angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

BRX Pro Tip: The BRX Secret to Warming Up Cold Leads

February 17, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: The BRX Secret to Warming Up Cold Leads

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BRX Pro Tip: The BRX Secret to Warming Up Cold Leads

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, let’s share a little bit about how we at Business RadioX warm up cold leads.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Every business has a database of people that have kind of entered their world and/or they should have a database of everybody that’s entered their world. And in our business, our studio partners and our clients have this. They are the previous guests that have been on shows, they’re the previous people we have asked to be on shows. So, that database is super important to anybody’s business, especially Business RadioX’s business.

And the secret sauce that we have that enables us to elegantly reconnect and warm up any cold lead in our database is it’s not that it’s just checking in. That’s not how we do it. I know a lot of salespeople love that. Just checking in. I know you hate it, Stone. But that’s not part of our repertoire. The secret tool that every Business RadioX client has access to is they can invite that cold lead back on one of their shows, and they can do it by just inviting them to update everybody on any kind of new activity that they have going on.

Now, think about this when it comes to rekindling a cold relationship, an email, just checking in versus an email that’s saying, “Hey, would you like to come on the show to promote yourself and your business?” which one of those do you think is more effective in rekindling an old lead? Which one of those has a better shot at building and nurturing this relationship to take it to a new level? That’s why Business RadioX studio partners are so successful, and that’s why our clients are so successful, is that we have this built into our systems that enable any lead to be rekindled in a very elegant, non-salesy way and get them back on the show. You know, in our business, communicating, inviting guests is just kind of the thing that we do relentlessly. And this is just another way to leverage that.

Mark Taylor with Taylored Training Solutions

February 14, 2025 by angishields

Houston Business Radio

Mark Taylor with Taylored Training Solutions

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Mark Taylor is a seasoned business leader, entrepreneur, and speaker with over 30 years of experience in sales and leadership training.

As an expert in business networking and referrals, he helps professionals implement proven strategies for growth.

With a 33-year career in human resources and 22 years as an Executive Director for Business Network International (BNI), Mark has a deep understanding of relationship-driven business success.

In a recent conversation with Trisha, Mark shared insights from his experience in the business networking industry and discussed the benefits of HR outsourcing for small businesses.

They explored the importance of understanding client needs before offering services, strategies for attracting and retaining top talent, and the value of delegating tasks to focus on revenue generation.

Mark also shared a client success story, reinforcing the power of outsourcing to enhance business efficiency.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure. And I’m so excited about having my friend. And by the way, he may not remember this, but we met way back in 2008, in BNI. My friend Mark Taylor is on with me today. Mark, welcome to the show.

Mark Taylor: Well thank you Trisha. Of course I remember, uh, I remember a lot of details about that because it didn’t take long to anyone who’s been around you knows that you’re a shaker and a mover, and I picked up on that quickly. And do I recall correctly, we were starting a BNI chapter over in Air land. And you foolishly volunteered to help me do that?

Trisha Stetzel: Foolishly? Yeah. So I think that was a couple of years into. So I was a member in the League city.

Mark Taylor: Oh that’s right.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And then I got involved and started helping with the Pair Land chapter, which is still doing amazing, by the way, and is led by some amazing people. Uh, and then we I was also involved in trying to get one over on South Belt off, uh, off the ground because we had some people out that way that were interested in, um, networking as well. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about, Mark.

Mark Taylor: Okay. All right.

Trisha Stetzel: I want to tackle this idea of HR outsourcing. And I happen to know that you’re pretty well versed in that area. So what do you know about HR outsourcing, Mark?

Mark Taylor: Well, I got to tell you something. Maybe you. Maybe I’ve never told you this. Um, I have an have an animal science degree and a and a master’s in in agribusiness. And so I was actually in that field for a number of years after I graduated from college. And a friend of mine called me one day and he said, hey, I just went to work for this company. They’re growing up. And he said all this. He said, you know, and they’re hiring. Would you like to consider going to work for them? And he told me it was an HR outsourcing company. And I said, Terry, you do know I sell livestock feed for a living, which is what I was currently doing. He goes, yeah. And I said, what in the world has that got to do with that? He said, I’m telling you, you’re it’s not about that. It’s about I’ve known, I know you, and you’re the kind of people we’re looking for. Come in and interview and I did. And so my point is I you don’t have to have a degree in this. You can like anything you can learn and I did. And in fact, the first couple of years I learned a lot about just, um, how HR outsourcing. What is that? What does that mean and why would people do that and so forth. Okay, that was back in 1991, and I’m still involved in the industry today.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. All right. So long time in this industry. And before we started recording today, you were telling me how many business owners, uh, business leaders aren’t even familiar with the idea of an off site HR department. I’m using your words because I thought they sounded cool. So can you describe what it is that, uh, HR outsourcing does for a business?

Mark Taylor: Yeah. And let me just start with this, uh, when, you know, when you meet people, um, you know, some of the first things they ask you first, of course. What’s your name and where do you live and what do you do? But I mean, what do you do? Comes up pretty, pretty soon in the conversation. And I learned that when you say HR outsourcing, typically it’s amusing to me. Typically people will not as if they have any idea what you’re what you’re talking about, which I learned. They do not. I mean, it’s rare that I find somebody that goes, oh, yeah, I know all about that. And they can have a conversation with me. And so my point is two twofold. One, if you ask ten people randomly what is HR human resources you I’ve learned you’ll get likely ten different answers. Then they’re all elements of it. But or not. I mean, they just it’s just not one of those things where if you tell someone you’re a banker or a chiropractor or a plumber, they have an idea of what you’re talking about. But so not only are people unfamiliar with HR outsourcing, by and large, um, they’re not even real clear. Just what the whole gamut of what the the scope of what HR is, and particularly in we’re talking about as an employer. Um, and so that’s that’s my challenge right off the bat is how do you tell people, how do you describe what you do, uh, in a short period without boring them to death or giving them multi-paragraph answer.

Mark Taylor: So, but but let me answer that. Um, my clients have one thing in common. Whether they’re white collar, blue collar, large or small, my clients have the one thing they have in a client is they have in common is that they have employees. Mhm. And many don’t really stop and realize that what that means is they are like it or not. In the employee business there are literally thousands of regulations and requirements and expectations that government does a great job of adding red tape, um, to to employers and expecting them to know and do certain things, many of which if you are not in compliance, there’s there are penalties focusing on the fundamental things you, Trisha, if you were to be an employer that you would have to address and whether you and many times people will well, they’ll know. It’s like it’s like sitting down deciding to just work on your taxes tonight. Very few people actually look forward to that. So this is a thing that’s easy to put off. Uh, entrepreneurs, business owners are really excited about their business, understandably, and they’re not inclined to be motivated to check out all things HR. Mhm. Um, there are exceptions of course, but that’s the general general um, viewpoint on air and on air items. And just to be clear, I’m talking about um, saying things as simple as of course, producing payroll and the associated payroll taxes, keeping up with those, that’s um, that’s an element of it.

Mark Taylor: And then there’s, uh, when you hire somebody, there’s there are ways that you can and should hire and ways that you can’t and should not. Uh, how do you know that kind of stuff? Uh, there are there are issues that can arise in the workplace. Um, I gave Trisha a raise. I didn’t give, uh, Valerie a raise. She’s mad. So maybe it’s a it’s a loss. I mean, there there are suits that arise out of this, uh, discrimination, uh, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, all I mean, all those things that, again, don’t often happen, but when they do, people are ill suited. It’s never happened before. It’s like if your house burns or you have a car wreck. I mean, if you’ve never had that happen before, you’re completely at a loss for you know, what to do next or how to confidently work through that. So, uh, there’s benefits. Employee benefits are a big, um, concern with employees, and rightly so. Uh, there’s compliance and safety and regulatory things that that just unfortunately go or and unfortunately many times those things go unaddressed and everything’s fine until something happens and then it can be devastating. It could be business ending depending on the nature of the issue.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So Mark, I want to make sure I heard you right. Did you say that those all of those things that you just talked about are part of what you bring to the table as an HR outsourcing partner?

Mark Taylor: Yes, exactly. If you’re. Yes, the idea is this. So I’ve described a familiar scenario for a no employer. Listening to this would be in the dark about this. They are at some level aware that there is a business of being an employer.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Mark Taylor: Um, and so then you then you have to decide, well, how are you going to handle that? Here’s how many. And my clients tend to be small business. Um, I’m going to say generally probably 90% of my clients fall between 25 and 100 employees. Okay. Um, so, um, that’s that’s my target market because they have enough employees to finish every sentence I start. I mean, they know what it’s like to deal with employees, and yet they don’t have any. They don’t have really an HR department. What they like to do, this is what most people do. They want to hire an employee and say, you’re our HR manager. Good luck. I don’t care. Just just do it. Uh, make sure that in this in this field of HR landmines, make sure that we can navigate through it without stepping on one. See you later. And they step out of the room and go back about managing their business. And the And the sad fact is, although I would probably do that myself if I didn’t know an alternative, there is no one person who is an HR specialist any more than there is a doctor who is an I can do it all specialist. I mean, my goodness, there’s probably 200 different professionals from the top of your head that literally the tip of your toe.

Mark Taylor: And they’re all specialists. Well, it’s that same way in in HR. There’s too many elements, um, to reasonably expect anybody to know how to do it all. And so again, that’s, that’s that works until you get something happen that’s beyond the, the scope, the expertise of that person who is the HR manager. Um, which is is thus the advent of HR outsourcing. And the idea is pretty simple. And you’re right. I always tell my clients, I want you to I want you to imagine that you have an off, well, an off site HR department. When we enter into business, HR changes for you and it’s as if maybe it’s off site. Maybe you can imagine if you had a second floor to your building or an additional floor to your building, and that’s HR. You seldom see those people, although you can. Um, most of the work, it’s not necessary that they be in your office, uh, in person, speaking with you. They are performing their HR tasks, whether it’s acquiring, uh, attractive benefit programs or handling your HR or, I mean, handling your unemployment claims or work comp claims or whatever it may be doing, or maybe it’s just compliance, making sure that we are if OSHA were to visit, it’s not going to be a bad day.

Mark Taylor: Um, we’re prepared for that. We’re aware of them, prepared for them. And, and, um, and it’s not seen as a threat. So short of having your h your own HR department With people who specialize in these elements. Uh, the idea of outsourcing your HR to an HR company, uh, makes a lot of sense, because then you can, um, let me give you another example. A lot of a lot of my clients will have accountants, but they probably all do. Very few of them have one on staff 24 over 7 or 40 hour a week, because they just don’t have the the work to keep them busy that long. So they meet with their accountant. Uh, same thing with their insurance person. There’s certain professionals that are vital to their business, but they don’t need to have on staff. They just need them periodically. And so. Instead of having an HR person or looking for an HR person like I just described, what about outsourcing to a company who is fully staffed in all of these specialties to be able to support that business on all these different elements?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So important Mark. And you know, there’s a big difference between you mentioned, uh, payroll companies. There’s a big difference between just having a payroll company to do payroll for you and having fully outsourced, uh, your HR department, basically, and having this offsite HR department. Um, can we talk about the liability is I think that’s really important. You talked about all of the services that an HR outsourcing business can provide to these business owners. What about the liability? So I, I say, you know, hey, Mr. or Mrs. Admin person you’re now my HR person. Go do the thing. And they have no idea what they’re doing where. So the liability lies with me and that person actually internal to my company. But if I hired somebody like you, uh, to come in and help me with all of my HR needs, where does the liability fall there?

Mark Taylor: Well, that’s a good question. Um. You’re right. Um, and that’s often the case where somebody is confronted with, um, an event that happened with relative to, with their employees or maybe a regulatory issue, whatever it may be, you like to be able to say, well, I mean, I just didn’t know. And that never flies. There is a certain there is an expectation if you are an employer, that you have certain expectations and obligations that you must address. And of course, one of those is you’ve got the liability and responsibility for the people who work at your business. Um, we’ve talked about a lot of the responsibilities. Liability could just be, uh, for injury, um, or for actions of employees. Uh, there’s there’s lots of liability. So to your question, one of the huge I think the big advantage to outsourcing, um, to, An HR outsourcing company. Is that you can address that very, that very topic, for example. Um, and there are companies that will just you can hire to do HR admin and they will produce your payroll for you. They’ll produce, um, maybe your employee handbooks, they’ll produce unlimited documentation and so forth, but they’re producing it for you. And once they have and you’ve paid them, they’re done. They have no liability. They’re just producing that for you. And I’m I’m not referring to that in our relationship, in our arrangement. Um, we have an arrangement or a utilize a concept called co-employment. Uh, it’s been around for decades, and it’s simply said, it works this way. Let me just I’m going to assume that you’re an employer and that you have 35 employees, and you have the Have the responsibility and liability that’s inherent with that, uh, contract.

Mark Taylor: Introducing this concept of co-employment works this way. We will delineate those items in the contract that you are totally responsible for. And those are the right of control, the daily, daily control of the employees, the hiring, the firing, and the direction of those employees is completely on you. And that’s, of course, to your your agreeable to that, because we don’t know how to run your business and you do. So we’re expecting you to do that. Uh, on the other end, all of the items that we are committing to by contract, uh, will be delineated. And those are many of the things we’ve already talked about, uh, responsible for payroll and responsible for, um, we without going into a lot of length, let me just say that we will delineate the responsibilities that we are liable for and responsible for. And then there’s a third category of tasks, and those are items that we are jointly responsible for. Meaning, if we’re going to produce a safety program for our client, it is it’s incumbent on the client to implement the safety program. So if by contract we are to do that. And yet the the client were to take and just pitch it in the corner in case somebody wants to come by and see it one day. Um, and, but in the interim there is, um, an issue involving safety that results in, uh, liability. There’s a, there’s a claim. Then in that case, we would we would be, um, have performed our role in, in producing that. But the client, um, failed in applying it. So that’s an example of a shared responsibility.

Mark Taylor: And so what’s important is that you delineate those in the contract so that we will both parties will know what they’re solely responsible and liable for, and both parties will know what they’re jointly responsible for. If it sounds like a partnership, it is. And what makes it a partnership is the employee base. So no longer would we consult with you about your employees. We would consult with you about our shared employees rather than standing on the side of the train track. And you’re laying on the track and we know there’s a train coming and saying, if I were you, I’d get off. We’re actually laying on the train track with you going, we need to get off of this thing. So there’s a there’s a commitment. There’s a difference in commitment level, whether you’re advising and providing services or you’re participating in the risk, which I don’t need to tell you. That’s that’s the that’s the critical element here. And that is choosing the right businesses that they’re going to offload liability. And they’ve got safety run amok and they’ve got employee, um, morale problem, all kinds of. It’s a mess. And they just want to know where do we sign? Because I’m going to get this off of my desk and onto yours. And it doesn’t go that that conversation doesn’t go long. You can tell. Um, it’s not hard to tell, uh, the kind of clients you’re looking for because they you leave tracks in the sand. There’s, there’s documentation about your, your history with as a business and particularly with employees. So those are a couple real fundamental elements of how this works.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Uh, very important. Right. That you’re assuming the risk alongside of the employer or the business owner. Right. Uh, I think that that’s huge because. Oh, by the way, many of us small business owners had no idea, number one, that this was a thing. Maybe. Maybe some of you did. Maybe you don’t. Right. Uh, but also really leaning into the liability that I have as an employer. Right? Holy cow. Wouldn’t I like to partner with someone who would take that risk off of my plate? Right. Or share the risk.

Mark Taylor: Share the risk. Yeah. So it’s like I mentioned earlier, a landmine, a field full of HR landmines. You can’t see them.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm.

Mark Taylor: Uh, unless. So you need probably an HR landmine detector and diffuser. Uh yeah. And and so but that’s true. And you can say that about many different disciplines, many different professions with uh in this in this picture is inviting the right people to the party. Because when you have people who are aligned with you in the way you regard employees, and they’re more than just office furniture, we want we really want this place to be a place you can work for a career if you choose. And you don’t have to leave here for lack of benefits. So you don’t have to leave here because we’re. Um, just not legitimate in whatever way you want to describe it. We certainly want to. In fact, I will just tell you, because many of my clients are small businesses, one of their biggest fears is losing employees to bigger companies, maybe an hour drive from home. But they have good benefits. So they have good frankly, they have good HR. They’re stable. And and my message to our clients is you don’t have to do that anymore. Rather than settling for the second or third or fourth tier of available employees out there, you can go ahead and recruit the number one tiers, many of whom would prefer to work for a small local business for a variety of reasons. And you no longer have to say, well, because we’re small, we just have to take the, you know, accept the best we can get because we offer an inferior workplace. Not anymore.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. And it really does, uh, lift up those smaller businesses to be able to able to compete with those other larger businesses where employees may think that they can go and get something better. Right? Bigger. Better?

Mark Taylor: Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Mark Taylor: And you can’t blame employees for doing that. It’s very common. No one I mean, everyone in the American business culture knows or assumes smaller company less to offer. Yeah. And I’ve known people who work at a smaller company knowing that they don’t have big company benefits. And I’m not talking about just like insurance and 401 KS and dental and vision, but just the benefits of working for a small company. Um, and yet they, they work for less because they like the culture of a smaller business. Well, and so the good news, as far as I’m concerned, is you can maintain the culture and you can also maintain those, quote, big company benefits extending beyond just what I just mentioned, but just the literally the benefits of sides, um, without having to be big to get it.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s fantastic. So, Mark, I would be remiss if I didn’t say to the audience that’s listening today if they wanted to reach out to you because they want to know more, they happen to be a business, uh, that has 25 to 100 employees. And what other, um, things should the listeners be listening for to make a decision on whether HR outsourcing is for them?

Mark Taylor: Uh. Great question. The first thing I would want to do is have a conversation. And whether that’s in person, it’s probably best in person, but that’s not always possible. Um, because I want to find out if this is a good fit. I learned a long time ago, sometimes no business is better than some business, depending on the kind of business. And so, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve got to be a I got to do a good job of inviting the right people to the party. And so that’s going to take a conversation about what is it that’s prompted? What? Why do you want to talk to me? What’s going on? Uh, what’s your frustration? What are your issues? Uh, and then it may be that we can’t help you, and I’ll need to tell him that. It may be that we can help them. As I mentioned earlier, and I’m. I can’t get out of there fast enough. Uh, their their business is burning down from an HR standpoint. Uh, but it’s more likely the case. Um, there are many, many great businesses out there who are who are doing well as far as their businesses go, but they’re they’re distracted. Uh, maybe even impeded by some HR issues because they just don’t know. They just don’t know what they don’t know. Yeah. That’s why I need a plumber to come over when I have plumbing issues. Because it seems easy, but I don’t know. And I’ve got the same tools in my toolbox, don’t I? Right. Uh, and so that’s why, if I really am looking to interview someone to find out if they. What is air to them? Okay. Um, how important is it to them? Uh, well, let’s. I want to have that kind of conversation. So really, to summarize that, the next step is I would want to talk to them to find out if I think they’re a good fit for us and we’re a good fit for them.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Yeah.

Mark Taylor: So those those conversations tend to go in the direction of their need.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Okay. Well and it’s personalized right. They may not need everything. Uh, that is in the basket. They may need a few things that are in the basket.

