angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

From Hemp to Health: The Bold New Era of Period Care

September 12, 2024 by angishields

Women in Motion

From Hemp to Health: The Bold New Era of Period Care

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On today’s Women in Motion, Valerie Emanuel shares her inspiring entrepreneurial journey driven by her passion for environmentalism and women’s health. Valerie is CEO and Co-Founder of Rif Care, a company producing biodegradable period products from hemp fiber. She highlights the challenges of product development, securing funding through a Kickstarter campaign, and the importance of community support. Valerie also emphasizes the impact of being a women-owned business and the role of social media in building a brand and fostering customer engagement.

California native Val Emanuel is a mother, model, entrepreneur, and founder of Rif Care, a newly launched first of its kind period care brand made with hemp fiber.

The fully biodegradable pads are the first of their kind in the U.S. market and are providing a safe alternative to personal care.

Growing up, Emanuel was very conscious about waste due to being raised in a low-income household with a lack of resources. Rif Care was an opportunity for her to make a necessary product regenerative, not just sustainable with affordable price points.

Using regenerative agriculture, Rif Care’s menstrual care and wellness products contain only plant-based ingredients, offering women the much-desired choice of safety and sustainability.

Connect with Val 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: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Valerie Emanuel with Rif Care. Welcome.

Valerie Emanuel: Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Rif Care.

Valerie Emanuel: So, I’m one of the co-founders of Rif Care, and we are a period care company that launched two years ago. We make biodegradable period products, and we were the first company to launch that makes period products out of hemp fiber, so it’s a material innovation company and it’s also a women’s health company.

Lee Kantor: So, what’s your backstory? Were you always kind of inventing products?

Valerie Emanuel: No. I mean, I’ve definitely always been entrepreneurial since I was a kid. I was selling, you know, chips and candy out of my locker since I can remember. But I just really cared about the environment, and so I always grew up as an environmentalist doing beach cleanups and volunteering at parks, and just doing all these different things with my mom. And I kind of just took that into adulthood, and when I started to focus on my own health, I realized, wow, there’s so much with environmentalism and women’s health and just such an intersection there. And then, started to change all of my personal care products and just realized there was a gap in the market for materials innovation.

Valerie Emanuel: And, also, just, you know, if you haven’t seen the news last week, they found out that tampons had all these heavy metals. There was just, every week, a new story about how women’s health products were not the best and not that healthy. And so, I was like, I think this is why I’m making Rif Care.

Lee Kantor: And so, did you come up with the idea first or what was kind of the genesis of “Okay. I’m going to actually create a product here that’s going to, you know, solve the problem that I see.”

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah. So, I’m just a lover of hemp in general. And I had this idea, I went to a bunch of factories and I was like, “Why don’t we put hemp in period care? Like, we’re putting hemp in clothing and denim and t-shirts and bras.” And they’re like, “Oh. We can’t do that because it’s a non-woven material.” And I was like, “Well, I don’t understand why you can’t do it.” So, I just kind of dropped the idea for two years. I was in Portugal at the time and I thought if I’m here with all the manufacturing, I can figure it out.

Valerie Emanuel: But two years later, I ended up emailing someone in China who had a connection in Turkey, and they were actually making a tissue paper type of material with him. And so, they were able to use that same manufacturing to create the non-woven that makes our hemp top sheets. So, there were people working on it before, but we were the first people to be able to actually get it commercial into market.

Lee Kantor: And so, you have the idea, you find the right resource to help you kind of make it, then how many iterations did it take for you to get a product that you were happy with?

Valerie Emanuel: I mean, two iterations, honestly. It’s like from the time that I found the factory, it was actually when I launched my Kickstarter. I was talking to someone and he was an investor, and I was like, “I have this idea. I can’t let it go and I think it’s time for me to start it. I see there’s other companies trying to do it. They’ve been working on it for years.” And then, he was like, “That’s really interesting. I want to invest in you.” And I was like, “What?” So, I got the investment check. I started working on branding and everything else, and then I launched the Kickstarter.

Valerie Emanuel: And 60 days after launching the Kickstarter is when we had our first prototype. And they sent us two different types of prototypes with just different weights of material, and I ended up liking the second weight. And so, I sent it to all my friends, they all tried it, we all fell in love with it. And so, two months to prototype and then eight months later we launched, so really ten months since the inception of the brand and kind of telling people I was going to do it to actually launching. So, it was pretty quick.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that’s blazing fast. I mean, that’s really unusually quick. Congratulations on having the ability to pull that off. That’s a great story just by itself. How did you kind of do the Kickstarter? Because I know a lot of folks out there listening maybe have participated in Kickstarter, but maybe haven’t done it. Is there any lessons learned from kind of doing a successful Kickstarter?

Valerie Emanuel: I don’t know if I would ever do crowdfunding ever again, just because the internet landscape has changed so much in the last few years. I honestly wouldn’t discourage anyone from doing it. I think there’s two things. Number one is set up your email list very soon. I mean, if you’ve been doing this in any business, but making sure that you actually have people who are going to come to your page on the first day, pledge on the first day is really important.

Valerie Emanuel: Number two, we set a really, really high number of $50,000. And so, in order to reach that number, because we didn’t have a big email list, I don’t even think I was taking any emails. I was just posting on social media and hoping people saw us. We had to really get some friends who were going to invest as angel investors to like bigger Kickstarter donations. My mom did a bigger Kickstarter donation. And then, we had lots of pledges that came in that were pretty big, but just making sure you have people and then setting a low amount.

Valerie Emanuel: So, don’t be like, “Oh. We want to raise $50,000.” Maybe you want to raise $5,000, because if you reach $5,000 in two days, it’s going to look great to the algorithm versus it taking 50 days to reach $50,000, if that makes sense. I didn’t know that’s how it worked either. And there’s also companies that can help you run ads and do all this stuff for Kickstarter. I didn’t know that. I wish I would have hired one of them before we started.

Lee Kantor: So, it’s one of those things where you kind of have to have a bunch of people in a list or a database of some kind that care about what you’re doing to begin with. It’s not a build it and they will come kind of thing where you just put out a great idea and then all of a sudden the masses are going to find you somehow.

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah, I wish it was like that. And I was hoping that we’d be picked up on one of these newsletters, these Kickstarter newsletters, or that they feature us as a company, but you just can’t rely on that at all. And in order to do that, we would have had to reach our goal, like within the first 48 hours, which we didn’t. In the first 48 hours, I think we got, like, $3,000, which was just what? Less than 10 percent of our goal, less than 5 percent.

Valerie Emanuel: So, yeah, but you should already be building these email lists anyway if you’re starting your company. If your company is going to launch in six months, launch the website today and start collecting emails today, it is the most important thing you’ll do.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I tell that to people all the time that that’s kind of the foundational work you have to do before you even begin beginning. Because if you don’t have a bunch of people that care about you, it’s going to be hard to get that escape velocity.

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah. Social media, I mean, the ROI, you know, it’s okay for us. It’s like 2X. But our ROI on our newsletters, which are the emails that we’ve been collecting, is 20 to 40X just depending on the content.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And you control it. You can put it out and everybody will see it as opposed to, you know, social media where you’re part of the algorithm and maybe a few percent are going to see any given post.

Valerie Emanuel: Totally.

Lee Kantor: So, now you have your product, you launch your product, you start getting momentum, how did you kind of level up and get to the point where you are today?

Valerie Emanuel: Oh. I mean, there was so much. I think we’re really strategic about our launch, but also just didn’t know a lot. And so, sales in the first few months were like, there was tons of days where we just didn’t have a single sale. But when we first launched, we launched into a grocery store that’s called Erewhon, the very popular grocery store. And we knew that if we could get in there and solidify ourselves as a brand that’s selling really well, this would convince people that we had a great product because it’s hard to succeed on a shelf like that. And then, we also launched into Amazon. So, those were two things we did in the first 60 days.

Valerie Emanuel: But we didn’t have a big marketing budget and tons of marketing spend, so in terms of acquiring new customers, that was kind of difficult because it was all through social media. I still didn’t have my email capture really set up that well. And I think another thing that we did was we launched into a bunch of small grocery stores, so that kind of kept money coming in. But still, like in the first few months, we’re talking, you know, $3,000 a month, then $5,000, then $8,000, then $8,000 again for the next four months, and then $15,000 a month, finally. You know what I mean?

Valerie Emanuel: So, it’s been a slow build, but now we’re kind of getting into those retail stores. And in the next six months where it’s like this store has got 50 locations, this store’s got 200 locations, and so that kind of takes the business you’re doing and just 5X’s it. And so, it’s definitely slow, though. Like in the beginning, you will have those days where you don’t have a single order and that’s really depressing, or some months where a grocery store just doesn’t reorder. But then, you start to know, like, this is what I need to do with marketing to turn that, this is what I need to do with social media to get that number higher.

Valerie Emanuel: And really figuring it out in A/B testing what your audience is actually reacting to, what makes your audience go into stores, and also what keeps the retailers coming back. Is that sampling the employees or sampling the customers? Is that making sure that everyone has a discount code so they can all try your product? It’s small things like that, but it’s very hands-on growth in the beginning.

Lee Kantor: Now, did you or your co-founder have a background in kind of working with grocery stores and those kind of retail establishments or was this something you were having to learn as you went?

Valerie Emanuel: Me and my co-founder had no experience in CPG at all. So, our experience has been luckily not putting out tons of money and making really expensive mistakes. But you do make some semi-expensive mistakes. We’ve only raised like $200,000 for the company. So, you know, there’s just been times where we had to really rely on other founders to give us information about how we should function with distribution, and should we be distributing ourselves and shipping ourselves, or leaving it to a 3PL.

Valerie Emanuel: Her background is in molecular biology, she used to work in a lab. And then, my background is in influencer marketing. And even with marketing, digital marketing versus influencer marketing, completely different subject. Like we were on Squarespace, I think, for the first eight months, and we had $20,000 in abandoned cards. And then, we switched to Shopify and completely changed that. I would not have known that we should have been on Shopify if I didn’t talk to a bunch of other founders. So, things like that, that’s why I think it’s important to be in community for whatever type of company you’re building.

Lee Kantor: And speaking of community, why was it important for you to join the WBEC-West community?

Valerie Emanuel: Oh. I mean, every week I’m getting emails about different phone calls we can have about finances or trademarks or IP. There’s just so many resources. I also think getting the women-owned certification has been so important for us, because as a small brand, there’s just so many pluses to having the women-owned certification. It’s like waived slotting fees and also being able to be women-certified on Amazon. And, honestly, it’s been such a positive thing for our business to do, especially as we’re this small and still 100 percent women-owned.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story around the name Rif?

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah. So, funny story is I lost a trademark battle when we first started. The name was going to be Reef, and I thought our entire brand would be around ocean plastic and I was like, “Oh, maybe we’ll make, like, tampon applicators out of ocean bound plastic.” And like, “I don’t think consumers really like that.” And there’s also a brand called Reef that makes surf gear, so they were like, no.

Valerie Emanuel: But I also liked that R stood for regenerative, so Regenerative International Female. I don’t remember if me or my ex came up with it or we came up with it together. But after talking to him one day, after being super sad about losing that trademark battle, that’s how it came about. And then, I actually was still pronouncing Rif, reef. And then, I was like, no, it was too close to the other thing. Let’s just make it Rif, so it’s like maybe German sounding or some like Bavarian language just to make it kind of hard Rif. And then, we added Care because my co-founder was like names that have C sound in them consumers remember, so added Rif Care.

Lee Kantor: And then, has the brand kind of expanded beyond the initial products that you started with?

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah. I mean, we’re not making tons of products, but we do have, let’s see, one, two, three, four, five, six SKUs at the moment. And so, we have our pads regular, super, and overnight, which are made with hemp, first on the market, really proud of those. And then, next, we launched period underwear. Those were actually made with hemp eucalyptus fiber and organic cotton. They’re BFA-free and they’re just reusable underwear that you bleed into, you wash and repeat. And then, we also have tampons. But we’re super proud of everything we’ve done so far and the way we’ve been able to to innovate in products. So, yeah, we’ll continue building eventually. Just nothing new maybe for the next 12 months.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you building a community with the people who are buying the products?

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah. I mean, we’ve had such amazing feedback on social media lately. Earlier this year, we did a reality show called Side Hustlers that we gained a few hundred followers from that. And we also found that from that, we were getting so much more engagement. Because I think with social media before, it felt like we were just posting things and they were going nowhere. Of course, there were videos that went viral and there were videos that people responded to and sent us DMs about.

Valerie Emanuel: But I think people getting to see me and my co-founder on TV and getting to know our personalities a little bit better, and then just putting ourselves out there a little bit more has changed things. There was an article that was picked up at The Daily Mail on this video we did that went viral about childbirth. And just things like that have kind of inspired people to come and talk to us about their periods and their health and their body. So, it’s all been pretty positive just putting ourselves out there.

Lee Kantor: And then, with your background as an influencer, is that a lesson that other entrepreneurs can learn from? That be vulnerable, put yourself out there, and if you are part of the brand kind of lean into that?

Valerie Emanuel: Yeah. I mean, I think I put myself out there more than many other period care founders. There’s me and one other, and we’re changing our pads and talking about tampons and talking about our bodies in a way that is shame-free. I mean, my platform is really about health, beauty and women’s health in general.

Valerie Emanuel: But I always tell other founders like, “Look. You don’t need to be the face of your brand. But if you don’t have tons of money, you’re going to have to do it for a little bit.” And, also, you want to be able to set the tone of your brand and the company culture so that when you bring someone in eventually, there’s already kind of a blueprint for how you want the look and feel to be of your company.

Lee Kantor: Right. I mean, you’re the culture. I mean, you’re kind of the voice, face at the beginning, but at some point it grows beyond you.

Valerie Emanuel: Totally.

Lee Kantor: So, what do you need more of? How can we help you? You mentioned more stores to put your product in. Do you need more funding? What do you need and how can we help?

Valerie Emanuel: I mean, right now we’re actually raising a bridge round through angel investors. So, we raised $100,000 from that TV show I told you about via Ashley Graham, who’s a supermodel and just author, all around amazing woman entrepreneur. So, we’re raising $400,000 more. So, currently talking to angel investors and just anyone who’s interested in Rif, because there are opportunities for some of the biggest stores in the United States and also global opportunities that we want to do. But, you know, we’re growing small and we’re growing smart, so we have to think about how we can actually fund those opportunities.

Valerie Emanuel: Another thing is just check us out, give us a follow at Rif Care online. Interact with us. We have so many [inaudible] that we always put in our stories and on our posts, which is even interacting or sharing with a friend is always so helpful.

