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BRX Pro Tip: 5 Common Business Network Mistakes

February 21, 2025 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: 5 Common Business Network Mistakes
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BRX Pro Tip: 5 Common Business Network Mistakes

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tip. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, what are you seeing out there these days? Any common patterns, common business networking mistakes that you’re observing?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, there are so many businesses out there, especially for new people, they’re being told, “Hey, you have to network. Hey, you have to go to all these chamber meetings. You have to join these B&I groups. You have to do this,” but they’re not really being taught on how to do business networking in an elegant, non-salesy way. And I think that here’s five common mistakes that I see.

Number one, they’re treating networking events like sales pitches, and they’re trying to close the deal at the beginning of the relationship. They’re trying to close the deal as they’re handing business cards to each other. I think that’s a terrible strategy. I don’t think that’s going to work. All you’re going to do is get frustrated and people are not going to want to talk to you. I think a much better way to do this is to always serve before selling. You don’t want to be going there a salesperson first. You want to be a servant leader first if you want to build relationships that are going to pay off over time.

I think number two, another mistake people make are they’re not setting an intention. Like before you get to the meeting, set a clear goal. Like instead of, “Oh, I’m going to hand out a hundred business cards,” maybe say, “I want to meet three new people,” or “I want to find a potential partner,” or “I want to learn about an industry trend.” Whatever the intention is, set that intention before going there. And then, just try to achieve that.

Another mistake people make is they make it all about themselves. You should be spending more time learning about other people. You already know about yourself. You know, ask thoughtful questions, show genuine interest, try to learn about the other person’s business and their challenge before you start talking about yourself. So, just as a rule, just as soon as you meet a new person, just start asking questions about them and learn about them. And after you’ve learned a little about them, then you can start talking about yourself.

Another mistake I see people make are they don’t have a system to follow up. You have to have a follow up system, whether that’s connecting on email or LinkedIn. But you should be messaging people within a day or two after talking to them to keep that connection alive.

And the last mistake is one that’s so common. They think more is better. And more is not better. More is just more. I would focus on building quality connections with a few key people each time, rather than having a bunch of mediocre conversations with lots of people, of which it’s going to be very difficult to follow up and to really find the right person that’s going to be the right fit for you and your business.

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: Insights from Smell’N Bomb Founder, Sheon Paige

February 20, 2025 by angishields

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Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: Insights from Smell'N Bomb Founder, Sheon Paige
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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor interviews Sheon Paige, founder of Smell’N Bomb, a luxury bath bomb company. Sheon shares her entrepreneurial journey, which began during the pandemic, driven by a desire to promote self-care and mental wellness. She discusses her creative process, the challenges of pricing her products, and her aspirations to expand into wholesale markets. Emphasizing the importance of self-care, Sheon aims to reach a broader audience with her high-quality, luxurious products. Her story highlights the resilience and creativity of women entrepreneurs, offering inspiration and practical insights.

Sheon-PaigeSheon Paige is the CEO and founder of Smell’N Bomb Luxury Bath Bombs, a vegan & natural bath bomb manufacturing company.

She started Smell’N Bomb in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, as a way to bring people some joy and relaxation during a tough and scary time. In addition to running a growing business, Sheon enjoys being a youth mentor at her local church where she serves in the youth department.

Sheon loves growing in walk with Jesus, spending time with her nieces and traveling as much as possible.

Follow Smell’N Bomb on Facebook and Instagram. Smell-n-bomb-logo

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Women in Motion. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women in Motion, we have Sheon Paige with Smell’N Bomb luxury bath bombs. Welcome.

Sheon Paige: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn about what you got going on. Tell us about Smell’N Bomb. How are you serving folks?

Sheon Paige: Yes. So, Smell’N Bomb luxury bath bombs, we create different self-care bath bombs, shower steamers. And we have bath teas and bath salts coming soon as well. And basically, we serve customers by giving them an excuse to take time out for themselves, because we really need that. In this day and age, people are really stressed out, a lot of things happening. And so, my main goal is to promote mental health awareness, and that people need to just take time out for themselves. I think that when you prioritize yourself a little bit, you can be your best self for everything else in your life. And so, by taking time out to have some aromatherapy with the shower steamer or take a bath with a bath bomb, it just helps you to de-stress and relax, calm your mind and just get back some me time.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about your back story? How did this idea come about?

Sheon Paige: Yeah. So, I started this business in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. And basically, it came about as I was in prayer. It was just praying like, “God, okay, I want to help people. I want to be able to create a business that will bring people joy, but I just don’t know what to do.” And we’re all at home. And when I went to sleep, I had a dream. And it was a very, like, realistic. I didn’t know it was even a dream until I woke up, and it was me making bath bombs and running a bath bomb company. And I woke up and said, “That’s it.” That’s a perfect thing to do right now because we’re all at home and this is something we can all use, not only now in this climate, but even when this pass, to just be able to de-stress, and it brings joy to people, and I can scale it. And so that’s honestly how it came about. I was in prayer, and I asked Jesus to show me… you know, to give me a business that I could really bring into people’s lives as something positive and joyful. And he blessed me with this.

Lee Kantor: So, were you in… Had you made these before or how did you even know how to begin?

Sheon Paige: No, I had never made a bath bomb before in my life. I had only actually used a bath bomb one time prior to even starting this business. So, when I had that dream and I woke up, I just went straight into research mode. Because that was my first question, I’m like, “What is a bath? How do you make it?” And so, I watched a ton of videos. I started just experimenting. And, really, I’m a creative person. Like I’m very artistic. Like I love to create, I love to make things, I’ve always been into DIY, I’ve always been into like art and creating sculptures and things like that. So, I just took it from my artistic perspective and just said, “Okay, I want to make my bath bombs more artistic and elevated. I don’t want them to just be round and one color. Like I want them to, like, look like art kinda, you know?

And so, as I started Just diving into researching on the foundation of a bath bomb and looking at different recipes, I created my own recipe. And then, from there, once you understand how a bath bomb is even formed in the recipe, that’s when you can start putting your own creative creativeness on top of that. And so, that led me to creating my signature bath bomb. This is my geode design. Bath bombs. They look like amethyst geode rocks. And so yeah, just research and learning. And then, just using the gifts that are in me, my creativeness.

Lee Kantor: So, you have a concept in your head, and then you just start playing around to get, I guess, a product that you like. How did it get out of your head and into, actually, your hand, and then actually into the hands of a customer? Like, were you just handing them out to your friends and family and say, “Hey, I made this. You want to try it?” Like, how did you know that you could sell it?

Sheon Paige: Right. So, when I first started doing research and I started watching YouTube videos, I realized that this market was actually… it was a big market basically. I realized, I’m like, “Wow, bath bombs are actually very popular, and there’s already an audience that wants this.” And so, I just need to figure out how I can serve that audience and make them want to come to and buy my products because there’s already so many out there.” And when I was doing my research, I was coming across different videos on Lush and Da Bomb bath bombs, and their story really inspired me to bring it to market. They started out doing like different vendor and farmer’s market. And so, that sparked into me. I’m like, “Okay, that’s how I’ll start to start testing my bath bombs.”

So, as I started playing around with different formulas and designs, once I started creating my geodesign, I realized this is very beautiful, I want to see people… this will attract people. And so, what I started doing was posting them online on social media. But then I started attending different vendor events like farmers markets and just local events and putting the bath bombs out there. And I realized people really like them. I would sell out, people would come to tables and say, “These are so beautiful. These look like geode rocks.” So, they immediately got my concept, what I was going for, and then they started asking, “Where can we buy more online?” So, that’s when I started selling on Etsy, and then creating my website, and just started growing from there with social media. But yeah, I initially tested it at different farmers markets and vineyard events.

Lee Kantor: And then, how did you kind of land on the price point? You wanted it to be different. Did you want it to be luxury, or did you want it to be for everybody? Like how did you decide on the positioning of where it was going to be in the marketplace?

Sheon Paige: So, I wanted it to be a luxury bath bomb. And I tested my prices. I started testing different prices. I started comparing it to other luxury products, basically what I was offering in terms of ingredients and design. And so, that’s how I landed on my price point. But also, just mainly testing with my customers, asking them feedback like, “Do you think the prices are too high? Do you think they’re too low? What do you think about this pricing?” And so, that gave me a lot of feedback, just asking my customers that were buying it that helped me to narrow down my price point.

But I wanted to position it as a luxury product just because of the way that I was not only designing it, but the quality ingredients that I was putting in them. I use only premium ingredients. So, because I knew I was offering that and it was formulated to work for all skin types, I’m like, “Okay, I want this to go to customer.” There’s already so many. When I look at the bath bomb market, most bath bombs, they target either children or teens. And I wanted my bath bombs to target adults, adult women particularly. And so, I knew if I wanted to target adult women, they needed to be more elevated. They needed to be more luxury because that’s what women were into. And so, that is how I started with my design. I started thinking, what design can I create that would attract me, you know? Because I am part of my customer demographic. What would attract me? But what would attract adult women to buy this over the luxury product, other’s luxury self-care products that’s right next to it.

Lee Kantor: Now was it… I don’t want to say mentally challenging, but was it a mindset shift that you had to make or was it not when it comes to pricing? Because a lot of times, people’s first instinct is to not make it expensive, that they make it inexpensive. And some of that, to me, is because of maybe lack of confidence or belief in their product. But it sounds like you had the belief, and you knew you were using quality ingredients. So, you earned that kind of price point. Was that any kind of mental challenge for you to say, “Okay, we’re going to be expensive. And there’s no shame in that”?

Sheon Paige: Yeah. Honestly, when I first started out, like you pointed out, I was scared to charge my full price. So, I would charge under. And then, I realized when I would get feedback from customers and they were like, “This is all you’re charging for this?” like their feedback kind of was… it felt like they were saying, “What’s wrong with this? Because it looks nice, but this is your price. So, what’s going on?” The price and the way it looks don’t match. And it made me feel like, “You know what? Yeah, I need to just be confident and charge my price because customers are giving me that feedback.” Like they were being very honest and saying, “Honestly, I would pay more for this. Why are you charging this price?” You know, like, “I’m not going to argue with you, I’m going to pay this price, but why are you charging this?” I would have customers who really be honest with me about that, which I’m very appreciative. But at the beginning, yeah, I was a little afraid to charge my price. But I got over it very quickly because I realized, you know what? I know what I’m putting into my product. I know how much effort and the creative and the premium products are going behind it. So, the price is justified.

And when I just started charging my actual price and customers, they got it. Nobody questioned it. They didn’t say, “This is too expensive.” They didn’t walk away. Like they just paid it without even questioning it. So, I’m like, “Okay.” So, that would be my advice to anybody is just charge your pricing right from the beginning because having to shift my prices, especially like on Etsy, having to take them from the low price that I was selling them at, and then raise the price, I had to… it’s basically like the customers, I had to wait until new customers came because the customers that are paying that price, when I rose the price online, they didn’t pay that new price. So, I had to wait for new customers to come in. And they did, but I should have charged it right from the beginning, so that my online customers as well… Because my in-person customers, they got it, but my online customers on Etsy, especially that platform, I saw a dip when I took my prices from when I first started out to where they are now.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that’s a great lesson for entrepreneurs out there on a couple fronts. One is if you’re going to sell a luxury item, it’s got to look the part of a luxury item, right? Like, you can’t just charge a high price and then give them something that looks like a low-price thing. You got to kind of up your game and raise the quality of the ingredients, the look and feel, the feel, the packaging, all that stuff has to match if you really want to sell it at that price, which it sounds like you’re doing and did. And then, you got to believe. Like when I coach entrepreneurs when it comes to their pricing, I say charge the highest price you can charge and say with a straight face like without stuttering. The number that comes off out of your mouth, you should believe it and you can’t kind of hesitate because it is what it is, and your value is there.

Sheon Paige: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s kind of on the roadmap? Like you started with bath bombs, and then I would imagine you’re into other soap products or other bath products?

Sheon Paige: Exactly, yeah. So, we started with bath bombs, and we still have our bath bombs. They’re our signature product. But we also have shower steamers now, soap, candles. And we’re going to continue expanding. Bath teas are coming. Bath salts are also coming. So, yeah, we have a lot of different products coming. But right now, it’s bath bombs, shower steamers, body soap and candles.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you primarily selling to direct to consumer, like through the Etsy’s of the world or are you also selling kind of to businesses like maybe spas or hotels or resorts?

Sheon Paige: Yes. So, both. So, I have… Wholesale has really taken off for me. And that is the primary direction of where I would want my business to focus. But I do sell it on the retail side as well on Etsy and my website. But I also sell wholesale to hotels and spas and different wellness centers and boutique businesses as well. One of my largest accounts is Ambiente, which is a hotel in Sedona, Arizona. But yeah, that’s my main goal for this business is to continue to go in the direction of wholesale. That’s what I really enjoy.