Mark Taylor: That’s a good point that you make. In fact, I liken this in this conversation that I’m having with folks because it’s all virtually always exploratory. I do at times get people who are maybe using an outsourcing and they or they’re familiar with it for one reason or another. But the majority of times this is all new to them. And so that question comes up. Well, do we have to participate in everything you offer. Uh, we’ve already got benefits through my brother in law, and I’m, like it or not, I’m not changing that. Uh, I’m married to his sister. Um, and so. So the answer to that is, think of this offering as, like, a buffet. Anyone who’s ever been to a buffet knows that you don’t have to, um, put. You don’t have to like everything on the buffet. You can choose what you want and that flexibility, so that’s great. Um, if someone says, well, I really just want a slice of payroll and a cup of coffee. Well, then they don’t really need us. And I need to refer them to a competent payroll company. Why would I try to talk them into the full meal deal when they clearly said, I just want a slice of payroll and a cup of coffee? So, um, that again, is part of that first conversation. And that is it’s not unlike going to the doctor. The doctor can’t look at you and say, uh, in most cases I know what’s it’s wrong. They say, well, tell me what your issue and I’ll tell you if I can help you. And that’s just the basis, I think, of not only good medicine but good, good business.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, I’ve got one last question for you. As we get to the back end of our conversation today, Mark Taylor. Tell me a success story from your business or a great client story, something that’s memorable for you.

Mark Taylor: Oh, I could tell you a lot of it. In fact, as I think about that, every single client comes to mind when I think of, um, making a dramatic difference because it truly is, uh, big difference in how they do their business. Uh, but and I can think of times when people call me and said, man, I’m so glad we did this, because now when we get to the employee in the interview, the initial interview, uh, the hiring interview, and when they, you know, when they ask me, do you have benefits? And I used to hate that question. Now, if they don’t ask that, I can say, aren’t you going to ask me about benefits? Because we got that covered? Uh, but I but but specifically, I’m thinking of a client who was, um, in a in construction, and he had, um, he had a work comp claim that was really complicated. And it was it was large and it was one of those potentially business ending issues. And because those our employees, our shared employees were covered on our work comp policy. Um, yes. He did have to tell us the details of what happened. And then beyond that, the paper trail of our documents and our contract says, you need to talk to us about this.

Mark Taylor: And for us, it’s a routine thing. Doesn’t mean it’s not catastrophic and horrific, but it’s routine. We handle these our comp um compliance and um that off that that section of our business takes care of that on a routine basis. So he was you can imagine he was extremely relieved that, uh, he still had stress of the, of the whole issue. But he knew that we were handling the comp claim, um, for us, not for him. I mean, when I say us, us collectively, it was right. And it it I’m I don’t know, I can’t say that it saved his business. He will he was he sent me a lot of clients, a lot of prospects after that because that people who knew him knew about that. And they of course want to know what happened. And he’s like, man, if you’re not outsourcing this stuff to somebody who can slip in the driver’s seat for you on this, you’re crazy. So that’s one that comes to mind. That was a long time client of mine, both before and after that issue.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I bought okay, Mark, if people want to have a conversation with you, what the best way to connect.

Mark Taylor: You know, the best way is to call me on my cell phone. I am what you would call an independent representative. I don’t represent any one particular company by contract. I do by choice, though I only have usually keep 1 or 2 or maybe three companies in my briefcase. And the reason for that is I. I’m picky about who I introduce my clients to. I want them to have, um, a personal relationship with these people, not just, um, uh, a personal relationship with them. So for that reason, before we even get to that, I want to the best thing they can do is just call me. Let’s have a conversation. I want to know about you. You’re going to want to know about me and the company and all. And and it may be a one conversation. Then we’re done. It could be. We’ll not know. Just not now. Maybe the timing isn’t right. I don’t know, but have them call me I. I love to talk to small business people and especially love to liberate them from just this thing that hangs over their head. This air. This mysterious air. Obligations and responsibilities that they have. I think we talked about this earlier. Um, you know me. Know me long enough and well enough to know that, um, a frequent tagline that I, that I use in talking to people is, um, if you’re in our business is really none of your business. And that sounds a little snarky, but if you think about it, nobody will say, no, that’s not true. Mark, I got into this business so I could manage, hire, and manage employees. It’s only your business if you’re in my business. And so I you know, it’s probably a good rule of thumb to outsource whatever you can that someone else can do better so that you can focus on what you actually do to generate revenue.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. Thank you for being on the show with me today, Mark.

Mark Taylor: This has been my pleasure.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. And, uh, all of the information how to get in contact with Mark will be in the show notes. So if you’re listening or watching, please just point and click and have a conversation with Mark. And I happen to know that Mark Taylor is very well connected. So if he can’t help you, he probably knows someone you can connect with, which is a another benefit of having a conversation. Mark. Uh, thanks again for being on. I appreciate your time today.

Mark Taylor: Appreciate it. My pleasure. I always enjoy talking with you. And so thanks for inviting me.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. And that’s all the time we have for the show today. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.

Amy Reid with Galveston County SBDC

February 14, 2025 by angishields

Beyond the Uniform

Amy Reid with Galveston County SBDC

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Amy Reid is the Director of the Galveston County Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in business ownership, human resources, marketing, and operations.

Since 2010, she has successfully run her own business and has spent more than a decade coaching and advising fellow entrepreneurs. Passionate about community engagement, she frequently speaks at business networking events and serves on various community committees.

In a recent discussion with Trisha, Amy highlighted the services offered by the Texas Gulf Coast Network SBDC, including no-cost business advising, alternative funding methods, and helping businesses connect with the right lenders.

They also explored the SBDC’s economic impact, its support for minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses, and the importance of passion and continuous growth in achieving success.

Follow Galveston County SBDC on LinkedIn and Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Beyond the uniform. It is my pleasure today to introduce you to someone that I met through the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce several years ago, and we continue to connect on a personal level as well as professional level. Amy Reid, who is the director of Texas Gulf Coast Network SBDC in Galveston County. Amy, welcome to the show.

Amy Reid: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: Long time coming. I’m so excited to have you on today. Yeah. So, Amy, uh, tell the listeners a little a little bit about you.

Amy Reid: So I’ve been doing this for about 14 years, and what we do is we provide no cost business advice to small businesses who either want to start or grow their business. Um, some people come to us and they just have an idea and they need somebody to bounce ideas off of. Um, and we help with that. And then once the idea is made, is it a viable idea and where does it go from there? And then other people have been in business for, you know, 20 years and they’re stagnant or they can’t figure out how to grow or it’s time to sell. Um, you know, it’s an exit strategy. So we help with all of that and we don’t charge anything for our services. Um, so a little bit about me is I’m just extremely passionate about helping small businesses. Um, they are going to have to drag me out when the time comes because I love what I do. Um, I love working with small businesses, and I love working with our community and our partners, like the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce and all the all the chambers of commerce in Galveston County, um, as well as, um, our local lenders and, uh, Edc’s and cities. So I have a fantastic job. Love what I do.

Trisha Stetzel: That is so awesome. So, Amy, one of the things that you did not mention is you happen to be a veteran.

Amy Reid: Yes. Sorry. Um, I served Army National Guard in South Dakota as a logistics specialist.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Wow. That is awesome. South Dakota, of all places.

Amy Reid: I’m from South Dakota, so it kind of made sense. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Fantastic. So, Amy, how did you get from, um, you know, when you grew up and found this amazing position with the SBDC 14 years ago? How did that transition happen for you?

Amy Reid: So, like a lot of people, when the oil industry started to decline, I needed to find a new role. And, um, I was in recruiting at the time for the oil and gas industry. So I had some human resources background, some facilities management background, um, payroll, office operations, a little bit of everything. So. And I own my own business, too. So I own a photography business. Um, and so when it came time to find what my next journey was, this kind of made sense. I had a little bit of everything that small businesses need to know about, and, and I just kind of rolled into that position.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So I want to back up and talk about what is the SBDC. So can you tell us what that acronym is? Um, and how that may or may not, uh, be associated with the SBA? Yeah.

Amy Reid: Sure. So the SBDC is the small Business Development Center, and we are what’s called a resource partner of the Small Business Administration SBA. So basically, I work for you. I work for anyone who pays their taxes. So those tax dollars are all given to federal government. And then they’re divvied up amongst programs. Um, and ours is an economic development program. So um, other resource partners that the SBA also supports are um, like score, um, which are mentors generally industry specific. And then there’s women in business centers. Um, there’s also bboc, which is the veterans, uh, side where they, they work with veterans, either fresh out of military service or as they grow as well. So you have all these no cost resources that are out there, but they are the cost because you already paid for it. Um, and my center is actually a part of University of Houston as well. So we get some state funding from them.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. Did you say free Amy?

Amy Reid: Free? No cost. Yes. That is.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing. Let’s talk just a little bit about how your, um, the Texas Gulf Coast Network SBDC in Galveston County works with the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

Amy Reid: So, um, we have a an agreement with them, a Sam agreement where we support each other. Um, so if the um, Veterans Chamber of Commerce has an event going on, we help to publicize that. Um, we’ve housed them for some of their roundtables. They do the same for us. So if I call Dave Weaver and say, hey, Dave, we have this going on. Dave’s like, what time do I need to be there? Um, recently we did an event with the Department of Navy about how you could do business with them. And Dave was, uh, there in a heartbeat to support that with his team. Um, to make sure that everybody knew what that looked like from a veteran standpoint as well. So we have a great relationship with them.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And because both organizations are so business focused and supporting veteran business owners. I think it makes a really good pair and match. Thank you for all you do for the chamber. We really appreciate it. Let’s talk, uh, maybe dive into a little bit more detail of the services you mentioned, a few of them. Uh, a few minutes ago. So I’d really like to dive into. Let’s start with what’s the number one service that these business owners are coming to the SBDC for money.

Amy Reid: They all need money. So. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Amy Reid: So? So that differs, right? So, um, if you’re a startup, you’re trying to figure out where is the working capital going to come from. The seed money. And so sometimes that looks like, you know, crowdfunding. It could look like. Um, it’s very hard for startups to get money. Um, as a startup, because you need to show that you have financial, uh, basically that is viable, right? You have to eliminate some of the risk when you’re talking to a to a lender. So sometimes we have to kind of think outside the box a little bit. Um, and then, you know, if you’re already in business and it’s time to expand or maybe, um, there’s something new going on in industry, you need some equipment. So we help with that too. But outside of the money part, you know, the lending is, you know, we have relationships with local lenders. So we know which lenders like what type of businesses, what they’re looking for. You know, some like to do $100,000 loans, some only want to do $800,000 loans, some want 650 credit score, some say 700 or more. So it’s our job to know those things so that we can pass that on to clients. But um, outside of that, we also help with marketing. Um, a lot of people know they need a market, but they don’t know how they should market.

Amy Reid: So we help them with that. Um, and then sometimes it’s growth strategy. So a lot of times, um, people are so busy doing whatever it is they do, like their services or or their products. Um, but they forget to actually, like, grow the business. So one of the things I always tell people when I first meet with them is I’m always going to be honest with you, even if it’s something you may not want to hear. And I’ll be your biggest cheerleader, but I’m also going to hold you accountable. So sometimes what we do is just following up to say, hey, how’s that business plan coming? Or, um, how is that marketing plan or budget coming? Because a lot of people don’t realize they need a budget for marketing. Um, but but a little bit of everything. And we also provide free market research. So, um, if you don’t know who your competitors are, it’s hard to stand out and know your value proposition if you don’t, um, know what the demographics are in your area or even know who your target market is, it’s hard to, um, really be successful and use that marketing money smartly.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. So this whole market research thing. Like, I’m really excited about that. Uh, what does that look like? So let me back up. I got excited. Uh, how do these business owners who may be interested in something like that, Amy, how do they engage with the SBDC?

Amy Reid: So we just have a link. You go to SBDC, dot edu and you become a client, and then you’re attached to whichever SBDC is closest to you. So I’m Galveston County, but we have Harris County, Fort Bend all the way up to Huntsville A&M. And actually the SBDC is a nationwide program. It’s just the Texas Gulf Coast network is 32 counties in the south of Texas. So, um, once you’re a client, then you’re assigned to an advisor. And the advisor has access to all types of resources. So the the market resource or, I’m sorry, the market research software that we have, you’d pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get those reports that we can pull for you for free.

Trisha Stetzel: Very cool. So how is the relationship aiming? Do they come to you, uh, at the facility that you have for the SBDC in Galveston County, or is it a remote reach? What does that relationship look like with your clients?

Amy Reid: Really? Hybrid? Um, so I would say so, um, I cover the entire county, so I’m in three different locations throughout the week. Um, we have a, a calendar. You book, and it’s dependent on location, but we also meet online and we do short 30 minute telephone conversations if we need to as well. So and sometimes we go out to the client’s location like I will be later on today. So it just we try to really be what the clients need us to be and where we, we need to be.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s fantastic. And by the way, you said something earlier. No wonder we really connect because it is about straight talk and accountability. So yes, absolutely. And when you’re in that coach position, when you’re helping those business owners. It’s so important to help hold them accountable because if they keep doing the same thing the same way, they’re going to get the same results. And that’s not what they want when they reach out to you. Yeah, that is fantastic. Talk to me about. So you’ve got this, um, relationship with these clients, and you can help them with lots of things through the SBDC. Do you have courses or programs that these business owners can also engage with?

Amy Reid: Yeah. So, um, here at the SBDC in Galveston County, we do about 25 to 30 classes a year. So sometimes, um, that’s us presenting the classes and sometimes that’s bringing other experts in. Like, for instance, last night we had a class in Texas City. We went off location, um, and we had Workforce Solutions come in. They’re the experts in all their programs and that sort of thing. Um, and then, you know, later on next week, we have the IRS coming in to do, uh, getting ready for tax season class. And then I teach a bookkeeping class and a marketing class. So it just kind of depends on what you need some if you want online. Our website, the sbdc.edu, has, I think, over 200 on demand webinars that you can watch on all kinds of topics, including, you know, cybersecurity. Um, you know, you can just be on your your treadmill listening to cybersecurity while you’re, you know, working out or something. Um, but marketing all the things. Um, how to start a money, how to start a business with no money is like one of our most popular webinars that we have, I think.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, like, listeners, if you’re not already, if you haven’t already gone to a SBDC. Is that right? Okay. If you haven’t already gone there and, like, filled out your profile, you should go there and do that. Right now, there are so many resources. So, um, client wise, Amy, are we just talking businesses that are startups? Who are the people that are engaging with the SBDC and, you know, are they taking advantage of all of these programs?

Amy Reid: So we are allowed to work with anyone who has 500 or less employees. So that’s that’s a pretty big business, right? That’s not what we normally would call small business. Um, but if you’ve seen a trend change over the years, you know, when when I first started, we had a lot of people who were maybe doing, like a gift basket businesses or consulting businesses. But now, um, that’s really changed. We have a lot of people who are service based, like plumbers, elecTrishans in the trades. Um, we have a lot of real estate. Um, laundromats. Uh, a little bit of everything. Assisted living. So we have, you know, those people who are looking to be owner operators in a franchise or they want to be, um, an owner, but maybe an absentee owner, and they’re looking for that, that little extra income, because maybe they’re a doctor and they want that extra income, you know, to look towards retirement or something. So it’s a plethora of people I wouldn’t say there’s just one type. So it is startups, acquisitions, um, and exit strategies all all rolled into it.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. What an amazing resource. And because you have relationships with so many other organizations, it’s almost I’ll just call it a one stop shop to get connected to the things that you need. Right? Uh.

Amy Reid: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. That’s so amazing. So what what economic impact does the SBDC have on the communities that they’re serving?

Amy Reid: Well, um, I can’t off the top of my head remember what our entire network did, but I can tell you pretty close to what our center did. So we have three employees here. Two of us are advisors, and we have a program manager that handles our admin and our training, and our center alone had over $8 million in economic impact in capital last year, um, over 400 jobs. Um, we helped, I think over 160 minority small business owners and women. Um, and I think we had 48 veterans that we assisted last year. So, um, oh, and startups, I think we had 32, 31, 32 startups last year. So that’s just for our county. So think about on a nationwide, um.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Or even your network. I’m thinking, you know, that 8 million times 36. Like that’s huge. Just in the Gulf Coast network, right? Um, amazing. And then you multiply that by the number of, uh, locations or sbdcs that we have across the nation. Wow. Uh, where is your physical location?

Amy Reid: So our center, our campus, as they call it, is in Lake City. Um, but I also office in Galveston on the island and then at the Texas city, la marque Chamber of Commerce as well. And then we have my other advisor offices in Friendswood. So we we really do try to cover the whole county.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. Fantastic. All right, you guys, get on, go do some discovery, get your profile set up and take advantage of this. Amy, what does the future hold for the SBDC?

Amy Reid: So it’s kind of exciting, honestly, right now, um, we have we have some programs that we’ve recently piloted and now we’re putting into place. So, um, one of them is our vision adventure, um, where we have three different cohorts. So, um, they are, you know, a 12 week program. Um, but we’re doing the flip training, so you have homework before the class. So when you come in, it’s all hands on, integrated. Um, so we have a start smart, a grow smart. Um, and then we also have something called a virtual collaborative that we’re doing, and it’s, it’s kind of like the same framework as a as a mastermind. Um, where we just finished our pilot with food industry owners and, um, so we had, like, a food truck owner, a franchise, a big franchise restaurant, owner of family restaurant, um, home baker, and then a full bakery. And so they all came together, like each each month, shared best practices and challenges on different topics. So we just moderated and, you know, kind of chimed in. So we covered things like, um, inventory control and marketing and growth and expansion. So those are some cool programs that that are now coming into play. You know, we just finished the pilots make sure that that those all went well. And then the other thing is our I. So it’s important to us that with the way AI is transitioning, um, and becoming such a big part of everyone’s world that our small business owners understand it, there’s a lot of fear out there right now. Um, so I’m part of the national curriculum team for the SBDC, where we put together the curriculum to teach other advisors how to teach small business owners to use AI. Um, so we’re really excited about the things that we’re rolling out there. And because it’s really important to us at the SBDC that we’re relevant and we bring value, and if we’re scared of AI, then how do we help our our small business owners? So yeah, and I think we’ll just keep growing and expanding in the future.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. Yeah. Ai is such a big topic and so many people haven’t even tried to use it and don’t even understand what it is. You know, many business owners, I find, think that AI is just a chat bot, right? They think, you know, ChatGPT or Gemini or one of these tools that are out there, and that is not it. That is just one piece of the tools that we can use to really automate the work that we’re doing, and especially those solopreneurs. It’s so important for us to save time on all of those administrative tasks, and being able to use AI to do that is amazing. So that sounds awesome. I can’t wait to engage in that. So, Amy, you said something. Uh, you said a BDC. What is that?

Amy Reid: Oh, America’s SBDC, that’s our nationwide umbrella. I’m sorry.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. No, no. That’s okay. That’s what I’m here for as ask good questions.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, my goodness, I love that. Um, anything else about the SBDC that we haven’t talked about that you really wanted to draw out?

Amy Reid: I think the only other thing is just to remember that, and I’ve already kind of said it, but you pay for our services, so there’s no reason to feel that you are alone or to struggle in your business. Come to someone who can either connect you to someone who can help you or who can help you. Um, and being held accountable is a good thing. Um, that means we’re going to be your biggest cheerleader when you hit those milestones, but we’re also going to help you push through those milestones that are challenging. So take advantage of it. It doesn’t cost you anything other than time, and I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll come out with value.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh gosh. Yes. Again, if you haven’t filled out your client profile, I’m telling you, you need to go do that. Amy. Um, as we get to the back end of our conversation today, I’d love to hear your favorite success story. Success story that comes out of the SBDC.

