Business RadioX ®

Travel Smarter, Not Harder: Let pAiback Handle Your Flight Price Drops!

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Travel Smarter, Not Harder: Let pAiback Handle Your Flight Price Drops!
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Jason Lucking, co-founder and CEO of pAiback, a service that helps frequent flyers save money by monitoring flight ticket prices after purchase and securing credits when prices drop. Jason explains how pAiback works, its benefits for both individuals and businesses, and the airlines it supports. The discussion covers pAiback’s performance-based business model, user experience, and its mission to make travel more affordable and accessible. Listeners also learn how to sign up and connect with pAiback for future savings on air travel.

Jason Lucking is the Founder and CEO of pAiback. He is a lifelong road warrior who has spent his career at the intersection of craftsmanship, commerce, and travel. After years in the luxury industry, living out of airports and hotel lobbies while building relationships the old fashioned way, he repeatedly experienced firsthand how inefficient modern air travel can be, and how loyalty often goes unrewarded.

That lived experience led him to found pAiback, an AI powered platform designed to help frequent travelers capture airfare price drops automatically while growing loyalty to the airlines. He brings a human centered approach to building technology, a deep respect for relationships, and a personal understanding of travel.

His deep-rooted belief is that travel should create opportunity, exploration, and unity. The more we travel, the more we see, the more we connect with the world around us and beyond.

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Benefits of using pAiback for frequent flyers, including potential savings.
  • Supported airlines and ticket classes, with plans for future expansion.
  • Business model and compensation structure of pAiback.
  • Process for users to sign up and utilize the service.
  • Discussion on the application of pAiback for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
  • Insights into the ideal user profile for pAiback, including frequency of travel.
  • Importance of removing financial and psychological barriers to travel.
  • Future plans for enhancing user experience and expanding service offerings.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today we have the co-founder CEO with pAiback on and it is Mr. Jason Lucking. Welcome.

Jason Lucking: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you spending some time with me.

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

Jason Lucking: Sure. So pAiback was, um, was built out of frustration. We are a travel flight ticket optimizer. Um, as a frequent flier, both for business and with the family, I was always trying to figure out the best time to book my ticket, and I just wanted to figure out the logic that sat behind it and ultimately realizing that I didn’t need to do that because, you know, nowadays, with the rise in Agentic AI and and price dynamics and pAiback was born out of this exact problem, I want to travel more. I want to feel loyal to the airlines. And so pAiback takes your existing flight tickets. We monitor them until you take off, and then when the price of that ticket drops, we get you a credit for the difference with the airline between what you paid for it and what it is today.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that for one drop or for the eventual like last second, as I enter the plane, I’m getting the lowest possible price.

Jason Lucking: It’s from anywhere from between the time that we received your ticket to 24 hours before you take off. And the reason we say that is your ticket might not drop at all. It might drop once, or we’ve seen it drop as many as eight times on a single ticket. So every single time we’ll keep recapturing that credit for you.

Lee Kantor: Now is the price drop like only on first class or does it every every kind of level drop?

Jason Lucking: Yeah. So it’s a great question. It is for so we focus on four major airlines Delta, American United and Alaska. And we’re looking at adding some additional airlines. So that’s one important factor. You have to have bought your ticket directly with the airline as well. So another important factor not through Expedia or Chase or Amex or one of those guys. And then it is any ticket except basic economy. So basic economy is the one that comes with the greatest restrictions. We focus on everything else. So economy, business, first class, domestic, international, all of the above.

Lee Kantor: Now what is kind of so far your biggest drop you’ve seen in terms of dollars.

Jason Lucking: So we saw we saw a single ticket drop $9,000. Um, now, obviously this wasn’t a economy ticket from Raleigh to to Charleston. It was a.

Lee Kantor: International.

Jason Lucking: No, actually, it was New York to Hawaii in interestingly. Really? But international flights South Africa to JFK. They dropped $8,000. That was first class. And and the Hawaii flight was also first class. So but we see an average of $250 is the average drop that we secure. Now that takes into effect economy business and first class. But still that’s a significant number.

Lee Kantor: And you say that like if I travel ten times a year, how many times do you think I’ll see a drop.

Jason Lucking: Yeah. So so our users see a 1 in 2 ticket drop. So 50% of the time the ticket is dropping. And it’s funny because when this was was born, you know, trying to figure out and we’ve all done it, you know, when is the best time to buy our tickets? We’re always told it’s Tuesday at 6 a.m. and clear your cookies. And, you know, make sure that Mercury is in retrograde. You know, all all of the things that we’re told to do, but we never know. Um, ultimately, prices are dropping all day, every day. We see tickets drop on Monday through Friday, we see them drop on Saturday and Sunday, and there’s just no human way of knowing when which flights it is that’s going to be dropping. And do I want to spend the time tracking that flight myself, and then spending two hours on the phone with the airline to, to secure that drop? Um, so it really happens all the time with such consistency. Um, and it’s one, 1 in 2 times it drops.

Lee Kantor: Now is there a minimum that it has to drop in order for pAiback to kind of to execute when it executes in order to get me the discount? Or is it like if it drops a dollar, then you’re going to knock down a dollar?

Jason Lucking: No. So so our minimum threshold that we do is $10. Just for the simple fact that the majority of our user base are frequent fliers. And as much as we’re here to, you know, optimize your tickets to ultimately make you more loyal to that specific airline, because now you’ve got a future flight credit to use with the airline. We also don’t want to be an annoyance and, you know, receiving a $1 credit and then being like, how am I going to use $1 on a flight is a little annoying. So that’s why we set a minimum threshold of $10. And just for the simple fact that we want to make sure that this makes sense so you can spend that money on a future flight.

Lee Kantor: And then the strategy is that once you have pAiback and you, um, you know, you’re tied into it, then it really doesn’t matter when you buy the ticket, because you’re going to get the lowest price up to 24 hours before the flight takes off. So there’s no kind of you don’t need to have that strategy you mentioned earlier.

Jason Lucking: Exactly. So we wanted to remove that. Um, so there’s there’s a couple of pros to this, which is when you say you want to book a ticket, you want to go on a trip, you want to just say, I’m not going to play the game, I’m just going to book my ticket today. And now I have pAiback to catch me, you know, on the way down. Um, the other idea is it’s it’s removing this element of what if? And we live in this world of, of a lack of transparency. We’re adding some transparency to that. But what we want ultimately people to do is say, I want to go and travel. I want to go and see the world, and I want, you know, now I’ve got these credits that that help me go towards that, that goal and motivator. And when today I decide I want to go on a trip, that’s the day I’m going to book it no longer is the when is the best time to buy. We always say the best time to buy now is pAiback. That’s right.

Lee Kantor: Now and then. So let’s play out a scenario. Um, I’m gonna I’m gonna have to travel to, uh, Minneapolis in a month or so. Um, I haven’t got my ticket yet. I, um, I’m not a member of pAiback. So how do I join pAiback and then tie pAiback to. I’m going to fly Delta. How do I tie pAiback to Delta so that all this is going to happen seamlessly?

Jason Lucking: Sure. So it’s super simple. You’ll go to our website which is pAiback.app. So the website is p A i back dot app. The actual app is in development right now. You’ll sign up costs nothing. To sign up, use your email, your first name. There’s a couple of additional details that we require. Then you’ll go and book your ticket directly with Delta. Now you can do one of two things. You can forward that ticket to US ticketing at pAiback app or when during your signup, you can integrate your inbox. So what the integration with your inbox means you book a flight with Delta. You don’t even have to lift a finger. We’re going to pick up any Delta, American, United or Alaska flights. They’ll come straight through to us. We’ll begin monitoring them immediately. And then really, there is nothing else for you to do at this point except wait. So we’re monitoring that if the price drops, we step in. We take care of that for you. You’ll receive an email from the airline saying, hey, you’ve secured a credit. You’ll receive an email from us saying, hey, we’ve secured you a credit. And then that will just keep happening. You stay on the same flight, in the same seat, you know, unless the airline changes the time, that’s the only way that there could be any changes that occur.

Lee Kantor: Now, what if I’m buying the ticket for my wife and I? Does she have to sign up separately?

Jason Lucking: Yes. So if if your wife is flying separately, if she is the the principal on that, uh.

Lee Kantor: Like it’ll be I’ll be the principal and then I’ll have a passenger flying with me. So we’ll, we’ll question.

Jason Lucking: So if you, if you book a ticket and it’s you and your family of four, you’re you and your wife, then what you’re going to do is you’ll just submit that one confirmation and each passenger is under that confirmation. So if the price of that ticket drops, you will receive a credit. Your wife will receive a credit. If you have children, your children will receive credit. So everybody in reaps the benefit of those price drops. So it doesn’t just apply to you because just you have signed up.

Lee Kantor: So but I have I’m the only one who has to sign up. And all the credits will go to the appropriate people.

Jason Lucking: Correct. Exactly. So everybody benefits from it. You only need one Sign up. Yes.

Lee Kantor: And then how does pAiback get compensated?

Jason Lucking: Sure. So we, as I said, it’s free to sign up. It’s free to us to monitor. The only time that we make money is when you win. So when you win, we win. So if we saved you $100 at the end of that month, we’re going to bill you and you submit your credit card at sign up 20% of whatever we’ve saved you. So you net out 80%. And when we’ve saved you money, we we make a small portion of that. So we’ll charge you 20% of whatever we’ve secured for you.

Lee Kantor: And then so out of the $100, $20 in cash goes to you, but $80 in credit goes to me.

Jason Lucking: So you’ll you’ll receive a full $100 credit in your airline wallet. We will then charge you.

Lee Kantor: $20 in cash, right? That I’m paying immediately at cash or credit card. Yeah.

Jason Lucking: A convenience fee. A service fee. Yeah. Right.

Lee Kantor: And then I’m getting $100 placed into my Delta kind of airline wallet. And then, so the next time I use a Delta flight, is Delta going to say like, are they going to remind me I have $100 there? Like, how does how do how do I use that $100 once I’m ready to buy a second flight?

Jason Lucking: Yeah. So each airline acts a little differently. If you take Delta as an example, there’s an amazing useful feature. You’ll scroll down and enter your form of payment. There’s a little one that says use use my credits. Uh, American is a little different. United is a little different. So all of the airlines act marginally different. But during your sign up or during your purchase of a future flight, you’ll be able to select or input your future credit. And that’s something that we’re really working towards and steering towards. We don’t want to become a travel agent, but I want you to travel more. I want you to see more of the world or engage with people more, whether they’re people that you know or don’t know. So for us taking those credits and encouraging future travel, well, that’s our next iteration as well as we continue to grow the business. And we want you to go out and see the world, you know, explore more.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, how does it work for companies like, say, like my kid works for a company twice a month. He’s traveling somewhere. There’s probably eight of them together, going to different locations around America. How would it work for a company that has kind of, you know, that kind of situation?

Jason Lucking: Yeah. So we’re working on a small to medium sized enterprise model right now. Um, we have a lot of people that are road warriors, and I was formerly a road warrior as well. And so I buy my ticket, I submit it to pAiback, I monitor it and I’ll pay back monitors it. And from a small to medium enterprise, we’re working with a couple right now to refine that model. And for those so that there can be a larger benefit. Some of the smaller businesses might use, you know, travel platforms like Concur or Navan or, or, you know, one of those as well, in which case those currently don’t work. That’s like purchasing your ticket through a third party. That’s like buying it through a Chase or on Amex. We’re focused on direct bookings, bookings that are booked directly with the airlines.

Lee Kantor: So if the company is just has a person on staff that’s buying tickets, they can talk to you and figure out a way to work together.

Jason Lucking: 1,000%, 1,000%, yeah. We’re really, um, you know, our ultimate goal is to is to allow this to be a small to medium sized enterprise and it to be a direct to consumer product as well.

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

Jason Lucking: Well, you know, we’ve been so fortunate that, um, you know, having people such as yourself interested and and sharing the sharing the good word of pAiback. Our deep rooted ethos as as I feel like I’ve mentioned, is really to get people out and see more of the world now, is that are we doing that through saving you some money and 100%? I come from a background of of sales, and everything that I sell is something. It’s something that people where, you know, it’s it’s not necessarily a necessity. But I feel that traveling the world and just travel in general just is so important to life and society these days. And, you know, that’s what we really want. We want people to sign up. We want people to save a couple of bucks, optimize their tickets, and then go out again, explore more, see more of the world. That’s what we we really want our company to, um, to be known for.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And I think that you’re taking away some of the friction because there’s some people out there that are like, oh, I’m interested in going to this location. And then they in the back of their head like, well, today’s not the best day to buy this ticket. I have to wait till Tuesday or whatever. They think they know about this. And then all of a sudden, you know, life gets in the way and then they stop thinking about it or they moved on where this can get someone to take action right away when they have that impulse to actually go somewhere because they know they’re not going to kind of pay a price for delay.

Jason Lucking: Exactly, exactly. I mean, I personally used to set up oodles of Google alerts and my inbox would fill with them and it would be telling me that the price has gone up, the price has gone down. The question is, is what is exciting for you? Is a $10 drop enough for you to want to act on it? It’s $100 drop, enough for you to act on it. And everybody has a different threshold on that. But one there’s the monitoring side. Two, there’s the time component. So okay, let’s say I do set up a Google alert and I check it at 7 p.m.. But the price actually dropped at 6 a.m.. Now I’m on the phone with a customer service for an hour to two hours for them to tell me. Oh, by the way, the price didn’t drop. That was earlier this morning. So there’s a time to value proposition that exists here. But as well as you said, it is removing the question of when do you have an impulse. You want to travel and see the world. You want to travel on a business trip or go see a family member? You don’t need to think about playing the game anymore. You can now just book that ticket.

Lee Kantor: And, um, so when did you feel like you had something that’s going to work? Can you talk about kind of that, uh, the origin story about when you were testing this and then you actually saw it kind of come to fruition as you imagined?

Jason Lucking: Yeah, sure. So I, I was a frequent flier. Um, you know, as a road warrior. And then my, my wife turned me into a, a a frequent flier is how I would describe it. Signing up for directly with the airlines. And I booked a trip. And then a month later, my wife wanted to come on that business trip with me. And ultimately her ticket was, you know, a hundred bucks less expensive. So that was this, like, oh my word. Pricing dynamic exists. So I was fortunate enough to to partner with this really, really smart co-founder and based in the UK. And we just started testing, you know, is is there a is there a true um, success here. And we found, you know, I built it largely for my, for myself and my family to start off with. And we were seeing higher than 50% price drops. It was it was higher at that point. Um, and we were just like, there’s something here. And it’s not just for, for the road warriors, not just for the people that are, you know, price conscious. What we realized is this is a huge airline play as well. We’re building airline loyalty for people. And and so it was it was as an entrepreneur you have to put something in, take the feedback, put something else in, take the feedback and just keep reworking that cycle. And we had we had our, you know, mo out of it. But ultimately everything has a little fluidity with it. There’s going to be a little bit of change and that comes from it. And so that’s that’s kind of been our journey of, of, of building it. We’ve had amazing success with frequent fliers, amazing success with um, you know, people that are passionate about technology. Um, so we’ve been we’re very fortunate to have such a loyal base of people that love what we do, love what our mission is, and want to share that.

Lee Kantor: So the ideal customer is that frequent flier? The person who, um, wishes they could travel more, and also that small to medium sized company that is booking their own travel directly through, uh, the airlines.

Jason Lucking: Exactly. We say that anybody that’s traveling 2 to 3 times a year is going to benefit from this. You know, when you receive a future flight credit, that credit lasts a year from the time of purchase. So you need somebody that is flying more than once a year. Um, and 2 to 3 times we feel is, is that real? Uh, you’ve got that start or starting at least that travel bug. Now we have people who are flying once or twice a week as well with, with some insane regularity. And, you know, I’m sure their house or apartment is more like a storage unit than than the hotel rooms that they’re actually living in. So ultimately, if we consider frequent fliers, anybody that flies 2 to 3 times a year, but there’s a lot of a lot of people that are flying. You know, once a week, once a month that, you know, once a quarter, which, which really benefit from this.

Lee Kantor: And if people want to connect with you and learn more, what is the website one more time?

Jason Lucking: Yeah. So the website is pAiback app which is p a c k dot. Best way to find us, you know, social medias or through LinkedIn. And again you can you can find me on there as well Jason looking look ING.

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

Jason Lucking: Thank you Lee, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Hormones, Habits, and Happiness: A Journey to Holistic Well-Being with Amy Lenius

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Hormones, Habits, and Happiness: A Journey to Holistic Well-Being with Amy Lenius
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On this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Amy Lenius, Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University. Amy shares her personal journey overcoming health challenges, her transition from massage therapy to coaching, and her holistic approach to personal development. She discusses the importance of sustainable habits, consistency, and finding the right coach. Amy offers practical advice for listeners on building lasting change, emphasizes the value of self-awareness, and highlights how small, adaptable steps can lead to meaningful growth in health, business, and life.

