angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: The Power of Storytelling in Alzheimer’s Care

February 11, 2025 by angishields

Women in Motion

Celebrating Women of Color Business Owners: The Power of Storytelling in Alzheimer's Care

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On today’s Women in Motion, Lee Kantor interviews Dr. Frances Richards of Arlean Richards Media & Communications. Dr. Richards discusses her work in preserving the legacies of individuals diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s and dementia through audio recordings. She shares her background in broadcasting and personal experiences that led her to focus on storytelling. The conversation highlights the mental health benefits of these recordings, practical advice for families, and entrepreneurial insights. Dr. Richards also emphasizes the importance of community support and building relationships with organizations related to Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Dr. Frances Richards is President and CEO of Arlean Richards LLC, a premier media and communication consulting firm she founded in 2012. She is recognized for her impactful work in storytelling, particularly with patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia, capturing their narratives before memories fade. Her approach also includes documenting and inventorying assets to provide peace of mind as memory declines.

In addition to her role at Arlean Richards LLC, Dr. Richards is founder of Black Entrepreneur Experience Podcast, which boasts 79K unique listeners, and serves as the Vice Chair of WBEC-West Nevada. She holds a BA, MBA and Ph.D., and has pursued continuing education at eCornell Business School and NxLevel Training.

Residing in Las Vegas, Nevada, Dr. Richards is dedicated to preserving the legacies of individuals by safeguarding their personal histories and assets. Her work not only supports patients but also aids caregivers during challenging times. Through her leadership at Arlean Richards LLC and her various initiatives, Dr. Richards continues to make a meaningful difference in the field of dementia care, combining storytelling with practical solutions to enhance the quality of life for her clients.

Connect with Dr. Richards on LinkedIn.

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: Hi. Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Women in Motion. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women in Motion, we have Dr. Frances Richards with Arlean Richards Media and Communications Company. Welcome.

Dr. Frances Richards: Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How are you serving folks?

Dr. Frances Richards: Oh, thank you for asking. That is an amazing question. So, I am serving people primarily as a storyteller. And I reside in Las Vegas, Nevada, but we do our work globally. and we primarily work with individuals that are diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s and dementia, and we capture their story before their memory fade. And we also do asset inventory and documentation where we go in the homes, and we document all of their assets, and we inventory and categorize it in the unlikely event that they have a memory fade, a burglary or a fire. And we do know that when individuals are diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s or dementia, they believe someone is stealing from them. So, this also safeguards the care partners. So, what we say is we capture a piece of your mind, and we give you a peace of mind at Arlean Richards Media Company.

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

Dr. Frances Richards: Wow. This is a full-circle moment for me. I started out in broadcasting many years ago and ended up through my career journey besides being in broadcasting, and that was my ultimate goal was to be in broadcasting, and I many years have worked in with ABC, NBC, several other networks. And I eventually got out of broadcasting and moved into higher ed as faculty and found myself in 2017 with my own business doing podcasting. And so, what ended up happening in terms of us going into the audio family legacy recordings, that’s one of the offerings that we offer in our business model, it was birthed out of the loss of my husband. He passed away in 2022. And so, we didn’t have any children together and I thought I had some bonus kids. And I had a son, and he had six children, one preceded him in death. And I thought it would have been amazing if we would have captured his story to leave a legacy to his family, to his children and his grandchildren. And so, the audio legacy of the audio family legacy recordings was really birthed from that.

Lee Kantor: And then, how did you kind of connect the dots where you’re like, “Hey, this is going to be perfect for people who are struggling with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and also we can do some of the inventorying because that’s an issue,” like how did you connect all those dots to to turn it into the business you have today?

Dr. Frances Richards: Yeah. Thank you for that, Lee. So, we do audio family legacy recordings for anyone, and it started from a celebratory piece. I always like to come from a positive perspective and how we… nd our primary focus is around the Alzheimer’s and dementia. Mainly, I do a lot of work in the community with widows and seniors. And I saw a gap. And, also, I’m in the biotech space here, and we’re doing… it’s early but we’re in the process of doing a non-pharmaceutical trial around Alzheimer’s and dementia with African-American women. And so, I’ve seen over the last couple of years just this spike, the increase in Alzheimer’s and dementia, in the community. And so, I say that it was a God-birthed idea to really focus on individuals with Alzheimer’s or dementia, not a personal story per se in the family dealing with that by the grace of God, but I just saw a gap in the market in terms of once your memory is gone, the work that I’ve been doing around the brain, I’ve noticed that once that memory is gone, it’s gone.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with clients, is the client the actual sufferer of the Alzheimer’s or dementia, or is it the family member that’s like, “Hey, we have to capture some of this because,” like you say, “it’s fleeting and we have to get it when we can get it,” or else, like you said, it’s gone.

Dr. Frances Richards: And thank you for that, Lee. It’s both. It’s both. Most individuals who… most of my clients are coming from family members. And I want to be very clear, if you have the best, the ideal is early-stage diagnosis. So, we are getting the majority of clients that come to us from family members saying, “I’m noticing this with my sister, my brother, my mom, my dad,” or the other piece because as we were launching, we have gone into memory care centers, and we’ve done presentations. And once they’re there, depending on… you know, like once they’re literally in the memory care center, a lot of times, it can be too late to capture their story. And when I say that, I’m saying it from because we are preserving legacy, there’s moments when you don’t know what’s true and what’s not true. And so, that’s the reason we say that when we’re working primarily, like we said, we do audio family legacies for anyone but specifically, we like to capture early-stage diagnosis because later stages, we notice that when we’re having conversations, they’re in and out. And so, it’s really hard to really capture the real legacy of that person.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is kind of the… it look like when you’re doing one of your recordings? Is it just with the individual or do you have the whole family present, and it’s kind of a discussion about it, and then the family can ask questions or do you kind of… are you the facilitator and you’re the one that’s kind of driving the conversation?

Dr. Frances Richards: That’s an excellent question. So, we tailor ours. And so, they’re custom. So, there’s no two audio family legacies that are alike. And so, we have arrangements where there are some people who would like their legacy stored in the Library of Congress. So, we have arranged that for people, like some military individuals, that would like their story actually preserved and everyone to hear the story. Most of the stories that we capture are very personal. And so, we do them with individuals, we do them with couples, and we do them with family. It just depends on what you want your legacy to say or how you want it to go. We do… my secret sauce is the ability to pull story out. And so, I am driving the conversation. And prior to the individual, we have certain things that we have them do prior to coming to the interview. We do prep them for the interview, and we get all of that information. We do have the ability to do just audio. We do audio and video. We can embed if you want pictures in it. We are able to do books if you want to turn it into a book. So, we do custom your legacy.

Lee Kantor: Now, this kind of work that you do and the stories you capture, I would imagine that for the family, this is super valuable. This is something, like you say, it’s going to be part of their legacy and that it can be passed on from generations to generations. But does it have any mental health benefit to the individual suffering? Does it give them some sense of, “Okay, this is captured. This gives me… Like, I’ll know that this is here for me. So, I know my memory is fading, but I know I also have this. I can listen myself back to it, and I can be reminded of my younger self”? Is there mental health benefits for the sufferer?

Dr. Frances Richards: Yes. It’s not… And thank you for asking that. It hasn’t been proven. We do believe that it is a benefit for the individual that is listening. We have had… because most of the time what’s happening with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and there are several types of Alzheimer’s and dementia, but most of the time people can remember things that have happened way in the past. And it’s that immediate memory that’s fading. Things that like they had yesterday or what they did today or that moment, those are moments that they can’t capture, or what happened last week or whatever.

And we had a client that we went into a memory care center that she was actually, you know, diagnosed with the Alzheimer’s and dementia. And normally, when we do our audios and videos, we like to do them in one setting because we are working with the senior population, and a lot of times, the memory, the hands cramping, that’s the reason they don’t want to write out their story. There are other individuals that they’ll send you books, or they’ll send you papers each week, or they want you to do it yourself. And a lot of seniors, it’s not that they don’t want to do it, they don’t have the ability to do it or the time. They don’t want to do it, whatever.

And what we’ve noticed is that when this one particular client, when we came back, we had to shoot multiple weeks for this particular client, and she remembered us, and she remembered the stories that she told. And so, her sister, when she actually heard the whole interview, she just… And that’s what we’re finding when we actually give them the thumb drive with all the information on it, they are literally just bawling because for her to see what her sister remembered, even from not just the past but even from our time recording. And she said, “Oh, you have more equipment” or “You have less equipment.” So, she was very intuitive of what was going on. And if you’ve ever worked with anyone or experienced someone living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, that’s really important for you to see that. It gives you hope. And so, thank you for asking that.

Lee Kantor: And I would imagine it gives comfort to the family as well because with your skill and you mentioned your superpower of being this excellent facilitator of these stories and conversations, you’re able to probably uncover some memories or some important things that have occurred in the past that maybe that can be useful in the future. Like, I know a lot of people with Alzheimer’s, the music of the time or maybe they enjoy dancing, and then they haven’t done it in a while, but by just uncovering some of those things, you can kind of insert some of those activities into their life as they get older and that will bring them comfort.

Dr. Frances Richards: Absolutely. And that is true because one of the questions that we’ll ask, depending on the client, we did ask this specific client her favorite song, and it was embedded in the video, and it was shown to her family that this is her favorite song, which people may or may not know that information. And when I play the song, what was interesting, when she shared the song, when we concluded the interview recording each time, I would play the song, and she would just sing the song. And so, it is. And that’s one of the things that is so important, even for us that we are exercising our brain, just like we’re exercising our bodies. And each and every day, it’s so important that you not wait until that moment but that every day, you’re doing something, whether it’s puzzles, or something with numbers, or something to stimulate your brain and that interaction. And I know that we’re becoming more internet sociable, Zoom sociable, but it’s so important that we interact with people. That’s so good for the brain.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice for people. Maybe they’re not ready for your service just yet but maybe they’d like to try this on their own, or are there some things that an individual can do on their own to capture some of these moments and stories?

Dr. Frances Richards: Yes, absolutely. So, if you want to do it yourself, what you I would recommend that you do is do a set of questions for that person and ask the person who are they talking to? And that’s so important. And you can start recording the stories. You can also capture. You can be informal where you just hit your recording when you’re at a family gathering and pull a patriarch, a matriarch aside and start just recording. And I think that that’s a way to get started if you want to do it yourself.

Lee Kantor: Now, why was it important for you to have your firm and you be so involved with the WBEC-West community?

Dr. Frances Richards: Oh, you know what I like to say? WBEC-West is the gift that keeps on giving. I just concluded as vice chair of WBEC-West here in Nevada. And I tell you, the women are so empowering. They’re so uplifting. And you heard me talk about the value of community, the value of communing and being with individuals. And that’s what I have to say about WBEC-West. Is that just to know that you could pick up the phone and call someone or you can meet up. They are so supportive of the women. Women business owners are so supportive. And they understand it doesn’t matter where you’re at in terms of your business, whether you’re a startup or seasoned, they are just helpers one to another. And they understand that we have this common goal. That we are entrepreneurs, and we are women entrepreneurs, and we believe that all of us can win collectively, as well as individually. And so, that’s what I admire. And I am so pleased to be a part of a community of women. And when we come together, whether it’s a national event or we’re coming together just for the West Coast, just state to state, it’s just they want to see us win. And from the top of the leadership into all the women involved, it’s just that synergy that we can all win.

Lee Kantor: Now, any advice for that person that’s in the corporate world and has “real job” and maybe has a desire to, at one point, become an entrepreneur, any advice for that person when it comes to starting your own business and building your own legacy?

Dr. Frances Richards: Absolutely. And I call it a hybrid entrepreneur. And I was once that. And I would tell you to start and do it. So, one time, at one point, I had a 9 to 5, and I called them my investors. And I was also building my business on the side, not knowing what it is I wanted to do or be but knew that I needed an exit plan because, one, it was a passion for me. I have always been bit by the entrepreneurial bug at a very young age and didn’t even know what it was. And so, I would tell them to start and it’s actually the best time to start when you have your 9 to 5, when you have those investors because I would say, as you start building that business and building that capital, and that gives you the ability to go on and launch and have the ability to just leap if that’s what it is you want to do. But I would say that if you have any desire to be an entrepreneur to do it. That’s one thing you don’t ever want to leave with or have your legacy said. And one thing we say the grave is full of a lot of dreams that were never realized. And so, if you have a dream to actually become an entrepreneur or even see if that’s something you’d like to do, the best time I think to do it is when you have your investors, I call your business to be able to do that.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more relationships with Alzheimer’s and dementia organizations? Do you need more people, clients? Like, how can we help you? Do you need investors in your business? What can we do for you?

Dr. Frances Richards: Thank you so much. And I do need… We’re doing clients one-to-one now, and we’re moving into a business-to-business model. So, any relationships with organizations that you would see that would actually benefit them, we see that would be great for us. We’ve been meeting with a lot of neurologists, and any general practitioners there, or speech therapists. Those are frontline individuals that have those clients. They’re the individuals that tell them that they are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Any nonprofit that has funding that they would like to see some of their clients with their own legacy preserved. Any of those relationships, we’re open and we’re always open to take clients one on one, as well as we do look for investors as we move further into bringing our non-pharmaceutical trial to commercialize it. So, thank you for that, Lee.

Lee Kantor: So, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, is there a website? Is there a best way to connect?

Dr. Frances Richards: Absolutely. They can reach. The website is drfrancesrichards.com, and that’s Frances with E-S. And you can always also reach me at fr@francesrichards.com. And I’m on most social medias. You can also reach me there. Also on LinkedIn.

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

Dr. Frances Richards: Thank you, Lee. Appreciate you and the work that you are doing.

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

John D’Angelo with InsurancePM

February 11, 2025 by angishields

Cherokee Business Radio

John D'Angelo with InsurancePM

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InsurancePM is a family-run independent insurance agency that customizes insurance to your specific needs. InsurancePM stands for Insurance Portfolio Management.

Our agency is set up to handle all your insurance needs from personal lines, commercial lines, and life insurance policies. We have carefully partnered with the top A rated insurance carriers in the nation to provide you with the quality protection and peace of mind you deserve.

The benefit of having InsurancePM handle your insurance portfolio is that we work and search for the best value for you. It is in our motto “Insurance You Deserve!”

John D’Angelo, and his wife Amore (an Accountant and CEO of InsurancePM), love helping people and working on ways to find the best solutions possible.

This is why they decided to open an independent insurance agency to fully service their clients.

The name InsurancePM stands for Insurance Portfolio Management. There are many insurance carriers to choose from so the concept of managing the client’s whole insurance portfolio was the main goal to make life a lot easier.

As of now, InsurancePM can offer just about any type of insurance except health.

Follow InsurancePM on LinkedIn and Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: Welcome to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I am your host, Sharon Cline. And today in the studio we have the owner of an insurance company. It’s called InsurancePM. It’s a family run independent insurance agency. It customizes insurance to your specific needs. It covers all your insurance needs. It’s a one stop shop. That’s just one of the things that this gentleman does. Very excited to have in the studio. John D’Angelo, thank you for coming in.

John D’Angelo: Thank you. It’s awesome to be here. We we just chatted for 30 minutes before this. So this is part two.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, I tried to save the best for this because I have a lot of questions. So the minute you get in here, I’m like, what about this? And what about that?

John D’Angelo: So she does she has like an interrogation light on me right now.

Sharon Cline: Are you nervous?

John D’Angelo: Yeah, totally.

Sharon Cline: I can tell. You seem really chill. I’m happy to have you in the studio, because there are a couple of ways that our lives kind of intersect. One of them is in the voiceover world, and you use your voice in a unique way, but also the motorcycle world. That’s how I got to know you initially.

John D’Angelo: That’s right. We, um, at, um. What, the Buck Jones ride? That’s right. The Buck.

Sharon Cline: Jones.

John D’Angelo: Ride. Yeah. Every November.

Sharon Cline: Mhm. And that was an amazing ride this past year. Um, every year it just gets a little bit bigger and a little more. A little more bikes, jeeps. It’s so much fun to know that you’re doing something that you enjoy, but other people get to benefit as well. All of these different counties and these children that don’t have as many options for Christmas, and they don’t have something to look forward to. They get to benefit too. So it’s it’s the win win that makes me happy. Um, but also we I’ve gotten to chit chat with you a little bit on the different bike nights that are associated with Buck Jones, which has been really fun. Um, and you do the announcing there, which is nice for all the different awards and prizes and things.

John D’Angelo: Yeah, I think I’m the emcee more than the announcer, because I’m drinking beer and eating wings at Miller’s Ale House, and, uh, and it’s usually in Dawsonville. That’s right. Um, which they’ve been just such a generous host, uh, to those bike nights, uh, every month. So we’re going to get those going again. I believe in, uh. Well, it’s nice now. So let’s start next week. No, no, but usually in March.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. It’s beautiful out right now. So. And there’s a bike parked right outside. A motorcycle parked right outside the studio. It’s not mine, but, man, it makes me want to ride. And I was saying, just seeing you, I’m like, where’s my bike? Because that’s always when I’m on my bike when I see you. So it’s kind of funny.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. I pulled in and I thought it was yours. I was like, here we go.

Sharon Cline: I know I got I got to scour this whole studio and figure out who has this bike so we can chat. Um, okay. So can you talk to me about. First of all, you’re an Atlanta native, right?

John D’Angelo: I am born, born and raised in, uh, Atlanta.

Sharon Cline: Went to Dunwoody High School.

John D’Angelo: I did, I did, and I still speak, uh, to the principal. My principal that was, you know, the principal at that time. She’s retired now, but, uh, she still keeps tabs on me and and, um, uh, which is very cool. And a couple of teachers as well.

Sharon Cline: Wow. That says a lot about you knowing that you had friendships. It’s kind of.

John D’Angelo: Nice. No, they just said they had to keep eyes on the troublemakers, so they’re still doing it to me.

Sharon Cline: Okay, so how did you get into the insurance business?

John D’Angelo: My, actually, my parents were in the insurance industry for a long, you know, ever since I, I was growing up. So, um, they did, uh, inspections and field management. And so I was like, I’m never doing that ever again. Because. Or ever because I just thought it was a was a nerdy profession. Tell you the truth. You know, with, you know, revenge of the nerds. When we were growing up, that’s how I viewed all insurance agents. Anybody in the insurance world with glasses, tape around their their nose piece and. And I’m like, I can’t do that. That’s not me.

Sharon Cline: They seem like they would be sticklers about things and writing up like, reports and things.

John D’Angelo: Yes. It’s a hard industry, actually. It’s a lot of, uh, tape and rules and regulations that a lot of the general public doesn’t even know about.

Sharon Cline: I would love to know that side, because this is an opportunity for anyone listening to kind of have a more well-rounded view of your industry. But I mean, for you to for you to get started in it, kind of following your parents, I mean, they must have helped you, kind of guide you as you were getting started.

John D’Angelo: No. What happened? No, they did not.

Sharon Cline: How did you get into it?

John D’Angelo: You know, um, actually, when I, when I graduated and stuff, I was, you know, competing in martial arts and all that good stuff. And my gear, my martial arts, uniforms, gear, it all always kept tearing up. Right. So I actually started out my career in, in martial arts, and then I opened up a equipment manufacturing company, and I, I built or manufactured and designed all the equipment that boxers use, martial artists use. And, um, I had, uh, factories in, in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Korea, um, and one other country. I forgot what it was. But, um.

Sharon Cline: So this is out of high school. You did this?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Yeah, I was, um, at a at a high school. I opened up a couple of credit cards, and and, um, went in debt that way until I, I started making money.