Lee Kantor: And that’s R-I-F-C-A-R-E.com?

Valerie Emanuel: R-I-F-C-A-R-E — sorry. R-I-F-C-A-R-E.com or R-I-F-C-A-R-E on Instagram and TikTok.

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

Valerie Emanuel: Thank you for having me.

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

Balancing Business and Education: Alex Timothee’s Journey Through the KSU Executive MBA

September 12, 2024 by angishields

High Velocity Careers

Balancing Business and Education: Alex Timothee's Journey Through the KSU Executive MBA

00:00 /

In this episode of High Velocity Careers, Stone Payton talks with Alex Timothee from Gold Standard Preservation. Alex discusses his crucial role in organ preservation and transplantation, emphasizing the importance of safe and effective organ recovery. He shares his journey into the field, the challenges and rewards of his work, and the significance of collaboration and trust. The conversation also highlights advancements in technology, such as machine perfusion, and Alex’s enriching experience in the Kennesaw State University Executive MBA program. The episode offers valuable insights into the organ transplantation industry and the impact of continuous learning and dedication.

Alex Timothee is an accomplished entrepreneur and business leader with a diverse background in organ preservation and emerging technology solutions.

With a focus on creating innovative, scalable services, Alex has built and managed Gold Standard Preservation (GSP), a service-based company specializing in organ preservation.

GSP is renowned for its commitment to advancing clinical practices and providing cutting-edge solutions to transplant centers.

Alex has pursued extensive education in business, technology, and leadership. He is currently an EMBA student at Kennesaw State University. Alex’s education has equipped him with the skills and knowledge to lead in complex, multidisciplinary environments where he consistently drives innovation and operational excellence.

Throughout his career, Alex has been a pioneer in the medical services industry, particularly in organ preservation. His expertise spans various roles, from lab management to overseeing clinical operations and ensuring compliance with industry standards. Under his leadership, GSP has become a trusted partner for transplant centers, offering services that are not only innovative but also deeply rooted in best practices and ethical standards.

Alex’s exceptional leadership and commitment to team development are well-known. He has received positive feedback from his teams and has been recognized as an outstanding team lead. His dedication to fostering a collaborative and supportive work environment is evident in his creation of a Social & Team Building Committee within GSP, which focuses on enhancing team cohesion through various social and professional events.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Alex is a dedicated husband and father of five daughters and three granddaughters. He balances his demanding career with his responsibilities as a parent. His leadership extends into his personal life, where he takes pride in being a role model for his family.

Connect with Alex on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High velocity Careers. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. For more information, go to kennesaw.edu/mba. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of High Velocity Careers. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. This is going to be a good one. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with gold standard preservation. Mr. Alex Timothee. How are you, man?

Alex Timothee: I’m doing good, stone. Thanks for having me. That’s some good intro music, by the way.

Stone Payton: I like it too, and it is a delight to have you in studio. I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation. Alex, I got a ton of questions. I know we’re not going to get to them all, okay, but I think a great place to start would be if you could share with me and our listeners mission. Purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, man.

Alex Timothee: What my team does and what our mission is really just to help organizations such as transplant centers or hospitals or even oppose organ procurement organizations, just make sure that those organs get recovered safely properly and that they get transplanted into the right patient.

Stone Payton: Well, this is a very fascinating topic for me, and it has a personal connection for me. I didn’t share this with you before we went on air, and I just dawned on me, My wife, right at a year ago, donated a kidney. Oh, wow. To her best friend growing up. Now, it didn’t go directly. No, no. You know, but it all worked out where she donated somebody else. And then Mary finally got one. And so we’ve we’ve been on the edges of this arena, so I. Yeah, I’m fascinated to learn more. What is the backstory? How in the world did you find yourself in this line of work, man?

Alex Timothee: No, no. Um, first of all, congrats to your wife, to being part of a period exchange program that is such a complex world and just trying to get the right organ from one person to the next. And then you got to go through, like, several different patients and centers and just to make it happen, it’s incredible. So congrats to her for being part of that. Um, and how we end up getting started was there was a need. Um, there was a need for a go between between the hospitals and the Oppose to make sure that those hospitals have someone who’s knowledgeable, who’s skilled enough to assist the surgeons in getting those organs so they. When I was approached to start this business, I was a little reluctant, but I said that, um, you know what? I think they come to me for a reason because there’s trust in me. So I decided, let’s let’s go for it. And so far, so good. We’ve been doing great and I’ve been learning a lot. And, um. I’m blessed.

Stone Payton: Well, it certainly sounds like you enjoy the work. I see it in your eyes. We can hear it in your in your voice. And you’ve been at it a while now. Yes.

Alex Timothee: Yeah, I’ve been with gold standard preservation. We’ve been operating for about two years now, but I’ve been in transplant for about, gosh, 16 years. Oh my. Just about. Yeah, in different areas. Um, I started out mainly doing organ transplants on the recipient side, helping on the sideline, helping surgeons put the livers in. And I’m learning a lot through that. And then eventually I’m like, oh, let me learn about kidneys. Then I learned about kidneys and perfusing those. And then from there it was like, hey, what’s this donor life looking like? Then I got into donors and the next thing you know, boom, here I am. I’m like, wow, is this just it was really just a roller coaster.

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

Alex Timothee: Ah, that’s a really good one. I like the collaboration. I like helping and being useful, and to me, that’s what brings me the most joy and finding innovative ways to accomplish the goal. And and just being able to have that freedom to. I could just toss ideas back and forth with my hospital leaders and, you know, and they give him good feedback and we’re just working together and making something happen. They’ll say, hey, we have this problem. We want to get this outcome. Okay, what can we do in the middle? And just that thought process has been really rewarding for me.

Stone Payton: So my experience is, you know, just a little more than a year old and kind of restricted. But I have to believe that there have been a great many changes in this arena and probably some, some new technologies that have come down. What kind of changes have you, have you seen over the years?

Alex Timothee: Yeah, actually, you know, in the last 5 to 10 years, one of the biggest changes that’s come around is machine perfusion, where we are using these pumps basically to keep these organs preserved properly outside the body longer because, um, I remember when your wife went through the program, um, for the paid exchange, she probably does a very finite time. They were very coordinated. They got to be here at this time. You got to take it out at this time. And all these things happened. But there are things that happen where the patient can’t get to the hospital in time, or there’s some minor complication, and that organ is on a very tight time limit. So with these machines, now that we start pumping the preservation fluid or even blood through these organs, it helps keep it alive, in essence, a lot longer to give the patient more time to get to the hospital or to mitigate any sort of complication that would arise that would be time sensitive.

Stone Payton: So you and or some people on your team must be incredibly gifted, educated about just managing logistics. You must be.

Alex Timothee: Yeah. Um, logistics is tough because a lot of times when we get called out, we have to fly out to a different state to get the organ. Um, so we are available 24 over seven, um, anytime, day or night. They call us up, they say, hey, we need some help. And we’re like, okay, we’re there. We meet them at a designated location, we hop on a plane, we get there, and then we turn right back around. So, I mean, you’re talking about all of this within 6 to 10 hours, depending on how far we got to go.

Stone Payton: Wow, that is a short window. And you got to keep everything in intact.

Alex Timothee: Everything? Yep.

Stone Payton: So is there a sales and marketing aspect to your business, or is it a different kind of inner wired community?

Alex Timothee: So it’s not so much sales and marketing. There is some marketing involved just to kind of get your name out there, because this role that we’re in is constantly evolving. Before it was, there was never any outside entity other than hospital or the oppo who did this sort of work. So now that we’re here, we’re that we’re in that space in between both centers. So a lot of our work and business comes from word of mouth and being trusted in the industry. So yeah, we could put marketing ads out there. We can do sales calls, but those don’t return much because if because you’re dealing with a patient’s life. So I can reach out to 20 different hospitals, but they say, if I don’t know you, if I don’t trust you, we’re not going to take a chance for our patients So you have to basically be well known to in order to generate any ridiculousness.

Stone Payton: So I am fond of telling people in my arena, you know, good training, consulting media that that it’s all about relationship and we have to build that trust. But that’s got to be like magnified a hundred fold in your it’s all about relationship and trust.

Alex Timothee: Relationship and trust all of it. And that’s what really I’ve been getting a lot out of the KSU Emba program from that is learning how to build those relationships and how to learn to build trust within the industry and with business leaders. So it’s been very profound, the learning experience I’ve been getting in that arena.

Stone Payton: So tell us about that experience. You know, they underwrite this program okay. So we’ll give them we’ll give them a little shout out. But yeah and we’ve had some faculty members. We had some deans in here the other day in the studio. Uh, but let’s hear it from the student perspective. You speak to that experience if you would.

Alex Timothee: Yeah. When I signed up for this program, it was mostly for I want to learn business acumen. Right? I want to learn how to run a business effectively and make sure that business is successful long term. What I did not expect to get out of it mostly is leadership skills, how to manage a team effectively, and the faculty such as Thomas Devaney and James Davis and Professor Jacek. Those guys have really pushed on us critical thinking when it comes to leadership and management. And as a student going in, I tell my wife several times that, man, I gotta, I gotta do all this. And this is, this is crazy. I’m like, how am I going to get this done? And I got to work with these people and my team is at school is actually a really great group of people. Um, but the experience itself is learning How to communicate properly with was day one, right? They’re like, okay, we’re going to be working with teams. You guys got to know how to talk to each other and our team. We made a joke where we said, hey, we’re all adults. We’re all here to complete this program and get, you know, get the grade. But that’s it’s not that simple. It’s really not that simple. You have to learn a lot of different personalities. Um, we took assessments on personality, learning styles, leadership styles, communication styles, um, conflict resolution. And we actually learn about each other on a qualitative version, qualitative measure to see where we are. Um, and then kind of just kind of find where we land with each other and, and get those projects done. Um, and that’s a huge kudos to the team for how they, for the school, for how they build, um, that program. It’s really good.

Stone Payton: So the curriculum, as I understand it, I guess the best word for it. And maybe you know, a different word. It’s integrated, right? Like you don’t study a subject and then study a different subject. You apply all of these domains to like real world scenarios. Yes. Yeah.

Alex Timothee: Yeah. Most definitely. Um, so for example, like I said, the first semester we talked about communication, leadership styles, um, personalities. And at the same time learning about accounting, learning about marketing and, um, you know, and, and we and then we build upon each lesson. And the cool thing is what? It’s one week in a month, we attend courses, right? So it’s a very intense Saturday and Sunday, eight hours. They feed us great food, by the way. Um, man, it’s great food. Uh, so they feed us and while we’re, they’re going through the whole day, what we learned on that Saturday and Sunday, we apply it the very next week I go to work Monday back.

Stone Payton: At Gold Standard. You’re applying what you learned.

Alex Timothee: I am applying it actually. On the way home from school, I call up my director, Selma. She’s fabulous, by the way. She, um. Without her, we would not be where we are. Shout out to you, Selma. Um, I call her on the way home from school, and I’m, like, for the hour long commute. I’m like, Selma, this is what we learned. This is what we’re going to try to implement within our program ourselves. And it has been working out in phenomenally.

Stone Payton: So working with teams is real life. So I love that that’s part of the part of the curriculum. And then so when you’re working in in teams like this, how do you organize the team. Do you find out what people want to do, what they can do? Like what where the rubber hits the road. How do you get a team going both in school and over at Gold Standard?

Alex Timothee: Um, well, I approach it in two different, two different ways. Uh, with school, um I really rely on the team for on our communication because we’re all, like, equal in a sense, right? There’s not a group thing where, hey, I’m here and I’m telling you guys what to do, right? It’s all like, nope. Everybody got their input and and we all work together on the business side of it. It’s a little different since I am the CEO. Um, I have to rely on delegation. So in order to build this team, what I’ve learned is I have to leverage my resources. And part of that is working with a consulting group. Um, whilst consulting. And they handle a lot of the team exercises and the coaching for them. So they because they can approach my, my staff in a way that I can’t because I’ve tried it, I’ve went to them openly and I was like, hey guys, we’re going to evaluations and so forth And because of my role, it doesn’t get received the same way as it would if it was a third party who’s unbiased on both sides. So I’ve learned to leverage that. Um, and that firm, um, consulting has been doing really good work, uh, making the team more cohesive because they can trust what they learn from her. And then they come with me, and then they learn how to speak with me without fear. And now we’re building that trust within ourselves.

Stone Payton: What’s the name of the consulting firm?

Alex Timothee: YLC Consulting.

Stone Payton: YLC Consulting. Thank you for that. I’m going to send them an invoice because I think we gave them a great plug.

Alex Timothee: Yeah. Please do. Maybe they might cut my fee down.

Stone Payton: There you go. We’ll try to get you a little break.

Stone Payton: On the price. So I don’t know when or how you’d find the time. You you have gold standard. You’re you’re pursuing this executive MBA but interests, hobbies, passions pursuits outside the scope of the work right now. Or is it just had to take a back burner?

Alex Timothee: Hobbyist has taken a back burner.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Alex Timothee: Yeah, it really has. Um, one things that when I interviewed for the program they told us was they’re like, hey, uh, they were kind of concerned about me at first. They were like, you seem like you got a lot going on. Yeah.

Stone Payton: Do you have irons in the fire?

Alex Timothee: Yeah. Can you really? And I was like, no, I’m not. I can manage my schedule. I’m the boss. I can do this. I can no I can’t no, no, I really can’t. No. Um, what I’ve learned is you really have to make a schedule like, you know, even today, I know I was talking. You asked me. Hey, how do you, uh, you know, we do. The weekend. I had to consult my calendar because, um, part of this program is you have to make your the week ending class. That’s a rock. Everything else around your life revolves around that. And then you have meetings that you have with your team either weekly or twice a week or whatever, and then you make that a rock also. So you kind of so you so your life revolves around school itself. And, and then when it comes to work, what I’ve done is and I just started doing this recently because my lovely wife told me that, you know, she don’t see me enough. So what? So what I started doing is I started to set my week up in a way where I can arrange all my meetings on certain days of the week, and then I will have my class stuff on certain days of the week, and then I’ll have my family time on certain days of the week and certain hours. Um, and so far that’s been working great. Um, I haven’t had no complaints. Everyone seems satisfied. Um, and my hobbies, I just squeeze it in whenever I can in between there. Um, which is not a big deal, because a lot of times when I am getting overwhelmed with concepts and ideas or coursework. Then I just take a break, do my little hobby, and then it helps, refreshes me, gives me re-energized, and it also gives me some ideas to where I could go back into it with a fresh set of lens.