Amy Lenius is the Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, Professional Speaker, Event Coordinator, MC, and Next Level Certified Personal Development Coach

She helps people (mostly women) redefine success in a way that feels deeply aligned through clarity, self-belief, emotional resilience, self-worth, and sustainable daily habits

Over the last eight years, she has spoken on stages at events dedicated to health, healing, and personal development. She currently serves as the MC and speaker for Next Level Live each year and has been featured on over 100 podcasts

Her coaching work is rooted in a whole-person approach, addressing not just mindset, but also health, relationships, purpose, and identity. She specializes in guiding women to reconnect with themselves, honor their cyclical nature, discover what success and fulfillment truly mean to them, and live in a way that reflects their values and vision.

Connect with Amy on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Amy Linnaeus’s personal journey and health challenges, particularly with endometriosis.
  • Transition from massage therapy to public speaking and coaching.
  • Overview of Next Level University and its holistic approach to personal development.
  • Coaching philosophy emphasizing habit-based strategies and sustainable growth.
  • Importance of finding the right coach and evaluating coaching relationships.
  • The role of consistency and small, manageable actions in achieving personal goals.
  • Addressing internal barriers such as self-worth and clarity in clients.
  • The significance of adaptability in creating sustainable fitness and wellness habits.
  • The interconnectedness of various life areas (health, work, relationships) in personal success.
  • Encouragement for listeners to take actionable steps toward their goals and connect with Amy for support.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have the director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, Professional Speaker, Event coordinator, MC, and Next Level Certified Personal Development and Success Coach from Next Level University. Amy Lenius. Welcome.

Amy Lenius: Hi. Thank you. I’m so excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Well, let’s just start at next level University. How are you serving folks over there?

Amy Lenius: Oh yeah. So Next Level University is a company that I partnered with I think going on four years ago now. So it was founded almost nine years ago by Kevin Palmieri and Allen Lazarus. They were deeply invested in creating a space of holistic self-improvement for the sake of success. Now you won’t hear us talk about holistic self-improvement as much in those words anymore, because no one knows what the heck we’re talking about. So we have just switched it to personal development, but we deeply do believe that there is a next level in health, wealth, quality of life and love for everyone out there and how all of them are integrated together. Even though I think we like to think those things are separate sometimes. And so what we do is we have a platform where there’s a daily podcast that the guys do. We have group coaching. We have one on one coaching. We offer high level business coaching through Allen, our CEO. We have free book clubs, free masterclasses every month. We have a lot going on and like you said, we have group coaching as well, which is one of my favorite things that we get to do because that’s something the three of us get to do together. And so it has been probably one of the best and most aligned partnerships I’ve ever been a part of. And like I said four years ago and still going strong for me and it’s been great.

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

Amy Lenius: It’s it’s quite a lot, actually. So it’s funny, I actually grew up very sick. So I grew up with a female condition called endometriosis. And that’s where my journey really started. I grew up very sick with that, and in my early 20s, I myself was in school for anatomy and physiology and wanted to have this different experience with my health. And so I started taking on different ideas, different ideologies, stepping away from modern medicine and seeing where I could take my health. And I ended up over years getting better and better and better from a condition that I was told I would never be pain free from, and maybe even never have kids. I was able to have two beautiful boys. And so it started with started with resiliency. It started with taking my own empowered stance on bodily body autonomy, bodily health. And then it I couldn’t help but bring it into my practice as well. And so I started bringing in these conversations with the women I had on the table. I was a massage therapist at the time, and I had a practice based around pre and post-natal care for women, pelvic balancing for women. And I started speaking into their lives, and then I started getting into the natural wellness space and into those rooms, and I started speaking in those rooms. And then I got to speak on stages and give beautiful presentations. My my favorite was my keynote, Holistic Healing for Your Hormones.

Amy Lenius: And so I got to just really be involved in the women’s health space and created my own group coaching program from there, and became a client of Next Level University. Along the way, Allen was helping me with my business. Kevin was helping me with the podcast I had myself at the time, and then I sent that presentation, that keynote speech to Allen because he’s a fellow public speaker. And I said, hey, I I would love some feedback on this from someone who also does this. And he had some really great feedback for me. And he said, you know what? We would love for you to come and emcee our live event that we do once a year. And that was four years ago this spring. And so it was, like I said, just this different space. It was me saying a bunch of aligned yeses, kind of yes, and figure it out. But to be asked to come speak in the personal development space and to help throw a personal development event was very different from where I had started within public speaking and things. And so it kind of just said yes, figured it out and loved everything that they were doing. Like I said, I was already a client, but to move into being in a partnership with them was fascinating and it’s been really fun.

Lee Kantor: So how did you go from being a massage therapist to a public speaker? What was kind of the impetus to make that transition? Because there are so many massage therapists out there that it doesn’t even occur to them to go that route.

Amy Lenius: Yeah, it started because of mostly my healing journey. So it was a combination of I have this background in anatomy and physiology. I know other women struggle with their hormones. And so I had this very specific message that I wanted women to hear. And I think when we have a specific message on our heart that we know people need to hear, it gives us the boost and it decreases that fear of public speaking. No one likes to public speak. On average, people typically fear death less than they fear public speaking. But, um, it really started when because, like I said, the natural wellness space. So when I started taking control of my health, I was going into naturopathic practices and things and started getting control of my internal environment. And then someone brought to my attention, well, what about your external environment? What about endocrine disruptors? Stress, you know, persons, places, things, all sorts of different things that really affect our health and within the company that I found really aligned, and supportive products like essential oils, like different herbs, like natural cleaning products and things. That’s where I started to hit that next level of my health and that next level of healing. And I started sharing my story within that community and at those company events. And so it just kind of snowballed from there.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your coaching practice, were you kind of coming up with your own methodology or were you, um, kind of getting certified from a variety of different coaching methodologies and philosophies?

Amy Lenius: Um, all of the above, actually. So I’m a forever learner. I love to learn. I love studying psychology and and the human nervous system and people in general, and again, anatomy and physiology and things as well. Stress reduction, very, very female focused. And so I have a lot of studying hours under my belt and different certifications and things. And then from that, and from my own experience, I did create my own group coaching program that was called the Peaceful Period Project, where I just took women through everything they needed to know about their hormones and how. Yes, pain is common, but it’s not normal. And we went through that whole process. And now with Next Level University, I get to bring all of that in, which is such a blessing and a gift because like I said, this company was founded by two just healthy masculines and I don’t think they expected to have someone come in and be this more female face, but that’s what it’s grown into, and I can’t help but bring everything from that into this. And I’ve been more than supported and celebrated in doing so. So even now, with my clients and on podcasts like we’re talking about right now, I can’t help but bring it in to make sure they’re aware that they are these cyclical beings. So even if we’re talking about personal growth and success with their version of success is and how we’re building that, it always comes in. So they do find they go really well together.

Lee Kantor: Now, for folks out there that are listening that maybe haven’t gone through coaching, how do you recommend them vetting and kind of finding the right, uh, coach or coaching practice that works for them?

Amy Lenius: Oh, absolutely. You want to be so discerning when you are stepping into the space and looking for guidance, mentorship and coaching. What a great question, Lee. I am deeply passionate about this because I think nowadays you can go on the internet and see anybody spouting anything. You can rent cars to look successful. You can. There’s so much you can do. So make sure you’re very discerning about who you are, giving your time, energy and money to, and start with the process of do you think this person shares similar values to you? Have they created? What you can see is a genuine and authentic lifestyle that you yourself would like to have. Do they have the relationship that you would like to have? Do they have the parenting styles that you would like to have, the fitness styles that you would like to have. Again, there’s so many different kinds of coaches and mentors. What is it you’re specifically looking for? Make sure you find someone who is ahead of you in that area, but also someone who resonates with the lifestyle that you want to lead. And we want to make sure that they are speaking to you in your language. So yes, they you want them to be affirming and validating, but not so much that you’re not getting challenged because the reason you’re not succeeding in the thing that you want to be successful in isn’t because you already believe what you believe or do what you’re doing.

Amy Lenius: It’s because there’s something missing. There’s a belief that’s not there or there that’s holding you back. There’s actions that need to be taken. And so a good coach is also going to help you unearth those. They’re going to help you with the habits and the tangible things you need to do every day to get to that goal. But they’re also going to work with the human along the way the identity, the core wounds, the core aspirations, how they go together. There is I mean, I could talk about this forever. There’s so much that needs to go in to genuinely speaking into someone’s life. And it is an important, an important role to take and to not take it lightly. And it is such a privilege to be able to speak into people’s lives. But you have to make sure you’re doing it right. And one of the simplest examples I can give is if you’re talking to someone with high self-belief, the same way you’re talking to someone who has low self-belief, or vice versa. You are doing damage either way, and so you need to be able to discern that as a coach, as someone who speaks into people’s lives and so give people a chance. If you’re called to work with someone, do, but always feel safe in knowing that you are an empowered individual who can always step away if it doesn’t feel right.

Lee Kantor: So what are kind of the non-negotiables or the true North’s that are part of your program? What are kind of those foundational elements that your program brings to bear?

Amy Lenius: So the coaching that we do at Nextlevel University now is very much habit based. We believe in the compound effect. We believe that we can reverse engineer your goals into small, sustainable daily habits. So we have a lot of how to’s. How is this going to work within your current lifestyle? Because everyone is an individual, we have people that we work with who are high level business owners. And we also have, you know, stay at home moms who are also just looking for holistic success, personal development support, and maybe to bring in 3 to $500 a month in something that brings them passion and purpose. And so there’s a wide spectrum there. And again, you can’t talk to one the same way you talk to the other. So it’s very customized what we do. But the through line is the same. We’re going to make sure you’re dialed in with habits, making sure we’re measuring what is most important to be measured so that we can see where things are working and where we can can something and bring in something new. But along with all these tangible externals, we’re always touching in on internals. We’re making sure we’re assessing identities. Do your core beliefs and core values even align with the goals that you currently have, because if they don’t, you’re going to find a way to go off the rails. What is your core wound? What is your attachment style if you’re looking for relationship support? Because again, we believe in holistic success. So everything affects everything else is what holistic means. So whether you’re struggling with your health, it’s going to affect your work and how you parent. If you’re struggling at work, it’s absolutely going to come home and affect how you’re in your relationships at home as well. And so helping people understand that it’s all integrated and we can get even just 1% better regularly through aligned action and habits.

Lee Kantor: So is there anything right now a listener could do that’s actionable based on your philosophy, where they would see some something?

Amy Lenius: I would look at your ability to be consistent. We see that a lot. People struggle to be consistent with the things that they want to do. And so if you’re struggling to be consistent, even though you’ve been called to do this thing, you want to do it. You’ve tried, you’ve started, you’ve stopped. If you are unable to be consistent at something, it’s genuinely because you’re not setting yourself up for success. You just haven’t found the version of that thing that you want to do that is sustainable and realistic in your lifestyle as it is right now. You need to have humility to start small so that you can expand into it, as your capacity for the thing grows, as it finds a home in your day to day life. And so what is your level of belief in that thing? Do you believe it’s possible? Do you believe it’s possible for you? Do you believe it’s going to be worth it to work through the hard things that are going to get in your way on some of the days that you’re trying to do this thing? Do you have humility? Self actuate accuracy? Is it sustainable? If you are trying to work out for an hour a day and you’ve never been able to consistently do that, drop it, drop the time and then build into that. Start with ten minutes if you have to. It’s important. More important to build it into the identity first than it is to keep pushing yourself into an hour and then having that start stop, start stop, start, stop.

Amy Lenius: We never want to be the person who has to go from 0 to 100 all the time. We want to build from 0 to 1, from 1 to 2, and then we want to make sure that there’s grace, there’s adaptability within this habit, within this thing you want to do, because life goes off the rails regularly. If you have any kind of variables in your life, like children and pets and a busy schedule and a job, then sometimes we need to adapt those habits. And so how can you have an adaptive version of the habits where you can give it 30%, even if that’s all you have to give to it, and you still get the check of the box dopamine hit and the hey, I did the thing I said I was going to do, even though it wasn’t at 100%. And that’s okay. And then you need to be able to pull in grit. Some days it sucks. Some days you need to have an f my feeling moment and just get it done, check the box, and then you are going to be able to build into someone who has the identity of I do the things I say I’m going to do because I set myself up consistently, successfully to be able to consistently do them.

Lee Kantor: Is there a story you can share that, um, maybe with a client? Obviously don’t name their name, but maybe share the challenge they had when they started working with you and how you were able to help them get to a new level or the next level in this case?

Amy Lenius: Mm, absolutely. I’ll actually just use myself with the framework that we just talked about. So because I grew up so sick, I had this underlying belief that my body is a broken piece of garbage to something that. So I had this thing that my body was a broken piece of garbage. And every time I tried to build into a fitness regiment, my inflammation would kick up. I would overdo it and then have to take a bunch of days off to recover and then try again. And I was going from 0 to 100 all the time. And then I was coaching with Alan one day, our CEO, and he said, okay, I know you want to move your body. I know you are looking to be more physically healthy. How can we make that happen? He said. What about going to the gym every day? And I said, my guy. Absolutely not. I do not believe it is possible for me to get to a gym every day. One I don’t even have a gym around me. I live in a teeny tiny town on a dirt road. We don’t have a gym. I’d have to go to the next town over. So right there, there’s a huge barrier to entry. And he said, okay, what about if you started lifting weights for an hour every day? I said again, Alan, an hour every day lifting weights. I don’t believe that I could sustain that every day. I’m a homeschooling mom of children. I have my career here.

Amy Lenius: We have so much going on. And so we just kept going back and forth until I had belief in the thing that I was going to be able to do. And what we settled on was, I am going to move my body for a half hour every day in a way that feels aligned to me, because I’m not going to feel like lifting weights every day, and I’m not going to feel like just going for a walk every day. Like I said, I do live very cyclically with my hormones as I help other women do, and so that matters when it comes to fitness for women as well. And so it gave me a measurable amount so I could measure the half hour. But I had freedom within that to do what I felt like doing that day. As long as I was moving my body for 30 minutes. So there was the belief part we needed to find what belief I had in my possibility, in my potential, and then to be able to be humble in that. I could have easily just tried to impress Alan and be like, yeah, absolutely. I can lift weights for an hour every day. I would have done it for three days and then hated my life and then blamed either the weights or myself. So I had to have humility there for some self actual accuracy. There it is. And then we just built it up in a sustainable way. It was, okay, we’re gonna do it for half hour and we’re gonna see how long we can go to do that, and then we’ll build it up and then we’ll build it up if you choose.

Amy Lenius: If not, I’d stay at the half hour whatever feels best to you. And then I had to have adaptability. And so some days going for little walks with my kids had to be the thing that I did that day. Sometimes it was mobility. I have been sick and I have lied on the floor and just done long form stretches just to keep the streak going. That’s another hack. Track count your days that you do something because as that builds, it gets really hard to break the streak. Oh my gosh, am I going to break a 50 day streak just because I don’t feel like it today? No. Absolutely not. So that’s a little neuroscience hack for your brain. And then some days, yeah, I had to get real gritty about it because I have very busy days where things go off the rails regularly. I live a very gratefully full life. And so implementing these kinds of practices have allowed me to now work out for a half hour every day. Now I’m up to 40 minutes every day, and I’m lifting weights regularly for over 1200 days. And I know that because I keep track. And so these small, sustainable things, if you give yourself the grace of time, do build into something really amazing.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have kind of an ideal client profile? Is there an avatar for the perfect client for you? You mentioned women a lot.

Amy Lenius: Absolutely. I personally love I love working with women, but I do have a couple men on my coaching roster right now, and that’s been really, really fun, I love it. We’re building out their their businesses, creating habits for them, you know, helping them show up. And they came to me because they also knew they needed the identity work along the way. And that’s where I really thrive. And so I do have what I believe is an ideal client, and that is someone with humility, with coachability and with work ethic. Because at the end of the day, you have to get the things done that you say you’re going to do to reach the goal. Again, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to reach the goal. But if you want to reach the goals, there are things that need to be done and there. It’s important to be able to have someone speak into your life and tell you how to do that. Now, are we going to have trial and error days where we set a goal, We set a habit and we realize, oh my gosh, okay, after a few days of getting zero on this thing, that just means we’re not in a sustainable place yet. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong, doesn’t mean the habits wrong yet. We just need to adjust and to pivot. And so yeah, work ethic, coachability humility. And I mean, we attract a lot of people with high self-belief. So that high self-efficacy, they really believe that they can, with enough time, energy and effort, achieve external results. But they have a lot of low self-worth. We attract a lot of those people, so we get to build up their self-worth along the way, and I love that work as well.