Sharon Cline: But you obviously saw a need, given that you were not able to keep your equipment from falling apart. So you’re like, I can do this better?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Pretty much. So I developed a high end gear, you know, so it was a little more expensive. But, uh, you know, there was only one competitor in Georgia, and I was like, oh, perfect. This is before the internet took off. This is back in the early 90s.

Sharon Cline: Wow. So you were obviously in that industry for a while. And what happened after that?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. So then the internet started taking off and everybody, you know, could import whatever they want, order from wherever they wanted. There was just so much. And I was just a one man show, um, pretty much. And and it just got too much to compete with the, the high rollers. So then I got into, um, while I was doing that, I got into fight promotions. Um, when I, when I owned the store, it was called Pro Rank. And then I, um, said, oh, okay. Well, I don’t like fighting anymore because it hurts even when you win. I mean, bruises for weeks, right? I was like, that’s not me. I’m not ever going to be a world champion. I’m not going to be good enough to even compete with those guys, because I used to spar some world champions and they just tore me, tore me up. So no matter how tough you are, get in the ring with the world champion and they’ll they’ll humble you really quick. But, um, so I was like, I’ll just have other people fight and and, um, you know, put on the show and put on a good show.

Sharon Cline: So you learned, um, you had already been exposed to the industry, so then you learned the other side, which is the promoting of it, the promotions.

John D’Angelo: Yes. So that is really fun. It’s almost like, uh, the radio show here. It’s just a fun thing to do. And you can make money at it and and, uh, get a little notoriety to it. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: You’re called. You have a you have a nickname, Mr. Fight Mouth. Right?

John D’Angelo: I do. Oh, yeah. Mr.. Fight mouth. I was like, what? Nickname and what website did you go to?

Sharon Cline: I only did a little cyber stalking this time. Yeah.

John D’Angelo: You actually gave me a hot flash for a second. I was like, oh my gosh, what sites are she? Is she going to. But but anyway. Um yeah. Mr.. Fight mouth um go by fight mouth for short. And, uh, that’s, um. Once I retired from fight promoting, I was like, I still want to be involved in the in the sport. And I was like, okay, well, I have a decent announcing voice. And it took probably 20 years to develop because when I was promoting, one of my announcers actually didn’t show up to do the job. So I had to get in there and do it, and it was awful.

Sharon Cline: Oh no.

John D’Angelo: I was like, um, I don’t know who’s in this corner. Do I need note cards? Right? And, um, good thing it was a small show. It was actually at good old days. I remember, um, on Roswell Road, and they had a ring in there. They used to do wrestling matches, um, and everything. So I put on some little smoker fights there and it was everybody was drinking, having having good fun. Rick Roufus, he was a world champion kickboxer. He came out to see a show, um, which was just awesome. It was a great vibe.

Sharon Cline: What do you think people don’t know about that industry, given that you’re on the promoting side? Most people are just coming to be entertained.

John D’Angelo: Oh, gosh. Yeah. Getting the fighters to actually, um, show up to compete is really rough, especially if you, you know, you’re not paying them, you know, money. So amateurs really, they, they drop out like flies if they get a little, I don’t know, toothache or something. They’ll they’ll drop out or, or personal reasons, you know, if they just didn’t sleep well that night, they’ll they’ll drop out. Yeah. So then it ruins the whole show because you because you have to find a replacement. Yeah. And it costs a lot to promote a show, so.

Sharon Cline: So that’s why ticket prices are whatever they are, right?

John D’Angelo: Oh yeah. You have to pay the the organization that sanctions the, you know, building a ring or having that set up that usually costs 1000, $1,500. You know, you pay the refs, the judges, the security, um, the venue you have to pay. So it really adds up. So when they charge $50 or something, it’s they’re not really making a lot of money. Once all those expenses go out.

Sharon Cline: How long did you do that?

John D’Angelo: Probably so 94 to 2004. So ten years? Probably. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Did you see the industry change over that time?

John D’Angelo: I did, I did.

Sharon Cline: What did you notice?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. So when I first started promoting, um, it was when the UFC first came out in 1994. And I was promoting kickboxing shows and I was like, I want to promote that in Georgia. So I was like, okay, here we go. So I promoted the first no holds barred. It was no holds barred back then at the Checkered Parrot off of Jimmy Carter. And you remember that?

Sharon Cline: I don’t, but I was living here at the time. I just don’t remember.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. The checkered parrot off of Jimmy Carter. And it was a real neat bar or whatever. And we built the ring outside in the parking lot. And the parking lot was actually uneven. It had a slant to it, so we had to put bricks under the ring just to level it out. And we’re like, we hope this thing doesn’t fall. And, um, the officials actually, they wanted to shut the show down unless I created a rule book. So I created a rule book for no holds barred. And actually, I created the round system that’s used today for MMA. Wow. The three five minute rounds. I created the amateur division because a lot of times people would be so experienced, and then you have somebody that wasn’t experienced and they would just match them in there, and it was always a lopsided kind of fight. So I created the amateur division for. I called it Pro Sport Fighting, but then NHB got coined as MMA as we know it today. Yeah. So right there at the cusp of the development of mixed martial arts.

Sharon Cline: Holy cow.

John D’Angelo: Yeah.

Sharon Cline: That must be very satisfying to know that you had such an impact on such a huge industry.

John D’Angelo: Yeah, I had a great impact on it. I didn’t get paid for it, but I have a good few plaques for it. Yeah. You know, I was like, wow, that plaque looks really nice, but no Ferrari to go with it. Yeah, it’s one of those notoriety things where, um, yeah, you’re you’re in the development stages, but then the big guys with the big money come through and and take it from there. Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Cline: Do you watch it now?

John D’Angelo: Not so much anymore. No, no. So I’ll only really watch the fights. Um, if I’m announcing the fights.

Sharon Cline: How often do you do that?

John D’Angelo: Gosh, I go all around the southeast announcing. So, um, usually once every other month. I would say, to be fair, sometimes once a month. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: What do you love most about announcing?

John D’Angelo: Oh, I like being in the ring and and, um, just the energy and creating that energy and excitement to the audience. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Do you do the thing where you kind of read the audience and see what they need? Do you know what I mean? Like if they’re not responding or something?

John D’Angelo: Yes.

Sharon Cline: Yes, it’s a skill, isn’t it?

John D’Angelo: It is, it is. And then, um, my wife will usually, uh, go with me, and she goes, okay, because I have a real soothing voice. She goes, you need to pick it up. Step it up, you know? So otherwise, I’m like a psychologist in there. So how do you feel? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: So is everyone feeling tonight?

John D’Angelo: Right. How’s everybody feeling tonight? Exactly.

Sharon Cline: But it sounds so fun. And I imagine there’s a side of it that seems very glamorous.

John D’Angelo: It may seem that way, but once you’re done, you know, occasionally somebody might go, good job or whatever. And then you get, you know, your paycheck. But I do it for the fun of it. Now, just to give back to the martial arts community. Yeah. So it’s nice.

Sharon Cline: You have a lot of friends then that are mixed martial artists that you know are in your network of people?

John D’Angelo: Yes, yes. Actually, I just went, um, to support, um, one of one of the fighters that I used to promote, uh, Joe Elmore. He, he was in the BKFC In Duluth just a couple of weeks ago. So he had a nice fight. That’s the bare knuckle fighting. Oh. So, um.

Sharon Cline: That sounds so horrible. I don’t know.

John D’Angelo: It was. It’s rough. Yeah. No.

Sharon Cline: I mean, I’m sure it’s entertaining, but it sounds. It sounds, uh, violent, I don’t know.

John D’Angelo: It is violent. And I think they go. They love that term. You know, I’m about to go violent today. You know, that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. But, um, they’re the nicest people ever. Um, the fighters and they’re unbelievably humble. And. Yeah, you would think they would be bullies or something like that. But you see them in a in a alleyway and you feel totally comfortable. Yeah, some of them might look a little rough, but.

Sharon Cline: Well, if they’re bare knuckle fighting, there must be blood.

John D’Angelo: Yes.

Sharon Cline: Oh, that’s awesome for you. For you. That’s great.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. No, it’s not for me anymore. I’ll tell you. I wouldn’t want to do it.

Sharon Cline: No, I don’t know. I’m. I’m a baby, I guess.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. I don’t even want to get my teeth cleaned. No less get them knocked out. You know what I mean? Dentist with Novocain. Yeah. Just shoot me up with Novocain first, and then I’ll go to bare knuckle boxing so I don’t feel my face getting punched in.

Sharon Cline: Okay, so you you also got started in insurance. So when did that kick in for your life? When did when did you get start started?

John D’Angelo: This show is about insurance.

Sharon Cline: It’s about the many hats you wear.

John D’Angelo: Yeah, man, I was having fun. Now we got to get all nerdy again, right?

Sharon Cline: Yeah. Insurance is important for life. Imagine the people that are doing the fighting have insurance.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Yeah, we do insure a lot of the fight shows, actually.

Sharon Cline: It all works.

John D’Angelo: Out. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. So it’s a great networking opportunity for me to keep involved in, in the martial arts.

Sharon Cline: Because you don’t do just like car insurance. You do all like you do commercial insurance. Will you talk about the different ways that you can help people in their lives?

John D’Angelo: Sure. Yeah. So there’s personal lines, right? So that’s car home. Home. Rvs, motorcycles. Anything personal. And then life health, Medicaid, long term care. We do. Then there’s commercial insurance, which is your business insurance. Yeah. Anybody that has, like a lawn care business, a contractor. So we supply, you know, benefits for that. Worker’s comp.

Sharon Cline: Wow. You cover so much.

John D’Angelo: It is a lot. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: So if someone were interested in getting started in this industry, what kind of advice would you have for them? Because. Or is there something that you wish that you knew before you got started in the insurance industry?

John D’Angelo: Yeah, I kind of wish I got into it a lot earlier because. Well, yeah. Because as far as money making goes Every year you’re compounding your production. So you have whatever I write this year goes into next year, provided they they stay with the policy. And whatever I write next year, it just compounds every year. So just think about it. If you’re in it for ten years, then you know you’re you’re doing pretty well.

Sharon Cline: Nice.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Yeah. So like if you’re in auto sales right you’re always starting from zero the next month. And I was like, I don’t have that kind of patience to start from zero again because then you’re a loser at day one right. So day work day one each month you’re already starting out, you know, as long as you’ve been as long as you have some years behind you, you’re starting out ahead. Yeah. Which is nice. Very smart. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: It’s like working smarter, not harder kind of thing.

John D’Angelo: Right? Right.

Sharon Cline: So when did you get started in in insurance then?

John D’Angelo: Well, I started our own company. Um, 2016.

Sharon Cline: Oh, wow.

John D’Angelo: Okay. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Well, good for you.

John D’Angelo: Or 2015. Something like that. It’s been almost ten years. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: So you had been doing the MMA and the announcing and all of that, but then you saw that you needed something else.

John D’Angelo: Well, yeah, I got married and then I was doing some acting. Right?

Sharon Cline: Right.

John D’Angelo: Which is.

Sharon Cline: Another.

John D’Angelo: Another hat. That’s right. And, uh, doing little side bits. And that’s where presents, uh, models and talent. She she thought I was a model, but I was like, no, I was like, no.

Sharon Cline: You also have done something kind of cool on Facebook, which I thought was neat. You are the owner and CEO of the Italian Club of Georgia. Yeah. How did that happen? How did you become the founder and CEO of the Italian Club of Georgia?

John D’Angelo: Now, I keep mentioning my wife, right? My wife, his name’s Amore, which is a nice Italian name, means love. And, um, she’s actually from South Africa. So, um, there’s a big South African community here in, in Atlanta, and we go to their events and everything. And I was like, you know what? There’s never an Italian event or not many right around here. So I don’t want to open up another South African club because they are they’re already doing that. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. So I was like, I’ll open up an Italian club. And I think we have over a thousand members now. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Do you what are your events like?

John D’Angelo: So here’s the cool thing is, uh, it’s the the membership is free, but then we do some events, but then we do some events called Italian Sunday Family Dinner, because up north, all the Italian families get get together on Sundays. The mom cooks all the sauce for the whole day or two days. Right. And, um, we get together on Sunday. All the Italian moms are in, and some of the guys, they cook, they all bring their own food, and then we share it. So they bring a tray that feeds, I don’t know, a dozen people. And, um, we all get together, have wine, and there’s about 50 or 60 people that come to each each dinner.

Sharon Cline: Wow.

John D’Angelo: And then a couple of Italian restaurants, they host it for us. So it’s great advertising for that restaurant just to bring in new people. And we’re pretty much hold the events in the coming Alpharetta area. Yeah, I think the next one we’re holding is at, uh, Mondo Ristorante. Yeah, right. My Italian stinks, right? But, um. Yeah, he’s from Brooklyn, new Jersey. He came down here, opened up a a restaurant. His name is Joe, and, uh, he’s hosting, um, it next month, in March.

Sharon Cline: Does it feel like family when you’re in those events?

John D’Angelo: It does. It it feels like family because, um, when I first started doing them, some people said we should wear name tags. I go, nope, I go, family members don’t wear name tags. It’s an Italian family. Sunday. If you don’t know your cousin’s name, ask him what it is. You know, that kind of thing. Just. Just start, you know, be sociable. Hey, where are you from? What part of Jersey you’re from? That kind of thing, that’s all. What did you make today? You know, just start the conversation. That’s it? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: I’m trying. It’s almost like that restaurant, Buca di Beppo, where they had, like, these big, um, sort of family style meals, you know, where you’d sit down and you would order whatever pasta dish, but you would get, like this huge bowl of it. And then everyone passed it around and had some of it.

John D’Angelo: Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. That’s like the Dillard house, right?

Sharon Cline: Yeah. The Dillard.

John D’Angelo: House. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: The most. That’s right.

John D’Angelo: Yeah.

Sharon Cline: You go to go to the Dillard house after you’ve fasted for days? I mean, they just keep bringing food after food.

John D’Angelo: We were just in the Bahamas, Nassau, and staying in Atlantis, and we went to Carmine’s and just for a quick dinner. And Carmine’s is a family style restaurant, and we just ordered salad and and veal and they brought out huge plates and we’re like, oh my gosh. I mean, it could have fed eight people each. Oh wow. And it’s just me and my wife there.

Sharon Cline: Did you ever want to see yourself go further in the announcing world, like in a professional way?

John D’Angelo: Oh, that’s a great question. Um, that would have been cool. But I if it happens, it happens. But, you know, I’m a little older now, so I think they they need some, you know, younger, you know, somebody in their 30s to really, uh, take over. Yeah. Because you have Michael Buffer in there. Bruce buffer. Michael Buffer is my favorite.

Sharon Cline: Why is he your favorite?

John D’Angelo: Just the way his voice is. His presentation of of announcing. I don’t like the screaming. Like Bruce Buffer does, right? He just screams into the microphone. I like it the way his brother does it a little bit better, but that’s just my personal opinion. Um, but either way, they they’ve they’ve made a great, great life and living from doing that.

Sharon Cline: But it wasn’t like a passion of yours then.

John D’Angelo: It kind of is. I just don’t think I was good enough to tell you the truth. Yeah, I mean, serious. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just you, you know, just, like, acting, right? Yeah, I, I tried it for five years. I’m like, no, I’m not getting anywhere. And then I had to humble myself and get into that nerdy insurance profession. I was like, well, I’m good at this. Yeah, definitely.

Sharon Cline: What makes you good at insurance?

John D’Angelo: Um, just a determination of of waking up and and just getting to work, you know? Every day, maybe a little bit of social skills. Yeah, because there’s a lot of marketing.

Sharon Cline: Do you go to a bunch of networking events as well?

John D’Angelo: Um, not really. Not anymore. No.

Sharon Cline: But initially you.

John D’Angelo: Did. Initially, yes. But, you know, that’s why I do the motorcycle thing. I do the the martial arts. So those are my networking events. Um, yeah.

Sharon Cline: There’s always people that you’ll meet that need what you’re selling.

John D’Angelo: Right, right.

Sharon Cline: And different aspects of their lives, whether they’re a business owner or, you know, older and looking for different insurance for their family. And what is the most satisfying thing about your job, your your helping people in the insurance world?

John D’Angelo: Oh, gosh. When they have a a claim that actually gets paid out. It’s very satisfying when it doesn’t get paid. That’s not so satisfying, but that’s rare with us. We, um, my company, you know, we were voted best in Georgia in every category this year and last year.

Sharon Cline: Congratulations.

John D’Angelo: Yeah, we were best of Gwinnett for, you know, ever since we opened the agency. But I was like, wait a minute. We write more business than in just Gwinnett. I was like, we’re writing all over Georgia. So I was like, is there a Best of Georgia? And then they go, yes, there is. I was like, okay. So, you know, all of our clients, they they vote for us and and I think we won by a landslide. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It was it was amazing. You were just.

Sharon Cline: You were just on Fox five Atlanta in December.

John D’Angelo: Yes.

Sharon Cline: How did that go? What was it like?

John D’Angelo: It was just like this. Very professional and and lovely. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: That’s all I need you to say. We’re done with this interview. Hooray! He said it 30 minutes in. That’s right.

John D’Angelo: Um, yeah. The security was a little harder to get into the new station.

Sharon Cline: But how did that happen? Did they approach you?

John D’Angelo: Yes. Yes. So they I think one of the reporters did. And, um, yeah, she was like you, you know, just really smooth and and just a great interviewer. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: That must have been fun, though, to see your. I mean, also the opportunity to promote your business in such a public way. It’s very exciting.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. I just really got on there to educate, um, just the general public of of how they can save money on their auto insurance. Um, they’ll call me back for the home homeowners segment. Um, sometime this year. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Cline: So do you feel like there are most people don’t really understand the nuances of your industry?

John D’Angelo: Yeah, we explain the rules almost all the time. It’s a lot more difficult than. Than the TV commercials make it seem. They’re like, oh, just sign up and and.

Sharon Cline: We’ll take care.

John D’Angelo: Of it. We’ll take care of you and you’ll have the best rate ever. And there’s really a lot more to it than that, especially if you have, you know, like, for example, auto insurance. If you have multiple people in the house, everybody has to be listed on your policy. Um, yeah. And a lot of people go, oh, no, they’re just a roommate. It doesn’t matter. Wow, I didn’t know. Yeah. So they either have to be listed as an included driver or an excluded driver, and an excluded driver means that they’re never going to drive your car, right? But if they do it, just go on their own insurance. Your insurance won’t cover it, but the excluded driver actually surcharges you a little bit more. So a lot of people want to leave that out, but it’s really makes a dangerous situation.

Sharon Cline: Um, yeah. I was thinking about, um, homeowners insurance. How, um, there was someone who talked to me about this recently, He asked me if I had updated, like if I had done updates to my house. Did I report that so that it increased the amount that I would get back if something did happen to my home and I hadn’t done that? So that’s something I didn’t know I had to for some reason.

John D’Angelo: Oh yeah. So if you get a new water heater, a new HVAC system, a new roof especially, definitely contact your insurance carrier and you’ll actually get a discount on your insurance. Especially the roof.

Sharon Cline: Interesting.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Providing you didn’t make the claim and insurance paid for it. Yeah. So if you paid out of pocket and still even if you did make a claim, sometimes it doesn’t get recorded that you actually have that new roof. So you have to make sure that it’s.

Sharon Cline: And you work with all different agencies. Correct. You work with all different, um, insurance companies.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. I think total we have we’re contracted with over 150 of them.

Sharon Cline: So I didn’t even know there were that many.

John D’Angelo: Oh, there’s probably a thousand or more.