Amy Reid: So I know I mentioned earlier, I’ve been here 14 years. So, um, when I started about a year in, I worked with a client who came in and he wanted to start an assisted living home, and he had all kinds of experience in the industry. He was passionate about what he wanted to do and why he wanted to do it, but he didn’t have the money. He didn’t have the business sense. He didn’t even have. He had somewhat of a plan, but he he didn’t have enough of a plan, so he started coming to classes and workshops and we would meet every six months or so. He opened after 13 years of this journey together. He opened about a year and a half ago now, I guess. Um, and so not quite 13 years, but his persistence and his passion, everything came together. He’s thriving. We still meet constantly to some last night at our class, um, and we just. I’m his biggest cheerleader. I’m constantly talking about him. But for someone to be that passionate about that dream, I feel like that is truly, um, the the American dream. Making something come when it seemed like it was impossible and pushing through.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, my. So I got goosebumps, like 13 years later. Right? That he birthed this baby business. And how amazing is that? And with your support all the way along the road, right? That journey that he’s been on. Um, gosh, thank you so much for being on the show with me today. There’s so much information to take in. I’m excited, uh, about what’s coming. Uh, and I love that the continuous improvement is there inside of the SBDC and that you’re tied to the bigger network. Right. Um, of America’s. Thank you, I appreciate you. I probably have to have you back on the show again anytime.

Amy Reid: Thank you for having me, I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: Thanks so much, Amy, for being on the show.

Amy Reid: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today’s show. Join us next time for another exciting episode of Houston Business Radio. Until then, stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep thriving in the Houston business community.

BRX Pro Tip: The Email Marketing Metric that Matters

February 14, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: The Email Marketing Metric that Matters

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BRX Pro Tip: The Email Marketing Metric that Matters

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, when it comes to email marketing, what is the best way to make sure that it’s effective?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that when it comes to any type of marketing and email marketing specifically, there’s so many different metrics, and it’s really, kind of, honing in on what is the metric that matters. And a lot of folks, kind of, when it comes to email marketing, lean on open rate as the metric that matters. Like how many people are opening the email that you’re sending. And while I think that’s important and that’s kind of table stakes that you want people to open your emails, that means they were looking forward to them, I think a more important metric, when it comes down to actually where business is getting done, is the click through rate.

People have to click on things. Your readers of the emails have to click on things within the emails you send. If they’re not clicking on anything that you are writing about or recommending they go to, then you have a problem. So, you have to figure out ways to increase the value of what you’re saying or sending them to, so they click on something.

So, now, how do you go about increasing the value? I think the best way to way to increase value is think about what it is that you’re sharing and make that information or content so good that they have to click on it. And in some cases, that might make you have to feel a little anxious or uneasy that you’re giving away this much good stuff. And that’s really kind of the sweet spot. You want to feel like, “Man, should I be doing this? Because this is some really good stuff,” and that’s kind of where you want to be when it comes to creating content for email. Because you have to remember, the reason you’re sending these emails is because you want these people to remember you when it’s time to buy what you’re selling. And if you’re not providing enough value, they’re not going to do that.

So, put your value in there and increase the value to the point where you’re feeling uncomfortable. And a little fun fact or a little maybe something that’s surprising that if you add a PS below your name when you’re like, “Thanks for reading,” and then you put your name, and if you put PS, and then put a link in there in the PS, you will find that that has a surprisingly high clickthrough rate. So, try putting in a link there as well.

Cooking Up Success: Lela Dinakaran on Family, Marketing, and Catering Success

February 14, 2025 by angishields

Greater Perimeter Business Radio

Cooking Up Success: Lela Dinakaran on Family, Marketing, and Catering Success

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On this episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio, Rachel Simon is joined by Lela Dinakaran , Vice President of Marketing for Georgia Foods, which operates Bojangles. Lela shares her family’s journey, starting with her father’s immigration and the opening of their first Bojangles location in 2004. Now, they operate 46 locations, primarily in Georgia. Lela discusses her evolving marketing role, the challenges and successes of launching catering services, and the importance of digital marketing. She highlights the collaborative relationship with Bojangles corporate and the innovative strategies that have driven their franchise’s growth and success.

As a second-generation Bojangles franchisee, Lela Dinakaran oversees all the marketing strategies for her family’s 44 franchise stores in Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.

This includes brand promotion, brand awareness, driving catering sales, digital sales, and other revenue drivers.

Connect with Lela on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here with Rachel Simon. This episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio is brought to you by Connect the Dots Digital. When you’re ready to leverage LinkedIn to meet your business goals, go to Connect the Dots. Rachel. Hi. How you been?

Rachel Simon: Good. How are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. So excited about this show.

Rachel Simon: Yes. And it seems like winter has come back to us.

Lee Kantor: I know, just for today.

Rachel Simon: Just for today. Uh, yes. So I’m super excited about today’s show as well. And I met our guest when I went up and visited one of the other Business RadioX studios up in Gwinnett, and she was a guest on there, and I was like, oh, well, we have to have her on the show here. So we have with us today Lela Dinakaran. And she is the vice president of marketing for Georgia Foods. But we know Georgia Foods better as what they are doing business as, which is Bojangles.

Lee Kantor: I’m excited. Welcome.

Rachel Simon: Welcome.

Lela Dinakaran: Thank you.

Rachel Simon: So, you know, I’m so happy to have you on the show today because I thought you had such a great story about your business and sort of. It’s a family business. So tell us about it.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So I’m a second generation Bojangles franchisee, really proud to say that I love the Bojangles brand. I grew up with it. So our story starts back in 1984. My dad emigrated from India to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, uh, on a tennis scholarship to go to college. And he is craving Indian food. Food that reminds him of home, flavorful food, food that has a little spice to it, level to it, a little kick. So he is recommended to stop into a Bojangles by his roommate and he walks into this restaurant and he has a bite of the dirty rice and the chicken. And honestly, the rest is history. He decided at that point that he was going to own Bojangles, and he opened his first location in 2004. So I was a very little girl, but I vividly remember walking into his first location and having our chicken supremes and honey mustard and fries, and I was hooked after that. I love Bojangles, I love eating the food, love talking about it. And fast forward to today alongside my dad and my brother. We own and operate 46 Bojangles locations. 35 are in Georgia, so and I run the marketing for all 46. So I am everywhere all of the time.

Rachel Simon: So is that in the franchise world, like a typical number of locations to own within a company? Or is it like on the high side, the low side?

Lela Dinakaran: It’s so we’re the fourth largest franchisee in the system. So definitely on the high side, I’d say there are probably a lot of franchise groups out there with just 1 to 2. But Bojangles is all about growth. So I mean, why stop at one, right?

Rachel Simon: I mean, who doesn’t love fried chicken?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. And biscuits.

Rachel Simon: And.

Lela Dinakaran: Biscuits and tea.

Rachel Simon: I think it’s so interesting. And first of all, like, kudos to that roommate for saying, you know, oh, there’s no maybe there’s not a lot of Indian food options in Myrtle Beach, but check out this southern fare. Yeah. And I think it’s actually amazing that it just satisfied that need so much for your dad.

Lela Dinakaran: And I think it’s really full circle because at that moment, my dad was searching for something that reminded him of home. And then fast forward 40 some years, Bojangles is my home. It’s what reminds me of home, you know, being from North Carolina. But yeah, very proud.

Rachel Simon: I grew up in North Carolina.

Lela Dinakaran: I did born and raised.

Rachel Simon: Okay. And then how how long have you been in Atlanta?

Lela Dinakaran: So I moved down to Georgia in 2019. I actually moved down right after I graduated college to a little town called Eatonton, Georgia. Um, I don’t know if you’re familiar or super. It’s a retirement community. So I was like 22 living in a retirement community. Um, so you can kind of imagine how fun that was. Um, so when we wanted to, like, go out and do something fun, we would drive up to Athens, Georgia. Okay, so big UGA, go dawgs. Uh, so I actually live in Athens, Georgia. When the opportunity came in 2021, I was getting married. Um, and we were like, let’s just move to Athens. So we bought a house there and have been kicking it ever since.

Rachel Simon: Oh, I have a UGA student currently, so.

Lela Dinakaran: Okay. So you know all about Athens.

Rachel Simon: Very fun town.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, now that you’ve been in the franchise business for so long, have you kind of explored Indian franchises? Because now there’s more Indian food franchises.

Lela Dinakaran: There are. We haven’t. We’ve like I said, we’ve been all about Bojangles since the beginning. Um, so that’s kind of just what we’re sticking to.

Lee Kantor: So you’re just the the thinking is just keep expanding the Bojangles.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So when I started with my dad, uh, the goal was 50. But we’ve gotten there very quickly, Um, from 2019, we started with three locations in Georgia, so went from 3 to 35. Uh, so the past five years of my career have been literally insane. But yeah, the goal is just to keep growing and keep expanding.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re as a marketing person, how does kind of your role change, you know? Is it different marketing for 3 to 50. Like is it the same activity. You’re just doing it hyper locally in each of those markets.

Lela Dinakaran: So definitely when I started it was very hyperlocal. Um, while also looking for ways to drive the business increase foot traffic. So one of my first ways of doing that was discovering catering. Um, I think we all know what restaurant catering is. It’s these high ticket items. Um, and just a great way to grow your revenue really quickly. So I discovered that in a hyper local level in Milledgeville, Georgia, and, um, kind of funny story I was so I started with the business working as a crew member in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Lee Kantor: One, that’s a college town.

Lela Dinakaran: That’s a college town. Yeah. Um, and then one odd day, the phone rings and it’s the local prison, and they want to place an order for 500 dinner boxes, and they want it in, like, two days time. Um, that was a huge order, as you can imagine. I wasn’t going to say no, but in the back of my head, I’m thinking, how the heck do I put this together?

Lee Kantor: We’re going to be working 24 over seven.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So I was like, I’m just going to figure it out. And to be quite honest, we failed the first time and we failed the second time. But I was determined and by the third time, like they finally gave me a third shot at this order. I got it right. And then I was like, how do I do more of this? And then just kind of grew catering from there. And now it’s just been scaling revenue drivers like catering, but also in the digital sense. So delivery through DoorDash, Uber Eats and through our app as well.

Rachel Simon: So was yesterday a big day for Bojangles? Oh yeah. The Super Bowl.

Lela Dinakaran: So yesterday’s a big day. But something kind of fun about Bojangles is that we’re great hangover food, and today is pretty much National Hangover Day. Um, so we are going to going to be especially busy in the digital world today.

Rachel Simon: Hmm. Interesting.

Lee Kantor: Now, part of the, uh, appeal of franchises, are there systems in place? Were there not systems in place for catering from Bojangles? Is that something that you had to kind of figure out on the fly?

Lela Dinakaran: Great question. Um, as a brand, we did not have a catering platform. It was kind of like any customer could walk into a Bojangles and order catering. We just weren’t calling it that. So I kind of started to, you know, find this, this low hanging fruit, if you will, like this idea of like, this is what we could kind of expand into. Um, and then just kind of figured out the operational tasks behind it.

Lee Kantor: And so you had to figure that out. Yeah. As an individual. Yeah. So did you get any help from the kind of the franchisor?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. I mean, um, we did get some support, of course, but I was just kind of paving the way and just kind of figuring it out as I went.

Rachel Simon: That’s so interesting. So when you’re marketing and all of these different for all of your different locations, I mean, do they each have their own manager? Like, how does it work? And then, like, how do you meet the needs of each specific store based on what they’re doing in their community?

Lela Dinakaran: Absolutely. So every store has a general manager. Um, and I guess for me, I always make it a point to be in my restaurants at least four, four days a week, if not every day, because that’s where the magic happens. That’s where I’m seeing my customers come in, and that’s when I can talk to my managers and figure out what’s working for them and what’s not, and what opportunities they see because they’re in their restaurants 50 hours a week. They could see a need that I might be missing. Um, just because I’m not there as often. So definitely a lot of communication, a lot of boots on the ground.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And so obviously, if you’re living in Athens and now you’re down in, you know, Atlanta today, are you hitting the road to see some of your stores while you’re here?

Lela Dinakaran: Oh yeah. Absolutely. I am making the most of being here in the city today.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is that ideal target for that catering order? Because like you said, the catering orders are big orders. You know, that can make your day one catering order.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So typically, uh, a catering order can range from 250 to $500. Um, those order, those are on the smaller end. I’m using air quotes for those listening. Uh, the smaller end of catering orders. I’ve done orders as big as, like ten, $20,000. Um, and as far as, like, the target market.

Lee Kantor: Is that more of a B2B play?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So it’s all those bigger orders and the thousands are B2B. Um, and I guess that’s where I’ve definitely started to carve it out, because usually when you think of catering, you’re thinking of your personal events. So like Super Bowl yesterday, if you were having a party, right. That’s a catering.

Lee Kantor: People.

Lela Dinakaran: Right.

Lee Kantor: So this is a it’s similar but different.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. It’s very similar but different. It’s I carved out this, uh, food for work idea. Um, food for prisons if you will. Um, so.

Lee Kantor: It was built on that.

Lela Dinakaran: First.

Lee Kantor: Customer, right?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, it was built on that. And then just from there, found this need of a lot of employers to incentivize, um, coming back into the office will start offering a paid.

Lee Kantor: Lunch on Thursdays.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So that it was tapping into places like that.

Rachel Simon: What about, like, events? Do you have a food truck? Is there, like a food truck?

Lela Dinakaran: The food truck is coming. Um, I definitely think it’s another avenue I will explore. But, yeah, that’ll only continue to grow this, uh, external, uh, source for us.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. Because I’m thinking again, I have one, uh, one of my kids is a senior, so all the grad party stuff starts, you know, talk happening, and then I’m like, oh, you know, lots of people love to do food trucks for.

Lela Dinakaran: Those kinds.

Rachel Simon: Of parties. So Bojangles food truck.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that’s is that kind of a franchise? Like, how does the franchise owner look at a food truck?

Lela Dinakaran: So it’ll just be something that we kind of add on.

Lee Kantor: So that’s again, you kind of going yeah. Rebel here. Yeah a little bit.

Lela Dinakaran: Again. Just kind of boots on the ground figuring it out as I go. So I do currently have a food truck, but it’s in the process of getting a lot of TLC right now. Um, so right now I’m in the process of finding somebody to fix it up for me. So if anybody here listening, does that hit me up.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you’re so when you’re going about your marketing, I’m just curious about the franchise or franchisee relationship, because this, to me is always one of the challenges when you’re a franchisee, because a lot of times the franchisor doesn’t want you to kind of be rebellious like this. They’re they’re like, hey, we have a system. This is what you bought. It was a system. How are you working with the franchisor on these initiatives? It sounds very collaborative that they’re okay with it. Are they taking your best practices and then sharing it with the network?

Lela Dinakaran: Yes. So they’re taking my best practices and sharing it and kind of growing on it. We have a great relationship with corporate. We’re with them at several times in the month. Um, so anytime that I’m innovating, I’m innovating alongside them. So it’s not something I’m doing separately on my own. We’re a team and we’re in this together. And our vested interest is just growing the brand.

Rachel Simon: And so with that, like, have you seen some of the things that you’ve created and sort of done in Done in your stores. Kind of move into some of the other franchisors?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, definitely. So catering is definitely one of them. So just you know, speaking about hey guys, there’s this huge opportunity out there. We just need to be tapping into it and looking for these customers. Uh, and then more than that, it’s how do we execute catering. So just speaking on all all of those things.

Lee Kantor: From an operational standpoint.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. From an operational standpoint.

Lee Kantor: So the sales there’s a sales standpoint to a marketing. So you have to make them aware that you even do this right. So there’s some of that. But then once you have the order, like you said the first time of 500 that we’re not ready for 500, most of these stores, right. Yeah. Unless there’s systems in place.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, exactly. So it’s just making sure that it’s really just a communication game. Um, and, you know, just being being able to walk the manager through how to do it. Um, and then just also just being a sounding board, too.

Rachel Simon: So as you’re expanding your stores again, trying to get to that 50, which seems like you’ll be there very, very.

Lee Kantor: Soon this.

Rachel Simon: Week.

Lela Dinakaran: Right?

Rachel Simon: Like, are you looking for existing properties that are, you know, like a shell of a fast food restaurant that can be turned into a new store?

Lela Dinakaran: All of the above. I think we’ll just go where the best opportunity is for us.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you’re expanding into other markets, how does that how does that go? Like, are you I know Georgia has an area. Do you have a territory? Yeah. Is that how it works?

Lela Dinakaran: We do. Um, and we’re always exploring, you know, new markets that we could enter into. But again, that goes back to the relationship that we have with corporate. It’s very collaborative. And they’ll work with us and making sure we’re making a good investment.

Lee Kantor: So they might make a recommendation. Hey, this came up like maybe somebody didn’t make it and they would offer it to you.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s really all opportunities. You know it could be building from the ground up. It could be acquiring a new location.

Rachel Simon: So when you were younger, I mean, did you, uh, envision yourself going into the family business? Or was this sort of, like, a surprise to you?

Lela Dinakaran: It was a surprise. So I always when I got my first job, it was in restaurants, and I loved working in restaurants. And then I went to college and I majored in business. And then I was also going to major in public health because I thought that I wanted to manage hospitals. Uh, and then I had to come to Jesus moment and realize I don’t even like going to the doctor. So why would I run hospitals? And even throughout college, I was always working in restaurants and just loved hospitality. And I love food. Huge foodie. I love talking about food and creating food. And then my dad just kind of came to me one day and was like, I think you would be really good at this. This is kind of what I’m envisioning for the company. Like, would you consider coming on board? Um, and I definitely had to think about it because it’s family business, right? I’m essentially just, you know, merging the professional world and the family world together. But yeah, I was like, sure, let’s do it. And I’ll just like I said, figure it out as it comes.

Lee Kantor: Now, are all the kids in the business?

Lela Dinakaran: So my brother is five years older than me, so he’s in the business. And then we have an older sister, but she’s on the health care side.

Lee Kantor: So now is she is that create any kind of family? I don’t want to say friction, but just kind of issues like the holidays come up. You’re like, you know, a bunch of you are talking about the business and one person’s not like, is there any weirdness?

Lela Dinakaran: So we um, great question. We are all huge Bojangles fans and all very invested in the business. So I’ve never felt like, you know, the dinner table conversation is split in half. I think even when work comes to the dinner table, everyone is equally interested.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any succession issues like as it’s your father? Was the founder of it? Is there any plan to one of either your brother or you to take?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So my brother and I both currently own this business. So, you know, there that is the succession where it’s already in place, and right now it’s just in terms of growing it and, you know, keeping it going.

Lee Kantor: Now, was there any kind of, um, like how did that come about? So when your, your dad said, okay, I’m done or I’m easing out. And now.

Lela Dinakaran: So my dad loves his job. I don’t think he’s ever going to retire. I think he’s going to be all very hands on in the business until, you know, he can’t anymore.

Lee Kantor: Right. And then. So what about, like, when it comes to decisions, how do you break ties?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. I mean, we’re always making decisions together. So I’ve never felt like that’s an issue.

Rachel Simon: No, it seems like I mean, because, look, there’s some family businesses with lots of challenges in the in when it comes to succession planning and sort of internal conflict. So it seems like through your mutual love of Bojangles, you’ve really managed to.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: You know, avoid those challenges.

Lee Kantor: Well, in America, there’s not a lot of multi-generational family businesses like in Europe. That’s pretty common. Not pretty common, but it happened. There’s hundreds of year old businesses that have been passed on in America. For whatever reason. It’s unusual to, you know, make it even to the third generation.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. No. So I think it’s like 70% of business of family businesses fail in the second generation. Very scary statistics. But I think that’s why we’re so driven to make it work because we know the odds are against us.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, I think I mean, I’ve worked with several clients who are either kind of in family businesses or touch them in one way or another, and a lot of it is around those challenges around succession planning or expectations of the second generation taking the business over without that, those people necessarily wanting to.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah.