Lee Kantor: Is that part of the reason you decided to get involved with WBEC-West? Was that what you were looking to get out of it?

Sheon Paige: Exactly, yes. So, because I want to go in that direction. especially as, like, this is a whole new territory for me, like, wholesale, and as I started diving deeper into it, I’m like, “Okay, I want to work with bigger companies,” because I have a lot of small boutique customers. And then, as I started getting these bigger clients, you know, really wet my whistle and I’m like, “Okay, I want to continue to grow, but how do I do that?” And when I went to a conference, it was a Madam C.J. Walker conference, WBEC, they had a breakout group that you can go to and learn more about how to become a certified business. And while I went to that breakout group, Dr. Pamela was talking about all the different corporates that they work with. And I’m like, “This is exactly what I need to get my foot in the door with more of these businesses,” because that is really the barrier is that they don’t know me because I’m not a national brand. And so, I’m like, “I need for them to know me and knowing that I can have something that can serve their customers,” but I don’t know how to get my foot in the door. And this is that bridge that helps me get my foot in the door.

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

Sheon Paige: More exposure. Just more exposure for people to know, especially businesses, spas, boutiques, hotels, that I offer wholesale. And they work amazing as a room amenity. They work amazing as a add-on amenity for spas and different retail boutique stores. And all my customers have seen amazing success. And especially at my price point for wholesale, you’re getting 3x profits with my product. And I’ve proven that 100% with all of my customers. I have gotten all their feedback and all of them have made 3x profit off of my products. So, I know that they’re a win-win-win for everybody. And so, just exposure to get my foot in the door to more of these brands to talk about my products, present my products and put them in their locations.

Lee Kantor: So, has your reality matched your dream?

Sheon Paige: It’s getting there. It’s getting there.

Lee Kantor: So, if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you and learn more about Smell ‘N Bomb, what’s the website? What’s the best way to find you?

Sheon Paige: So, they can go to smellnbomb.com, which is S-M-E-L-L, the letter N, B-O-M-B dot com. Or they can email me at sheon@smellnbomb.com if they’re a business.

Lee Kantor: And then on the socials?

Sheon Paige: On the socials, on Instagram, it’s smell_n_bomb. And it’s Smell N’ Bombacross. So, on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook and yeah. So, those are the socials.

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

Sheon Paige: Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Women in Motion.

 

Tagged With: Smell'N Bomb

BRX Pro Tip: Doing Something vs Doing the Thing

February 20, 2025 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: Doing Something vs Doing the Thing
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BRX Pro Tip: Doing Something vs Doing the Thing

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, today’s topic, doing the thing.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. This is another one of the things that I’m super pumped about learning about. I think this is something that people aren’t doing enough. You know, doing the thing is the key to everything. You got to find what that thing is. Every business has a thing. And the thing is the activity you should be doing relentlessly that’s going to move the needle. And this kind of goes through other aspects of your life. You know, when it comes to your eating habits, or your fitness, or your health, identifying what that main thing is, is critical. And then just kind of relentlessly doing it is what separates the people who succeed and the people who don’t.

Now, a lot of times, people think they’re doing the thing but they’re doing something, but it’s usually not the thing. And that’s something might be reading, it might be listening to podcasts, it might be scrolling, it might be bingeing. It’s doing some activity, but it’s not doing the thing that moves the needle. And in order to move the needle in your business, you have to do the thing that is going to create measurable results. And you have to do that thing relentlessly. And I think that is really the secret. So, find the thing. And then, do it until you’re getting to the outcome you desire.

Durran Dunn with Bennett Thrasher

February 19, 2025 by angishields

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Durran Dunn with Bennett Thrasher
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Durran-DunnDurran Dunn is a Partner in the Risk Advisory Services practice and serves as National Risk & Controls Leader, based in Atlanta, GA.

Recently recognized on Forbes’ inaugural 2024 list of America’s Top CPA List of Accounting Professionals, Durran brings a wealth of global experience from both consulting and industry.

He specializes in understanding complex challenges and delivering tailored advisory strategies to drive value for organizations.

Durran’s expertise spans enterprise risk assessments, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance for business processes and IT controls, and regulatory compliance, including governance and IPO readiness assessments.

He is also a trusted advisor for internal audit and internal audit transformation, ESG, as well as financial and operational policies, processes, and controls management.

His work primarily serves publicly traded and privately held companies across industries such as manufacturing, technology, media and entertainment, and healthcare.

A licensed CPA and Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Durran is a sought-after public speaker on both local and national stages, addressing professional matters and personal development topics.

He is deeply committed to advancing the profession through his leadership roles, serving as a Board Director, Treasurer, and Finance Chair for NABA, Inc., on the AICPA’s Board of Examiners, and as a member of the Georgia Society of CPAs’ Accounting and Auditing Advisory Council.

Connect with Durran on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Durran’s vision for advancing Bennett Thrasher’s client strategies
  • How Durran’s athletic background shaped his approach to leadership, risk management, and corporate strategy
  • The “corporate athlete” mindset and how businesses can apply high-performance principles from sports
  • Durran’s unconventional path from track star to accounting partner and what it taught him about career transition

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Bennett Thrasher, Mr. Durran Dunn. How are you?

Durran Dunn: Thank you. I am I am excited, I’m excited to be here and I’m just appreciative of the opportunity. So thanks for having me.

Stone Payton: Well, I have really been looking forward to this conversation. I got a ton of questions. Duran. I know we probably won’t get to them all, but I think a great place to start would be if you could paint a bit of a picture for us. Kind of an overview of primer mission purpose. What are you and your team over there at Bennett Thrasher really out there trying to do for folks, man.

Durran Dunn: Uh, look, I’ll put it real simple. Bennett Thrasher, uh, a firm that’s almost 50 years old, headquartered here in Atlanta, Georgia, with offices through Dallas and Denver, with employees all throughout the country. Our mission, really, Stone is trying to partner with as many clients as we can for life and really helping them solve their business challenges, helping them meet their objectives. It’s really that simple. And as simple as that sounds, it’s actually not something that’s that easy to do. It’s quite complex, but I believe the professionals here at Bennett Thrasher, and one of the reasons that that I joined the firm, starting with the CEO and Jeff and Jeff call and just it permeates through the partnership. Our it’s a group of individuals who really want to get out there working with, uh, the executives from different companies of all sizes, particularly in the mid-market, and really just help in solving, uh, solving their, their, their challenges and helping them meet their strategic objectives.

Stone Payton: Sounds like noble work, if you can get it. Man, you gotta tell us a little bit about the backstory. How in the world did you find yourself doing this kind of work, serving this type of constituency?

Durran Dunn: Yeah, so so here’s the interesting thing. You know, folks ask me like, well, how did you get into the profession? And I go back to high school. Uh, the profession actually found me. I did not find the profession. I born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, happened to take an accounting course and a teacher thought I was pretty good at it. At the time, I thought nothing, only because, uh, I was a pretty good student. And so that was thematic for me in the other subjects I get to college declared it as my major because it was one of the first option at the top right. Accounting. And so I checked the box, but at the time had no idea about the profession, had no idea around firm’s services. Just coming from Jamaica. The idea was simply for me to just graduate high school. And so by the time I got to, to become a senior, believe it or not, that’s when I was really introduced into the profession, the certifications and all that. And I started my career, um, in big four public accounting, doing audits. And then over the years I’ve done work in the industry. So direct hands on operational experience. And I just absolutely love Stone, just really love client service. The ability to just go, you know, solve issues sometimes not even knowing what I’m taking on and have really developed that skill set. One of my strong skill set in terms of like just problem solving and helping to to get to goals.

Stone Payton: So what was that transition like for you coming from Jamaica? I’m trying to put myself in your shoes and go from here to Jamaica.

Durran Dunn: That’s easy to do.

Durran Dunn: Okay. That’s really easy to do.

Durran Dunn: Think of the beach, Think of the food. All that you would. You’ll be just fine. Look, it was a it was a culture shock. Um, Jamaica is, as most most people would know, is a tropical. Whether it’s hot, hot all year round. Um, I moved to New York City, so, uh, obviously cold snow. It’s not something that I wanted to sign up for, but I had no choice in that matter. That’s where my mom moved, and that’s where we went. And part of the reason why New York was, was selected was just trying to acculturate to the, uh, to the United States. There is a heavy Caribbean population there. And, as you know, uh, in New York, uh, there is everybody from all over the world is in New York. So it’s a really nice, uh, melting pot. Uh, I got two I got two scholarships, an academic and athletic scholarship to go to school and believe, believe, believe it or not, I took five visits. And most of those visits in terms of getting recruited were either giving me a academic scholarship or a full athletic scholarship. The University of Southern Mississippi, I’m so grateful gave me both. And so that was really a safety net that if I had a bad, you know, academic semester or whatever had happened there, that I had the athletic scholarship to fall back on and and vice versa, because I’ll tell you this, stone, had it not been for the scholarship, there’s no way I’m going to school. You can you can put that out there. That would not be part of the story that I would be telling today. So, um, so that’s really how I got into the profession and the transition here, quite frankly. Um, you know, I, I’m, I’m quite adaptable. And so despite the culture shock of New York, I got whiplash twice by moving from New York, moving to New York and then going to Mississippi.

Stone Payton: Yeah, that’s got to be greater whiplash than Jamaica to New York.

Durran Dunn: So whiplash there twice. Uh, but just, you know, from school and, and being in the profession, um, and over the years I’ve, I’ve been able to adapt real quickly. But at the end of the day, I was born and raised in Jamaica. That’s where my my roots is. That’s where my foundation is. And, um, despite the struggles and hard, uh, we probably need a lot more time to, you know, to talk about that. I wouldn’t change it for anything because it’s really been the, the, the catalyst to kind of what’s driven, driven me to this point today and where I expect to be in the future.

Stone Payton: So do you feel like the athletic experience, being part of a team, everything that must go with collegiate athletics serves you to this day in your professional work?

Durran Dunn: Absolutely. And I appreciate you raising that. So that’s an interesting point on the athletic piece. Uh, any sport, any athlete, for me, it was primarily track and field. Um, when you think about, like, discipline, uh, the ability to go train on a workout on the days you don’t want to do it. When you think about inclement weather going into if it’s super hot. And then obviously when I moved to the United States, then it’s super cold. Uh, obviously, depending on where you live. But then snow, um, being really disciplined about what you eat when you eat and then just all of those type of, like, foundational pieces that would make you a great or competitive athlete actually translates really nice to the business world. And so I like to say forever, I will be an athlete, and I like to believe you, Stone, and everyone else that I know out there, all the partners there at, at beneath all of the associate there have been in Thrashers. And just anyone in the professional world is actually an athlete. They’re just corporate athletes because you’re literally taking the same skill set that you have in terms of the discipline to or the tenacity to work, working with different teams, uh, calling different plays, working through scenarios that you weren’t necessarily expecting to happen. Um, it’s all really the same thing. And so quite naturally, I believe that a huge part of my accomplishments to date is a direct result of what I’ve done athletically over the years, because those same fundamental toolkit of, uh, of discipline and focus and being able to execute, being able to have resilience, all plays out as a corporate athlete in the corporate world.

Stone Payton: Well, I really like that notion of being a corporate athlete. And you’re making me feel so much better about myself. I grew up in the in the sports world. My father was a high school basketball coach, and there was a time when even like in the first grade, I could beat any fifth grader on the playground one on one, even though I was small. And really, to be candid with you, Duran, to this day I can still beat any fifth grader on the planet.

Durran Dunn: Uh, you know what? I believe you. You’re you’re in shape. You you know, the audience might not be able to see, but I can tell you’re physically fit here.

Stone Payton: Just to be fair, I did make the high school team, but in full transparency. I really only made it because I had a car and the two real athletes on the team did not. So. But everybody’s got to do their part, right, buddy?

Durran Dunn: Exactly. You’ve got good reasons. And you made the team at the end of the day.

Stone Payton: And now I’m a corporate athlete. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Thank you for that.

Durran Dunn: Absolutely.

Stone Payton: So at this point in your career, what are you finding the most the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it these days for you, man?

Durran Dunn: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. Um, and as you began to ask the question that the the first thing that came to mind is giving back. Um, that’s the first thing, but it’s really two things. It’s it’s the giving back. And then again, being able to be a trusted advisor to, to clients. Right. And helping them, you know, solution wherever, whatever they’re trying to solve for on the giving back piece. That piece is near and dear to my heart. Stone. Um, look, I was never I did not grow up, um, anywhere near privileged. I did not I couldn’t even I couldn’t even Conceptualize what potentially my life would look like as an adult. And so when I think about individuals who have directly and indirectly poured into me, I’m so grateful for that. And so at this point in my career, it’s all about reaching out to students, other professionals as well, and really trying to provide the opportunity for them to support their dreams, their aspirations. I spent last week at the University of West Georgia with students and professionals alike, and had a wonderful time. There was actually the keynote speaker there for the Black History Month program. I’m a board member at NABA.