Lee Kantor: So what’s kind of the struggle or pain these people are having right before they call you? Is there something happening that’s a trigger for them to say, you know what, I should call Amy and her team.

Amy Lenius: Typically, it’s a lack of clarity. They just need help with the how to’s.

Lee Kantor: And but how does that show up? Like what is what’s the thing that’s happening where they’re like, hey, I have to make a change. Like, what is the thing that’s tangible that they can see and feel so they know, hey, if this is happening to me, I should be open to making some sort of a change.

Amy Lenius: Yeah. So they have a vision and they don’t know how to how to get it. So they’re struggling with doing all of these things that keep them busy. They’re doing a lot of busy work, but nothing’s moving the needle. They’re not seeing success in the thing that they want to see success in. So they don’t know how to leverage that 20% that moves 80% of the needle. It’s it is it’s clarity. People are so bombarded with the busyness of the world and other people’s opinions. We have so much access to information nowadays that we actually don’t know what’s right for us and how to be discerning. And so people come in because they’re overwhelmed with not knowing what to do specifically to reach their goal. Like I said, they’re looking for clarity. And clarity creates certainty. Certainty creates action. And so they’re looking for just those tangible steps typically. And then it’s really dependent on what their goal is. So if they have podcasting goals, they go to Kev. If they have high level business goals, they go to Alan. If they have goals, but they know something inside them is getting in the way. They typically come to me and so they know that, hey, I want this success, but I’m tripping myself up along the way because I can’t hold boundaries with anybody. I can’t keep a promise to myself for the life of me. I struggle to invest in myself. I don’t believe it’s possible for me. I have feelings of being unlovable or unwanted. There’s so many nuances in that. But they come to me for more of honoring the human along the success journey.

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

Amy Lenius: Yeah, absolutely. So there is a website next level Universe.com. And if you have any questions or just want someone to talk to you, you can always reach out to me. It’s just amillennial on Facebook or Instagram and you’re going to get me in my DMs. We are entering a time where AI and all sorts of things can happen in a message, and that is something that we’re dedicated to sticking to is human to human connection. So if you message me on those platforms, you will be getting me. Not AI, not my assistant. It is going to be me. And I’m happy to answer any questions that you have.

Lee Kantor: Now we’ve been talking about next level university, but the website is next level universe.

Amy Lenius: Com um.

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

Amy Lenius: Thank you. Thank you so much for the great questions I enjoyed it.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Navigating the Just Be Space: A Journey Through Identity, Anxiety, and Personal Growth with Behati Hart

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Navigating the Just Be Space: A Journey Through Identity, Anxiety, and Personal Growth with Behati Hart
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Behati Hart, an author and life architect coach from Chicagoland. Behati discusses her new book, “Just Be: Unmasking and Becoming Human Again,” which explores midlife transitions, identity, and personal transformation. She shares her journey through menopause, career change, and neurodiversity diagnoses, and explains her unique coaching approach blending ancient wisdom, modern science, and AI. Behati also describes her work with entrepreneurs, her BETi Method, and how she helps clients navigate life’s “sacred pause” to rediscover their authentic selves.

Behati Hart is an author and a life architect—a unique blend of coach, strategist, and designer of possibility. She meets others at the profound threshold of AWAKENING, guiding them to architect their own becoming through Wisdom + Design + Strategy.

She has personally “died a thousand deaths” by unmasking from systems and beliefs that constrained her multidimensional gifts. From that initiation, she designed new systems that merge her expertise as a behavioralist, designer, Life Coach, Ordained Minister, and AI enthusiast.

She specializes in heart-led transformation for conscious living, helping others recognize that life and death are both teachers of the New World.

She is most alive as a creative—dancing through life and creating moments of laughter and acceptance within global communities.

Connect with Behati on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Exploration of midlife transitions and identity shifts
  • Discussion of personal transformation and the journey of becoming
  • Experiences related to menopause and career transitions
  • Insights on ADHD and anxiety diagnoses
  • Introduction of the “life architect” coaching approach
  • Overview of the BETTY Method for personal development
  • The concept of the “just be space” and its significance in transformation
  • Importance of heart intelligence and heart coherence in coaching
  • The role of community and resourcefulness in entrepreneurship
  • Emphasis on inclusivity in coaching, welcoming diverse clients

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Behati Hart and she is an author from the Chicagoland area. Welcome to the show.

Behati Hart: Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well, can you tell us a little bit about your book and what prompted you to write it?

Behati Hart: Yeah. Sure thing. So Just be is the title, and the subtitle is Unmasking and Becoming Human Again. And I know that sounds so like sci fi, but I am a 51 year old woman from Chicago. I identify as Afro-indigenous. And so with all of that being said, the book demanded to be written because I was experiencing a lot of the transitions that midlife women typically do, like menopause. I was going through a career, a career transition after a job loss from federal government, and then I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety. And so when I sat with myself and did the inner work that I do as a life architect with my clients, I realized that I had something to say and I put it in a book.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk a little bit about, before we get into the book, a little bit about kind of the life architect practice that you’ve built. What is kind of how’d you come up with that term, and what does it mean, and what types of clients does it attract?

Behati Hart: Sure thing. So a life architect is someone who is multidimensional life coach. I have a background in innovation and design and strategy, and I’ve been helping people for at least over a decade, about 15 years in the space of transition, myself, being a veteran, having transitioned out of federal or government service, but also as a military spouse. I think I know a thing or two about transitioning and confidence. And so the framework that I designed, I call it the Betty method, and it’s an acronym because of course, government, we love acronyms and it stands for Becoming Empowered Through intelligence. I’m an AI coach as well, and so I weave that experience in with my clients. So when my clients come to me, they experience the transformation of the human experience between somewhere in between that loss of identity, but also the becoming something else. And they’re not quite sure yet. And I use AI as a tool because there’s some frameworks that I can’t access, just my brain won’t allow me to. And those are ancient frameworks like I Ching or Ikigai, or I use numerology, even astrology, to help people remember who they are. And then we can start using modern behavioral techniques. And that looks like helping them write the narrative from their traumas or this transformation that they’re going through. And then we can introduce design strategies like human centered design is like a framework that we use in space, where we prototype a new way of being. And so a client that what my clients would look like is really anybody that’s kind of in that stuck space. And I call that the just be space. Because oftentimes transformation is hard. You have to let an old identity die before you can create a new one. And so when clients come to me they’re typically in that transition transformation stuck area.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, throughout life we all go through a variety of transitions and evolutions as you progress. Um, you use the word die as a, as, I guess, a kind of marking of one from one transition to the other is I’m sure that was intentional. And can you talk about why you frame it in that manner?

Behati Hart: Sure. I call this system this triangulation of being the trinity of transformation. And this is, again, not something that’s new. I didn’t create this, but there are studies around death, near death experiences. There are studies from the ancients around the cycle of life and death in karmic being. And so when I say die, I say that to kind of like trigger curiosity because nothing ever really dies, right? Things continue on and go on, and they transform like the seasons. But it’s an invitation to bring people to the knowing that our egos will die, right? The ways that we have operated will die. They no longer serve us. They no longer serve our becoming. But we have to eulogize that death. We have to honor what once was. So whether you’re going through a divorce or, again, a career transition or you’re becoming an empty nester. Ways of of identity pass on and new identities are waiting to be born. So I walk my clients through that process of the trinity of transformation so they understand you have to eulogize what once was and honor that so you can become who you want to be now.

Lee Kantor: Um, how do you decide which transformations or transitions warrant being seen as a death and, and others that are just, you know, the like you can make a case that every day is a death.

Behati Hart: Yes.

Lee Kantor: So so how are you deciding which transformation you mark with? Okay. This is a real transformation. This isn’t just, you know, Wednesday.

Behati Hart: Yeah. So I let my clients decide that Lee, I don’t, um, as a coach, we’re trained not to overwrite the system of the person who’s having the experience. It’s more. So let me turn this. Let me hit this button here and see how that feels for you. And again, you you nailed it right? Every day, every moment is a choice. An opportunity to make a decision to be different. We do this every year, Lee. We do this during the season of the new year, when we make a resolution to become something different, and statistically by February, that flops. And so technically we can say resolutions die right around the mid February time frame. But what I offer to my clients is to bring that reframe back and identify why that didn’t work for them specifically. And that’s why my framework happens in three phases. The first phase of remembering is exploring who you are beyond the identity labels. And it’s as simple as starting with what does your name mean? Where did you inherit that name? What does your ethnicity mean? What does the group that you grew up in, or the community that you grew up in mean for you? And so that first experience is that meaning making? And by the time we get to the second phase, which is the reprograming rewriting, they’re able to understand that that wasn’t meant for me in the first place.

Behati Hart: I don’t know why the heck I said I was gonna lose 15 pounds within six weeks. Can it be done? Sure. But oftentimes that failure becomes that obstacle by which they stay there and they stay in this kind of death cycle. And so by the time we get through the second phase of my coaching, the third phase, we’re able to design a way out. And this is the rebirth phase, right? We design our way out of that illusion of death so they can finally figure out, like, maybe I was reaching a little too far. I wasn’t being too kind to my true self. And maybe I need to stretch this goal out in a different way. That feels right for me. So yes, death happens daily.

Lee Kantor: And how do you help your clients? Um, like in their head, they want to be this new version of themselves, but they are the version they are today. And how do you kind of prevent them just kind of almost accepting this, the trauma that they’ve experienced that’s put them in the place that they are and that that it’s insurmountable that I can’t, I can’t like I can wish for that, but it’s unrealistic for me to really get to that next, um, the place that I’d really like to be.

Behati Hart: Yes. So someone who is constantly in her head daily, I’ve had to adopt a new way of of practicing. And I’m a student of a a science called heart intelligence or heart coherence. It is a way that many eastern cultures, and even Western cultures and religion have initially taught us how to be right. It’s going inward and centering and breathing and being one with yourself, feeling all the feelings. I read a statistic while I was writing this book, and it wasn’t surprising to me because we see it all over the news, and many of us who are empathic can feel the energy of anxiety throughout the globe. But the statistic was the World Health Organization said that we are in a loneliness epidemic. And I was like, wow. Last time I heard the term epidemic was when we were in Covid and it felt very lonely. It felt very isolating. And when you’re isolated, you tend to stay stuck in your head, and we don’t get down to the root of the feeling. So while I became a student of heart intelligence through the Heartmath Institute, I learned that the heart is actually the first brain. It operates like a brain because it has 40,000 neurites that send signals to the brain. More signals in the brain sends throughout the body. And so I had to learn how to rewire my thinking by bringing feeling into the balance of that. And that has helped me manage my ADHD, manage my anxiety, and just live a more fruitful life. To be quite honest, a more joyful, happy life is every day happy. Absolutely not. My body keeps the score and it tells me what it wants to do. But through coherence, through this alignment that I mean to operate from and teach my my clients how to how to be, they’re able to come out of their head and feel the feeling to make it make sense. And then it goes back upstairs to the brain and they can rewire everything.

Lee Kantor: So what are some of the.

Lee Kantor: Symptoms that a person is having right now where you might be the right answer for them? Like what? What are their signs or signals that a person is going through that it’s like they don’t have to be doing that if they would just get Ahold of you.

Behati Hart: Sure. Um, so if you’re navigating loss, maybe you’re you’re feeling like you’re craving something deeper. You know, that there’s more to what you’re experiencing, but you just can’t put a name to it. And it typically is happening because change is happening. Some people are maybe feeling stuck in between chapters. You know, like me, I’m kind of a quasi empty nester and I’m trying to figure out, like, what does life look like when I don’t have to cook dinner every night for everybody? Maybe, um, you’re sensing there’s more to life, right? Like you’ve been living in a performance way. And when I talk about unmasking, I mean that from the multi-dimensions that I live from. Typically, as a neurodiverse person, we use masking as a protective measure because we’re very hyper sensitive and we sense everything. But as a woman and as a woman of color, I mask as well. And so maybe you’re feeling like that mask is cracking and you’re tired of being perfect and you’re tired of the over productivity and it’s burning you out. Or maybe you’re looking more towards like, I want to live more consciously. I want to integrate my ego. Sure, maybe it needs to die, but also maybe it needs to integrate into who I’m becoming and I need help with how to do that. So those are the types of folks that would come to me.

Lee Kantor: And then what is kind of those early sessions look like? What are some of the questions you’re asking people when they start working with you? Or maybe some of the pre homework before they even start working with you.

Behati Hart: Well, again, in my three phases of the Betty method, we always start with who you are and we’ll stay there for a little while. Typically my clients will will range between 5 and 9 sessions. And I can guarantee you and I have the evidence that within five sessions, people are like, okay, I can kick the training wheels off and move this thing. But some of them want to stay the long haul and finish the design process. And so in that first phase or that first session, I typically ask, who are you? Like what? How do you experience life through you? Tell me more about who you are and let’s remove the labels. You’re not a mother. You’re not a father. You’re not the CEO of whatever. I just want to know who is Lee Kantor. If I didn’t know you and I wanted to be your friend, who are you? What does your name mean? Where are you from? And you’d be surprised that the light bulbs just really start going off at that moment. Because people don’t tend to describe themselves outside of all the labels that we live from. So that’s what they would experience is a friendly neighborhood conversation.

Lee Kantor: And then when you made the transition in your life from working in government to coaching, was that transition, uh, scary? Was that something that just was natural? Uh, did you feel like did you have any doubt that you could do it? Did you need some kind of evidence that, hey, I can do this?

Behati Hart: Well, you know, I’ve been coaching my whole life. Like, I think when I look back at my career in government, like I said, I ran, um, while I was working for Department of Defense. I was the lead program manager in transition and employment. So by that logic, I was already doing it professionally, but not officially with a certification. Um, I received my certification through the Association of Coaching under the Jay Shetty Program, um, in 2023. And I was doing that kind of like a side. Like a little hobby, if you will. I had a couple clients when I was released from my career back in March 2025. I decided to do this full time and it was scary as hell. Lee because I had not been a full time entrepreneur before. And so luckily through that program, they taught us all the fundamentals of business startup. And so I’ve been able to apply that and, um, learn so many things. But yeah, when you’re starting a business that doesn’t have a solid framework, it really is individually based. It is absolutely scary. This isn’t a plug and play. This isn’t a franchise type of of business. This is you’re building something around your own capacity, your own skill and your time.

Lee Kantor: And then once you kind of took the leap to do that, did it just start working or were you getting traction right away, or was this something that like, do you have a support group that you kind of lean on that helps you kind of through this, or were you just kind of rocking and rolling. Let go.

Behati Hart: So these are great questions because I was just talking to a former client about this because they want to explore coaching as well. Um, no, it was not rocking and rolling right away because I needed to figure out who I was presenting myself to be to the world, like what kind of services. I didn’t want to copy paste what everyone else was doing. I knew I had to stand out in my own way and stand in my own knowing of what I wanted to offer to folks. But first I had to draw myself back, and in drawing myself back, I went to my AI tool, and what framed from that was me creating a my coaching framework and also my AI coaching companion, Betty AI. And together I was able to identify my new job title to build my framework for my new clients, to build marketing materials and communication. And so it’s been a slow well, I want to say slow because I really probably launched this officially in August 2025. So in hindsight, it’s been a few months, but now I’ve already had, um, I just signed a contract today to coach a group and I have one new client, and so it really is day by day doing making the effort to put myself out there, trust that my product is good and in building the community around that.

Behati Hart: So when you ask about community, this is really important for me too, is I’ve been getting a lot of like messages for people to offer me their services to help me find speaking engagements and all these enticing things. Right? But hey, I’m bootstrapping this. So I tell folks, hey, I don’t have all the finances that you need for your services, but I can barter with you. I can offer you a free coaching 2 or 3 sessions in exchange for the knowledge that you have. And I think that people have lost the, um, the understanding of how valuable bartering is, and I want to bring that back. I want to reintroduce that to communities, especially my communities, the women who have been going through these transitions, I think the last statistic was like over 455,000 women left the workforce in 2025 by November, and so many of us don’t have that additional income or the capacity to get a loan to pay for the services that we need to build our own businesses. But we certainly can barter. We certainly can barter. And so I hope that through what I’m doing that influences and inspires folks to consider bartering might be the new way of exchanging services.

Lee Kantor: Now, is the avatar of your ideal client, a woman that is a certain age going through a transition.

Behati Hart: That is the avatar that is one of my my clients. But today, um, my other client is male, and they completely identified with the work that I’m doing. And I was like, well, everyone’s welcome. I’m not rated E for everybody, but the type of coaching that I offer can be.

Lee Kantor: And then you mentioned an organization hired you. What type of organization is a good fit? Is it non-profits or is it, um, technology? You mentioned AI.

