re a business owner. Like how early in the process should you be talking to your insurance person? Is this an annual call, like you update what’s happening? Like what’s a good insurance company that … what’s the rhythm of kind of communicating with their clients to make sure they’re protected because changes, it’s very fluid?

Susan Gravely: [00:48:05] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:06] Things are always going on.

Susan Gravely: [00:48:07] Absolutely. One of the things that I do in my practice is I touch base with my clients, at least, 90 days prior to their renewal date. And we have that conversation. They get a summary of insurance from me of any changes that we’ve made during the policy term. And I go to them and say, “These are the things that we need to be looking at. What has changed in your scope of operations? What do I need to do for you? What is your payroll look like? What’s your revenue looking like?”

Susan Gravely: [00:48:36] And I’ll be honest with you, the past two years, every single account that I have worked on, every single client I’ve met with is having a huge, huge success in their business. So, their revenues are going up. Their payroll is going up to meet the needs of that product and service that they’re providing. They are expanding their business. And so, my job as their insurance agent and their insurance consultant is to make sure that we are addressing those needs as they come up. And so, that’s my job is to meet with them, at least, 90 days prior to the renewal date. And then, I touch base with them. Usually, most of my clients here for me at least once a month.

Lee Kantor: [00:49:20] And then, part of your job also is kind of being up to date of any changes like in regulation, or laws, or something that they may not be aware of that could be impacting them, right?

Susan Gravely: [00:49:31] Exactly. I mean, I’m constantly reading periodicals. I’m constantly going to … I go to an insurance class every year. We are constantly looking at what is going on out there in the workplace, what is going on out there in the business workplace. And I learn a lot from working with these women-owned businesses that work with these corporates because these corporates are also at the forefront of what is changing in the industry. And so, we have to meet those needs as they come up as well. So, yes, it’s a learning curve. Every single day, I’m reading some periodical, some information, something that has changed in the State of Georgia or whatever state that particular client is doing business in. So, it’s part of my job is to do that.

Lee Kantor: [00:50:17] Now, for the woman that starting out, and their budget is limited, and they’re saying, “Okay, I’m going to not address insurance on day one,” which I am sure it happens, but at some point they’re ready to have this conversation. That initial conversation with you or an insurance professional, is that something that’s very costly, like just a lay of the land to learn how this works because they might be surprised it isn’t as expensive as they made anticipate it be?

Susan Gravely: [00:50:48] Exactly. And a lot of times, I think they hear from … if they’re looking at getting that corporate contract, and they’re looking at doing business with the big guy, so to speak, you don’t always have to provide all of the insurance requirements that that particular contract is requiring because I have gone through contracts before with a client that is providing a product, but they don’t need professional liability insurance because they are selling a product.

Roz Lewis: [00:51:20] Right. That’s on the scope of their work, right?

Susan Gravely: [00:51:22] Right, exactly. So, we look at it or I look at it, look at that contract, and I say, “These are the things that we can go back to that corporate and negotiate.” And you tell them, “This is what…” They give you a contract, and it is a carte blanche. I mean, it’s [crosstalk].

Lee Kantor: [00:51:38] Right, it’s [crosstalk].

Susan Gravely: [00:51:38] That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:51:38] Right, exactly.

Susan Gravely: [00:51:38] And what you have to do is tailor it to what you are providing.

Lee Kantor: [00:51:45] Right.

Susan Gravely: [00:51:45] And that’s where I come in as well. And you’d be surprised. You can get a business owner’s package policy, which would include property, and general ability, and typically hard and unknown for $350 a year, depending on where you’re located, and what you’re doing. So-

Roz Lewis: [00:52:04] Can you repeat that. How much?

Susan Gravely: [00:52:06] $350 is the minimum premium.

Roz Lewis: [00:52:10] Wow. Hopefully you all are listening.

Lee Kantor: [00:52:11] Right? Because, I mean, people don’t know. They just imagine this is some huge number. They’re like, “I’m not going to deal with this.” One that’s so minimal-

Susan Gravely: [00:52:18] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:52:20] … it’s like silly not to have it.

Susan Gravely: [00:52:22] And if you start with that minimum premium, as you grow your business, yes, your premium is going to grow because your exposure grows. And so, you have to look-

Roz Lewis: [00:52:31] And so is the revenue and the income.

Susan Gravely: [00:52:31] And so is the revenue and the income. So, it is all relative. It all works the same way.

Lee Kantor: [00:52:37] So, now, how much is that initial consultation just to find out what’s what?

Susan Gravely: [00:52:42] I don’t charge anything.

Roz Lewis: [00:52:44] So, now, you’re saying that you don’t charge anything. I’m hearing $350 to have pretty much general coverage that you need.

Susan Gravely: [00:52:55] Right.

Roz Lewis: [00:52:55] If you break that down, that’s equals to what? Let’s do the math. $30 dollars a month, if that?

Susan Gravely: [00:53:04] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:53:05] Like a movie for two people?

Roz Lewis: [00:53:07] Yes. Actually, a movie costs more.

Susan Gravely: [00:53:08] Oh, no, no, no, no. No, you can’t.

Roz Lewis: [00:53:09] You can’t go to the movies.

Susan Gravely: [00:53:11] No, you cannot-

Roz Lewis: [00:53:11] It’s not $30 anymore.

Susan Gravely: [00:53:11] You might get the popcorn and the cup for 30.

Roz Lewis: [00:53:15] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:53:17] Yeah. So, that’s kind of a no brainer there. So, if somebody wanted to learn more and have a more substantive conversation with you, is there a website?

Susan Gravely: [00:53:24] Absolutely. www.gravelyandassociates.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:53:32] Now, before we wrap this segment, Susan, can you talk about your relationship with GWBC? Like how that’s impacting your business?

Susan Gravely: [00:53:39] I love this organization. They have really been just incredible. I have made so many wonderful friends and not only business associates, but just lifelong friends. And if you get involved in this organization, the return on investment is tenfold. It is absolutely incredible. Roz Lewis does a fantastic job. Her support team does a fantastic job. I’m involved in several committees, and I absolutely love it. It’s a highlight of my day.

Susan Gravely: [00:54:16] And you’re talking about getting up in the morning and what your purpose in life is, I have found my purpose in life, and it’s working with women-owned businesses. They truly appreciate what you do for them. And I’m not knocking men. I love men. But working with women, they appreciate what you put into it, and they take your advice, and they look to you. And it’s not just a business associate or business association, it is a friendship too. And I count myself very fortunate, very blessed to be a part of this organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:54:54] And now, any advice for the woman who isn’t yet involved with GWBC?

Susan Gravely: [00:54:58] Please, please, please go to the website, get involved. We’re doing a function every month, some type of networking function every month for women-owned businesses. The certification process, once you’re through it, it’s very easy to renew every year. We are very hands-on organization. We have a working board, and they work, and we have volunteers that work within the organization. And we have a great time. We have a ball. We have a great time.

Roz Lewis: [00:55:37] And then, you can be recognized as volunteer of the year, such as Susan Gravely has been recognized as one of our volunteers of the year.

Susan Gravely: [00:55:44] How nice of you to bring that up.

Lee Kantor: [00:55:45] But the only way you’re going to get that though is, like Susan said, you have to-

Roz Lewis: [00:55:49] You got to show up

Lee Kantor: [00:55:49] You have to get involved. This isn’t something-

Susan Gravely: [00:55:53] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:55:53] … that you just pay a fee, and then-

Susan Gravely: [00:55:54] No, you have to get involved.

Lee Kantor: [00:55:54] … magically business comes your way.

Roz Lewis: [00:55:56] Exactly.

Susan Gravely: [00:55:56] It’s just like a gym membership.

Roz Lewis: [00:55:58] Exactly/

Susan Gravely: [00:55:58] That’s what we like to say.

Lee Kantor: [00:56:00] Right.

Roz Lewis: [00:56:00] Exactly. If you want to grow up, you got to show up.

Susan Gravely: [00:56:04] That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:56:05] So, now, Roz, great episode. Is there anything, any events coming up to remind the listener about?