Durran Dunn: I you know, I work also with the AICPA, the AIA, and for me, it’s all about how do I give back more to the profession. And so that that piece is really near and dear to my heart. And then a lot of the fun comes in to working with clients of all sizes across a number of different industries, my favorite technology manufacturer, and media and entertainment, the biopharmaceutical space. I really enjoyed those particular industries a lot and just really going to help solve business challenges. I’m in what we call our risk advisory group, specifically at the firm. So that’s everything from internal controls and SoCs and doing internal audit. But really, I see myself as a business professional because I never know what the client actually needs. It’s not about what I can offer specifically, but if you think about a firm like Bennett, Thrasher is what we can offer holistically, and we have partners that lead our associates in all disciplines audit, tax and everything across advisory, including risk advisory, which I which I do, but also M&A and so much more. That’s actually what keeps me, keeps me up at night in a good way and keeps, uh, keeps me going.

Stone Payton: Well, let’s dive into the work a little bit, if we might. And one of the things that I’d like to explore a little bit. But I’m operating under the impression that I may be working with you. Sleeves rolled up on the the risk advisory. But if I need help in one of these other specific domains, you have this incredibly deep bench, if you will, of high caliber talent that you can call in, right?

Durran Dunn: Absolutely. I mean, put it this way, a firm like Bennett Thrasher, right. Um, see us as a full solution firm. So we aren’t just we’re we’re specialized in every single aspects of probably what your need is. And you can just come to a one stop shop to have that all done at Bennett Thrasher. And so if I can’t do it, I can guarantee there’s somebody else that can. And that’s how we operate as a team, uh, at the firm.

Stone Payton: So how does a senior level executive responsible for finding and engaging services that are, that are in your the wheelhouse for Bennett and Thrasher? How do they know that they should be exploring help like this or maybe even exploring, taking a look at you guys, even though they’ve been working with X, Y, Z for a while. Are there some let’s not call them red flags. Let’s call them yellow flags that are just some some things that, you know, if we’re about to do this or we’ve we’ve experienced this or we’re seeing this, you know, maybe we ought to talk to these guys at least have a conversation.

Durran Dunn: I mean, here’s the thing. I believe most clients and prospects that I’ve met with talk with in any way, shape or form have a pretty good idea of what they actually need help with. Okay. And I think if if they’re reaching out or you’re having dialog around what those particular items are, our job as advisors is to clearly understand what those issues are and help solution it. The truth is, if they’re bringing these things up, it’s probably one of the high priority and most urgent and most important items. But here’s where the difference is in terms of what I would bring to the table. And again, just from meeting and talking with a lot of the Bennett Thrashers partners, and one of the reasons I’m there is because our role is to see beyond just the problem and look at the bigger picture. That is to go in there and say, hey, you’ve got your eyes, you’ve got your pulse on the right thing with the right level of importance and urgency. But I’m taking a bigger look at your business. And here is something that’s emerging. Here’s something to start thinking about. Or it might be, hey, this is actually more important and urgent as we see it. And here’s why. Because we’re working with clients of similar size, similar similar complexity or a similar industry and state that case as to why. And at the end of the day, it really comes down to value. Here’s the value that we believe that we want to bring to you based on what we understand around your business. And oftentimes that will bring a client to say, hey, I wasn’t thinking about it or I did not think it was that urgent. And so now we start to kind of package and talk about how do we bring full solution in, in a roadmap approach to them.

Stone Payton: Do you ever find, as educated as it sounds like the vast majority of your clients are? Do you ever find that sometimes, at least early in the relationship, that there are some preconceived notions? Let’s not call them myths, but maybe some misconceptions or that of what you guys do, guys do, or the value of the work, or the best way to leverage the work. Do you ever run into that?

Durran Dunn: Yeah. We do. Um, oftentimes it’s, uh, you know, it depends on the industry or if the company is public or not. Oftentimes non public companies. One good example is, uh, a nonpublic company that is going to go through Sox, uh, preparedness and readiness that is on the cusp of becoming a public company. Going through the, the the process of understanding what that means, how do they become public company ready in terms of internal controls. And what that really becomes is just education. It becomes training and having really dialog. And I look at training not as a one time formal thing, but a ongoing thing. So every interaction, every opportunity to provide education. Every, you know, having an open door policy. And quite frankly, that’s something that we exercise reach out to us if you have questions. Um, don’t make it be a gotcha type of approach, but really be in true partnership, co-developing, co-creating, collaborating on everything that needs to happen to get to the end, the end goal, all with the client and their end goal, um, being top of mind. Uh, so we do come across that, but again, it’s typically demystified really quickly by how quickly, uh, we approach, you know, the, the partnership and how you enter those conversations.

Stone Payton: One thing that’s coming to light very clearly for me. So maybe I have been one of these people that’s been operating under one of these misconceptions, I guess, candidly, before this conversation, I had a lens that I was looking through at your kind of work, and I I’ll just be honest, I viewed it as very transactional. And the more I hear you talk, nothing could be further from the truth. The level of trust that you must have to endure, the depth of relationship that you must have to cultivate and sustain, is anything but transactional.

Durran Dunn: So you look you’ve said it so perfectly. I’m almost wanting to change my mind and providing any response behind that because you’ve, you’ve you’ve hit it on the head. It’s it’s trust and relationships. And look, you know, a lot of people make business decisions when they could trust you. They understand the value that you bring. And then relationship without a doubt, which is really across every single thing that you do. Um, that actually plays a big role, those relationships. Um, look, I tell folks, I don’t necessarily, uh, try to sell service, if you will. I try to just simply develop authentic relationships. I hope you choose us. I hope you want to partner with us. And then I want to demonstrate the value that we could bring. And oftentimes, if you take care of the relationships and the value, the trust comes, you earn that trust and you get the opportunity to work together in business. And, um, a lot of my clients and folks that I do business with, we got we have really authentic relationships. I want to know where you’re from and your kids and, oh, they’re playing baseball or basketball. I want to hear more. I’ve got a, you know, I’ve got an eighth grader who is almost six, four who has now got me all into…

Durran Dunn: Deep into basketball. So my IQ and basketball is going up really quickly because he’s playing like maybe a year and a half now. So I want to hear and if you’re not well, you know, a lot of times people lose the human element of what this is all about. And to your point, they become so transactional. It’s something that I actually share with the younger professionals that are that are entering the profession is particularly in this new kind of hybrid or remote model, is don’t become transactional through the computer, go meet people, go develop relationships, go to the office and have those random watercooler conversations so people get to know who you are and vice versa. Um, and those things just take they take you a long way. And I’ll tell you this, relationships, in addition to everything else that I’ve done, I would not have got to where I’ve, where I am today if it weren’t for those relationships.

Stone Payton: Yeah, I know the answer to this has to be yes, but I’m going to ask anyway so that you can speak to it in a little more depth. Have you had the benefit of of one or more mentors along the way to help you navigate this, this terrain?

Durran Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. So it’s a that’s an interesting question. Um, I have had a number of mentors, both within the organization that I work in, and then folks that are external to the organization are some of them don’t even know they were mentors along the way.

Stone Payton: Secret mentors.

Durran Dunn: Right. So but they which again speaks to people are always kind of watching. Uh, so I do have what I call those mentors, my personal board of directors that I would call for any type of matters that I’m dealing with or decisions that I’m trying to make. And it’s really simple. It’s it’s really informal. I could pick up the phone at any time. I could text at any time. And those individuals, throughout the course of my career at every organization that I’ve worked and then just just other folks that I’ve met over the years in the profession have played a role. But I would like to go a step further. Uh, there is another group of individuals who have also played a significant role, and those are the sponsors. Those sponsors have, when I’m not in the room, have been the ones that have said, hey, you know, this project needs to go to Duran, or Duran needs to be next in line to to get the next opportunity for growth and career development. And so I see mentorship and sponsorship going hand in hand. And and that has been again, another another big piece of, you know, that I’ve contributed to my growth, my development, taking on new things, taking on different things. Um, being able to travel the world is all because of those, uh, those set of individuals between the mentorship mentors and the sponsors.

Stone Payton: Yeah, you touched on this earlier, but say more about your choice to invest. And it sounds like quite heavily time, energy, resources and community. And oh, by the way, I got all this big job over here. I got to do as as well. Yeah. What compelled you to do it? Tell us about that side of your.

Durran Dunn: So I’m a servant leader. And at the end of the day, like, if you strip, you know, wherever we work, strip all the titles. We’re all human beings. If you’re sick and not well, or you’re facing crisis that you know your life is on the line, none of that stuff actually matters. And a lot of times I, you know, people get lost and wrapped up into that type of stuff. And so while I’m appreciative of my accomplishments, I would never want to lose sight. And I remain grounded in giving back, just broadly, broadly speaking. Bennett Thrasher aligns with that. So it all kind of works together. So they’re not totally separate. Right. Bennett Thrasher we do have a foundation. And we do have uh, we’re associates and everyone give there’s there’s matching the foundations. Also give uh to organizations and it all goes hand in hand. And I think for me, it’s not necessarily separate or one or the other. It’s all about giving back, reaching back. And quite frankly, it actually aligns really well when you think about corporate social responsibility. And that’s what I am as an entity in terms of being Duran Duran, and no different than what organizations will do as well. So it’s really one. And without it, quite frankly, uh, I’d be selfish. So the there’s a, there’s a saying that said to whom much is given, much is expected. And I’m just trying to fulfill that role.

Stone Payton: Well, I think it’s marvelous not only your own personal drive to to serve as you’ve described. And I can see it clearly. I can see it in your eyes. I can hear it in your voice, but also there’s no conflict there. Quite to the contrary. Bennett Thrasher is wholly supportive of that. And even giving you, uh, a way to express that.

Durran Dunn: Yep. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So it all works. Well, um, and that’s I mean, you got to think about that. Most people are choosing where they work based on fit, based on culture and all that. And the Bennett Bennett Thrashers culture is aligned very well so it makes it easier, right? I don’t have to go in there and say I’m a given person and then they’re not. It just wouldn’t it wouldn’t work out because I’d be wrestling, you know, with myself. The value system that I have personally is the same value system that the firm and the partners and associates have across, uh, Benny Thrasher. So it works out really well, and.

Stone Payton: You get to be the same real authentic Duran 24 over seven 365. You don’t have to like put different mask on for these different.

Durran Dunn: I can’t do that. That is that would be too tiring. So absolutely. No I mean and look we we we you know Jeff call the leadership team there Michael Hoover. All these folks, they they’re they’re accessible, they’re reachable. Um, they’re personable. And it just it really, really, really just works works really well. And quite frankly, it’s the same level of, uh, you know, transparency and reach that we bring to the clients in terms of bringing solution, they can reach us. We don’t want to necessarily. We’re not a, you know, 9 to 4 and then you can’t reach us afterwards. Like we understand that we are working with clients who have needs. That comes up in a variety of different ways at different times. And our role is simply we are the doctors of business, put it that way, right? So we’re the doctors, we’re the physicians of business, and we want to help, uh, do your checkup. We want to help solve for any issues that pop up. And then we have specialists, uh, again, just like in the physician world, that can really dive deep to help create solutions and help those organizations reach their strategic objectives.

Stone Payton: That’s a marvelous mental picture.

Stone Payton: That’s that really helps me solidify it and simplify it. Yeah. That’s terrific. So I don’t know how you’d find the time, but, uh, hobbies, interests, pursuits, passions outside the scope of the Bennett Thrasher work, the community work. My listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel.

Stone Payton: Okay.

Stone Payton: Anything you nerd out about outside of any of the stuff we’ve been talking about?

Durran Dunn: Yeah. So it’s interesting. I, you know, a lot of people talk about like, work life balance. For me, it’s really work life integration. And I say that because it’s for me it happens that everything that I do, it all kind of works well. And actually for me, make it a bit easier. So, you know, being an athlete I that is that is part of me. Again, those muscles of an athlete will always, forever be forever be with me because that’s what I bring over into the business world. And again, I mentioned that I’m a corporate athlete. We all are corporate athletes. And so that just lends itself well. But I enjoy traveling. I’ve had the opportunity to travel the world. I love travel, um, I do enjoy, uh, eating, eating out. And I love all sorts of cuisines.

Stone Payton: And you wouldn’t know it, gang.You guys can’t see him right now, but he is fit as a fiddle, as my mom would say. So he eats healthy, but apparently he enjoys it.

Durran Dunn: That is right.