Sharon Cline: Well, I just think of the big ones that advertise so much, you know?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Well that’s right. So sometimes we, we quote, you know, a certain carrier and then the customer says, I’ve never heard of that. Right. And I go, oh, it’s not a TV commercial carrier, you know. She goes, well then is it good? I said, is McDonald’s good for you? Right. You see them on TV all the time. Doesn’t mean that they’re actually really that great. So a lot of you know, do you do you see Aston Martins on on TV commercials.

Sharon Cline: Right.

John D’Angelo: No.

Sharon Cline: Right.

John D’Angelo: Rolls Royce? No they don’t. So there’s a lot of carriers that are really good just for the affluent market that aren’t on TV commercials. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Power of advertising though, right?

John D’Angelo: It is. It’s it’s a little bit of brainwashing.

Sharon Cline: Oh. I’m sure.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Yeah, but everybody knows that the Rolls Royce is a great car, right?

Sharon Cline: That’s the word of mouth, right?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Right. So, for example, the million dollar plus homes go to, we place them with a carrier called Chubb.

Sharon Cline: I’ve heard of them.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Oh, you have heard of them? Word of mouth. Right.

Sharon Cline: I have heard of them. I don’t even know why, but I’ve heard of them.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. So they’re a little more expensive. But, um, you know, when it comes time for a claim, they take care of you, like, like red carpet.

Sharon Cline: What do you think it is about you? That is sort of your fearless formula. Like, I was thinking what it must be like to be a young person and saying, I want to manufacture different kinds of equipment that have never been made before. High end. Here’s what I’m going to do. What is it about you that has that sort of drive and initiative that that doesn’t allow fear to stop you from pursuing something that you’re interested in?

John D’Angelo: Oh, I don’t care what other people think. That’s plain and simple, you know. Um, you know, a lot of people go, oh, you know, that person doesn’t like. Or they’re making fun of me, I don’t care. I’m just going to do it and learn.

Sharon Cline: Is that part do you think that’s like something that you learned how to manage, or is that just part of your personality?

John D’Angelo: I think that that was just my upbringing. Yeah. Yeah. Or part of my personality? Yeah.

Sharon Cline: I think a lot of people could benefit from that. Shame is a very powerful limiter. It sure is. And if there’s a notion of someone failing in a public way, that’s enough to stop them. You know, like public speaking is is more feared statistically than death. I’ve heard.

John D’Angelo: Well, yeah. Sometimes I’d get in the ring to announce and my hands would be shaking. I’m like, oh my God. Because I started to think about who was watching me. And then and once I did that, like, oh, you know, a big show might be watching me, or there’s a celebrity watching me. And so, you know, a bourbon helps.

Sharon Cline: Oh, jeez.

John D’Angelo: Or a shot of tequila. And then I’m ready to go. So sometimes I’ll get in the ring and I’ll step out real quick, and that’s what I’m doing.

Sharon Cline: See, now I know you’re like, oh, he’s just getting a drink.

John D’Angelo: He’ll be just a liquid courage that you know.

Sharon Cline: No, but.

John D’Angelo: But sometimes I do that just to to kind of calm the nerve. You know, just one, one shot. Hey, I’m just being honest, you know?

Sharon Cline: But if you don’t drink, what would you do? Like, if you didn’t do that? If you didn’t drink, what would you do to calm yourself?

John D’Angelo: Oh, just just take deep breaths and and actually talk with a friend and get my mind off of whatever’s happening. Because sometimes when you focus too much on, okay, you’re reading your note cards and everything, then it makes it worse. So just take your mind out of out of where you are.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, I used to do this open mic night because I would play guitar and sing, and the only reason I could handle it well, because if I’m just singing on my own, I’m thinking about how I sound and I’m not in the moment. But when I was playing guitar, I’m so occupied with the playing that I could sing just without even thought. And it’s just having my my, like, multiple things happening to distract my brain from what I’m actually doing, if that makes sense.

John D’Angelo: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Um, so it sounds like that’s what you were doing to just kind of just make it more natural, because I have the same thought is that I get in my own head as well, and it’s a terrible spot to hang out sometimes.

John D’Angelo: I’m starting to get nervous now. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m just thinking about this interview and I’m like, oh gosh, is this good or not terrible?

Sharon Cline: We can end it here if you want. I really appreciate you coming in. No, but that is something to think about in the performance industry in general.

John D’Angelo: It is. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Do you use a lot of improv when you’re announcing?

John D’Angelo: I try not to. No, no. I keep it simple and go straight to the no cards, because when you’re announcing you have the commentators on the side of the ring, they’re talking, you know, to the, you know, to the TV audience. So if I’m talking, it’s overpowering, um, their commentation. So, yeah, I keep it keep it real simple and short. Yeah. Here in the red corner, blue corner. This is who it is. Where they’re from. Bam! And you’re out. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: So what does it feel like to have your very, um. You know, like, you say, nerdy side of insurance, but then you have a very creative side you get to kind of engage with.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. So I kind of that that’s almost the brand of, of the agency is you’re going to be with a cool agency now, right? Our customer, you know, and a lot of our clients, you know, they follow on social media and stuff and see what we’re doing and you know, and some a lot of them say, hey, let’s hang out.

Sharon Cline: They want to be friends.

John D’Angelo: They do they I’m like, here, we’re going to a bike night. I’ll invite them to, you know, I’ll get a table at at the fights I’m announcing at, and let’s go have some fun. Yeah, yeah. So I invite them out.

Sharon Cline: It’s nice to be able to kind of amplify a side of your life that really doesn’t, that you have to sort of dampen a little bit in terms of the litigiousness of what insurance can be like and having to, to sell in that way. But then you get to be a completely different, almost completely different person.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. You have to break away from, from, you know, that that kind of work life in insurance. Yeah. I mean, insurance industry is is known for their agents drinking a lot, to tell you the truth, because they’re trying to escape. Right. So I don’t really do that I, I do activities instead.

Sharon Cline: You ride bikes, which.

John D’Angelo: Is ride bikes do announcing. Um, love to go shooting. That kind of stuff. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: To balance it all out.

John D’Angelo: Yeah, definitely.

Sharon Cline: All right, so to wrap up our interview, it’s been really fun for me. Um, what advice would you give someone who’s who’s interested in getting started in, in the industry? Let’s say they know nothing about insurance. If you were going to start over, what would you do now? Obviously, the internet just provides so much information, but let’s say someone’s listening now and is like, if I get started now, in ten years, I’m going to be all set or however long. What would you say to them to get started?

John D’Angelo: Sure. Yeah. So gosh, that that’s a that’s a whole interview session in itself really. Because first you have to decide what part of the insurance industry you want to get in. You want to be an adjuster, a claims adjuster, an underwriter in the sales. If you’re in the sales, what type of line do you want to write? You want to write life, health, personal lines, commercial lines, that kind of thing. So there’s really a lot of options and choices. Then do you want to be with a captive agency? Like, you know, State Farm, Allstate, they’re all captive means that they only write their own companies. Or you want to be an independent broker like we are and write several different companies or 100 different companies. So then when you write 100 different companies, you have to learn 100 different companies way of doing business. So that’s a lot. So when you’re quoting somebody on the sales part of it, it might take, you know, five hours to to quote one person. You know, if you’re working at a captive agent it will take you five minutes to quote. You know So. And those are free quotes. You’re not making any money during that time. Yeah. But it gives you more options to win the business over somebody that just has one product. Um, so yeah, you really have to decide which which part of the industry you want to get involved in. Yeah, sales is always the most money.

Sharon Cline: Have you seen a lot of changes in the insurance industry since you’ve been in it?

John D’Angelo: Yeah, the insurance industry is getting, um, a lot more strict, um, with what they want to write. Um, some, like for auto claims history, they’re going back seven years instead of five years now. Um, I think, um, with homes, they want to see a lot of updates. The roof can’t be more than ten years old, even if it’s a 25 year old shingled roof. Right. Um, you know, for the warranty. Um, which doesn’t make sense to me. I think it should all be. You know, the roof should be like, uh, a tire warranty, right? So if you buy the tire warranty, if you drive it, um, 30,000 miles, they prorate, you know, that that wear and tear. I think it should be the same way with, um, all roof policies.

Sharon Cline: Well, it’s so expensive to get a roof that, you know.

John D’Angelo: Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Ten years is not a long time for a roof. In my in my opinion.

John D’Angelo: No it’s.

Sharon Cline: Not. No, it’s a short period. Interesting that. Yeah, we.

John D’Angelo: Just had a we just had a claim last year and his roof was, um, $60,000 to replace. It was a big, you know, house, but yeah, $60,000. So when the insurance company pays that. Right. And then their premium a year is, I don’t know, 5000. How many years is that just to break even. Right. So they increase rates. Right. And then the customer goes to shop for a lower rate to bring it back down to down to 5000. Well, guess who pays the balance of that? All the other customers in that industry, or in that carrier that has that carrier in that zip code. So somebody has to pay for it. Yeah. So when you bounce around a little bit, you know, you’re creating the expense for somebody else.

Sharon Cline: Well I didn’t know any of that. Yeah, right. Seems wrong. Yeah. You don’t make the rules though, right?

John D’Angelo: I don’t, but it’s just like it has business. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you’re paying something else, it has. The money has to come from somewhere. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Do you have a five year or a ten year plan? Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?

John D’Angelo: Oh, I can we can do this job until we croak. Yeah. I mean, it’s just computer work. Really. So, you know.

Sharon Cline: Just keep going. Keep keep winning awards after awards.

John D’Angelo: That’s right.

Sharon Cline: Plaque after plaque.

John D’Angelo: That’s right. Yeah. Because, you know, we travel a lot, and, um, we just take our computer wherever we go. It’s just a different office view. And, um, you know, it’s an expensive office view, but, you know, at least we’re not in a cubicle every every day, which is is awful to me.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. Some people’s nightmare, for sure. Yeah, well, that’s good to know. There’s a side of that that you can live a life that is more dynamic and still have this, you know, be in this profession.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Our our agents go. I don’t even have, you know, they don’t have to be working at any specific time. Um, I say whenever you want to work, you work. Yeah. And they go on trips. One of my agents just told me he’s going on a cruise for two weeks.

Sharon Cline: But still.

John D’Angelo: Working.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, technically, yeah.

John D’Angelo: I say he better get the internet package. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, that’s really great to know, because, you know, when the pandemic happened, most people had to have their remote work, and now it’s ending for a lot of people, including myself. So the notion of being able to work as much as you want and travel like you would like to, but still be able to support your life is is it’s an attractive, um, profession to be in that way.

John D’Angelo: It’s great. I recommend it to, um, mothers that have little kids. They can work from home, take their kids to school, take them to their activities. Um, we have one agent that that is a mother that does that. Take them to the doctor’s office as she just did that another day. So you have the freedom to do that? Yeah. Or, you know, if you’re disabled, um, it’s a perfect job for disabled people. Um, yeah.

Sharon Cline: That’s really important, I think, for people to know. I don’t know how many people would actually have that kind of understanding of of, um, like what a typical day would be, you know?

John D’Angelo: Yeah. I think last year I threw out my back, right. I couldn’t move. So I was disabled, but I still got still got on my laptop and did my work. I could still get on the phone, but I mean, I couldn’t move my legs. So unbelievable to be able to make money and, you know, even if you’re injured. Yeah. So.

Sharon Cline: Well, I’m glad you’re able to walk in here today.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for inviting me.

Sharon Cline: You’re welcome. John D’Angelo, come back again, and we. If you have some. We were just talking before the show that there may be some other people that would be really fun to have in the studio to kind of talk about the different aspects of the industry that, um, how they impact each other. It’d be really.

John D’Angelo: Great. Bring me in a roofer so we can argue on this show. You know, for I go back.

Sharon Cline: To that kind of show. I just want peace, love and harmony.

John D’Angelo: Actually, I did do an interview with one of my friends who, you know, is a roofer. He’s on Perimeter roofing. And, um, his name is Raymond Raymond Little. And, um, we just educated the audience back and forth. We’re great friends and it was just awesome just to let them let the clients or the customers or the public know that, you know, we’re working side by side for them.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, well, knowledge is power in that way. If I didn’t know that an insurance company was going to give me a hard time after a roof of ten, you know, ten years, you don’t know until you’re told. No. There’s only so much knowledge I can, you know, comprehend depending on where I’m putting my attention. And there are just too many aspects of life that have too many rules that for me, if I’m not in the industry, I’m I’m I’m clueless.

John D’Angelo: Yeah. A lot of people, they just close their eyes, pay their, their, you know, monthly premium and and pray nothing happens. And then when you know something does happen, they’re like, they pray that it gets covered. But there’s a lot of endorsements that need to be done to cover everything. You know. No insurance policy covers everything. That’s a big misconception. I have full coverage. No you don’t. It’s just a term. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: All right, well, if anyone wanted to get in touch with you about the different things that you do, if they’re Italian or they’re interested in MMA things, or they’re interested in insurance.

John D’Angelo: And motorcycles.

Sharon Cline: And motorcycles, it’s a lot of hats. Where would. Where can they find you?

John D’Angelo: Let’s see. InsurancePM.com. Most definitely. Or under my name John D’Angelo. John D’Angelo. Yeah. That that will pull up Instagram. Facebook. So yeah.

Sharon Cline: I really appreciate the fact that you’re able to come into the studio and, and not just talk about one aspect of your life, but I like that you have a well-rounded life, and I think it’s very easy for people to kind of put their head down and work and work and work, especially in a certain age group. It’s a good example, I think, for a lot of people when they sort of feel out of balance, like you obviously know how to manage your time. And knowing that you are saving people potentially from from horrible heartache and financial ruin, you know, you’re giving them a sense of peace. And it’s actually really exciting to see where you go. And I can see why you have have won so many awards.

John D’Angelo: Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: So it actually makes me realize that I can get very out of balance with myself. But the fact that you really promote more of a balance for your life makes me think that that’s something that I can have as well. There’s an example right in front of me, you know.

John D’Angelo: Right on. I appreciate it, Sharon.

Sharon Cline: Well, thanks for coming in. And thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. And again, this is Sharon Cline reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

BRX Pro Tip: Undivided Attention – Another BRX Superpower

February 11, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Undivided Attention - Another BRX Superpower

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BRX Pro Tip: Undivided Attention – Another BRX Superpower

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you, Lee. I know I’m a little bit biased. I think there are a great many advantages to the way we approach serving people, helping people, and making money. But one of our superpowers is we really are able to create an environment where you garner undivided attention.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And a lot of people are saying this is kind of the time where attention is the most valuable currency and the most valuable service or service you can provide your clients. And it’s something that people don’t realize how divided a person’s attention is. And when you’re doing so much of your work, if you just think about yourself, when you’re watching TV, you’re probably not just watching TV; you’re on your phone doing something else, and you’re listening to something else. So, your attention is constantly being divided.

And one of our superpowers at Business RadioX, especially in a studio, is that we have the ability to – I don’t want to want to say force because that’s too strong a word and it happens voluntarily – we can capture our clients’ and their clients’ and their guests’ attention, and we have their undivided attention for the time they’re there. When we go into a studio and we put headphones on everybody, and we teach them how to speak into the microphone, and they can hear everybody’s voice so clearly in their headphones, they are not on their phone, they are not on their laptop, they’re not listening for why is the dog barking. They have their attention just focused in on the person speaking.

And this is one of the most effective tools to prospect for new clients. And if you have a way to get their undivided attention, you have something that nobody else has. And that’s what we deliver to our clients day after day. When they bring guests into the show, we have their undivided attention. They are only listening to the voice of our clients and the voices of each other. And it’s just a really difficult thing to capture. In today’s world, there’s not many activities you can be doing where you capture somebody’s undivided attention.

This is one of the main benefits that partnering with us delivers time and time again to our studio partners and to their clients. We teach them how to capture the undivided attention of the people who mean the most to them. When you’re interviewing your best prospects or your referral partners in a Business RadioX studio, you are going to get their undivided attention. I promise you, there will be no multitasking, there will be no looking at their phone, there will be no playing with their dog, they’re not going to be playing some video game. They are going to be looking you in the eye and listening and hanging on every word that’s being said. Undivided attention is so scarce nowadays, but it happens every single day in the Business RadioX studio. So, if you want the undivided attention of the people who matter most to you, please connect with the Business RadioX studio partner, and we’ll show you how to get that.

Investing in People: How Small Businesses Can Thrive Through Strategic Project Management

February 10, 2025 by angishields

Sandy Springs Business Radio

Investing in People: How Small Businesses Can Thrive Through Strategic Project Management

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On this episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio, Ramzi Daklouche interviews Dr. Kene D. Ewulu , an expert in organizational leadership, project management, and coaching. Dr. Kene discusses his extensive background in architecture, project management, and academia, offering insights into effective leadership and the evolving post-COVID work landscape. He introduces his accelerated Project Management Professional (PMP) certification program, which condenses the traditional five-year timeline into 17 weeks. The conversation also covers the importance of cross-training, hybrid work models, and lean management principles.

Dr. KD Ewulu is the CEO and Lead Coach at KDE Leadership.

He has been an architect in Africa, since the 80s, a sales professional in the UK in the early 90s, and a registered architect, project manager, professor of leadership and project management, trainer, author, and public speaker for the last 20 years.

He possesses an EdD in Leadership, an MBA in Management, Bachelors and Masters degrees in Architecture, a sustainable design credential LEED-AP, and a Project Management Professional certification PMP.

Dr. Ewulu consults for many companies in the leadership training space, one of which is Pryor Learning, since 2019.

Connect with Dr. Ewulu on LinkedIn and Facebook and follow KDE Leadership on Facebook.

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: This episode is brought to you by V.R. Business Sales, Atlanta, guiding business owners and buyers through successful transitions with trust and expertise. Visit Vrbas world.com or call (678) 470-8675 to learn more. Now here’s your host, Ramzi Daklouche.

Ramzi Daklouche: Thank you. And oh my God, this episode of Business RadioX Sandy Springs is going to be amazing. I have someone that resume is bigger than the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dr. Kene. Dr. Dr. Kene welcome to the show.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Thank you. Ramzi.

Ramzi Daklouche: How are you today?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: I’m very well, thank you.

Ramzi Daklouche: Good. Listen, I’m not gonna try to mess up what you do for a living or what you’ve done or your background. So why don’t you kind of give us just a very short version of what you’ve done, where you are right now, and what you’re up to?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Okay. My name is Doctor Kene. My doctorate is in organizational leadership. I’ve been an architect and project manager since 1987. I’ve led design firms in in Africa and in the United States over the last 30 years. Basically, apart from being a project manager, I rose up to become a principal of an architectural firm in Columbia, South Carolina. And that was in the mid 2000. And since then, I went back to school to learn how to run a company, not just being a great architect or a great project manager, but I needed to learn how to run a company. And so I went back and did a doctorate in leadership, and that took me straight into academia. I became a professor teaching organizational leadership and project management. I’ve done that for ten years. But I realized something that while I was a professor, I was basically teaching students who just wanted to get an MBA and get a job for me to impact the corporate world. I needed to talk to train and coach decision makers, and that’s what took me into the coaching field. I’ve been doing this for about nine years now.