Rachel Simon: Um, and so the fact that you and your brother are so, uh, you know, passionate about continuing to grow the business is, is really very cool to see.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, definitely.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you, um, there I’ve interviewed some people that are with a multi-generation, uh, fast food restaurant. And one of their strategies as they got into the the third generation was to encourage the younger generation to get jobs outside of the industry, to bring best practices in. Are you is there anything along those lines, uh, between you and your brother, uh, thinking to explore outside, you know, maybe complementary businesses to bring that learning into the business?

Lela Dinakaran: I think that’s definitely a possibility. Like I said, when I was in college, I was working at all sorts of different kind of restaurants, one of them being chick fil A. Um, and it was not like my family was like, don’t do that. They were actually encouraging me to go for what you just said, to learn best practices and learn more about the industry.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. No, that’s I mean, it’s you have to learn from your first of all, you have to learn from your competitors.

Lela Dinakaran: Right, exactly.

Rachel Simon: Um, and we know there’s more than enough of a of a need and a desire for good comfort food.

Lela Dinakaran: Oh, yeah.

Rachel Simon: Right. Oh, yeah. Um, one question I had, I guess on the marketing side is like, what is an example of one of your favorite, uh, campaigns that you’ve put together?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So recently we’ve been launching a lot of new menu items. I’ve really enjoyed kind of seeing that come together. Last year, we launched Bird Dogs. Uh, bird dogs is our Chicken Supreme, which is our chicken tender on a hot dog roll that’s toasted with pickles. And our Carolina gold sauce, which tastes like a honey barbecue sauce. Uh, such a delicious product. Um, I really loved testing that. We tested it in Atlanta several times, especially at the Atlanta United games. Um, and really just saw a lot, got a lot of positive feedback for it. So we’re like, let’s put this on the menu as a limited time offer. Uh, it’s coming back again this year, so be on the lookout for it. But I love seeing that come into fruition. And I love hearing the customer feedback and also watching what kind of demographic it’s pulling in and seeing if it’s bringing in any new consumers.

Rachel Simon: So when you’re testing at a United game, do you have a like a stand in the stadium or are you outside at the tailgates? Like how does that work?

Lela Dinakaran: So we were in the Home Depot backyard tailgating area right outside Mercedes-Benz. So huge foot traffic area. And we just set up a tent. Um, and it was just like, you know, advertising. We’re giving out free food. We had a bird dog sign and just asked people we had three flavors that we were testing. I think we did a buffalo, a ranch, and then this, uh, Carolina gold sauce. And everyone got an option to pick one. And it was just like, give us your feedback. And that’s kind of how we we canvased.

Rachel Simon: Oh, well, that sounds like fun. I mean, who doesn’t want free food?

Lela Dinakaran: It was tons of fun. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So let’s get to the the beginning of that. So you have an idea that you want to test or do some sort of focus group? Yeah. And then some companies would just hire a focus group company to do this and a conference room. You decided to kind of go out into the real world with your own eyes and your own kind of thing. Can you talk about how that came about and how you were able to execute something like that?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So to be quite honest, I think Atlanta United came to us with a possible sponsorship opportunity. Um, and then as that was coming to play Bird Dogs was coming into the story. So we were like, maybe there’s something here. And we knew we knew like the demographic loosely of the people that are going to the Atlanta United games. So we knew that there could potentially be some crossover, some match, some interest. So it kind of just flourished from there. Um, and then obviously got into the conversations of like, can we test products at our booth? Where would the booth be? Um, you know how keeping track? Because that’s an.

Lee Kantor: Important component.

Lela Dinakaran: Too.

Rachel Simon: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’m sure doing these various, like, activations in the real world are, um, outside the stores give you a lot of information.

Lee Kantor: But it can be can be chaotic if you don’t have good systems in.

Rachel Simon: Place. But probably also great for brand exposure because there might be people that have don’t have a store near them and then are like, where is the closest Bojangles to me now?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, definitely. And you know, when you’re doing it just out in the public, it’s unbiased. Whereas a focus group, I mean, I’ve never done it that way, but I’m assuming there’s a little bit more bias there.

Lee Kantor: Right. You have a different person is involved in a focus group than just kind of in the wild like this. You’re getting a real person in a real. They don’t have kind of, uh, pre biases. Yeah. They might come in a focus group because there’s like professional focus group people.

Rachel Simon: Right. But also I’m assuming that like the attend the people who are signing up to participate in a focus group, if they know what it what it’s for. They, they have a feeling of like, oh, I would like to.

Lee Kantor: Eat and they’re getting paid.

Rachel Simon: For.

Lee Kantor: It. Getting paid for it. So they could have biases.

Rachel Simon: But if you ever want to you know, since you’re based in Athens, if you ever want a group of 150 50 college students to test your food. I can set you up with my.

Lela Dinakaran: That is very good to know.

Lee Kantor: A bunch of beta testers are available.

Rachel Simon: They would be. They love free food.

Lee Kantor: Professional shoppers.

Rachel Simon: Right? I mean, when you brought some food up to the other show where we met and there were some these, like, amazing cookies that I brought back to my family.

Lela Dinakaran: The blueberry cookies.

Rachel Simon: Oh my God. I was like, Bojangles makes the best cookie. Yeah, ever.

Lela Dinakaran: So something fun about our brand that we’re starting to step into. Um, we are known by a lot of people for our Bo Berry biscuit. Um, I think it’s a very, um. I think it’s a big part of our breakfast brand. So we want to own this segment that we have and really dive into it. So we’ve just been expanding on that product line, one of them being the Bo Berry cookie. So we launched that. A couple of my stores still have it. So if you’re in, um, the Gwinnett County area into Atlanta, definitely stop by a store and try Bo blueberry cookie. However, I also have blueberry cobbler on my menu right now. It’s a limited time item, but definitely stop in and try it. It’s a the bottom is a Bojangles biscuit, and then we do a blueberry, um, compote on top with a icing drizzle.

Rachel Simon: And as I remember, all those biscuits are made by hand.

Lela Dinakaran: Oh, yeah. All of the biscuits are made from scratch.

Lee Kantor: Right. That’s one of your different.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, that’s definitely something that puts Bojangles on the map, especially in terms of our competitive edge. Our biscuits are made from scratch. Their buttermilk biscuits. If you walk into the back of our kitchen you’ll see flour clouds. It’s all real ingredients. And they’re made from scratch every day.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. And I think today people, uh, care about that more and more. Yeah. They don’t want to know. They don’t want food that’s coming from a freezer. They want food that’s being actually, like, prepared.

Lela Dinakaran: Exactly. Yeah.

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

Lela Dinakaran: Um, I mean, this this is great. I love, you know, getting to talk about catering. We want to cater all of the events. So you know.

Lee Kantor: So then let’s walk through what that looks like. So who. So this one of these companies here in this building right here might be hey, we want to do lunch for our employees. So how would they just call a store. Like how do they even begin this process.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Great question. So if you’re in charge of, um, ordering, catering for a big group, your next meeting, all you got to do is go to catering. Uh, choose your location, and you can place a catering order on there and pay for it. And you can also get it delivered as well.

Rachel Simon: And what’s the turnaround time? How much?

Lela Dinakaran: So we just need 24 hour notice.

Lee Kantor: And that’s for like you said it could be 500. Yep. So you got the systems down. We got the systems down.

Lela Dinakaran: We know how to execute. We’re just waiting for the orders.

Rachel Simon: So that could be a great breakfast incentive for a company right.

Lee Kantor: So it’s any day part right?

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Any day part. But that’s not all. You know of course there’s businesses that need catering. But let’s also talk about like the personal parties, like the Super Bowls. Um, the Valentine’s Day, if you’re doing something, you know, at your house, um.

Rachel Simon: Grad parties.

Lela Dinakaran: Grad parties, all of that we can do. I’m actually doing a prom up in North Carolina like an after prom party. Um, and we’re also getting into weddings, too. So. Really? Yeah. So Bojangles will be everywhere.

Lee Kantor: So now when you do something like that, is there is it just the food part you’re handling or is there. Oh, I got some wedding decor that we throw in there.

Lela Dinakaran: So we don’t do any decor. But I do offer serving staff as well if that’s something the customer wants.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff.

Rachel Simon: Yeah. I mean, it seems like there is a multitude of, uh, applications for where Bojangles could be consumed. Right? Whether it is and again, on the party side and the individual, you know, within your home, whatever you’re doing or potluck or something like that.

Lela Dinakaran: Mhm.

Rachel Simon: Super easy to pick up.

Lee Kantor: Now Rachel before we wrap. Um, you know, we always like to go to you for a LinkedIn tip. Is there any kind of LinkedIn advice for a franchisee of an organization?

Rachel Simon: I mean, I think that, you know, if you’re not already doing it, whether you specifically or just if especially in these areas of like, uh, food, people love to talk about food. Every one, uh, on LinkedIn needs to eat three meals a day. Um, but there’s probably people who don’t are not even thinking about, uh, Bojangles as, as an option for some sort of, like, company incentive. And so I would just start talking about and showing pictures of setups at different, uh, corporate, you know, events that you’re catering to sort of get people to go, gosh, I never thought about that for our corporate events.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah, that’s a great idea.

Lee Kantor: Is it something that her she can, um, teach her managers to have kind of AA1 One voice.

Rachel Simon: I think it depends on, um, what their. If they have a following. So your managers, you know, there are people I they may not necessarily be on LinkedIn or be super active. So it may be better coming from you or from your brother or from some people, like higher up within the organization. Um, since you can build relationships with those corporate decision makers. Yeah. Um, but pictures, I think of your general, of your managers. It’s a good it’s a good shout out for them. But then it also gets people aware of like, this is a product and a service that we.

Lee Kantor: Because they may not even be aware that.

Rachel Simon: 100%. Yeah. 100%.

Lee Kantor: And like.

Rachel Simon: Look a beautiful platter of like delicious fried chicken is gonna be very appealing and go, oh, that looks really.

Lee Kantor: Well, especially if you get the person who was the client to do the pictures and say, Thanks to Bojangles for catering this thing.

Rachel Simon: Oh for sure. Yeah, there’s just a lot of good applications to help build help. Just enhance that brand awareness, for sure.

Lela Dinakaran: Definitely.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, one more time, the, uh, website. Best way to connect.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So catering.

Lee Kantor: Com and then just bojangles.com to find the location.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. Bojangles.com to find the location. And also, uh, use our app. Our app is great. You can get 20% off your first order. Uh, so definitely download that app too.

Lee Kantor: Does that kind of ping you reminders or specials or.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah. So you’ll get push notifications. You’ll get all all the things you need to know about Bojangles will come through on that app.

Rachel Simon: And who doesn’t like reward points, right.

Lela Dinakaran: Yeah.

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

Lela Dinakaran: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right, that’s a wrap. Uh, this is Lee Kantor for Rachel Simon. We will see you all next time on Sandy Springs Business Radio.

About Your Host

Rachel Simon is the CEO & Founder of Connect the Dots Digital. She helps B2B companies close more business by leveraging the power of LinkedIn.

Rachel works with professionals, both individuals and teams, to position their authentic brand on LinkedIn so they can connect organically with ideal clients, attract the best talent, and stand out as a leader in their industry.

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.

Roslyn Young Daniels with Black Health Matters

February 14, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Roslyn Young Daniels with Black Health Matters

00:00 /

Roslyn Young Daniels is the Founder and CEO of Black Health Matters, a groundbreaking platform dedicated to improving health literacy and addressing health disparities in African American communities.

With over 20 years of experience in health education and strategy, Daniels has built an impactful ecosystem that connects individuals to resources for managing chronic diseases and achieving better health outcomes.

Her flagship initiative, the Black Health Matters Summits & Expos, has become the nation’s largest forum for Black health, attracting over 10,000 attendees and delivering essential education and tools to underserved populations.

Under Daniels’ leadership, Black Health Matters has experienced tremendous growth, spearheading initiatives like the Clinical Trials Corner and partnerships with organizations such as Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., to promote health equity.

Recognized with numerous awards, including the Digital Diversity Network’s Social Entrepreneur Award, Daniels continues to drive meaningful change in healthcare access and education while empowering Black communities nationwide.

Follow Black Health Matters on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this morning. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast founder and CEO for Black Health Matters, Roslyn Young Daniels. How are you?

Roslyn Young Daniels : I am great, Stone. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Well, I have really been looking forward to this conversation. I have a ton of questions, Roslyn. I’m sure we won’t get to them all, but maybe a great place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Roslyn Young Daniels : We are trying to help people find that roadmap to better health. You know, Stone, I have a story that is very much like many people’s story. I lost my beloved grandparents too soon. And what is the saying is that grandchildren and grandparents have a common enemy and that’s the parent. So my grandparents spoiled me. They doted on me, but unfortunately I lost them too soon. And so many Americans can say the same thing. The cause of their demise was something that was probably, um, if they had had regular care, I would have had them around. And neither of them lived to be past 65 years old. But I have these cherished memories, and that just stuck with me. So I wanted to do something, and that at some point in my life where people that I loved, I wouldn’t have to worry about losing them sooner because they would be around, and that future generations would all be able to celebrate and cherish them.

Stone Payton: And you chose a career path that would eventually definitely facilitate that. But tell us a little bit about about that journey, if you would.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yeah. So understanding you know, I again, I was just so upset and that happened. The loss of my grandparents happened when I was 17. So then fast forward when I, I guess I was in my early 40s when it was decided that pharma could advertise to consumers. And I got really excited about it because I understood that for many who never had a conversation or thought about health outside of a waiting room, they would now see it on the television. So then I said, you know what? Understanding that certain segments of the population bear the burden of disease, most who might be able to make my this my life’s work. And so my goal was to address the medically underserved and provide them tools and information that can help them guide and navigate towards a healthier life.

Stone Payton: So. So why do we have that that gap? And I don’t know if this is the right term or not. Like like health literacy or health knowledge. Why do we have that gap in the first place? You think.

Roslyn Young Daniels : You know, unfortunately, people of color in this country just don’t do as well in the medical system. Um, when we look at the mortality rates, what we see is that women who live in a certain zip code or families that live in a specific zip code do better than others that live in a poorer zip code, or a black zip code, or an Hispanic zip code or, you know, in a community that has Indian residents. So or I should say Native Americans. So that really is a factor in how people live or how long they live. For me, when the Affordable Care Act was passed, I was really enthusiastic because access is everything. And so through that, I launched Black Health Matters to be the North Star for thousands who wanted to be healthy, but really just didn’t know how or where or what to do.

Stone Payton: Well, I’m getting the distinct impression that that that the, the, the the deck is stacked against some of these, uh, underserved constituencies for sure. But I wonder, does that also reinforce or help create and then Reinforce like also these these cultural challenges like you come to mistrust the whole system. So that just feeds on itself as well. Is that an element?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Definitely an element. But at the end of the day, 80% of what you do is going to really make the difference in how long you live and the quality of your life. Your medical intervention is really 20%. It’s what you do every day. Mhm. And again, that’s 80% of the wellbeing practices that you adopt are really important because that’s what’s really going to carry you over. So if you understand that you need to exercise, that you need to eat nutritious food, that you need some level of mental rest, mental health, all of these things that you need to hydrate, you need to sleep 7 to 8 hours a night. So if you’re putting those things into practice on a regular basis. You’re going to do so much better than those who don’t do that. So we want to solve for what we can solve for. So again, we want people to understand how to live a healthier life. Put better practices in place so that when they do come into the medical system, they’ve got that fighting chance.

Stone Payton: All right. Let’s dive into the work a little bit. What are what are the mechanisms you use to affect this kind of change? I’m I’m thinking probably a great deal of education, but talk about talk about the work itself.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yeah. So we launched with Black Health Matters. Com which is a leading health and wellness wellness website um that focuses on self-reflective content. And it features more than 30 channels on all types of chronic disease from cancer, diabetes, heart disease. We have information on relationships, nutrition, cooking. So I think in total, we probably have 5000 plus pages of health related content on the website. And that’s where we base the majority of our work because knowledge is our. And it’s so often, you know, you want something that you know, is going to speak to you and connect with you based on your cultural experience. And that’s what’s really going to help make this and make that information authentic. And that’s what the Black Health Matters website does. So then from the Black Health Matters website, we then went into creating newsletters. And so we for and I encourage everyone on the broadcast to register for a Black Health Matters newsletter by going to W-w-w health Matters.com. And that’s where we publish the health news of the of the day. We also follow national health observances. And so that February is heart Month. So we’re going to give you all kinds of tips on heart disease, fitness, nutrition, you name it. So we follow the services. And we also have a laser focus on chronic diseases that impact Black Americans. Most often certain kinds of diseases just don’t get the same level of oxygen. So we’re going to take that deep dive on lupus, a multiple sclerosis, on heart disease, endometrial cancer. And so while these may seem, you know, fairly clinical and pretty severe, there’s always hope as long as you stay open to what science has to offer. And that’s what we package in the Black Health Matters newsletter.

Stone Payton: Well, I’ll tell you what I find attractive about that is it sounds like you have and continue to aggregate the information, provide one portal that that I can go to, to, to get this information as opposed to you’ve done the hard work, right. You’ve done the and and you’re on top of it and continue to assemble that information and and disseminate that information. I, I find that very, very attractive. Are you getting some help or. Well, are like the major health organizations and people in the health care community, are they embracing this or are they bristling with this? What what are those relationships like?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yeah, we do have an editorial team. And so we have contacts that all the advocacy organizations. So whether it be the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Association, American Diabetes Association, um, some of the smaller advocacy groups. Um, they, we all we we look to elevate what they’re doing, and they have experts that they share with us for the content that we’re writing. Our website is really focused on evidence based content through that is and coming through, um, information based on scientific rigor. So we’re not going to cover crystals, for example, or we’re not really going to cover, um, things that are slightly out of the range of an evidence based report on how to manage a chronic condition so people can feel that this is the information that’s important, that will stand the test of scientific scrutiny. And this again gives some gives our patients, our audience, our caregivers a leg up on managing chronic disease and implementing preventative strategies.

Stone Payton: So at this point in the evolution of your work, what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it for you these days? Rosalind.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Oh my goodness, I think I have fun every day. Um, I could be on the. I could talk with you forever soon about that. I, I what is the what’s exciting for me right now? Um, and then I know we’re going to talk a little bit about the Black Health Matter Summit is that we feel like we’re turning a corner. Um, people are very responsive. You have to understand. Can you imagine, Stone, that? You know, social media is so incredibly important, especially if you’re a website publisher. And so when we launched, the best way to get your content shown to a wider audience is to place it in a chat group and stay on Facebook. Um, and what we would find is that when we would do that, groups would report us to the Facebook gods and we would lose our ability to share that content. So we were inserting ourselves into women’s chat about hair, lifestyle and beauty, but we had health related content for that. Um, and they would be. Oh. Black health matters. Who are they? And we would suffer the ramifications of that. But now we are highly engaged in social media. We’re able to insert information in a variety of different ways with a variety of different communities, and that really is very rewarding. So again, if it’s a chat group on Facebook and they’re talking about hair and beauty, well, we’ll talk about the science of hair or the how nutrition can help make you more beautiful. So or how your attitude, your mental health can make you more beautiful. So that’s incredibly rewarding to us. Um, and so we’re also having my team is also just amazing. Um, and that they too have this vision to help combat the social determinants of health so that folks can, you know, live a healthier life. So being able to able to work with like minded people every day is just the gas, so I enjoy that.