Roz Lewis: [00:56:11] Well, as I mentioned today, we do have an event that’s momentarily starting. It’s our Tables of Eight. We also have additional events, our Top Corporations Luncheon is going to be on April 27th. So, we encourage you to visit our website for other events that not only that GWBC organically creates, but also that we partner with other organizations that you may already be involved with that allows you to, once again, get your name out there. People need to know and understand what you do, how you do it, and more importantly, how you can solve their problems or provide a solution. You want to stay top of mind. There are 9 … no, there are 12 billion women businesses in this country. So, keep that in mind. There’s a lot of competition.

Lee Kantor: [00:57:09] Well, this is your edge. GWBC is your edge.

Roz Lewis: [00:57:12] Exactly. So, we encourage you to get engaged, get involved, volunteer.

Susan Gravely: [00:57:18] Absolutely.

Roz Lewis: [00:57:18] And not only just volunteer within our organization, but volunteer with organizations like the American Heart Association because you never know who your revenue elbows with. It could be the vice president or the chief procurement officer of that corporation-.

Susan Gravely: [00:57:35] That’s right.

Roz Lewis: [00:57:35] … that you are trying to get a contract with. So, those are relationship, relationship, relationship is key.

Lee Kantor: [00:57:43] And what about the corporates, like , why should they get involved with GWBC? What’s in it for them?

Roz Lewis: [00:57:49] Because we have the best repository of competitive women businesses in this country. Keep in mind that we can, now, say out of over a thousand certified women businesses that the majority of them are over $1 million in revenue. So, that’s exciting. And we want to encourage even more. We want to scale those that aren’t at a million yet to get there. So, we would love to say three-fourths of our constituency sits over a million dollars. That’s economic impact.

Lee Kantor: [00:58:27] Right. And that’s important to understand the context of that. That number is way above the norm.

Roz Lewis: [00:58:33] Way above the norm. You’re right. But I always leave you with a parting thought, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:58:38] Go for it.

Roz Lewis: [00:58:39] And so, keep in mind, yes, February is Heart Month, but it’s also Black History Month. And in that, I would like to quote Madam C.J. Walker. She was the first woman millionaire, African-American millionaire. And her quote is, “I had to make my own living and my own opportunity.” And she was very successful in making those opportunities that, today, we still reap the benefits of.

Lee Kantor: [00:59:10] That’s great advice. Choose yourself. Make it happen.

Roz Lewis: [00:59:13] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:59:14] Well, Roz, thank you so much for open this episode together. And thank you to both of our guests today.

Roz Lewis: [00:59:19] Yes. We want to thank Susan and Kimberly.

Kimberly Wright: [00:59:22] this was great.

Lee Kantor: [00:59:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor for Roz Lewis. We will see you all next time on GWBC Radio.

 

About Your Host

Roz-Lewis-GWBCRoz Lewis is President & CEO – Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®), a regional partner organization of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and a member of the WBENC Board of Directors.

Previous career roles at Delta Air Lines included Flight Attendant, In-Flight Supervisor and Program Manager, Corporate Supplier Diversity.

During her career she has received numerous awards and accolades. Most notable: Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2018 Diversity & Inclusion award; 2017 inducted into the WBE Hall of Fame by the American Institute of Diversity and Commerce and 2010 – Women Out Front Award from Georgia Tech University.

She has written and been featured in articles on GWBC® and supplier diversity for Forbes Magazine SE, Minority Business Enterprise, The Atlanta Tribune, WE- USA, Minorities and Women in Business magazines. Her quotes are published in The Girls Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business book by Susan Wilson Solovic and Guide Coaching by Ellen M. Dotts, Monique A. Honaman and Stacy L. Sollenberger. Recently, she appeared on Atlanta Business Chronicle’s BIZ on 11Alive, WXIA to talk about the importance of mentoring for women.

In 2010, Lewis was invited to the White House for Council on Women and Girls Entrepreneur Conference for the announcement of the Small Business Administration (SBA) new Women Owned Small Business Rule approved by Congress. In 2014, she was invited to the White House to participate in sessions on small business priorities and the Affordable Care Act.

Roz Lewis received her BS degree from Florida International University, Miami, FL and has the following training/certifications: Certified Purchasing Managers (CPM); Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity (CPSD), Institute for Supply Management (ISM)of Supplier Diversity and Procurement: Diversity Leadership Academy of Atlanta (DLAA), Negotiations, Supply Management Strategies and Analytical Purchasing.

Connect with Roz on LinkedIn.

About GWBC

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

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

Tagged With: Gravely and Associates, Metro Atlanta’s American Heart Association

BRX Pro Tip: Ask These 3 Questions

February 21, 2020 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Ask These 3 Questions
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Stone Payton: [00:00:01] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, when it comes to nurturing, growing and serving your network, you always say, “Ask these three questions.” Talk about that a little bit.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah, I think that every week, it’s important to connect with your guests, previous guests. Go through the archives and find old guests that you want to kind of rekindle, and ask questions like this. Three questions that come to mind for me to do this are, “Can I help? Is there anything I can do to help?” You know, just check in and say, “Is there anything I can do to help?” Or ask, “Is everything good? Is all good? Anything? Is everything going your way?” Things like that. And lastly, ask if they need anything. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] If you ask your network those three questions or one of those three questions each week, you’re going to be able to really find out what’s on their mind, where they need help, and if they need access to your network and all the people that you know in order to help them, and they’ll see that you really do care and that you really do want to help them grow their business. And that, in turn, if you do that all the time, will help you grow your business.

Stone Payton: [00:01:18] And you’re not suggesting this as some magic copywriting tactic, as an introductory sentence to some elaborate marketing campaign. You’re just saying, actually, just go ask that question.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] Right? Human to human. You know, you should care. You know, you should care enough to want to help. You should care enough to want to know if everything is going well for them. And you should care enough to ask if they need anything and be willing to kind of share what you have, so you can help them.

Stone Payton: [00:01:47] All right. So, recap the three questions one more time, if you will. The three questions.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:50] Can I help? All good? And you need anything?

Stone Payton: [00:01:56] I love it.

Chris Hermann with Clean Hands Safe Hands and Atandra Burman with RCE

February 20, 2020 by angishields

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Atlanta Business Radio
Chris Hermann with Clean Hands Safe Hands and Atandra Burman with RCE
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This episode is brought to you in part by our Co-Sponsor Trevelino/Keller

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Chris Hermann, PhD is the Founder and CEO of Clean Hands – Safe Hands (CHSH). He has over 14 years of experience working in medical technology design and healthcare. His background, as a physician and engineer, has given him a unique perspective to bridge the gap between engineering and medicine. His in depth technical and clinical knowledge have allowed him to lead multidisciplinary teams to address complex clinical problems. These teams have created several medical devices, biologic therapies, and electronic sensors that are used clinically or are in clinical trials.

Dr. Hermann started and led the multi-institution research collaboration that developed the core technology utilized in the CHSH system. The research team included investigators from Children’s Healthcare, Georgia Tech, Emory School of Medicine, the GA Tech Research Institute, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over the last 10 years the research team has secured and executed more than eight state and federal research grants totaling over $3.2M. Unlike most clinical research grants, these projects were heavily focused on rapid iteration engineering development and completely driven by the real world needs of clinicians. Dr. Hermann is the lead inventor for the patents related to the CHSH technology and serves as the connection between the clinicians and engineers.

Outside of his clinical experience, Dr. Hermann has over ten years’ experience in a variety of leadership development training, experiential education, and team building roles. These include running and facilitating high ropes/challenge courses, climbing leadership development programs, and high adventure sailing programs. He has a PhD in Bioengineering, a MS in Mechanical Engineering, a BS in Biomedical Engineering with High Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MD from the Emory School of Medicine. He is married with two children.

Follow CHSH on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Atandra Burman, CEO and Founder of RCE, is on a mission towards saving human lives, susceptible to heart attacks. We have put together a team of medical experts, who have developed a unique technology that detects critical cardiac biomarkers early in the stages of heart tissue injury. This is the first and only solution that empowers cardiologists in preventing the unexpected heart attack from happening and bringing peace of mind in patient care.