Ramzi Daklouche: Awesome, man. I’ll tell you, that’s very impressive. Especially different continents, not countries, continents you’ve been in. This is really amazing. So how does how has your diverse experience in architecture, sales and academia shape you shaped your approach to leadership?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, architecture was an eye opener. Okay. You go in there, you’re artistic, you’re creative, and you think that that’s all that is required. But as a budding architect, you realize that you have to be a successful Social minded business person, and that means you got to mix well, meet people earlier on while they still had dreams in their minds, and you were able to articulate those dreams and convince them that you’re the guy to put their dreams into reality. And so there’s just so many other skills that architects don’t realize they have to have in order to, to survive, in order to thrive. And so I learned that halfway that not just being an architect, but being able to sell yourself, being able to let people know exactly what it is you do and how you can bring value to their own initiatives. That’s what it takes to be an architect. And of course, getting into academia opened up the theoretical aspect because you see, yes, we all know that experience works well. It’s good to be practical, roll up your sleeves and get in the trenches. However, if that is not backed up by theoretical knowledge, then you have a problem. You’re shallow. So a mix of that makes me more. I’m ready to jump into the trenches. I’m ready to educate, to mentor, to train. I’m ready to research and I’m ready to collaborate, whatever it takes to get a great, uh, outcome. I’m ready to do that.

Ramzi Daklouche: It is very interesting what you said. So if you just practical knowledge is always good, you have to have it. You have to have the will, the, the, you know, the the ability to kind of get the work done, but without the, the theoretical knowledge, it really is shallow. Can you tell me more about that? Because actually that point is very, very important. I see a lot of a lot of business owners, small business owners end up being technicians in their business. They’re really good, but without the knowledge, they really fail miserably in growing the business or actually maintaining the business.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Yeah, correct. So that segues into leadership. Uh, because if you don’t know, you can’t teach what you don’t know, okay. And some people have promoted themselves to what is called their level of incompetence. They’ve gotten so high right now that it’s obvious that they don’t know how to articulate themselves or bring value to their clients or to their customers because of the fact that they’ve been over promoted. They can’t bring value on the level they are at.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Okay. So that segues into the topic of leadership because that’s a different ball game altogether.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. So in leadership what have you seen? I mean you’ve been in it for a long time now. What have you seen lately in the business environment. How how how do you define leadership in today’s business environment?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, Ramzi, in simple terms, I would say that leadership is the art of getting others to do what you want them to do. Now, that’s not manipulation. That’s just understanding what you need to get done and how to approach people to get them to willingly work with you to do those things. Okay. And that means understanding each person. And, you know, we’re all different. You’ve got to understand the keys to each person and give them what they want individually to get them to willingly give you 100% of their time and energies. That is leadership.

Ramzi Daklouche: So can you give me an example? You know, in your past or maybe leader you work with? Without mentioning name, of course. And that transport organization, what do they do? You know, what was the outcome?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, I had a leader who he actually did employ me in a large architectural firm in Dallas, Texas that was maybe in the mid 2000, and he was a director of project management. And when I got to the interview, funny enough, I didn’t make it. They weren’t going to employ me as a project manager. And as I got downstairs, he called me up and he said, come on up. I saw something on your resume I want to talk about. And I came up and he said, it says here that you’ve got excellent listening skills. What are listening skills? And so. Well, knowing that I had an MBA forever, I sat down and I gave him a treatise on listening skills, and he said, I’m going to talk to management. I want you in my team. And that’s how I got that job. And then I became his Errand boy, so to say. The company didn’t want me. He insisted on having me. So I became his assistant. And so I had a run of most of the great projects in the company. And what I noticed there is each time I go to talk to really big people, owners of large shopping malls and all that, I’m talking of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: This guy, everything. He said the client took it on face value. He was honest. He was forthright. He was vulnerable. If he didn’t know anything, he would say, let me research on that. I don’t know that. If he tells you it’s going to cost X dollars, it’s going to cost X dollars. I just watched him operate. He doesn’t operate. He was just genuine. He was just himself. And I said, I got to be like this guy. So I modeled my way, my life to him. And I did what he told me to do when he realized that I needed to find my way through project management and get a get a PMP certification and what have you. He said to me, this is the way to go. And I went that way. And we’ve been apart for maybe 15 years now. But each time I crossed a milestone, he sends me a message on LinkedIn. He says. I knew I was right. My gut instinct was right. I was right about you. They were.

Ramzi Daklouche: Wrong. That’s awesome. You know, one thing you said about that leader that resonates with me is, you know, saying, I don’t know. Let me research that. Right. A lot of leaders are afraid of saying that out of confidence, right? Confidence issues stops them from saying, I really don’t know. I don’t have the answer. I’ll find out and let you know, or I’ll find somebody that can help you with it instead. So that’s that’s actually a very genuine leadership. Very genuine leadership.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Yeah.

Ramzi Daklouche: Very good. So let’s talk a little bit about can you share an example of a leader who transformed an organization and then especially post Covid post Covid.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Okay. Um, well post Covid, I would say I don’t want to sound.

Ramzi Daklouche: Things changed a lot since.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Covid. I don’t want to sound arrogant by saying I’m that leader, but I want to say that post Covid, a lot of things changed. Number one, a lot of people who were let go or who went home away from work during Covid didn’t return. And so most organizations right now that I get to coach and talk to are forced to do more with less resources. That means they don’t have enough people to do the work, and their people are stretched and are forced to wear many hats to get the work done. So what I see here is how can you get a lot more done with fewer resources? The first answer to that is cross training. You got to cross train your people in different departments so that they learn enough about different aspects to be dangerous.

Ramzi Daklouche: And make a more valuable action.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: That’s right. Cross training is very important. Number two, you got to give them flexible working arrangements. A lot of leaders are so rigid. This is how I do things and that’s it. You’ve got to give them flexible working arrangements, because when you make them happy, they’re going to work very, very hard for you off the clock. They’re going to work very, very hard for you when you’re not there wielding the big stick over them because they’re working from home. When they forget something or they are behind schedule, they can crack up their computers at 3 a.m. in the morning and get some work done without telling you. Hey boss, I did some overtime.

Ramzi Daklouche: But is there a balance between that? Like a lot of companies now trying, especially with the government now saying everybody has to go back, uh, you know, not remote back to the office. Is there a balance between remote and, uh, is there a hybrid model that works best?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Yes, there is a balance. And I want to take us back to the to the inception of remote work. And that started with the big guys. Okay, the Microsofts and the apples and the yahoos way back 15, 20 years ago. Well, they’ve had ten, 15 years to try that model out. And now in the last five years, they’re asking their people to go back to the office. It’s data driven. There’s a reason why. Okay. Uh, if you’re a great supervisor, you can get the best, some of the best out of your people by supervising them remotely. However, most people who work from home cannot twiddle their thumbs. Okay. They give you six hours work for eight hours pay, and there’s no way you can know what’s going on. So I like the fact that there’s got to be a hybrid. Some people have to go back to work. There are people who can’t even work. Hybrid manufacturers and plants and what have you. Can’t work from home. Okay. They’ve got to go into the plant. Okay. So there. There’s just a group of people who can work from home or can have a kind of a hybrid type of style where they can work two days from home and three days right in the office. There’s got to be a balance. Moderation in all things. You can’t swing from one end of the extreme to the other. You’ve got to somehow find a balance that works.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah, you know what? That will take us the next thing we’re going to talk about. But actually, to get that done in a big organization, guess what you need. Project management, which takes me to the next subject we’re going to talk about. You’re an authority in project management, and right now you have, uh, you know, in your. On your site, in your company, you really try to work very hard to make sure you develop. That project management and help people get the project management. And it’s very, very important. What is, you know, what’s your take on it? What what does it benefit professional. Right. Some of. Some people are born project managers. Right. They’re very organized. Right. But it’s not as easy as. That so in your point of view what’s PMI. How does it work. Why is it so important.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well project management is first of all everything is a project. Anything that has a start date and an. Ending date and takes resources is a project. And because of that, you’ve got to manage your resources. Optimally. Very well. So the motto for my business is to optimize your potential. It’s not maximize. Optimize is a higher level of, uh, of maximization. That means you’re getting more than the best. Out of the resources you have. How do you do that? By what we call resource reallocations. These are things. Basic standard techniques in project management. Okay. Um, you talked about the PMI. The PMI is an acronym for the Project Management Institute. It is the world’s largest, uh, project management organization. It’s been around for 50 something years. And they certify all sorts of project managers. I don’t want to start using the acronyms here, but I’m going to use it quite a few of them as we go on.

Ramzi Daklouche: Absolutely. Sure.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: You know, so basically, uh, apart from being part of the project management institute, um, they have two sets of things. There’s what is called the ATP, which is the authorized training partner. These are organizations. They have the ATP, which is a authorized training instructor. The instructors work for the partners. The instructors are individuals and they work for the organization. The organization is the one tasked with certifying people. The instructors are the ones tasked with teaching those people to be certified. However, the certification and the, uh, the permission to do that belongs to the instructor. The instructor can’t do his job without being attached to a partner, and the partner can’t train people without having instructors work for them. So it’s a symbiotic relationship. Okay. Now, in my company, which is called leadership. Um, I’m I’m both an instructor and my company is a partner. So this way, not only can I work for my company to train project managers, my company can also, uh, engage the services of other instructors in different fields in order to train project managers wishing to certify in different aspects. For instance, there’s a waterfall style of project management. There is the agile style. Then there’s a hybrid. Okay, the combination not every instructor is certified to train people in the agile. Not every instructor is certified to train people in the waterfall. But there’s a blend. And right now, they are all coming together. The Project Management Institute is insistent that all training has to be both of them together. So I am not just certified in the waterfall style, I’m also certified in the agile style. Otherwise, you’re going to get obsolete.

Ramzi Daklouche: Well, it’s like a one stop shop. So tell me about tell me more about this. What are you doing and how are you trying to get the word out about. I mean, everybody needs a project management, and I believe, you know, like you said, in essence, of everything you do in your life is project manage, right? It just depends at what point you need to be certified project manager. So how are you working with project management training right now? What’s your program look like?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, right now I have a pet program. Two years ago, I ran a an entry level certification program called the Certified Associate of Project Management. That’s an entry level for rookies, interns coming in who want to certify and get a leg in the door of project management. Okay, so I ran that successfully this year, this March, starting next month, I’m going to be working with, uh, certifying project management professionals with Pmps. Now let me break it down. The PMP is the most recognized project management certification in the world. There are over 120,000 Pmps in the world. They are so sought after. All right. Just by getting a PMP, you can get a 36% increase in your salary or you go somewhere else. Your bosses know that. Your employers know that. Okay. So most employers are in a rush to certify their internal project management practitioners. Otherwise they certify themselves. They’ll go away to greener pastures. So there’s a big market for pmps out there. Unfortunately, the PMP will take you five years to get certified, and it will cost you in those five years and upwards of $9,000 to get it done. So what I have done right now is to find resources to get it done in 120 days. Online, it’s going to be a 17 week crash course, very intense in less than 120 days and at a cost a fraction of the cost of $2,500.

Ramzi Daklouche: So hold on one second. Something that takes five years.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Yes.

Ramzi Daklouche: It takes 17 weeks.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: 17 weeks to get it done.

Ramzi Daklouche: And how many hours per day is that?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: It’s just 1.5 hours per night.

Ramzi Daklouche: Oh my God, are you.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Serious? A week, once a week. And it’s virtual. It’s online. So anybody from any part of the world can get enrolled in this program. Jump on it. And by June the 25th, you’re ready to take your PMP exams. It’s called a fast track. It’s not a bootcamp. There’s a difference.

Ramzi Daklouche: So can we back up a little bit because it’s very important. Very interesting. So right now, people in companies, right. They work in big companies or medium sized, whatever it is, size companies, even small size companies, right, that are working on projects, whatever project that is. Right. Everything they work on is actually a project. Anything after strategy, even strategy becomes a project to execution. Correct? You know that from literally anything. It doesn’t matter architect or business, sales or whatever it is.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Construction people, health.

Ramzi Daklouche: Health.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Health people.

Ramzi Daklouche: And so many of them right now are really working with systems and maybe lacking. Right. And they don’t know what they don’t know. So if they go through 17 years and I know it sounds like an advertiser, it’s not an advertising, I’m shocked. You go from 17, you go from five years to get your PMP, which some of them do, I’m sure to 17 weeks. And you can actually even either the company that you have appreciates you or you get appreciated somewhere else.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: That’s right.

Ramzi Daklouche: And you can actually say PMP certified, you can.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Once you know you have your you have the PMP appellation behind your name. Once you say like I’m Doctor Kene on the side PMP. Once you see that PMP, they know you are the apex of project management and you’re sought after and they better give you what you’re looking for. So when you talk about 17 weeks, it sounds as if it’s um, um, it’s it’s a fairy tale, but there’s certain things that cost you five years. One of those is you got to demonstrate 7500 hours of verifiable project management experience. That means you got to get people that you’ve done projects for in the past to sign off, that you’ve done those 7500 hours. Do you know how long? 75 hours, 7500 hours of project management will take you to, to to verify.

Ramzi Daklouche: A.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Whole lot? That’s between 3 to 5 years. That alone? Well, I’ve been pursuing the authorized training partner designation for my company, because once you get that and you run a course, anybody who successfully goes through that course automatically gets that 70 500 hours of project management experience.

Ramzi Daklouche: I don’t even want to ask how you got that, but I really have to ask because I’m curious. Because for me, anything that takes, you know, shortest distance to success is really very important as well sometimes. So how do you get that? Okay. I’m going to ask a question. You may not be able to answer it, but like, you know, how do you get from I have to have 7500 hours or whatever it is, hours to just 17 weeks and, you know, hour and a half a day and then guess what? You’re going to be PMP.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, we’re not allowed to say you’re going to be a PMP because I won’t take the exam for you. Okay. I will prepare you. I will get you ready. And my program insists that you register for your exam maximum two weeks after the program. So this program ends on June the 25th. By July the 4th or fifth, you should have taken your exams. We insist. So by the last fifth, by the 15th or 16th week. We’re working with you on documentation, ensuring that you’re approved by the PMI to take this exam. You’re going to show us evidence that you’ve registered for the exam and your place. You’re going to take the exam. All those things are going to happen before the 17th week, before we can give you a clean bill of health and sign off on your 7500 hours, because you need those 7500 hours to be able to take the exam.

Ramzi Daklouche: Wow. So you ran it before? Correct. You ran a couple of years ago. Oh, yes. So tell me some success stories from two years ago. I mean, how many students you had? How many students actually went through it? Because it seems intense.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: The one I had I ran two years ago was the entry level, the Capm. And I had a young man. I want to I want to highlight him a little bit. I had a young man who had been in the financial services industry for five years. Young man, you know, late 20s. And he was trying to change industries. And he said, I want to be a project manager, but I don’t know anything about projects. He’s a newbie, completely a neophyte. Height. Okay. And he enrolled in my program and he said, how can you help me? That program was strictly for three months. And I said, just, just, just follow what we’re doing. And you see, he passed that exam. He not only finished the program, he passed the exam the next week in exactly three months. And he said to me, I don’t even have a job yet. I’m in between jobs. This is incredible. He’s been on one of my broadcasts before. He said, this is incredible. How do I let people know that you’re a germ? I said, don’t worry. They’ll find me out someday.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s fantastic. I’ll tell you what. This is very impressive. And I know a lot of people right now are losing jobs, especially the beginning of the year with company strategies changing or restructuring, which is fine. You know, it’s a new, fresh start for everybody. But I think this is this becomes very important. I don’t care what level you are if you have PMP. I’ve worked with a lot of people. Um, and we always hope somebody is organized enough to become our project manager without really PMP, Um, designation, so that really helps a lot. So yeah, I appreciate it.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: And the thing about the PMP thing is that most very experienced project managers don’t have the time to get away and study and pass an exam that has been the bane of most very experienced project managers.

Ramzi Daklouche: Nobody has five years.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Yes, nobody has five years. Nobody has the time. This gives them not just a forum. It’s once a week, every Wednesday night for 1.5 hours. We go through a knowledge area, one knowledge area at night on their ten knowledge areas, and then we begin to work on past exam questions. At week 15 and 16 are strictly past exam questions, which nobody else can have access to unless you’re an authorized training instructor with the PMI. They give us those because they know we’re training people, and we need those questions to be able to train people. So there’s a lot of everything. Is closeted okay. Everything is private is protected. The information is we are bound by law not to divulge or share any of those exam questions.

Ramzi Daklouche: You talked earlier about the event. I hope it’s not shot by now. I mean, I hope you didn’t book it all completely because it just sounds silly for people not to do this.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, because it’s online. Because it’s on zoom. Okay. Zoom. You can have a webinar. Sort of. You can have 5000 participants, so it’s not fully booked. I have until.

Ramzi Daklouche: So you’re going to try to do like Kamala Harris did with her uh, zoom broadcast.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well the more the merrier.

Ramzi Daklouche: 100,000 people on it.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, not 100,000, but I’m really looking for maybe 500, 600 people.

Ramzi Daklouche: I think you could do it. I think I think it’s silly if it’s not done.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Because it’s it’s it’s online. It’s at the same time and it’s, it’s on zoom and people are very comfortable doing that. And I purposely put those classes on Wednesday nights at 730 in the evening so people can finish work wherever they are. If you’re on the East Coast, it’s 430. You’re finishing work in the West Coast, it’s 430, and if you’re in Hungary or in England, it’s midnight or 2 a.m. you know, it’s it’s that’s when people were, well, older people who wake up early, very early in the morning.

Ramzi Daklouche: So and I know we’re going to have your information so people can reach out to you if they want to sign up for this or sign up for other programs. I want to switch a little bit because you’re a lot more than just, you know, a PMP certified instructor. You had a lot of acronyms, so I’m not going to remember any of them except for PMP. But you’ve done a lot. I mean, your, uh, your, uh, the Leadership Institute that you have really does does a lot. Yeah. Give me the two other big ones that you work on. What are what are the programs that you work on that people can kind of tap into? Because, I mean, just your experience at all is, is.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: There’s a lot we the first one we have is called the CTP. It’s called the corporate Turnarounds program. This is for the organizations who want to scale up. Either you’re doing badly and you want to turn your fortunes around. You want to revitalize, you want to grow or you want to enhance your fortunes. Whatever the case may be, it’s called the Corporate Turnaround program. There are four different periods. We’ve got a 12 month program 24 months, 36 months and 48 month program. All right. And we work with organizations. Sit down with them. Uh, one thing I’ve discovered in doing this is let me digress a little bit is that when you’re interviewing the top bosses in an organization, they’d give you a vision of what they want, but they don’t have specifics. When you call in their heads of departments, directors to come sit with them and you interview them jointly, you don’t get much information because the heads of departments are afraid of their bosses. They don’t want to talk. So you’ve got to separate them to have proper interviews where you can get to the nitty gritty of what’s really going wrong here. Mhm. All right. And nobody’s going to accept that things are going wrong in their department. That’s where the vulnerability comes in. That’s where the leadership comes in. Being able to say we’re trying to figure out what’s wrong here so we can fix it. We’re not trying to point fingers. Okay, whatever I get from you right now is going to be confidential. I need you to be vulnerable with me.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah, it’s interesting, you say about the vision of the, you know, the C-suite, right? And you kind of try to understand how it trickles down to that next level and the next level. And then it’s like talking about cheeseburger and then, you know, vegetarians. Right? Yeah. Conversation changes completely. There’s a different people.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: On the front lines.

Ramzi Daklouche: I have no idea what.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: They are different. They know how to get things done, but they don’t know what the vision is. They don’t know what the top guy up there can see from a higher level. It’s like being in an airplane way up there you can see the countryside, beautiful landscaping, the buildings just look pristine, everything is great. And then you start coming down, you see some brown patches. You see that the buildings, the roofing is a bit leaky brown.