Stone Payton: Well, I can tell, like I could definitely hear it in your voice and I know our listeners can as well. But yeah, say more about these summits and expos, because I feel like that’s maybe a key cornerstone for your work. Yeah.

Roslyn Young Daniels : It is. And that’s another thing that just I can well up, um, in terms of talking about the summit, but through my journey in working, um, kind of like an outside of the healthcare system because I was originally a marketing person, a sales person, and I supported organizations that like the, um, Association of Black Cardiac or Cardiac Cardiologist or the National Medical Association. And so through that, I got a chance to go to scientific meetings. And, uh, that’s where, you know, papers are written, breakthroughs are shared. Um, and while I don’t have a scientific background, probably failed all my scientific classes.

Roslyn Young Daniels : When I would attend those meetings, I could tell when a physician or scientist was stoked about a new breakthrough that was going to help a patient live five years longer, or there would be less of side effects on specific therapies. Um, and so the way that they presented the passion around which they presented connected with me as a layperson who knew nothing about health. I said to myself, if I could replicate that same level of passion and put these experts in black communities so that they could speak directly to patient populations. And as we know, black Americans have some of the highest, um, health disparities in this country. So the need is great. So if I could just marry the two, I might have something unique. And so, of course, you know, folks are like, well, is your audience really going to sit through six hours of six.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Six hours of, uh, clinical presentation? And I would say, I don’t know, but I have to try. And that’s how the Black Health Matter summits were born. We replicate what you would find at any important scientific gathering. And we but we give it a cultural flair so that it feels like you’re at the Bet Awards. Um, our events are free. They’re open to the public. And we’re fortunate and that we’re able to, um, curate a world class faculty that’s committed to health equity when they speak to the to the attendees there. They’re just the level of attention on that stage is. You could hear a pin drop. They are so excited that they understand everything that that scientist has to say. Um, and that is some for many, a breakthrough that if they can get it in this environment, they most certainly can get it when they go into a medical office. And that doctor may not be as warm or forthcoming, but because they’ve gotten confidence from coming to a BHM summit, they feel that they can address the physician and get what they need.

Stone Payton: I’m going to put my business hat on here for a moment, because I’m beginning to to believe maybe you can validate this, um, that health disparities like this can have a real impact on on businesses. The bottom line, if my people are experiencing this, or a subset of my people are experiencing this, this could really have a negative or conversely, a very positive impact on the business if addressed properly. Is that accurate?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yes. The business and the country. If people are having strokes at 40 and they’re unable to work great or have a livelihood, then they may have to then go on public assistance and the state or the country or the nation would have to start to provide for them. So yes, there are policy issues all around helping people live healthier. Um, so yes, there is definitely a relationship between keeping people healthier longer so that they can provide for themselves, um, so that they are not or have don’t have to, um, rely on state subsidies and those types of things in order to live.

Stone Payton: You are clearly so creative, so energetic. You have a you have a lot of irons in the fire, as my dad would say. But, uh, one of them that that I came across in my notes is this clinical trials center. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Roslyn Young Daniels : Yes, yes. So, you know, it’s so important that people of color participate in clinical trials. And I know they get a bad name. And and a lot of folks will say, oh, I don’t want to be tested on, but, you know, everything that we eat, everything that we currently take has been through a clinical trial that includes your aspirin, your Tylenol, your Robitussin. So there are certain diseases, right, that impact certain groups. More men have higher rates of prostate cancer. So in order to solve and come up with therapies that work, you’ve got to work on all different types of of ethnicities because the DNA, all of that is, is slightly different. And so you want therapies that can work on and be effective for the broadest possible population. And so for so long their drugs were only, you know, tested on men. So now over time it’s evolved. And women are now participating in clinical trials. And now we have to get people of color. Black folks represent, uh, what is it, about 13% of the population, but are only 5% of them are participating in clinical trials. So those numbers do not make sense. Um, it also limits the number of therapies out there. Women who have or men, women and men who have lupus for years. Uh, there were only like 1 or 2 therapies out there when the predominant audience for lupus is African American. So we have to want to push science to create therapies to help us, but we also have to be a part of the solution by participating. But Clinical Trials Korner will serve to expose our attendees at our Black Health Matters Summit to what is available to them in terms of, um, new health advances.

Roslyn Young Daniels : You know, the best thing about it. And, you know, I don’t want to take it to the extreme, but if you’re in that Hail Mary situation, that breakthrough on that clinical trial could really make the difference in keeping you here longer. Um, also, you know, clinical trials help you in terms of the care you receive. So often, people of color are suspicious about their doctor that their doctor really care. Are we you know, patients will say, well, am I getting the same level of care as if I lived in a, you know, very expensive or affluent community. And my hospital is is urban. Am I going to get the same level of care with a clinical trial? You’re going to get a that and above the standard of care. There is so much regulation around a clinical trial. The government has standards. The state, FDA, everyone. You’ll have more eyes, more services, more information. Plus then you may get paid. They may transport you to and from. They will work at your convenience so you may have more television telemed visits. A nurse may come to see you there. There are more services provided to support people who participate in a clinical trial than not. So it’s a great opportunity to get better care to be seen by, I would say, some outstanding physicians and scientists, so it’s a good deal. So we encourage people and our audience to be informed, just don’t make a rash decision and say, oh, I’m not participating. You are missing out. And you want to make a statement of participating so that future generations can benefit from what you’ve done. So we we are pro clinical trial participation.

Stone Payton: And you’re giving people you’re educating people about those opportunities. I think it’s marvelous how you’re leveraging these summits, the expose the the website. And you’re just you’re your advocacy for, uh, this group of, of clearly underserved people. I, I’m going to switch gears on you a minute, Rosalind, and ask you a little bit about passions, interests, pursuits outside the scope of the the work that we’re talking about. My listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel. I like introducing people. You know, all my courses are around introducing other people to the joys of the of the outdoors. Anything outside the scope of this work that you have a tendency to, to nerd out about and maybe get away from it now and again.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Oh, I make my husband crazy because I am a smooth jazz aficionado.

Stone Payton: Oh, I love it.

Roslyn Young Daniels : We’ll travel for smooth jazz concert. So I love getting on the road. Um, and traveling to hear some of my favorites. Um, being there for the weekend. It’s just so energizing. So, um, that’s that’s definitely one of my passions when I’m not working.

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

Stone Payton: So I believe that that that February and and we are having this conversation in February is both Black History Month and American Heart Month. And it does help create some awareness for prioritizing health. I wonder if we could leave our listeners before we wrap with a couple pro tips, maybe around how to best leverage all the resources that you and your organization are providing, or some just some things going back to early in the conversation, just day to day things to keep in mind and to do or not do but and look gang. The number one pro tip is tap into to Roslyn and her team’s work. Get on this website. Take advantage of these resources. Reach out and have a conversation with Roslyn or someone on her team. But to to keep them sated between now and then. Roslyn, let’s leave them with a little something to chew on.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Well, you know what, Stone, I have to say just one more thing about the Black Health Matters Summit, which will happen on February the 22nd at the Loudermilk Conference Center from 8 to 3. And the address is 40 Courtland Street Northeast in Atlanta. First of all, that summit is virtual. So wherever you are in the country, you can tune in. Registration is free. Once you come to our summits, you’ll eat breakfast. You’ll have lunch courtesy of Black Health Matters. And we’re excited. Most importantly, on site, we offer a blueprint for wellness screening. We will screen you through Quest Diagnostics and an organization called Choose Healthy Life. We will screen you for 28 conditions. That includes, you know, your thyroid, your cholesterol, um, screening you for diabetes, you name it, vitamin C, vitamin D deficiency, all of that for free. Um, and so that as an attendee, you will have a booklet, a guide to keep with you for perpetuity as you go and see your regular physician. You’ll have a document that you can say, what about this? And what about that? And why can’t we get these scores better? So we’ll have that as a game plan.

Roslyn Young Daniels : We’ll also have mental health screenings. Um, we’ll be administering Covid flu shots. Rsv shots. So all of that is there for everyone who wants to come. And again, it’s free. My last point would be what said care if you’re not feeling well. If you’re a person of a certain age, if you’re not feeling well, go to the doctor. And and we have a program called Speak Up. So often physicians kind of have this God complex, and they’re only going to spend a certain amount of time with you. So make sure you’re prepared for that call. And if you ask them to explain, pause, make them speak and spend more time with you. Um, because that’s really what they are supposed to do. And if you’re not getting that type of care or that type of interest. Then find another doctor. So stick with your gut. You know, it was so funny. My father, when we used to take him for a medical appointment, he would say, don’t tell the doctor anything. That is the worst advice.

Roslyn Young Daniels : That that one can have. Because, again, he just didn’t trust. Doctors were just troublemakers. So let’s be let’s have that growth and that positive mindset and let’s see what, what science and, and healthcare can do for us. Because again, we’ll be armed. And we know that health matters. So be strong and be persistent.

Stone Payton: And speak up I love it. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to tap into your work, continue to to take full advantage of all of these opportunities and resources. So let’s let’s leave them with some coordinates to do that website, whatever is appropriate.

Roslyn Young Daniels : All right w WW black health matters. Com and my mailbox is Rosaline r o s l y n at Blackheath Matters.com.

Stone Payton: Well, Rosaline, it has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm. You are doing such marvelous work. You and your team for so many. You obviously are having a profound impact on some people that could really use the help. And we sure appreciate you.

Roslyn Young Daniels : Thank you.

Stone Payton: So my pleasure. All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Rosalind Young Daniels with Black Health Matters and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you in the fast lane.

Damon Joshua with Rent.

February 13, 2025 by angishields

Tech Talk

Damon Joshua with Rent.

00:00 /

As President, Damon Joshua leads the Rent. organization and sets the strategic vision and roadmap for continued growth at Rent., ensuring Rent. continues to meet the ever evolving needs of the multifamily industry. Damon’s customer-first values, coupled with his competitive drive and strategic acumen, make him a perfect fit to lead Rent.

Damon’s career spans 25 years across various industries, including notable positions at MarketSource, Vertafore, Cisco, Verizon, and UPS, where he was responsible for managing multi-billion-dollar revenues and leading sales teams of 1,500. His diverse background provides him with a unique perspective to innovate and drive Rent.’s growth and product strategy forward.

Damon’s appointment marks an exciting chapter for Rent., and his dedication to driving value and efficiency for both clients and renters alike ensures that Rent. will remain at the forefront of the industry, delivering unparalleled experiences and solutions. Damon was appointed President in May of 2024.

Connect with Damon on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for another episode of Tech Talk with your host, Joey Kline.

Joey Kline: Happy Friday everyone. Another great day for a Tech Talk. We have got a great one for you. Today we’re going to be chatting with Damon Joshua, who is the CEO of Rent. Damon, how are you doing?

Damon Joshua: Fantastic.

Joey Kline: So when I say rent, because I know it is stylized rent with a period after that.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, right. Yahoo! Remember, Yahoo had the, um. The exclamation,

Joey Kline: Exclamation point,yeah. That’s right.

Joey Kline: Hopefully you guys don’t go to the same fate as Yahoo!

Damon Joshua: No, we just stuck with the period.

Joey Kline: Yes. Anyone looking it up online? Rent period.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, just rent.com.

Joey Kline: Rent.com. There you go. Okay, so, uh, let’s get into it. What does Rent.com do?

Damon Joshua: Well, a couple of things, but mainly we’re what we would call an ILS, which is an internet listing service. So when you’re out looking for properties, mainly single family properties, um, we’re a repository for all those things. You need an apartment building or looking for a place to rent, or there be a, you know, multifamily unit or, you know, maybe an over 55 or, you know, college housing or, um, maybe it’s a home. You come to our site, we’ve got the most listings out there, uh, or, you know, one of the top 2 or 3 places to get listings. And we’re going to display that, uh, that property for you and hopefully allow you to go click on a button and set up a tour and go rent.

Joey Kline: And so this is look, I remember when I was doing this maybe 10 or 15 years ago when I moved back to Atlanta, right? I used Craigslist to find the apartment. Okay. Right. But the world has evolved.

Damon Joshua: It has.

Joey Kline: Yes. Yeah. And so how does someone looking ensure that the party on the other end, the owner of the property, the owner of the home, is a reputable and safe entity with whom to do business.

Damon Joshua: Well, you know, there’s good old Google out there, but you know, our job is to really work with the communities that list with us and ensure that, you know, it’s somewhere that people actually live. And there there’s certain standards that each community has that really regulate that more than we can do. But our goal is really to list them all, make sure that we capture places that people are going to actually want to rent. And then we put those out there so that you have the most information that you can get at your fingertips when you’re actually making that search.

Joey Kline: And so your platform essentially connects the owner of a property, the potential renter of a property. And from there, it’s a kind of on them to consummate that relationship however they see fit.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, absolutely. And we’ve got tools to shepherd it along. Right. You know, our goal is once you start to look and you narrow your search down, we’re going to have tools within our app or within our online tools or our online, you know, computer based connection to really help you figure it out. So if you can imagine you’re looking at a place, it’s empty. We’ve got tools that virtually stage it for you so you can see what it looks like with furniture or with, you know, a bed in the bedroom and those kinds of things to help you. Right. Evolve it and figure it out as you go along, so that you can get yourself in the place. Because most people don’t want to spend a lot of time doing it. They want to find some place quickly and get moving.

Joey Kline: Oh, so that’s interesting. So you have dimensions and then you can basically virtually stage furniture for someone to understand. How does my existing or future stuff fit in this place?

Damon Joshua: Right, yeah. Because everyone doesn’t have a fantastic imagination, right? So yeah, you know, you’re looking at a at a space and you’re trying to figure out, is this going to work for me? Um, maybe you’re you’re moving from a very large living room, and you got to decide. Well, this one’s smaller than what I had. The bedroom’s bigger, but this is really close to where I work. Can I make this work? Yeah. You know, and then all of a sudden, you see, you kind of virtually stage it and you see some things, and you go, okay, I can make this trade off.

Joey Kline: Do you all have metrics on how long it takes the average person to search for a new place?

Damon Joshua: Um, more around how long they, uh, metrics. We definitely look at that, but but the real metric is how long it, um. They start.

Joey Kline: Okay.

Damon Joshua: Right. So it used to be people started, you know, 30 days before they looked to move, because that was when you had to give notice on your lease. Sure. And now we’re starting to see that move out to almost closer to 90 days. Yeah. Right. Because you have to give more lead time. And so we’re starting to starting to see searches begin sooner. Mhm. Um and we can see because they save you know, their the information in the app and those kinds of things. But you’re starting to see the search start sooner. So um that just means that people want more information. You know they’re, they’re you know folks attention span is obviously gotten a lot shorter over the years. Um, but our goal is to allow them to, you know, when you’re looking, you can save it and keep, you know, come back to it later. And then, you know, we’ve leaned into AI to start to remember what you looked at and serve you up the things that will probably, uh, you’ll want to see.

Joey Kline: Right. So even if you don’t set up that saved search, which is available on many different websites from yours to, you know, if you’re looking for a car, right. The the system remembers what you have done and will offer it up to you, even if you haven’t necessarily set it up yourself.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely. All right. We’re moving in that way to really, you know, help you once again cut down the search time, get to where you want to get to, because that’s what our clients want ultimately, right? They’re they’re interested in getting you to their place. Our job is to help you get there, too.

Joey Kline: Uh, obviously a lot of companies are investing in AI capabilities, and I’m always curious whether it is in-house, a specialist actually working on that for your team, or whether you are partnering with an outside vendor to build those capabilities into your technology.

Damon Joshua: Right. It’s it’s, um, it’s a little bit of both. Right. We’ve got teams in-house that are obviously working on. I just mentioned the virtual staging. Um, there’s all kinds of applications that are available. Um, so you may buy or lean into a platform that already exists. Open AI is one. A lot of companies are leveraging that platform to do things. Um, but then you can also build out your own. So you may take that as an open source platform and then build upon it. Um, but we’ve got teams of engineers that are actively looking at a multitude of ways to make our product better or our website better, or make the experience better for a user who’s coming to figure out what they want to do. We leverage it for our our our business partners who are displaying the multifamily units. Um, and they want their units or their particular properties to stand out. So how do we, you know, leverage both sides of the coin? Yeah. And we use AI to do that. And I think we’ll continue to lean into it. Um, more and more, um, as the technology matures. Today it is not. Um, it’s interesting. It’s not, you know, changing the world yet.

Joey Kline: It’s not a panacea.

Damon Joshua: It is not.

Joey Kline: Yes, yes. Uh, yes, I find that it tends to be, you know, you hear it on earnings calls and you hear it on podcasts and, um, you know, interviews of how’s this going to change the world? And I’m not trying to be a cynical naysayer, but it just feels like a lot of speculation and a bit of drinking the Kool-Aid. I’m not at all implying that there is not a lot of potential there, but I don’t think anyone who claims to really know, I don’t think, has any idea what they’re talking about.

Damon Joshua: There’s a there, there. Yeah, but you’ve seen this over time. Digital transformation. You’ve seen you know, you’ve seen a lot as technology moves. You know, there’s a there’s a tend to establish that this is a thing. And then there’s a run up on that particular technology where there’s a ton of spending, and then you have to implement and execute. And and then you either get the benefits that everyone said you would get or not. Typically you don’t get the full benefit of it with this particular one. I do think it’s a game changer. We have started to see companies change their go to market strategies and even their, um, you know, resourcing strategies or companies have come out and said, hey, um, Salesforce said we’re not going to hire any new engineers. We will. We are at the number of engineers we will ever have. Yeah.

Joey Kline: That’s that’s.

Damon Joshua: Significant.

Joey Kline: Right? Yes.

Damon Joshua: So there are real, um, there are real effects, um, out there in the marketplace, uh, with AI and, uh, as you said, it’s not a panacea today. Sure. Um, but I think that, um, I think I just saw a statistic that most of the, the large companies. So Amazon and the companies that are, you know, Microsoft that are in the space are going to spend over 100 billion in just in evolving the technology this year. So that’s a large investment. Um.

Joey Kline: I have absolutely no doubt that it will make a significant impact on our world. I think what I’m referring to is that when you hear someone who’s not specifically Andy Jassy or Tim Cook or Sam Altman, like, actually opine about this, it is outside the industry. Yeah. I just, I, you know, take it with a grain of salt.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. It’s top of the pyramid. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, is a is a mid-size or SMB going to realize, uh, what those guys are talking about today? Probably they’re going to need help figuring it out and figuring out how to apply it to the things that they do day to day. And, um, so I think there’s probably opportunity for companies to go out and assist. Yeah. So you can figure out, hey, you know, how do I leverage this? How can I work faster and smarter and more And more efficiently. There’s probably a big gap for the big, big companies that are doing really cool things and everyone else.

Joey Kline: So okay, let’s let’s dovetail this into your own talent and your own hiring. Right. Has I guess we could apply this to a number of different functions. Right. Whether it’s sales, marketing, finance, technology. But you know, you have you’ve recently taken the helm. Have you been there for a year, less than a year.

Damon Joshua: A little bit less than a year.

Joey Kline: Less than a year. Okay. So you come in, you have a vision, right? You have a vision for culture. I’m sure you have a vision for team. Okay. Talk to me about how your vision for team actually gets implemented in your hiring practice. What type of people do you look for. And maybe it’s different across different functions.