Follow RCE on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Your Host

JoeyKlineJoey Kline is a Vice President at JLL, specializing in office brokerage and tenant representation. As an Atlanta native, he has a deep passion for promoting the economic growth and continued competitiveness of communities in and around Atlanta, as well as the Southeast as a whole. He has completed transactions in every major submarket of metro Atlanta, and works primarily with start-ups, advertising/marketing agencies, and publicly-traded companies. With a healthy mix of tenacious drive and analytical insights, Joey is a skilled negotiator who advises clients on a myriad of complex real estate matters.

With a strategy and business development background, Joey is first and foremost a pragmatic advisor to his clients. Most recently, he was the Director of Business Development for American Fueling Systems, an Atlanta-based alternative energy company. While at JLL, he has become a member of the Million Dollar Club, and has built a reputation as an expert on the intersection of transit-accessibility and urban real estate. With intimate involvement in site selection and planning/zoning concerns, Joey approaches real estate from the perspective of the end user, and thus possesses a unique lens through which to serve his clients.

Joey holds a Master of Business Administration from Emory University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis. He is a founder, board member, and the treasurer of Advance Atlanta, and also sits on the Selection Committee for the Association for Corporate Growth’s Fast 40 event. In addition, he is a member of CoreNet and the Urban Land Institute. Finally, he is part of LEAD Atlanta’s Class of 2019.

Connect with Joey on LinkedIn.

Tagged With: RCE

MIYC E1: The Mitch Pisik Inaugural Show; “Leadership”

February 20, 2020 by angishields

Tucson Business Radio
Tucson Business Radio
MIYC E1: The Mitch Pisik Inaugural Show; "Leadership"
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Mitch Pisik
Pisik Consulting Group
631-943-5275
Mitch@pisik.consulting
Linkedin.com/in/mitchpisik
Twitter: @mitchpisik  (Daily tweets on Leadership)

Mr. Pisik is an Award-Winning Executive Coach, Business Consultant, Leadership Trainer, Strategic Planning Facilitator, and Professional Speaker, who has worked with hundreds of executives in dozens of companies and industries – from Fortune 100 global businesses to sole proprietors. He has been consulting for over twenty years; doing so in his full-time practice, Pisik Consulting Group, since 2016.

His approach is not the same as others in the field – as his foundation is based on his career of building successful businesses and dynamically inspired Teams. The key positive differentiation and value that he brings to clients is one of experience, inspiration, and practicality.

He is fortunate to be in a position where he can leverage the successes for fifteen years of turning-around and growing four diverse Private-Equity portfolio businesses as CEO (in New York, Texas, and Arizona); and previously for seventeen years as a Senior Executive in strategy, business development, operations, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and consulting at several of the world’s largest global companies – including Kraft, Newell-Rubbermaid, Novartis, and KPMG.

He has conducted business in over three dozen countries.

A partial list of recent awards includes:

  • “Innovation in the Workplace” Award from the Society of Human Resource Management.
  • Finalist twice for the Copper Cactus “Business Leader of the Year” Award.
  • Winning the Copper Cactus Award for the “Best Place to work in Southern Arizona”.
  • The annual Business Development Award at Novartis.

Mitch is and has been, an active Board Member of numerous public, private, and not-for-profit businesses and organizations.

He also teaches the Strategic Leadership course at the University of Arizona; is an Honorary Commander at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ.; and is an active member of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC).

A partial list of speaker topics, workshops, facilitation, break-out/panelist sessions, and professional services offered includes (though is not limited to):

  • Leadership
  • Organizational Development
  • Attracting, hiring, inspiring, and retaining outstanding, world-class employees.
  • Profitable, effective, productive, efficient networking
  • Change management and continuous improvement
  • Key Performance Indicators
  • Facilitator at Strategic Planning and Team Building retreats/meetings.

 

Tagged With: Leadership, Mitch in Your Corner, Mitch Pisik, MIYC

A Healthy Atlanta: Corine Ferebee with Trinity Wellness RX Consulting and Pam Younker with Children’s Healthcare

February 20, 2020 by angishields

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Velocity Radio
A Healthy Atlanta: Corine Ferebee with Trinity Wellness RX Consulting and Pam Younker with Children's Healthcare
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Dr. Corine T. Ferebee is a pharmacist, entrepreneur, consultant, and health advocate. She holds a Doctorate of Pharmacy degree from Xavier University of Louisiana, College of Pharmacy and a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from Medical College of Georgia.

Dr. Ferebee has practiced pharmacy for over 10 years. She has held leadership roles such as director of pharmacy for 7 years in an outpatient clinical setting, pharmacy manager for 5 years in the retail setting, as well as long-term care pharmacy. Dr. Ferebee has additional certifications in Personal Training, Medication Therapy Management (MTM), Advanced Nutrition, Pharmacy Preceptor for GA-PCOM and UGA College of Pharmacy, Immunization Delivery, Hospital Pharmacist Training and Mixing Sterile IV Products.

Dr. Ferebee recently transitioned from retail pharmacy management into entrepreneurship. She is the founder and CEO of Trinity Wellness Rx Consulting, LLC where she educates and encourages the community to engage in healthy living through medication therapy management, exercise, and nutrition. Dr. Ferebee offers pharmacy consultations, personal fitness training, group fitness classes and nutritional guidance in addition to participating in community-based events.

Dr. Ferebee enjoys the arts and is most enthusiastic about musical events, ballet and plays. She also enjoys thrifting and all things fashion. Dr. Ferebee is also an advocate for self-care, therefore, making yoga and massage therapy a priority in her life.

Dr. Ferebee is passionate about her vision of bringing awareness to the community as it relates to a healthy lifestyle. She is excited and continues to work diligently as the future unfolds the blessings to come.

Follow Trinity Wellness RX on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Pam Godfrey Younker is responsible for Community Development in north Georgia for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She joined Children’s in January 2013 after 10 years as Vice President Corporate Services for Engineering Design Technologies, Inc. She previously owned Pam Younker Accounting and Tax Service and was Senior Internal Auditor for Lockheed. Pam’s career began at Oxford Industries, Inc. after she graduated from the University of Georgia, with a degree in Accounting. Having grown up in McCaysville, Georgia, Pam loves the north Georgia mountains.

Pam serves nationally as an Air Force Civic Leader, under the direction of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the Secretary of the Air Force. Pam has also been involved in the local community for many years. She chaired the Honorary Commanders Program for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce and is a graduate of Leadership Cobb. She is an active participant in Atlanta Regional Affairs Military Council, Cobb Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Cobb 2020 Steering Committee, Town Center CID Advisory Board, Victoria’s Friends Ministry, and Burnt Hickory Baptist Church.

Pam has been the recipient of many awards, a few which include – Outstanding Alumnus of the Terry College of Business for the University of Georgia; Alpha Chi Omega Real Strong Women of Distinction Award; “Best of the Best” Award for Dobbins Air Reserve Base; Marietta, Georgia Citizen of the Year; MUST Ministry Servant of the Year; YWCA Woman of Tribute.

Pam is married to Ron Younker. They met at the University of Georgia, where Ron was Drum Major, and Pam was a member of the Georgette Drill Team. Ron is formerly of Southern Company, and Vice President of Human Resources for Cobb EMC. He now owns Younker and Associates, a leadership development company. Pam and Ron have 2 grown sons, David and John. David is an attorney in Marietta, and is married to the former Katy Hansen of Jacksonville, Florida. David and Katy have 2 children, Sevy, 6, and William, 3. Pam and Ron’s younger son, John, is a veterinarian in Atlanta, and he is married to the former Sarah Stokes, of Warner Robins, Simulation Coordinator at Children’s Healthcare. John and Sarah, have a 4 year old daughter, Josie Mae.

Pam’s job with Children’s Healthcare keeps her very busy. In her spare time, Pam likes to exercise and spend time with family and friends. She also enjoys mentoring young people and working with all branches of the military.