Durran Dunn: So do I, but I do enjoy eating, um, big sports fanatics when I’m not necessarily competing. I do like, uh, sports football. Like I said, I’m now probably a bigger basketball fan. Uh, of course baseball. Um, I just watch. I love competing and then just doing any type of random competition if there. Like, I would love to go on American Ninja Warrior one day. I just haven’t, uh, I haven’t created the time yet to to do so. Uh, I play music. I’m not doing much of that today, but I used to play in, uh, in church, so I played the piano, the keyboards and the drums cannot read music, though, so I ended up just playing by ear. Um, and just with my family. I mean, that’s that’s really. That’s all I’ve got time for. People ask. Well, there’s not enough time in the day. I’m like, no, there’s enough time. We just have too much stuff that we’ve put into the day, and that’s the reality. But those are all. The stuff that I enjoy doing outside of.

Stone Payton: I’m so glad that I asked.

Stone Payton: I feel like I learned more about you in the last 45 seconds. That I did reading the pre-show notes to get ready to have this conversation. That is fantastic. Well, before we wrap, I’d love to if we could. Leave our listeners with a couple of, I call them pro tips, but just something to be thinking about noodling on. Maybe an operating discipline from the way you run your personal and professional life. Just let’s give them a little something to chew on and look, gang related to any of the professional stuff that we’ve been talking about in particular. Number one pro tip reach out and have a conversation with Duran or somebody on his team. Tap in to the great work that they are doing. But to hold them off between now and and when they take that step, let’s leave them with a little something to noodle on, man.

Durran Dunn: I mean, there’s so much that comes to mind, but one that’s jumping out at me, uh, to leave as is. Uh, and this is broad because it sounds like I think the essence of your question is broad beyond business life. It sounds like it’s broad. Yeah. Okay. Am I right? All right.

Stone Payton: And it’s really for me.

Stone Payton: You know, I just need all the help I can get.

Durran Dunn: But I’m going to leave with, uh, resilience. Just one word. Like having resilience. Uh, and I think resilience would apply, uh, in work, in sports, in life to the young, to the middle aged, to the old. Um, I see resilience as a prerequisite for success. Like, if you don’t have resilience, if you can’t get over the hurdle or hurdles in life, in whatever it is, then this goal that you’re after or success, you can pretty much pack it up. Um, we’re talking about some of the accomplishments that I’ve had. Uh, and I can reflect on so many, but the truth is, I’ve had a lot more failures. And I think I think I’ve heard this once where I think maybe it was Michael Jordan, or maybe Kobe talked about how many shots they’ve missed and everybody sees the highlights of. And I notice I said the highlights of all the shots they’ve made. Um, and so when I reflect on my life and personally and in my career and have, you know, really thought about some of the hurdles that I’ve had to get over, some of them were not pleasant. Uh, when I think about personal things, having lost a sister a couple of years ago and having to work through that. Uh, having friends and colleagues who have had their challenges in different ways. A lot of them are on the other side of that. And so the goal here and the point I’m trying to make is you’ve got to have resilience. This whole thing around, like short term gratification and instant gratification is really mostly a fad. And maybe that’s really just the lottery. You buy a ticket and you get it, and all of a sudden you win. But what’s the odds of that? The truth is have resilience, demonstrate resilience, stay disciplined. And if you do that, the odds are whatever it is that you’re doing, you’ll get on the other side of that and be able to tell that story.

Stone Payton: Such powerful counsel. And here’s another pro tip gang, if you want to have bright, passionate people sit down with you for free and lay some real wisdom on you that will improve your life, get yourself a radio show.

Stone Payton: It’s a great.

Durran Dunn: I love it.

Durran Dunn: And by the way, having the opportunity to be here is great. It’s it’s it’s beautiful.

Stone Payton: Thank you. All right, let’s leave our listeners with some coordinates. The best way to tap into the Bennett Thrasher ecosystem and learn more. Maybe have a conversation with you or someone on the team. But let’s let’s give them an easy way to do that.

Durran Dunn: Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. Uh, Duran. Done.so. That’s Duran and the last name d u n n. And then you can certainly send me an email as well. Duran Duran at Btcpay dot net. And you can certainly find more about Bennett Thrasher on our website as well. So I am I’m going to keep tabs of how many folks reach out. And so I’m looking forward to hearing from you all out there.

Stone Payton: Well, Duran, it has been an absolute delight having you in the studio to share your experience. Thank you for your insight, your perspective. You are clearly out there serving in so many ways and having a genuinely profound impact on on so many. We we sure appreciate you, man.

Durran Dunn: Thank you. Stone I appreciate the opportunity.

Durran Dunn: Thank you.

Stone Payton: My pleasure.

Stone Payton: All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Duran done with Bennett Thrasher and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Reclaiming the Power of the Edge: Breaking Free from the Limits of the Old Paradigm

February 19, 2025 by angishields

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High Velocity Radio
Reclaiming the Power of the Edge: Breaking Free from the Limits of the Old Paradigm
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Stone Payton interviews Sheila Bélanger, a transformational coach specializing in guiding change agents, or “sacred disruptors.” Sheila shares her unique journey, from a double major in comparative literature and mechanical engineering to discovering astrology’s value in self-awareness. She emphasizes helping clients navigate their “edges”—transitional spaces between old identities and new potentials. The discussion covers the importance of ICF certification, building a coaching business, and fostering self-trust. Sheila also highlights the role of sacred disruptors in driving meaningful change and the rewarding aspects of witnessing clients’ transformative insights.

Transformational-Edges-Coaching-logo

Sheila-BelangerSheila Bélanger is a dynamic, catalyzing guide to your transformation journey.

Sheila is an ICF-certified coach and carries a process-oriented approach based in depth psychology and archetypal initiatory journeys.

At your personal and professional edges, Sheila supports you to access your innate wisdom and make sustainable inner changes to contribute as an authentic and empowered leader and change agent for our world.

Connect with Sheila on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • What “the edge” is and why is reclaiming it key to transformation
  • How fear-based paradigms keep people stuck, and how can they break free
  • What resistance people face when shifting beliefs, and how can they move through it
  • How self-reflection and guided imagery help release old mindsets
  • How people can trust themselves when stepping into the unknown
  • What it means to embody a change-agent mindset today

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Transformational Edges Coaching, Sheila Bélanger. How are you?

Sheila Bélanger: I am great Stone. I’m so happy to be here with you and your people. And I love the high velocity. Let’s go baby.

Stone Payton: Well, I think a great place to start would be if you could share with us mission. Purpose. What are. What are you really out there trying to do for folks with your with your practice?

Sheila Bélanger: Yes, I specialize in working with my coaching clients and students with navigating the edges of change which hello, we’re in huge ones right now collectively. But personally I love to work with visionary change agents. I call them sacred disruptors that recognize the status quo in an organization in whatever area of life they’re in, says we’re going to change this. And so how to resource them? So they’re really effective and compassionate change agents for bigger changes that need to happen for the world.

Stone Payton: Now, how in the world did you get in this line of work? What’s the backstory?

Sheila Bélanger: Oh, Stone okay, I’ll try to be succinct. So in undergraduate college, I was a double major, comparative literature and mechanical engineering.

Stone Payton: That’s an interesting double major that’s there.

Sheila Bélanger: There’s my life. That’s my psyche. Okay. And when I got to college, I just couldn’t stomach going into being a professional engineer because at the time, The. It was so misogynist and it was so difficult to be in as a woman engineer is so personally, I had proven to myself I could do the math and the science, but I just didn’t want to go there. And out of the blue, I ended up having a consultation with an astrologer. I had my first astrology reading and I went in like an engineer saying, what is this? But you know, we’ll do it. The woman blew me away. It was so accurate and helpful as a navigational tool and a self-knowing tool that I said, I got to figure out how she did that. So I spent the next two years after work doing a self-study. I came out a professional astrologer as one of the hats and roles I wear. And the bottom line is, it led me to my passion for profound change and lasting change is an inside job, so that whatever tools or practices an individual could use to free themselves from limited concepts, ideas Enculturated mindset. That’s what I was in for. So I spent decades really more in the sort of spiritual growth arena doing lots of counseling, lots of trainings, guiding all kinds of things. And I always knew I wanted to go more towards the business world because I felt like that’s where a lot of leverage is. So I ended up getting trained as a coach and I’m ICF certified. I feel that’s really important to be certified, and I just love now working with leaders of any kind, really helping them, resourcing them at their edge so they can do really effective change agent work.

Stone Payton: So I have to ask what compelled you to to feel like and invest the time, the energy, the resources to become formally credentialed, get that ICF certification? Speak to that a little bit, if you will.

Sheila Bélanger: Yeah, well, as you probably know, Stone, in most professions, some people can just hang out their, you know, their little sign saying, here I am. And what I love about ICF is it’s rigorous and one it has a huge ethics component. And the way that you train as an ICF certified coach to prepare to take your testing is it’s a person and client centric. So you’re really in the role of supporting deeply the client to know their own wisdom and their own power. And I love that because you’re a support to their own agency and their own empowerment of their wisdom. And the more leaders who have that, the better off we are. And there’s a rigorousness to getting your ICF credential. And I really respect that because I came out of it feeling like I earned this. I worked hard and I can stand in my ethics in this profession having that ICF certification.

Stone Payton: I have to believe that I won’t say easier. That’s not a fair word, but but going through that process with that rigor, discipline, structure, it had to help the the transition from the corporate arena to now. You’re a coach and you’re running a business. It had to help to some degree. You had to make that transition.

Sheila Bélanger: It did, although I never I only worked in a corporate job for five years. Oh, okay. I worked as a technical writer, and I was on a management track, actually with Microsoft. And there was one point I said, nope, I can’t do it. I am an edge character, stone, and I just couldn’t do it. But I understand organizational culture, and I understand a lot of my leaders. They’ve trained me up like, what is what is it they really struggle with inside and out. And one of the things I loved about the ICF training was it gave me a pathway to understand how to be the most effectively helpful, because when you’re a coach, you’re not a consultant. They’re not they’re not there to have you give them advice or, you know, tell them things. They’re there to have a really profound experience of being witnessed, being supported, being tracked and being encouraged to really get in the power of their own knowing.

Stone Payton: So what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you these days?

Sheila Bélanger: The most fun is when the light bulbs go off. With my coaching clients, I’m holding space. I mean, you’re trained as an ICF coach to ask really poignant, powerful questions, and some of them are very disturbing. You know, they’re the kind of questions like, could you tell me, why are you doing that? Basically. You know, type of things. And to witness the client connect the dots inside and go, oh, that kind of rush of power that happens when a person has a deep insight that’s really transformative. That is like course correcting for them, either personally or professionally. I love that that’s my real happy place when that happens.

Stone Payton: So I want to hear more about this concept of the edges and the work in general. I’m particularly interested in the early phases of the engagement cycle or whatever you call it, but kind of you maybe even do a use case. Of course, you wouldn’t mention any names, but just kind of walk us through what what that might look like.

Sheila Bélanger: Oh, yes. Okay. Well, I’ll give you general first and then I’ll use a use case. Um, so edges are basically the edges of change. That’s that’s my place is, it’s when, you know, we’ve outgrown our old identities and our old patterns and our old attitudes, and we have a longing. We know something’s calling us. You know, whatever it is, whether it’s a different role as a leader or something in your personal family life. But we’re not there yet. It’s not embodied. We don’t know how to be that new identity. So the edge is this really mysterious place where the old life is over. The new life is not fully here yet. And how do you navigate that? It’s a really rich, powerful place, but it’s a terrifying place for our established ideas of ourselves. And what I love to do is resource people at the edge, because that means compassionately and fiercely addressing the two limited mindsets that the person is carrying. I call them the toxic smallness mindsets. And to really vigorously investigate the roots of that. Now recognize as a coach, I’m not a therapist so that if things are coming up from early childhood or family system, it’s not my place to do therapy. I can refer out, but most of my clients are very well resourced and they can really wrestle with, why do I keep limiting myself, you know, before I go forward at the edge to embody my greater potential, my bigger dream of professional or personal manifestation, I have to wrestle with those habitual attitudes and mindsets and wounded inner figures in me that want to hold me hostage, you know? So the edge work is really deep, compassionate inquiry, honesty about self, what’s really going on and resourcing so you can bear the tension of not yet knowing who you’re becoming.

Stone Payton: Now, do you find yourself helping people work through some version of fear or a set of fears? Does fear real or perceived factor into any of this?

Sheila Bélanger: Yeah. Fear. And the way I name it, stone is we all know about our inner critic, right? Um, and that one is is for me with my my perspective and perspective. It’s, um, an inner figure that’s quite young in us. It’s it’s one that’s wounded, but it sort of puffs itself up like this authority. And it shoulds on us. Right. Or it’s the classic one for leaders is imposter syndrome, right? It’s that little voice or that big voice says, who do you think you are? You know, you don’t know. And so what often happens is I use a lot of alternative coaching practices to help people really get the keys back from the inner critic and say this one is not should not be driving your car. You know, because this one is actually wounded and it’s going to drive your car into the ditch and you’re not going to get anywhere. So what I’m doing as a coach is listening. The inner critic is one example. There’s several characters that really get caught in fear, and then it freezes the person and they get caught in the habitual mindset, and then they can’t get anywhere. You know, they feel like they just caught in the cage of their own self-sabotage. And so I use some really powerful practices to help them really put the inner critic in his or her or their right place. Right? Because they’re still part of us. We can’t get rid of them, but not to be having the keys to the car.