Stone Payton: So I remember a conversation in the last couple of weeks we were talking about, or I kind of prompted the idea of talking about work life balance. Yeah. And that person, she made a point of her. The frame for her was work life integration, as it was a better mental model for her. And I think maybe I’m kind of adopting that. It’s, you know, because I run my own, you know, studio. I’m part of the, the team that owns the network. It never really is totally set aside, but it’s integrated. Now, I do find that I need a little bit of that. I call it white space and that if I do kind of back off just a little bit and it allows me to recharge and I genuinely feel like I am when I get back, I’m I’m equipped to serve even that much better after I’ve had that. But I can’t imagine doing what I’m doing now and pursuing an executive MBA. So kudos to you. But I think that’s a good strong tactic or tip is to is to lock that calendar and create blocks of time to do whatever it is you need to do and figure out what your hub is. And right now, the hub, the rock, I think you said, is you’re working around the executive MBA thing and then you’re plugging the other stuff.

Alex Timothee: Yeah.

Alex Timothee: And the time passes quickly. I mean, when I first started this, I was like, oh my gosh, I got how many more months left to go. I’m like, I can’t make it through. And now we’re a year in and I’m like, wait, I just got two semesters left. Oh, wow. You know, I mean, the time just flies. And the things I’ve learned through that whole, that whole process is like, you know, I’m gonna tell you a little side story here about school. Um, early on in my medical career, when I was, like, serving as, like, a as a medical assistant for an outpatient clinic I remember when the patient comes in, we kind of get the blood pressure, kind of just get them relaxed before they go in for the procedure. And I met a guy, he was actually a director here at KSU, and he told me about the MBA program, and he said he’s like, one of the coolest things we do is we have an international program where our students go overseas and they learn business. And I was like, wow, that’s pretty cool. Okay, now go to sleep. Um, you know, so fast forward. Then I started going to school, taking classes here and there. This was like, man, years ago, right? Um, taking classes. And once I went to KSU for my undergrad for leadership and management, um, and I told my fiance at the time, I was like, hey, I’m done with school. I’m not. I’m not doing this no more. This this is this is ridiculous. Uh, and no less than 30 days later, I’m applying for the MBA program, and and then I sat back. I’m like, wait a minute, this is the same program that this gentleman was telling me about over a decade ago, and here I am joining this exact same program. So when it comes to being the rock, part of it is, hey, you got to set aside two weeks in the summer. In the spring because you got to go to international residency.

Stone Payton: Okay, so this component is still part of the process. So you’re going to get to do the international.

Alex Timothee: Yeah.

Alex Timothee: We’re going to a country and um, in South America, and we’re going to spend almost two weeks there working with a real world business and consulting them on how they can improve whatever they need to improve on. Um, we, I think our next semester we will start in January. So for from January, February, March, April, we’ll be doing, um, virtual meetings. And then in May when we get there, we actually go into, I think April or May. Then we actually got to go there and we actually say, okay, this what we’ve been working on, you guys won’t have this problem to solve. Here’s the problem. And here’s our here’s our results and here’s our recommendations. And take it from there.

Stone Payton: Sounds like a marvelous opportunity for remote broadcast of this show to me.

Alex Timothee: I think so. You know, I think we could talk to the faculty about getting you guys out there for.

Stone Payton: I love it.

Alex Timothee: For at least a couple of days just to, you know, interview these guys. I think it’d be great.

Stone Payton: Absolutely.

Alex Timothee: It’d be great. But, yeah, that that and I also have to set aside. So my work now is I am blocking out almost three weeks in one month where I cannot do no work because I have to do the school thing. Mhm. You know, and I told my wife and a lot of us, we actually bring our spouses with us and we have the flexibility to bring them out there with us in that time. So yeah. Yeah. It’s really it’s a really great program. I can’t talk about it enough.

Stone Payton: All right. Before we wrap, let’s let’s leave our listeners with a couple of actionable tips, some do’s and don’ts, maybe something they could be reading around any of these topics pursuing a high velocity career, uh, cultivating and nurturing a team, but let’s leave them in with with a little bit of something. They can just go and try to be thinking about or apply immediately after hearing this conversation.

Alex Timothee: Okay. Um, if you’re thinking about going into business or thinking about how to grow your business, the one thing you really have to put in mind is don’t think about profits. Think about who you’re serving. Um, or in our case, we are serving patients. And one of the things that my, one of our missions is we tell ourselves is that we are here for the donor families because we are they are being approached at one of the darkest times in their life to donate your loved ones organs for a stranger. And and when and I mean, that’s just difficult alone. So we all want to be remembered and we all want our story to continue on once we’re like our lives had meaning. So our role is we’re just making sure that that organ gets a home and that makes sure that that donor and that donor family knows that their loved one’s story still goes on. So if you put who you’re serving on the forefront and be as useful as possible to those people or to those stakeholders, the profits will come and your business will succeed you just be transparent, run with integrity and and you’ll reach for the stars.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous piece of counsel. I’m so glad that I asked. All right, so if any of our listeners would like to learn more about the executive MBA program, if they’d like to learn more about Gold Standard, or if they would just like to connect with you, is are you open to having them kind of connect with you in some, some way, or learn more about the company.

Alex Timothee: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m very chatty sometimes. Um, so.

Stone Payton: Yeah, I noticed that Alex.

Alex Timothee: Um. But I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Stone. I’m sorry. Um, no. They can reach out to me on LinkedIn. Um, I think my link would be available on the website.

Stone Payton: We’ll make sure that we have it published.

Alex Timothee: Okay. Yeah. Or they can reach out through our website. Gold standard preservation org. There’s a contact us section to the bottom there. They can reach out to us if they have any questions about what we do, how we do it, or if they like to partner with us in any kind of way. I’m huge on collaboration and um, yeah, for the KSU Emba program, I think it’s ksu.edu/emba, I believe.

Stone Payton: Wow, that’s pretty cool.

Stone Payton: You know what? I’m the producer of the show and I didn’t even remember all that.

Alex Timothee: Uh, yeah. And you can reach out on me on LinkedIn at Alex, Timothy, Timothy. And I’m feel free to DM me and I’ll message. I’ll reply back pretty quickly and and we’ll have a chat.

Stone Payton: And if you’re on campus some weekends, you might run into him.

Alex Timothee: Yes, yes. If anyone’s thinking about going into the program, definitely find me. Um, I’ll give you all the deets and all the how to prep yourselves.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. Alex, what a delight! I have really enjoyed the conversation. I am so glad we got to do it here in studio. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm man. It’s been an invigorating, inspiring conversation. The work that you guys are doing at Gold Standard is so, so important. And we we sure appreciate you, man.

Alex Timothee: Thanks a lot, Stone. Thanks for having me here. This was great.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Alex. Timothy with gold standard Preservation and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you again on high velocity careers.

BRX Stories – Does Anyone Listen?

September 12, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Stories - Does Anyone Listen?

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BRX Stories – Does Anyone Listen?

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, do you ever get the question from clients, guests, just people…. does anyone listen?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s one of those things, when you’re in a studio and it’s so intimate and everybody’s got headphones on, the listener, you kind of forget about that because the moment is so personal when you’re doing this in a studio with other people. But people do ask, do people listen? And it’s one of those things where you’d be surprised how many people listen, and the people that are listening are very intentional about listening. This isn’t something that they’re just kind of casually consuming. This is information.

Lee Kantor: When somebody listens to one of our shows, it’s because they really want that kind of information. And a great illustration of that is the story that we have from one of our studio operators in Gwinnett. He had a listener, it started out as an anonymous listener. He was a banker from Colombia, and it’s Colombia, South America, not Columbia, South Carolina. And he was listening to Gwinnett Business Radio Show on his way to work every day, and he would listen to the podcast religiously. He was contemplating. He was in the flavoring business and he had a side hustle, that he’s like, you know, one day I’d like to go to America and really see if I can kind of grow this business.

Lee Kantor: So, he Googled fastest growing places in America. And at the time, Gwinnett County was one of the fastest growing counties, so he dug in there. And, of course, the Gwinnett Business Radio show popped up as one of the kind of media outlets there. And so, he started listening to the shows, and he was listening day after day. And he got to the point where one of the guests said that they help companies do international business plans. So, he contacted that person and he did hire them to create an international business plan. And so, you know, weeks, months are going by, ultimately, he moves with his wife to Gwinnett County.

Lee Kantor: And tell everybody, Stone, how we know about this story. How did it come to our attention?

Stone Payton: So, our studio partner in Gwinnett, he does such a great job cultivating relationships in that community. He is the social mayor of Gwinnett County. And there was some sort of event where he brought a bunch of people in, guests, clients, you know, just everybody in his neck of the woods in that Business RadioX ecosystem, and there were Chamber people there.

Stone Payton: And this guy that you’re talking about from South America, he got up and spoke, and here’s what sticks with me. You brought Abby. I brought my wife, Holly. And Holly got to hear this guy talk about the impact that Business RadioX had on his business and his life. And, man, my chest swole up like a grizzly bear that evening. It was one of the most heartwarming greatest experiences I’ve ever had.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And to have him stand up and share the story in front of so many people, I think it was held at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. I think the event was a Gwinnett Chamber event. And he stood up and shared everything he knew about America was Gwinnett County. Like his whole world in America was what he learned from the content that was coming out of Gwinnett Business Radio, and hearing the stories of the entrepreneurs. That really spoke to him and made him feel confident that, yes, I can do this, and, yes, this community would be able to embrace me and help me get my business to a new level.

Lee Kantor: And so, yeah, that story, I think, really encapsulates who listens, more people than you can think about. And they’re listening with intentionality, these are people who are listening to make buying decisions. These are people listening because they are hungry for this kind of information. So, yeah, that story is a great illustration of people listen to this stuff.

BRX Pro Tip: Write More Sales Enablement Copy

September 11, 2024 by angishields

Ramping up to attend the WBEC-West 21st Annual Procurement and Awards Conference with Missy Kelly

September 10, 2024 by angishields

Women in Motion

Ramping up to attend the WBEC-West 21st Annual Procurement and Awards Conference with Missy Kelly

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In this episode of Women in Motion, Lee Kantor interviews Missy Kelly, co-founder and CEO of CatTongue Grips. Missy shares her entrepreneurial journey, detailing the creation of her non-abrasive, non-slip products designed to prevent items from slipping. She discusses the challenges of product development, the importance of networking within the women-owned business community, and the value of the WBEC-West certification. Missy also highlights the benefits of attending conferences for networking and growth opportunities, offering tips for success and emphasizing the significance of building long-term relationships in business.

Missy Kelly is an accomplished entrepreneur, business leader, and community advocate. She is widely recognized as the co-founder and CEO of CatTongue Grips, a global leader in providing non-abrasive, non-slip products that prevent items, people, animals and cargo from slipping, sliding, spilling or dropping. Under her leadership, CatTongue Grips has become the go-to brand for high-performance non-slip products, serving customers across a diverse range of industries.

In addition to her work at CatTongue Grips, Missy is also a Visionary for Pinnacle Global Network, where she leads quarterly mastermind sessions to help business owners scale their companies. Her passion for helping other entrepreneurs succeed is also evident in her roles as the 2023 Chair of the Utah Forum for WBEC-West, 2023 WBENC National Forum member and serving as a mentor for the 2023 WBENC College Accelerator program.

Missy’s commitment to her community extends beyond her professional work. She serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as the Board of Trustees at the Winter Sports School of Park City. She is also newly serving on the Board of Directors for the MECA Project, a non-profit organization that addresses mental health in teens.

Despite her busy schedule, Missy finds inspiration in the people she helps and the incredible entrepreneurs she encounters. She lives in Park City, Utah, with her husband, Matt, and their two teenagers and two dogs. In her spare time, Missy enjoys practicing yoga and exploring the outdoors through hiking and skiing. Her motto, “live life, love hard, and do epic sh*t,” is a testament to her unyielding spirit and dedication to making a positive impact on the world around her.

Connect with Missy 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.

Missy Kelly: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn about CatTongue Grips. Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?

Missy Kelly: Yes. So, CatTongue Grips is the world’s leader in providing non-abrasive, non-slip products that prevent items, people, animals, cargo from slipping, sliding, spilling, or dropping. So, we like to say we maximize safety for people and facilities and improve day-to-day living.

Lee Kantor: So, there has to be a story. Can you tell us about the genesis of this idea? How did this come about?

Missy Kelly: Of course, yes. So, it happened in 2015 when my husband walked into a Verizon store to upgrade his phone, and he just noticed how slippery the back of the phone was. And he made a comment to the salesperson, she tried to sell him insurance. And not wanting another bill, the light bulb went off and he went to a nearby skateboard store, literally cut out skateboard grip tape, and slapped it on the back of his phone.

Missy Kelly: And later on I said to him, “What do you have going on here? This feels like a cat tongue and it’s going to scratch every surface of the house. You can’t have it.” And so, he challenged me to find something like it. We couldn’t. So, we decided to make it, and sourced a manufacturer, went through about 18 months and ten prototypes before we launched our first product, which was the phone grip.

Missy Kelly: But then, customers saying, “Hey, can I use this under furniture? Can I cut it and use it on slippery tools?” We ended up putting our material, which we saw that was the true value, on a roll so that the customer can do anything that they desire with it to help them prevent items from slipping and sliding, for themselves in bathtubs, showers. And now we have companies using the product in their warehouses or manufacturing facilities for safety. And we’re even now selling into the U.S. Navy.

Lee Kantor: So, had you ever developed a product like this before? Because that seems like it has its own learning curve just doing that.

Missy Kelly: Yeah. Exactly. You know, I like to say we are building the plane as we fly it. No, we’ve never developed a product. It’s definitely been a topsy-turvy entrepreneurial road. However, all the different doors that have opened opportunities, it’s stepping through and walking into it, and just being open to what’s on the other side.

Lee Kantor: So, any advice for other people who have maybe an idea for a product like this? I mean, obviously not like this, but just a product in general. What is kind of some of the basic things you do to just get started to see if you can even make it come to life as a prototype?

Missy Kelly: Right. Well, first of all, it’s finding a manufacturer. So, for us, it was finding a manufacturer that could produce material for us. And that in itself took time, energy, research. And I believe for us, it’s always been that belief in there is a need that if my husband has this issue, other people do too. And then, just being open. Because, you know, we started as a phone grip, and now our products have been to space. So, it’s being open to what the market is calling for. And we say we’re a customer-driven company, and that certainly has been true of designing and developing products that the customer desires.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re at kind of the beginning stages and it’s an idea and I’d like this thing to do with this thing, how do you know who are the good guys, and who you can trust, and who that you might be opening up a can of worms by revealing this? Was that any of an issue for you?