Follow Children’s Healthcare on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About Your Host

Normanie Ricks is a decorated former officer of the United States Navy. She has an authentic compassion for cultivating long-term relationships based on trust and value. She has spent her career serving the healthcare sector as a Rehabilitation Clinic Manager and Occupational Therapy Clinician. Beyond those titles, she serves as an influential part of the community, dedicating her time as a mentor, volunteer, and patient advocate.

Identifying a need for more community health programs, Normanie obtained a certification in Non-Profit Management from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), a Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy, and a Bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). To date, her most notable career accomplishments are leading and managing operations of the Wounded Warrior Program at the United States Naval Hospital in San Diego; creating and developing an Occupational Therapy Neonatal Intensive Care Program; serving as a key member in Navy Medicine’s first study on targeted muscle re-Innervation and nerve transfers for amputees; and participating in vision research for soldiers who have sustained traumatic brain injuries during conflicts.

Along with her endeavors, Normanie is an advocate for children with disabilities, both in the United States and abroad. Traveling globally, she has serviced youth communities in Japan, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Zambia. She was recognized by The American Red Cross for assistance in fundraising events that contributed to over $110,000 raised for humanitarian relief. As a global mentor, she continues to volunteer her time and knowledge to teaching Occupational Therapy to students attending various universities.

Currently, Normanie is the owner and operator of Achieve Occupational Therapy Solutions, Inc. where she provides rehabilitation to individuals who are affected with neurological deficits that alters their vision and limits their ability to perform well in school, work, and life in general. Continuing to serve her community in every aspect, she also serves on the board of the East Cobb Lions Club, which provides free vision screenings for the school systems in Georgia.

Normanie’s dedication to learning is no surprise, as she has always been a scholar. She was a member of the Beta Club, The High School National Honor’s Society, and graduated in the top 5 percent of her class. She accomplished all of this while also being a student-athlete. Talk about an amazing woman! As a well-recognized track athlete, Normanie was named Track Woman of the Year by the Atlanta Track Club, won two state championships and set several school and state records. She frequently medaled at the Junior Olympics. However, her successes did not stop there, in college, she was also inducted into the National Honor’s Society, was named the Coca Cola Dean’s Scholar, Who’s Who in Colleges and Universities, and Conference USA student-athlete of the month. In graduate school, she served on the executive board of the Student Government Association; was recognized for Excellence in her Evidence-Based Practice Thesis; and served as the Commencement Speaker for the Occupational Therapy Graduating Class of in 2012.

Normanie has always held a passion for education and healthcare. Her past accomplishments in academics and sports are what led her to fulfill her passion in serving her community in every way. As the host of “A Healthy Atlanta,” Normanie will continue to display her dedication by sharing knowledge, and finding innovative ways and connections to serve communities domestically and globally.

Tagged With: Trinity Wellness RX Consulting

BRX Pro Tip: Collect Dots so You Can Connect Dots

February 20, 2020 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Collect Dots so You Can Connect Dots
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Stone Payton: [00:00:01] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, I believe you shared with me that you were actually paraphrasing someone you had studied, read about, or read from, but the idea is to collect dots, so you can connect dots. Speak to that some.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:19] Sure. This was the founder of Shake Shack. I forgot the guy’s name. But he said, “Collect dots, so you can better connect dots.” And that kind of resonate with me. And in our case, obviously, the dots are our guests, and we are in such a unique position to be able to meet so many people from diverse industries and varying backgrounds. That makes us uniquely qualified to be this mega connector in our market. And we do have an opportunity to introduce a bunch of people that would never, ever run into each other in real life. And we can make those connections, and help those people meet each other, and kind of benefit from knowing each other.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] So, in our case, we have a machine that collects dots on demand. We can pick which kinds of dots we want. We can turn it on and off to our heart’s desire. And because of that, it does make us that mega connector in our market that seems to know everybody and can be a useful tool for everybody in order to help facilitate conversations and relationships.

Customer Experience Radio Welcomes: Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce President Nick Masino

February 20, 2020 by angishields

Nick-Masino-Gwinnett-Chamber-of-Commerce-Feature
Atlanta Business Radio
Customer Experience Radio Welcomes: Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce President Nick Masino
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Nick-Masino-Gwinnett-Chamber-of-Commerce-HeadshotNick Masino is the President & CEO of the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett, located in Duluth, Georgia.  Masino joined the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett in 2007 and most recently served as Partnership Gwinnett’s Chief Economic Development Officer where he oversaw the business recruitment and retention efforts for Gwinnett, as well as the implementation of the Partnership Gwinnett Strategy.

To create this community-focused economic development (ED) organization, Masino worked with public and private leadership to commission ED studies in 2011 and 2016; and spearheaded the implementation efforts of the initial plan in 2007, which has since brought approximately 250 company expansions or relocations, more than 23,000 new jobs and more than $1.7 billion in investment to Gwinnett.

Over the past 12 years, Masino has led his team in significant accomplishments, including major project wins such as Asbury Automotive (2007); Hisense (2010); Primerica (2011); Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US (2012); Comcast (2015); Kaiser Permanente (2017) and Hapag-Lloyd (2018), as well as International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Excellence in Economic Development Awards (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2019). In addition, Masino has been awarded Georgia Trends Most Notable Georgians (2015-2019); 40 under 40 Georgia Trend magazine; 40 under 40 Atlanta Business Chronicle; and International Person of the Year Governors Award Finalist Atlanta Business Chronicle; The 2019 Power 100: Most influential Atlantans Atlanta Business Chronicle.

A leading authority on local and state economic development, Masino is regularly sought after for prominent speaking engagements throughout metro Atlanta and Georgia. In addition, he has spoken internationally, in Incheon and Seoul, South Korea and Wuxi, Chongqing and Qingdao, China, representing Georgia on government, economic development and international business subjects. As a result of his extensive expertise in the economic development arena, Masino is a preferred interviewee for regional and local television, radio, newspaper and magazine outlets.

Prior to his economic development leadership role in 2007, he ended his eighth year as one of Georgia’s youngest Mayors for the City of Suwanee. Prior to this post, Masino spent twelve years in Division, Regional and Territory Management within the recruiting and staffing industry attaining the position of Professional Services Division Manager for Ablest Staffing Services, a national staffing agency.

A graduate of Ohio State University, Masino holds a bachelors degree in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication. He and his wife, his high school and college sweetheart, Suzanne, are the parents of three children, Anna, Vincent and Julia.

Connect with Nick on LinkedIn and follow the Gwinnett Chamber on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Nick Masino’s background and what led him to the Gwinnett Chamber.
  • What makes GCOC’s story a compelling one?
  • What attracts companies to Gwinnett?
  • How the Chamber keeps the companies once they are in Gwinnett?
  • New initiatives the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce is working on.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, it’s time for Customer Experience Radio, brought to you by Heineck & Company, real estate advisors specialized in corporate relocation. Now, here’s your host, Jill Heineck.

Jill Heineck: [00:00:19] Welcome to Customer Experience Radio. I’m your host, Jill Heineck. I’m a business owner, real estate advisor, and customer experience enthusiast. I’m excited to share the success stories of top business leaders who are prioritizing the customer experience as a legit business strategy. Today, I’m super excited to have Nick Masino, CEO and President of Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, joining us in the studio this morning. Welcome.

Nick Masino: [00:00:42] Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.

Jill Heineck: [00:00:44] We are too. So, we want to talk about the wonderful explosion happened here in Gwinnett County, and talk to us a little bit about how you got to this position, give a little bit about your background in economic development, and then what led you to this position?

Nick Masino: [00:01:02] Sure. I am very excited that in July of last year, I accepted and began the role of President and CEO of the Gwinnett Chamber, the largest suburban chamber in the United States. And we’re very proud of Gwinnett and the Gwinnett Chamber. I previously was in the chamber. I’ve been in the chamber for 14 years. I was leading the economic development efforts in an effort called Partnership Gwinnett, which is a collaborative effort between Gwinnett County government, our 16 municipalities, our school system, our private sector industry, and the chamber. And it was the chamber’s initiative, an idea in 2006 to work on this collaborative effort. And I was really very happy to to begin that process.