Stone Payton: So I walked into this conversation feeling pretty sure in myself that that you certainly would have to endure a great deal of trust for people to open up to you, and you’d have to cultivate Relationship and not violate that relationship. And I’m sure you have disciplines and practices that support all that. What didn’t occur to me until right now is how much you have to get them to trust themselves to participate. Is that accurate?

Sheila Bélanger: Oh, Stone, you want to be a coach? That’s it. It’s really. You’re cultivating and holding space and supporting your client to learn to trust themselves again. Radically.

Stone Payton: That. Yeah. So there’s a there’s a learning that. Well, there’s that. And you’re going to hear me. If you listen to any of my future work, I’m going to use get the keys back. I love that.

Sheila Bélanger: You know, what I love about that is people get it like they I don’t have to blab on. They’re just like, oh, yeah, give me those keys back. You mean you don’t have a license to drive? Okay.

Stone Payton: So when you did get credentialed, you went out there. You did hang that shingle out, so to speak. Did like on the business side of coaching was the was going and getting new clients a challenge or did it fall together pretty well for you?

Sheila Bélanger: Um, it was both. I mean, one, I had a base of people who had been doing sort of classes and workshops, and I was a kind of spiritual teacher for them or guide for them. So and some of those folks were already in business, you know, they were leaders, they were managers. They were, you know, C-suite. So they were like, oh, you’re doing coaching. Okay, I’ll come on over. But, you know, that was like initially. But then any of us who are are business people, it’s like, unless you have the funds to have your own marketing team, which I didn’t and I still don’t. And actually, I like I’m a solo character, I’m a solopreneur, and I love it. So the biggest challenge the stone is I came into coaching. I forget how old I was, um, I think I was in my 50s, you know, late 50s. I don’t mind aging myself because I appreciate the great I’ve earned every one of these gray hairs. Thank you very much. And the biggest challenge was the technology, the learning curve to run all the platforms as a solopreneur, as a solo businesswoman, as a coach. That was, oh my gosh, that was its initiation in itself. And then, like most of us, you try to find the right kind of guides for your marketing process, you know, because there’s a lot out there for coaches. I’m sure you’ve had people on your show or you know about them to try to help coaches run their business, because most of us are really gifted, you know, in that person centric capacity to support and guide a lot of therapists, become coaches. A lot of people have that skill set, but most of us don’t have the business skill set. So we have to somehow find a way either to learn how to do it or to hire it out.

Stone Payton: Did I hear you right? Earlier in the conversation mentioned the term sacred disruptors. Did I?

Sheila Bélanger: Yes I did, Yes. I got to say more about that. Yes. Okay, so when a system isn’t working. And let’s be blunt, my friend, there’s a lot of systems not working right now, okay? Like big time, small and little systems when it’s not working. And you have somebody who has maturity and enough inner resources to say, whoa, this system has to radically change if it’s going to really survive or the people involved or nature or the animals involved are going to survive. And that’s what I think of as a sacred disrupter. It’s like a mature resource change agent. And I just want to contrast when I’m talking about the wounded inner figures that might sabotage us at, you know, as leaders. The inner critic is top of the list. The other one is the pissed off rebel, and it’s the inner figure that has a big chip on their shoulder. They’re hurting for whatever happened, you know, in their life where they were marginalized, including self marginalization. And so they’ve got a head of steam and they come in like a wrecking ball. You know, they’re like, I’m just going to blow everything up. So when I’m working with my change agent leaders, I’m really helping them to resource that pissed off inner rebel, because most most of us have one of those inner figures, because that one is not an effective leader. The fuel and the energy of that character is wonderful to support you, but you’re mature, sort of sacred disruptor. Okay, I’m going to mess with the system for the the main goal of making it better for everybody, right? That’s really different than a pissed off inner rebel who says, I’m just angry and I’m going to take everything out.

Stone Payton: Yeah. So as a leader who participates in emerges from their work with you when they are back at their ranch, can they borrow a few pages from the Sheila book and use it to do they.

Sheila Bélanger: So do I’m going to actually come. I’m going to bring up one of my most amazing clients. Hotel love story. Now stone. Yes, please. You said, you know, sort of a case study. Um, an amazing, uh, at the time I started working with this leader, uh, they were, uh, decades. They were almost at the C-suite and, um, lesbian woman, but but, well liked and really had support from the people under them. But the upper level, uh, you know, really held them at the upper level. Management and super supervisors held them at, um, arm’s length, which really activated for her all this angry rebel. Right, because she was already working as a lesbian, having had to come through her own process with that in the culture. Right. Like, how do I stand in my authenticity when this is here? And one of the things that happened was as we worked together and particularly resourced. Her inner rebel got that one calmed down. It allowed what I would call her more mature inner leader to come through, and as she grew into that, she really felt the power of taking her place at the table and not making any apologies for how different she was and then her team under her. She started utilizing some of the practices that she and I worked with, which is calling in the sort of inner saboteurs, again, not doing it as therapy because that wasn’t her place.

Sheila Bélanger: She’s leader, you know, she’s she’s leader of her team. But that kind of education about who’s at the conference table with us again, who has the keys to the car, you know, because that’s individual work. But it’s also in a team, in an organization, if every single one of your team, the one that has the keys is some wounded inner figure, well, we know how much gets done, right? Nothing. Because then it’s just a free for all right. And it’s like a food fight and and you know Oh, there’s all kinds of chaos. So my example of working with her was in supporting her to come into her own empowerment. She had more awareness with her team to build a what she called a coaching culture, like a way that they could help each other track when a wounded part was up again, not inappropriately doing therapy with each other, but it was something that she could translate to her workplace that was very effective. And because, you know, like attracts like, she’s a feisty, edgy change agent. So she had a whole team of them. And so she got to kind of, all right, we’re all going to grow up together. And it makes some really good changes in this organization.

Stone Payton: So do you find yourself from time to time having to educate or and or debunk some commonly held misconceptions or myths may be a little bit strong, but so are some incomplete information about people’s initial frame of reference perspective, preconceived notions about coaching, what it is, what it’s not, how to use it.

Sheila Bélanger: Yes, very much so. A couple of things. I’d say two examples for you stone that are frequent is it’s really important when I do because most of us do a discovery call or a chemistry call, you know, I call it basically a sniff test kick the tires, you know, like, okay, do I want to go drive with this coach? You know, like, let’s check it out. I mean, let’s cut to the chase. It’s a sniff test, baby. Okay, but I could call it a discovery call. Yeah, but essentially, there’s two things I see. One is they’ve never worked with a coach before, so there’s just no understanding yet of, like. Well, how could you be supportive to me? You know, like, why would I hire you? Or why would my organization hire you and contract with you to help me as a leader? So part of that is just educating our role as a coach is like, I think of it again, I’m going to use the word sacred. It is such a privilege, especially for leaders, especially those you know more in the C-suite. It can be a really lonely place tremendously, and a lot of pressure in a lot of decision making pressure. And so, so many things going on in the organizational culture. So the coach can be like this really personal ally to listen deeply and effectively, not try to change them, not try to tell them what to do, but like holding the space deeply so that they can listen to themselves.

Sheila Bélanger: And that goes to the trusting themselves. So many times leaders are so overwhelmed with time, they don’t even have time to think through, you know, some key decisions they’ve got to make. So one thing that a coach does, it’s like you have this time, this session committed to I’m holding space for you. You can listen to yourself. I’m going to ask you really poignant questions to help you get to a deeper level of understanding and truth. And that is a really rare gift, especially for executives and leaders. So one is educating, well, what exactly does a coach do? And the thing again, if you’re ICF certified, the focus is you really are trained up. The the client decides the goal. You don’t come in as a coach and say, okay, we’re going to work on this today. What do you want to work on? What do you think we need to address at the end of the coaching session? How what did you what are your takeaways? How are you going to be accountable to yourself? So throughout the whole way as a coach, when you’re ICF certified, your focus is the empowerment of the client. And some clients don’t understand that. They come in thinking, oh, coach is going to tell me what to do. So that’s that’s one piece of education that needs to happen. I’ll pause there in case you you want to.

Stone Payton: Know, keep going. This is fantastic. Get your sip of water and keep going.

Sheila Bélanger: Yeah, exactly. That’s what I have to do is like because you pushed my my talk button stone and I’m off to the races. Okay. Like some people say, okay, where’s the hook that takes her off the stage? Now you can just cut me off. That’ll work. Um, the second major piece when people are interested in coaching is to help them really understand what I understand, what I call our swim lane, which is we’re not consultants, we’re not therapists, we’re not advisors. And so sometimes, um, a leader will come in and they’ve worked with a consultant. Right. Which is great. It was beautiful. But I have to educate them and say, I am not going to tell you what to do. I’m not even going to assess with you and give you answers. I’m going to listen deeply. And if we hit a pocket of emotional material unmetabolised trauma, things that I realized, well, now I’m out of my swim lane because now what’s coming up for this leader is potential work with a therapist or healer. And so as a coach, we’re really trained to say, stay in your swim lane. This is what I’m doing. And some leaders come in and they kind of say, oh, it’s going to be like another consulting session. And I have to tell you, Stone, the biggest surprise for them when they get into is like, oh, I have to do some work. Yeah you do. Guess what? Yeah. It’s on you, baby. And I’m going to keep using my coaching skills and holding great space for you to do your own work.

Stone Payton: Well, with your permission, I’m going to switch gears on you for a minute, if I might. Uh, interests, hobbies, pursuits, passions outside the scope of your of your coaching work. Might my listeners know I like to hunt, fish and travel? Anything you’d like to nerd out about? That’s not within the scope of coaching.

Sheila Bélanger: Hiking, and backpacking. Stone. I’m an avid backpacker. I love, and I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US, so we have amazing we have amazing opportunities in this area. And I my preference is to go like on a seven day backpack, you know, but all my stuff in the backpack get on the trail, just go wild. It’s it’s I just love doing that. And I’m also a gardener. I love is particularly flowers. And I also love to grow vegetables. It’s so satisfying to get my hands in the dirt and, you know, just. And the satisfaction of, like, planting a seed. And then it comes up, you know, or planting garlic bulbs in the fall. And then in the summer you get these huge garlics when you pull them out of the earth. Those are two of the things I adore.

Stone Payton: Well, you’re clearly doing great work and very rewarding work and living your best life, it sounds like to me, but I’ll ask you anyway. Uh, what’s on the horizon? Any designs on a on a book or certifying people to to to do the Teach the Sheila way or anything like that to replicate your.

Sheila Bélanger: Oh, dear. Oh, Stone, thanks for dropping that one in front of me. It’s like most of us. Where would I put that? In my schedule, my darling, you know, um, mainly what’s on the horizon for me. I love doing group coaching programs because of the synergy. It’s like it’s just building community. Because I’m skilled as a coach, I’m born to do this. It’s really good. But to come together with a group to support them as a coach, but really for them to support each other and build these communities, that’s what I love doing, because it’s like I might do a short term six week, you know, six session group coaching and then I’m on. They are still together, many of them as cohorts, you know, helping each other professionally and personally. So, um, that is the most important thing to me, particularly now with all the incredible changes we’re all going through, through collectively and personally is how do we build community. And so for me, that’s one way I do it is, is group coaching programs I love it.

Stone Payton: Well, before we wrap, I’d love it if we could leave our listeners with a couple of, I call them pro tips, maybe, maybe on both sides of the table or for, you know, of being a good coach and getting the most out of coaching or something else that we’ve talked about, but let’s leave them with a little something to to noodle on and look, gang. The best pro tip I can give you is reach out and have a conversation with Sheila or somebody on her team and let her help you think this through. But to to to keep them in check and and making progress between now and then. Let’s leave them with a little something.

Sheila Bélanger: Great. Thank you so much. Well first of all, for coaches in your audience, if you’re in the ICF world, if you’re ICF accredited, you know, there is an amazing amount of resources because part of our requirement to keep our ICF credential is ongoing continuing education, professional education. And I have to say, Stone, another big shout out to the International Coaching Federation, in case you don’t know what Stone and I have been talking about is they have local groups that offer these amazing, like, you know, lunch and learn or trainings. And as a coach, it’s just an enormous resources. You can have to continue learning as a coach. Easy to get either with your local ICF chapter or the national ones, or the international ones. The website for the International Coaching Federation is phenomenal for resources. So coaches who are listening, you probably already know this, but if you’re not an ICF accredited coach and you maybe you’re getting a little interested. This is one of the big supports is you get really amazing ongoing training as a coach that broadens you and deepens your skills as a coach. And then for, you know, leaders who are listening, gosh, I want to say I have a couple of free resources that people will get to and on my website. But I want to say just a pro tip, when I’m working with my coaching clients, one of the first practices we do is I call them the wisdom ways of knowing, and I’ll just say it very easily. It’s basically to recognize that your inner wisdom has many components and it’s not your conscious mind. With all due respect, there’s heart, wisdom, your feelings and emotions. There’s body wisdom. What is your body know? Like we all know, you can walk into a conference room and your body starts twitching.