Behati Hart: Um, yeah. So it’s a it’s a technology training organization and they have a community. And they asked me to train their community. So this will be like a virtual training that I’ll do once a month. And it is confidence coaching, which is what I offer as well. And so I’ll be talking to this group over a period of five months about how to how to draw the confidence through the betting method for the work that they’re doing, because all of the work that they do is uniquely different. They’re all in e-commerce and, um, they’re all selling different things. But As an entrepreneur, drawing confidence when you’re first launching your idea out to the world or your product out to the world, you can lose confidence because you don’t assume all of the things that you had envisioned for it to come to fruition, right? Sometimes it could be a quiet month or a quiet week. And, um, I imagine for them, if it’s anything like what I’ve experienced, it’s very vulnerable and scary. But I know how I work and I know that my tool is good and they know it’s good. And so I’m excited about that opportunity.

Lee Kantor: Now. Is getting the book kind of a way to just experience a little bit about what your practice is like?

Behati Hart: Oh, certainly. Yes. My book is a memoir, and the memoir is a nine year journey that I’ve taken, and I’m sharing with the world about how I make meaning out of the different spaces of science, spirituality, humanity, and just kind of came full circle when the rug was pulled out from under me because, like my first chapter talks about, like this is where I am today. I know all these things about myself. These are all my identities. But my identities are stripped down to the bare bones. And as I put it, like butt naked I am. And when I’m naked and afraid, who am I? And so then the book kind of journeys from there. And so I wrote this in a way to allow people to see themselves through some of the experiences that I’ve had, whether you are a woman, whether you’re menopausal, whether you’re going through a transition, most of us have gone through a transition and sometimes a traumatic one. And so I think that that my book, my memoir, my story is relatable to anyone who is seeking meaning in that quiet moment that I call just Be. I call it the sacred pause, because it’s that valley of the shadow of death. It’s like, I know I’m going through something and I know there’s a way out on the other side, but this is actually really quiet and scary. But it’s also beautifully quiet and maybe I need to pay attention.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your practice or get a hold of the book, is there a website?

Behati Hart: Of course is Bahati.

Lee Kantor: Com and that’s b e h I. Com.

Behati Hart: Yes. And I’m on all the social channels LinkedIn Facebook Instagram, TikTok. And I’m working on my YouTube. But if you find me on YouTube, you can listen to some of my banter.

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

Behati Hart: Thank you. Lee. I appreciate you too.

Lee Kantor: All right. This Lee Kantor we’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Flipping the Script: How Hive is Changing the Game for House Renovations

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Flipping the Script: How Hive is Changing the Game for House Renovations
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee interviews Ari Milrud, co-founder and CEO of Hive—a contractor marketplace tailored for real estate investors and house flippers in Atlanta. Ari shares his journey from high school entrepreneur to startup founder, discusses the challenges flippers face finding reliable contractors, and explains Hive’s rigorous vetting process. The conversation covers building trust in the contractor community, Hive’s multilingual approach, and the importance of credibility. Ari invites listeners to connect and learn more about Hive’s mission to streamline real estate renovations through technology and transparency.

Ari Milrud is a student entrepreneur based in Atlanta. He is the co-founder of Hive, a real estate technology platform that connects investors with vetted contractors through a transparent bidding and rating system.

He has hands-on experience in wholesaling and off-market investing, which inspired him to build tools that solve real problems investors face in renovation and execution.

Hive recently earned second place at Georgia Tech’s Startup Exchange Genesis program, validating its mission to bring trust, efficiency, and accessibility to real estate renovations.

Connect with Ari on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Identification of a market gap for a contractor marketplace tailored to real estate flippers.
  • Challenges faced by house flippers in finding reliable contractors and estimating renovation costs.
  • Description of Hive’s business model as a two-sided marketplace connecting flippers with vetted contractors.
  • Vetting process for contractors, including verification of licenses, insurance, and references.
  • Importance of having a stable network of contractors before purchasing properties.
  • Insights into building Hive as a non-technical founder and the significance of co-founder relationships.
  • Discussion on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and support programs for young entrepreneurs.
  • Challenges in recruiting contractors and addressing language barriers for Spanish-speaking contractors.
  • Strategies for building credibility and trust with contractors in the technology platform space.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, 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. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Ari Milrud. He is the co-founder and CEO with Hive. Welcome.

Speaker3: Hey, Lee, how are you doing?

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

Speaker3: Yeah. So hive or hive site is the website name. Hive is a contractor marketplace that we’ve been building for real estate investors, specifically fix and flippers in the Atlanta area. This is our first market that we’re going after. And when it comes to contractor marketplaces, oftentimes people think about ones like formerly known as Angie’s List, now Angie and Thumbtack, but those are built for homeowners, and we’re just trying to build a tool that’s great for fix and flippers and all real estate investors.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the backstory? How did like, where did you realize this was a problem and you could solve it?

Speaker3: So I’m still in high school. I’m a senior in high school, but I got into real estate. I got interested in real estate when I was a freshman in high school, and I kind of picked up on on real estate wholesaling, which is a low barrier to entry way of getting into real estate. It’s pretty saturated now. But, um, that’s when I first found an interest in real estate. And then last spring that just interest carried on and I wanted to get into my first flip. Flipping my first house. And and I came across this problem when I started talking to contractors in person for the first time, walking properties with them, learning the pricing. And I just found that there’s a big gap in what it costs them versus what they charge people who they think sometimes don’t know or don’t speak construction. Because let’s be honest, in the first two minutes of speaking with you, they’ll know exactly how much construction knowledge you have. So oftentimes I see even experienced flippers get maybe taken advantage of. And it’s just a super relationship based industry. And that’s when I first that’s just when it first really hit me and I didn’t I looked for a tool that could solve this problem, or I could just post a deal and have contractors bid on the work. And there wasn’t one. And I’m like, I’m only going to be this young with this low responsibility again, so I might as well just go for it. Try to make it.

Lee Kantor: So educate our listeners on how this works. So like, what if somebody says, okay, I’m going to flip a house. What does that mean? And what does that entail typically.

Speaker3: So you’ll look for a deal which already in Atlanta that’s pretty hard to find a good deal. But yeah, you’ll look for like a distressed property. That’s usually the route people go distressed property and and find, you know, a contractor for it. You’ll you’ll purchase.

Lee Kantor: But are you. So first you’re like first you have to find the property that is in your mind undervalued. And you know that if you fix it up, you can make money selling it, right.

Speaker3: You’re looking for an RV after repair value that that leaves you enough margin for you to make, uh, you know, your buck.

Lee Kantor: And then is there a rule of thumb when it comes to that? Are you looking for something that I can double or triple like? Is there a number that you’re kind of aiming at when you see a property for?

Speaker3: For fix and flippers, the typical number tends to be around. I think it’s 25% of the the RV is what they’re looking to make.

Lee Kantor: Um, so you got a quadruple. So you. So if you buy a house for 100 grand, you want to sell for 400 grand.

Speaker3: Um, I mean, I mean, it differs like, every, every flipper goes for their own margin. Like, there are people who are pretty greedy when it comes to it. And that’s why they they lowball on a lot of deals. Um, but, you know, like, let’s say you’re selling a house for 400,000, um, or that’s where it’ll sell for after you’re, you’re a lot of flippers will aim for that. You know that 25%. They’ll aim to make close to 100, 100 grand on that.

Lee Kantor: Um, is that what they want to pay for the property or or.

Speaker3: That’s what they want to. That’s what they want to make on the on the.

Lee Kantor: That’s what they want to make on the deal.

Speaker3: Yeah. So so paying for the property, um, what they pay for the property ultimately is, is decided from how much, you know, renovation work it needs so that that those numbers.

Lee Kantor: Okay. So that’s where the contractors come in.

Speaker3: Right, right.

Lee Kantor: And so you. If you don’t have a stable of contractors you can trust and can give you kind of predictable pricing, then that could blow up your deal in a blink.

Speaker3: Exactly, exactly. It’s everything after the purchase. And it’s it’s actually doing the work and getting the the the renovation.

Lee Kantor: So do you have to have that? Do you have to have that kind of in your pocket before you even buy the property, like you have to, or else you’re taking a big risk that you’re going to be able to get, um, contractors at a price that you think is reasonable.

Speaker3: Right? Exactly. And you can walk the property with contractors before, um.

Lee Kantor: Is that what you recommend?

Speaker3: Um, I mean, I’m not I’m not a super experienced flipper. Um, as I was gonna do my, my first flip last spring, and then we were. And then this is where I kind of found the problem that we’re now trying to solve. But, um, um, I won’t go ahead and, like, recommend. Hey, do this this way. Um, there’s so many ways to.

Lee Kantor: Right. But if you have Contractors that are going to give you. Okay. In order to, you know, get the house in a shape that you can get that 100 grand from, it’s going to cost you X, and you got to be able to trust that it really is going to be X. And it isn’t two x.

Speaker3: Right? Right. It is. It is definitely risky. You could run into problems in the renovation that you didn’t see before that, uh, when you were first looking at the deal, maybe under the, uh, floorboards or something that, you know, right.

Lee Kantor: All of a sudden there’s asbestos and now it’s game over. Like, now you’re just you’re going to lose money or you got to sit on it for longer.

Speaker3: Exactly. So yeah, it’s a big risk. And, uh, especially since here in Atlanta, there’s a lot of newer flippers since it’s just becoming more and more popular. Um, they don’t have all those, you know, connections to, like, a stable, uh, source of of contractors that super experienced, uh, flippers would have now that they’ve been in the game for so long. Um, so, you know, what you’ll do is you’ll probably when you’re looking at a deal, you go on Google and you search up contractors near me. You’ll click the first couple that have a bunch of fake Google reviews, and you’ll kind of just trust that and then, um, trust that they’re giving you a good price and then trust. Even if you’re getting three different quotes you still have, there’s still a lot of trust and a lot of risk involved.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I mean, look, I’ve never flipped a house, but I’ve worked with kind of contractors over the years in my own house. And I know that every time you hire one, it’s an adventure because, you know, sometimes they don’t show up. Sometimes, you know, they get another job that pays a dollar more. So now you’re not a priority. Like it’s a very kind of dicey world. And if you don’t have people you can trust, it becomes adds a layer of risk.

Speaker3: Right. And that’s the same problem that we’ve heard, uh, that has been echoed to us this entire journey of creating this platform. Um, that just the problems that people run into with contractors. It’s it gives me a headache just listening, listening to it.

Lee Kantor: But yeah. So so you say, okay, I can see there’s an opportunity here. So if we can create a two sided marketplace on one side is not homeowners, it’s not people that just want, you know, a new light switch or, you know, a ceiling fan. These are people who want to flip a house. So they’re a different kind of customer, and they’re going to hire a different type of contractor.

Speaker3: Exactly. Yeah. Very different type of consumer on on our platform. Um, it’s not smaller jobs like you said. Um, these jobs are upwards of $50,000. And the main thing is that these are going to be returning customers because.

Lee Kantor: Right, if you’ve got a good one and you can keep them busy, they’re, you know, that’s kind of a repeat business built in.

Speaker3: Right? Exactly. Yeah. There’s only so many um, you know, if you’re a homeowner, you own one home. There’s only so many times you can fix one roof, right? Uh, yeah. And then also the, the, the other thing with homeowners that when it comes to contractors wanting to work with them, is, you know, there’s a lot of delays with flippers who’ve done it maybe once or twice before. They kind of know how it works. Now, the the order of things. And, you know, they don’t need to check with a spouse on if this color is good or not.

Lee Kantor: Right. It’s a different they’re doing things that look the same, but they’re not the same.

Speaker3: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: So now okay. So you say okay there’s an opportunity here. So I got to get both sides of this marketplace going. If I, if I make this platform successful. Right, I got to have people that are going to hire contractors and I got to have contractors that are going to be good. So how do you kind of vet the contractors and and do you do any vetting on the other side of the, uh, the flippers.

Speaker3: Right. So yeah, that’s one of the main things because, um.

Lee Kantor: Because Uber, Uber checks me, you know, I get rated too. So, you know, both sides got to be I.

Speaker3: Yeah. And I was I was about to bring up Uber because um, you know, let’s be honest here, if Uber had come out today and you need to go somewhere and, um, this platform just came out and this person has zero ratings or reviews and this is a new platform. You’ve never heard of this. You’re most likely not going to get in the stranger’s car. Um, so since we’re a new platform, we want to build credibility. So this, this, you know, first round of contractors that were, uh, manually were manually vetting each one, uh, making sure that, you know, we don’t run into major problems and they have, uh, experience of reliable and quality work. Uh, and to do that, we check, um, another thing I’ll add here is that, um, flippers tend to work with unlicensed, sometimes work with unlicensed contractors just so that they can get a good price and, and grow their margin. Uh, and that’s one thing, you know, we found out more into the idea phase when just like, talking with contractors. So we had to, um, kind of adjust uh, for, for that. And so the way we vet contractors is it’s like. It’s like an application they, they put in all their basic information. What types of work. What type of work they do, uh, their timelines for like basic stuff. And then we ask, are they licensed? And if they’re not licensed, then we’ll ask for their general liability insurance, uh, and then their surety bond information if they have that, um, and we kind of look at everything together and we at the very end, we ask for at least, uh, at least two references on and then the project information of projects they’ve done with those references. Uh, and then I’ll go I’ll call those those references, ask them questions. Um, and then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll that’ll create their initial score on the platform, which we have ratings for each contractor out of ten from, from 1 to 10. Um, and those references kind of help come up with that initial score. Um, and. Yeah, that’s that’s how we’ve been vetting contractors.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you vet the flippers to make sure they’ll pay on time? You know, all that stuff to.

Speaker3: The flippers were just asking for for, you know, um, projects they’ve done in the past. Um, but it is kind of a more of a trusting flippers because some of our, uh, the, the customers were going for are newer flippers because they don’t have these, these relationships yet with great contractors that they use every time. Um, so on that part, it’s gonna, it’s gonna be more of a trusting thing, just kind of making sure they’re, they’re, they’re good people. And a lot of flippers were initially gonna have be posting jobs, these flippers that I’ve worked with in the past or that I already know just from being real estate these past couple years. Um, and so that’s kind of where we’re at with that. But yeah.

Lee Kantor: So, um, how did you kind of take it from the idea stage to, um, you know, the platform stage? Are you a Technologists. Do you know how to code?

Speaker3: So I’m I’m a non-technical, uh, founder and but my co-founder, Louis, um, Louis singer, he goes to Mount Vernon, uh, school in Sandy Springs. Um, he, he had some coding background. And when I was looking for a co-founder to work on this with, um, I didn’t want to just, you know, grab the the know it all guy who could build the whole thing in a week and and, you know.

Lee Kantor: So you didn’t want to go to Fiverr and just say, hey, build me this thing, right?

Speaker3: Totally could have done that. Um, but I wanted to find someone who was young like me. Uh, obviously ambitious. Uh, humble is another very key thing. Like, I want to make sure they they’re not just gonna, um, make it all theirs and then take the idea and run with it or anything like that. I want to make sure it’s humble, willing to grow, and then, yeah, the most important thing is willing to grow at the same rate that I am. Um, and I feel like Louis was just had all those attributes And, um, and he had some coding experience. He built a website for, um, I think it was Furman University and then the startup museum of Atlanta a couple years ago. Um, and then, yeah, he worked on another startup before, but it didn’t really go that far. Um, so that’s where I kind of found my coding, my, my coding expertise.

Lee Kantor: And did you know him before?

Speaker3: He’s like in the same he’s a year younger than me, but he’s in the kind of the same social circle. So I’ve I’ve knew his name, but I’ve never actually known him. And then I reached out to him, um, in the summer and we got to working on, on hive.

Lee Kantor: So, um, in your peer group, are there other entrepreneurs that are doing stuff like this?

Speaker3: Uh, and do you mean peer group in.

Lee Kantor: In other high schools, you know, friends of yours, or are there other kind of budding aspiring entrepreneurs like you?

Speaker3: Um, I mean, there’s, uh, Every now and then. Maybe you’ll see one from a different school or something. But it is hard to find kids who are like, building, like super ambitious, like projects like this. Um, but I do see, like, some entrepreneurial kids in my school, and, um, and I love to see, like, them going after their own thing, like, there’s, uh, these two kids in my school who are working on, um, this, uh, service based business where they connect high schoolers, uh, with, uh, local businesses and give them internships. And that’s something I love to see. So I do recognize it, um, when it’s there.

Lee Kantor: And is there any kind of, um, place for you to gather and meet and interact? Is there any kind of group or, uh, that you’re a member of that kind of encourages that?