Ramzi Daklouche: So do they bring you in when the, you know there’s a fire, or are they smart enough to bring you in when they really don’t have fire and things are going good? Because I think I think they need to bring you bring you in with things that are going good. Not when there’s a fire.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Exactly. We want to come in and enhance the growth. We don’t want to come in and revitalize. But that’s why the name is corporate turnarounds. Okay. You’re turning things around. It could be something is great and you want it to be better. Yeah, it could be that something is bad and you want to improve it get get it better as well. So but I would ideally prefer that people call me in or call my team in when things are going well and everybody is happy. Then when there’s fire on the mountain and there’s a problem and they need the problem solved yesterday.

Ramzi Daklouche: Do you have any. Okay, so let me back up a little bit. And I know you work with big corporations and you don’t need to name any. And I’m sure they they love your work. But do you have any, any programs that small businesses can benefit from without really breaking the bank? Because small business, the biggest thing with small business owners usually, and I’m talking small below $1 million, right? Actually small by the by by the government is completely different, uh, than small, actually on the ground. Right? Um, they really are working in the business all the time, and not a whole lot of work on the business. Right? They need that somebody to show them to kind of pull them out so they can see what’s going on in their business. Do you have programs for that?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, the one program we have that gives people a larger benefit or more comprehensive access to all our products is what we call the annual coaching subscription. This is like having the season’s ticket to your favorite ball club. Okay. You you take us on for a year and any emerging, evolving problems that happen within that year, you’re able to bring them. You own us for that year. And so some people have been smart enough to get 3 or 4 different problems, challenges solved in that one year period. So the most the most sought after product we have is the annual coaching subscription. Now this this can deal with leadership, management, conflict resolution, communications. Doing more with less. Project management software training. Just name it is their change management. A lot of the things that team dynamics. Yeah a lot of the things that we struggle with, big organizations struggle with. You know, the bigger you get, the more unwieldy it is to really manage everybody. But when you bring in a team dynamics expert and he just comes in to show you how a team can suddenly become like a family and want to work well together and be happy with each other. And really, people take correction without thinking you’re belittling them. There are rules and regulations on how to correct people. For instance, you don’t correct people in in public. You correct in private, tactfully, respectfully.

Ramzi Daklouche: I think you should scream that from top of the mountain, because that doesn’t really happen that often. A lot of people here just on the in the moment and and then they apologize. Oh, I didn’t mean to praise.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Praise must not be withheld.

Ramzi Daklouche: Telt. Yeah.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Praise is in public now.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Really? I tell you, I enjoy it when I see small business where they’re really investing in their people. I went to a business today, and I was meeting with the owner and in his in his office, it was all the strengthsfinder for all his team. Wow. This is very interesting. Yes, he knows that. And he was able to talk about how I really do respect how they do it. Because when they come to my office, I really look at their chart first and remind me of how to kind of engage them. So it’s all about them. I thought, and he has a very successful business.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: And.

Ramzi Daklouche: No wonder.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: You know a lot of business. And this takes us back to leadership. A lot of business people need to take a leaf from Ronald Reagan’s quote. It says that, um, if you hire people who are smarter than you are, give them the tools they need to get the job done and get the heck out of.

Ramzi Daklouche: Get the hell out of the way. That’s right.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: You know, hire people who are smarter than you are. Yeah. Give them the tools they need and get the heck out of the way. You do that, the skies will not be your limit.

Ramzi Daklouche: All right, so, man, I tell you, we can talk all day, but I want to ask you a few things. So you wrote how many books?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: I’ve written about nine books, but my most recent is called Big Dreams Making It Happen for Organizations and Teams. Because it’s obvious that a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business owners, a lot of CEOs just don’t have the tools, a little handbook they can open up in their private moments to get guidance. And that’s that’s what led me that that’s what motivated me to write that book, that there’s no limit to how far you can dream. Okay. There’s a song, a lyric that says, aim for the aim for the moon. You might hit the stars. And people just listen to that. And don’t you forget that the stars are so much farther away than the moon.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: So when you’re aiming for the moon, what he’s saying is you. You will surpass the moon. If you aim for the ceiling, you can get to the stars. That’s what he’s saying. And so that’s my favorite. I tell CEOs the sky is not your limit. There’s no limit to what you can achieve if you can harness the potential of your people, their cohesion, their teamwork, their job satisfaction, the equipment you give them, the lack of micromanagement because people don’t like you sitting on their shoulders. They want you to get out of the way and allow them to determine the ways and means of getting things done.

Ramzi Daklouche: Okay, I have to admit something, and I feel like I’m not the only one or listeners. So I all my life, until now, I thought, you know, you hit the moon, you know, whatever the correct. Yeah, it’s actually the moon is further out.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: No. So stars are further out? Yeah.

Ramzi Daklouche: And I took a classes in college, but I didn’t. I probably missed that. I was sick sick that day. But it was very interesting. Yeah. Very interesting. I actually didn’t know it. Thank you for teaching me that. Listen, we have to bring you back here to talk about your book because very interesting. It’s really, really interesting to kind of understand that. So just to kind of, uh, finish this. Tell me a little bit about a little bit more about the Mars class, because very, very important to kind of spread the word and help you spread the word out, because it’s so important for people that are looking for jobs today or in jobs today that want to enhance it, that are, you know, that I just wrote an article about, you know, the 3% increase a year, right? It’s like, what are you waiting for? What do you mean, 3%? You’re waiting for your boss to tell you you’re good enough to get 3%. What are you doing to get more than 3%, right. So it’s very important to kind of break from that, right? That one, that one more thing you could do, one more thing you could do, just one more thing you could do to enhance your skills. Right. One more thing you can do is really 17 weeks training to enhance your skill. Because a project manager, I ran companies, I was part of big groups. And I tell you, I’ve always looked for the smartest person to become, I made them, hey, you’re the project manager, and if they’re organized enough, I gave them the title without really the proper skills they need behind it, and they learned on the fly. So tell me a little bit more about this. Tell me how people let’s plug you. Tell me how people can reach out to you and what do they need to do today?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Okay, I will I will ask people to go to a landing page that explains everything right up to how it’s going to be done, when it’s going to be done. It even has convenient payment plans. I know it’s only $2,500, but not everybody can pay that out of pocket. So they have convenient payment plans for for payments of 500 each. We made it simple. We dumbed it down so much. And so the the the the the URL to go to to get all the information you’re looking for is um https Fast-Track, PMP, cert. Let me say that again. Fast track PMP, cert CRT, short for certification, Fast-Track, PMP, CERT dot, KDE leadership, Dot net, Forward Slash enroll. Let me say that again. It’s Https and then you have fast track PMP, cert dot, KDE leadership dot net forward slash enroll. You go there you get all the everything is on that one page right up to the contents per week. Everything you’re going to be doing per week, what subjects, what outlines you’re going to be doing per week right up to the end of it. The payment plans are there. There are four payment plans, those that can afford to pay all at once $2,500 fine, those that can pay in two installments at 1250, 1250 first and third month. That’s fine. And then those that can pay in four, five installments of 500 each. So it makes it really very easy. The buttons are there, it there. It makes it very easy and it explains everything to the very bottom. Now, if you have any more questions, check me out on LinkedIn. Just type in Doctor Kennedy a k e n e d a r e w u l u and you’ll be able to find me on LinkedIn. You’re going to see a lot of.

Ramzi Daklouche: You’re very active on LinkedIn. I was going to say all this, you know, the fast track, just go to LinkedIn, find you and they get all the information you pay is well done so they can find you there. All right. So what’s coming up from Doctor Kene. What’s what’s your next project? I know you got something cooking because you never you never really rest. So what’s next?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Well, right now, um, apart from us being in BNI, um, I have I’m looking forward to going to Sydney in, in November, and that’s our global convention. I’m already registered for that. Just thinking about plane tickets and what have you, but it’s still a long ways off. But coming back to my company, I’m going to run this again. For those who cannot handle this in March, because March is three weeks away. I’m going to run this again in, um, in August because it takes 120 days. I don’t want to be running any training programs in November. I want to end by October and be able to plan and strategize for the new year. So we’ve got two streams of this running this year. This is the first stream, and we’re going to repeat that again, uh, in August. Uh, that’s the first thing I have to say. I’m dedicating this year to project management because I, a lot of project managers are suffering because they don’t have the certification. They’ve hit the ceiling and there’s nowhere else to go without that certification.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah, yeah. They’re stuck. I’ve got somebody I’ve put through it. Not in March because they’re out on maternity leave. After that, I probably put them through it because I think it’s very important to any size company to make sure somebody is there. And all these company owners or, you know, entrepreneurs that have people working for them, get somebody PMP certified to help you a lot. Perfect. Any new books coming up, any children books, any anything that you want to share with us?

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: No. Well, for the books, um, I am going to take on what is called. I did mention it earlier what is called resource reallocations. It’s a it’s a it’s a minuscule part of project management. But if you think that ten people can get a lot done, you’d be surprised that those same people, ten people can get things 20 times more done in half the time by resource reallocation. I’ve got it down to an art. I can’t teach that in classrooms because those are just MBA people trying to get a degree, you know? I need to teach that to captains of industry to understand that they can do a lot more with the people they have. They currently have on staff just by relocating. It doesn’t cost them.

Ramzi Daklouche: Anything for everybody. Anybody that has a team of something, they need to figure that out so they can work lean. Because, you know, if when you learn lean management, it’s just a completely different world, right? Yeah. Perfect perfect, perfect. Well, listen. Anything else? Thank you very much, Doctor Kene. It’s fantastic. I can’t wait to see the results out of your, uh, your, uh, you know, PMP certification program. And what is going to happen from that? And how many students are going to come to you and say thank you? You changed my life because I think it’s a life changer.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Thank you so much for for that. Again, the name of the book that I have written is called Big Dreams Making It Happen for Organizations and Teams. You can just go to Amazon, type in my name or type in the title. If I want to hit in Big Dreams making it, it’s going to pull it up as well. Yeah, and there’s a e-book version, and there’s a paperback version for those busy executives who, uh, unfortunately, I don’t have the audio version yet, but, uh, it’s, uh, it’s it’s in the works.

Ramzi Daklouche: Awesome. Well, listen, thank you very much again. Have a wonderful afternoon.

Dr. Kene D Ewulu: Thank you, Mr. Ramzi. Thank you for having me. And you too. Have a wonderful afternoon. Thanks.

About Your Host

Ramzi Daklouche is Principal at VR Business Sales. His mission is to facilitate seamless transitions for business owners looking to sell or scale. The organization’s four-decade legacy in managing transactions, from modest enterprises to extensive mergers, resonates with his expertise in mergers and acquisitions. Our collaborative approach consistently unlocks the true value of businesses, ensuring sellers’ peace of mind throughout the process.

His journey began when he left corporate world to venture into the challenging realm of entrepreneurship. After running their own business for several years and earning accolades for their dedication to service and quality, he decided to establish VR Business Sales Mergers and Acquisitions Atlanta. Their mission is to provide unmatched value through transparency, security, diversity, service, and experience.

At VR Business Sales Mergers and Acquisitions Atlanta, they empower business owners and buyers with clear, honest guidance and exceptional service throughout every step of the transaction process. While their office is based in Atlanta, they offer their services nationally and globally, embracing diversity and engaging with a broad spectrum of communities and businesses.

With decades of industry expertise, they aim to build lasting relationships based on trust and excellence, enabling their clients to achieve their business goals with confidence and peace of mind. Whether they are transitioning from owning their business or moving toward ownership, they’re here to support every step of the way, navigating the vibrant landscape of Atlanta’s business community and National & Global markets for remarkable success.

Connect with Ramzi on LinkedIn.

Embracing AI: Overcoming Fears and Maximizing ROI for Small Business Success

February 10, 2025 by angishields

Sandy Springs Business Radio

Embracing AI: Overcoming Fears and Maximizing ROI for Small Business Success

00:00 /

In this episode of Sandy Springs Business Radio, host Ramzi Daklouche talks with Dale Myska, president of Train in Your Lane, about the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on small businesses. Dale emphasizes the necessity for business owners to embrace AI technology, offering practical advice on starting with AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. The discussion covers the distinction between AI platforms and tools, the importance of structured prompts, fostering a culture of AI use, and addressing common fears such as job displacement. Dale also highlights the potential return on investment (ROI) from AI adoption and shares real-world examples of successful AI integration.

Dale Myska, President of Train in Your Lane, combines over two decades of franchise operations and sales leadership experience with a passion for making AI accessible to businesses.

Drawing from executive roles at PostNet, AlphaGraphics, and UPS, Dale has mastered the art of transforming complex systems into practical, actionable solutions. Known for creating engaging, results-driven learning experiences, Dale is revolutionizing how businesses adopt AI technology through training that’s both impactful and enjoyable.

With a track record of building high-performing teams and driving organizational growth, Dale is dedicated to helping companies thrive in the AI era through education that eliminates technological barriers and delivers immediate business value.

Connect with Dale 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: This episode is brought to you by V.R. Business Sales Atlanta, guiding business owners and buyers through successful transitions with trust and expertise. Visit vrbizworld.com or call (678) 470-8675 to learn more. Here’s your host, Ramzi Daklouche.

Ramzi Daklouche: Thank you. And with us today in the studio is Dale Myska. Dale, how are you?

Dale Myska: I’m doing well, Ramsey. Thank you. How are you today?

Ramzi Daklouche: Fantastic. Welcome to Business RadioX. Really excited about this episode. There’s a lot to talk about and I’m looking forward to getting started with you. So before we start, tell me a little bit about what you’ve been doing now and what you have done before. Kind of give me a little bit of, you know, information about what you do there.

Dale Myska: Of course. Uh, I am the president of a company called Train in Your Lane, where we specialize in, you know, individual and corporate trainings. Uh, we do a lot with AI right now. We also have some what we call be a better human training. So empathetic leadership, allyship, things of that nature just to help companies just show up better for their employees. Uh, I’ve been with them for about six months now, based here in the Denver metro area. And before that, as has Ramsey and I met in a in past lives, I was with, uh, a franchisor as an executive vice president of operations and sales for Postnet and Alphagraphics. So I spent six years with them and Decided it was. It was time for a change in my world. And since ChatGPT came out with two and a half years ago, I. I’ve been geeking out on it. So it was a great fit to join this company and really start to to dig in more on on everything AI.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s awesome. I love how you said geeking out on it, because I think I feel the same way about it. And this is I’ve been waiting, like I said before, I’m really been waiting for this and to record this episode because I geek out on AI a lot. I cannot stop talking about it. So I have a lot of questions for you, specifically when it comes to small businesses and how we can help small businesses really understand the power of AI in any business. I don’t care if they’re a baker or a shoe maker, right? I mean, just there’s so much you could do with it. Very good. So the overview of the topic today is how AI is shaping small businesses and why it’s important to embrace it. So let me kind of start with a few questions. How many small business owners feel overwhelmed with AI. Right. So they know they should be using it, or they probably heard of it, or some of them may not have heard of it, but they don’t know where to start. What is your advice for taking those first steps without getting lost in the tech?

Dale Myska: Great question. I think the best place to start is to just start. Honestly, get get into one of the tools. Get into ChatGPT. Get into cloud. Spend the $20 a month because it’s just better. You’ll get your money back. And and I think where people get frustrated at first is they think of it as a Google search, and they put in the same thing they put in in a Google search and don’t necessarily get the results that they’re looking for or hoping for. So, you know, we teach in our entry level class, our beginner class, you know, the structure of prompting and really helping people understand that it’s not a Google search and that you have to work with it. You know, it’s like working with an employee, quite frankly. You have to be clear on the instructions and give them context and tell them what they’re trying to do. And and you know, one of our things we always tell is you need to tell it to do better when it doesn’t do what you want it to do. So, um, yeah, it’s it’s it’s definitely, um, I think small business owners really across the board, people have heard a lot about the scariness, you know, the security issues or security concerns. I wouldn’t say issues. Concerns. Um, I think another piece is, you know, they’ve seen Terminator at some point and machines are going to take over the world. And, I mean, there’s bad actors everywhere in everything. You know, I like to think there’s more good people than bad people in the world. And, you know, there are going to be people that try to use it against, you know, for bad. But I think we’ll good will prevail, if so to speak.

Ramzi Daklouche: Dell, you said something that I got to go back to structure your prompt is that trademark because I think you should trademark it. I think it’s very, very important. I mean, every time I talk to somebody about AI and I try to talk about as much as possible to understand, you know, what level people are getting help with AI and all this stuff. One of the things is, is I try to help them with this whole idea of structure. Your prompt, right? Because if you don’t structure it, you crash and crash out. I call it, right. So you don’t really get what you want out of it. I mean, what are there specific? I mean, I’m new. I’m a new business owner. What specifically AI tools should I start with? You know what? How do you kind of build that knowledge first? Knowledge. Right. So you’re not fearing AI because, you know, like you said, it’s not Terminator, right? I mean, it’s very smart, but it’s really information available, just structured differently.

Dale Myska: Yeah. I think, you know, the obvious ones are the ChatGPT of the world. You know, I, I think the models are changing so much. We had all the. The news last week of of deep sea are1 getting released and how it’s you know, it took China a lot less money to to build the model. Meta has models. Everyone else has models there. There’s no shortage of tools out there right now. The ones that are the easiest to. Easiest to access and probably the you know, the most common are that from from Claude, from anthropic or ChatGPT from OpenAI. Um, you know, and then the tool, I mean, the tool set is that’s probably where it can truly get overwhelming for anyone is, you know, everyone’s building AI tools. And I think over the next 12 to 18 months, a lot of that’s going to flush itself out because, you know, the cream is going to rise to the top. And some of these other ones that just weren’t as good are going to probably fall out, unfortunately.

Ramzi Daklouche: It’s amazing. So I gotta keep on this. I have a lot of questions, so but I’m going to stay on this for me. You know, you talk about the, the the AI platforms, right. And then the tools. And I don’t think people understand the difference between AI platforms and tools. Can you expand on this a little bit? Because it’s very important, because what I’m going to do is kind of like having, you know, friends share info, kids share information. What I use, what I use. I really am going to go through the session for a second. But can you expand a little bit about the platform and the tools?

Dale Myska: So yeah, there’s the the LMS, the large language models, and those are ChatGPT. Claude Meta has one called, you know, there’s it’s called llama. Um, Google’s is called Gemini, you know, and there’s numerous out there. Those are, as you would say, the platforms that are they’re the ones spending the money on the data centers, learning from the internet and consuming publicly available information. Supposed to just be publicly available information. But, you know, that’s that’s debatable for people on much smarter than than I. Um, you know, there’s a lot of lawsuits out there, but. And then there’s, there’s also image generation ones where like Midjourney or, um, what’s the other one I’m thinking of? I just lost it. Lexica that we that we talk a lot about in our trainings. There’s all these tools and, and that, you know, these platforms and then there’s tools that leverage those models, um, out there as well. Another one I forgot is perplexity, which, um, is live on the internet, was the first one to be live on the internet. Now, uh, OpenAI or ChatGPT is as well. But where I was going, what I think is, is an important point to make is it’s the buzz, right? Everyone’s talking about AI in some form or fashion, and companies are rushing to implement AI tools.

Dale Myska: But we kind of go through what this eat um as an acronym, which is education, adoption and transformation. A lot of people are skipping to adoption and not getting transformation because they’re not educating their their workforce or their employees, regardless of the size of the company or educating themselves. Quite frankly, they just think I got to implement AI and not learning how to properly do it. And you know, if you have a company with, you know, employees building a culture around that because you can you can have people using it and they’re not talking about it, which is pretty common right now. Or you can bring everyone up to a certain level and teach them how to use the tools. Um, which is is really the best way to do it, because those companies building that culture, they’re going to they’re going to surpass the ones that are, you know, keeping it at arm’s length.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah, I see a lot of articles on LinkedIn and other places where they say, well, you know, AI is never going to replace this or they’re never going to replace this. And I think they missed it. All these articles have missed it, right. Dale? I believe I is just your best employee, sitting beside your assistant, sitting beside you as you’re working to be more productive. That’s how I use it. It’s making me more productive where I can blog and, you know, do all the social media within literally five times myself. Five minutes. Right. And without this structured what you call the structured prompts, I couldn’t do it. But I learned how to do structured prompts by myself because I thought one question is not enough. You got to keep asking questions, keep asking questions and make sure you’re not confusing. Also, because you really can’t confuse I. So okay, I’m going to geek out on you a little bit. What are your top three best use tools on? Um, the.