Sheila Bélanger: Your body is already telling you what’s going to go down in the meeting. Okay? Like listen to your body wisdom and then what we call your imagination or your imagery wisdom. And what I mean by that is sometimes your mind and your own business and suddenly a song will come or a memory will come. And there’s a way to consider that your, your intelligence is talking to you, that it’s not random, that just an image you can start cultivating images, that what might this be sharing with me? What might this be a bit of wisdom from my inner self. So my pro tip is you might start cultivating. Yes, your mind is brilliant and that’s wonderful, but also start cultivating simple ways to breathe. Even if you just touch your heart and say, what does my heart know right now? And just give some space for that? Or, you know, if I just sort of shake and maybe stretch a bit and just take a couple of breaths. What’s my body feeling like right now? What does my body know? You know. And then with the imagery, you might some I tell my clients, just gently close your eyes. And does any image come to you? Nothing has to happen, but you start cultivating your other ways of knowing your other inner wisdom. Places that we all have. But we’ve just we haven’t cultivated them because we’ve been trained up just to use our conscious mind. So and this is really simple stuff, but, you know, you’d be amazed if you just daily stop and touch your heart and say, what does my heart know right now? You might blow your mind, so to speak, what comes up to you?

Stone Payton: I am so glad I asked. That sounds like terrific counsel. And I’ll tell you, gang, if you want to just have bright, passionate people who are doing good work to share some really strong, powerful information with you. Get yourself a radio show. It’s a great way to do it right. Oh, this has been marvelous.

Sheila Bélanger: Well done. Stone.

Stone Payton: All right, let’s make sure we leave them with your website and any other contact information. So they have coordinates so they can tap into your into your work.

Sheila Bélanger: Yeah. Thank you so much for that stone. So my website is transformational edges Coaching.com. Transformational edges Coaching.com. And you go to the home page and you can link over. I’ve got a link to courses you can link if you’re interested in my next upcoming group coaching program starts in mid-March of 2025 to whenever this goes out. And plus there’s a couple of free resources in my coaching courses page, ones that will help you work with your four ways of knowing and a couple a short workshop series, free workshop series on guided practices. So you’re welcome to go and check those out. And thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you and your audience. I really, really appreciate it.

Stone Payton: What an absolute delight to have you on the broadcast. This has been inspiring, invigorating, informative. I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and I know our listeners have as well. You’re doing really good work for so many and we sure appreciate you, Sheila.

Sheila Bélanger: Thank you. Stone, I so appreciate you and your people and we’re in it together, darling.

Speaker4: Let’s do it. Okay.

Stone Payton: Oh my pleasure. Alright, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Sheila Bélanger with Transformational Edges Coaching and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Tagged With: Transformational Edges Coaching

BRX Pro Tip: How to Come up with More Ideas for Your Business

February 19, 2025 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tip: How to Come up with More Ideas for Your Business
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BRX Pro Tip: How to Come up with More Ideas for Your Business

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you, Lee, let’s talk a little bit about some approaches for idea generation.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think it’s important to always be kind of pushing the envelope when it comes to ideas for your business. You should be thinking about your business 24/7. So, having some systems or places to go when it comes to getting more ideas, that way, you don’t get in a rut. That way, you’re exploring new activities and seeing what’s out there and maybe using what’s out there in kind of different creative ways that might help you get more clients or serve your clients more effectively.

I think some of the areas to go to, or some of the places to look, or ways to get these new ideas are number one, stay curious. I think it’s important to learn about interesting things that are outside of your industry in this way. If it’s working in a different industry, figure out a way to make it work in your industry. If somebody’s already successfully implementing some interesting thing in a totally different industry, there might be a way to leverage that in your industry that just no one has done yet.

Number two, I would leverage your team. I think it’s important to brainstorm with team members, especially people that are in different departments, put them all together in order to broaden each of their perspectives, because each of them are kind of looking at the business just through their lens. So, if you put a bunch of different people together and get them to look holistically and see things through other people’s eyes, you might come up with new ideas that way.

Three, ask your clients. Get their thoughts. You know, they’re in their own world, doing their own thing, and they’re using your service or your product. Invite them to share what they need more of and what they need less of. You know, invite a bunch of clients together for a brainstorming event to get their feedback and ideas every year or so. I mean, getting input from your clients is super valuable.

Number four, just try some new things. There’s always some experiment or pilot going on to see what could work, what doesn’t work, what might be worth the time, what isn’t worth the time. So, always experiment on something. You should be having a pilot going at all times.

And number five, dedicate some of your own time to just thinking about stuff and coming up with new ideas on your own. And then, don’t forget to implement some of them because if you’re not growing, then you’re dying. So, you should always be trying something. You should always be learning something new and seeing how it applies to your business.

Luke Fletcher with Construction Ready

February 18, 2025 by angishields

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Don’t miss the 2025 Construction Ready CareerExpo—the largest skilled trades career events in the South!

Georgia 2025 CareerEXPO

Thursday, February 20, 9am – 4pm
Friday, February 21, 9am – 2pm

Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC)
285 Andrew Young International Blvd. NW
Atlanta, GA 30313

Learn more about registration here.

Luke-FletcherConstruction Ready, a Georgia non-profit working to close the construction industry workforce gap, has promoted Luke Fletcher to Vice President of Recruitment, Placement & Retention. Fletcher will lead the adult training programs in Georgia and Florida. He will also support K12 learning and work-based programs throughout the two states.

“In his four years with Construction Ready, Luke has shown a great passion for recruiting men and women into the skilled trades,” says Scott Shelar, Construction Ready President and CEO. “Luke Fletcher is a valuable addition to our management team.”

Fletcher is a former high school construction teacher as well as a SkillsUSA Club Advisor in Houston County. Fletcher also served in the United States Air Force for 20 years as an electrical power production career field. Construction-Ready-logo

He earned a BS in Business Administration from Touro University and a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Administration from Trident University International.

Connect with Luke on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Construction Ready, Mr. Luke Fletcher. How are you, man?

Luke Fletcher: Man, I’m doing well. How are you doing this morning?

Stone Payton: I am doing well. I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation. I think a great place to kick it off, if you’re up for it would be if you could share with us. Mission. Purpose. What are you and your crew really out there trying to do for folks? Man.

Luke Fletcher: Man. Yeah. So for nearly 30 years, uh, we’ve helped people of all ages and backgrounds take advantage of opportunities and skilled trades. And we do we do that on basically two ways. Uh, we’re in the K-12 space helping, you know, bring back shop class. Um, and we do that through drafting, welding and construction, um, programs in Georgia. We have a Georgia Doe contract where we help coach, mentor those teachers and provide, um, industry touch points and also, um, like competitions for the high schoolers, you know, go build, do some plumbing and welding. And then we also have a 20 day pre-apprenticeship program for people of all ages and backgrounds who would like to enter the construction, um, workforce, but they don’t know exactly what they want to do. Our program fits really well for them because they can enter as entry level and then they can figure out, hey, I want to do plumbing or hey, I want to do heavy equipment. After the initial, you know, job placement. So it’s really exciting.

Stone Payton: Well, it sounds like noble and fun and rewarding work if you can get it. What what’s your backstory, man? How’d you find yourself in this role?

Luke Fletcher: Yeah, man. So, you know, um, I, I graduated in 1994, and I wanted to go into construction, and I just didn’t really have an avenue. I was originally from Seattle, Washington, so I had to enlist. I enlisted in the United States Air Force. Uh, I did military construction for 20 years. Um, married a lady who was an educator. And I thought to myself, man, when I, when I retire, I need to try to do this, troops of teachers and maybe try to become a teacher. I had no clue. Uh, we’re in Warner Robins, Georgia. I had no clue that they even were trying to bring shop classes. Um, back to school. When I graduated in 1994, they were already taking those programs out. I think we had maybe an auto shop, and that was it. I had no construction program, uh, in my school that they offered. So, um, so I go through that whole process and I, I’m thinking I’m going to be a coach, PE coach or something like that because I have no idea unless I go to these job fairs and they’re like, hey, man, you did construction in the military. Uh, would you be willing to be a construction teacher? You’re certified and you’ve got the background, and you you meet all the qualifications. And so I did that for six years, um, at Northside High School, Warner Robins.

Luke Fletcher: And, um, it was actually three years. And then dual enrollment was became really popular still is in Georgia. And they wanted to move my program over to the Career Academy and go dual enrolled with Central Georgia Tech. And at that point, it just wasn’t, uh, for me anymore. I lost I used to touch about 140 kids a day at Northside. I was averaging maybe 40 at this career Academy, and I just didn’t see how. It was really helpful. Um, it was helpful for the teacher, but it wasn’t really. I didn’t feel like I was making an impact as much. And so during my six years construction already, uh, they would mentor me, coach me. I’d have to go to these summer programs. We would build things, and I would have to, you know, redeliver those lessons in schools. And so I just reached out to him. They had a they had a for their 20 day program, uh, a job spot open. And I applied and they said, hey, man, you know, we’d love to have you on the team. This isn’t the right spot for you, but let’s go ahead and see if we can get you on our K-12 side. So in 2021, they, um, had an opening for me. And man, I haven’t looked back since.

Stone Payton: So we are experiencing just to kind of get a state of the of the arena here. We are experiencing to this day a workforce gap or decline in the trades. Is that accurate?

Luke Fletcher: Oh, absolutely. That definitely. We have um, a labor shortage in in the skilled trades, um, like never before. Um, I will say um, I think Georgia there’s a, there’s a actual, um, it’s called the, uh, manpower Group. And they do a talent shortage survey every year and construction for the seventh year in a row. It remains the hardest industry to fill. And, um, I would, you know, if you look by by states, you know, of course, there’s bigger states like Texas and Florida. They have it. But Georgia is like number five in the nation, and we have 386,000 unfilled jobs every year. And, um, we got broke down by craft. Um, I think we need 62,000 carpenters by December 2026. 31,000 masons. And what what we find is, um, you know, we have 816 high schools in Georgia. And, you know, when kids can have a touch point and kind of see if they like something, then that’ll entice them to go to the technical school or, or find a trade school or find an apprenticeship. But when they don’t have that, uh, we’re really just doing ourselves a disservice as a society. And, and what we’re seeing is we’re in 237 high schools. That’s less than half. So we’re still, you know, we’re getting after trying to open up programs. But you know, if we if we can get in about, you know, 400 high schools, I think we’d feel good about really helping these kids, you know, go into the union apprenticeships, the, the independent electrical contractors apprenticeships or, or the technical schools. But we’re just we don’t have enough touch points. Um, I mean, we need 25,000. Heavy equipment operators by December 26th, 24,000 electricians. And that’s that’s a four year Department of Labor apprenticeship that you have to go through, and you need a one apprentice with one journeyman. So some of these problems are just going to keep happening until we can really, you know, get ahead of it.

Stone Payton: So at this point in your career in in this pursuit, what are you personally finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it these days for you?

Luke Fletcher: And so, you know, like I said, um, I tried I wanted to be in construction. My uncle, I didn’t say this, but he did drywall. I saw him work for the unions in Seattle. He did a great job. And and so I went in the military. But someone helped me get there, right? And so I love building relationships, whether it’s a K-12 student or whether it’s one of our pre-apprenticeship, um, folks. And, um, and just helping them and then we follow them to once they get a job, we don’t leave. We we follow them. They become alumni. We we offer additional credentials. And we also, you know, provide some guidance because as you can imagine, some of these job sites, you gotta have tough skin and, you know, folks trying to figure it out, right. And so, so we we try to coach them up and just the relational. And then when someone comes back and says thanks, you know, it just means means the world. Right. But but part of that’s my story I know that’s not everybody, but I really like helping folks. And then I’ll. I’ll tell you this. We’ve had some recent success in our 20 day program. We’ve had some folks that came in with some transferable skills, whether it was like working stages at Tyler Perry Studios or whatever, and now they’re project managers for local construction companies. I mean, they they came in thinking, hey, I’m going to do entry level because I just need a job. And then when they get to that hiring fair, they got the resume out. And what they actually have the experience of already building something from start to finish. Man, that those construction companies are like, hey, we need you. So the other thing I want to say is it’s not just a craft labor shortage. We have the white collar shortages, too. There’s not enough project managers, BIM coordinators. I mean, the whole industry is, um, in demand right now.