Speaker3: Um, not really. For, for high school, we kind of had to expand to, to college to find the group of builders that we were looking for. We we ended up joining a program at Georgia Tech, um, last semester in the in fall and through atdc. Um, no, it’s not that one. It’s, uh, startup exchange, uh, the Genesis program at Georgia Tech. Um, and that was like a 5 or 6 week program where it’s just, um, all it’s like all Georgia Tech kids who, uh, just came together and went through like this, the idea phase and all this. And, um, and then it ended with a demo day at the Startup Exchange Summit in, um, in, in at Georgia Tech, uh, where the fellowship teams pitched. And then the Genesis teams did their demos and there was a competition. We actually ended up winning second place, which was really cool. Um, and that’s where that’s where we found some, some really cool people who are building really cool things.

Lee Kantor: And then that was, was that the first time you felt like, okay, this is something that could become real, like or did you feel that beforehand?

Speaker3: Um, felt it more beforehand. We just wanted to be. We wanted to be more involved in an environment where this is like the norm we’re building. We’re building cool projects. Is is is normal. Like, everyone’s doing something, right. Um, and I feel like I couldn’t really find that in, in a high school setting. Um, but at Georgia Tech, that was everyone was doing something really right.

Lee Kantor: If you get into that world, that’s that’s normal, right? Everybody has been in the startup, has their own startup, you know, worked on one internal. They’ve done it five times by the time they graduate.

Speaker3: Everywhere there it’s everywhere there. Um, big ecosystem there. Prize picks went through there. Um, the founder of reptile just did a talk there that we, that we went to and listened to him big, big names from there.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. There’s no shortage of entrepreneurs in that area around Georgia Tech, that’s for sure. Um, so what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Speaker3: Um, just follow the journey for now. I mean, we’re we’re we’re we’re building our founding group of contractors. We’re vetting them. We’re we’re having a ton of fun with it. Um, but.

Lee Kantor: So you need more contractors, and you need more flippers to know about hive.

Speaker3: Yeah, yeah. For now, it’s it’s contractors. Um, mainly because a lot of the contractors that we speak with over the phone and stuff, it’s, um, they, they, they often they get calls from, like, lead gen companies and marketing companies trying to help them with get more leads, or so when we call them initially like they think it’s that and they’re immediately like, no, we’re not interested. Or what we’ll run into is, um, a lot of primarily Spanish speaking contractors. So one of the things we want to do with hive is make it completely like multilingual so that we can allow for these, um, these, contractors who don’t speak that much English to still get business. Um, so, like if we run into someone who’s Spanish speaking, I’ll have to break out a, like, a script in Spanish to explain what hive is. Um, and but for the main part, it’s, you know, contractors that aren’t super open to, like, new technology or they know Angie’s List, um, or they know thumbtack and they don’t want to be charged for leads. And we have to explain, hey, we’re not charging for leads. Um, you just go on here, you select what types of jobs you’re looking for, and then when the flippers start posting jobs, we’ll notify you. Um, and even then, there’s some who are like, oh, no, I’m okay. And it’s just like, kind of blows my mind. Like, we’re not charging any of you at all just for the sake or right now for the sake of, you know, growing the website and, uh, you know, so.

Lee Kantor: Well, it just shows you how much distrust there is in the kind of internet stuff. So that’s why you got to really be super buttoned up when it comes to credibility because they’re looking for a reason to say no, they’re not looking for a reason to say yes.

Speaker3: Right, exactly.

Lee Kantor: Um, so if somebody wants to learn more and connect, what’s the website? What’s the best way to kind of get them on your radar?

Speaker3: Um, yeah, the website is hive site. Um, and if anyone wants to reach out to me for any questions or anything like my, my email is reactive site, um, or you can find me on LinkedIn. It’s just my name. Um, and yeah, I’d love for people to follow the journey. I think we’re building something really cool, and then we’re going to grow it all throughout the southeast and hopefully eventually nationwide.

Lee Kantor: Cool. Well, congratulations on all the success, man. You’re you’re doing a hard thing.

Speaker3: Yeah I appreciate it. Thank you. Lee.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

From Roadrunner to Showrunner: Mastering the Art of Content Creation

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
From Roadrunner to Showrunner: Mastering the Art of Content Creation
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Daniel Cubillo, author of The Creative Mastermind Mind. Daniel shares insights from his four decades in entertainment, discussing the challenges and opportunities facing today’s content creators. The conversation covers the importance of self-reinvention, embracing technology like AI, focusing on niche audiences, and strategic planning. Daniel offers practical advice on pitching projects, understanding buyers, and building creative teams, emphasizing adaptability and unique value. The episode provides actionable guidance for creators navigating the rapidly evolving media landscape and highlights Daniel’s book as a resource for success.

Daniel Cubillo is a creative architect trusted by the world’s most influential media companies. Over the past decades, he has developed and produced content for platforms that define global entertainment—including NBCUniversal, Discovery, MTV, Facebook Watch, Netflix, Snapchat or The Zeus Network.

His unique ability to design storytelling systems that perform across broadcast, cable, streaming, and social platforms has positioned him at the convergence of legacy media power and the emerging creator economy.

The Creative Mastermind Mind is a field guide for creators, storytellers, and entertainment professionals navigating the chaotic modern content landscape. The book distills his experience developing, producing, and running over a thousand hours of television and digital content — from global reality formats to groundbreaking interactive shows.

Blending insider lessons with raw honesty, he explores what it really takes to survive and evolve in show business: mastering creative reinvention, understanding the dynamics, and building resilience in a world where algorithms and egos compete for attention. Part mentorship, part insider’s guide. The Creative Mastermind offers practical frameworks, real life situations analysis, and a timeless roadmap for those determined to create meaning — and make a living — through storytelling.

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Challenges and opportunities in the entertainment industry for content creators.
  • The impact of technology and audience fragmentation on traditional media.
  • The necessity of self-reinvention for success in a changing landscape.
  • The democratization of content creation and its implications for standing out.
  • Strategies for identifying and serving niche audiences.
  • The role of technology, particularly AI, in shaping future content formats.
  • The importance of building a creative team and mastering essential elements of production.
  • Practical steps for turning project ideas into tangible outcomes.
  • Understanding the buyer’s perspective and tailoring pitches accordingly.
  • The enduring demand for creative talent and the need for high-quality content.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have the author of the book, The Creative Mastermind. From Road Runner to Showrunner: How to Make It in Show Business and Content Creation, Daniel Cubillo. Welcome.

Daniel Cubillo: Hello. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me here. And I’m going to correct you because, like, you probably got one of the first press releases, The Creative Mastermind Mind, and that redundancy is on purpose. And by the way, you pronounce my last name almost perfect, like people used to say, Cubillo. And it’s Cubillo. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m sorry about not saying the title correctly. The Creative Mastermind Mind. So tell us about that. What is the kind of the mission of the book? What were you trying to accomplish by writing a book like this? Well.

Daniel Cubillo: I’m a storyteller. I’m in the entertainment industry. I’ve been here since I have consciousness. I mean, since I was 14 or so. And we’ve gone through a few crises or major changes from technology to, uh, content to external external factors like crisis, financial crisis. And and I saw I’ve been eyewitnesses. I witnessed how those changes gave us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves. Mandatory is not an opportunity. It’s like it’s by the credits. It’s mandatory. And then after practicing self-reinvention content reinvention, production reinvention. Again and again and again and the and the current times. I thought, man, this is kind of crazy. Like how anyone starting right now or changing are going to make their living as creators with the current landscape, like the landscape nowadays, is hard. It’s really hard. So I try to put to analyze what I did during these four decades of career to to transform those mandatory changes into opportunities. What I did in two sense what I did in front of the mirror, me personally, and what I did in relationship to in relation to the to the career. And after analyzing them, I asked myself, why not to write a book about this? So that’s exactly the book about this is how to actually navigate and make your living as creator in any circumstance as possible.

Lee Kantor: So now can you share a little bit, maybe about where we’re at today for folks who aren’t following kind of where we’re at? Do you mind sharing maybe the past and what has been kind of the big changes in your mind and where we’re at today? So we can once we know where we’re at now, we can come up with a plan on how to best leverage where we’re at.

Daniel Cubillo: We are like the traditional entertainment business. The traditional television business had the same death as the music and the time or the newspapers, the printed newspapers in their time. You know, for some reason, television, we thought that we wouldn’t go through gone through that and we did. And and the circumstances. I mean, the lack of audience is notorious. I mean, it’s kind of sad. Nowadays, a morning show with 60,000, 60,000 viewers. Only 60,000 viewers in this country that morning show would survive with those numbers. That was like. That wasn’t that way in the past, you know? So it’s not only that the audience, um, moved towards the smaller screen, the devices towards social media, actually, or the all the opportunities in, in streaming networks, etc.. It’s like the business tried to sustain the lie to themselves and to the rest of the world for 15 years, and now we are paying the consequences. And um, and it grow in a, in a kind of crazy way. I mean, maybe made those made that made some sense in those times. But, um. No. The television industry as the newspapers, as the as the labels, the traditional record labels, we all did the same. We ignored the changes, we didn’t adapt and we die.

Lee Kantor: So now, as you’re mentioning, the audience is fragmented. Um, and part of it is because there’s less and less, um, kind of gatekeepers. Now, anybody can produce content, whereas before you needed permission or you couldn’t afford to, you know, film something or make a TV show, and now anybody on their phone can create content and publish it on YouTube or on a streamer somewhere. So how do you stand out? How do you kind of, um, get enough traction or escape velocity to make your content get noticed?

Daniel Cubillo: Well, um.

Daniel Cubillo: You’re right, I call it the democracy of the digital world. You know, everyone can produce and everyone can broadcast. That is great. And that has had amazing results for some people and has changed the landscape completely. Um, as you said, the audience is fragmented. I think any consideration about making it must go through, uh, picking the right niche for your content? That’s one. We are living in a world that is going to be more and more and more niche based, community based. And, um, I mean, actually we are transitioning to that already. So I would say think about your niche, not think that much about the like. Another thing is like what you have to say to that niche. Are you adding any value to that niche? Are you giving them what. Those are the basic considerations. And then like any other thing, um, making it as a content creator or putting your idea on a screen is a matter of two things what you do in front of the mirror, what you do internally, how you think, how you proceed, how you act. And, uh, just for you. And then the other side is like how you approach the path, how you decide the path and approach the path. And what are the considerations that you need to to really think about. I think that’s the that’s the key for those that are picking the, the, the self or the the journey of the creator, independent creator.

Daniel Cubillo: Uh, if you are a writer, you’re a director. You want to put together a movie, you want to put together a series that’s like a completely different scenario. Um, now is it has been always complicated. I’m coming from a country that it had only five outlets, and maybe there was like 2000 providers and five clients that that’s that was the reality. A couple of like 15, 20 years ago in Spain. Um, probably now it’s even worse because some merges and some fusions and all those things that happen in the, in the, in the roof of the companies, in the penthouse of the companies, you know, made it worse. So now it’s a problem. It’s a problem of, um, visibility. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how good is your shit? Like, if you don’t have the visibility and as you said, lay out big changes, uh, consolidations, like company acquiring companies. All all of this is like falling down piece by piece, and now it’s going fast. There’s a lot of people, very creative people, trying to do their thing, to sell their series, to sell their script to, to put something on a screen. And it became probably, I don’t know, 4 or 5 times more complicated than it was in the past. And so it’s, it’s, it’s it’s hard times.

Daniel Cubillo: It is hard times. But I think there are some light and it depends on how you proceed. You know, uh, there are opportunities. At the same time, people are audiences are consuming more content than any time in the past. And there’s real need for good content. I think in the social media, it is happening already. There’s going to be like like like two leaves, you know, the premium league, like well produced content and the and the creator basic creator um league, which is just my own resources. Where where probably the more natural the best, you know, um, there are there’s I think I think also technology is going to bring us amazing opportunities. I give an example in the book about this is like I did Fear Factor. I shall run Fear Factor. Uh, 20 years ago. It was the very first time that that show was produced in Spain. Well, actually there was like 5 or 6 countries producing Fear Factor in a production hub in Buenos Aires. In Argentina. Um, USA is the only country that produced their own fear factor. Um, because of the budgets, of course, the rest of the countries, we will share a production half and we would do the same challenge in the morning. It was Mexico. Then in the evening was Spain, and the next day it was Russia. I don’t know. Whatever. So.

Lee Kantor: So. But is that how creators should be thinking, like globally? Should they be thinking about? I have to appeal to a global audience, whether that’s me as creating content that can be translated into these different languages? Or is it because you mentioned a niche and a niche?

Daniel Cubillo: Yeah. Uh, yeah, exactly.

Daniel Cubillo: I get I get my track. I got my path again. Thank you. Yeah. The thing is that the. The the possibilities of creating a worldwide format are really, really, really low. But, but and as we are witnessing and networks and platforms are repeating and repeating all formats with a little bit of a revamp and that’s all. So what is new when we are going to have something new? Let me go back to the fear factor. 20 years ago when I did Fear Factor, I asked the producer, can we measure the fear? Can we somehow connect these people with with sensors and measure their fears during the challenges? And we did it. And we did it with, with wires, you know, and we ended up just adding, uh, an information on the screen about their level of fear. It wasn’t serious, but it was a test. Nowadays with technology, with AI, with the technology we have around. Can you imagine just in the in the world of the game shows or the or the talent shows being able to measure real time? You know, I think there’s an incredible Opportunity. If we start thinking about how to add layers of of artificial intelligence related technology to the format or creating formats out of that, you know, I think that for me, that’s one of the keys of the future.

Daniel Cubillo: There’s a lot to do. Like, another thing that I did for a couple of years was this, um, interactive. Quiz show. It was interactive comedy quiz show for Facebook Watch. And in that show I’m on, like, there was a lot of humor. There was this amazing lady, uh, hosting, and we made ten questions. And people from their phones in Facebook, if they would answer the ten questions right, they would get a fraction of the money. And we did that twice a day for a year plus. And so interaction. And that was a huge success. And like like we got like like 7 million followers in three months. And why? Because we added to the quiz show and the and the comedy, the interaction element. So if you if you start talking about things that we can already do with the current technology, I think the, the, the landscape of the formats is going to evolve big as soon as people start thinking about it.

Lee Kantor: Because right now there’s, um, some people in the, in the creative space are not only they’re not even kind of neutral about AI, they’re negative about it, and they feel it’s a threat to their creativity and it’s going to replace them at some point. So you’re it sounds like you’re saying that you can lean into it and leverage what it can do to make your creativity, um, more robust.

Daniel Cubillo: Look, um.

Daniel Cubillo: I was I was in the early 90s. I was shooting wedding videos and editing wedding videos, and the technological revolution came, and I kind of, like, lean on it, as you said. I embraced it. And I spent a year plus researching and fighting until I got some digital video board that allowed me to give more and better and in less time that any major production company in my region. So it was like a, it was a it was a year and a half effort, but it was worth it. And then a few months later, I had my I commissioned my first show to NatGeo, a travel show, because I did an amazing pilot, you know, because I had resources, digital resources that that not even the major the powerhouses had. So, yeah, technology is here to embrace it. It’s not to avoid it. It is true. It’s going to take some. It’s gonna it’s gonna do a lot of heavy lifting, storytelling work like really fast. And without humans. That is the negative part. There’s people that if they don’t evolve, they will lose. That’s clear. But at the same time, there’s no other way. You know, like like every, every technological revolution is about embracing it. It’s not about rejecting it.

Lee Kantor: So your advice would be to embrace kind of the new technology, experiment with it, use it to the best of your ability, and be as good of be as good with it as possible, because that’s going to make you that much more attractive. Team member uh, if you’re joining forces with another entity or you’re creating your own kind of creative art.

Daniel Cubillo: Exactly.

Daniel Cubillo: And I think there’s an amazing opportunity, but, um. I also think that people, most of the people, most of the professionals in the, in the industry are not having like the, the, the right attitude because there’s, there’s two things. It’s the things you can use technology, artificial intelligence, to improve or create new storytelling or new formats. And there’s the other thing is like how how artificial intelligence is applied in inside the business, how it’s going to change the business. Both things need time, passion, energy, curiosity and and and yeah, and research and you know, like create, create try to create with those things like get into them and let’s see what your creative mind is, is, is, is uh, discovering I think the opportunity is there. And I’ve seen I have very close friends like I did my my little experiments with AI, of course. Um, apply to production, to video production of photo production. Um, I have a friend that that is like, did the same thing one month ago during Christmas that we all did every big technological, technological change. You see that during Christmas, like a family was having fun. He was in front of the machine trying to create something. The result like, ah, understanding the client is so freaking happy he is. He is guaranteed 1 to 2 years of of continuing with this client. And it’s a big client, a multinational. And it’s one of those things that if you don’t sit down and you don’t explore and you don’t risk and you don’t put your your energy there, you’re not going to make it. So what is that simple.