Dale Myska: Top three tools. Um, I, I love Claude, I do, I mean, I know ChatGPT, you know, we we we joke in our trainings around it’s the become like the Kleenex of facial tissues, like tissues like everyone just says ChatGPT, even if they’re using other, other large language models. I love Claude. I love the output that it gives. I just I’ve been able to build some things in there. It’s gotten to know me very well. Um, so I would say that that’s probably my number one, but they bounce back and forth. I mean, you know, since the 1st of December, these models have just stair stepped one another and with new releases and there’s rumored to be a new Claude model being released any day now. Um, but I would say is is definitely, you know, number two. And then man, the third one, I guess it just sort of depends on what you’re trying to do. Like, we’re I’ve been messing around with one called Hey Gen a lot, which is not a platform. It’s a tool to do like, um, AI avatar type, um, digital. Um, you know, where you can you I can I’ve put my voice into it. I’ve recorded myself into it. Now I can give it a script and it’s going to sound. It’s going to be me, but not me, if that makes sense.

Ramzi Daklouche: So what is the name of that?

Dale Myska: It’s called hagan h e y g e n h e y. So that’s fun. I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t figured out a great way to put that into, like, a good use to drive US business, but it’s fun to mess around in. Um, so that’s a lot. There’s another one that does the same thing called did. Um, and those are fun to play with.

Ramzi Daklouche: Awesome. For me, I got to tell you, mine as a platform. I don’t know, Claud. I’m gonna get to meet Claud, but I like ChatGPT. I mean, I’m a huge user. And like you said, one thing that people don’t know is once you really get involved in it and use it on a regular basis, it knows you, right? I can ask a question. Hey, uh, remember this. Do this, and it will bring it all together. So it’s really, really cool, right? And the second one I like, I got like 4 or 4 of them all from my business texter. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. Teksty. It really does. Incredible with blogging and adding videos, adding pictures, all the stuff. So I love that tool. And it’s a tool, not a platform, right? So the only platform I use is ChatGPT. The rest of my tool, the other one, which is incredible. So short story is I wanted to buy, you know, in my business I got to get a list of businesses right to go to. Right. And everything I found is kicks back 80%. Like, if it’s infozoom, whatever kicks back 80%. So I thought somebody is doing. I work with it. So I found this company called invent I and I and I literally can tell it. Hey listen, I’m looking for companies in whatever industry owner has to be over the age of 55, ready to retire, and the revenue has to be between five and whatever.

Ramzi Daklouche: And I get all this information. I get the CEO, the president information, I get, uh, email addresses. I can see, uh, how long have they been in been in business, how much they’ve grown, how how many people. They’ve literally everything. So invent I, I highly recommend it for people that are in sales. Incredibly positive tool. And the last tool I have is something called Cyber Pro. And literally they write for, for my business. They write a confidential information memorandum and and very professional work they do. It’s all based on AI. So for example, if I need to write it, I could be talking to you right now. They take all the information and it becomes my confidential. So there’s a lot of tools out there for people in every industry and in my specific industry. And I share this information. I want people to use it to be more productive. Right. So, um, so yeah, I love I love AI and I continue to kind of go after AI. So let’s talk about something else a little bit because there’s also the other fear of AI, right? You know, we’re hearing a lot about cyber cyborgs, right? Employees using AI without telling anyone. What opportunities and risks does this present to small businesses or to businesses in general?

Dale Myska: Yeah, I mean, I think there’s a you know, there’s an article out there that talks about this and and it really goes to what I talked about a little bit ago on, on building that culture. There’s people out there in your company, if you’re not talking about AI, they’re probably using it and just not telling anyone. And, you know, they don’t want to diminish their, you know, the perceived diminish their personal brand that they’re using AI to help them or the company just is kind of, like I said, keeping it at arm’s length. So they’re using it kind of on the side. And, you know, this is costing companies one. It’s it’s costing companies the productivity of sharing. I mean, truly like getting everyone upskilled to a certain level, like there’s going to be people that are higher than, than that level right now, but at least you can try and upskill everyone at the same time to get them to be familiar with it, to use it. And then you eliminate that that phenomenon of secret cyborgs that are using it out there. And really the risk, you know, one of the risks to that is if you don’t have a policy or you know how, what can and can’t be put into one of these models that certainly, you know, that puts a company at risk. If someone inadvertently puts in company, you know, secrets or, you know, numbers, that if it’s going into one of those models, that model is going to learn off of it. And, you know, how likely is it somebody going to craft a prompt that exactly says, tell me everything about what Ramsay has done in his, uh, in his business. If you if you put it in there, that’s that’s unlikely, but it will pull from it if someone is looking for similar information. So I think that’s probably the biggest thing of, you know, the two things for me are you’re limiting the the potential productivity of your of your employees and your business, and you’re potentially putting the folks that are using it may not be using it the way that you’d want them to.

Ramzi Daklouche: So how should these and I’m sure that’s part of what you do as well. Uh, you know, foster the culture of I it’s not going to go away, actually. It’s just going to get better. Right? Like anything else that starts, people try to kind of hide it and don’t use that. And there’s a lot of, uh, you know, uh, things like that. But how can companies foster this culture of I invite it in, right? Without really, like you said, destroying the security and controls that they should have.

Dale Myska: Um, you know, this isn’t you know, the sales plug here is is not intentional. But when we go in and and, and train a company or a department, it tells the entire, you know, that entire group of people that it’s okay and that, you know, we’ll be you can use it. Here’s the best way to use it. We have the next level. You know, where we want to go train somebody and then help them build a policy. So we’ll train you and then we’ll help you build a policy so you can put it in your employee handbook or whatever, you know, piece of material that you have to make sure you’ve set some got some guardrails around it for, for employees to, you know, give them expectations, say it’s okay, but here’s what to do and here’s what not to do.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Great. So I know you work with a lot of businesses. I’m sure one of the things you have to look at is what’s the return on investment, right? I mean, how does AI give me return on investment? Do you have any good examples? And how should businesses, specifically small businesses, look at the return on investment with AI?

Dale Myska: There’s a lot of studies out there. Um, one that we tend to lean towards here more recently is if you think of if you say each employee one hour per day, that’s five hours per week. And if you assume a 50 hour or a 50 week work year, that’s 250 hours per year per employee. That’s conservative. You know, if if your average fully loaded employee is is $50 an hour, it’s not hard to do the math. And, you know, even if you take a a lower adoption rate and apply it, it’s still it’s real money. I mean, if you pay to have a good a good company, come in and train your employees, you will see the return. Now, one thing we always start our trainings with is, you know that one of that fear pieces of fear is AI is going to replace me. And we we like to say AI isn’t going to replace you in your company, but somebody using I might. If you’re not, if you’re not indeed yourself. And I think that’s where if you again just level up everyone at the same time, you’re telling them it’s okay. And then, you know, everyone starts sharing and hey, I tried this or this is a great way to to get that information. And, you know, we see it a lot in marketing departments. They’re usually the early adopters with it right now for exactly what you said, Ramsey, as far as content creation and, you know, it’s just so much faster to do it. And, you know, if you take the product that you get and just copy and paste it, it’s not great. You know, it’s probably 80% there. It’s good to take it and personalize it and make it your own. And and you know, so it’s not just copy and paste from I, you know, you can train these models to do pretty darn good. But initially you’ve got you know, you’ve got to do the work to get them there.

Ramzi Daklouche: That is exactly right. Yeah. Do you have any good examples of companies that you really have seen transformed since you’ve been in this industry? Warm their business and what was the outcome?

Dale Myska: We certainly have worked with with several clients that, you know and that always want more. You know, that’s that’s the the really fun thing is we’ll sit in a training and typically our trainings are done over Google Meet or Zoom. And we ask people to keep their cameras on and you’ll see like we’ll cover something. You can see the reactions of people or you know, they’re playing with with prompts that we give them, and they’re seeing the output because they’ve never, never used it before. So the use, you know, the the company, the clients that we’ve seen that have truly not just sent one person to one of our classes, but trained their entire department or their entire company. They continue to want more. They want to keep leveling up because things are changing so fast. And the feedback that we receive from, you know, the decision makers that are hiring us is, you know, it’s it’s changed how we do business. Everyone’s talking about it, everyone’s using it. And the fun thing is, is when people realize that it’s not just. You don’t just have to use it for business, you can use it at home, too. I mean, I used it to help fix my microwave a couple weeks ago or, you know, do meal planning with and put in like, I have two young children that have very different palates and help me plan out five days of meals with recipes and a grocery list, and it’ll do that. So that’s the fun thing of, you know, yes, there’s there’s such great business aspects to it, no question, but it’s really cool when you start seeing people apply it to their daily lives and, you know, is the ROI there. I said, you know, early on, pay the $20 for the for the pro versions or the, the plus versions of the models because you’re going to get you’re going to get it back relatively.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah I think you’re right, I think but I think one thing that stands, it takes time to learn it and not learning it. I mean, learning it is easy. Just ask a question, Let’s start with asking a question. But I think the the, you know, on purpose prompts and asking the next question are very important. So you got to really learn how to ask a question. And then once you see the outcome, what’s that next question. So you got to be a little bit curious about what this model could do for you to kind of continue to ask questions to get to the, you know, the root of what you’re looking for. And then I’m like you, I literally use it for everything. I mean, I don’t know anything, but, you know, a short story. I want to get back into golf. And I say, you know, I haven’t played in 20 years. So I said, hey, uh ChatGPT. What are some really forgiving, you know, uh, golf clubs, uh, for, for new players. And they gave me a list. Okay. But here’s kind of like where my speed is based on what I did last, you know, last time. And it gave me exactly what I should be looking for. So after that, I bought and went to the pro. I said, what do you think? He said, oh my God, I could not have picked anything better for you. Honestly, I had a pro told me because I’m because I’m taking some lessons that. Oh, no, I couldn’t have picked anything better for you. They’re perfect for you. So you can really. And again, this is probably silly that I did it. It’s lazy. I didn’t want to go to the store and get fitted for perfect. So I did it just online and order them online. But you know, you could do it more fun way than I did it. But you can really get to the bottom of a lot of things with these tools. That’s awesome.

Dale Myska: Absolutely, absolutely.

Ramzi Daklouche: They’ll tell them a little about your company because I know you guys serve a business of all sizes, but how can I really do focus on, um, on a small business? I really have compassion and passion for small business. And because I see them a lot and I in a different episode, we talked about it where they work in the business, on the business. Right? I mean, they always working in the business. They are the best technician for any business, right? They’re the best engineers for their business, but they’re really not working on their business. And I find that with AI, you can really, um, some of the things that you should be doing can be handed to AI to help you, right, with your assistance. Um, and, uh, the best podcast I heard last week. And I forgot the name of the podcaster. He said. Ai is really your best executive for small business. The best executive. And I thought that was genius, because for me, like, I, I don’t know, a day that I don’t spend. Hours, uh, creating or doing something with AI, right? I, you know.

Dale Myska: I pride myself on how many times a day I can run out of tokens. Um.

Ramzi Daklouche: I’ve done that. I’ve done that with everything. I even used, by the way, I use AI for, uh, you know, for zoom, because. And then I send it out to my clients, like, here’s what we talked about. Like, they think I’m really that attentive. I’m not I don’t have that attention span, but other AI actually doesn’t. You know, he doesn’t have the attention span. So he helps me a lot. Right.

Dale Myska: Absolutely.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. So tell me, You know. Like how? Tell me a little bit about the company. And tell me, how do small businesses engage in something like this? And maybe you guys have classes and maybe you haven’t thought of, like, for multiple people to kind of come in online and learn a little bit about I. I’d love to hear more about that.

Dale Myska: So we do it in a couple of different ways. I mean, you and I met, you know, in our past lives in the franchise space. So a lot of our clients are franchise brands, um, both on the franchisee side and the franchisor side. Um, but we kind of approach business in two different ways. So we have our individual classes that we run quarterly. You know, I 1.0 I for franchise development, marketing, so on and so forth. I 2.0, um, a list of classes that we just offer for anyone that wants to sign up. So that’s really a great opportunity for a small business owner to, to level up, go and just join one of these. I they’re all live. They’re not recorded. So we’re facilitating them live answering questions. People are engaging from different companies and backgrounds and and sharing ideas and things like that. Those are um, those are there. Then we have our enterprise training. So a lot of times someone will take the initiative themselves and join one of our class. Our individual classes, and then go tell their their company, we need to do this for everybody. And then they’ll hire us to, to come in and do either live or virtually.

Dale Myska: Um, come in and and teach them on AI. So, um, we’ve got a really good client right now that they’re we’re training their entire company on AI 1.0. We’re training their marketing department on marketing, and then we’re training their franchise development department on franchise development with AI tools. So, um, there’s a lot of ways to engage with us. I would say for, you know, a small business owner that doesn’t, you know, only has a handful of employees sign up for one of our of our individual classes. It truly is. The feedback we get is unbelievable. Um, and people just taking it and saying it’s not as scary as I thought it was. I mean, I think that’s the the biggest takeaway is it’s so our trainings are very approachable. First of all, you know, we say it’s just humans learning from humans and then, you know, but then they realize that AI is pretty approachable too. It just it sounds scary from, you know, Terminator or Minority Report or any of those movies out there that came out in the 80s and 90s.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. An AI is industry agnostic when you ask questions. It doesn’t care what industry you’re in. It’s going to give you some information so you don’t really have to go to somebody in your industry or whatever and learn AI. You can really learn it just once you once you get the hang of it. It’s like anything else. You just have to kind of continue to practice. But hopefully these two vows, you know, you’re not ashamed for using these two vows because I hear that a lot. Like, oh no, we don’t use AI. We do it the old way. We spend an hour or two a day working on something that actually takes me maybe an hour to do. You know, in my office. So. And I see that a lot in my industry. It’s a very antiquated industry. So when I started this company, I thought, I’m going to use AI for everything, and I’m not going to allow anyone to shame me for using AI. I seem to be vocal about it and teach people how to use it, so hopefully that continues. So okay, what is the future?

Dale Myska: It’s a great way to scale a business. I mean, truly, if you do, if you start using it, you’ll use it as you’ve seen with your business, you’ll scale faster and without as much, you know, capital investment or human capital investment, you’ll be able to to do a lot more with less.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. You know what I mean. Three things every business needs, right? You need assist somebody to help you take away from you all the stuff that you don’t want to do, right. You need an assistant. Then you need somebody to do marketing for you. And then you need somebody to do sales. That’s when you know you have time when somebody do a selfie. And then the fourth is to kind of work outside the company so you can actually build more on the company. Right. These four things well, already eliminated two things, right. I mean, my my assistant is I, um, now my marketing is also through I, I build it through all through. I sales still have to do myself, which is right now. Great. But eventually once I build my team, I can get out of that and actually just focus on how to build more so and without without hiring two people, just myself and AI tools that I use. And you’re right, I paid the $20 a year, the $20 there, that’s fine. But total it cost me a lot less than hiring 2 or 3 people working. And then if they don’t work out, I got to let them go or whatever it is, including all the stuff. So for small business, I find it to be invaluable what we could do with it. What’s the trend for AI so we can close this up? What’s the trend for the AI in the next two three years? Where do you see it going down?

Dale Myska: I mean, I think the, the only way I can try to wrap my brain around AI is, is another revolution. You know, the industrial revolution, the internet, you know, things like that. This is the next kind of big revolution. Um, and I’m not trying. I don’t think that’s even over overselling it, quite frankly. I think where it’s going in the, in the next few years is it’s going fast. I mean, just the way these models are growing and changing. And, you know, if you’re an Nvidia stockholder, you can see, um, how much their stock has changed because they’re the ones making the best GPUs in the world that run in these data centers. It’s it’s it’s going to get to a point, just like the internet is for us today. You can’t do business without it. I mean, truly, you can’t have a true business presence without some sort of presence on the internet. I don’t think you can. You can’t compete 1 to 1 with a company that’s using AI effectively to a company that isn’t using it at all, that one that’s using it effectively is going to pass them by. So I really think it just the next couple of years are just going to be adoption. You know, more and more people are going to realize that it’s it’s unavoidable and then start to, you know, get in there, get trained, get educated and, and get on, you know, get going in it quite frankly, because it’s it’s coming and I don’t think it’s stopping anytime soon. And the only place in the world that’s trying to slow it right down right now is the is Europe. Everyone else is isn’t doing it right now. And I don’t think they will because there’s so many benefits. And if you can do the right thing on the front end to, you know, make it harder for the bad actors, then there’s there’s no reason to not use it.

Ramzi Daklouche: I agree with you, and I really do believe that the tools we’re going to see out of AI are going to continue to grow, right? We have platforms. We have very strong platforms. I mean, you know, I think now use ChatGPT more than I use Google actually. And I actually one day I looked at it and say, wow, I’m, I’m looking for things on ChatGPT and not Google. Uh, so yeah, but I think the tools next like, you know, uh, all the way from financial tools all the way to graphic tools, anything you want, I think that is going to continue to grow. And a lot of platforms are building on that. Sometimes the tools, the prices are a little bit higher and they will drop as more entrants will come into that market.

Dale Myska: Absolutely.

Ramzi Daklouche: Great. Well, listen, Dale, this has been fantastic. I can talk about AI all day long, I appreciate it. I appreciate your time and anything, uh, at the you know, what do you think? Uh, anything you want to kind of close with, please. It’s your time.

Dale Myska: I’d love to just give a plug to our website and, you know, give people the tools to to reach out to us, if that’s okay. Um, yeah.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Do that. Absolutely.

Dale Myska: Yeah. The website is train in your lane.com. Com so it’s spelled just like that all the way out. You can reach me directly on my email address is Dale Dale E at training your.com? I’m happy to answer the questions. All of our classes are are put up there on the site for people to to register for. And if you want to look for an enterprise training, um, for your, for your company, uh, contact me directly. I’ll be happy to, to walk you through that process and how how it all works. So I look, Ramsey, I’m so excited that you invited me to be on this. It’s fun to talk. As you said, it’s it’s fun to talk about AI. And, you know, I think the more people that just start to mess around in the tools, you know, outside of sharing, like confidential information or company secrets, you can’t break it. So just go play. You know, just go use it, get familiar with it, ask it the questions that you want to know. Um, you know, a lot of people say, well, how do I know how to prompt? Well, you can ask. You can ask ChatGPT to help me write a good prompt for this. And it’s remarkable the the results that you’ll get.

Ramzi Daklouche: So and once you once you ask it, read that little paragraph at the bottom every time you ask a question because it knows what your next question should be, just say yes to it. Right. So I can I can geek out. I can talk about it all day long because I’m excited about AI and I think that should be adopted. Shouldn’t be. These two small vowels shouldn’t be, you know, a shame. You know, vowels. They should be really adopted by a lot of companies. And keep it moving forward so we can get more productive as humans. Great. Well, thank you again, Dale. I appreciate your time.

Dale Myska: Thank you Ramsey. Always good to chat with you.

Ramzi Daklouche: All right buddy, thank you.