Missy Kelly: You know, I feel that it could have been if we really let the mindset go that way. It kind of sounds a little Huey Dewey in that sense. But, I mean, our manufacturer we trusted from the get go. There’s a great synergy. And is it possible that it could have gone the other way? One hundred percent. But I’m very thankful that we’ve built relationships over the last – gosh – now seven years, and fortunately, it’s worked out for us.

Lee Kantor: Now, when it came to finding that trustworthy manufacturer, was that just using your network and networking, or did you just go Google manufacturers?

Missy Kelly: Hello Google. Yeah, really finding who was in the space for non-slip products, and going through, and finding, and chatting, and researching, and then having a meeting. And that meeting went really well and they had never seen anything like it and hadn’t been asked to make something like it, so it ended up being that, you know, they they got their scientists on it to make us a product. And here we are.

Lee Kantor: It’s an amazing story.

Missy Kelly: Thank you. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share a little bit about why it was important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community?

Missy Kelly: Well, I knew from the beginning that being a woman-owned business would be important for us. And in the sense of that also is my husband and I started the company, however he was still working his other job too. So, for me, I knew I would be running it. And I actually had a good friend who was part of WBENC who told us that you should really look into being a woman-owned company. And I’m so glad I followed her advice, because truly having that WBENC certification has just been instrumental to the growth of our business.

Lee Kantor: In what way?

Missy Kelly: Just having, for one, the opportunity to connect with supplier diversity professionals that are your advocate behind the scenes with the larger corporations. It’s how we were able to get into Walmart, to get into Lowe’s, QVC. Companies are looking for diverse-owned businesses. It’s part of many of their mandates. I mean, it doesn’t get you in the door, but it gets you a seat at the table to be considered, and you and the product or the service has to stand on their own two feet and deliver.

Lee Kantor: Now, one of the benefits of being part of the community is taking advantage of events like the WBEC-West 21st Annual Procurement Conference coming up in Nevada in September 17th through 19th. Have you been to any of these conferences before?

Missy Kelly: I sure have. I haven’t missed one of them since we started our company, except for COVID when there wasn’t one at least in person. So, I love them. I think they’re a great opportunity to network, to meet with supplier diversity professionals, and to really get insight into the world of supplier diversity, but also how it can help your business.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there anything you’ve learned over the years, like compared to the first time you attended one of these, which I’m sure was kind of overwhelming the very first time, but now you’re a veteran, is there some do’s and don’ts when it comes to getting the most out of these conferences?

Missy Kelly: Well, I think with anything, it’s what you put in, you’re going to get out. And, you know, is it putting yourself out there to walk up to a group of women you’ve never met before and introduce yourself? One hundred percent. But that’s something you have to do at conferences and you never know the relationships that can come out of them. Some of my dear friends in business have come from WBENC conferences and even the relationships I’ve built with the supplier diversity professionals. I always like to say that the WBENC certification is not a guarantee. It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint. It’s a relationship business. So, attending the conferences and being there so they can put a name with the face is integral to your success using your WBENC certification.

Lee Kantor: Now, are there any things that are happening at the conference that are must do’s for you?

Missy Kelly: Gosh. I love it all. I mean, last year I remember, there was a guacamole making and tequila tasting, which was super fun, or learning how to make the perfect margarita, maybe that was it with the guacamole. That’s really fun. Dr. Pamela and Jaymee Lomax do such a great job, and the whole WBEC-West team, of creating really innovative, fun experiences for the WBEs to interact with the supplier diversity professionals have fun and start to build those relationships.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about some advice when it comes to those more formal, like, matchmaker, roundtable, those kind of things, where you’re in front of the people that can make a difference in your business? Is there some tips in that area?

Missy Kelly: There’s definitely an etiquette to that, especially when it’s not just a one-on-one where there’s more than one of you at the table. And I feel that being a good listener, having someone be the timekeeper so that everyone gets that fair few minutes that they can with the corporate is important.

Missy Kelly: But, also, as I mentioned, being that listener, you never know, yes, you may be trying to get that relationship started with the corporate to do business, but there may be a WBE at that table that you could potentially be doing business with as well. So, just being open to all of the different opportunities that present themselves at the conference.

Lee Kantor: Do you find that a mistake some people make, maybe the new people, are that they kind of are too hungry for the sale instead, like you said, for the long run in building the relationship where the sale will come down the road, maybe not this minute?

Missy Kelly: Exactly, 100 percent. You never know. But I do feel that way, if you can go into the conference with a go giver attitude of not really what’s in it for me, but how I can support others, then I find that it’s just going to come back to you a hundred fold.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned some of the relationships you’ve made over the years, is there any memorable moments for you in previous conferences?

Missy Kelly: For me, I was asked to serve on a panel that was a manufacturing panel. Gosh, that may have been my first one. And it’s a big honor for me and, you know, stepping out of my comfort zone and saying yes, and just having an incredible rapport with both the moderator – whom I still know. He’s a supplier diversity professional – as well as the other WBEs. And the more you’re seen and the more you engage, the more that the supplier diversity professionals will recognize you and remember you. So, for me, I think 2019 was my first conference, it’s been super gratifying to now be able to go into the room or sit at a table, not only know other WBEs, but actually have relationships and friendships with the supplier diversity professionals.

Missy Kelly: So, when I think back to my first conference, I went into it with just not having any expectations, but having fun and, of course, getting my name and the product out there, and I succeeded with that. And they also do opportunities to be able to pitch, and I believe they’re doing that this year. But, you know, just saying yes to all of the opportunities, knowing that everyone is in your same boat and having fun, making the relationships, and knowing that these relationships, even if business doesn’t come out of a specific relationship at that moment, hope that eventually it will in time.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Having that kind of longer term view of all this, I think, is very healthy and helpful and helps manage the expectations that you’re not there to make a sale today, but build a relationship today that could lead to a sale tomorrow.

Missy Kelly: Right. And going in and doing your homework, I think, is really important too. You can go on to the WBEC-West site and look at all of the corporations that are WBEC-West corporate sponsors, and then knowing that supplier diversity professionals are going to be there. And even going so far as finding out who those people are, and maybe the ones that could synergy with your own company or could use your service. So, being prepared, and that especially goes for any matchmaker as well, is, sitting at the table knowing that you have something to offer rather than sitting at the table and figuring out, “Oh. Maybe this corporate isn’t one that is a good fit.” So, being prepared, I think, is really key.

Lee Kantor: Absolutely. And doing your homework, like you’re saying, and invest the time in other things, not just kind of those business-y things, but like you said, the guacamole making and the fun stuff is where you’re building relationships with other folks that might turn into partners down the road.

Missy Kelly: One hundred percent. And if that is one thing, as I mentioned, it’s fun. There’s a lot of fun, innovative, really just cool ways to connect to the other WBEs as well as to the corporations.

Lee Kantor: Well, Missy, if somebody wants to learn more about Cat Tongue Grips, where should they go?

Missy Kelly: At cattonguegrips.com. You can also reach out to me on LinkedIn, Missy Kelly. I’m on LinkedIn as well. And just wishing you all luck and remembering it’s that marathon and not the sprint, and hope to see you there.

Lee Kantor: And see you at the conference, which will be at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa in Henderson, Nevada, September 17th through 19th. It’s going to be a great event. It’s going to be where everybody can amplify your success and, hopefully, we’ll see you all there. Thank you again, Missy, for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Missy Kelly: Thank you. I appreciate you having me on.

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

Nancy Mills with Lowenberg Consulting LLC

September 10, 2024 by angishields

Houston Business Radio

Nancy Mills with Lowenberg Consulting LLC

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Based in the Houston, Texas metro area, Nancy Mills specializes in transition planning, exit strategies, and succession planning for business owners. She uses a proven process to ensure clients maximize the value of their businesses, whether they are planning an internal or external sale, or are undecided.

Key components of her exit strategies include goal definition, market value assessment, business value enhancement, contingency and succession planning, and legacy planning. Nancy prioritizes personal values in her approach to prevent post-exit regrets, understanding that the most common regrets are not monetary.

A native Texan, Nancy brings over 20 years of global business experience, with expertise in international marketing, sales, strategic innovation, and mergers and acquisitions. She excels in managing human capital and facilitating the smooth integration of merged companies.

Nancy holds an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA in Mass Communication, summa cum laude. Outside of work, she enjoys theater, swimming, boating, walking her dog, gardening, and birding.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to have such an amazing guest on with me today. Ms. Nancy Mills with Lowenberg Consulting. She’s based here in Houston, Texas, in the metro area. She helps business owners through transition planning, exit strategies, and succession planning. She uses a proven process to make sure you get the most out of your business, whether you want to do an internal or external external sale, or you just don’t know yet. Nancy’s going to guide you to a successful business transition. Nancy, I’m so excited to have you on the show. Welcome.

Nancy Mills : Thank you. Trisha. I’m so excited to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: And I think, if I’m not mistaken, it was Thomas Gilman that may have introduced us in the first place. And we we both know Thomas through a lot of networking. And I think that getting to know people and building relationships is not only important when it comes to networking, but also building businesses. And I’m so glad that we were introduced to each other. Me too.

Nancy Mills : It’s true. It was Thomas.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, good. Well, I’m glad that I was right about that. I meant to ask you before we get started today. Um, so, Nancy, I really want to dive into, you know, business transition planning, why it’s important, why we should be doing it. But, um, before the show, I was telling you, I talked to a lot of people who don’t know exactly what m and A means. You hear it a lot. It’s thrown around a lot. And I’d love for you to kind of give us a definition around what M&A means and how that plays into this transition planning that you do.

Nancy Mills : Great foundational way to start the conversation, Trisha. M&a stands for Mergers and acquisitions. It’s definitely a buzzword these days because of so many business owners, because of the aging population, because so many businesses, um, are businesses are owned by baby boomers who are looking to one day retire and don’t know how they will do it. And so everybody seems to be interested in the topic, but they might not know what it means or what it entails. And I would just like to clarify that we don’t officially sell businesses, so we might be in that space, but we don’t sell businesses. So an investment bank does. So they could be officially an M&A business because they help a company to acquire or sell. But that’s not what we actually do.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So then let’s talk about transition planning, because I do think that that is the primary space that you’re playing in with these businesses. So let’s talk about what business transition planning actually is.

Nancy Mills : Yes. Thank you for that question. And so at a sale is a transaction and everybody knows what that is. It’s a transaction. But the process that a business owner will go through is a transition. And a lot of it is is emotional. And it can it can be a very emotional experience for a business owner. And I would like everyone to understand that. And it’s normal and natural to have a lot of mixed feelings about something that you have created and nurtured, um, over time and spent the majority of your adult waking hours building up typically. And then a business owner has created a family in their employees. And that’s what I love about working with small and midsize businesses. And we call it midsize. Up to even 100 million in sales is because they have created something in their community that they’re proud of, and that a lot of people are happy to come to work for. And I love to see the impact that these small and mid-sized business owners have in their community. And so we prepare them to eventually step aside, either handing over the reins to the next generation or to somebody they don’t even know who they are yet. And we help them in many aspects.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. And so let’s I’ve got two questions coming from what you just talked about there. And you know, one is about that, the care and the nurturing of the emotional process of Transition versus transaction. Thank you for clarifying that I love that. And then, you know, the the other piece of it is when should I start thinking about putting a plan together. So let’s start with the first question, which is more around that emotional, nurturing piece of these business owners who have put blood, sweat and tears into their business. They have spent their entire lives nurturing this baby that they now have to part ways with. So what is how does your, um, program help them get through that transition?

Nancy Mills : So many, so many good things that could be said in response to that excellent question. The time to start thinking about it really is even when you start your business, people don’t realize that, that even if they have a startup, a startup is more valuable with a written exit plan. Investors want to invest in companies that have a written transition plan and succession plan in place because, as you know, we never know what may happen at any minute. And so if an owner becomes unable to fulfill their job and to lead their company, what will happen? Who can make decisions? Who should do what? So we need everything documented. We need everything spelled out to be ready for this, this eventuality, and especially a business owner that’s been doing this a while. If they’re in their 50s, minimum, they need to start thinking about it. The best time to get an exit strategy in place is when they’re clear headed. They have no crisis because once a crisis hits, it’s too late really. And then we look at fire sales and a discount or even shutting down the company. And that just breaks my heart to see companies shut down because the owner wasn’t prepared and didn’t think ahead.

Trisha Stetzel: Begin with the end in mind. We talked a little bit about that before we started recording today. And I think that’s so important. And you know some people say well I’m I there is no end for me and I’m going to have this business forever. And I don’t think any of us get into business thinking that we’re just going to walk away from it in the end. Right. Right. We we all pour the blood, sweat and tears into our business so that it will leave a legacy either for a new person who may come in and purchase it, or a family member who may take it over. Uh, and I think that’s so important. So tell me the difference, then, Nancy, between, uh, me going to someone who’s just going to do the transaction, I’m going to go to the bank and I’m going to sell my business to somebody, and they’re going to buy it versus having an advisor like you on their team to get them through the process.

Nancy Mills : Let’s think about why they would need to do that. Because we it’s so normal for someone to think about. I’m starting my business. I’ll work until the end, which is great. I love it that people don’t want to retire. They people tend to think about retirement equaling death with people in great in, you know, having a great physical condition, great mental condition. They find their vitality through their work and through their interactions with their employees. That’s a wonderful thing. That’s a beautiful thing. We never encourage someone to walk away from that, but they want everything to be in place for that inevitable something that will happen to them. Because we all exit our businesses one day, in some form or another, we will exit our businesses as we will exit this earth. So do you want it to go the way you plan it, or the way the probate court is going to decide for you? We want you to be prepared. And so the other part of your question on that was please remind me.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. No that’s okay. Having an advisor versus not having somebody on your team.

Nancy Mills : Yes. So people think will work will work will work. One day we will market the company and then we’ll get this big chunk of cash and we’ll do our next thing, whatever that next thing is what we know. If this is true year over year, the statistics don’t change. A maximum of 30% of companies marketed for sale actually sell. Trisha. Wow. This is an eye opening statistic. Usually the numbers are as low as 20%. I mean, I’m talking about for decades this has held true. And the smaller the business, the harder it is to sell because it’s so reliant on the owner. And so if they can start to work at least three years in advance to plan for this transition, even if they want to stay for the rest of their days, that’s great. But if they have a timeline, that timeline should start three years in advance. And then we know that we can reach their goals, their financial goals, their timing goals, and their values based goals, which is will my people be taken care of? Will my family be taken care of? Will my legacy be secured? And that is what they need to be doing, is it? We recommend at least three years in advance, and there’s very specific reasons for that.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And 30% only sell that. That is just mind blowing to me that you know we’ve got if we have 100 businesses for sale out there, only 30% of them are going to transact and the rest of them may close, I’m assuming, or okay, right.