Lee Kantor: Right. So you you can’t kind of dream about it. You got to start doing some stuff, right? You have to produce you.

Daniel Cubillo: Exactly. That’s, that’s there’s a lot of that in the, in the book, you know, I call it I call it the process of dream making. This, this, this dream making. We all, we are all in getting into. We have a dream and let’s make the dream possible. There’s a moment where you have to start the making. The dream would would fly with you. You just put your energy on the making, making, making, making, making. And the dream part will fly along. I will get you places. But. But there’s no dream making without the making part.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Otherwise it’s just a dream. It’s not real yet.

Daniel Cubillo: No, it’s not real. And what I try to do in the book is give, give a guidance, give a little path about the making in those both, um, sides in front of the mirror with yourself if you want. If you really want to be a mastermind mind, this is the path, the internal one. And then this is the path career wise. And yeah, that is that is what I try to do. I hope I hope people will get it.

Lee Kantor: Now in your, uh, in your career path, you you’ve done a lot of things and you’ve accomplished a lot of things. How do you kind of go about building that perfect team? Because it does take a lot of different people with a different skill sets in order to make something special.

Daniel Cubillo: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, um. This is Daniel’s theory, okay? For an audio visual solo career, you need four elements. You know, you need audio, you need video. You need a story to put it together. And I’m saying it the fourth verse, the first, and then you need money or you need the ability to to make money with it. Those are the four ingredients, the four elements of of any creative career, in my opinion, whoever you are to your, to your, uh, team must complement those four elements. So if you’re an amazing director, an amazing writer, but you don’t know how to communicate, you cannot tell the story to anyone and make money with that. You need someone. And what I would recommend is whoever you hire or you get into business with, that person, should at least master two of the four elements. As a creator, as an audiovisual creator, I think anyone should master. Two. If you just don’t master two, it’s going to be difficult. And then you have to complement those four elements with the people in your team.

Lee Kantor: And then when when you have a project idea like say you have an idea for a project, what are kind of the the main what would be your kind of your priority steps to do in order to make something in your head turn out something real? Like how do you do you build a pilot for it? Do you go and try to build the whole thing? Do you try to find investors? Do you try to bootstrap like what to you would be the path of taking a concept you have and making it, like you said, becoming a maker and not just a dreamer.

Daniel Cubillo: Um, what I consider making the moment you start doing things, it’s like like the other is like making it to a screen. But the making in the dream making part starts With, with the first idea and the first note and the first thought, like, um, it depends on what is your your creation. Uh, if you aspire to sell a TV show or a movie or a concept, yes. You have to sit down and and write it and write a pitch and find a path to, to for someone to read the basics of the pitch or have the, the 32nd speech, the elevator pitch and get an agent. And then if the agent is going to talk to it’s going to distribute it for, for to um, outlets or production companies. That is the traditional the traditional path. It doesn’t matter if your if your pitch or your pilot is going to a major studio or a marketing firm that are ready to invest in content, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same process, you know, in my case, it starts always in a whiteboard on the on the wall. And then then hundreds of notes here and there. And then one day, when I’ve been thinking about that and taking notes on the wall for, for a while, I sit in front of the wall and I create the first structure for the beach. Let’s put it that way. Once the structure for the beach is done. Um. It depends. It depends of the on the path, and the path depends on the product. And uh, so but I would say I can either finish the beach or start writing a pilot, or I can consider producing a pilot, depending if it’s unscripted and or it’s easy or at least, uh, show real. Oh my God. Sorry about this.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re when you’re coming up with. I would imagine that it differs depending on the scope of the project. But is it? I guess if you have enough experience or have done enough, accomplished enough, then you can maybe sell an idea just on an idea. But for most people, I would imagine they need some sort of proof of concept a little bit. Right? You have to produce something that someone can see so they know kind of what they’re investing in.

Daniel Cubillo: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Selling ideas is more and more and more has been more and more and more complicated. Um, I don’t I still we still do it. I’m selling things just in paper without without pilot or without, uh, not not pilot, not even written, you know, like not not sure. Not shot. For sure not produce bad ideas. That’s the most challenging part. That is the most challenging part. As you said, if you have something physical, if you have, if you have a production, if you have created something, it’s going to be easier. But now creating something is like really easy. You can produce an amazing pilot just using the artificial intelligence tools properly, and and you can have real faces on it, and you can have that time period that you are dreaming or that science fiction, uh, environment that you have created like that is doable. Maybe you can just build a two minutes so real about your story. Like I think now with the current tools, there’s no other way like and and even though doing that and doing it in an amazing way. Then you have to go through all the filters, as I said before.

Daniel Cubillo: Um, the problem now is exposition. You know, there are less buyers and way more sellers. We are all trying to sell our ideas. So picking the path is a journey, like analyzing the path you’re going to take is a journey. In my case, I would recommend now to do the whole strategy first on, on, on a whiteboard, you know, in every state and looking for different, uh, avenues, options depending on the results. But if you don’t have the whole picture, clearly if you don’t know where you are going, where is your niche? Who are the key elements or the key people in that niche? What are the key elements to to make it in that niche? If you don’t have all of that clear, you cannot start the pitch or the script. You know, like I think nowadays that is basic. You need the root path or different plants for root paths that that is going to be that is like the show rundown that is alive, that is going to change. But you need to think about the whole picture before starting doing anything.

Lee Kantor: Now, how important is it to understand what who the buyer is and who what the buyer wants? Like if your objective is to get something on Netflix, there would be a different strategy than if you were trying to get Pepsi to kind of, uh, you know, use your idea in their storytelling.

Daniel Cubillo: Yeah, absolutely. And you’re right and you’re right and you’re not. The is totally different in the way those two clients think an approach. But what what you are going to pitch is not that different. You have to adapt the way you pitch depending on each one of those clients. But you need to be probably to have to reach that same level of, of, um, amazingness in the pitch for either Netflix or or Pepsi. And Netflix is a is a hard one. It’s really hard. There are some there are some outlets that will consider ideas without having all the talent attached. That is something that Netflix wasn’t doing, uh, last time I pitched there, you know, like you needed to have the whole talent attached even before considering at least I’m talking about unscripted projects. Um, the thing is, the difference, the real difference is who is in front of you? Who is on the other side of the table? What are they looking for? What are they considering the idea or the or the or? The show could be the same, you know. And what when what you are going to tell them in regards to the show is going to be pretty much the same. You have to adapt the, the, the pitch for one or the other, but there’s no such a big difference. The difference is the Pepsi executive. Is generating their own deity, which is selling more Pepsi bottles, and the Netflix executive is generating his deity or her deity, which is getting more subscribers. And time and time spent on the on the screen. Yeah. Adapt the message.

Lee Kantor: And and the. The point, though, is if you were if you’re an aspiring content creator, there is may be different opportunities today than there was five years ago, ten years ago, 20 years ago. But there’s there’s probably more opportunities, but just maybe not in you got to look in different places to be the investor or the funder of your creative dream.

Daniel Cubillo: Well, um, the reality of what I’m experiencing now, I don’t know the reality. I don’t know the numbers. I’m not into that right now. When I’m experiencing, experiencing is that there’s more no traditional possibilities of investment in storytelling that used to be in the past. So in the past, it was either a a network or a or a production company or, or a media funding or it was just the traditional doors, you know? Now, if you have the right idea and you have the right resources and you’re creating something that is like. That brings something else is adding value. You can go and ask for money anywhere and you’re gonna get it. But what is what you’re bringing new? What is the the, the the added value to your idea that there’s no nowhere else? If you have that now, it’s a good time to knock at the door, at some other doors, not the traditional outlets.

Lee Kantor: And it seems like there’s always going to be a need for creative people. Like there’s going to always be a need for content creators. Um, because that that’s a, it’s a skill that people want more of. People want more stories. People want more compelling stories. They want more entertainment. Their people are hungry for that.

Daniel Cubillo: I think I think, yeah, content is going to continue growing. The interest is going to be there. I think there’s going to be some kind of curation, curation process, you know, and, and people would start decorating what they are watching and trying to find those things that are quality, uh, visual quality, audio quality and content quality and from their needs. And they are adding value or they are. Yeah. People are going to to move audiences are going to move towards that. And um, you know, if, if, if the big outlets, they are offering us the same thing again and again and again, pretty much in the same outlet, you know, there’s no major differences. We are still producing. We’re going to watch Fear Factor again. You know, there are no, there’s nothing new. There’s nothing new, uh, or very little new. The opportunity is there. You create that value, that layer of value. It could be content, it could be interaction, it could be whatever. It is better if it’s interaction and content all together, you know, you add value, you’re going to have opportunities. You’re going to find, uh, finance, I’m sure.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to get Ahold of the book, the creative mastermind mind, uh, where can they go to find it?

Daniel Cubillo: Well, um, there’s a website. I mean, it’s in Amazon. It’s in a Spotify, it’s an Apple. It’s everywhere. There’s audio versions. It’s not my voice. It’s not me who is? It’s a narrator. And he did a great job. Uh, so. And the audio is out there in every platform. Uh, there’s a paperback version and a hardcover version. You can find it in Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I mean, all the regular outlets. And there’s also a website, uh, which is the mastermind. Com.

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

Daniel Cubillo: Do you think so? Thank you. I’m not sure.

Lee Kantor: Well, I think that that it’s important for somebody that’s been there and done that, that’s willing to share what they’ve learned with others. I think that you’re giving people a gift. Thank you.

Daniel Cubillo: Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. And thank you for your space.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

From Corporate to Creative: Ebony Karim’s Journey in Beauty Tech and IT Consulting

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
From Corporate to Creative: Ebony Karim's Journey in Beauty Tech and IT Consulting
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Ebony Karim, founder of Embarkus Solutions and The Beauty Genie. Ebony shares her journey from working at major consulting firms to launching her own boutique IT consulting company, which specializes in PMO support for public sector clients. She discusses common operational challenges faced by small businesses and her role as a fractional CEO. Ebony also introduces The Beauty Genie, an innovative beauty tech platform using smart vending machines to provide accessible, culturally relevant hair care products, and highlights her efforts to expand both ventures nationwide.

Ebony Karim—a serial entrepreneur, educator, and innovator making an impact across federal consulting, wellness, and beauty-tech.

She is the Founder & CEO of Embarkus Solutions, a boutique IT consulting firm launched in 2013 that has supported agencies such as the U.S. Department of State and Homeland Security. In 2021, she authored “So You Want to Be a Federal Contractor?” to guide others through the complexities of government contracting.

Her ventures also include Embarkus Wellness, a concierge nutrition and wellness brand, and most recently The Beauty Genie—a vending machine company delivering textured hair products to underserved communities and college campuses. By merging technology with accessibility, she is reshaping beauty inclusion.

Her work has been featured in Forbes, recognized in Times Square as one of Foureva Media’s Most Influential Entrepreneurs of 2024, and continues to spark conversations about innovation and equity in business.

Beyond her ventures, she is a STEM educator, mentor to underserved students, and mother of four, embodying her mission to uplift communities through education, representation, and entrepreneurship.

Connect with Ebony on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Entrepreneurial journey and transition from corporate to small business ownership
  • Importance of building relationships and networking in entrepreneurship
  • Program management office (PMO) support and operational services offered
  • Common operational challenges faced by small businesses
  • The impact of changes in the federal contracting landscape
  • Introduction to The Beauty Genie and its beauty tech innovations
  • Use of automated retail and intelligent vending machines for hair care products
  • Strategies for inventory management and partnerships in the beauty tech sector
  • Expansion plans and market opportunities for both consulting and beauty tech businesses

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have entrepreneur, beauty tech innovator with Embarkus Solutions. Ebony Karim, welcome.

Ebony Karim: Good morning. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Embark Solutions? How are you serving folks?

Ebony Karim: Yeah, Embark is solutions is a IT professional services boutique consulting company where we provide professional services consulting mostly to the public sector. And we’ve been doing that for about 13 years now.

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

Ebony Karim: So I have been in the consulting space for about two decades and early 20 tens. I decided, you know what? I can I can do this on my own. And, uh, that’s when I decided to branch out and become a small business owner.

Lee Kantor: So were you working for, like, a larger enterprise level organization? And then you decided.

Ebony Karim: I worked for quite a few large consulting firms on the on the government side. So companies like SAIC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lockheed Martin.

Lee Kantor: So you were working for very large organizations and you’re like, hey, I think I can do this on was that a big decision? Like, were you kind of weighing the trade offs of that? Like what what kind of got you over the hump to, you know, take the leap?

Ebony Karim: Well, you know, I think I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit and that was always the end goal for me. But I knew, you know, that I needed to gain some, you know, some some real experience and expertise. And when I felt like I was ready to take the leap, I reached out to some amazing mentors who helped, you know, guide me along the way. But I definitely, definitely used all of my relationships, right, that I had built, um, along the way. And so I already had a nice set of clients. Um, yeah. So it made the transition, um, much easier.

Lee Kantor: If you were advising other people who are working maybe in corporate and thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, do you think that that’s kind of a good path to follow, like kind of build up your network to the point where you have a client to go to before you kind of go out on your own?

Ebony Karim: Oh, gosh. Absolutely, absolutely. I would definitely say, you know, building those relationships Is is important. Right. And so your, you know, your reputation and your work ethic will speak for yourself. So when you already have ally supporting you right. You know they they also want to see you win. Right? And they have no problems helping to support you along the way. So yes, definitely those those partnerships and relationships are extremely important.

Lee Kantor: So now is is your work like what is your work when when clients hire you right now. What are what are they getting from you.

Ebony Karim: Oh goodness. Um. It depends. Most of my expertise falls under what we call, uh, program management office support. Right. So that can look like a lot of things that can be, uh, program project management support, that can be, um, like back office operations where I come in and, you know, take an assessment of what their current corporate infrastructure looks like. And so we set up processes and procedures. If none are there, you know, we help create SOPs and, you know, training manuals and guidebooks. Um, those who, uh, are federal contractors, we provide contract management support. So anything that falls under, uh, what we call that PMO umbrella, that’s that’s what I provide services in.

Lee Kantor: So project management, you’re, you’re coming in to kind of be the to show an organization how to be better project managers or to project manager a certain kind of initiative they’re working on.

Ebony Karim: Yeah. I mean, it could be both. It could be to, you know, set up, uh, like a, you know, PMO shop. Um, it could be to train, you know, their project and, you know, program team lead. So it just depends on what the company’s, um, needs are at the time.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, how are you kind of navigating this, the federal contracting kind of world that we live in today. It’s a different world than it was, you know, a few years ago.

Ebony Karim: I mean, it’s a different world than it was last year. Um, yes. I mean, we we we’ve had to learn to be, you know, very creative, um, being able and being comfortable pivoting. Right. As a, as an entrepreneur, you know, you definitely have to be comfortable in that space. But, you know, the government is still open. Um, they still are acquiring products and services. So that will never go away. Um, it’s just, you know, how do you increase your customer base? So, you know, um, you know, now I’m working with, you know, the nonprofit sector, um, you know, with other smaller corporate entities that that still require those same services. Um, you know, because they’re, they’re all transferable, you know, whether it’s public or private sector.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk a little bit about some of the transferable skills. What kind of is the pain that that your clients are having, where you can come in and make an impact that’s noticeable to them?

Ebony Karim: I would say most of the time it’s on the operation side, right. So, um, again, the you know, we’re talking about micro businesses, micro small businesses who, you know, don’t have the bandwidth to, you know, hire a complete team, right? So they may not have a COO. So sometimes I may step step in as a fractional COO, you know, or they don’t have a, you know, entire contracts management department. So they’re, you know, doing their best to, you know, manage contracts. So it just depends on what the customer’s needs are. But primarily for small businesses, you know, um, capital is very limited. And so they’re they’re stretched pretty thin. So it’s, you know, it’s easier to hire a consultant to come in and help, you know, flush out some of their systems and, you know, create some efficiency so it’s easier for them to run on their own. So, so that’s that’s where I see most of the challenges is on the operational side.

Lee Kantor: Now operations obviously that’s the backbone to any organization. You have to have really tight, effective, efficient operations. But it may not kind of show itself in terms of a of an urgent thing to work on. It just seems like it’s kind of always running in the background. Is there a pain point that occurs where they’re like, hey, we should really call Eboni and her team because this is going to get out of hand quickly. Like, are there symptoms that I might have a problem that may not be like, you know, a fire in the kitchen, but it could be something that could cause a fire in the kitchen.

Ebony Karim: Well, typically you’ll see it mostly on the finance side, right. So that’s whether you know you’re not invoicing properly. You’re not receiving payment on time. Right. That’s that’s one symptom. Or it’s like okay, you know either the customer hasn’t billed or we haven’t built the customer. Um, and then it’s backlog, right. So like project backlog or um, you know, running over on like costs. So those, those are the initial red flags typically, um, you know, because everybody’s tracking costs. And so, you know, if you don’t have any processes in place, you’re definitely going to see a slippage there, and then you’re going to end up spending more money.