Nick Masino: [00:01:47] I knew the chamber because, previously, I had been on the chamber board representing the municipalities of Gwinnett County. I was an 8-year mayor of the City of Suwanee from 2000 to 2007 and knew the chamber presidents very well, the current ones at the time, the previous ones, and I had business acumen because I was in the recruiting and headhunting industry for 12 years. And I led divisions in Metro Atlanta. My last two and half years, I was leading a national division of a publicly traded company. And they needed someone that both had the political experience, and know how the local background, but then also had business knowledge and could speak to a CEO.

Nick Masino: [00:02:30] And so, I was blessed that I had those experiences when they had a need. And absolutely, when I came to work at the chamber in 2007 to lead economic development, it was absolutely just so great for me. I loved the organization, I loved the community, and I’ve really enjoyed it. And then, to have the opportunity after 13 years in economic development to lead the chamber, I feel very lucky. We have an incredible board, incredible staff, and I’m really having a great time.

Jill Heineck: [00:02:54] I’m so glad to hear that. So, what intrigues me a lot about the Gwinnett Chamber is (A), the explosive growth; but (B), I want to know a little bit more about how Partnership Gwinnett, where does that puzzle fit in to the overarching economic development strategy?

Nick Masino: [00:03:11] Sure, sure. By the way, I love the explosive growth of the Gwinnett Chamber too. So, we’re aligned there. Okay, Partnership Gwinnett is exactly as its title is, a partnership of all things in Gwinnett from the public, private, nonprofit, community driving jobs and investment. There’s nothing better for any community, any individual to be gainfully employed, and all that that resolves if there’s issues in your life working is fantastic in regards to family, everything. It’s a very positive thing. So, the community decided that the chamber alone, the county alone, working to recruit and retain jobs would not be as effective as if we all did it together.

Nick Masino: [00:03:55] So, not only did the initiative started, it’s a funded initiative by most all governmental organizations in Gwinnett and many of the top leading private sector organizations. And so, the chamber, it was their idea, their strategy, every five years, including in 2006, they did a one-year fully comprehensive interview of everybody in the community, every stakeholder on what do we need as a community, where should we be focused. And since 2006, every five years, and we’re coming up next year in that five-year cycle, we will spend six to nine months going through that large process. We’ll hire a consultant to make sure we understand what we’re doing, who we are, where we’re going, what we need to be focused on. And that effort’s ultimate goal is to recruit, retain, and expand jobs in our five targeted industries.

Jill Heineck: [00:04:48] Right. So, that’s a big job.

Nick Masino: [00:04:51] Yes, it’s-

Jill Heineck: [00:04:52] That’s a huge initiative.

Nick Masino: [00:04:53] It is. And we have 10 people inside the chamber embedded on our second floor in the Partnership Gwinnett Division. And they get up every day to-

Jill Heineck: [00:05:01] Are they undercover?

Nick Masino: [00:05:03] They’re-

Jill Heineck: [00:05:03] You said embedded there, so I-

Nick Masino: [00:05:03] They’re embedded. They have covert titles. They use secret project codes. I can’t even see their calendars half the time. We’re laughing but, actually, all of what I just said was true. There’s things that they work on that have secret codes, and I just know that they’re working on a coded project of which they’d sometimes tell me the name of the company, but then I forget it, I just remember the sexy code, Project Jaguar.

Jill Heineck: [00:05:31] I love it. So, for Partnership Gwinnett, you have to be a member company in order to benefit from what’s happening with that program?

Nick Masino: [00:05:40] So, the Gwinnett Chamber is obviously a membership organization. Traditionally, what you think of a chamber, we are, we’re just much more exciting than what you might be thinking. Partnership Gwinnett is is a separately funded public/private initiative. And so, you could join the Gwinnett Chamber for $495 if you’re a small business. There’s just not that opportunity to engage in Partnership Gwinnett at that level. I mean, their average investor is $10,000 to $15,000 a year-

Jill Heineck: [00:06:08] Makes sense.

Nick Masino: [00:06:08] … on the governmental size. Some of them are hundreds of thousands a year. They’re dealing with literally flying around the world, recruiting companies to Metro Atlanta and Gwinnett.

Jill Heineck: [00:06:19] Yeah, that sounds exactly right. So, I just wanted our listeners to understand where they might be able to get involved, at what level?

Nick Masino: [00:06:26] Yes, thank you. And the Gwinnett Chamber has a lot to offer from our general membership to our exclusive chairman’s club membership. And there’s lots of ways to engage. And at GwinnettChamber.org, you can learn all about it.

Jill Heineck: [00:06:39] Well, that’s fantastic. I think, what I would like to delve into a little bit is what makes your chamber’s story so compelling, and why, and how that is attracting and retaining member companies in the Gwinnett area.

Nick Masino: [00:06:54] Yes. Well, thank you. And I’m excited to share with you. What I hear from members the most is the ability to connect with both the members and the staff of what sets us apart. And I love all of my partner chambers in this region from our great friends at the Greater North Fulton Chamber, the Cobb Chamber, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, we all get along very well. We communicate on a literally regular basis, sometimes weekly with my good friends at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. But I think what sets us apart is a little bit about what sets Gwinnett apart. We are this incredibly gigantic community, almost a million people. We’ll surpass Fulton County in the next five years. We will be a million people the next two years, and we will be the largest community in Georgia. And what I think sets us apart from like Fulton County is Gwinnett does feel … if you live and working in Gwinnett, you feel that we are one community. We are the most diverse community in the southeast United States. There is a 78.6% chance of two Gwinnettians meet. They’ll be from a different ethnic background. You’ve never heard Gwinnettian before, right?

Jill Heineck: [00:08:01] No. The fact that we’re talking about matchmaking.

Nick Masino: [00:08:04] Oh, right, two random Gwinnettians, right?

Jill Heineck: [00:08:04] Right.

Nick Masino: [00:08:07] And so, we are incredibly diverse. Twenty five percent of our population was born outside the United States. I mean, we are a soup of the world. We are the United Nations of the Southeast. And people have embraced it. And it’s really exciting. And really, the reality is, maybe 90 percent of Gwinnettians are not from Gwinnett. They’re from around the United States. I moved from Ohio after graduating from college. And half of our staff, if not more than half, are not from Gwinnett. And so, it’s just really interesting to be new somewhere and to be welcomed, and then feeling that welcomeness, and then paying it forward. So, that’s just something really unique. And we feel that at the chamber and we do that.

Nick Masino: [00:08:48] The chamber has well over 250 events on a daily and weekly basis that are repetitive programs, networking events that happen on Thursday mornings and Friday mornings. But then, we have huge large-scale events like our record setting State of the County that happened last week with over 900 people. It’s the largest State of the County in the region. It happens on an annual basis. Our annual dinner just took place a few weeks ago. Again, almost a thousand people. And there’s a little bit for everybody. Maybe you don’t want to dress up and go to the annual gala, which I call the Gwinnett Prom for adults, but maybe you want to go to a networking event and eat with 50 people that are like-minded. And we have something for whatever you’re looking for.

Nick Masino: [00:09:33] We are very business-focused. We’re super focused on lead generation for our members. We want to put people together that can benefit each other. And we like to have fun. We have a business after hours nine times a year, and we will have 250 people. It’s a very casual networking environment. And 250 people is a lot of people. And it’s after hours, as the name would describe. And it’s fun. And so, we definitely like to have a good time. We take our job seriously. We don’t take ourselves super seriously. There’s a lot of laughing that’s going on both in the office and in all of our events. We really try to entertain.

Jill Heineck: [00:10:12] So, you’re at about 2000 member companies right now?

Nick Masino: [00:10:16] Yes. Yeah. We’re probably over 2000 specifically, I think we’re probably at 2000 general members and about 200 of our chairman’s club members, which is our exclusive highest membership.

Jill Heineck: [00:10:25] Right. So, the makeup of your member companies give us an idea like from small business to big business.