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BRX Pro Tip: Ways to Play in Easy Mode

February 10, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Ways to Play in Easy Mode

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BRX Pro Tip: Ways to Play in Easy Mode

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, I would like very much to explore what, if anything, we can be doing, so that we’re playing in easy mode.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that’s really kind of another secret to success is figuring out a way to play in easy mode, instead of always dealing with the most difficult path and the hardest way to do things. And don’t confuse operating in easy mode as being lazy. Think of it more in terms of working smarter, not harder. And this is about really being smart with your resources, removing friction wherever there’s friction, and focusing in on the things that truly matter.

So, think about I would go after one thing in your business or in your life, what aspect feels unnecessarily complex? You know, where is an area that it just seems like we are working way too hard in getting the result that we want. There has to be a better way to do this. So, once you find that place where maybe there’s too much complexity, then start thinking about, you know, what actions do you have to take? And then, this is really kind of a little bit of self-analysis. Start thinking about what are your weaknesses? Is the reason this is complex because I’m having to rely on my weaknesses to get this thing done. And my weaknesses are weaknesses, so I’m not good at it, I don’t like doing it. And so, therefore it’s not getting done. Is that what’s causing this kind of more difficult path?

Number two, what are your superpowers? You have superpowers. Is the task aligned with your superpowers? Are your superpowers contributing to making this easier or are you not leveraging your superpowers enough, and that’s why it’s hard?

And then, number three is, is it possible to offload some of your weaknesses to somebody else? Can you delegate some of your weaknesses to someone else, so that this process becomes easier?

And number four, how can you be spending more time doing what you do best where your superpower is? Think about that. How can you layer in your superpower into this process, so that you’re maximizing your superpower, kind of eliminating your weakness, and putting the weakness in the hands in someone else’s strength? And this way, it’ll make that task a little less difficult and more easy.

And number five, if you’re doing this really well, hopefully, you have somebody on the team that can automate some of these elements to make it that much more automatic and that much more simple. So, where can you automate? I’m always looking for opportunities to automate. And where I think everyone could do better is finding places to delegate around the weaknesses and leverage the superpowers. So, that’s some ways that you can be playing on easy mode.

Raymond Giles with REGal Luxury Travel

February 7, 2025 by angishields

Beyond the Uniform

Raymond Giles with REGal Luxury Travel

00:00 /

Raymond Giles, a seasoned travel advisor at REGal Luxury Travel based in Kingwood, TX, has turned a lifelong passion for exploration into a thriving career.

Inspired by his father, a U.S. Navy veteran, Raymond followed in his footsteps, serving as a nuclear-trained machinist’s mate aboard the USS Miami. His time in the Navy fueled his desire to see the world, leading him to visit five continents, 38 countries, and 56 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

From the historic streets of Europe and the tranquil waters of the Danube to vibrant Christmas Markets and the vast deserts of Saudi Arabia, Raymond ensures his family experiences the wonders of the world alongside him.

In a recent discussion on the HBR Show, Raymond and Trisha Stetzel, both representatives of the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce, explored his transition from military service to travel advising.

As a Pathfinder in the Chamber, he specializes in curating bespoke travel experiences, particularly for frequent travelers and high-net-worth individuals. With a keen eye for detail and a wealth of global insights, Raymond shared expert travel tips and highlighted the unique benefits of his services.

Trisha encouraged listeners to connect with him for unforgettable journeys, crafted with the precision and expertise of a true explorer.

Connect with Raymond on 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 series. Really excited about the guest that I have on today. We have something. Well, we have a few things in common. One happens to be the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce, where both Raymond and I serve. So I have Raymond Giles on with me today from Regal Luxury Travel. Raymond, welcome to the show.

Raymond Giles: Hey, thanks for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, we have more than just the HVC in common. And I know that you serve as a pathfinder. We’ll talk about that in a few minutes, because I think that’s a really important role. But you happen to be in the Navy, too.

Raymond Giles: I It was was a few years ago. But yeah, I was in the Navy. I was a nuclear trained, uh, machinist mate or mechanic on a fast attack submarine, the USS Miami.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. How closely related. Like when I told you that, uh, you met another CT, you were like, oh, I know what that is. Yep, yep.

Raymond Giles: It’s funny. I mean, there’s there’s more of them popping up now because I actually I ran into one this past weekend up in Northeast Texas.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s crazy. All right, Raymond, tell everybody about who you are.

Raymond Giles: So. And, you know, as Trisha said, you know, my name is Raymond. Um, I am, um, probably a fifth generation vet all the way back to my great grandfather in World War one. Um, you know, I tried college, and like most nukes in the Navy, I was, uh, not very successful the first couple of years. So I said, hey, I need a challenge. Somebody that’s going to make me, uh, behave and give me some discipline. So I went into the recruiter and said, give me the toughest thing you got. I qualified for the nuke program. And I thought I was smart. Um, the Navy nuclear power program showed me how smart I was. Not. Uh, I was, uh, I was pretty close to the anchor. Uh, graduated 440 out of 444. But just like the person that graduates last from med school, they still call him a doctor. I’m still a nuke. So, um. And, you know, it really created some great memories for me. Uh, met some great people, and, um, you know, it was about that time that I started to, um, get the bug for travel. I really I remember our first port, uh, foreign port was in Brest, France, and it was just like, oh, this is so cool because I’m at some place that’s not the US. And just palling around with the guys, uh, through France and, you know, a few other countries in Europe and like, you know, this is something I could kind of get used to. And about that time Samantha Brown came out with her passport to, uh, to Europe series on the Travel Channel. And I’m like, yeah, I gotta do this. And, Um, so when I got out of the Navy, I did manufacturing for a little bit, and I’m like, this isn’t me.

Raymond Giles: So I ended up with a very good engineering and construction company, and I’ve seen more of the world working for them than I did in the Navy, funny enough. And so, um, in the course of that time, I’ve been to, uh, 38 countries and 56 Unesco sites. And I’m seeing all this. I wanted my, um, I wanted other people to see what I’ve seen. I’ve been very lucky in being able to see as much as I have. And some of my friends, uh, and their family might only be able to see one of these places. And I wanted to give them the inspiration to find that one place they really needed to see. And then last year, I realized that a part of that was missing and that was helping facilitate, um, everybody being able to do the travel. Um, we talked about my father. He had an accident at the beginning of last year. And, uh, throughout the year, I was finding myself right? Why am I sitting at home? He’s in the hospital. Um, and it really started to where my mental health. I needed something to occupy my time in the afternoon and the evening. And I found a fantastic travel agency. And that’s luxury island travel. Um, so they’re my host, and it really did help my mental health. And then it helped me find some purpose outside of the Navy. And that was, um, helping people travel. And my first, uh, booking was five days after I completed my, uh, my assessment. And, um, it’s been pretty fun since then.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That is fantastic. So, Raymond, I want to dig into a little bit that the mental health statement that you made, like your, uh, you found this business to help you with that because you needed something to do. I find that many business owners don’t take advantage of things like this because they feel like they have to be at work all the time, so I work with them so they can take vacations, but let’s talk a little bit about, um, the mental health factor in being able to get away from work and travel.

Raymond Giles: So with regard to, you know, to me, um, it’s like a hobby. Okay. I thought I knew travel when I started this, uh, you know, I thought if I stayed at a nice Hilton or, you know, a Waldorf, you know, I was doing pretty good. But then when I started doing this, I realized that there was so much more to travel, especially in the luxury world. And so it was kind of like being back in school again and, you know, and going through the new program. It was stressful, but it was the good kind of stress. Yeah. The stress that your body kind of needs and feeds on. And so like I said, it sort of started to balance everything out. But as far as, you know, travel and the importance for, for other people, you know, we we say that, you know, you can sell a commodity that is out there in the, in the, the the people want it or need it, but not everybody does. Like, you can sell milk and eggs, but not everybody can eat eggs and not everybody can drink milk. But you look at travel. Everybody travels somewhere. It might be that you only go to Austin once a year, but you know what? You’re going to Austin and you’re probably going to need a place to stay. That’s where I come in. If you are, I have a client. Uh, she just retired, and she wanted to do three weeks through Europe. She had no idea where to start. I helped her plan an itinerary so that she can immediately start enjoying what she has worked so hard for. And that is reaching her retirement.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s beautiful.

Raymond Giles: And what what what does said me a little bit is that some people do wait till they retire to travel. And I understand that, you know, our culture and our mindset with a work life balance isn’t the same as everybody else. They you work hard till you can retire, but if you wait till then, you start to limit yourself on what you can she can do. It’s much it’s much harder to get to Machu Picchu when you’re at retirement age than if you had started to do travel when you were younger.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Raymond Giles: So that’s why I’m here. I want to show that if it’s possible, it’s financially achievable and that with me as an advisor, I don’t I don’t even consider myself an agent. An agent I see as someone who just books. Yeah. I’m helping coach my clients through the process so that they go in with a better understanding. Um, they don’t have any worries, and they’re able to just go and enjoy their trip.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s beautiful. So there’s hope that for these business owners, number one, they can take time off. And number two, they can enjoy an amazing travel excursion with Raymond. Raymond’s going to get you there.

Raymond Giles: Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. That’s fantastic. So how do you as, uh. Why would someone use a travel concierge in the first place?

Raymond Giles: So there’s a lot of things, you know, when you look at a business owner specifically. So if I’m looking at this from a B2B model, business owner is running their business, they don’t have time to be planning their travel doing all of the research. So what I do is I give those clients their time back because on top of doing the travel planning for you, I don’t charge my clients any fees. Okay? I get paid a commission, so I don’t need to double dip on my clients to make money. And in doing that one, I’m showing that I’m not just trying to take your money, but two, I’m giving you that money back so that you can invest it in your vacation or your trip. And that’s exactly what a vacation is. It’s an investment. You’re investing in memories. And so by doing that, you say you were only able to afford a balcony on a cruise ship by giving you that extra $1,000 or whatever another agent might charge you, you’re able to elevate that to a suite or at a hotel. You might be able to upgrade to a room where you have a butler who will unpack and pack your bags for you. So as soon as you land, you hit the ground running and start to enjoy your vacation.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow, that I didn’t even know that was possible.

Raymond Giles: I didn’t either. Like I said, there is so much that I have learned that I did not know I’m.

Trisha Stetzel: This is so exciting. So, um. Raymond, what sets you apart from other. I’ll just call them travel agents. I know you mentioned earlier you don’t consider yourself a travel agent, but how do you. How are you different than what we’ve come to? Known as travel agent.

Raymond Giles: So I think there’s a couple of things. One is that if you were to book through Expedia or something like that, you’re going to get a call center. All of my clients have my personal cell phone. And so if you have a problem, you are able to get Ahold of me 24 hours a day. And I have direct contacts with the name Brand hotels, these other luxury hotels, I have direct contact with those properties specifically. And so I’m able to address those issues. And not only am I saving you money by not charging you a fee. The beautiful thing about my company is that our CEO was a programmer in a previous life, and he has created a software, excuse me, that uses APIs, that pulls, um, a bunch of different rates for hotels. So I’m able to shop and I can find you hotel rates that are far cheaper than what you’re going to find through Expedia or even direct.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. So, Raymond, who’s your let’s just call it ideal client. Who are the people?

Raymond Giles: So my ideal client is, uh, going to be people that do frequent traveling. Um, because at that point, we can develop a relationship. I understand what your needs are. You can call me up and say, hey, Raymond, I need to go to this place at this time. And this is what my budget is. And I know already know what your likes and dislikes are. Uh. And I can make it happen. And I say, hey, this is where you’re going to stay. These are the nights I’ve got your driver set up. You have executive pickup, you have a car hire for the entire week or whatever. So those are things. By having a frequent traveler, I can develop that relationship. Um, also, uh, high net worth clients, because once again, you have developed, um, a lot of worth because of your ability to probably run businesses or you’re involved in a lot of activities to where, uh, you know, your funds are coming in. So to allow you the time to be able to work on that, I’m taking this burden off of you. Even if you have an executive assistant who is booking your travel for you, I’m giving you your E back. So that and I as the travel expert, I handle all of this. I mean, there’s nothing better than having an expert handle something for you. Who’s not going to charge you anything.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. I, I love that, yeah. The Smee, you’re the Smee subject matter expert. Get us where we need to go. And, um, you know, I’m thinking about people who are in the business of like speaking, and they travel all over the planet on speaking engagements. This would be such a great service. Yours in particular for them. Um, okay. So, Raymond, you said you’ve been to 36 countries, I think, or. Yeah, 36 countries. Were those all because you were traveling, or were some of those because you were in the military?

Raymond Giles: So, uh, four were in the military. I have been to all of them since then. Okay. Um, but I’ve actually lived in two others with my what I call my day job. I lived in Finland for 18 months during Covid, and I lived in Saudi Arabia. And because of, uh, the time I’ve spent in Finland, I’ve convinced my wife that that’s where we’re going to retire, because for eight years in a row, they have been called the happiest people on the planet. And they’ll tell you they’re not happy, jovial, happy like what? We think they’re happy and that they’re content with their life. Okay. And they’re happy going about their day. They’re not chasing the Joneses. And so I went back there, uh, in September 23rd and from the airport to the city, riding the train, my face hurt because I was smiling. Because I was just so happy. I sat in the rain with a coffee and a pastry, because I couldn’t think of any other place besides with my family that I would rather be. And those are the kind of experiences that I want other people to have.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s Holly. You have such a passion for this and you have so much experience as well, which I think is a really big benefit of working with you specifically. So, Raymond, if we’ve already convinced some people that they need to take a vacation or travel and they want to do that with you, what is the best way to connect?

Raymond Giles: Honestly, the best way is if somebody was to drop me a text at (281) 536-1713, uh, we can get a time set up for a phone call. Um, for me, I believe in striking when the when the iron’s hot. Um, I want to have you a quote. I want to have you a preliminary itinerary put together in a in an hour or two. I don’t want to wait for a couple of days. Um, because you obviously have something that has caused you to have the passion or the need for travel, and I want to get it done now to show you how possible it is so that you don’t start to second guess your decision.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I believe in that, too. Right. Uh, because it’s top of mind. And that’s what we need to. Yeah, we gotta tackle it while it’s top of mind. So, Raymond, um, how has the military, how did your military service prepare you for being your own business owner?

Raymond Giles: So for many years, I had always thought, how am I going to. What if what would I do to run a business? How would I run it? And I think, honestly, going through the nuclear power pipeline with the discipline that it required, because I had to be in school, you weren’t allowed to take your training material outside of the schoolhouse. So the discipline that was required to be able to do that has demonstrated my commitment to my business and my clients. Uh, because, you know, we live and die by referrals. So it’s my job to make sure that my clients are satisfied with what I’ve done, everything from the booking process all the way through the end of their travel. I have a couple clients having some problems with their travel insurance. They finished their travel back in October. I’m still handling the problems with the insurance to make sure that my clients are happy, and they see that I’m continuing to fight for them, um, as their advisor.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I think as, uh, military veterans, we don’t let things fail. Right. This is not in our vocabulary. We just got to go do the thing. So while we’re on the military subject, I’d like to talk a little bit about your role in the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce as a pathfinder. What in the world is a pathfinder?

Raymond Giles: So, uh, a couple of things that, uh, the Pathfinder is going to do is I’m going out and I’m looking for veteran owned Veteran-owned businesses. And I’m looking for passionate patriots and let them know that we do have this veteran Chamber of Commerce thing here in Houston. You know, we have the largest concentration of vendors in the state of Texas. And I believe the number is something we have 6500 veteran-owned businesses within the metropolitan area. And we want that to grow. We are the most we want to be the most active and the most well known of the chambers. And then as a pathfinder, once we get somebody into the chamber, they’re getting ready to come to their first meeting. I kind of welcome them in, let them know, because, you know, for those that went through the military, in the Navy, we had, um, the first 72 hours that we use for our leadership training. And I think it’s so important that we really kind of grab a hold of somebody at that very first bit, and we show them that they are a part of the family. Just leaving somebody to their own devices. And, you know, Lou always says, you get out of it what you put into it. I want to get a hold of our new or new members and show them that it is very important to put in to the chamber, because you are going to get far more out than what you ever put in, but you do have to make that effort. And and furthermore, I’m working with, um, we have a couple that are managing our mixers throughout the city of Houston. So I’m helping because I live up in Kingwood. I’m helping with the Conroe mixer that happens at the first Thursday of every month at Honor Cafe. So, um, I’m going to be they’re going to be, you know, gripping and grinning, meeting everybody and welcome them to the, uh, to the mixer and want us all to, uh, to realize that we help each other out.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Absolutely. Y’all. This is a give back. This is Raymond’s give back to the community. And it’s what I like to call serving after we’ve served. Right. Uh and I think it’s really important. So thank you for being a part of that I really appreciate it. Um why don’t we talk about let’s add a little value here about when I travel. What are some travel tips that you could give to the listeners today?

Raymond Giles: So I think, uh, the first one is, you know, if we’re thinking about it from the American point of view, we think there’s nothing as powerful as the USD. Okay. So if you go to an ATM or you go out to dinner and you swipe your credit card, they’re going to ask you, do you want to pay in the local currency or do you want to pay in USD? And we always want to hit that because we know that that’s what we paid. That’s really is the wrong choice. You want to pay in the local currency because your bank is going to get you the better exchange rate. So and plus you’re going to get hit with exchange your fees and everything else and what you think you might be taking $20 out. And then you see that you might have, you know, a $2 fee, $3 fee, but in the end, you could be paying upwards of an extra ten bucks for that $20 you took out. Um, so that’s I think that’s your first safety tip. And, you know, uh, some of the of the Facebook groups I’m a part of where people talk about traveling. Hey, they have ATMs overseas, right? You don’t have to go to your bank and get €500, €1,000 to go to Europe. You’re able to take money out of the ATM there. So that’s another one. Don’t you don’t want to be walking around the airport and going through customs and everything with a bunch of money in your in your pocket.

Raymond Giles: I landed in Italy and in Milan, and I had taken money out of the ATM. And the Carabinieri comes up to me. Where are you going? Why are you here? Do you have any money on you? And I’m like, well, yeah, the money I just took out of the ATM. But, uh, you don’t want to be in a situation where it looks like you’re bringing a lot of money into a country, because then it makes you a red flag for them. So that, I think, is your, uh, one of your first tips. And also, if you’re going to be traveling to Europe and it’s going to be a vacation, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Really look at upgrading your experience by booking business class or, if nothing else, premium economy. Because the last thing you want to do is spend $10,000 on a On a vacation and you lose the first two days because you’re so tired. Okay, so go ahead and look at, um, booking the premium economy. It might be twice as much, but you’re going to have a more comfortable seat. You’re going to be able to sleep a little bit better and you’re going to have better food. So you’re rested. Uh, when you get there and you can hit the ground running. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: There’s nothing worse than having a nine hour flight in, coach.

Raymond Giles: And I think the last one is when you go to a place where there is a significant time difference from home, your first instinct is, okay, I’ve got to go to the hotel, which you need to do because you want to drop your bags off, go to your room, drop your bags off, do not hit the bed. Leave. Go back out into town and walk around. You’ve got to get yourself put on their clock. You might be, but once you start walking around and seeing things, you’re going to be invigorated. You’re going to have that energy that you need to make it through the day and then go to bed that night. So you wake up at the same time as the locals are.

Trisha Stetzel: Jet lag is a thing. It is even coming back. I always feel like coming back is worse. Oh my goodness. So, Raymond, you talked about Finland, so I know that’s probably one of your favorite places to live, but what’s your favorite place to vacation or your most favorite vacation?