Lee Kantor: Right? So that’s where it shows up first.

Ebony Karim: Um, yes, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Now I see here, um, also part of your, um, kind of work is in beauty tech. Can you talk a little bit about that? That’s fascinating.

Ebony Karim: Yeah. So, um, the Beauty Genie is a beauty tech platform that uses automated retail. So think vending machines, right? Um, and we incorporate AI software to make culturally relevant hair care products accessible. So this is for the demographic who may have had a challenge with finding hair care products that are made for textured and curly hair.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, are you developing the products or do you take existing products and put them in vending machines around the country?

Ebony Karim: Um, the latter, we are definitely not in the CPG space. We function more as a, uh, like third party distribution channel.

Lee Kantor: So how did this opportunity come up? This is, uh, sounds like a great idea.

Ebony Karim: Um, this is a passion project of mine. Um, I had thought about it for a couple years, and, you know, it was one of those great, um, Covid, uh, business ideas. You know, a lot of great ideas came came out of Covid. And so, you know, this was one of those where, you know, stores were closed or, you know, people couldn’t get to, like, the barber shop or their hair salon. You know, how how else can people access products? And so by me already having a background in the tech space, of course, my love for beauty and then being able to use the science behind it, which, uh, so I am a biochemist by education, so I, you know, I was able to use my knowledge in biochemistry and, you know, kind of tie that into tech and innovation and came up with, um, what they call smart or intelligent vending. So.

Lee Kantor: So you developed intelligent vending machines and then you deploy them to sell these hair care products.

Ebony Karim: Correct.

Lee Kantor: And then are you like, how do you deploy them like in different locations? Is that do you have like entrepreneurs in local markets that say, hey, you know, I’m going to put them in all the colleges in my market, or is that something you do as an organization?

Ebony Karim: Well, yeah, that’s that’s something that we are currently doing now. I mean, we’re we’re still very much in startup phase. So we have two verticals. One is, you know, direct to consumers where we work with, you know, entities like collegiate spaces. Right. Because those are very high foot traffic spaces. Um, so we work, you know, hand in hand with the, with the universities ourselves. And then on our B2B side, we work with emerging brands who are looking to add a, you know, a nontraditional distribution channel that doesn’t force them to be in like a big box retailer space. You know, it allows them to kind of test the market without, you know, huge overhead.

Lee Kantor: So when you deploy that to different markets, how do you kind of maintain the inventory? And like if the machine doesn’t work, like how do you kind of fix it? Like how do you kind of build the infrastructure to handle that type of logistics?

Ebony Karim: Yeah, I mean, well, we have a third party, right provider who does our, you know, servicing. And then in terms of like product fulfillment, we have brand ambassadors that function in that role. So so it’s great for, you know, our collegiate partners because it allows students right to be able to, um, you know, work with the startup company, those who are already, you know, studying like marketing or branding. It gives them, you know, first, first hand experience. And for those who already love beauty, right, they they kind of get like a little mix of both.

Lee Kantor: Wow. That’s what a what a fun project that is. Are you getting are you getting traction? It seems like there’s a lot of opportunity in this space.

Ebony Karim: Oh, yeah, it’s tons, tons of opportunity. Um, you know, again, you know, when you think about accessibility, you know, what better way than to have something that you can access, you know, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you don’t have to, you know, um, rely on either ordering on online and waiting for the product to ship to you or finding a brick and mortar. Um, and then the cool thing that we’ve done, which is a differentiator, uh, a differentiator for, for us as a brand, is that we incorporate the hair AI technology, which allows the customer to do a complete hair assessment, and then they get custom product recommendations. So this is what stands us apart from, you know, shopping online at Amazon or going to Ulta.

Lee Kantor: Right. So then you kind of personalize it to every individual by making specific recommendations for them. So they’re getting kind of a custom solution.

Ebony Karim: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So um, what do you need more of? How can we help you? You need more, um, clients for your consulting or you.

Ebony Karim: Absolutely. Definitely. I always need more clients. Um, definitely. Looking for, again, those smaller emerging brands, um, you know, who are looking for another option when it comes to distribution. And then, of course, we always love our retail partners and, um, our, um, collegiate partners as well. So yes, always, always looking for for more customers.

Lee Kantor: So is the beauty genie. Is that out in the wild right now or are you on campuses or or is it.

Ebony Karim: Are we are in market. So yes.

Lee Kantor: So are you in a certain region or where are you looking to grow?

Ebony Karim: Well, I’m looking to grow all over. So of course the Midwest, since we are headquartered in Chicago, but we are primarily in the northeast. So we’re like in, um, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, um, Michigan. But yeah, just looking. And then we’re also open to global expansion as well. There are a lot of markets specifically in the in the UK, where the need to access hair care products for textured hair is even greater than here in the States.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, what is the best way to connect with you or somebody on the team? Uh, is there a website for the consulting and for the, um, the beauty genie?

Ebony Karim: Yes, for our consulting services. Um, you can reach out at Embarcadero solutions.com. That’s our website. And then we are also across all social media platforms at Embarq as solutions. And then for the beauty tech. Um, our website is Beauty Wishes in a box.com and then across all social media platforms at the Beauty box.

Lee Kantor: Well, congratulations on all the success. It sounds like you’re doing a lot of good work and having a lot of fun.

Ebony Karim: Thank you so much. Yeah, it’s a it’s a pleasure to actually, um, work in your purpose. And that’s and that’s what I feel like I’m doing.

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

Ebony Karim: Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Discover the Seven Growth Secrets That Propel Companies to Success

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Discover the Seven Growth Secrets That Propel Companies to Success
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Nicolas Darveau-Garneau, author of Sequoia Not a Bonsai and CEO of Garneau Digital Advisors. Garneau shares proven growth strategies from his experience at Google and consulting with top companies, focusing on ethical profit maximization, customer lifetime value, and data-driven digital marketing. He highlights the power of continuous experimentation, AI integration, and aligning teams around meaningful KPIs. Practical examples show how these principles benefit organizations of all sizes. Garnaut encourages listeners to start small, test ideas, and leverage AI for sustainable business growth.

Nicolas Darveau-Garneau (“Nick”) is a leading expert in growth, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of technology, strategy, and innovation.

He previously served as Chief Evangelist at Google, where he partnered with the C-suites of more than 1,000 of Google’s top global customers to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. He also held the role of Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Coveo, a leading AI company.

A seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and analyst, he has been at the forefront of the digital economy since 1995. He was part of the founding team of MSN.com at Microsoft and went on to co-found four Internet companies, successfully selling three. As an active investor, he has backed more than 20 technology startups

Earlier in his career, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and a senior equity analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, one of Wall Street’s top-ranked firms.

He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for TMX Group (TSX: X), McEwen Mining (NYSE: MUX), and Alida, and advises numerous companies on growth and AI strategy. He also teaches two executive education courses— “AI in Marketing” on the ELVTR platform and “AI in the Boardroom” for the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD).

Nick is the author of the forthcoming book, Be a Sequoia, Not a Bonsai: The Seven Growth Secrets of the World’s Most Successful Companies (HarperCollins Leadership, January 27, 2026). Drawing on insights from advising over 1,000 CEOs at Google, he reveals how the top 5% of companies think and act differently while avoiding the costly mistakes that hold the other 95% back. Featuring over 300 practical case studies, the book offers clear, actionable strategies to drive growth and delight customers.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Connect with Nick on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Business growth strategies and their importance for companies.
  • Digital marketing techniques and the role of paid advertising.
  • Profitability optimization and ethical profit maximization.
  • Customer lifetime value (CLV) and its impact on long-term profitability.
  • The significance of data-driven decision-making and metrics alignment.
  • The role of testing and experimentation in business growth.
  • The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and operations.
  • Change management and employee engagement in AI adoption.
  • Case studies illustrating successful application of growth strategies.
  • The accessibility of growth strategies for small businesses and nonprofits.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show we have the author of the book Sequoia Not a Sequoia, Not a Bonsai The Seven Growth Secrets of the World’s Most Successful Companies, and the CEO with Garneau Digital Advisors, we have Nicholas Darveau-Garneau. Welcome.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Haley. Thank you for having me. I’m really thrilled to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Let’s start with your agency. Uh, how are you serving folks?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: You know, I, uh, I was at Google for a number of years, and I was at Google’s chief evangelist for the last five years of my career. And, uh, I got to meet a thousand CEOs and really understand what the best companies in the world were doing. So every year I advise only about five companies. That’s as much as I want to do, and I helped them dramatically improve their transformation to more digital. So digital marketing, better digital customer experience and an AI strategy. So I’m really picky in who I work with. And typically they can achieve some pretty extraordinary results.

Lee Kantor: And then from that work that that brought you to your book, is that how that happened after you? I’m sure you kind of gleaned some learnings from dealing with all those top companies, and then you put them in a book.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: That’s exactly right. So the book, you know, basically not a bonsai is about, you know, what I learned from these 1000 CEOs and about, you know, 5 to 10% of these companies and these CEOs acted and thought very, very differently than the others. And so the book is the seven things that I noticed after. I mean, when you get a, you know, a thousand CEO meetings, right, you get some pattern recognition. So one of the things these companies do that is very different. So the book explains that. And then when I do some consulting with a company, I take them through step by step the seven different things and how to make them actionable.

Lee Kantor: So can you kind of share a little bit about those seven growth secrets?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Yeah, one of them is is most companies. And this is really surprising. Most companies actually don’t try to maximize profits, right. I mean, they say they do right in doing this in a way that’s ethical obviously. Right. Good for the environment, good for the customer. But you know, every CEO that I’ve ever met is like, hey, we’re trying to maximize profits. But if you start asking people below them like, what are you working on? If you ask the chief marketing officer, they’re like, well, we’re trying to get more leads at a lower, lower cost per lead. And it’s nothing to do with profitability by these leads can all be terrible. Or if you talk to the head of product, hey, we’re trying to get more features out there. Well, are these features going to drive customer success? Are they and their customers willing to pay for it. Are they going to maximize profits? If you talk to customer service and so on and so on. So it turns out that the CEO wants to really improve profitability, but very few people inside the company are actually working on that.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: So one of the first things that we do is we go through everybody’s KPI right and start rethinking about that. And so an example of that is I was really fortunate to work with Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital, which is the largest children’s hospital in the world, and they do extraordinary work with with kids. And they were investing, you know, digital marketing with Google, and they were raising some money very successfully. Um, but their KPI wasn’t kind of right, in my opinion. I thought what they should do is maximize the donations they get from Google, minus the marketing investment that they make. Right? Which is pretty logical. So they switched the KPI to that. Uh, and next thing you know, within a few months, uh, by doing this and some other things, they had raised 46% more money and they were already raising $1 billion. So just kind of changing your KPIs can have a massive, massive impact. So that’s the first, you know, and kind of least obvious thing because you would think every company is trying to maximize profits, but they are not.

Lee Kantor: Now, I don’t know if it’s the least obvious, because I think that sometimes people get distracted. We call them in our company cosmetics. These are some metrics that might be easy to kind of capture, but they may not be the important metrics. Um, and I think people kind of get distracted by that just because you can count how many people, um, you know, come to the website or how many people see an ad or something, doesn’t mean that that’s the thing that’s going to drive the profit like the.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Right now you’re completely right. People. You know, people select metrics that, um, they can track easily that are, you know, non questionable. Right. If you track profits, You know, people can debate exactly what the numbers should be because there’s a bunch of assumptions made in there. So you’re right. People just choose the easiest thing. But it’s like, you know, having a rowing team and you know, the eight rowers are rowing in eight different directions.

Lee Kantor: Right? But you’re calculating, you know, how fast the speed is for each of them, you know, to hit the water. So you think you’re capturing something that is going to translate to value. But if they’re not coordinated, then it’s going to not translate to anything.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Right. And then let me kind of so the next big thing is a little more advanced, which is, um, you know, optimizing profits is great. But um, over what time frame. Right. So kind of optimizing longer term profits or customer lifetime value is something that, you know, very, very few companies do. So an example of that is if you’re trying to acquire customers, whether you’re a small company, you know, you’re you’re a gym or you’re a larger company or a nonprofit, you’re trying to, you know, you’re trying to acquire some new donors. Um, very seldom is any company looking at the quality of that customer or that donor over time. Right. And then if you actually kind of understand the industry. Right. In most industries, 10 to 20% of the customers drive 80% of the profitability over time. And so, um, the top, top companies in the world, when they acquire brand new customer, they can predict how much a customer is going to be worth in terms of profitability in the next 5 to 10 years, right. Their customer lifetime value. And they can share that number back with Google and Facebook and other digital marketing platforms. And next thing you know, they’re just acquiring a lot more valuable customers. For an example is, um, I was working with a car insurance company. And if your car insurance company. Right, your biggest issue when you acquire customers is that some of them crash their car and some of them leave you after after a year.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: So, you know, can you use AI to build a model to predict that? And the answer is yes. And so we work with this company. They built the model to predict, you know, the profitability of each individual customer. Send that back to Google and Facebook. And next thing you know, they had 60% fewer of the high risk customers who are much more likely to crash their car or churn within a year. And they had 90% more of their very high quality customers were not going to crash their car and are going to stick around for many, many years. And that quadruple the company’s profitability, right? So that’s pretty advanced, you know, strategy. But it’s not that hard to execute if you know exactly what you’re doing in the book goes into like step by step, like how would you forecast the value of a customer you’ve never seen before? They’re brand new today. And then how do you build dashboards around that? How do you share that data with digital marketing platforms? And companies who do this like significantly outperform because all their competitors are acquiring average customers and they’re just getting the cream off the top and picking off the top 20% customers. And so it’s just really an unfair battle.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you think that in today’s world, doing paid ads? I know you have a I would imagine some sort of a Google bias, but is paid ads kind of a must have part of any digital marketing or marketing strategy in today’s world? Like, do you have to do that? Is that part of how a company grows?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Yeah. You don’t like I mean, the last chapter of the book is around, um, testing and experimentation, right? We should have as a company is a whole bunch of hypotheses. You can test really fast. So to your question, right, is Facebook or Google, you know, profitable for me. And that’s the metric you should look at. So what is the easiest way to test that. You figure that out right. And then you run a test that takes us 2 to 3 weeks and then you know right. So like one of the biggest differences by the way, between companies who just crush it. And companies will struggle as their open mindedness of trying new things, like some CEOs are just really like, uh, give you an example, I was talking to a whole bunch of of movie executives at different movie studios. And, um, Google has this pretty amazing advertising tool that you invest money in it, and then Google can track, you know, the customer saw an ad, right? They saw the trailer of your movie, and then they can track with pretty high degree of precision whether or not that customer has been to a movie theater or your movie showing. And so you can tell, like, for example, you put in $1 million of advertising and you got, you know, a million people to go to a movie theater for a dollar each for each visit.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Right. And that makes sense. It makes financial sense. It’s really profitable. And so some of the movie executives I talked to were like, yeah, this is a no brainer. This is amazing. Like, where has this been all my life? Let’s try it tomorrow. And some you would expect them to try it, but they would be like, well you know how do you track this? Like how precise is your estimate of of where people go. And then if somebody goes into a movie, movie theater, like, we don’t know if they want to see our movie, they could have seen somebody else’s movie. Well, well, they just saw your trailer two days ago, so clearly the odds are very high they’re going to see a movie. So some executives just didn’t want to try it. Right. So to answer your question, like, I don’t know, for most companies paid ads is going to are going to work, but you should have a list of the biggest opportunities for your company and find the minimum viable test you can run. The easiest thing that you can do to see if that thing makes sense or not. Right? And so don’t overintellectualize it. Don’t overanalyze it. Can I figure it out, you know, for a thousand bucks or 5000 bucks in the next two weeks? And then if it works, you scale it. And if it doesn’t work, you don’t.