Nick Masino: [00:10:32] Sure. Not a surprise, 80 percent plus of our members are … the federal government would say they’re small business. Fellow governments says companies under 250 employees is small. That sounds pretty big to me. But where we are made up as is the rest of the United States is made up of small businesses. We do have two Fortune 500 headquarters in Gwinnett County. Both of them are members. They’re not super active. They’re there when they need us. They’re dealing with things on a federal and global level. And where we do, we do work with them and help them where they needed it and vice versa, they help us. But I’d say general member is the owner or leader of a company that has 50 employees. That is a very common person at the table that represent. Most of my board members probably have 50 to 100 employees.

Jill Heineck: [00:11:22] Nice.

Nick Masino: [00:11:22] And the thing that’s really fun is because 25 percent of our population born outside the United States from all over the world, there’s global discussions that happen every day. And our makeup of both our staff, our members literally look like the world too. It’s really fun. And if you’re interested in traveling the world, but you can’t afford it, come spend some time in Gwinnett. Between restaurants and culture, we have it all.

Jill Heineck: [00:11:49] It sounds like it. So, what I’m hearing is that there is a member retention experience strategy in place, you may not call it that, but with the events to cater to your different members, it makes sense and it keeps them engaged.

Nick Masino: [00:12:06] Yes. What a wonderful thing to ask. I appreciate you asking. When I started on July 1st, I had my number one goal was employee engagement and retention because if the staff isn’t totally focused on what the goals are. And so, I did a lot of listening. At the time, we had 34 employees, minimum one hour with each employee at my office, 34 meetings over about 40 days. Some of them, we did a part two And some of them, we did a part 3 because they had a lot to share. And I just generally and jokingly say the Gen Zs and the millennials are super positive and their outlook on life is so amazing. And I was so inspired. And myself as a Gen X and the boomers at our office, we’re all just totally over it and we’re super negative. We’re not negative, but we’ve experienced-

Jill Heineck: [00:12:53] Release that positive energy. Bring the positive energy in.

Nick Masino: [00:12:55] So, it’s really nice to have a mix of all for those generations. If we hadn’t one or the other, we probably wouldn’t be as effective as we are. But in doing so, we really got into lots of great discussions about our culture. And I think culture is literally the number one thing any CEO needs to be working on. And if they think it’s not an a top one, two or three, I would argue that they’re probably in the wrong role because culture is what is king in any organization.

Jill Heineck: [00:13:20] Absolutely.

Nick Masino: [00:13:20] Public, private, non-profit, it doesn’t matter. So, I feel like we have done very well focusing on culture. We literally have a committee. They actually have their first meeting next week, which is the employee engagement committee. And you would not be surprised that every Gen-Z and millennial wanted to be on the committee. And so, we mixed it up between generational gaps.

Nick Masino: [00:13:45] And so, once I felt like we were on the right road, and we have a great leadership team in place, we then started focusing on what you brought up, which is member engagement and member retention, which member retention for any chamber in the United States is super important because right off the bat, you’re going to have … in Gwinnett, because we have 25,000 businesses, we literally could have 250 new businesses starting in a year. Actually, we probably have over a thousand start a new year. They know we’ve all been trained as you go join the chamber.

Nick Masino: [00:14:14] Well, as effective as any chamber is, not every business was a good idea in the first place. They may not make it. And so, you’re just going to have natural turnover in that 10 to 20 percent of any chamber anywhere in the United States because the companies just may not be there. But it’s that 80 percent that we really are focused on in regards to if you can get someone to renew the second year, you may have them for life.

Nick Masino: [00:14:39] And our chairman’s club, which is our high value, it’s $5500 a year. That’s a high-value membership. We are spending a lot of time and effort asking our members at all levels what they think, what they’re looking for. We have just recently, two weeks ago, hired a concierge manager focused specifically on our board members and our chairman.

Jill Heineck: [00:14:59] So smart.

Nick Masino: [00:15:00] Thank you. And I have not had a unique, interesting idea any time in my life. I just simply ask-

Jill Heineck: [00:15:07] I doubt that.

Nick Masino: [00:15:08] I just stand by that comment. Literally, I ask smart people. I never stop asking my members, other great organizations, like some of the ones I’ve mentioned. Two of the ones that we’re going to emulate as much as we’ll be allowed to, YPO, Young Presidents Organization, and EO, Entrepreneur Organization. I speak to them. I have many friends that are members or past members, and they talk about the exclusivity of those programs in those organizations. And we want a partner where we can with both of them, and then emulate them where we can with our chairman’s club. And then, with our general member members, we really are focused on what is in their best interests, what is their value. And there’s no better way to find out than just asking.

Jill Heineck: [00:15:50] Correct.

Nick Masino: [00:15:50] So, we’re asking a lot of questions, listening, and then putting our plans together.

Jill Heineck: [00:15:54] Interesting. So, would you call it your member experience strategy or is it more about retention?

Nick Masino: [00:16:01] No. Well, is it one or the other?

Jill Heineck: [00:16:02] They’re hand-in-hand. They are hand-in-hand.

Nick Masino: [00:16:04] Yeah.

Jill Heineck: [00:16:04] But it’s interesting to hear what different companies call it and how they position it inside the organization to, then, impress upon the team and the culture around delivering that experience, right? So, I’m just always curious as to what you call it.

Nick Masino: [00:16:20] Yes. In the chamber world, member retention is very common.

Jill Heineck: [00:16:25] Member retention.

Nick Masino: [00:16:25] And without a great engagement strategy, your number will not be high. And so, I’m  a huge KPI fan. I have a BA in Communications. So, I’m not analytical per se. But how do you measure anything without KPIs? And so, you asked me a question. What you said was, “Do you have about 2000 members?” And I was a little not super clear. I didn’t say yes, because I’m unclear about some things. I’m unclear about exactly how many members we have. You think that would be an easy answer. And so, we’re drilling down on that. And so, if I don’t know how many members I had last year and this year, how do I have an exact number of member retention was.

Nick Masino: [00:16:25] So, we’re looking at all of those things. And literally, my chair, Tammy Shumate, this year, she said, “Nick, I appreciate what you’re doing. You’re literally going through every single thing, and you’re asking why. And we shouldn’t do things just because we always have.” And so, one of those is why how do we calculate these things, what’s our internal systems. And so, we’re looking at everything. But I do believe we have to measure it, and we have to set goals once we actually have a measurement.

Jill Heineck: [00:17:30] So, in terms of member retention, I mean, what kind of feedback are you getting from your current members as to what would keep them either renewing every year or what would make their membership more valuable to them? What are you hearing?

Nick Masino: [00:17:42] Sure. Well, right off the bat, one of the most interesting things is our communication team was very clear about this, and they had been hearing it for some time. But we were probably over communicating. And our chamber was, I think, famous. It was kind of a joke of a punch line in Gwinnett about getting a lot of e-mails from the Gwinnett Chamber. So, they put a strategy in place based on data, based on research, and communicating to people. And so, we’re communicating more appropriately. You can sign up for our weekly e-mail, a daily, or a monthly. It’s your choice.

Jill Heineck: [00:18:10] I like it.

Nick Masino: [00:18:11] And we literally had a lot of fun. We did a little video. It was kind of my first hello to the membership. I was speaking from my desk, and I had my monitor behind me, my laptop and my monitor. Then, I had my iPhone, and I had my iPad, and all had a giant spam can. A can of spam on the thing.

Jill Heineck: [00:18:29] I love it.

Nick Masino: [00:18:30] And it said, “I’ve heard that we’re over-communicating. Some people might call it spam.” So, I don’t really ever refer to-

Jill Heineck: [00:18:37] Did you come up with that?

Nick Masino: [00:18:38] No. Again, I’m not creative. We have great people on our communications and marketing team, and they did it.

Jill Heineck: [00:18:43] It’s good.

Nick Masino: [00:18:43] And it was awesome. And literally, I’ve never done anything in regards to video or e-mail except when I’m on RadioX that people don’t say I have never said more about that thing, about that specific video. And it was fun to do, but it was effective, and people signed up to the appropriate communication that was in their best interests. So, we’re communicating effectively.