Damon Joshua: It is. But let’s just talk in general. Right? You want your culture is important. That’s my job right? There’s a lot of folks that count money and, you know, figure out what products we need to bring to bring the market and, you know, how are we going to market those products and how are we going to sell it? I have teams of people that do that, but ultimately you want to make sure that you have the right people on board because you can’t do anything if you don’t have folks with the right attitude that that are willing to buy in. Because at the end of the day, you’re going to ask more than probably at a given time, uh, we might be compensating you for. Right. I need you to want to and be willing to put in for the cause. And so you, you know, my my role, my, you know, my job is to to lay that out for the folks that are already there, such that they have a really good understanding of what I feel is going to take to win and what’s the most important thing. And then you lay that you you then apply that to our hiring practices and work with our recruiting teams and teams such that we put in place things to tease those. Those attributes out in candidates. And you make sure that that is the main thing. So you work with your senior leaders and your mid-level leaders so that they understand, hey, talent is great, but we need these 2 or 3 qualities that will override, uh, if there’s a jump ball that’s going to override, uh, maybe some of the, you know, someone may have a great talent, but, you know, if their attitude is not in the right place and their willingness to work and their their understanding of how we go to market and how we do business and how we want to do it matters.

Joey Kline: It does. And there are some things that are just non-negotiable, right? And that can be disqualifying, even if everything else seems right. Um, I don’t know who I heard this from, but I was talking to someone and they were. I don’t think the insight inside is revolutionary, but I think that the simplicity is, um, is insightful. So, you know, someone for a senior leadership role came in on paper and in presentation. Just great. Said all the right things, right. And at the end of the day, when this person left, the hiring manager went to the front desk, um, and asked, you know, how were they? How did they treat you? And basically said, you know, somewhat like a servant and not terribly kind. And that was that. That’s it. Right. You can tell a lot about people, um, by what they do when they think that no one important is looking.

Damon Joshua: Correct.

Joey Kline: Yeah.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Um, that’s a great. I’ve heard that before. Yeah. And look, my, uh, my leadership style and philosophy is we’re all. We got different jobs. They all serve different purposes. But we all go home. We all get up in the morning and we go do a job, you know? Until you own your own business. And that’s the way I conduct myself, you know. There’s no oh, look, I’m Damian DJ, whatever you want to call me. Um, but when you, you act that way, you know, if you go into my office or talk to any of my teams, I spend just as much time trying to better understand what they do and how they do it, because that matters. Once again, I’m going to need them to lean in at some point. Yeah. And if they feel like they they matter in the grand scheme of what we’re getting done, probably going to get a little bit more out of them. Um, and all the teams that I’ve built over the, you know, 30 plus years I’ve been doing this kind of work, specifically in performance based organizations.

Damon Joshua: You can beat the hell out of someone. You’ll get them for a short amount, you know, a short amount of time. They’ll be scared. They’ll be They’ll be active. They’ll jump when they see you. Yeah. Doesn’t last. That’s right. And? And you get to understand how people work and how they tick. You make them feel like and believe that you care and you understand them, you know, below a surface level engagement. And they really feel that they’re tied to the cause. You start to see performance really jump by double digit percent, right? That’s how I like to build teams. That’s how I build culture. That’s how the organization starts to really get lift. Yeah. And you can conquer so many things. So it takes diligence. It has a real, um, you have to make sure your senior leadership team understands that. What the most important thing is, um, they’ll tend to want to look at numbers a lot of times. And those things, and those are important. But the culture matters. And that’s my job to to hit hit home with that.

Joey Kline: Yeah. I mean the role of the CEO really is, to a certain degree, kind of chief cheerleader. Chief culture officer. I think that it’s, um, so much can be drilled down to very simply, don’t be a jerk and express empathy.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. It at a, you know, to start. Yes. Yeah. But it really is. You need to take time. And, you know, one of the things that did way back in the day, we used to hand out note cards, hand out note cards to all the managers. And I’d said, you go out and you fill out these note cards about your people. You should know name. Is there a significant other? Do they have kids? What are the kids names? What are the hobbies? Is there any significant changes in their lives in the last 12 months? Right. And so I gave him a real, you know, a limited amount of amount of time, and they looked at me like I had five heads. I’m like, here’s these three by five note cards. Go find out because every person’s different. Not everyone. I don’t want to get in their business. No, you need to get in their business. Because when you’re asking or you’re having a conversation that matters to them, right? You know, we’re all trading time for money when it matters to them. You can understand why the answer is coming back the way it’s coming. Yeah, that matters. Right? Um, you can get five answers that are all the same, and they all mean something different.

Joey Kline: I bet that in your position you have just because you’ve built, as you said, performance based teams, really all your career. Um, how is it? Harvey. Mackey. Harvey Mackay. This is the guy who owns the envelope company in Minnesota, right? So amazing. Sales leader. Yeah, right. One would think envelope company. That’s kind of, you know, kind of kind of dull. Um, he has several incredible sales books, and one of the things that I’ve taken from, um, him and, you know, the these are the type of books where, you know, you don’t absorb everything if you take 1 or 2 things away, benefits your life. Um, for every customer of his, he basically had a sheet very similar, you know, birthday, religion, background, school, kids. Um, it’s just incredible how much those things matter. It’s it’s a it’s a little thing that can make a big difference.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. It’d be. It’s probably a field we should add in in the CRM, you know. That’s right. To really understand your customer. Yeah. Um, but for me, it starts with the employee. Right? I want to make sure that I understand the team really well. And, um, you know, like I said, people think that’s soft stuff, and, uh, but you find out I will outperform you every time if everything’s the same. And I’ve got the same set of rules. My teams are going to kick your tail up and down the street every time.

Joey Kline: Well, I think that and I’ve come to this conclusion very firmly over the past couple of years. And it’s it came more from sort of the difference between a fully remote job, um, versus, you know, one that is more around a team. If all you have to offer an employee is a dollar sign, that’s not really, at the end of the day, it unless it is a extraordinarily large dollar sign, right? There comes a point where it’s just not sticky enough. If the only thing that someone is getting from work is a paycheck, then that becomes a, then your company becomes a commodity and it becomes very easy for that person to switch at very little cost. If there are other things, more the soft stuff, as you’ve said, which I, you know, think is very important, right? If someone gets way more than just a dollar sign in their bank account from what they do and the people they’re around, that’s a way to build build a truly sticky employee.

Damon Joshua: Yeah, there’s plenty of data out there that says that, right? That if all things are equal, pay falls down to the fourth or fifth most important thing. Yeah. And there’s tons of data that talks about, you know, people leave because of their manager directly.

Joey Kline: Huge.

Damon Joshua: That’s true too. So, you know, you put it all in a mixing bowl. Um, yeah. You can’t be in the bottom 25 percentile of pay, but let’s just say you’re in the 50 percentile of pay then. Yeah. How do I engage? How do I make sure that people, you know, believe they understand what they do? Does it matter? So that’s why you spend tons and tons of hours and money on surveying your people to really get an understanding of how well you’re connecting with them. Um, those things are really important, and I’ve seen companies that I’ve been with where we didn’t do really well at that, and we actually made a deliberate effort to change it, to engage, to ask one more question. We I’ve seen us say we’re going to ask one more question. We’re going to ask, do you see a difference here? We literally asked people as we engage with them. And then on the surveys of next year, we saw a significant uptick. But more importantly, we saw our churn come down. Like we saw people leaving voluntarily come down.

Joey Kline: Yeah.

Damon Joshua: That’s huge. Um, which, you know, that’s an expense to a company to go out and, you know, all that stuff and find new find new employees.

Joey Kline: Yeah. Um, I’d love to talk about your background a little bit and how you got here. Um, I am I also do want you to tell the story of your first gig because it’s it’s. I just think it’s fantastic. And I think it’s a really interesting lesson for, uh, young people being thrown into a crazy situation. Yeah, but just, you know, give me the, uh, the the elevator, uh, version of it.

Damon Joshua: Elevator version? Yeah. Uh, man. Um, I have, uh, I have done everything. You know, I kind of came the circuitous route, so. Yeah. You know, from growing up, uh, in Atlanta, originally being from New York, but growing up in Atlanta and, um, just kind of bopping around. Been on my own since I was 18 and, um, you know, really having to figure it out at a young age and, you know, going to college and playing ball there, uh, at West Georgia, which was a great experience. Really learned about team. When you’re on a team like, you know, and doing those things. Um, and then just, uh, you know, I’ve been in logistics business, I’ve been in it and telecom and. Human resource business. So you get an opportunity. I’ve had an opportunity to see how things have been done across a wide variety of, uh, of different roles. Um, you know, I’ve had people tell me, even in a management role that, you know, you don’t run things we do and, and, you know, go read handbook page, you know, section nine five. And once you read that, then you can come talk to me. Yeah. Uh, which is always interesting. So, um, you know, my career has just allowed me, uh, through all those different zigs and zags. Uh, as you said earlier, you pick up nuggets along the way, and you may not. You know, someone’s interviewing me, and you go, I don’t I don’t really understand how working in logistics, uh, may tie to a sales role. Oh, there’s, you know, give me a minute and I’ll tell you. Right. But it just it gives me a perspective. A lot of times when I’m sitting in a room and we’re trying to either sell something or make a make a decision. I had just had I’ve seen it done so many different ways that I’m going to more likely be open to, and push the team to think about something a little bit more creatively than just how it’s always been done.

Joey Kline: I think that the circuitous route and obviously I have to, you know, maybe I’m biased because I have somewhat of a similarly securities route. Um, but the more experiences that you have, the more people that you have been, um, exposed to, the more organizations that you’ve been exposed to, both good and bad. It just informs you in a way, that staying at the same company for 30 years never will.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. And look, if you if you’re one of the you know, I mean, I think that that the person that stays at a company 30 years is, is, you know, back in the 70s that was a thing and now it’s not. Um, but it still happens. You know, there are companies out there, um, that, that have folks like that. There’s almost a blind bliss, right? Right. That if you go somewhere and it’s the only thing you’ve ever known. Um, you know, there’s, uh, there’s a bliss to that. Um, and, uh, I think it’s interesting, but for, you know, I didn’t get that same lot. And so you make you got to make do with what you have. And, um, I definitely have, uh, have been able to capitalize on it. Um, and I, you know, I’ve had some really, really good experiences and more importantly, kind of back to what we were talking about before, some really good mentors along the way that have helped me cross chasms and get me to places and have taken chances on me along the way. And so, um, I’ve felt always in those instances that, you know, I got to repay those guys.

Joey Kline: Yeah, I think the, the pay it forward, uh, instinct is, is enormous. Yeah. Um, there’s a lot of people that Help you along the way that get nothing out. Well, seemingly get nothing out of it right now. Once you do it yourself, you know that you do get something out of it, right? It fulfills something inside of you. But in the moment, you know, if you’re 25 and, you know, trying to get someone who’s far more senior than you to coffee, you know, in the moment it seems like you’re getting the lion’s share of the value out of that. And I think what you learn is that that is the way that we all know to pay it back, because it was done for us.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely.

Joey Kline: At a certain time.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely. Yeah. I do it all the time. Yeah. You know, I get people reach out and they’re trying to figure it out. And, um, I absolutely feel indebted to.

Joey Kline: For.

Damon Joshua: Sure people who don’t even know that I feel that way about them or what they did for me, that I absolutely have to do, that I don’t even feel like I want to do this. This is a have to do. Sure. Um, because you never know. It might be something you say that gets someone motivated? I’ve had that happen where I just had a conversation with someone over a lunch. Yeah. And they just changed my whole perspective on something that I might have been thinking about at the time. So I think it is very important. And that’s how we, you know, you put the seed in the ground and I might be that droplet of water. Yeah. That’s right through. Right.

Joey Kline: Yeah. I think this goes to the sort of, you know, you make you make your own luck in the world, right? Um, you know, you put yourself in enough situations and this can apply to business. It can apply to friendship, it can apply to dating. Right? You put yourself out there enough, and eventually the benefits come back to you.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely.

Joey Kline: Um, I want to go back to the the company or the product a little bit. So you have, you have sort of a, um, a dual sided marketplace in essence. Right. You are serving two different ends. And I think that that you have obviously the ownership group landlord that is listing a property, and then you have the user that is actually interfacing with your platform to find a property. Um, one pays you. One does not. And so I’ve just always found that fascinating. The I don’t know, the engineering, the marketing, the design conundrum about having this place that is designed for two separate interactions. How do you think about that? Is it complicated? Is it liberating? How do you solve it? I just opine, if you will.

Damon Joshua: It’s complex because both sides need each other.

Joey Kline: Mhm.

Damon Joshua: But from a design perspective they’re totally different. One side is a B2C typical B2C kind of thing right. You know I need to have a app and a website that’s both attractive. Um It’s engaging. We need to make sure that, you know, when a person clicks on Rent.com or apartment Guide.com or, you know, any of our other sites, Redfin.com. They’re engaged. They’re able to come in easily, navigate, uh, see the inventory that they need to see, um, or that they’re interested in, um, that they have buttons and places and all those things that matter. Uh, because of once again, our attention span is lickety split. So I got to make sure that you see what you want to see, and it’s engaging. Yeah. Well, that’s totally different than a property management company or ownership company who needs to be able to get data out of the people that are searching for their properties and get leads from us and, um, that interact with our user tool, which is Just totally different than our consumer tool. And it’s totally different as it relates to how we interact with those property management companies, to be where they are, to understand the things that they’re dealing with as a business. So our marketplace is a B to C marketplace, which I have a team of people that need to think about what a consumer wants to see and how they want to operate. That also needs to interact with a B2B customer and think about how they think about business, how they make money, how their margins are affected by using a product like ours, how they get the most bang for the buck, and how we more efficiently help them with their marketing spend. Yeah.

Joey Kline: Yeah. It’s um, and you sort of you can’t you can’t necessarily afford to have employees that only deal with necessarily one side of the business. Right? I’m sure that there are some depending on their function. But you really need someone if they’re going to be a long term value to the team, I imagine, to truly understand both of those needs.

Damon Joshua: Right? So my senior product guy, Nishant, he has both, right. But then the team is split. Yeah. So there is a B2C team, and then there’s a B2B team that has to look at how we interface because as we go out and sell, we’re not selling to the B2C side. I’m selling to the B2B side. And so there are a long list of things that they would like to see. And they’re not asking us for buttons on our website. They’re asking us to, you know, how can we more effectively generate traffic to their property. That’s what they want. How do I how do I get more people? How do I get more eyeballs to this? You know, this new property that I’m opening or, you know, something that they just took over? Or maybe it’s a small mom and pop and they really want to compete better with some of the other properties in the area, and they want to show up higher in the Google ranking, or they want to show up on Facebook or Meta or, you know, other tools. Other, excuse me, other mediums. How do they do that? Well, we come in and we sit down with them and help them with that. Totally different than you going in the App Store, pulling us down, you know. Rent.com, right? And that experience, those are two different things. So I do have someone at the top okay, that straddles both. But then those teams just kind of have a different mindset for how what matters most. And then we have to blend them together so that one does serve the other. I do get enough traffic such that then a B2B person or that person in the PMT, as we call them, property management company, would want to pay for those eyeballs.

Joey Kline: Okay, so so let’s talk about the PMCs and your strategy for going after them. Are we talking about the mill creeks and gray stars of the world? Are we talking about the single family rental community are we talking about? Uh, you know, uh, someone owns a couple of vacation homes. All of the above. What is the outreach and sales strategy look like?

Damon Joshua: Yeah, it is all of the above. And because he who has the most, um, you know, properties wins, right? You’re. If you come to my site and you’re standing in front of a building and you put you type in an address or you, you geofence it and you say, hey, look, give me something in this area and it doesn’t come up. You’re going to come out of my site and you’re going to go to my competitor’s site. Yeah. So inventory matters. He who has the most inventory wins. Mhm. That’s the first thing. And that means that you have to have a strategy for the stars and the assets of the world, the largest groups as well as the midsize and the smaller ones as well. And so we have a strategy to engage all of those individuals. Viduals someone who may just have a rental. Yeah. And they want to put it on their to large companies that really have a large footprint. And we want to make sure that we are in lockstep and engaging with them so that their properties are on our site.

Joey Kline: Are these large companies? Are they are they hedging their bets and advertising on multiple different sites? Yours and your competitors in order to get scale? Or are they typically saying, we’re going to dedicate ourselves to this one medium?

Damon Joshua: No, they use multiple. Yeah. They’re promiscuous. Yeah. Yeah. I’d love, I’d love to to to have him single threaded. Yeah. And I’m sure our competitors would as well. Um, but, you know, it’s similar to, um, the wireless industry. Mhm. And you know, you can say, well, I’m a T-Mobile guy, a Verizon guy or AT&T guy, but I really think it depends on who has the best service where I live. Um, and sometimes you can have a service and it just doesn’t do well at your office or where you live versus another carrier. In our business, it’s similar in certain markets, in certain places, um, our advertising just outperforms others and sometimes others outperform ours, right. And so the strategy for a lot of those companies are I’ll use multiple. And the data is so good. Now you can figure out who does what. Well, and we, you know, advocate for ourselves in those particular situations to tell people that, you know, we’re a top performer across the country.

Joey Kline: Yeah. So so to that end, as you look forward a year or two years, what’s on your plate for making sure that you, you remain a top performer and that you, you know, eclipse those that are maybe nipping at your heels.

Damon Joshua: We have got I mean ultimately it comes down to your Google ranking, making sure that we’re driving eyeballs to our site because without that you don’t. The B2B buyer was not going to purchase what you’re selling. So we’ve got to be relevant. And so that’s being a thought leader, making sure that we have inventory and working with property, um, you know, the aggregators and the property management companies to ensure that we have as much of their properties on our site as we can possibly have. So you got to be relevant. Yep. Um, and once you do that, then it’s just a matter of going out and really executing against, um, that inventory. So you got to make the ROI worth it, right? You know, where’s the value? So make sure we’ve got the inventory, make sure that the people who are with us stay with us and then go out and get as many new businesses on our platform as we possibly can. Yeah, right. You do those three things, and it sounds really simple. A lot of work that goes into it, a lot of folks that are working on it. Yeah. But you do those three things you things you have. You’re going to have a really good company in a lot of success.

Joey Kline: Um, let’s the sort of the unseen character I feel like on this show in the background. Um, a lot of companies is the city of Atlanta. Okay. And obviously now we live in a world in which we have national or global businesses, right? There’s no boundaries. That means that we only are working with people in the state of Georgia. But, um, you know, a lot of technology companies find being headquartered in this city in the state invaluable. And I’m always curious, from a leadership perspective, how do you use the city and its people and its talent to your advantage? Where do you see it fitting in with your company?

Damon Joshua: That’s a great question. Um, and one that I’m biased on. I am most.

Joey Kline: People on here are.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Well, you know, I think it depends on the town you live in, but I think Atlanta just offers up, uh, one of the more unique settings in the country, and I’ve lived in a couple of different places and gotten a chance to get the most of the major, I guess 32 NFL cities. Yeah. Uh, the diversity of talent is fantastic. And that means whether you want sea level, whether you want tech level, whether you want service, you’re going to you’re going to have a really deep pool of individuals to choose from here. You have a great educational foundation that will continue to to pump out talent. Um, some of the top, uh, historically black colleges are here. Uh, you’ve got Georgia Tech right downtown that’s just pumping out, um, great innovative, um, students all the time. You’ve got Emory in town, you’ve got, uh, just a myriad of educational possibilities. Georgia State, uh, just finished paying them for my daughter. So hail hailed the Georgia state. Um, but you have a great base. And those are really big schools that put out a ton of talent. And then you look at the weather and you look at the, you know, the, um, the opportunities, you know, the number of companies that are both in tech and other spaces.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Um, you know, largest logistics company in the world is here. The largest, you know, soft drink company is here. Um, there’s so many things. Um, no matter what you want to do that offer up, um, diverse opportunities for a young person or someone who’s trying to make a change in their career to come to and find that I think it’s just a very unique place. When you’re a person like me who’s looking for diverse talent. Where else would I want to go? Yeah. Now I’ve got teams. I got folks that are all over the country, and we’ll continue to pursue that just because our business calls for it. I have to be where the apartments are. Sure. Right. But for having a headquarters here, I think that I have an advantage. And when I talk to other leaders, you know, there are a lot of great cities in this country. But I’ll put Atlanta up against most of them anytime.