Nancy Mills : Or close and, you know, be just, um, you know, anything that can happen that’s not what the owner would want. And then the other important statistic to keep in mind, Trisha, is that 75% of business owners have regret after they sell, and that regret is usually not about the money. It’s usually about something in their values that involves people that they care about. And so we work to avoid regret and to maximize their odds, and to maximize the value of their company before it sells. So if they just wait until they’re tired or burnt out or have some kind of crisis, then they go and talk to a banker and say, I want to sell. They’re not ready. They’re usually not ready. There’s 21 areas of their business that need to be looked at to see if they’re actually sellable, and if they’re not sellable, what can they do? There’s always things that can be done to make it sellable and to make it attractive. And you don’t want just one buyer. You want a number of buyers to be interested. You want the maximum value you want. You want the ideal buyer. You want to say, this is the person I want to take over. Not like, please take my company. Please please take my company. You don’t want that situation. You want to be in control and have power and have something that multiple buyers want. That is what we work towards.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. I’ve heard you talk about values based many times, and I think that’s why you and I connect so well, because there’s something about the culture of a business that is so important, and that’s the people. And being able to take care of those people as you move on or move forward or go into a transition like this. Um, I’d like to talk then a little bit about people who are listening right now, maybe, maybe thinking, oh my gosh, I didn’t think about beginning with the end in mind. Where should I start? I think I might want to sell my business in five years or even in ten years. Nancy, what advice would you give to those people on getting started with the planning now?

Nancy Mills : Yeah. Great question. Get started. Perhaps with a valuation, a third party valuation. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. It can be just it won’t cost a lot of money. But then compare that valuation. Get advice as to what you would reasonably net after taxes, because remember, what you might sell it for is not the same as the amount of money you’re going to get. That’s the that’s a really good first step.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So after the valuation. So I need to go and hire somebody to do that for me. So I could use a resource like you, Nancy, who could point me in the right direction if I’m not, if I don’t feel like I’m in a position to go out and get the valuation right now, what are some of the housekeeping items that I might do inside of my business in preparation for that?

Nancy Mills : Given that every business is unique, it’s really hard to answer that question. But for example, be thinking about the key players in your company, who they are, and who would be their successor. If they’re anywhere Are near retirement age, or you think there’s any danger that they might leave? And then especially who is your successor or ideal replacement so that if you even if and start taking longer and longer vacations. So the longer you can take a vacation, the better off your company is, because there’s transferable value already. If it can operate without you, the owner.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, I love that. I love to tell people to go on vacation, take some time off and the more you can do, less dependent, your business is on you. I love that, yes, and when.

Nancy Mills : You take that vacation, don’t be answering phone calls all day.

Trisha Stetzel: Because the business is still dependent on you. So stop it.

Nancy Mills : That’s right, stop it. Nobody wants a company that relies on just one person, especially the departing owner.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Um, what what piece of advice would you give to any business owner who or let’s say, who wants to be a business owner. And we already talked about begin with the end in mind. What does that look like? So I want to start a business. What should I be thinking about right now as I go into this new place where I’m buying a business? When it comes to thinking or preparing for the end?

Nancy Mills : Yes. Again, I would say don’t let it rely just on you. Who is the team? What does the team look like? What are the processes and systems that are either in place or that you can put in place to make it something that is transferable? They need to be documented. They need to be the who, what, when, where, why and how. Type documentation ideally online. So don’t even think about buying a business that’s buying a job.

Speaker4: Because.

Nancy Mills : It’s not attractive to anybody else. Yeah. And then think of scale versus growth. Scale is something that can be done without a lot of extra investment That doesn’t need a bigger infrastructure to support it. So scale is can I replicate what I’m already doing in other in other geographic areas and other markets to other types of customer segments?

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. This information has been so valuable. So you just have one more two part question. One, is there a specific industry or area that you prefer to work in in your business? Like where where would you find those clients and how do you market your business?

Nancy Mills : Yes, we can work. I can work with any type of business that is, um, that has more than, um, one employee. Ideally at least 25. So if it’s a sole proprietorship, I can guide them for free and give them free advice. But I can’t do a lot because there’s not a team to support them for the reasons we were talking about. And then ideally in the United States. But since I’m in Houston, I like to work with my clients at least partially in person. So it’s great if they’re in the Houston metro area, but it’s not a requirement. And then what was the other question, Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: Marketing. How do you market your business?

Nancy Mills : Oh, I do a lot of education through, um, presentations and networking to educate business owners, to know that there’s so much they can do starting today to make their company more sellable. And I love to educate business owners on that so that they’re not caught off guard one day thinking they’re ready to go and they’re not, and they have a rude awakening, and then it’s almost too late. They go through due diligence process and they’re woefully unprepared. And then they lose a year in a sale process where it all falls through. I want them to avoid that at all cost to work with somebody like me. It doesn’t have to be me to start to think about this well in advance. And it doesn’t need to take a lot of time. It just needs to take a little bit of time. And just as they think about it before it’s too late.

Trisha Stetzel: This has been so valuable, and I know that you provide a lot of value on your LinkedIn page and a lot of information that people can absorb there. So if anyone’s listening and wants to connect with Nancy on LinkedIn, it’s Nancy Mills is how you’re going to find her. Nancy Mills on LinkedIn. Nancy, are there other ways that people can engage with you?

Nancy Mills : Yeah. Lowenberg consulting is spelled l o w e n b e r g. It’s all e’s. There’s no u, and I think that’s a good place to go as well, because there are a lot of Nancy Mills. They might find me better through my company name, and I’m happy to answer any questions that anybody has at any time. I give plenty of free advice, and I just love to help people to achieve their their dreams and their goals and to leave a legacy in their communities because we depend on the business owners to make a difference in the communities. And that’s what I love about what I do.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Nancy, thank you so much for being on with me today. I know that everyone who’s listening today, or even the recording back, will absolutely find value in this. We have a lot of business owners out there listening. Any last thing that you’d like to say or give back to the audience listening today?

Nancy Mills : Just thank you for having the courage to be a business owner. Thank you for being a leader. And I support you and I salute you.

Trisha Stetzel: Wonderful, Nancy, thank you again for being here. 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.

Empowering Future Leaders: The Role of Faculty in Student Achievement

September 10, 2024 by angishields

High Velocity Careers

Empowering Future Leaders: The Role of Faculty in Student Achievement

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In this episode of High Velocity Careers, Stone Payton talks with Dr. Robin Cheramie, Dean of Kennesaw State University’s Coles College of Business, and Dr. Alison Keefe, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs. The discussion centers on their career paths, the growth of KSU’s business programs, and the pivotal role of faculty in student success. Dr. Cheramie and Dr. Keefe share personal stories of students overcoming challenges and highlight innovative programs, such as the fintech master’s degree. They emphasize the importance of lifelong learning, community engagement, and mentorship in fostering a supportive and dynamic educational environment.

Dr. Robin Cheramie is the dean for the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. She is the Tony and Jack Dinos Eminent Scholar Chair of Entrepreneurial management and Professor of Management. During her 18-year tenure at Kennesaw State University, she provided leadership within the university and her profession as an administrator and faculty member.

She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Louisiana State University in the area of organizational behavior and human resource management. Prior to her current position, she served as the Director/department chair for the Michael A. Leven School of Management, Entrepreneurship and Hospitality at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University where she led the development of the first BBA in Entrepreneurship in the University System of Georgia.

As a faculty member, Dr. Cheramie has taught numerous management courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels at Louisiana State University, Loyola University in New Orleans, Winthrop University and Kennesaw State University.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Management from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of New Orleans. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Cheramie worked in New Orleans and Dallas in commercial real estate and human resources.

Dr. Cheramie has presented her research at national and international conferences on topics such as feedback seeking, career success and training/development research. She has authored/co-authored numerous papers in many top journals within her field of management.

During her tenure as Dean of the Coles College of Business, she has successfully steered the college through accreditation with AACSB, created new academic programs in Hospitality Management, Cybersecurity and FinTech, and raised over $15 million in the last three years. Recently, she completed the USG Executive Leadership Institute and is a graduate of the Leadership Cobb program.

Dr. Alison Keefe is the the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the Coles College of Business Executive MBA program at Kennesaw State University. She holds a Ph.D. in applied economics from Auburn University (War Eagle!) with specializations in international and resource economics.

Alison holds the distinction of being a Coles College of Business Distinguished Scholarship Award recipient with research specialties in the fields of include international economics and commodities trade as well as economic development, and resource economics.

She has over 15 years of academic work experience and over 11 years of international commodities trade consulting experience.

Connect with Alison on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for High Velocity Careers. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA Program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. For more information, go to kennesaw.edu/emba. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of High Velocity Careers. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast Dean with Coles College of Business and Professor of Management at Kennesaw State University, Dr. Robin Cheramie. How are you?

Dr. Robin Cheramie: I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me here today.

Stone Payton: Well, it is a delight to have you on the broadcast, and a special treat to have you here in studio. Robin, I got a ton of questions, I know we’re not going to get to them all. But I think a great place to start is, if you could paint a picture for me and our listeners of your career path, your role, and mission and purpose of this work here in our community.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Absolutely. I’d love to. I don’t know if I had a traditional path or not, but as most academics, you start loving school. So, I started loving school a long time ago. I’m originally from South Louisiana, and I went to my undergraduate program in Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana. I went straight to University of New Orleans for an MBA. I tell this to Tom Devaney, our director of the EMBA program, I did actually start in accounting and realized quickly I did not like that, and I switched to management fairly quickly, not really knowing what to do in that area, but went straight to earn my MBA at the University of New Orleans.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: In the meantime, I had worked in commercial real estate in the New Orleans area and was doing market research. I loved interacting with different people, loved the idea of kind of managing groups. It was a lot of fun. But when I finished my MBA, I wanted to kind of move. So, I picked up, moved to Dallas, Texas and worked in commercial real estate at that same time. I also discovered something that I liked and didn’t like. So, it was a ton of cold calling that I had to do in sales. Hated cold calling with a passion, but thank God I did that because I can see how much I’ve used it in my career since then. But really loved the relationships and working with people. It did not work out too well with that organization. I will tell you and you’ll learn, I learned from a lot of unethical bosses or bosses I did not like to work with where I ultimately ended up.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Then, I became a corporate recruiter for a financial services company. Again, really loved that, didn’t necessarily like who I was working for. And I’d had a series of these events where I was working with all these bad bosses, is what I would say, and I had to figure out there’s got to be a way to do this differently.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: And the class I love the most in school was organizational behavior and human resources. So, I had talked with friends and decided to go back and pursue my PhD. So, I moved back to Louisiana, went to LSU, earned my PhD in organizational behavior and human resources. And in a kind of indirect sort of way, I went to Winthrop University for one year as a tenure track faculty member.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: And then, ended up in Atlanta at Kennesaw State University for very personal reasons. Then boyfriend, now husband of 20 years is what got me here. And I wish I could say I had a better reason for coming to KSU, but that’s how I got here. But I will tell you one thing, that’s been 20 years and I’ve loved it ever since. And so, I had a traditional professor route until I became an administrator in 2014 as a department chair. And then, I was tapped on the shoulder to be the interim dean of the college in 2019, and became the permanent dean in February of 2020, six weeks before the pandemic, and have had quite a ride since then, and trying to deal with higher education in a pandemic and all the other challenges that we have.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: But I will say this, I grew up at KSU in the Coles College. It’s been a fantastic place. And having the background of organizational behavior and human resources, this has been the most fun and the most challenging role of having to practice what you preach, and really try to bring together the understanding of how much people are important to the culture and the outcomes of any organization, especially in higher ed. So, it’s been quite a ride and a lot of fun.

Stone Payton: It sure sounds like it. It sounds like great work if you can get it. So, now that you have been at it a while clearly, what are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it these days for you?

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Always, always the most rewarding is seeing students succeed and knowing that a big portion of our student population, especially at the undergraduate level, are first generation college students. I, personally, am a first generation college student, and I can see the transformational impact of having an undergraduate degree and a graduate degrees as well. So, seeing students get excited about ideas, seeing them try new internships, seeing – I used to call it – the light bulb moments – when you’re a teacher, you could actually see in their face when they got a concept and it made sense to them, and it’s that immediate kind of positive reinforcement and satisfaction. So, clearly, to me, the success of our students has been the most fun, and I think it’s what keeps us all going.

Stone Payton: Well, I’m going to come back to you in just a moment, because I’d love to hear one or two, you know, kind of brief versions. You don’t have to use names of maybe some of those students, the stories that stand out for you, because I think we’d all be interested in that. But before we do that, tell everybody who you brought with you.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, I brought along my partner in crime, my Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, Dr. Allison Keefe, who has been at KSU longer than I have, 21 years. So, she’s been there slightly longer than I have. And I’ll let her talk a little bit about herself. But she really is helping us with our strategic priority of growing relevant and timely and innovative graduate programs, and I’m glad to have her on our team.

Stone Payton: So, Allison, we got to know the back story. How did you get here?

Dr. Allison Keefe: Mine is somewhat similar to Dean Cheramie’s in that I didn’t plan on this. I had no aspirations of actually being a professor. I was headed out to the world of bioeconomic modeling.

Stone Payton: Oh, my.

Dr. Allison Keefe: Yes. And I was going to work with the National Marine Fisheries Service in different capacities in terms of being able to look at demand for different seafood products throughout the world. That didn’t work out, and I happened to get a call from Kennesaw to say we’d love to have you come in and interview for this position, and I said no. But I had some very convincing people that I had worked with in my PhD program. And not only that, I had some very convincing people at Kennesaw and said please just come in and just see what we’ve got to offer. And I said, all right, I’ll try this thing out, and did that. And they called and said we would love to offer you the position. And at the time, I said, all right, I think I’ll take you up on that.

Dr. Allison Keefe: And it was the best decision, I think, I’ve ever made in my entire life. It was one that, initially, I wasn’t going to do at all. But in being able to work with the people I have over the past 21 years, to have a culture that rarely to me exists in the real world – I know that there are companies out there that really try to get a collaborative and innovative culture going – and what Dean Cheramie has done and inherited and progressively gets better at throughout the years is the fact that we have a group that we work with very, very well, and that are excited about teaching students, and excited about coming up with unique and different ideas. And so, that’s what gets me excited every day, is to be able to take their ideas, take my own ideas, morph them together and just see where we can go with them.