Nick Masino: [00:19:06] And then, in regards to what we’ve heard is – and this is not a surprise – people want to do things that are interesting, entertaining, but effective. They love experiential learning. They want to be involved. They don’t want to sit in a lecture hall and be spoken to or talked at. And so, we’re really trying to focus on everything that is interaction. And we used to do, I would argue, a very, very boring 45-minute chamber orientation. And sometimes, it would be an hour and a half. No one wants to be spoken to like that. And so, now, it’s five minutes, “Welcome. We’re excited you’re here. You’re now going to move between five tables over the next 45 minutes, and you’re going to interact. It will be two minutes of an introduction, and then we’re gonna talk about what you want to talk about.” And that started for me, also, in my first leadership meeting. We have a new leadership team in place. We had some people that retired, and I was able to promote from within. We had a lot of A players.

Jill Heineck: [00:20:07] Beautiful.

Nick Masino: [00:20:07] Top talent. Actually, we had not brought one person in at a leadership role from outside. And that was intentional because we had strong leaders. So, we promoted the team, and we start off every staff meeting. I don’t lead the staff meeting. We start with, what are the most important things to affect you in the next two weeks in our organization? And that’s the agenda. And we vote. If there’s too many things on the agenda, you can only recommend three things. And so, we’re leading as a group, and it’s not a dictatorship, but we’re also constantly communicating. We do a 50-second huddle every morning on the leadership team in my office, and we stand, so we don’t stay very long, and we’re just listening and focused. And so, we have a very strong internal feedback loop between the staff and the leadership team where we’re communicating through the leaders. And then, we’re hearing back what’s going on. So, I think the communication is important for us to be able to respond to our members.

Jill Heineck: [00:21:05] Everything you’ve just said, that’s where the magic is, right? So, your leadership, you have a cohesive team who, then, the other parts of your organization sees that, feels that, that’s where your culture is. And so, they’re gonna help really deliver at a fantastic level an experience that your members are going to love and continue to come back for more, right?

Nick Masino: [00:21:27] Right.

Jill Heineck: [00:21:28] So-

Nick Masino: [00:21:29] And can I say one thing?

Jill Heineck: [00:21:30] Yeah.

Nick Masino: [00:21:30] Again, and I’m not trying to self-deprecate by any means, but I’m happy to always. Everything I’ve just said, many of the listeners have heard these principles. I didn’t create any of them. Patrick Lencioni, these are really bright people have been preaching these things for decades. You can write books. I mean, you name them. Andy Stanley-

Jill Heineck: [00:21:57] Of course.

Nick Masino: [00:21:57] I mean, what a fantastic. That’s a great podcast, his leadership lessons. And I’m not inventing anything. I’m just implementing things that I’ve heard from great leaders.

Jill Heineck: [00:22:07] Which is a huge step in the right direction because we do hear a lot of leadership that talks a lot about these things but doesn’t actually take action, or empower the team to take the action, or have the team feel part of the action, or have the team fail part of the decision making with the actions that are happening. So, from an engagement perspective, I think you’re going at it from all levels.

Nick Masino: [00:22:29] Well, thank you.

Jill Heineck: [00:22:29] That’s very exciting about it to me.

Nick Masino: [00:22:31] Yeah, I don’t have a crystal ball. And so, I’m just listening, and then implementing things. And I will tell you, in regards to staff meetings, they’re so good. But at a point in my career, they were really bad and stale. And I brought in a Patrick Lencioni consultant, and I said, “None of us feel like our meetings are effective.” This was about four years ago when I was leading the economic development office. And he said, “It’s really interesting.” We did these assessments, and the team loved the team and the team culture. I mean, we’re off the charts, but we didn’t like to meet. So, who loves working together, but they don’t like to meet. It’s because our meetings were stale and boring. And I was talking too much. And so, they came in, they blew it up. And now, we still love the culture. It’s awesome. And we actually have an effective meeting process.

Jill Heineck: [00:23:21] So, when you meet, where is the meeting?

Nick Masino: [00:23:24] The meeting happens … well, the senior leadership team meets every Monday at 9:00 for 60 minutes at the most. Sometimes, we wrap up-

Jill Heineck: [00:23:31] Around the air hockey table.

Nick Masino: [00:23:34] No. Yeah, the Gen-Zs have not taken over completely. No, it’s a boring wooden table. And then, we have another room, a granite boring table, but it’s effective. A conference room. And we do sit.

Jill Heineck: [00:23:49] And you talk?

Nick Masino: [00:23:50] And we communicate. It’s crazy.

Jill Heineck: [00:23:51] And those meetings aren’t lasting hours on that.

Nick Masino: [00:23:53] No. Only one hour. And we’ll vote. We’re like, “Hey, we we need two more minutes for this or five minutes for this.” And the other thing though that was super effective that I’ve got a problem with is I don’t put my phone down. So, we leave our phones out of the office.

Jill Heineck: [00:24:09] Nice.

Nick Masino: [00:24:09] Or we keep them in our pockets, and we might pull them out just to use the calendar to choose a date. But it’s rude anyway. And I’m labeling myself as many times I’m using my phone when I shouldn’t be. Again, this is all just communicating. And there’s nothing off topic. So, I’ve been called out, and I’ve encouraged people to call me out if I’m on my phone when I shouldn’t be.

Jill Heineck: [00:24:32] Understood. That’s the culture we’re in.

Nick Masino: [00:24:34] Yes, yes.

Jill Heineck: [00:24:34] Right? That’s where we-

Nick Masino: [00:24:35] And we have to lead by example.

Jill Heineck: [00:24:36] Right, exactly. So, talk to me a little bit about a couple of initiatives that you’re real excited about happening,you have in the pipeline for 2020.

Nick Masino: [00:24:46] Sure.

Jill Heineck: [00:24:47] What’s the team working on?

Nick Masino: [00:24:49] Sure. The one that just it’s so fresh right now because on Monday, a young man named Paul Oh, he just started. He’s my Manager of Public Policy and Community Affairs. We haven’t had a staff person focused on public policy in seven years. Paul worked up until last Friday with Congressman Rob Woodall of the 7th District. Paul went to Pope High School in Cobb and went to Georgia Tech. He did a small stint as an intern with the Georgia Chamber. And he started with us. He literally does public policy committee affairs, and he’s my administrative support.

Nick Masino: [00:25:28] So, I don’t need full time support, but because of my political background and engagement, Paul and I are going to work closely together. And right off the bat yesterday where he introduced himself to all of our General Assembly members in Gwinnett, shared our public policy agenda that’s put together internally. Our marketing team does a great job. They’re very creative. And he shared it with all them. I know we’ve had a public policy agenda. I’m unsure if someone ever shared it with anybody. But we are sharing it with both our federal delegation, our local delegation. And then, next week, he’s going to share with every mayor and every city council member and introduce himself.

Jill Heineck: [00:26:05] Awesome.

Nick Masino: [00:26:05] And so, we, as the Gwinnett Chamber, represent the business interests of our community. And we will unapologetically defend them when it comes to bad legislation, current legislation that might exist that needs to be changed, and legislation that needs to be proposed. One of those items, if I could share, is Gwinnett, I don’t know if you live in Metro Atlanta, you might have realized we have a congestion issue.

Jill Heineck: [00:26:29] Really?

Nick Masino: [00:26:29] Yes. And we’re not going to be able to build roads out of this problem, but we need to have alternatives. There is no alternative to driving in Gwinnett County. And I have had people in the past foolishly say, “Well, you could ride your bike or you could walk.” The walkability and bikeability score, I would argue anywhere outside of just a couple of small pockets in our entire region is pretty, pretty poor. And so, we have to give Gwinnettians an alternative. And that is going to be, and it’s going to cost money, and we will have a bond referendum, hopefully, in November. We’ll be able to vote to increase-

Jill Heineck: [00:27:03] Nice.

Nick Masino: [00:27:03] … our ability to tax ourselves. So, Paul is going to be driving that issue for us internally at the chamber. I’ve not spoken to a CEO, by the way, that doesn’t want that. And I’ll share that we’re in a building that WestRock is headquartered, and they are no longer in Gwinnett because one of the reasons was because they didn’t have access to transit. And WestRock’s, a global company, and they need access to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. And when you have one option, which is a car, that doesn’t give you any options.