Stone Payton: So let’s dive into the work a little bit. I’m operating under the impression that you are, you’re at these career expos in Georgia and Florida, And you’re you’re in these high schools helping the educators maybe walk us through a day in the life. There’s probably not a typical day or week or month for you, but give us a little bit of a feel for for your world on a day to day basis.

Luke Fletcher: Well, yeah. So these these, uh, career expos are really cool. Um, this will be the second year that we’re in Florida. So how they came about is, um, what part of our, uh, contract with the Georgia Department of Education? We get a contract with skills USA, which is the student organization for the, um, folks who, um, compete and set up the competitions for the high schoolers. So you can imagine there’s a carpentry, there’s a plumbing, there’s a welding. There’s all sorts of competitions for these young individuals to compete for. And so our CEO about 15 years ago, uh, Scott Schiller said, hey, let’s go ahead and try to have a career expo. And, um, I think they did it in the Home Depot parking lot. First time, if I remember the story right. It has grown to where it’s an annual event, and now it encompasses or is around, uh, in the Georgia World Congress center of the competition. So the competitions are in Hall A in the middle, and the expo is around. And it’s like, um, and honestly, I think it’s the largest event designed specifically for young students to explore more than 30 career pathways in construction. I don’t know if you could find that anywhere else. I mean, things like tile setter, the safety professional, you know, the line workers for Georgia Power, heavy equipment operators, they’re all there and they’re divided in these worlds.

Luke Fletcher: So like world of carpentry, world of electrical world of concrete, world of safety. And while you’re in that world, it’s, uh, you know, interactive. It’s, um, it allows the students and even, you know, you can you can come and visit. You don’t have to be a student. You can just, you know, look, looking to come. You could be a recent grad or just someone, you know, age 30. Come on down and and check it out. But you just go in these worlds and you get to talk to about 380 companies. Uh, they tell you about their apprenticeship programs? Yeah, we’ve got the tech schools there, college universities, vocational schools, and they just talk about their programs that help people get into, um, you know, that that industry which the world of sheet metal world of, uh, electrical, whatever that is. And it’s really cool. Um, and like I said, we got about 400 students in the middle competing in about 26in different skills competitions. So it’s it’s loud. It’s it’s interactive. But man, if you are all about construction, it’s the place to be, right? And and the industry really rallies. Uh, I think last year in Georgia, we had 9000 attendees over a two day event.

Luke Fletcher: It was really cool. Yeah, yeah, it was. I think it was something like we had 7.4 K elementary middle high school students visit. We had over 1000 industry volunteers. I think we had a thousand teachers and chaperons. It was really cool. And this is encompassing Florida too. So Florida was our first year. We got the the skills contract in Florida. And so we did it. This year will be our second year, but really cool. It’s at the Prime Osborn Center in Jacksonville there. And it’ll be later this year. So this Friday or this Thursday Friday will be in Georgia doing the state competition career expo. And then April is when we go to Jacksonville and we support that expo. But I’m telling you, it’s it’s really cool, really interactive. It’s hands on. I mean, you can really go in and do a lot of their demonstrations and figure out kind of what you like. I mean, it’s that that hands on that, you know, if you spend time in each world, you come away, you know, one with an appreciation of what what these guys do on a daily and to what your preferred touch point may be. It’s really neat.

Stone Payton: When you’re out in the community and dealing with all these different constituencies the students, the students, the educators, the the employers. Do you find that you run across some, I don’t know, myths? Maybe a little bit of a strong word, but misconceptions, incomplete information that requires just helping them really understand that those different worlds that you described. Are there some misconceptions that you run into?

Luke Fletcher: Yeah, absolutely. There’s tons of misconceptions. And I’ll be honest with you, when I started as a teacher, I had a misconception, right, of like commercial roofing. I remember growing up, it was tar. It was, you know, dirty and and and these guys were, um, coming, uh, industry partners were coming and telling me about this new technology, this new roofing material. It was white. It was just dusty. There was no tar. And I was like, I don’t believe you guys. Let me see. So they came in and did a whole demonstration for for the, the kids. And I was like, Holy smokes, it’s really changed. And and so, you know, you, you kind of just have to understand that understand that people have their own frame of reference, right? Like they remember high school from their lanes. They remember, you know, just from what they know. And so there is a constant educational piece, um, you know, entry level wages nowadays are ranging from like 15 to $22 an hour, depending on where you’re at. And I mean, it’s just people don’t really realize that. And and that’s just entry level. If, if you do well and you make yourself valuable and you work hard, I mean, you can become a small business owner in no time and construction. But but you definitely get promoted and things like that. But yeah, for the most part, there’s a lot of folks, um, that they just think that construction is dirty.

Luke Fletcher: It’s, you know, you can you can smoke dope and all that. And, and when we go in and we’re telling kids and we’re telling teachers, hey, there’s a drug test. If you’re going to work for a union, you got random drug testing. And sometimes they got these anti CBD policies and things. And and they’re just like blown away. They’re like oh this sounds like corporate America. It’s like, well, commercial construction is kind of corporate America. And so so it is definitely an educational piece. But at the end of the day, if someone has a great work ethic and they are, um, willing to work and they’re good with their hands, they don’t mind being outside. Man, this is the time to get into construction, especially if you have a five year, ten year plan. You want to be an entrepreneur. I mean, um, the world’s, you know, at their tip. I was talking to this one guy from Metro Power. He he he I think he joined, uh, Metro Power 3 or 4 years ago, maybe five now. So he did their four year, um, apprenticeship. He’s a journeyman. And I asked him, I said, are you getting a bunch of overtime hours now? And he’s like, no, Mr. Fletcher, I want to just have my weekends myself, especially from May to October. I’m like, well, tell me more about that. He’s like, man, I got this side hustle where I because I’ve got my journeyman license.

Luke Fletcher: I can work for these pool companies. And when they install a pool they need me to me to wire from the garage to the light to the pool pump. Man, they pay me piece work or something like that. And basically what he’s saying is it’s like $400 a job and he can do it in like 45 minutes. So he does a couple of those on the weekends, and he’s like, Mr. Fletcher, I’m gonna own my own electrical company one day. And the funny thing is, man, this guy is like 24 years old. And knowing his story, college wasn’t, um, on the table for him. And, of course, what he heard is you got to go to college and be successful. And and, man, he just he was really good with his hands. He went to a high school that didn’t have a shop class, and he just somehow got linked in. You know, Metro has recruiters. They go and talk to schools. Maybe he went to a camp. I’m not exactly sure how he got linked with them, but man, the sky’s the limit for him now, you know? And six years after high school, he’s thriving. And so, you know, we just need to create more touch points. And that’s what we’re about. And that’s really what excites me in the in the day, to be honest with you.

Stone Payton: Well, man, you got a lot of plates spinning personally to pull all this off as as a leader of this effort. A lot of irons in the fire, as my daddy would say. I’m curious if you feel like or to what degree you feel like your military experience has served you in turning around and serving these folks.

Luke Fletcher: Well, I’ll tell you, um, the military experience, um, from my perspective, is really, um, giving me a, um, uh, a breadth of, uh, uh, embrace, I guess, diversity. You know, we can we go into all communities and, and, you know, I went all around the world, right? And, and a lot of, um, training and, um, culture sensitivity and things like that. And so I think one, uh, it helps me kind of maybe lead our team and not to be nervous or anything like that when we go into a new, new community culture and just be open. But but I would also say, um, just the organizational leadership that the Air Force gave me, I think is helped. Right. Like, you know, we’re a nonprofit. So you can imagine we do we pivot a lot. We’re trying new things a lot. And so just the keeping things organized, I think really helps. And um, but but honestly, um, Scott Schiller, CEO man, I tell my team all the time just we just got to represent his heart, his vision. If we do that, we’re going to be fine because he’s the one that created this, you know, 26 years ago. And this is his grand vision. And, um, he’s got a heart of gold, you know, and he he he wants to help all people. Um, he, you know, it doesn’t matter. Their age doesn’t matter.

Luke Fletcher: Their background doesn’t matter. You know, if they want to get in the trades, he wants to walk beside them and help them. And so just creating that culture that he has and us just walking behind him and following him is really I think, um, set us up well, but but I do think the the military has helped me just, you know, going across the world having to accept and understand and and just keep, I guess, an open mind. And so really I mean, that also helps with employers, right, in different industries. Uh, I think I shared with you as a new teacher, uh, how even even after 20 years in the military, I was like, oh, there’s no way roofing doesn’t have tar, you know? And and then they got this new, um, uh, skin that they, they, they actually welded on, you know, and then seam it in and stuff and, and so that’s the cool thing. And, and you know, we’re still trying on these expos working with SkillsUSA. You know it’s interesting how each state’s a little different. So in Florida they have a commercial roofing competition. Well in Georgia we you know we have a couple at the region level. We’re trying to you know, we’ve got a world of roofing. But, you know, just trying to collaborate with with all the roofers and find out. Hey, can we get some volunteers to put this on for, for the kids and and and them to understand that they may have to do that for a few years before they get kids, you know, walking into their industry, but creating that touchpoint, you know, after a couple years, you know, juice builds juice.

Luke Fletcher: Those kids are gonna be like, hey, I want to go work for Midsouth. Hey, I want to go work for Ellie Schwartz. Hey, I want, but until we can create that touchpoint, you know, we just, you know, we’re just not there. But in in Jacksonville, they’ve got kids that they’re choosing to do commercial roofing and, um, they’ve had that touchpoint. So those are the things that keep us excited and just keeps that open mind. But to your point, it’s I think it’s a lot of organizational. Um, yeah. Leadership planning from our CEO on down. And then I think just the ability to try things and not look at it as success or failure. If it doesn’t work, then we just, you know, have a hot wash and why didn’t it work? And then how do we pivot and how do we just keep, uh, we call them our heroes in mind, right? Like, how do we keep what’s best for our students, whether they’re K-12 or they’re adult? And how do we serve them best and how we connect them with industry? So.

Stone Payton: Amen. So I don’t know when or how you would find the time, but, uh, interest pursuits, hobbies, passions outside the the scope of this work. Uh, most of my listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. Anything you nerd out about when you’re not doing this?

Luke Fletcher: Man, I love college football and college basketball. And, um, honestly, this year has been a little different. So I have three, three, um, children. My daughter is the oldest, uh, she’s 28 this year, and I just became a grandpa, so I’m excited about that. We got our first grandchild, so we’re super excited. But, uh, our two boys, I had one son. He went to Auburn, and I had another son. He just joined the Marines. Uh, he went to Georgia Tech. And so we followed, you know, Auburn and Georgia Tech and and just, you know, try to follow that football. But but honestly, um, families probably what I nerd out about now, especially as they’re grown and, um, that time in the military, I feel like I missed a lot. So now I’m I’m trying to, you know, make sure I don’t miss a Thanksgiving or Christmas or anything like that, but but, um, yeah, I would say, I would say football, though at the holidays, we got the TV on and we’re cheering and, you know, my wife went to the University of Wyoming. So secretly, that’s who we follow. Um, there’s probably not too many Wyoming fans. Uh, but we love Josh Allen in the Buffalo Bills. And then I would say, um, when our kids around, if they’re both around, then it’s kind of house divided. But if it’s our favorite teams, whatever. Boys home.

Stone Payton: Well, congratulations on becoming a grandpa. That’s fantastic news.

Luke Fletcher: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, we’re super excited.

Stone Payton: Hey, listen, before we wrap, I would love to if we could leave our listeners with a little something to noodle on. Maybe a couple of pro tips. A do a don’t. A good read. Something to be thinking about. And look gang, the number one pro tip is if this conversation is stimulated, your thinking at all is reach out and have a conversation with Luke or somebody on his team. Get tapped into the work they’re doing. Attend this conference. But uh, to, uh, to, uh, keep them sated between now and then. Luke, let’s leave them with a little something to noodle on.

Luke Fletcher: Yeah, yeah, I would, I would definitely, uh, love to invite everybody. February 20th and 21st down to the, um, Georgia World Congress Center. Come to the career Expo. It’s free. You can go to our website construction. Org, you can sign up for a badge. Badge will be waiting for you. You can just come on down and it’ll be great. Um, but for, you know, if anybody’s thinking about their future, thinking about how I can get into construction, there’s a really cool build your future nonprofit, um, website that has nothing to do with construction ready? Uh, but it has some really, really great tips. Um, about building your future in construction. Whether it’s union, nonunion, um, trade schools, uh, technical schools and and just the, the demand map and where you live, you know. So it’s really great, you know. So if someone’s in metrolina, they’re gonna have a lot of options. But if they’re in South Georgia, maybe they only have a few, but that that website is WW dot. Or they can just Google build your future and I would encourage them to go there.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. All right. Let’s make sure we do leave them with all the coordinates. The best way to to continue to tap into your work, maybe share that conference information again, maybe, uh, your website or contact whatever is appropriate, and we’ll allow people to stay connected with you, man.