Stone Payton: I got to say, what you’re describing both me, personally, but also our listeners now, we know what you’re saying to be true. We’ve had some faculty members in here, in studio over the last couple of episodes, and you can see it in their eyes, you can hear it in their voice, everything you’re describing, that really is the way it is in Kennesaw State, isn’t it?

Dr. Allison Keefe: Well, we’re given the freedom to do that. No one is telling us no. You know, across the board we may get a few no’s, but nobody’s telling us we can’t do that. They’re saying, well, these are the obstacles that you may face when you’re trying to start up a new program or create this environment for the students. But if you want to do it, go for it, and you can figure out how to do that. And so, it is, it’s empowering to be able to not know. There’s no nos. And so, I’ve kind of inherited that, in that anybody who comes to me with an idea, especially one that I really believe in, it’s an automatic yes. Now, I don’t know how to get it done right away, but it’ll be a yes.

Stone Payton: This reminds me of my business partner’s penchant – and I think it came from the improv world – yes, and. It’s some version of yes.

Dr. Allison Keefe: That’s the thing, yeah.

Stone Payton: So, any of these student stories come to mind? You don’t have to mention names if you don’t want to.

Dr. Allison Keefe: Well, I’ve actually got quite a few of them, but it more so deals with when I was the executive director of the MBA program before Tom Devaney. And so, mine had to deal with women. I dealt a lot with the imposter syndrome, where about the first semester I had at least one or two students who were women come to me and said I can’t do this. I’ve got children that miss me at home. I’ve got a husband who may not be supportive. I don’t think I’ve got the intellectual capability to do this. I’ve heard a number of different stories.

Dr. Allison Keefe: And so, they had the foresight to come and ask for help, even though they actually didn’t ask for help. They were asking to possibly leave the program. And so, I brought them into the office, we’d sit down, we’d talk about things. I’d give them some advice. Mine was, Christmas is almost coming up. Put the books down. Schedule time with your family. Schedule time just to relax. Come back the new year, talk to me again and see if you’ve got a different attitude. And then, we’ll also talk about scheduling time for studying, scheduling time for family, doing things a little bit differently than you have been doing.

Dr. Allison Keefe: And every single one of those women came to me at the end, when they graduated and were successful, and said I wanted to jump off the cliff, figuratively. Figuratively, but you stopped me. And that is where I get my joy and those are my success stories.

Dr. Allison Keefe: So, for all those women, hopefully, you’re listening, that came to me at that time, I’m proud of you. I am so happy that you did this program and look at where you are now.

Stone Payton: So, I am on record more than a couple of times just sharing flat out, I actually prefer to work with women. I find them more comfortable in their own skin. I find them more collaborative. I find them more coachable. I find them better with money. And I don’t know, you have to tell me, Robin, I don’t want to cross any legal lines, but given a choice, I would rather work with a female any day. A student’s story or two that stands out for you, Robin.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Sure. There’s a recent one that comes to mind, it’s an undergraduate student. And I’m not just picking, I’ll give a male story as well. But she was a great example of a first generation student who had some tough times at home. A parent had died early, and she was finishing high school early and had started on one undergraduate path, ended up in accounting, and just caught people’s attention. And so, could have gone to any school in the state, because I believe she was valedictorian of her high school, and stumbled upon KSU and got so much attention from many different faculty because they recognized her talent.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: She was part of our undergraduate. We have a Leadership Scholars program, which is kind of our honors program for business students, became a part of that. Was just phenomenal. In her spare time of studying, she was doing all these volunteer work, went straight into a masters of accounting program. She won many of our outstanding student awards and is now gainfully employed and doing really well in the profession and has truly transformed her life.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: And so, again, going back to the stories that are so meaningful, she just needed that little extra attention. And even though we are a very large institution – I can give you numbers in a minute – I think one thing that we’re quite proud of is that our faculty really do care about our students and they want to see them succeed. So, that’s some of our undergraduate stories, but also turned into a master’s of accounting student story as well.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: But we see it with our graduate students. A lot of our graduate programs are career changers. What you may not know is we have the first master’s degree in fintech in the State of Georgia, and we believe the first one to focus on digital payments exclusively in the United States. And in that program, which launched two-and-a-half years ago or two years ago – excuse me – we have about 100 students in the program right now, a significant number of them are career changers and are seeing fintech and this idea of digital payments.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Another fun fact you may not know is Atlanta is called Transaction Alley, where over 75, 80 percent of all financial transactions go through the City of Atlanta. So, we have a ton of fintech companies here, and so we’re quite proud of the fact that we developed a very innovative program. But what I’m proud of, too, is we’ve got all these adult learners who are coming back and making transitions and changing their careers, and they’re doing it through education. And so, I’m quite proud of those type of stories, too.

Stone Payton: Well, no, I did not realize that you had that concentrated and focused effort in the fintech arena. We were just broadcasting live at Fintech South 2024 last week.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: And we were a sponsor.

Stone Payton: It was a marvelous experience. We had 20 scheduled interviews. One guy couldn’t make it, so we conducted 19 interviews. I think they started publishing today. But one of the reasons that I knew I was going to mention it today, I’ll bet you there were a-half-a-dozen or more people connected to Kennesaw State University in one way or another that came through where we were broadcasting.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Yeah. Very excited about that initiative and the work of our faculty. But I think that’s a testament to the culture that Allison was talking about earlier of innovation and kind of entrepreneurial type of mindset that we’ve always had in our college. I was dean, I think, a couple of years and had some faculty, we are affiliated with what’s called the Georgia Fintech Academy, and that’s from the University System of Georgia, so we created our own courses at the undergraduate level. And then, the faculty came to me and said, what about a master’s degree? I’m like, okay, let’s do it. And so, we did. And we actually got it in and approved in our system in a year, which is very hard to do.

Stone Payton: Man, that sounds fast for the academic environment.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: It was really fast, really fast. So, we launched two years ago, and again, it’s an online program. You can do it in a year if you really want to. It’s 30 credit hours. And I’m really quite proud of the relationships that we’re forming with the community, because that’s the other part, too, right? We’re so lucky to be where we are geographically in the City of Atlanta, and to be able to work with these types of companies hands on. So, we’ve created for the past two years what’s called the Fintech Summit on campus. And we’ve brought in industry leaders, and we’re trying to get our undergraduate and our graduate students to interact with them and have panel discussions. But more importantly, I want my faculty to interact with these business leaders to make sure that we are talking and we’re teaching the most current curriculum related to digital payments.

Stone Payton: Well, let’s talk about curriculum a little bit. The program or programs – and I’m getting the distinct sense that you probably have some numbers to share along with them. You seem to be on top of your game there – many of us that don’t know these particulars. Kennesaw State University has a marvelous reputation in this community, that, I know. But, yeah, speak to, and I guess maybe also, what you feel like are some key distinctions between this and maybe other programs that are probably perfectly fine, but that in your mind, make them maybe a better choice for a lot of folks.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, first of all, numbers. Unofficially, we are over 47,000 students this semester. And when I started 20 years ago, we were roughly about 17,000 students. So, just think about the magnitude of our growth. We’re one of the top 50 large institutions in the country. In the Business School, we hit for the first time over 10,000 students, and so that puts us in a pretty elite group of maybe about 20 or 30 business schools across the country that fit that number. And so, again, I’m proud to be large, but I also want to be the best, and I think we are in many, many ways in terms of our entrepreneurial attitude and our innovation that we have.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: What makes us a little bit more distinct is our undergraduate proportion versus graduate students. We’re about 10 percent of that total population is the total number of graduate students or graduate programs that we may have across campus. It’s similar in the College of Business, but I’d love to see that grow, and I think that’s an opportunity for us moving forward in the future. And Allison knows this, she’s got a charge to grow our graduate programs and to make sure that we continue. But I think the future of higher education is that idea of lifelong learning and continuing to update your skills. And we want to be that trusted partner in the community where people know when they come back and they pursue a graduate degree, that they’re really learning what’s needed to help them be successful, and to gain promotions, gain career success, whatever they’re looking for in their life.

Stone Payton: Allison, I feel like she’s answered that question before.

Dr. Allison Keefe: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Stone Payton: That was incredibly eloquent, articulate, equally concise, and informative. That was marvelous. So, tell us, what is a day in the life of Allison like? Because you certainly have an important charge.

Dr. Allison Keefe: It’s never the same. So, I don’t know what I wake up to when I get my emails in the morning. But a typical day is walking through my building, because I’m in a separate building than the rest of the Business School, but we have our own graduate suite area in our building. And so, just walking through, saying hello, seeing if anybody needs anything. I usually get stopped by the first door in five, ten minutes. You know, this is what I need, this is what I’m thinking. I have those many conversations every day just to make sure that everything’s going smoothly. And nine times out of ten, it’s just a pleasant conversation, and then it may be something, I need you to do this. And so, I may make it back to my office about 45 minutes after I go through the building.

Dr. Allison Keefe: But then, I’m able to sit down and say, okay, now here’s my list of things that I need to get accomplished after I’ve walked through that building, and get those done, and then start on my real projects. So, as an example, looking at new programs and what does that entail. Working with all of our directors of our graduate programs so that they have their finger on the pulse of what companies need. That’s my most important job, is to make sure that the curriculum that’s being taught in all of our graduate programs is exactly what is going to make our students workforce ready or be able to stand out in the workplace.

Dr. Allison Keefe: And what does that mean? What do companies need? A lot of that is the leadership skills, the communication, the conflict management, those types of skills. And that’s one of the things in the Executive MBA that we stress, it’s about 25 percent of the curriculum in terms of I like to look at that curriculum as being a holistic curriculum, and it touches all of the leadership skills and business acumen skills that our students need. But it’s always focused in on the leadership skills and what’s going to propel our students to that next level.

Stone Payton: So, that word, holistic, I’ve seen it in the promotional copy. I have seen members of your faculty chest out, just proud and beaming that that is a major intent. But it’s also the methodology, the way that things are taught. It’s very integrated. Is that the right word? You don’t go to this class and then, okay, put those books in the locker. Speak to that song.

Dr. Allison Keefe: So, that’s for the Executive MBA program. Now, not all of our programs run that way. We do have certain classes that are the siloed approach. But for the EMBA, because we are taking that integrated approach to our curriculum, it can’t be siloed. It has to be either team taught across a management professor and a marketing professor, or an accounting professor in finance to see how they all work, because you’ve got vertical integration in your companies that you can aspire to. We want horizontal integration as well. So, when you become a leader of a certain functional area or in your company itself, we want you to be able to understand all functional areas. So, that’s where the integrated curriculum comes in and is extremely important.

Stone Payton: I got to believe to pull that off, you have to have the right talent in place teaching these classes. And at least one thing they’d have to be is collaborative, but there’s probably a lot of other markers and characteristics that you’re looking for. Your selection process, what is that like? It must be unique.

Dr. Allison Keefe: They go through the rigor.

Stone Payton: I thought she was going to say hell.

Dr. Allison Keefe: I almost did. I changed my mind right before I said it. No, I’m just kidding. No. We are looking for that almost needle in a haystack. And that comes from Dean Jeremy’s direction, is, I want to look at that utility player. I want to look at that individual who has that corporate background, who has been in several roles throughout his or her tenure in their career, and then decided that wasn’t enough for them. I want to go back for my PhD or a DBA, and I want to be able to to teach because that’s what I’d like to do for my second career. Or on a side note, I’d like to be able to teach while continuing to work in corporate.

Dr. Allison Keefe: So, those are who we like to hire in for our EMBA. Although, I would love to be able to hire more of those individuals that can be a utility player for many of our programs, because I think they bring that applicability and that relevancy into the programs.

Stone Payton: So, Dr. Robin, I was stalking you earlier today on the internet because I knew I was going to get a chance to visit with you in studio, and I saw a lot of neat stuff. I saw you post or repost some information around 40 Owls Under 40, and another thing about collaborating with MUST Ministries on ACE. Can you speak to those?

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Absolutely, I’d love to. So, KSU, for the first time in their alumni association is going to have 40 Owls Under 40. So, we’re trying to promote our alumni community, which is over 120,000 plus over the past 60 years. I mean, that’s one thing to remember about Kennesaw State University, we’re still a relatively young institution when you think of other established institutions in the area, 61 years, I think, is what we are officially. So, we’re really excited at KSU to promote that.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: In the Coles College of Business, we also try to highlight some of our successful alumni, and we’ve created our own, what we call Five in Flight Alumni Award, where we recognize different alumni at the undergraduate or if they were graduate students for their kind of entrepreneurial as well as their societal impact and their success in life. So, that’s that part of it.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: But something that’s relatively new to us, you know, I emphasized entrepreneurship, being entrepreneurial not only on what we do, but we have a very successful entrepreneurship program. We have the Doug and Robin Shore Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, which helps our students who develop new innovation and ventures as students.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: But the one that’s recent that you’re referring to is called the ACE Program, it’s Aspiring Community Entrepreneurs. And we partnered with MUST Ministries, and we took the lead from Notre Dame. Notre Dame has this institute called The Urban Poverty Business Initiative, and they’ve created partnerships with different universities around the country to help teach entrepreneurship to those that are disadvantaged in the community. So, non-KSU students, these are people outside in the community, and we are partnering with MUST Ministries because of the fantastic work they do, not only with homelessness and providing food, halls, but they also have a strong workforce development opportunity.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, the ACE Program is a three-phase program for disadvantaged individuals. And the first six weeks is a boot camp taught by my faculty. And they teach them the basics of what it is to run their own business or to start an idea and what do you do. Then, the second phase is they work with mentors in the community, and we partner with MUST Ministries to find successful entrepreneurs. And then, the third phase is the people who get to that stage, the ACE entrepreneurs work with our students at KSU in kind of finalizing their business plan, and then there’s a graduation at the end of it.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, give you an idea of the success, the first cohort started a year ago. We had almost almost 200 people apply in the community for 40 slots. By the time they graduated, there’s a natural attrition that occurs, about 50 percent of them actually completed and have gone on to receive a little bit of seed money. But this is truly transformational and it speaks to me at the college level. I think it emphasizes our values of collaboration and wanting to work in the business community, but I’m so proud of this program.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, we just launched the second cohort in the beginning of August. And this year, we have over 50 people that start. But we had roughly about 150 people apply again. And we love working with MUST Ministries and are really excited to see where this goes. So, this is a big priority for me and the college to make sure that we are partnering with people in the community, and we’re trying to use the expertise that we have internally at Coles and kind of share it with the society at large if we can.