Raymond Giles: So, um, I’m a history buff, and so when I was living in Saudi Arabia, we had a ten day vacation. So I flew to Greece and did, um, some of the Balkan countries. And the funny thing about that is so doing Greece, I’m not interested in the islands. I don’t have an island body. So I’m interested in going and seeing the ancient sites of Greece. So, um, I went to Delphi and, uh, to meet the or meet the or is a place that Americans just don’t hear about. And I’m going to tell you what, if you haven’t been to Meteora in Greece, you’re missing out. You have these, uh, ancient Byzantine monasteries built up on top of these rock monoliths that you have to climb to the top of, and it just has this beautiful view of this valley. And it is just so. It is a cultural and a natural Unesco World Heritage Site. So it’s it’s inscribed with two. That’s how fascinating this place is. But and then I went to Croatia and Bosnia and Serbia and, you know, looking at it, I remember the war in the 90s and the Balkans.

Raymond Giles: I didn’t know what it was about, but I knew that there was a war on and there was genocide going there. And having a tour guide who was of the local ethnicity was probably the most educational experience of my life. And just seeing the won, the beauty of those countries and being able to actually immerse myself with locals, and that was probably one of the most fulfilling experiences. And then when I came back, you know, my father, unfortunately, he passed in September. But as my brother and I are going through his things, I’m looking at his photos because he had gone to Delphi in 73 and I’m like, oh, I’ve had I’ve had to listen to him talk about Greece for 44 years. I’m going to go to the places he went, and I’m looking at photos. I’m like, I think I have that picture. And I started looking through and like 3 or 4 of the photos that he took were the exact same spot that I took a photo of 50 years later.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s amazing. All right, y’all, if you’re ready to travel even even if you’re just going to Austin, Raymond can help you if you want to take the trip of a lifetime. Raymond has experience, and I’d love for you guys to connect. So, Raymond, one more time, how can people find you?

Raymond Giles: So you can text me at, um, (281) 536-1713. If you’re on Facebook, uh, you can look for Regal Luxury Travel. The Regal is capital letters. The R, E, g is capitalized because those are my initials. So there might be another one out there, but that one is going to be mine. You’re going to see a photo of me and my son on a river cruise in front of the Hungarian Parliament, uh, from back in December of 22. So that’s how you know.

Trisha Stetzel: You can’t miss that. Definitely. All right. As we get to the back end of our conversation today, Raymond, can you tell us your favorite client story?

Raymond Giles: So one of my, uh, one of my friends from high school, we hadn’t talked very much, uh, since graduation, but she reached out to me a few weeks ago and said, hey, you know, there’s me and five other families. We want to do a vacation. We want to do all inclusive. So all inclusive. You cannot do the United States. We do not have them. So you have to go to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica or Mexico. So we started looking, went all the way through, uh, the Lesser Antilles. And finally she settled on Tulum, Mexico. And I, they said they wanted to stay at this particular property. And I started looking. And in the end, there were six families, seven rooms. And I was able to save them $7,000 over if they had booked directly through Hilton, and $9,000 if they had tried to book through Expedia.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. Wow. Okay. If that doesn’t solidify you guys listening that you need to go talk to Raymond. I don’t know what’s wrong with you. I’m just kidding. Uh, Raymond, thank you so much for being on the show today. You are a just a plethora of of energy one and information two. And it’s been a pleasure to host you today.

Raymond Giles: I appreciate you having me today.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. 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.

Christa Rollock with C Rollock Photography, Inc.

February 7, 2025 by angishields

Houston Business Radio

Christa Rollock with C Rollock Photography, Inc.

00:00 /

From Bavaria, Germany, to Houston, Texas, Christa Rollock’s life has been a journey of love, family, and artistic discovery. After marrying a U.S. Army soldier in Denmark, she embraced a life of frequent moves, raising two children while navigating military life.

Following her husband’s retirement, her deep-rooted love for Houston brought them back, where she transitioned from a successful career in insurance to fully pursuing her artistic passions. A lifelong creative, she explored painting, drawing, singing, and theater before discovering her true calling in portrait photography.

At 58, she returned to college to study graphic design but was ultimately captivated by the power of light in photography. Earning a certificate in digital photography, she launched C. Rollock Photography, a business dedicated to capturing individuality and authentic expression in both personal and professional portraits.

In her discussion with Trisha, Christa shared insights into her approach to photography, emphasizing the importance of personal branding, regularly updating professional headshots, and capturing life experiences with authenticity. She is deeply passionate about building relationships with clients and creating meaningful portraits that reflect their true essence.

With the unwavering support of her husband, Christa continues to pursue her dream, using her artistic vision to tell powerful visual stories—one portrait at a time.

Connect with Christa on LinkedIn and follow C Rollock Photography on Facebook and Instagram.

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. Really excited about this guest coming by way of an introduction from Uguanda Simpson. Thank you, Uguanda, for the amazing introduction to Christa Rollock. She’s the owner of C Rollock Photography. Christa, welcome to the show.

Christa Rollock: Hello. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: So excited to have you on today. Okay. Let’s start with tell us a little bit about who you are and why you’ve ventured into this space of photography.

Christa Rollock: So, um, so my name is Christa, as you said. You know, I am someone who was born in Germany. I moved to the United States because I met my husband, and he was in the military at the time in the army. And so we moved to Milwaukee. We moved all over the place because he was an Army recruiter, and I was always there supporting him all the time, you know, raising the children, being there for him. And so my kind of my professional life took always a little bit of a step back. Right. And so finally at one point, I, um, I started in the insurance business, Life and Health for a long time, you know, and, um, enjoyed it because I am a people person and I like to help people. I like to be with people. So I enjoyed it. But there came a time in my life especially, that was when Covid hit. I, um, I found that because I was always a very creative person all my life. So I always did photography from a, from a, from a young age on, starting with, um, you know, push camera, like the cameras that you just push together to get a picture or the ones that just printed something out. You know, it was from very young on.

Christa Rollock: I did that, and I loved it. And I also loved drawing. Painting. But all of this, you know. Yeah, it just never really came out during all these years following my husband around. And then when that Covid hit, all of this came back to me. It it was like an eye opener. And I said, what is happening with all my creativity that I have? And, um, and so as I took a deep look at what I was doing right, I think a lot of people did it back then, you know, to take that deep look into their lives. And I went back to college. So I went back to college, to Houston Community College and, uh, started with, uh, graphic design, Lightroom, Photoshop and photography. And I learned everything about lighting. You know, how to light a human face. You know how to how to pose them. What light actually can do to a face. You know, when you really, really how it can shape somebody, how the eyes can pop. And I just I fell so hard for portrait photography. And I said, this is it. This is absolutely it. And from that moment on, there was no holding me back. And I started my business.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s that’s beautiful. So for those of you who aren’t watching the video, you need to go to the YouTube channel and see how amazing Christa’s light is on her right now. Because it’s beautiful. You you definitely have a knack for that. And by the way, I am old enough to remember Polaroids and flashbulbs. I’m just saying. I’m just saying. Wow, what a journey. Thank you. First off, I want to say thank you for doing the hard duty of being a military spouse. It’s not an easy thing to do. And moving all of the time and starting over all of the time can be very taxing. So I’m so glad that you’ve settled in and found the love that you have for photography. I want to talk about your motto because I love it. I mentioned it to you before we started recording this morning. So can you share what your motto is?

Christa Rollock: So my motto is every face has a story to tell. Let me help you tell yours because I am focusing on faces. This was always my passion. I went on my mother’s nerves and my whole family’s nerves back then because I always did these close ups. Right? Because faces, they tell a story. They really do. They I, you know, the older we get, actually, the more powerful a face becomes, because every, every wrinkle that we might have, every every gray hair we might have, you know, and the expression, you know, that we have I think that our life experiences can show in a face. You know, and it it to me, it always shows up great no matter what somebody’s life experiences were. But they made us who we are. And I, I want to show that because I think every face is so beautiful, and we live in a time where people think, oh my God, I am not the beauty standard. I am not looking like what I see out there. Right? And I want to tell people that’s not what it’s about. It’s about you. You are special and your image is special. And so that is that is the reason why this is my motto.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that that’s so beautiful, Christa. I love your story. I love your passion for the business that you’re in and what you bring to faces. And it’s can sometimes be challenging or even rewarding. So what are some of the unique challenges and rewards of capturing different personalities on camera?

Christa Rollock: So I think the, the, the biggest challenge is when somebody when you photograph someone who had, for instance, a headshot done before or and it was a, it was a three minute thing in a, in a, in an event, you know, where there was no time to really spend with that person, you know, to find out who are you, you know, well, how is your smile really working for you? Right? And does it reach your eyes? You know, and and so a lot of people come with that notion already. Oh, my God, I look so terrible in front of the of the camera and and my image will look so terrible. So this is a big challenge to overcome. But I feel that, um, because the way I work with people just, you know, really chilling, listening to music, talking, laughing and just getting people involved in the photo shoot itself. It makes people realize, hey, it’s actually great to do something like this. You know, it’s kind of a treat, you know? So this is the biggest challenge. Uh, I think that to overcome the, the preconceived, the way how people see themselves, you know?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I don’t like the way I sound. I don’t like the way I look, all the things. Right? Yeah. We hear it all the time. Um, can we talk just a little bit about just the production? So who do you work with and how do you work with them?

Christa Rollock: So I call myself a headshot photographer because I do so many headshots. Right? I, um, I love showing business people the strengths that they have, the the tenacity that shows up in their face, you know, the, the spunk that they have. I really love that because of the fact that I have been self-employed for so many years. And I think that we need to show, you know, who we are as business people, um, and what we represent, you know, and so that is something that I really like to do. Portraits is just all for me. It portraits is my. Yeah. It’s my passion. It’s that is what I do. So I you know, I always say this, you know as a photographer, yes. We can shoot a lot of different things, you know, we can shoot. Yeah. But where is your passion? Where is your niche? Where is it? Where you absolutely feel excitement. And for me, the excitement is a phase.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I can see that. You light up when you talk about what you do. You have such a such a passion for it. So, Christa, uh, are you in studio? Do you come to your clients? How does that work?

Christa Rollock: So I work in my studio where people can come and have that extended session. You know, where they really get, you know, where they can relax more. And I also go to businesses where I spend time with with people there. And because not every business owner can send their employees to me, you know, so I go to them, I have my equipment and I take the lighting with me and have fun there and just get to know the people that are working there and, and have fun with them and, and create that headshot for them there.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Fantastic. Tell me location wise, how far do you go and where is your studio?

Christa Rollock: So my studio is in Richmond, and, um, but because I have all my equipment, I can travel it. I travel basically anywhere, you know, to, you know, in Houston, Galveston. I mean, um, yeah, I mean, it really doesn’t matter, you know, because of the fact that unless it is, you know, out of state, that is something I don’t do. I use I don’t travel out of state.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. All right. Fantastic. So if someone’s already interested in meeting you and finding out more, what’s the best way to connect with you?

Christa Rollock: The best way to connect with me is by giving me a call or emailing me. Um, but the best thing is get in touch with me, shoot me a text, you know, and I call you back or call me. Um, so that way we can find out more about what it is that you need, because that’s very important to have that conversation beforehand. What is your expectation? What do you want out of this photo shoot? You know, what do you want to show? What do you want to present? And, um, so that way, it makes it already easier to understand a little bit more about you before you even come to me.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh that’s lovely. So I’ll put all of Christa’s contact information in the show notes. If you’re listening or watching, you can just click on the link and get in touch with Christa if you’re interested in having a conversation. So you do a lot of headshots, and I know I may be a dirty word, but what really sets the professional images that you’re putting together apart from someone using a cell phone or even creating an AI image online.

Christa Rollock: So let’s just talk about AI first. Uh, yes, there is a lot of these programs out there. You can, you know, you post so many images and then they put it all together into one. Who is there to coach you about how to how to lean in, how to you know about your smile about is your smile reaching your eyes. For instance, you know, how are you turning your head. How? How do you. Nobody is there to coach you, you know, for that. And, um, nobody is talking to you maybe about. Hey, what would look great about, you know, what do you wear? How about your backdrop that you have what goes well with you, the colors. Um, and, you know, and then the filters that are put on there, this is often not even looking at the person anymore that they are, you know. And so I’m thinking always, if you want to have a portrait of yourself, then why not show who you are instead of having it all that tons of filters on it and really not not, you know, and then somebody sees you and it’s like, is that really her or him?

Trisha Stetzel: Yes. It’s very hard to build trust with your audience if you’re not putting your real face forward and having someone like you really assist in that space can make it so much easier, right? Uh.

Christa Rollock: Yes. I think it’s a it’s a challenge. You know, when you sometimes meet someone and you saw them first on LinkedIn, and it is actually not who you’re expecting to see?

Trisha Stetzel: I agree. Yes, absolutely. All right. So, Christa, what would you say to those nice people out there that have a picture that’s 20 years old on their LinkedIn profile?

Christa Rollock: So, so.

Trisha Stetzel: Well.

Christa Rollock: You know, it’s great how we look 20 years ago. Ten years ago. Right? But I am someone who is very proud of how what who we are who are we’re becoming, like I said earlier, who are we? Right. And so I think that as a professional, you really should. Every year you should have it on your calendar, get a new headshot every year, because that way you have every year an updated headshot. You keep your you keep it fresh. Do you need branding for your website because what you know, do you not just need a headshot? Do you need to know for people to see who are you? What are you doing now? Right. And updated yearly. So that way it’s always fresh content. I think that’s really important.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. I’ve never heard anyone give that advice before. Get it done every year. And I was thinking back to when we were in grade school. We would have a photo every year. Right. To see, uh, how we had grown each year I love I think it’s a fantastic idea. Can we just talk a little bit? I’m not talking about dollars and cents, but the investment in having good headshots and marketing for your business. Can you talk a little bit about how important that investment is?

Christa Rollock: I think that as a business you look into marketing, right? What do I put out there? Do I pay my Google ad? What do I, you know, how do I what kind of advertising that I do? And you are putting the putting the money in there because you know it’s important. You have to get your name out, right? But isn’t it the same important to also get out how you’re looking, you know, so people realize who you are. They feel comfortable when they are meeting you. They feel like they’re already knowing you a little bit when they’re looking at this headshot. And that is why. Or your branding image on your website. That is why this investment is very important, not just putting the advertising out and putting the money aside for that, but also investing in your, um, in your profile profile is the wrong word, probably. But in your in your who you are. So people get to know you.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Your personal brand. Right. Your personal brand. Absolutely. So important whether you’re a leader for another company or you’re the owner of your business, that personal branding is so important. Absolutely. Okay, so if you could Photograph any person, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Christa Rollock: So it is not somebody famous that I am thinking of, because there’s a lot of famous people that are very interesting, right? And that have a lot of images out there. I would love to be able to go back and photograph my grandparents, because when I hear people saying, oh, I don’t want to be photographed, you know, then I think about how it is for me. I have no images of them or or the ones that I have are so awful I can barely see them. See them, you know, and I would love to go back and just show their life experience and show what they were about. So it is for my memory, for my personal thing and for the family, for my for my brothers and my sister, you know, so we can look back and see and and see more about them. And we don’t have that. And I think that’s sad. So if I could, I would go back and say, yes, that is absolutely what I want to do.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. And and each picture portrait, photo tells a story. How important is that storytelling through the work that you do?

Christa Rollock: It’s for me, it’s very important to tell that story because we are so different from each other, and we should show to people who we are. Who are we? And and, uh, not. Well, yes, we can always pretend. Right. But I always like to tell the real story about someone, you know? And, um, because it comes across, it comes across to people instead of, you know, the, the filtered images, you know, that show nothing, uh, the real, the real images have really come across to people and say, wow, I want to get to know this person.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So as we get to the back end of our conversation today, Christa, I’m going to drop a fun question on you. Can you tell us a story or a time of someone that you’ve worked with that was really enjoyable for you, being behind the camera?

Christa Rollock: You know, I, I have just recently, um, did a photo shoot for a very interesting company, uh, here in Richmond. They are a veteran owned as well, you know, disability. Veteran owned. Right. And, um, it’s a very and and I learned about this company so much because I’ve wanted to it was a photo shoot that the images went into Forbes and in fortune magazine, you know. And so I wanted to show the business owner. Right. You know, and he was told me, he said, no, this is not what it is about. My company is not about me. My company is about the people that work for me. So my company is all about them. And I loved that photo shoot because it was such a inspiring time to work with them and to see how they are, you know, how they’re working together, how they are, how they really like each other. You know, uh, it’s just I love that photo shoot. I loved I loved it very much. I love to get to. I love the people that I met there. I love the the commitment that he had to his people. I also love the nonprofit organization that they started, you know, um, uh, and it’s just everything was inspiring about them. So that’s just what hit me right off the top.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So lots of headshots. Lots of business people. You do personal photo shoots as well. You kind of have it all. Everything all encompassing. Right. Um, how do you find your clients? How do they find you? Normally.

Christa Rollock: So I network a lot, you know, in, in, in, you know, I’m out there a lot, shaking hands, meeting people at networking events, and, um, so people get to know me and then. Yeah, certainly, I, you know, make the connection by phone afterwards, you know, and, um, hopefully also by people referring me then, you know, saying, you know, I had that photo shoot with her, I loved it, you know, maybe you should get in touch with her. So that’s that is what I that is what I do mainly.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. I’m so excited that you came on the show with me today, Christa.

Christa Rollock: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: I know you got. Yeah. I’m glad that you had fun. So if you guys are looking for Christa, she and I are connected on LinkedIn, so if you and I are already connected, then you can find her that way. You can find her on LinkedIn at Christa dash dash 992675. And her first name is spelled c h r i s t a. You can also find her on Facebook at Sea Relic Photography and her website so you can go see some of her beautiful work is Sea Relic photography.com. Christa, thanks again for being with me today. It’s been my pleasure.

Christa Rollock: Thank you so much. It was so much fun.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m glad you had fun today and 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: Create Your Own Pro Tip Series

February 7, 2025 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Pro Tip: Create Your Own Pro Tip Series

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BRX Pro Tip: Create Your Own Pro Tip Series

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, this ought to be a fun topic. Let’s talk about pro tips.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think it’s important for anybody that’s in professional services, anybody that aspires to be a thought leader to create some sort of a pro tip series like this one here. And we’re happy to share how we do what we do and the why behind it. But I think it’s important to create some sort of a series of short, actionable tips. This kind of nuggets are great for social media, they’re easy to share on LinkedIn, they boost engagement and visibility. If you do this right, over time… I mean, we’ve done a thousand plus of tips of these over the years. We release them every weekday. But it can be curated. You can create playlists around it. Spotify is great for pulling playlists. You can create playlists around a variety of curated topics to, then, take these existing tips and then turn them into other types of tips.

But in order to do it right, I think it’s important to plan some sort of a content calendar with themes for each week or month. The way we do it is we record ten at a time, a couple times a month, and we release that content every workday. We try to keep the content two minutes-ish. We found that that kind of is the best for optimized for maximum engagement. And we try to include clear calls to action in a lot of these pieces of content that helps drive engagement and traffic back to our website and to us.

So, think about it. Is a pro tip series good for your business? Do you have enough thought leadership? And do you have enough content that you can share or willing to share? We find that it’s important to give away all the secrets. We don’t really hold back everything that we share, or stuff that we’re doing, or stuff we’ve learned firsthand, or stuff we’ve read about from other thought leaders.

And it’s important to be doing this with an end in mind. And the end in mind for us is we want to be considered thought leaders, and we want to help other professional services people, prospect properly grow their business and hopefully leverage the Business RadioX platform to help them grow their business. So, if you’re interested in learning more about pro tips, how we do it, and get really into how it might be able to help you, give us a call.