Luke Fletcher: Yeah. No problem. It’s, uh, our website is construction dot again. That’s construction ready.org. And they’ll just go to our website and, um, they’ll hit on the career expo link, and, uh, they’ll see Georgia or Florida, whatever one they’re interested in. I would encourage them to come to the Georgia World Congress Center. But you click on that link and you just get a badge for free. Now, listen, if they don’t have time for that, they can just come down. We’ve got, uh, a lady that will take care of them. They register right there in hall. A, um, Miss Sandra mathis would be happy to take care of them. Um, so even if they don’t go to the website for the career expo, they can come to the Georgia World Congress Center and, um, and enjoy, uh, a walk through and interact with the, the professionals. Um, and if they want to conversate with us about programs, whether it’s, uh, starting a program or, uh, getting trained through the 20 day program, I mean, they can go again to construction org and then it’s forward slash get trained and if they fill out a few, a few little, uh, deals and get an email from us, and then we schedule a call with them. And if they want to personally just reach out to out to me. My email is Luke l u k e Fletcher f l e t c h e r at construction ready. Org. Be happy to talk to you.

Stone Payton: Well, Luke, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm. Keep up the good work, man. You are having a genuine, profound impact on so many and we sure appreciate you, man.

Luke Fletcher: Thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed it too.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Luke Fletcher. With construction ready and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

 

Tagged With: 2025 Construction Ready CareerExpo, Construction Ready

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: Quinn Parker’s Journey Toward Energy Equity

February 18, 2025 by angishields

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Women in Motion
Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: Quinn Parker's Journey Toward Energy Equity
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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor is joined by Quinn Parker, founder of Encolor, a consulting firm dedicated to ensuring equitable access to clean energy. Quinn shares her journey from working in a utility company to starting her own firm, emphasizing the importance of equity in the energy sector. She discusses building a dedicated team, the significance of networking, and her organization’s impact on communities. Quinn also highlights recent awards and the value of engaging with diverse communities.

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Quinn-ParkerQuinn Parker has over 16 years of professional experience including regulatory finance and analytics, as well as program research, design, planning, implementation, implementation and strategic planning.

Ms. Parker is CEO of Encolor, a firm committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Encolor provides inclusive strategies and thoughtful guidance, helping clients achieve their operational and equity goals.

Ms. Parker is a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP) and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. She holds an M.B.A from California State University, Dominguez Hills and a B.A. from Loyola Marymount University.

Ms. Parker is an experienced trainer and facilitator.

Connect with Quinn on LinkedIn.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Women in Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Quinn Parker with Encolor. Welcome.

Quinn Parker: Hello. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Encolor. How are you serving folks?

Quinn Parker: Encolor is a strategic consulting firm. We work with utilities and consultancies around the country, trying to make sure that all folks have access to clean energy products and services.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Quinn Parker: Well, unlike most folks that start businesses, it was kind of a zigzag story. I started my career in utility here where I live in Las Vegas. And working in the utility, I got a chance to see the real kind of need of some folks in our community to reduce their energy bills, that they can improve their quality of life, and went on to do several other consultancy types of projects over the last almost 20 years. And right around 2020, I saw that there really was a need for us to be really intentional about how we go about serving certain customers and starting Encolor. And one of Encolor’s first projects was to teach folks how to design programs to make sure that no one is left behind in our energy transition.

Lee Kantor: Now, what was it like going from working for a large entity to having your own firm? Was that a difficult transition?

Quinn Parker: Oh, my goodness. You know, I think I kind of primed myself a bit working in consultancy for a while. But nothing kind of prepares you for the idea that you’re responsible for making sure that you make good decisions, so the folks that work for you can stay employed, and continue to do the things that they enjoy and have a reliable paycheck. So, that transition from just being part of an organization to leading an organization has really been an interesting kind of journey for me. But I take a lot of pride in the work that we do, and I’m so thankful for the team that is part of Encolor.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs that are thinking about making that transition when it comes to building a team? Like, how do you build a team that really is all on the same page, and kind of believes in the same things and are kind of dedicated to the mission?

Quinn Parker: So, from my kind of perspective is that the large search websites that can go out, and you can pull a ton of resumes are great, especially if you don’t know where to start. But the employees that have really been, especially… I don’t know, that have really stepped into their roles and really embody the culture and the vision of Encolor have come through my network. So, I really encourage entrepreneurs to get out, go to those networking meetings, go to WBENC conferences, talk to folks, ask people if they know folks that could fill roles for you, and start there because it’s nothing like hearing from other people the value that someone may bring to your organization versus just a piece of paper over the internet.

Lee Kantor: That’s a great point. I think a lot of people don’t lean into kind of that network where it’s people they know, people that their friends know, or people that they know-know, rather than just going out to the world where the world seems like, wow, there’s a lot more choices. But I think a lot of times, you’re going to get a better result when you’re starting with people who already know you a little bit.

Quinn Parker: I think so, especially as a very small business owner, it’s a huge decision to hire when you have less than ten employees. Not only is it the time investment of finding the individual, and coaching them, and bringing them up to speed, but if it’s not the right fit, it could be really detrimental to the success of your business. So, take your time, vet the person, don’t feel like you have to speed through it. And I guess the other thing I’m learning right now is start earlier than you need the person. We kind of wait. As small business owners, we absolutely have to hire for many reasons. But mainly, we want to make sure that we can support that person, but oftentimes that may be a bit too late. So, start early in looking for that next best person.

Lee Kantor: Right. You got to almost build like a wait list or a bench, so that when the time is right, you’re ready to pull the trigger.

Quinn Parker: Yeah. Yeah, that’s tough for people that want to work for you because people that are looking usually don’t want to pause for long, but it’s worth taking your time.

Lee Kantor: Now, what do you like most about working in the utility business?

Quinn Parker: There’s so many things. Energy is critical for us as a community. And especially as we get more and more dependent on internet, and we’re working from home, and children are going to school from home, having reliable energy is really important. I’m looking at a picture right now of one of my staff that their community is covered in snow, being able to heat and cool your home. And knowing that our work is making sure that people are healthy and safe in their homes is really rewarding.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about a recent award you just received?

Quinn Parker: Yeah. The Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance awarded me with an Equity Champion Award this year. So, excited about that. We’ll be in Chicago next week to receive that award.

Lee Kantor: It should be nice and chilly to greet you and put that energy use in play.

Quinn Parker: Yeah, it’s definitely in Chicago.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about what this award means and kind of a little bit more detail about why this is so important to your organization?

Quinn Parker: Oh, my goodness. Just you asking me that question brings up so much emotion. You know, I started Encolor in 2020, it was really… I thought I’d be kind of behind the scenes in helping my clients design better programs. And over the last five years, Encolor has really evolved to be an organization that is pushing the boundaries and asking questions that we haven’t asked ourselves before.

Quinn Parker: And I’m really proud of the team that works for me that they’re being very brave. They’re standing up in front of rooms and audiences and making people question if we’re doing all we can to serve communities. And this award is really, I think, a reflection of not just me but the team that works for me, and us kind of putting ourselves out there and being a bit vulnerable in the community.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk about the importance of the work that you’re doing, and what is kind of the situation that the utilities that haven’t hired you yet, like what are they missing out on that maybe they should consider having a conversation with you or somebody on the team?

Quinn Parker: Yeah, great question. I think, everybody has to think through what their goals, objectives, and what success means to them. And for the people in the utilities and the organizations that bring us to do trainings or workshops or consultant work for them, they oftentimes have already come to the conclusion that we can do better. That we know there’s an opportunity for us to do better, both in the way we design and implement our programs but also in the way we contract with vendors, the way we engage with different community stakeholders. And I think for the organizations that haven’t called us, I ask them this question, I challenge folks all the time to think, is there some place that you know that you can do better? Is there some opportunity, some community, some part of your region that could use a little bit more support from you? And our organization helps them do that.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re, kind of, giving your pitch and you’re explaining the value, is this something that they’re doing because, hey, this feels like the right thing, this is a moral thing, or is this something that there’s data that says, look, if you do more of this, this is going to be better for your business, we have data that supports that?

Quinn Parker: Yeah. Equity is both a moral and a business decision. We know that when you design products and services that make communities happier. And when communities are happier, they buy more of your product, your customer service satisfaction goes up. You overall are viewed as a better partner in the community. And then, there’s the moral side of this that across our country, we see climate disasters happening all over our country. I live in Nevada, in close proximity to California and the recent fires there. Like, we know that things are changing. And in ways, how can we be proactive in making sure that people are safe and healthy in their homes?

Lee Kantor: Now, what does it look like when one of your clients begins an engagement with you? Can you walk us through kind of the initial kind of onboarding looks like or the initial discovery?

Quinn Parker: Yeah. So, we get into rooms with utilities and consultants in a couple of different ways. Sometimes, we go out for RFPs. But oftentimes, people engage us through word of mouth. And the first conversation I have with people that are interested in working with us is, do you know what success means to you? And you’d be surprised, sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. And if you’re in a room with a bunch of leaders, I’ll bet you a dollar that many of them don’t define success the same.

Quinn Parker: So, the first thing we do is get consensus on what good looks like. And then, we start working with them to really understand, is what you’re doing now going to get you to this goal? And we are very methodical. We do a lot of research to make sure that we’re supporting our clients in a way that not only can they replicate the work that we’re doing, but they can defend it later on because people ask questions, “Why are you doing this? Why is this important?” And having that data is really critical for them to be able to sometimes fund the projects that we work with them on.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community? What were you hoping to get out of it and what have you gotten out of it?

Quinn Parker: So, when I first went through the certification process through WBEC-West, it was really kind of a compliance item. I had a client that wanted to make sure that I was third-party certified in working with them. And a lot of that stems from some of the goals that organizations have to work with diverse organizations. So, it was really compliance. But once I started engaging with the organization, I started going to webinars, I’ve gone to a couple of conferences, I’ve also sent staff, and then I was selected to be part of the Energy Executive Program, I think that really kind of, for me, crystallized the value that WBENC could bring to me personally and also to my organization.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share about – you don’t have to name the organization – but one of the clients you worked with or one of the firms you worked with in terms of impact? Is there something that’s memorable or rewarding that has occurred that you helped them get to a new level?

Quinn Parker: So, I have a client, and we are active with them now. It was one of my very first large utility clients. And one of the executives there reached out to me, we had a conversation, and she asked me if I thought I was able to do a project. It was a project related to procurement. And I sat across the room from her, and I had never done exactly this before, but I had confidence in my company and my team, and I told her yes.

Quinn Parker: And that work has gone on to be a catalyst moment for my organization. We have since… probably our revenue with that utility has quadrupled. And the qualifications that we earn working on this project with her resulted in work with other utilities within and outside the state is now a major vertical for us. And that work is doing diverse procurement practices. We write RFPs. We review RFPs. We help organizations administer RFPs. We review RFP processes to make sure that they’re fair. And that’s become a major part of our company’s products and services. So, sometimes, I think you’ll be offered opportunities that you know you can be successful at, but you haven’t done before, and you just have to say yes.

Lee Kantor: That’s great advice. And if somebody wants to learn more about Encolor and connect with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to engage with you?

Quinn Parker: Yes. Please go to our website. It’s encolorconsulting.com. On the website is a form where you can reach out to us. Those forms come to me directly, and we answer all of them. It’s really important for us to be responsive to our community. So, check out our website and we’d love to hear from you.

Lee Kantor: And that’s E-N-C-O-L-O-R-consulting.com.

Quinn Parker: Correct.

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

Quinn Parker: Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.

 

Tagged With: Encolor

BRX Pro Tip: How to Systematize Anything

February 18, 2025 by angishields

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: How to Systematize Anything
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BRX Pro Tip: How to Systematize Anything

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tip. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, we are living this real time. We have come to appreciate the value of repeatable processes and transferable tools. So, what’s the key to really systematizing things?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. You know, I’m a big fan of systemization. I think that’s the heart of most things in life. The more things you can systematize, the better your life’s going to be, the easier it’s going to be, the less stressful it’s going to be. When you’re putting together any good system, I think there’s four parts. The first part is the objective. You have to have kind of a very clear outcome that you desire. What is it that you want to happen over and over again? Without that, you’re never going to be able to get a system you’re happy with.

The second part, after you have that clear objective, is the process. What is this repeatable process that’s going to reliably deliver the outcome that you desire over and over again? Once you’ve built the process, once the system is in place, is it going to work exactly as you’d like?

The third thing is to look at the results. I mean, after you put… you have your objective, you put the process in place, are you getting the result that you want, it’s important to measure the result that you’re getting, so that it matches the objective you desire. And then, the last step in any good system is to have some feedback loop. Because you have to iterate, you’re going to have to tweak your process until you’re happy with the outcome that it’s delivering to you.

So, those are the four steps to systematize anything. Number one, objective be clear on that. Number two, create the process. Number three, measure the results. And number four, tweak, use feedback to tweak the process until you’re happy with the way that it’s delivering results.

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