Stone Payton: Wow. Congratulations on the momentum. I find that inspiring and exciting as an entrepreneur. I have an observation, or maybe more accurately, an assertion that even if a person does not end up founding a company and building something, to develop those entrepreneurial skills, to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, even if they go to work for IBM, that is an incredible asset in that employee that has that level of personal accountability and all the other characteristics that I often associate with the entrepreneur.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: And I’ll tell you my model for that, my inspiration for that is my wife, Holly. She had a very distinguished career – she’s hung up her cleats, so we’re poor again – at IBM and she rose through the ranks. And, yes, she was part of that big system, but she ran her day-to-day work like she was CEO of Holly Incorporated and she had this client, IBM. Do you agree with that kind of characteristic?

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Totally. So, we have our undergraduate degree and it focuses on entrepreneurship. And we don’t believe that all of our students are going to go and start a company. In fact, we not necessarily would encourage it right after college. But we give them the skills, so we focus on that idea of corporate entrepreneurship and in teaching that same type of mindset. And what we’re hearing from business leaders is that is the skills that they’re seeking in the future workforce is those that can be critical thinkers, be inquisitive, be innovative, and just kind of think differently. And I think that’s kind of that entrepreneurial mindset that you’re talking about.

Stone Payton: Yeah. So, you mentioned mentors, have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way on your career path?

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Absolutely. It’s always fun to sit back and reflect on who are those people that had that impact on you. Not that you want all these details, but I can actually vividly remember a high school teacher that nudged me and said you should be taking this class. And it starts with that idea of belief and someone else recognizing something that maybe you don’t recognize that I think is so important. And I’ve taken that to this day, like I’ve nudged faculty members and say, “Hey, have you ever thought about this?” And just to get them thinking differently.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: But I have a current mentor right now. He used to be on my board. I’ll keep him nameless. But a very successful former executive and he’s retired and we have lunches quarterly. And I figured out early on, he was taking notes on me and kind of quizzing me. He was kind of an informal coach, but I can go to him for anything and really talk to him and say I’m struggling with how do I approach this, what advice would you give me. And it’s really healthy for me to have someone that’s outside of KSU, I think as well, but he’s been a great person for me just to bounce ideas off of.

Stone Payton: Allison, you were nodding your head as well. So, you’ve had some positive experiences with mentors over the years, yeah?

Dr. Allison Keefe: Well, I think if you look at it from the perspective of we didn’t get to where we are by ourselves, it’s almost a necessity in life to have those people that you can bounce ideas off of, that you can ask for advice. And so, that started very early on in my career. What I’ve noticed is that I was able to take that idea of having that mentor apply it to the Executive MBA program, apply it to others in the office, encouraging them to have mentors and, again, outside of the organization because, to me, that gets you the best unbiased results, but also to have that mentor in the organization as well just to be able to talk to.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, I’m involved in many, many different mentoring organizations, not only in the Executive MBA. We’ve got an Associate Dean and Assistant Dean Mentoring Group at KSU that I’m a part of, and I get mentored as well as to be able to mentor to others. We’ve also got a Women’s Mentoring Group that we run through the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and that Kennesaw Coles sponsors as well. So, I’m a firm believer of it and it’s just something that I advocate for as many people as I can talk to.

Stone Payton: I’m so glad I asked. All right. Before we wrap, I would love to leave our listeners with, if we could, some lessons learned, or a couple – I call them – pro tips on pursuing a high velocity career. And I’m going to ask you both, but I’d love to start with you, Allison, if you’ve got a couple of ideas or just some things to keep in mind, a pro tip.

Dr. Allison Keefe: Just say yes. So, my favorite saying, and in all seriousness, is, when a door opens, walk through it. So, you know, a lot of people will come to me and talk about different careers and they’re not sure, and, yes, you talk about the pros and the cons, but I’m also if a door opens, walk through it.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. Robin?

Dr. Robin Cheramie: That’s a great one. I really love the idea of lifelong learning, and I’m not just saying that as an academic, but I’ll use AI as an example. I’ve got lots of education to my credentials to get me to this point, but no one prepared me for the idea of AI, and what does that look like, and how do we need to learn and constantly adapt. So, I think that’s an excellent example for all of us to think about, that you never should stop learning. And that doesn’t mean necessarily go back for a degree, although I would be a big advocate of that, but read books, read current literature, keep up with current trends, go to conferences, professional conferences and learn from that. Be affiliated with networking groups or associations where you can kind of talk to each other and learn from each other.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Those that sit still are going to be passed up, and you see that in every industry and every organization. And if you’re not paying attention to AI, I would tell you that’s another one where if you sit still, you’re going to be passed up. So, lifelong learning is something that I firmly believe in, and I think it’s advice that everyone could take and run with to be successful.

Stone Payton: Okay. Where can our listeners tap in, learn more about these programs, get some ideas, and some insight, and some input on pursuing continuing to advance their career? Whatever coordinates you think are appropriate and the best way for them to tap in.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: So, I would say go to the Coles College of Business website at Kennesaw State University. And we’ve got undergraduate programs and we have graduate programs that we could tap into. And there’s a ton of information there. That’s where you’d get started.

Stone Payton: Well, it has been an absolute delight having you two on the program. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm, and your commitment to the work. This has been a marvelous way to invest a Thursday afternoon. You guys, you’re doing such important work and we sure appreciate you.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: Oh, thank you.

Dr. Allison Keefe: Thank you. Thank you.

Dr. Robin Cheramie: It’s been my pleasure.

Stone Payton: Mine, too. All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton, for our guests today and everyone here at the Business RadioX family, saying we’ll see you again on High Velocity Careers.

BRX Stories – Yum! Brands

September 10, 2024 by angishields

BRX Pro Tips

BRX Stories - Yum! Brands

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BRX Stories – Yum! Brands

Stone Payton: And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, let’s share our experience with TrainingPros and Yum! Brands.

Lee Kantor: All right. TrainingPros was a client of ours that we had for a very long time, and then their business was that they work with companies and provide temporary trainers to come in and do training for the organization. And they were having a difficult time kind of getting in front of the people that matter most to them, so we created a show called Learning Insights that helped them meet and serve kind of the learning professionals in enterprise level organizations.

Lee Kantor: So, we were doing the show for quite some time and, in fact, they’re the ones who coined the phrase relationship building moments, because they saw so much value in terms of all of the opportunities that their salespeople had in building deeper and deeper relationships with people throughout our entire process. And that’s really kind of where that phrase was coined, where, you know, we have relationship building moment, and inviting the guest, and having a pre-call with the guest, with having the guest on the show, following up with the person after the fact. So, every interaction is really multiple relationship building moments.

Lee Kantor: So, we were doing the show for quite some time, and their big trade show came up. What was that? SHRM? Which one was it? Stone, do you remember?

Stone Payton: I want to say ASTD. I think it’s called ATD now. But I think it was ASTD, all the training firms, consulting firms get together.

Lee Kantor: That’s a big big event. That’s a huge event.

Stone Payton: Oh, yeah.

Lee Kantor: And so, they said, “Hey, can we bring the show on the road and have you appear in our trade show booth?” And we, of course, said yes. So, we were basically 80 percent of their booth. They didn’t get a bigger booth the first year. They just put us, you know, smack dab in the middle of their booth, and we had our microphones and headphones and mixer all front and center, and people were coming and being interviewed live in their booth. And it was super cool because their salespeople were able to invite people that would be difficult for them to really interact with into the booth. The people had to wait their turn while we got set up, so their salesperson got to spend a lot of time with people that were very important to them.

Lee Kantor: And do you remember the Yum! Brand person, Stone?

Stone Payton: Oh, yeah. This guy, he was on the front cover of Chief Learning Officer magazine. He was the grand poobah, vice-president of global learning, and he had a particular interest in multi-generational learning. And he had written at least one, maybe two or three articles on that topic. So, our counsel to our people was when you reach out, find out what they’re excited about, make this conversation on the show, make it about what they want to talk about. So, they reached out to the guy and asked him if he would come on and share his insight and perspective on multi-generational learning, so that’s how they landed the interview.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And one of the interesting things was, when we do these interviews, a lot of times people just show up. Like, he just showed up there. It wasn’t prescheduled. And I grabbed their badge to see who they are because I have to introduce them. His badge was backwards and then I’m like, “Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t read your badge.” And he’s like, “Oh, I turn my badge backwards when I walk through these conferences. I usually don’t go into the area where all the booths are, because when they see that I’m with Yum! Brands, I get bombarded with people. And so, I slipped my badge backwards so that no one knows who I am because, you know, I wouldn’t be able to go two feet without somebody coming up to me. So, that’s why I flipped it backwards.”

Lee Kantor: So, I had never seen or heard that strategy before, but I would imagine that somebody who’s with a super large company, and that he is a sought after contact, he would do something like that. But for our client, he was voluntarily coming in here happy to spend 10, 15, 30 minutes with our client, hanging out in the booth, getting his picture taken, getting interviewed, and helping our clients build a deeper and deeper relationship with this kind of high value target.

Stone Payton: Well, the lesson that really stands out for me from all of that, and that was a great deal of fun, and it really ingrained our value to the client, I mean, so we did that kind of work with them for years, really, until the guy sold the company. But the thing that stands out the most for me, Lee, is we didn’t just say yes. They were sitting in the studio right after one of their shows, and they said, “Is there any way we could take this on the road and maybe go to this conference?” And there was like, beep, beep, you and I looked at each other, we both said, “Yeah, of course.” And we didn’t have the first clue.

Stone Payton: So, we saw an opportunity. We recognized and listened to the client’s need. We said yes, and then we went home and figured out how to execute. Remember that?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. That’s a good lesson for entrepreneurs out there.

Angie Bretag with Motive

September 9, 2024 by angishields

Nashville Business Radio

Angie Bretag with Motive

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Angie Bretag serves as director of Motive’s Emerging Sales division, helping to connect emerging and mid-market brands with Motive’s industry leading platform and AI-powered solutions.

She has been with Motive since 2020 and is based in Nashville, TN.

Prior to joining Motive Angie served in senior sales positions with Glassdoor and Careerbuilder. The transportation industry is in Angie’s blood; growing up her family ran a truck stop off I88 in Illinois.

Outside of work, Angie can be found cheering on her kids at their various sporting events, as well as her beloved Iowa Hawkeyes.

Follow Motive on LinkedIn, Facebook, X and Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Nashville Business Radio. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. This is going to be a good one. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Motive Angie Bretag. How are you?

Angie Bretag: Doing good. Thanks for having me.

Stone Payton: Well, it is a delight to have you on the broadcast. I got a ton of questions. Angie, I’m sure we won’t get to them all, but I think a good place to start would be if you could share with me in our listeners mission. Purpose? What? What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

Angie Bretag: Motive, we exist to solve the problems and help companies that are in the physical economy. So what that means is we build tools to make companies safer, more productive and more profitable. And I feel like if I was explaining this to my mom and I said physical economy, she would probably ask a question. So I’ll explain that. I think when we say physical economy, what we mean is we are partnering with the companies that build and power our homes. They support our infrastructure, they manage our waste, they grow, deliver our food. It’s like any any company that’s out there moving, delivering, producing a product like Motiv is designed and is built to really support them. You know, that’s what we do.

Stone Payton: What is the backstory? How in the world did you find yourself in this line of work doing this kind of service for folks?

Angie Bretag: Motiv found our way here. Um, over a decade ago. We got into this wild world of transportation initially just to digitize paper logs. And so the transportation industry was still doing everything on paper. And so we saw an opportunity to create a tool to be able to digitize those logs. And that’s how we got started. And, you know, the rest is history. You know, we’ve we’ve definitely expanded into different industries and different products, um, all with one idea in mind. And it’s just really to make the roads that we drive on safer and the companies that we serve more productive and more profitable.

Stone Payton: So have certain industries, sectors sort of gravitated to your work? Are there some that you really align with? Really?

Angie Bretag: Well, yeah. We, uh, we serve tons of different industries. Uh, you know, when we first got started, like I said, we were primarily in the trucking and transportation industry. Uh, but now over half of our business consists of companies that are outside of that industry. So construction, oil and gas, home services, landscaping, you know, anything that is, you know, delivering, producing like driving the physical economy. We can partner with.

Stone Payton: So what drew you to Nashville?

Angie Bretag: Motive. You know, motive saw the opportunity to, you know, create a, you know, an office, a culture and build out our sales team in Nashville. And so, you know, in 2018, we made a huge investment in the Nashville market and built out some incredible office space right up the street from the Ryman. We’re on fourth and church. And yeah, we we’ve got two floors and a building, the L and C building. And, you know, we saw it as a great opportunity to be able to be in the heartland of America that not only will help us serve our customers, but also attract a lot of awesome talent to come work at motive as well.

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

Angie Bretag: Oh, um, yeah, I, I think, you know for me, but I think if you ask anybody at motive, you know, we really are drinking the Kool-Aid in terms of knowing when we sell our product, we make the road safer and we save lives. And so, you know, it’s exciting to sell a product that we know makes a difference and is meaningful. And so I love that. Um, but also the motive team is incredible. And we’ve got a lot of really motivated and excited folks that, you know, work on the sales team, but also an engineering customer support. And I think honestly, all the way up, our executive team, you know, people just really care and really believe that what we do matters and what we sell makes a huge difference in the industry, in the communities that our customers provide services in.

Stone Payton: Okay, so let’s dive into the work a little bit and whatever is is most practical for you. Maybe walk us through a use case. But I’m interested to know like what? What happens throughout the I don’t know, the engagement, the work with a client. Walk us through what that looks like, if you would.

Angie Bretag: Yeah. So a good example would be we are reaching out to these companies that are, you know, in their in various industries, but we’re trying to get in touch with whoever’s managing safety or spend or, you know, any like anything that would kind of fall into the bucket of profitability, productivity or even safety. And so, you know, depending on kind of where we, you know, start the conversation or, you know, how we kind of get a seat at the table, you know, we’ll kind of take it from there.

Stone Payton: Like, what is the customer pain point like and what’s the what’s the relief. Say a little bit more about the specific service and and what they’re getting from you guys.

Angie Bretag: Yeah I think when we speak safety, we’re talking about, um, one of our kind of key products that’s changing the way that we do safety is dash cameras. You know, we give companies visibility into what’s happening behind the wheels. They’re behind the wheel. And then also, you helping use our AI technology to identify unsafe driving behaviors and help coach drivers to make them safer at what they do. So Dash cameras is a great example of how we’re able to make some real, tangible impact on the roads.

Stone Payton: So I wasn’t anticipating that. I say more about how you’re utilizing AI to to bring this to bear.