Joey Kline: Yeah. I mean, look, obviously, again, we’re we’re drinking each other’s Kool-Aid. Um, and look, I think that it is a, it’s a convergence of happy accidents of fate as well as actual planned strategy, that this place is what it is and is kind of firing on all cylinders as we speak.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. Good leadership. Yeah, I’ve seen it. I’ve been here a long time. Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen some of the mayors and moves that are made. You know, you think about the airport opened up in 1985. It’s the largest airport by gates, um, in the world. Um, most, most flights in and out. Well, what does that do for a town like this? It allows this gateway to the world, and you get access. And so, you know, if you’re starting a starting a business. And those are the things that matter. Yeah. If you’re relocating a company, those are the things that matter. I need to be able to get anywhere in the world really quickly. You can do it from here. Those are decisions that were made years and years ago that were gambles. You know, you’re taking out tons of municipal bonds to go build or, you know, go start up a project like that. Um, but it’s paid spades. It’s paid in spades time and time again. So those are small examples. But really good leadership has got us to a really good place.

Joey Kline: That one in particular I love because like, think of how audacious that was at the time, right. You know, I think we all just sort of take for granted that at the Atlanta airport, like is and has always been, you know, this isn’t that long ago that Atlanta was just, you know, kind of a little regional, you know, redneck town that, you know, flip of a coin. Birmingham could have grown bigger than we are. And the mayor wants to go and take on this project and be the most busy airport in the world for little old Atlanta. You know, um, you got to dream big. Yeah, those guys dreamt big.

Damon Joshua: Yeah. They did. Yeah. And they made the right bets. Right? And that’s what leaders do. Um, you got to be willing to say yes when others are saying no and be convicted about it. And those those leaders, you know, the Ivan Allens and Mayor Young’s and, you know, uh, Maynard Jackson and those leaders had the conviction and they knew or they felt in their spirit that this was these were decisions that needed to be made. Um, that’s how you end up getting the Olympics. Olympics in 96. Um, which was, you know, the greatest of long shots probably needs to go up there with the, you know, the US hockey win in 84. Yeah. Um, that’s that’s what kind of win that that was that really put Atlanta on the map internationally. And we’ve never looked back. And um, and thus I get to sit here and drink from that really large well, uh, of talent, of outlook, um, of optimism that that city brings.

Joey Kline: Yeah. Couldn’t agree more. Yeah. Um, really enjoyed the conversation, Damon. If anyone listening wants to learn more about you or about Rent.com, how do they get in touch? Where do they go?

Damon Joshua: Well, you can look me up on LinkedIn. Damon. Joshua, I’m out there. Uh, I don’t, you know, I haven’t posted as much as I normally post in this role yet. Uh, that will change. You’ll start to see more content coming out from me there. Yeah. Um, Joshua, at Rent.com, I always take an email, but, um, I really appreciate the time. I mean, this has been a fantastic conversation.

Joey Kline: Thanks for coming on. I appreciate you taking the time.

Damon Joshua: Absolutely. Thank you.

Kerri Burchill with North Star Coaching

February 13, 2025 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Kerri Burchill with North Star Coaching

00:00 /

Kerri Burchill, PhD helps leaders in messy, dynamic situations slow down to go fast.

Leveraging her international work with leaders and her academic studies, Kerri has mastered her coaching to focus on helping leaders slow down to go fast.

She is a leadership and development trainer, provides individual and team coaching and is on the keynote circuit.

Take Kerri’s Leading Out of the ASKhole Trap quiz.

Connect with Kerri on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

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

Kerri Burchill: Oh, I’m so pumped to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Stone Payton: Oh, it’s an absolute delight to have you on the broadcast. I got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all. Uh, but, you know, I think a great place to start would be if you could paint a little bit of a picture. Give us an overview, if you will, of me and our listeners. Mission. Purpose. What what are you and your crew really out there trying to do for folks?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, absolutely. So my my tagline, which seems to be ever evolving as I kind of learn more about my audience and their needs, but I help leaders and teams slow down to go fast and achieve ambitious results. So I kind of talk about the day to day firefighting. The spin. Just the world is so fast paced and sometimes we just are constantly dealing with the surface things we never really get to the bottom of what that spin is to figure out the stuff that needs to happen. So we really do the leadership work that makes the difference and achieves those ambitious goals.

Stone Payton: I gotta say, at first it sounds a little counterintuitive, right? Slow down to go faster, to do some of your clients, especially in the early going. Do they bristle with that at first?

Kerri Burchill: It’s I mean, on one hand, they’re like, oh, that sounds lovely. Slowing down. And on the other hand, they’re just like, I can’t like I can’t take four hours away with my leadership team and dive into this work. I can’t this or there’s, you know, even if they commit to the four hours, they’re are often pulled out like it’s so hard to slow down and and yet they recognize that they need help doing that.

Stone Payton: So what’s the backstory? How did you get into this line of work?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Oh my goodness. Right. I sometimes just like, get butterflies. Uh, where I am and where I came from. So I’m a middle school teacher originally. Uh, quickly promoted into leadership roles, and then my partner and I are unable to have kids. And that sort of gave us some freedom that maybe families don’t have. And we we put a couple of rods in a fire. I applied for a principalship on a NATO base in Belgium, and my partner applied for med school, and we sort of said, you know, whatever happens, we’re just going to roll with it. So long story short, I say we did med school, um, which really resulted in that nine period time of my partner doing medicine, of me working in three different countries, six different cities and nine different jobs. And I really honed in on leadership. I saw so many places that were really, um, functional and dysfunctional know, and started to look at this whole idea of slowing down and what value that can give and how people show up when they’re spinning and going really fast. And yeah, so worked in, um, healthcare at the end of med school, finished a PhD, did a master’s, you know, more education as well as experience, and then thought, geez, I really want to do this on my own. I really want to help, uh, a diverse population, different industries. The concepts are the same. Leadership is challenging no matter where you are. That’s where I just want to find my sweet spot. And so I stepped out of corporate America, and here I am.

Stone Payton: What was that transition like? I have to believe it would be a little intimidating to go from that corporate environment because you’re. Yeah, you have to you have to practice your craft, but you’re also running a business and you got to go get the business to to practice the craft. Right?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I think like I started in a unionized public middle school setting and now I sort of negotiate prices and, you know, Just really stretch myself in ways I never would have ever thought I would have done when I was in that really sort of tunneled, um, education career. You know, you teach, you become assistant principal principal like, it’s it’s it’s pretty planned out for you. Um, so, yeah, I, I was nervous at first in 2018, I was feeling really, um, frustrated with the rate of change of the organization I was working in. And just to try to find a sunny spot I incorporated had a couple of clients just on the side, very transparent with my boss in the corporate setting. And, um, realized like, maybe, maybe I’ve got some talent in this area. Maybe there’s a need for how I can help people slow down. And so over time, you know, I kind of got busier and busier. And then we moved to San Antonio a few years ago and I just said, ah, let’s try this full time and, and just see how it goes. So it was a slow play. Uh, and I wish I would have done it sooner, honestly.

Stone Payton: So when, uh, with your affinity for education and knowledge and being a life learner, did you decide to get formally credentialed, like, go through some sort of coaching certification process to get ready for this?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, you know, I did. And when I’ve got 15 years of post-secondary education, 11 of them full time student. And when I think of those 15 years, probably my most applied and I’d say valuable training was my coach training. So I got it back in 2008 when we had, um, just left Canada, where I was teaching. And the the only reason why I even knew about coaching is because when we decided to to move and start med school, I started interviewing people that I thought had cool jobs because I was paralyzed. Like, I couldn’t imagine myself doing something else. I’d just. My mom was a teacher. I’m a teacher. Just was beyond me to sort of think of what I could do. And one of the people I interviewed is a coach, and her job was to liaise community members with the school kids when there was a conflict in the community that bled into the school, and she talked about her coaching skills and I thought, wow, that’s really cool. And so that was my impetus to sort of get the coach training, but I didn’t use it for a long time just because of our moving around. And I really didn’t understand how to get clients. And so it was on pause. Even though I valued it, I didn’t apply it until probably, I don’t know, eight years after I actually got it.

Stone Payton: So now that you’ve been at it a while, what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it these days for you?

Kerri Burchill: What is all of it? So fun! Honestly.

Kerri Burchill: Um, I spend maybe 50% of my time training and development, 25% keynote and 25% coaching. And each part of that is just so different and unique. I love how these leaders are so committed to helping serve served their teams helping make an impact wherever they work. Like it’s just an honor to be trusted and be a, you know, a guide on the side with with these people doing this really dynamic work. So I’ve got police departments and city council members and recruitment companies and healthcare, and it’s just all over the place, manufacturing plants. So it’s really fun. And they’re all just so brave doing hard work. I just I think maybe that’s my favorite part is just seeing these people lean into it so much.

Stone Payton: So how do you get the clients? How do you get the new business and maybe speak to how you got the new business early on? Because it’s probably a little different than the way it is at this point in your career. But the reason I’m asking is I find that some people, a lot of people in the professional services arena, you know, that is I’ll be as gracious as I can. The greatest opportunity for improvement near term is, you know, figuring out the business side of their work. Right? Like getting getting the work.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Uh back. Back when I officially incorporated in 18 into now, 100% of my business has been referral. So I do have a presence on social media. I find that people look on social media to double check that I’m legit, but they’ve been referred to me from somebody, and then they kind of scope out. So I’ve never gotten business directly from social media, which is interesting. Even, you know, in all of those years. And so when I, when I first started, I remember going to a, it was one of those like networking groups, uh, like a Lions or a Rotary Club or something like that. And you had to go around the circle and sort of identify who you were. And it was the first time that I said, like, I’m Kerri Burchill and I’m a leadership coach and consultant. Like it was awkward coming off of my tongue. And after that meeting somebody, you know, networking afterwards said, hey, we’re looking for, um, somebody to put in a proposal to do some leadership development at our company. You know, why don’t you put in a proposal? I’m like, okay, yeah, okay. I go home, I Google what is a proposal? Like, that’s how little I knew. Um, but it was the connections that made it. And so I had recently attended a conference, and the emcee at the conference was just dynamic and super open. And so I actually reached out to her and said, hey, I’ve been asked to do a proposal. I don’t even know if you send these out in word or are they PDF? Like, do you have a proposal that you could share with me? And so that sort of helped me put it together. And of course, you know, one client tells another client and it just keeps going from there.

Stone Payton: So let’s dive into the work a little bit. The mechanism or probably in your case, mechanisms for executing on the work and actually getting in there and serving these folks one on one group facilitation. Like what does that look like?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, all of it. All of it. I really love, um, Donald Miller in one of his books. Uh, Marketing Made Simple. It’s just an oldie, Goldie. I remember reading it and he and he talks in there about framing work around problem solution results. Now, of course he’s talking about marketing. As you know, I identify a problem that people have. Um, think about solutions and then think about the results. And I’ve sort of taken that a level deeper to think, what are the problems that my clients identify, not what I think I can do for them, but what the clients are ready to do for themselves. And so I it’s it’s so, um, just sometimes like, really difficult for me to be present and to stay in that slow moment with my clients because of course, on the outside, it’s easy to see everything really clearly. Um, to have those discussions either with the leaders or with the people I’m coaching with one on one, or with the team members to sort of say like, hey, in your world, what’s working well and what needs to kind of be shifted. And that’s the the starting spot of anything that I would create. Like I don’t have any canned programs or anything. Everything I do is always tailored to that environment and that group of people. So really getting them to put in their words what the problem is, and that tells me what their readiness is to do the work that, um, you know, that I see needs to be done. And they may get to the stuff that I think is important later on, and I may be surprised and learn that what I thought they needed is actually not what they needed. Once we slowed down and really got into it with them.

Stone Payton: This willingness to to meet the client where they are just sounds so wholly consistent with what you touched on earlier in the conversation about slow down to to to go fast. I would um, I would think, I know for me, uh, and I would think for others, you know, that that would require some, some discipline, some rigor, some structure, some it really does have to become a discipline. Right. But that but that does fall right in line with your value system, your ethos, doesn’t it?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, yeah. You know, one of those I actually was just put out a poll recently on LinkedIn On what coaching skill do you think is most valuable? And the group that voted came back saying, like being present was the most valuable in a coach. And so I think mastering that as a coach, I just got my MCC, which is the highest level that the International Coach Federation gives. You have to have something like 2500 hours of paid coaching, etc., and I was not present in the beginning, I’ll tell you that, you know, I wanted to jump ahead of my clients and tell them what their problem was and tell them how they should fix it. And, um, really slowing down to kind of say, hey, this is their journey and my privilege to be a guide on this side. But it’s I’m not the driver, and I certainly don’t know all the environments and the details of their trench. So of course I should trust the client. They’re they’re living it. They know way more than I do. So just slowing down to get in rhythm with them.

Stone Payton: Do you find with some of the the people that you run into that there are sometimes some, I don’t know, myths may be a little bit of a strong word, but misconceptions, misinformation, um, uh, incomplete information about coaching as a domain that you have to find yourself educating what coaching is or can be before you can really serve sometimes.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. All the time. Yeah. And I think people find coaching romantic because it sounds like someone’s going to come in and swoop in and tell you the right answer. And you know, you have you have coaching, which is really where the client drives the conversation. And my job as a coach is to ask those questions, to help them slow down and really figure out in their trends and their experiences with their gifts and talents, you know, where do they want to go and hold them accountable to get their therapy right? Is is more of the psychological side of things. Mentoring is where I tell you the answer. So I think where coaching, you know, kind of gets a bit muddy as you think of an athletic coach, which is definitely somebody telling you what to do, praising you when you do it well, etc.. Um, in sort of leadership coaching, executive coaching, it is very much where, you know, I can be the mirror to help you see what’s going on. But I’m not the one telling you what to do and the one sort of driving what you should do.

Stone Payton: So talk about the keynote work, because that too seems um, I, I’m enamored with that idea of getting in front of a whole bunch of people and knocking their socks off, and which is probably the wrong mindset, should probably be focused on, on serving them. But was it was it a little intimidating early on? And what have you learned from from speaking to to groups like that?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. So interesting again like referral. So somebody was president of an association. They asked me to come to their national conference. I had 20 minutes on the stage, my first keynote. And and it just kind of blossomed and took hold from there. And so it’s the keynote has been a really great opportunity for me to flesh out some leadership concepts that I’ve been rolling around, like the spin, you know, that day to day firefighting and really this challenge that as people are caught in the spin, what they end up sort of showing are what I call askhole behaviors. ASK, askhole behavior.

Stone Payton: You got to talk more about that.

Kerri Burchill: So when I’m stressed and I’m in the day to day spin and I’m trying to get tons more done than what’s realistic, I’m going to ask people to do work for me. I’m going to ask them questions that I knew, but I kind of forgot because I’m just stressed. And I’m going to I’m going to ask them to join committees that maybe I could do, but I’m like, I’m just going to ask, right? Like, and I’m going to push all this work out when really I have the skills and talents to do it. If I slow down and got strategic around the right work and kind of the bonus work and the stuff I should not even care about. And so thinking about helping leaders in a keynote to really slow down and identify, hey, maybe I’m doing everything that asshole has asked me to do instead of slowing down and helping that asshole figure out what they need to do to own their problems and move forward. And so how you know, as a leader, how on earth am I ever going to slow down if I’m doing all of this stuff that’s asked of me all day long, like I’m doing my work and ten other people’s work? So the keynote was having, um, really helpful in kind of floating out some of those concepts and framing it in a way that that I can tell the audience is like, oh, yeah, I’m like, I’m an asshole.

Kerri Burchill: And they’ll give audience examples and the room’s roaring. And, you know, we’re we’re we’re all in it, right? We’re all spinning. We all got assholes around us. And it’s hard to slow down in those moments when somebody asks you to do something really simple or even the hard stuff, you want to jump in and help them. When really what we can be is more of like a coach, with them helping that person slow down and figure out what their path is, what variables in their environment they can leverage, etc.. Um, but you know, as servant leaders, I think sometimes we often become servants and just do it all to everyone’s risk of of burnout and lack of innovation and a bunch of unintended consequences.

Stone Payton: So you authored a book around this topic, and probably knowing you probably a field guide and all kind of and all kind of stuff. What was that? And I do want to dive into the book a little bit in the structure and how you recommend people use it, but I’ll back up a minute. What was that experience like, just sitting down and committing those ideas to paper? Like, did some of it come together super easy and other pieces more difficult, or what was that whole thing like?

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, well, I’ll tell you, it was not the original book idea. So I yeah, I was running a leadership academy where we statistically measured our soft skill development, and I interviewed people and got like IRB approval, like, very empirical sort of research. And, um, nobody was really biting. I mean, I thought it was the sexiest thing alive, right? I this was super fun. And I’m all in the nitty gritty. I’m starting to code the data and blah, blah, blah. And then somebody, a leader was complaining to me about all these people asking them to do things and ask this and finally that. They’re just a bunch of assholes. And I’m like, Bing! And so jumped really? Like, like left the first draft in the Dat. I’ve still got drawers full of these transcripts and blah blah, blah, and, um, dove into the asshole work and started speaking about it, you know, doing some webinars, podcasts. And it just took a life of its own. And I started I framed the the asshole framework. I, I trademarked the word asshole. It’s crazy. And I’ve got a second book diving deeper into some of the concepts. Um, already on the go, and you’ll laugh at this stone. The most productive space for me to write is sitting in an airplane airport gate.

Stone Payton: Wow.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. So just learned a ton of stuff about myself that I just did not know. So I’m doing all these keynotes and traveling a little more than I might like. And I thought, well, I’ve got to make productive use of this time. It turns out that I can just I can just crank out stuff waiting for an airplane.

Stone Payton: I would think having the book, doing the keynote work, appearing on on media platforms where you kind of share your story and promote your, your work or promote the work. Uh, that’s got to really lend itself, again to the authority and the credibility. So when people do meet you in a variety of different ways, maybe they didn’t. Maybe you don’t get business from being out there in the social channels, but then they turn around and go, oh, I’m gonna go check this Carey chick out, right? And then they’re like, oh, okay. She’s. Yeah, like. Like what? I guess my question is, what has the book done for you? It sounds like it’s clearly serving other people, but it sounds like it served you as well to do it. Yeah.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, absolutely. You know, just slowing down the theme to write the book and organize it and the vulnerability of asking my, you know, inside circle to just don’t hold back, give me feedback. All of that has been really validating and stretching. And, you know, when I, when I speak or, you know, give people the book, they buy the book. I’m looking at Amazon royalties. Like all of that just is, is so humbling to me because it is just simply about helping people navigate the messiness of leadership today. And that’s my that’s my big goal.

Stone Payton: I bet you’re finding as you write, as you speak, as you facilitate, as you deliver the one on one work and the group work, I bet you find that doing the work while you are certainly serving them. I bet you continue just to solidify and crystallize your own thinking and explore new ideas. It’s it’s it’s a virtuous circle, my partner would call it.