Jill Heineck: [00:27:37] So, now, from a recent win perspective, you have anything in that 2019 or in recent months or weeks that you can share with us?

Nick Masino: [00:27:45] Sure. And you’re referring to economic development projects?

Jill Heineck: [00:27:48] Sure.

Nick Masino: [00:27:48] Okay. Well-

Jill Heineck: [00:27:48] Whatever you want to talk.

Nick Masino: [00:27:50] Sure. Thank you. So, last year, actually, interestingly enough, now that I’m out of the way in the economic development arena, and it’s now led by Andrew Carnes, they actually had a record year. Our goal is about 2000 new jobs in our targeted industries. So, these are high-paying, high-value target industries. They had, I think, 3200 new jobs, which was led by … I’m sure you’ve read about a giant Amazon fulfillment center just in Gwinnett County on the border with DeKalb in the shadows of Stone Mountain. And this is a multi hundred million dollar development, three stories, robotics, hundreds of employees, millions in investment. It is one of the most modern logistical centers that Georgia will have ever seen. And so, that was-

Jill Heineck: [00:28:39] Incredible.

Nick Masino: [00:28:39] Thank you so much. And that was a great project between Gwinnett County, the State of Georgia, and Amazon. And it was a real partnership between everyone involved.

Jill Heineck: [00:28:49] That’s a big boon for the area.

Nick Masino: [00:28:51] We’re very excited. Very excited. And so, we already have 15 additional announcements to announce this year. But out of respect for these private companies, they have to dictate when they’re going to make the announcement. They could be expanding, but they could sometimes be consolidating, and they need to notify people in other parts of the world. We’re really blessed at Metro Atlanta because this is where people want to be when. Even  during the horrible recession of 2008 to 2012, many of our companies actually expanded in Gwinnett and in Metro Atlanta because of consolidations.

Nick Masino: [00:29:26] So, if you have an office in Boise, and I don’t want to pick on other places, but you think of a random place, and you’re like, we need to consolidate, Atlanta is pretty awesome. Not only do we do we have a growing population, and in the worse depths of the recession, Atlanta’s population still rose. I mean, Gwinnett County, in our worst, worst year during the recession, we still had 6000 new employees. There are multiple states that lost population.

Nick Masino: [00:29:52] So, this is where people want to be. Obviously, thanks to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, more direct flights to any other place in the world. It’s an incredible airport, incredible asset. It’s reason why we have well over 600 international businesses have an operation based in Gwinnett. And about 200 of them, it’s their America’s headquarters because of Hartsfield Jackson. Obviously, airport, just is an easy way to get around.

Jill Heineck: [00:30:17] It really is. So, tell me maybe one or two of the wow experience that you might have had recently with an organization or a company that you really thought, “I could really adopt some some kind of culture point to my organization because of the experience I’ve had with them.”

Nick Masino: [00:30:39] Okay. You’re totally putting me on the spot on that one, but I’m going to do the best I can. So, as we have revamped our membership, and I mentioned our new position, our concierge service, that came to light when we were really focusing on the word concierge, when we did our annual board retreat at the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Plantation.

Jill Heineck: [00:31:04] Oh, perfect.

Nick Masino: [00:31:05] Yeah. And we’re really lucky to have multiple Ritz’s in Metro Atlanta and Georgia. And then, obviously, the headquarters of Chick-Fil-A. When you think about customer services, customer service excellence, those two organizations with the “My pleasure.” And really, as we were designing that position, we had that in mind. Not even mine, we talked about it. And literally, in our job description, we referred to Chick-Fil-A and Ritz Carlton. And we were trying to set the standard for customer service. I mean, Ritz-Carlton, you can feel it when you walk in the door, and it’s a very expensive, high-end caliber place. And then, Chick-Fil-A’s, let’s be honest, it’s a fast food restaurant selling chicken. But you just feel special every time you interact. And that’s what we wanted our chairman’s club members to feel like.

Jill Heineck: [00:31:54] Excellent.

Nick Masino: [00:31:54] And then, I actually mentioned already, EO and YPO. And their members, they just gloat almost when they’re talking about their organization. And I literally looked at some of the step. I was like, I got three EO members together, and I said, “Tell us about it.” And we were just listening. And they were gloating about how great it was. And I thought, “Okay, could you imagine someone describing us that way? That is our goal. We want people to just brag, ‘We’re in this and you’re not.'” And so, I’ve joked with the staff, if we can get our service levels, we won’t even have to sell anything anymore. We’ll just become order takers.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:30] That’s the idea.

Nick Masino: [00:32:31] Yeah, that’s the idea. I mean, that’s the aspiration and the goal, right But that’s where we want to be. Hopefully, that was helpful in answering your question.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:38] No, no, yeah. So, you enjoy a real Ritz-Carlton experience, right, every time you’re there.

Nick Masino: [00:32:43] Oh, my gosh. Yes, every time.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:43] We had-

Nick Masino: [00:32:45] Let’s go right after work.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:46] We had Horst Schulze. We had Horst Schulze here last year.

Nick Masino: [00:32:50] He’s fun.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:51] And he was-

Nick Masino: [00:32:52] Sounds so cool.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:52] … fantastic talking about how he empowers his team in order to deliver that top guest experience, so that you do have lifelong guests. That’s the whole point. And so, I think it’s a fantastic kind of example. And as long as everyone in your organization can actually experience it in order to then be able to deliver it.

Nick Masino: [00:33:14] Okay, that’s great. So, now, we got to take the entire team to the Ritz Carlton. Thank you.

Jill Heineck: [00:33:18] I’m just saying.

Nick Masino: [00:33:18] Thank you so much for that.

Jill Heineck: [00:33:19] And they can thank me.

Nick Masino: [00:33:21] Yes, of course. Well, I think we should invite you to join us.

Jill Heineck: [00:33:25] But I think that’s the way. When you experience it, then you better understand it..

Nick Masino: [00:33:28] Right. And I got a better idea. We’re going to start with Chick-Fil-A.

Jill Heineck: [00:33:31] Perfect. Not knocking it. We also had Dee Ann Turner, formerly of Chick-Fil-A. She was here right after Hortz came. And we had a fantastic conversation with her also about when she was in the organization, she’s now on her own speaking about what she was doing there, and one of the things she mentioned is that we really want to make sure everybody felt like they were cared for and part of this team culture, so that it trickled down to the customer experience.

Nick Masino: [00:34:00] Yes. Yeah.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:00] So, you’ve already spoken to that point. So, you’re on the right track.

Nick Masino: [00:34:04] Thank you. Actually, I spoke to both of your guests. You know what they said about the show? They said it was their pleasure to be here.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:12] Of course, they did. That was a good one.

Nick Masino: [00:34:14] Thank you so much.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:16] Well, I have enjoyed you so much today. Thank you so much for fighting the traffic and coming to see us.

Nick Masino: [00:34:22] My pleasure.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:23] We really appreciate it. So, for our listeners, we can go to where to find out more about the Gwinnett Chamber?

Nick Masino: [00:34:29] GwinnettChamber.org.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:29] Excellent. And again, thanks, Nick. And this has been Customer Experience Radio.

Nick Masino: [00:34:36] Thank you.

About Your Host

Jill-Heinick-Customer-Experience-RadioJill Heineck is a leading authority on corporate relocations, and is highly sought after for her real estate industry acumen and business insights. As a published author, frequent panelist and keynote speaker, Jill shares her experience and perceptions with people from around the globe.

Jill is a founding partner of Keller Williams Southeast, established in 1999, and the founder and managing partner of Heineck & Co. Her real estate practice specializes in corporate relocations, individual relocations, luxury residential, and commercial properties. Jill’s analytical approach to problem-solving, along with her expert negotiation skills and sophisticated marketing, deliver superior results to her clients. Her winning strategies and tenacious client advocacy have earned her a reputation for excellence among Atlanta’s top producers.

While Jill has received many accolades throughout her career, she is most gratified by the personal testimonials and referrals she receives from her clients. Jill’s unwavering commitment to the customer experience, and her focus on the unique needs of each client, serve as the foundation of her success.

Follow Jill Heineck on LinkedIn.

Tagged With: Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce

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