Angie Bretag: I mean, what company isn’t talking isn’t slang in AI these days, right? You know, I think everybody really says that. But at the end of the day, you know, we are using AI computer vision to help companies be able to understand what’s happening behind the wheel. So, you know, our AI models are helping companies understand things like drowsiness, people not wearing their seatbelt, cell phone usage, um, unsafe lane changes. And so our technology can see both in the cab what’s happening in there, but then also what’s happening on the roads around them to provide coaching. But also, you know, alert drivers when necessary to put the phone down and to get their eyes back on the road.

Stone Payton: What a marvelous application for AI. So you can your sensors your technology can pick up that these things are happening. And then you’re also able to to provide some support system and some some ideas to help them mitigate it or prevent it in the future, it sounds like.

Angie Bretag: Exactly. Um, you know, and when I talked about, you know, we we really believe that we make the road safer. You know, we hear that from customers all the time, that they have it in their own vehicles. And they themselves are better drivers because, you know, they have the motive technology in their cabs. Um, but yeah, I mean, we were able to detect it and kind of curb it on the spot, but then also go back and help drivers, you know, replay, you know, pull the tape and, you know, see what’s happening. And it allows them to provide coaching to their drivers and help. You know, make some real, meaningful changes.

Stone Payton: So I’m interested to know how the whole sales and marketing thing works in your industry. And then I guess, in particular, I’m interested to know when you first started bringing this to the market, I mean, did people jump all over it or was there a little. Did they bristle with it a little bit at first?

Angie Bretag: Yeah. When I think for cameras specifically, um, kind of the safety, the safety product, I think, you know, the drivers that are good at what they do are really proud of, you know, their safety scores and being able to, you know, really prove that what they do behind the wheel is safe and great. And I think, you know, some of the other drivers maybe aren’t as excited initially, but they definitely get on board. And I think it’s because this isn’t, you know, this isn’t a punish, but it’s to coach and to curb and to improve. And so, yeah, I mean, I think if anyone you know, is used to doing, um, you know, used to doing what they do without it and then they, you know, have something in there that’s kind of reminding them that, yeah, it could, it could be a little bit like it’s not even I wouldn’t say startling, but it could definitely be a change. So I don’t think they’re necessarily enthusiastic enthusiastic about it initially, but they really see the benefit. Um, and it helps their drivers and themselves get home safe at night. And at the end of the day, at the end of the day, that’s what matters most.

Stone Payton: Uh, earlier in the conversation, did you say 2018 is when you began to make an investment in the in the Nashville area?

Angie Bretag: Yes, sir. 2018. So, um, a couple years before, um, Nashville, I think, really took off. And everybody, you know, everybody decided to pack up and move here.

Stone Payton: And the team’s growing continues to grow. What are some some near mid-term plans in that regard. You just you’re going to keep going down that path.

Angie Bretag: Yeah. Nashville is such an awesome market for us. Um, we primarily in the Nashville office. We have a lot of sales folks. Um, and then the majority of our business development team is also here, too. So that’s usually, you know, more, you know, junior a little bit earlier on in their sales career, folks that, um, are, you know, just starting off. And so we see a lot of value in, um, you know, recruiting in this market and, you know, getting people that ended up here after college or, you know, moving to Nashville. Um, and our, you know, jumping on the bandwagon.

Stone Payton: So recruiting and development, uh, I’ll confess, and my listeners know that I’ve had my struggles with that over the, over the years, but I’d love for you to speak to your experience in, in recruitment development retention. I don’t know culture, any counsel you have in that regard and maybe share some of your experience over the years. I know it would be helpful to me and probably for our listeners.

Angie Bretag: Yeah, I my background before motive was, um, in the recruiting technology space. So I worked for many years at Glassdoor. And so I, you know, I think something I’ll always say when you’re looking to recruit and, um, you know, build a culture and, you know, really expand your talent is listen to what people are telling you that work there. You know, look at you know, look at your look at the reviews and kind of read it and, um, address it. So yeah, I think, you know, that’s always a little piece of advice. I always say, you know, pay attention to what’s being said out there. You know, there’s usually a little bit of merit. Um, but when it comes to recruiting, I think, you know, we luckily have an amazing brand, both in our industry but also in just the technology world in general. Like people, you know, come to motive. They’re excited to be a part of, um, you know, to be a part of the team. But, you know, some of the things that we’re really looking for. And I’ll speak to the sales side. Um, you know, as someone that does a lot of recruiting here in this market, uh, for salespeople is, you know, we’re looking for the ideal team player.

Angie Bretag: That’s like a recruiting methodology. You know, we’ve read a long time ago, but the idea is, you know, we’re looking for three things in our candidates. We’re looking for folks that are humble. You know, they don’t have a huge ego. They really want to, like, learn and grow. And they know that they don’t know things. And so they’re hungry to develop. Um, so humble, hungry. You know, they want to work really hard and they’re willing to, you know, put the work in to get the results that’s necessary. So humble, humble, hungry. And then the last one is just smart. Like they’re firing on all cylinders. Um, they’re able to, you know, understand complex ideas and be able to break into new industries and be curious and so humble hungry and smart is really what we look for on the sales side to identify talent. And then I think, where do we find it? We look across all industries. You know, you don’t have to come from one of our competitors necessarily to really be able to connect with the transportation and kind of physical economy industries that we serve.

Stone Payton: I think you make an excellent point, because I do think, you know, if you’re coming into a software firm and you’re coming from a surfboard manufacturer, you’ve got some perspective, some insight, some objective lens on some things that could really bring tremendous value to the software firm. Right.

Angie Bretag: Oh, yeah. Um, it’s always fun when we, you know, we bring someone in from a completely different industry and they kind of look at what we do, and they’re like, why don’t you why don’t you do it this way? And they think about the problem or the opportunity just slightly different. And it really changes the way that we operate So yeah. Absolutely. People diversity of thought and backgrounds makes a huge difference when you’re building out a team.

Stone Payton: Well, and that’s another interesting topic that you’re bringing up. I’ll call it innovation or creativity, because I think most of us who lead organizations large and small want to have an innovative creative culture. And at the same time, it’s not like you can jump on every cool idea that gets mentioned. Do you guys have any kind of like, rigor, disciplined, structured process for having that feedback loop and a way for people to contribute ideas and then treat it with some due diligence and, and then also so that the person that submits an idea and you don’t adopt it, they don’t feel beat up. Have you lived through any of that?

Angie Bretag: Oh, yeah. We always say like, you know like you’re like, you’re going to do something wrong. You know, the sooner that you can, you know, mess something up, the sooner you can figure out how to do it the right way. And so I think that’s one thing that we do really well, is create the space for people to learn and to grow. And, you know, we don’t expect perfection. We expect effort and we expect results. Um, and, you know, we we aren’t we aren’t perfect. We have really good, awesome ideas to go out and engage with prospects. And then we have kind of crappy ones, too. You know, it takes a couple of crappy ones to find the really good ones too. And if you don’t make people feel safe enough to come with all their ideas, then you’ll miss out on the really good ones.

Stone Payton: So I’m almost certain the answer to this is yes, but I’m going to ask anyway and maybe you can expand on it if that is the case. But I’m interested to know, have you had the benefit of one or more mentors along the way to help you navigate the terrain, like from transitioning from recruiting to this arena? And then as you continue to grow and things change, have you have you had a mentor or two?

Angie Bretag: Oh, yeah. I’ve had a ton of mentors. Um, you know, people I still keep in touch with from, you know, other organizations that I was lucky enough to work at and then internally at motive. Um, there are just so many people that are invested in want to support. Support you. You know, I feel like I, you know, have had the opportunity to work for some really great leaders. Um, and specifically at motive, you know, I shout out Ben Nott-bower. Um, you know, I have like a full, like a folder on my computer that’s just like my one liners of, you know, little tidbits or things that I’ve learned from him, from him throughout the years, um, that now, you know, I’m passing on to the managers that report to me and, you know, they’re passing on to their ease.

Stone Payton: So I don’t know when or where you would find the time, but, uh, interests, passions, hobbies, pursuits outside the scope of your of your work. My listeners know that I like to hunt fish and travel. Anything you have a tendency to nerd out about that’s not transportation and AI?

Angie Bretag: Oh yeah, I’ve got I’ve got toddlers and so, um, yeah, I mean, we they keep us busy, you know, we’re toting them to baseball right now and dance and gymnastics. Um, but yeah, we I mean, I think our toddlers keep us really busy. And then, you know, I am a huge football person. I grew up with brothers that played collegiate football. My, you know, every man in my family is a football coach. They all coach for the high school team back home. So yeah, I feel like, you know, we are officially, um, you know, in football season. And so that is something that I nerd out on, you know, I will nerd out on for the next six months.

Stone Payton: So we touched on sales and marketing a little earlier in the conversation, but I understand that you guys are going to be at an upcoming conference. Is that accurate?

Angie Bretag: Absolutely, yes. We’re going to be at MCE here in a few weeks in October. We’re really, really excited about it.

Stone Payton: And if you would share with us what MCE is and kind of your your strategy, like what will you try to accomplish? I mean, do you have you probably do have some sort of strategy or set of objectives that things that you want to get accomplished while you’re there? Yeah.

Angie Bretag: Yeah, absolutely. We are lucky enough to be one of the premier safety performance partners. Um, you know, it’s a really important industry event for us. You know, it brings together a bunch of different trucking industry leaders, CEOs, executives, um, and they all kind of nerd out over new things that are happening in the industry. And we are so excited to, you know, sponsor that and be a part of the conversation and just have the opportunity to really sit with, you know, folks that are already partnered with motive, but also that are curious about what we do and how we help companies like theirs. So yeah, I mean, I think best case scenario, we have some awesome conversations and learn things we don’t even know yet about our industry and identify, you know, problems that we can continue to solve for, you know, the companies that we serve. Yeah, we’re really excited about it.

Stone Payton: And where is it going to be.

Angie Bretag: Here in Nashville?

Stone Payton: Oh, right in Nashville. That’s fantastic. Well, I’ll tell you, my experience has been, as you might imagine, we do a lot of conference and trade show work where we are doing live radio, either on behalf of the conference organizers or an individual vendor. Exhibitor will hire us to do radio in their booth. And I have observed that particularly those firms that really do approach it with some real intent and objectives. I mean, you can get so much accomplished in terms of genuine relationship building in the space of a 2 or 3 days that that, you know, has an impact for for months and years, can’t you?

Angie Bretag: Oh, yeah. And especially this industry like we you know they are you know they’re they love the idea of getting to meet with people face to face and building those relationships. And, you know, the value and problems that we solve are so real. Um, and, you know, I think having the opportunity to really connect with them and, you know, spend some time with them in person makes a huge difference in, um, you know, being able to build opportunities across the spectrum.

Stone Payton: Well, I would say good luck at the conference, but I don’t think you need it. It sounds to me like you’re approaching it with the right mindset and a plan, and I am interested to to hear how it goes. So maybe you’ll swing back around and and tell me about the the experience before we wrap, I would love to leave our listeners with, I don’t know, a couple of lessons learned, maybe some pro tips. And it doesn’t have to be confined to the transportation industry, although that might be a perfectly appropriate point of focus for this. But just, you know, just running a business and scaling a business and recruiting, let’s leave them with a couple of quick pro tips or lessons learned, if we could.

Angie Bretag: Yeah. Um, yeah, I think a couple a couple pro tips or just things I’ve learned throughout the years that I think has that matter are, um, you know, the first one is it’s really it’s at the end of the day, it’s more important to be interested than interesting. You know, I think focus more on your customers and, you know, be obsessed with ways that you can serve them, um, and design your product and your company around being able to really solve their problems and, um, be more focused on them than focused on yourself. So I think you know, it’s more important to be interested than interesting. Um, I think that applies to any industry, transportation or not. Um, you know, that’s going to, at the end of the day, make you stand out and make your make your company successful. Um, and then I guess on a personal one, you know, I think one way I pursue life and business and, you know, you can start to see people that kind of view it in a similar way to, you know, there’s going to be a bunch of stuff that you have to do. You know, you have to, you know, in the sales space, you have to make cold calls, you have to, you know, send emails and kind of do some stuff that maybe isn’t as fun as, um, you know, getting to like, sell.

Angie Bretag: But, you know, those are the things you have to do. And I think the people that view it, the task view, the tasks that feel less exciting or less fun is kind of get to’s. Um, as you know, I get to make calls like, I get to go out and talk about motive. I get to, um, you know, I get to do these things because I have an awesome job. Those are the people that are long term, really successful. And, you know, that’s in business, but that’s in life too. You know, the people that, um, you know, I get with, especially with my toddler, you know, I get to read the 10th book tonight before bedtime versus I have to, I think, you know, viewing life and the the get twos versus the half twos really will change your perspective and how you approach work in life. And I, I think that’s been some of the best advice that, you know, I’ve received over the years.

Stone Payton: Well, I am so glad that I asked. I think both points are marvelous. Counsel. I am probably going to borrow slash steal. Interested? Over. Interesting. I’ll try to remember to credit you at least the first few times I say it.

Speaker4: Deal?

Angie Bretag: Deal. Well, thank you so much. This was exciting. I hope, I hope we shared some stuff with the listeners that they get some value from.

Stone Payton: Oh, without a doubt. All right. What’s the best way for our listeners to learn more about motive, tap into your work. Uh, you know, maybe learn about, you know, the where you’re headed. Maybe someone’s interested in a career with motive. Let’s leave them with some coordinates. You know, a website or whatever you feel like is appropriate.

Angie Bretag: Yeah. I mean, if you’re in the Nashville area looking for a sales gig, absolutely. Check out our careers page at Go motive.com. We’re on all the socials. Um, you know, if you want to learn a little bit more about life at motive, um, you can see some of our cheesy, cheesy posts about what it’s like to actually work here and learn a little bit more about the culture. Uh, we’re on LinkedIn. You know, those are great places to go. Check us out and then, you know, if you are going to be at MCE, um, in October and you know, you’re going to be lucky enough to be a part of that, stop by, talk to our team. You know, we’re really excited to talk about some of our new product releases and spend some time with the folks in the industry. So if you’re at MCE, check us out at our booth. Um, we cannot wait to meet with you. So yeah.

Stone Payton: Angie, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm. And I gotta say, your your wisdom. You, you and your team really are doing important work and we sure appreciate you.

Angie Bretag: Oh, thank you so much. We we love what we do. And, you know, we feel lucky enough to be able to work for an awesome company that makes a difference.

Stone Payton: I believe it. All right, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Angie Bretag with motive and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you again on Nashville Business Radio.