Kerri Burchill: Yes it is. I’ve got a book club that I’m working with right now. And when I listen to them kind of talk through how they’re applying some of the concepts and wrestling with it, I mean, that’s that’s really a big impetus for book number two. Like I see where book number one introduces the concepts and goes over the ethical framework and the six steps. But I see the need for those really challenging employees or team members or bosses. You know what? What? Maybe not what, but how can some of the concepts in book number one leading out of the trap really lead into book number two, to really empower leaders more with those extra challenging circumstances that we all feel a bit paralyzed to deal with.

Stone Payton: It’s interesting that you mention the term book club, because one of the things I’m envisioning, while I certainly may get a tremendous amount of value from reading the book or listening to an audio version of it or visiting with you, I would think as a member of a of a management team or some department, if we were all reading the book in parallel, and then we gathered periodically to talk about how we are applying or questions we have about, you know, how that how that’s applying in Stone’s world that I’ll bet you that I’d be willing to bet that peer to peer exchange around this as a catalyst would be could be extremely powerful. Yeah.

Kerri Burchill: Absolutely. And it creates a shared language. Um, so, um, the groups that I’ve done book clubs with, they, they, they tell and come back and report to me that. No, we were spending in a meeting last week and we said, we’re spinning. And then they all laugh and they say, Kerry would be so proud of us. And so it’s powerful because there is a shared language. And then, you know, one of the big things that I, I hope I underscored in the book is that asshole behavior comes from a good place. You know, the employee that’s kind of being a pain in the butt is is doing so because they care and they’re committed and they’re spinning and they don’t have a strategy to sort of manage that. And so it’s when book clubs come together, management teams and they read the book. It’s it takes away some of the blame that that can kind of creep in and gives people a safe place to sort of say, yeah, I’m not managing how much I care right now. And so that behavior wasn’t great. And the other person could be like, yeah, because you’re spinning, it’s okay. And you know, we it just gives a framework and some tools and language to neutralize what can be sort of blaming and judgy.

Stone Payton: So I don’t know when or how you find the time, but, um, passions, interest, pursuits outside the scope of the, of the work we’re talking about. You know, a lot of my listeners know that I like to hunt, fish and travel and introduce other people to out, you know, to the joys of outdoor, uh, living, if you will, anything you nerd out about like that.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Gosh, I, I love running. I’m currently nursing a tear in my hip so that I can do the Oslo, Norway either half or full marathon this fall. That’s super fun. And I recently joined a synchronized swimming club.

Stone Payton: Oh, my.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. So never, ever done anything like that. Um, so learning and gosh, some people in my club are over 70. These women are exceptionally dynamic. So that’s a that’s a stretch for me. And I’ll tell you, synchronized swimming or artistic swimming, like they call it now is as much body as it is brain. If you can’t figure out your your surroundings upside down, you’ll lose the position. And so it’s really fascinating experience to just have your brain on fire while you’re trying to do these fun ballet flips and stuff. It’s crazy.

Stone Payton: So here’s my prediction. Just getting to know you a little bit and knowing how you have your your senses attuned to what’s going on around you. I’ll bet you if you haven’t already, you’re going to you’re going to learn things from that experience out, you know, in that world, and you’re going to turn around and at least speak on it. Say something in your keynote. It wouldn’t surprise me if you write a book, bring it to your consulting. That’s that happens, right? That kind of thing happens.

Kerri Burchill: Absolutely. There are tons of parallels with synchronized swimming and leadership. You bet.

Stone Payton: Well, I can I can see a lot of analogies with being upside down and losing your orientation.

Kerri Burchill: Already spinning.

Stone Payton: Uh, Kerry, before we wrap, I’d love to leave our listeners, if we could, with a I call them pro tips. Just something that you want to noodle on. Might be a do or a don’t or a good read, or just some things you’ve learned after, you know, maybe, you know, getting some scar tissue over the years and having some, some, uh, some success stories. And look, the number one pro tip around any of these topics is, uh, reach out and have a conversation with Kerry or somebody on her on her team. But, uh, yeah, let’s leave them a little something to chew on.

Kerri Burchill: All right. Two things that come to mind that I just sort of think as, as sort of themes in my work that will resonate for your audience, too. Number one, the do keep showing up because you never know when it’s going to blow up. So while work may seem slow, or you may be fretting about business like just be you and just keep showing up because your consistency will have it blow up one day. Second thing, you’re the whole package. So don’t start paying thousands of dollars for this program and that program and this service and that service and a million other things, because you feel a bit deficit, you’re the whole package, and you have the skills and the resources to rock whatever you want to do. And so really with a critical eye, engage in some of those extra programs that will make sense, but not all of them, and not as much as you think you need because you’re the whole package.

Stone Payton: I am so glad that I asked. That sounds like marvelous counsel. So what’s the best way for our listeners to continue to tap into your work, get their hands on this book, maybe have a more substantive conversation with you or or somebody on your team? Let’s let’s leave them with some coordinates.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah, absolutely. So everybody can find me@Kerri.com, and I have an asshole trap quiz. That’s two minutes and fun that people can take to kind of assess where they’re at in relation to the asshole trap. Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.

Stone Payton: Well, Kerry, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this evening. It’s a thank you for your insight, your perspective, but most of all, your enthusiasm and your in your heart for genuinely serving people and helping them, uh, escape the asshole.

Kerri Burchill: Yeah. Gosh, it’s two like minded people talking together, and you’ve just been an awesome host. Thank you.

Stone Payton: Well, it is absolutely my pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Kerry Burchill with North Star Coaching and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: How Music Education Shapes Future Leaders

February 13, 2025 by angishields

Women in Motion

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: How Music Education Shapes Future Leaders

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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor talks with Sharon Shaheed, founder of Piano Play Music Systems. Sharon discusses her background in music education and the unique approach of her program, which starts teaching children as young as 19 months and involves parents in the learning process. She highlights the importance of patience, the role of technology, and the benefits of music education for children’s development. Sharon also addresses challenges in music programs and emphasizes community support. Her vision aims to empower children through music, fostering self-confidence, teamwork, and essential life skills.

Sharon Shaheed, the visionary Owner and Founder of “Piano Play Music Systems, Inc.,” is a highly qualified professional. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA, and a Master in Music Performance degree from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA. Her teaching career began at Southern Louisiana University, where she introduced innovative group piano classes to undergraduate students while pursuing her master’s degree.

After her graduation, Ms. Shaheed made a significant impact as an elementary music teacher in Tampa, Florida. Her contributions were instrumental in the revision of the Hillsborough County Elementary Music curriculum, leaving an indelible mark on the educational landscape.

In 1987, fueled by a passion for music education, she established Piano Play Music Systems, a pioneering business renowned for its educational piano methodology delivered in a classroom setting. In February 2002, Piano Play Music Systems became an S-Corporation residing in Sherman Oaks, California. In 2017, Ms. Shaheed opened a secondary location in Pasadena, California.

Ms. Shaheed, the creative force behind the “Theory-based” method, is the author and designer of the PPMS Books, which are crafted for teaching group piano classes to children as young as 19 months. Her overarching goal is to impart a quality, comprehensive teaching methodology and educational products that make learning music a joyful and nurturing experience for children.

Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn and follow Piano Play Music Systems on X and Facebook.

Music Provided by M PATH MUSIC

This 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 Sharon Shaheed with Piano Play Music Systems. Welcome.

Sharon Shaheed: Hello. How are you guys doing?

Lee Kantor: We are doing great. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to, tell us about Piano Play Music Systems. How are you serving folks?

Sharon Shaheed: Piano Play Music Systems is a music educational program that starts kids on a journey for learning music at the ages of 19 months on up. What makes us kind of different from other music programs, we also start this journey with parents. So, the journey is not just only with kids, but parents along with their kids are also on this journey to learn music.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in this line of work?

Sharon Shaheed: You know, it kind of comes through family generational learning. Both my parents were music educational people. They worked in the school system. And my grandmother was actually a music teacher as well for the community. So, it’s kind of like in the background of my life, yes.

Lee Kantor: So, what kind of got you focused in on kids?

Sharon Shaheed: Well, when I came out here to California from Florida, I wanted actually to kind of pursue my first love, which is songwriting and trying to pay for bills in California, which is kind of expensive coming from Florida. So, I got involved with a children’s program that taught music, and it kind of fell from there, kind of saw the curriculum of what they were doing and thought of how could I expand that idea to make it a little bit more nurturing and more enjoyable for kids. So, that’s when I decided to use my songwriting background, my music educational background, and kind of discover and write these books that I did for the children that I would use at Piano Play Music Systems now.

Lee Kantor: So, how did you get your first clients?

Sharon Shaheed: Well, luckily, it kind of happened not expectedly. The program that I was with went bankrupt, and so the clients that I had developed through that program, I just kind of integrated to my program. And from there, we just kind of took off. You know, it kind of went from one group studio and then became my studio, so I didn’t really have to advertise, as you would say, but I still do. But word of mouth from those parents kind of helped me develop my program that I have now.

Lee Kantor: Is there anything different about your program than maybe some of the more traditional educational ways people teach piano and music?

Sharon Shaheed: I think so. I really do think so. One of the things I wanted to bring in was cultural learning. Learning of different cultural songs and making sure kids understood that background. Also, I wanted to focus on having kids to understand how important it is not only to learn music, but to build their character, understanding of self-empowerment, to also work with teamwork, how to work with a team of kids, a team of people, problem solving and stuff, problem solving overall in their learning, and how music can be integrated with their studies and how that works.

Sharon Shaheed: So, my program is built on stories. We tell stories and we have stories that are related to the songs. And then from there, they learn how to not only play, they do ear training, we do theory, and we do performances. And of course, as I said before, when I started, parents are also asked to participate, so they’re learning, too, so they understand what kind of challenges that their kids are going through by the challenges that they have to do in learning music. So, I think that’s what puts us over the differences between other schools, parents have to participate and learn as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you find that, like, piano, is that something that anybody could learn if they have the right teacher? Or is it just some people are just kind of musically inclined?

Sharon Shaheed: What I want to erase in everybody’s idea is that everyone’s talented. It’s how you basically introduce it to a person. Everyone has certain disabilities when they’re learning, and some people don’t. I mean, certain people have challenges, and certain people have other areas that they don’t have challenges in. But the challenges other people have become something that another person can appreciate. And another person’s challenges can be appreciated and learned by someone else’s.

Sharon Shaheed: So, everyone has the ability to learn music. They just have to get the patience. That’s is the hardest thing, learning patience through learning anything. Some things don’t come as easy, but if you learn how to do it differently, for instance, in our classes, you don’t just sit at the piano. We play games, physical games where you have to kind of step on the keyboard on the floor, and kind of learn through body movements, body language.

Sharon Shaheed: Singing, we do a lot of singing in class so kids can learn and parents can learn through singing. A lot of people have good ears. A lot of people have can learn music quicker through the ears, and some people don’t learn through the ears. We incorporate ear training.

Sharon Shaheed: So, we do a variety of learning skills so everyone can take their challenges and make them strengths, and their strengths become other people’s challenges. And so, that’s the kind of balance that we really work towards in our learning and our programs.

Lee Kantor: Now, what kind of is the the reason most kids get into music? Is it the parents are saying, “Hey, this is important. We want you to be part of this”? Or the kid is kind of raising their hand and saying, “Hey, I want to learn how to do this.” Is it driven by the child or is it driven by the parent mostly?

Sharon Shaheed: It’s kind of both sometimes. Times have changed so much in terms of the way we view education. I think parents do see piano as being important or music overall being important in children’s lives, whether they can afford it or not. I think they look at it as being a creative aspect of a child’s development. And children look at it as being “I want to learn piano. I want to learn music because it sounds good.” So, it can be both scenarios, both parents wanting the kid or sometimes the kids wanting it themselves.

Sharon Shaheed: But the overall experience is, is that once they get into it, that’s when the challenges come. Do I still want to learn this information that I thought was fun? Or do I still want my child to be creative when it’s really challenging in terms of it’s not just fun and creative, but it involves time, and that sometimes is not always exciting. It’s not a quick learned activity.

Lee Kantor: So, how long does it take an average person to kind of get good enough that they get kind of hooked?

Sharon Shaheed: You know, everything is based on how much you practice. Everything. How good a driver are you? It depends on how much you drive. And even then, how much you pay attention to details. How good of a business person are you? It depends on how much time are you involved in the business and all the aspects of what you’re learning to be better at that business. So, how much you are involved and how much interest you’re involved in, that makes the timing of how a person’s going to develop. It’s not how talented they are. It’s how much time they put into that information that they want to get out of.

Lee Kantor: So, there’s no shortcut on this. Like, it’s one of those things where if you want to be good at it, you better be investing some time into it.

Sharon Shaheed: Yes. And don’t you want to be invested in anything that you want to be good at? How good the job that you do, how much investment do you do? The more investment you do on your job, the more steady you do on your job, the more open you are to learn about the differences and the things that you can create, that’s how good you are.

Sharon Shaheed: And that’s the whole kind of the process of learning this at such a young age is to get the child to understand that you can be good at anything. It’s just are you willing to sacrifice in terms of getting good at? You know, the time, the mental development, the study, the overall mistakes that you do and finding those mistakes are not really mistakes, but they are just growth intervals in your life. So, yes, I think that’s really very important for kids to understand and parents to understand that it’s not an easy thing.

Lee Kantor: Now, in a lot of schools, they’ve been cutting music and art programs, do you find that in the case in California where you’re at, where this kind of in some ways is an opportunity for firms like yours to really help the parents and the children who want to learn music?

Sharon Shaheed: I think they’re cutting the programs because they’re looking at it as being a creative program. And it is also a creative program, but it’s also helping the child in a lot of areas that they are not really focused on. California is very lucky because we do still have music in the schools, but it’s not necessarily a program that they are pushing for every kid to have.

Sharon Shaheed: And so, the financial burden that most parents have to go to private industries like myself is what I’m hoping to change. I think everyone should have the opportunity to have music or have an ability to study music, not for the creative side, but for the approach of education, of learning certain things like to strengthen their attention spans, to organize their task, how to put things in organizational task learning, how to be not so distracted in learning, being able to focus on a lot of things that school kind of tends to have problems with.

Sharon Shaheed: So, using music as a tool to help balance those certain areas and everybody’s learning, and especially kids when they’re in school, I think that’s what the attention should be on why you should have music in school, not only for the musicality of a child, but to help them to learn the difficulties that a lot of kids are having in learning subjects overall.

Lee Kantor: Right. I think that a lot of times we miss out because you can’t kind of quantify it like you can in a math score. This is more of an intangible, but it helps in a lot of ways that it’s harder to measure maybe directly, but I think there’s a tremendous benefit in having a child learn something like music that can spill over into other aspects of their learning day.

Sharon Shaheed: I totally agree with you, totally agree with you. And the more we get into technology and changing that way of learning, kids aren’t having that hands-on opportunity to develop. You know, everything is spontaneously having to learn. They are forgetting the patience that it takes to learn.

Sharon Shaheed: And the good thing about music, you’re not graded on how great you are. You’re pretty much graded on the mistakes that you can learn to fix. That’s how you become good. Like you take a score in math, if you make a mistake in math, that’s your grade. But if you make a mistake in music, the most important thing is how can you fix that mistake and learn from that mistake. So, you’re not necessarily graded on the mistakes you made, but you’re graded on how you can improve those mistakes that you made.

Sharon Shaheed: And I think that’s one of the things that has to be kind of looked upon as being important, building a child’s self-confidence and self-empowerment, not through the mistakes that they make, but generating the idea that mistakes can be good because it’s a learning opportunity to figure out what you did wrong, or how to improve that learning aspect of what you’re trying to do.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned technology a little earlier, is there a way that you can leverage technology when you’re teaching the piano?

Sharon Shaheed: Oh, totally. Piano engages in all kind of aspects of defining the strategies, how to depict strategies and understand certain ways of communicating that strategy into making it creative and stuff. We’re working on changing the subject a little bit, but we’re trying to use our music program to change it into an app for kids to learn how to play music through an app. So, which might be a little cheaper and more advantageous for parents to be involved in if they can’t physically come to your location or physically pay for a lot of the things that tends to be a lot of problems.

Sharon Shaheed: But using technology to discover music through an application of an e-learning program that they can kind of at least get started in learning. So, trying to use our program to kind of gear out to try to work certain things that both the kids can use at home or maybe in the school system. So, that’s one of our biggest goals that we’re working on right now, technology, how technology can be used to help kids creatively learn and still have this opportunity to work through their education process.

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?

Sharon Shaheed: You know, I tend to be kind of not engaged in learning socially what’s happening with other community businesses and stuff, so being a part of the program now has allowed me to not only get my program out into other communities, other businesses, but to also see how their businesses are being challenged too.

Sharon Shaheed: I think through COVID, I mean, there was a lot of growth in learning about my business and also seeing other businesses struggle, and what are they doing to do to change their businesses and improve their businesses’ awareness. And so, I think that has been the biggest thing, reaching out to the community of businesses run by women, run by different areas in the businesses, different types of businesses, and try to find out their challenges and kind of figure out what their challenges could do to help me improve my problems, too, as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, your business has grown to be one of the largest, I think, privately owned music schools in Southern California. Has there been anything that you can look back to and say, “You know what? That was super rewarding. I know I’m making an impact.”

Sharon Shaheed: You know, when you see your students graduate from high school and go to college and do really well in college and come back and start giving back into the community, I think that’s one of the biggest things that I feel honored to have been a part of. Seeing the changes in the child. Seeing children progress from not knowing how to empower themselves to seeing them empowering themselves, I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m still doing this is because of the fact that I see a lot of good that we do with our programs at Piano Play.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more students? Do you need more school systems to talk to? What could we be doing to help you?

Sharon Shaheed: We always need more students in terms of helping our business financially to grow. But I think the biggest thing is trying to change the mindset of our community to see why music is important, to change it and to have them understand that it’s not only about being creative and talented, because we are all talented in different areas, and to study music is not to develop the creativity of a musicality mentality, but to develop the empowerment of who that person is and how they can use what they have learned in music, and use it and to diverse themselves into anything that they love to do. I think that is the message that I want to bring to the community, that music is very important.

Sharon Shaheed: My program that I teach at Piano Play is possibly the most important program because it starts at such a young age, at 19 months, and that it involves, again, the parents learning that child’s ability to develop while they’re developing with their child, and I think that’s what makes us different.

Sharon Shaheed: So, to get the word out about my program and how it can help the child as well as the parent in learning the importance of their growth, not necessarily the musical growth, that’s going to happen anyway, but just how the child is going to be empowered, feel successful in making mistakes, learning how to work with other kids, being team players, being creative in their own little ways, finding who they are through the process of learning music. So, yeah, I think that’s one of the biggest messages I would like to send out to the community.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect? Maybe social media?

Sharon Shaheed: Okay. So, we have a website at www.pianoplaymusic.com. You also can email us at info, I-N-F-O, @pianoplaymusic.com. We have a Facebook page at Piano Play Music Facebook page. And you can kind of reach out to get us there, our direct number at our business is 818-789-6110.

Sharon Shaheed: We have a great team of teachers. We have six teachers on staff, including myself, and we have two office managers, and we’ve been in business for over 37 years, so we are pretty well-developed in the community and willing to open our hearts to help anyone to figure out where directions that they would like to go with their child in a music educational setting.

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

Sharon Shaheed: Well, thank you, Lee Kantor, for having me here. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to express myself on how much I love what I do.

Lee Kantor: Well, it definitely comes across. Thank you again.

Sharon Shaheed: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

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