Lee Kantor: Now your work. It sounds like you’re doing a lot of work with large enterprise level organizations. Um, a lot of the people who listen to this are aspiring large enterprises. What does the advice kind of trickle down like? Can you. You’re throwing out numbers thousand, $5,000 million. It doesn’t work for hundreds of dollars. Is there kind of a minimum size you have to, um, be in order to access data that is meaningful?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: You don’t like the. Actually, the last story in the book is, uh, about a gym owner, right? Uh, Mint Condition Fitness out of California. And he’s built a gym that, um, uh, where the customers are 20 times more profitable than the average gym by doing a whole bunch of really clever stuff. Right? That’s that’s he’s basically doing almost everything that’s in the book, and he’s just really, really sharp. And so, yeah, and a gym owner, a restaurant owner, you know, a small business owner, you name it. Right? If you think about the seven principles from the beginning and you test them. And again, it could be for hundreds of dollars to your point. Um, you could absolutely, completely transform your business. So this this gym owner, I think the guy was a private trainer, right? He was making 30,000 bucks a year in Silicon Valley, which is, you know, pretty expensive place to live. So he wasn’t doing that. Great. Now his gym is generating $1.2 million, and he’s opening up a whole bunch more. And so, yeah, absolutely. Any nonprofit. And by the way, like in my consulting firm, um, I do five nonprofit consulting engagements a year for free, right? I mean, I’m working with Saint Jude’s was one of the greatest things I ever did, and it was really rewarding. So, um, if people want to reach out to me on LinkedIn, if you have a nonprofit, delighted to to help. Um, if you’re a small business, you know, I, I don’t do consulting for small businesses, but if you read the book, um, and then you just reach out to me on LinkedIn and ask me questions, I’d be delighted to answer those. Um, but the book is really step by step by step, exactly what you should do.

Lee Kantor: Now, does the book. Okay, let’s make the assumption. I’m a small business person. I can’t afford you. Um, but I’m going to buy the book. Uh, is the book going to be now? That’s my new job. Or can I still be the gym owner? Run a gym train? People do gym stuff. Um, and do this, you know, a few hours a week, or is this something that. Now I got to put a body on this?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: No, it’s, uh, it’s not that onerous. And the idea is just to test one new idea. You know, whenever you can. Right. So if it’s once a month or once every three months. So, for example, if you’re not doing any paid marketing right, you can absolutely start a Facebook account on your own. And if you do it right from the beginning, if you optimizing profitability, right. If you’re trying to acquire now, people are going to come to the gym, but they’re not going to leave, you know, in April after they join in January. And you can there’s lots of different ways to do this that are really simple. So now it’s not that hard. Um, the trick is to test ideas that are easy to test, but if they work, have massive impact, right? And so now if you, you know, if you hit pay dirt, if one of your ideas really works right, then you can start investing more time and energy. So maybe you’re finding out that paid ads is just crushing it for you. So now you can hire an agency and pay them, you know, 15% of of what you want to invest or even eventually hire full time. But you don’t have to invest, right? You just test things on your own. You see if they work, and only then do you have to make the time investment or the money investment. And so the book is all about things you can try that are, you know, relatively simple, relatively inexpensive, but have big upside if they work.

Lee Kantor: And that’s really the secret. You have to be able to iterate fast and then double down on the winners and then forget about the losers.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Yeah, I actually think so that the last chapter of the book is about moving faster and increasing your velocity. You know, if you believe, like I do, that AI is going to flatten the world a lot, meaning it’s going to it’s going to make a lot of things easier for smaller companies. Um, and so the competitive advantage of larger companies, I think will get diminished to some extent. So, you know, how differentiated are going to, you know, is our website going to be how differentiated are ads going to be? How differentiated is our service going to be when you can have AI do a lot of that very inexpensively? So I think in the end, right, you know, over, over time, the most important competitive differentiation is how quickly can you try something new and how quickly can you scale it. Right. So one of the things that as you get going with these ideas in the book, you try one, you know, a month for a while and then you get some success. And not every idea is going to work, but you get some success. And next thing you know, you’re making more money. You reinvest, you try another idea, you know, next month, and then next thing you know, you’re trying two ideas a month and then three and then five and then 100.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: So, uh, I work with an internet company Funny that 25 x the number of tests they were doing over the course of a year by just, you know, trying new things, finding better tools to test, finding the simplest tests you can do. And then whenever they were doing a test, they would figure out what was hard about this test. Like what? Why did this test take so long? Well, we had to go through a lawyer to get this approved. And we have to do this all the time. So why don’t we put, you know, a part time lawyer on this team to get approvals happening faster? And so, like, the kind of figuring out how you can improve your improvement system, I call it I call this getting better at getting better, right? I mean, it’s like working out, right. If you’re working out and you’re, you know, you’re improving by 1% a year, that’s great. But if you can make that 5% a year, you’re just going to be a lot better off. So the the rate of improvement of a company becomes extraordinarily important in a very competitive, AI driven environment.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned AI a few times. Can you talk about how this strategy, Um, kind of works with the AI framework. Are you saying to do the same thing while using and learning about AI? Should you be going there and iterating and learning fast in that ecosystem?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Yeah, I mean, a lot of the ideas in the book, you know, um, are driven by AI, and AI is just a tool, right? It’s not just a few advertising on Facebook or Google. I mean, it’s 95% AI driven. So Google and Facebook are doing a lot of the grunt work for you. So what is it that you as a human should do differently than others? Right. But but you know, in addition to that, yes, I think AI can um, I mean, every small medium business should look at AI for internal productivity. There’s a lot of, um, there’s a lot of news right now about AI, you know, not working, not increasing productivity. Um, that’s not my experience, right? There’s actually a study by Harvard Business Review, uh, Harvard Business School with BCG that had consultants that use a lot of AI and consultants who didn’t lose, you know, use a lot of AI. And the ones who use a lot of AI did 12% more work and 25% less time, and it was 40% better work. But when the consultants using AI were doing stuff that hadn’t been trained on well with AI, they were 19% less productive. So what’s happening a lot is people are like, you know, they put ChatGPT or Gemini or Copilot inside their business, right? They pay 20 bucks a month, whatever it is. And then they’re like, okay, AI is in. Well, you can’t do that if, you know, if you have somebody in HR, right? That’s writing job descriptions. They have to be taught how to use AI to write job descriptions.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: So you have to go to that level of specificity internally. The other thing internally is that, you know, obviously employees are nervous about AI. So how you introduce it, what you say really matters a lot. If you say like, hey, I’m bringing AI to increase productivity, that’s like code word for you’re going to lose your job, right? So you have to be thoughtful about it and say, look, now I want to double the business in the next five years and just, you know, hire 40% more people. That’s my goal with AI. So if I hear that as an employee, I’m like, oh, okay. So that’s, you know, point one, right? Point two is like, hey, look, you know, I really want you to learn AI and I’m going to help you learn AI. So I expect you to learn AI, and that’s going to be part of your performance reviews going forward. And three like look you know AI is going to start you know grabbing some things from your job. It’s just going to happen right. So AI will start doing the low value stuff, but eventually the middle value stuff and then even some of the higher value stuff that you do. Let’s be honest. Right. But look, here’s what your job is going to look like a year from now, two years from now. So I’ve thought through how you’re going to grow and you’re going to stay ahead of AI. So if you combine these three things right, you can get massive productivity improvements. And then and then you can start putting AI in front of your customers.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Right. For customer service for advice, for lots of things you can do. You have to really be careful. There’s lots of things that can go wrong here, right? The AI can just say crazy, stupid things, so you have to really test it. You have to have the right technology. It’s a little bit complexity. You have to find the right partner. But you can do some pretty amazing things for customers using AI as well. And so yeah, AI is a must, right? For almost every, um, every company actually just go to ChatGPT, right? Explain your company to ChatGPT and ask it what AI will be able to do five years from now for your company and ask it, you know, whether you should invest right now or wait. And honestly, it’s going to be a really good discussion you can have with ChatGPT. And sometimes it tells you like, hey, for your company, it’s no big deal, don’t worry about it. Maybe wait a year or two, but sometimes it tells you like, hey, your hair should be on fire. You should be all over it now, uh, because other competitors are way ahead. And so inform yourself on where you are. Compare yourself to others. Ask ChatGPT what do you think I should do? Um, but, um, you know, AI is just a tool. It can’t do anything for you on its own. The biggest issue is just change management inside your company and changing how employees think and what they do. So it’s really a human problem, not a technology problem.

Lee Kantor: And in order to leverage it to its fullest effect, um, I think it goes back to your original point. You have to aim it at things like maximize profitable growth. Not right. This LinkedIn copy for me, like those are different asks. And it could do both if you ask. And you have to give it the data so that it can inform, you know, the key metrics, not the cause metrics.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Yeah. I mean, if you if you start doing paid advertising, if you haven’t done it before and you ask AI for more leads at the lowest cost per lead, which is what 90% of B2B you know, advertisers do, you’re going to get a lot more leads at a lower cost per lead and AI will be amazing at delivering that. There’s no evidence whatsoever these leaves will be useful to you. Right. And so the AI, like the more AI we use and the worse the KPI is, the faster we drive off the road, right? It’s like having a self-driving car with the wrong map. And so yeah, in order to for AI to really improve your business, you as a human have to really be very thoughtful about what you’re asking it to do. And you also have to be thoughtful with about what data you share back to the AI so it understands like an AI without a closed loop, like an AI just doing stuff, not knowing if it’s good or not good. Um, it’s not as helpful as an AI that is being told, like, hey, thank you for sending me this lead, but this is complete garbage or comparing or this lead as gold for me. Uh, if you’re just going to rank the leads from 1 to 5, right. And just share that with the AI, next thing you know, you get a lot more leads that are fives and a lot fewer that are ones. And so asking the right question to the to the eye is critical, and then feeding it the right data is also critical.

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

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Well, look, you know, I like every anybody listening to to buy the book and be a part of bonsai. I donate all my profits to Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital. So, you know, we’re also going to cure cancer together. I want people to start trying things from the book, and I want them to reach out to me on LinkedIn to tell me I was going to ask me some questions. I’ll answer every single question. Um, and look, you know, like, it’s not that many folks have had the privilege of meeting a thousand CEOs. I just was lucky to be in that position. Um, these ideas are not my own, right? These ideas are just from the best, best companies in the world. I’m just summarizing them. Um, and I’ve seen them work over and over and over again, and very few companies do them. So if you, you know, are open minded, if you want to do a little bit of work and test some of these ideas. I’m guarantee you your company will be unrecognizable two years from now. And so, um, really encourage people to to buy the book and then reach out to me.

Lee Kantor: Well, Nick, if somebody wants to learn more, is there a website or is LinkedIn or obviously, I’m sure on Amazon, or they can get the book anywhere, but, um, what what is kind of the best way to connect? You mentioned LinkedIn. Is there a website as well?

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Yeah, you can go to Nicholas Comm, uh, and contact me there. But LinkedIn, I’ll accept, you know, any LinkedIn friend requests and I’ll answer any email.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, Nick, thank you so much for sharing your story today, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Nicholas Darveau-Garneau: Hey, thanks. Cheers.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Transforming Nonprofit Finances: Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Growth

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Transforming Nonprofit Finances: Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Growth
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Karen Houghton, CEO and co-founder of Infinite Giving. Karen discusses how Infinite Giving empowers small to midsize nonprofits by providing tailored financial technology and investment advisory services, including streamlined brokerage accounts and support for accepting stock gifts. She highlights the challenges nonprofits face in accessing sophisticated financial tools and shares how Infinite Giving bridges these gaps, helping organizations achieve financial sustainability and amplify their impact. Karen also introduces her book, “Funding Your Mission,” and encourages nonprofits to leverage these resources for greater growth and stewardship.

Karen Houghton is the CEO and co-founder of Infinite Giving, a Registered Investment Advisor that helps nonprofits build financial sustainability.

With a background in both nonprofit leadership and venture capital, Karen brings a rare blend of heart and strategy to financial stewardship. She is passionate about democratizing access to wealth-building tools and guiding mission-driven organizations toward long-term financial health.

As a trusted advisor and advocate, she is reshaping how nonprofits think about money as a powerful resource for growing impact. Her work empowers tax-exempt entities to grow their assets, weather uncertainty, and fund their futures.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Challenges faced by small to midsize nonprofits in managing and investing funds.
  • Importance of financial sustainability for nonprofit organizations.
  • The gap in financial services tailored to nonprofits, particularly smaller ones.
  • The role of Infinite Giving in facilitating stock gifts and providing brokerage account services.
  • Discussion on the limitations of traditional financial institutions for nonprofits.
  • Strategies for nonprofits to manage cash and investments more effectively.
  • Introduction of the book “Funding Your Mission: The Modern Guide to Nonprofit Finance.”
  • The impact of streamlining the process for accepting stock gifts on nonprofit funding.
  • The importance of fiduciary oversight and support for nonprofit financial management.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, 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. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the CEO and co-founder of Infinite Giving, Karen Houghton, welcome.

Karen Houghton: Thank you. Good to be here, Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. I’ve been following your career for quite some time. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about infinite giving? How you serving folks?

Karen Houghton: Yeah, infinite Giving is a financial technology and investment advisory firm that exclusively serves nonprofits. So we are a fiduciary partner for tax exempt entities. And we are one place that can help them raise money, invest money and steward their money.

Lee Kantor: So what was kind of the genesis of the idea? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Karen Houghton: Well, I had a ten year career in the startup tech ecosystem in Atlanta as well as venture capital. I was a venture partner with Atlanta Ventures, but before that, I was actually the founder and executive director of a nonprofit. And so I’ve had the unique experience of filing for the 500 1C3 and being the fundraiser and working with boards. And then also as I grew into finance and deal size. I started serving on a lot of boards. So I’ve served on small nonprofit boards where we’re in a scarcity mindset, trying to build up our first reserve fund all the way to serving on the board of trustees at Barry College, right where we have a small $2 billion endowment. And so there’s a lot of different nonprofits out there. And our goal really is to serve the small to mid-size organizations who maybe are just with a bank or not sure what their investment strategies are or don’t even have a way to receive stock gifts. And that’s who we want to help, because we have a really passionate and firm belief that the more nonprofits that are financially sustainable, then the better our communities and and society will be. They’re often the ones doing some of the most important work at hand.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a niche within nonprofits? Do you focus on a certain type of nonprofit?

Karen Houghton: Yeah, We currently serve. As of today, we currently serve about 400 different nonprofit organizations all over the US, and they are in different industries. So we do a lot of national parks, schools, libraries, churches, ministries. So a bunch of different organizations. Probably what we’re defining is small to midsize is under 25 million in securities and savings.

Lee Kantor: So what is kind of the pain that they’re having where they’re like, I should contact Karen and her folks.

Karen Houghton: Well, what a lot of people don’t realize is that banks existed for more than a hundred years before the first tax exempt entity even existed. So if you’re listening to this and you are a business or retail client in the finance world here in the US, you’re like, what do you mean there’s no problems? All of this is so easy. If you are a tax exempt entity and you’ve done something like tried to open a brokerage account, or you have tried to get really good fiduciary advice from somebody who understands nonprofits, you realize it’s actually a lot harder than you think. 90% of nonprofit organizations in the US don’t even have a brokerage account. And because of that, they’re limited in how they can steward the funds they have. They can’t have endowments. They aren’t able to receive stock gifts. So it’s really quite limiting. And those major donors love to give those tax efficient gifts and those larger gifts. So what we’ve seen happen is that the big organizations stay really big. The small organizations stay really small because of the financial limitations that they face. So infinite giving is bridging that gap and trying to make it all easier and more accessible in a place made for them.

Lee Kantor: So the smaller ones are out there. They’re just getting like cash donations. That’s how they kind of mainly survive.

Karen Houghton: Yeah, and they have money sitting in a checking account sitting in a low yield savings account. If they’re wild and crazy, sometimes they are investing in a CD, right? Uh, but that is not the way that most savvy business folks or businesses actually grow, right? Most of us are in the market in some way, shape or form. Even if you have a retirement account, a 401 K, you are in the market. And the reason large non-profits and retail and business clients do that is because it works. Um, and so what’s interesting is that you take the nonprofit sector where financial stewardship is perhaps the most important. And we’re saying, actually, you only should have access to a checking and a savings account. Yes. Just leave. Leave donor money in a bank losing value to inflation because that’s responsible. So sometimes what feels safe to nonprofit leaders and donors is actually not good stewardship. We actually there’s a lot of really conservative ways where we can steward what we have as we seek. Financial sustainability as as organizations.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, for a lot of your clients, are you the first conversation they’re having about this or have they tried this before and it didn’t work out? Or are you the kind of the first person that said, okay, you’re unlocking a whole new potential area for financial stability and growth?

Karen Houghton: Huh? It does vary. Uh, we serve organizations where we’re their first brokerage account, and they’re asking questions like, can a nonprofit even invest? What are we allowed to do? Uh, there’s other, much more savvy organizations we serve, I think 46, in the Atlanta area. And they are oh, we have an investment account with our bank or someone’s brother’s uncle, uh, is investing our funds for us. And then often we’re like, great. What’s their nonprofit expertise? Where’s your investment policy statement? What fees are you paying? Uh, your funds are in a community foundation. What does that fee structure. And often just doing an audit of where are our funds? What are those returns? Why are they there? What are the fees? Um, how are we stewarding them with intention is a really helpful process that those volunteers or those, um, advisors who are helping, uh, those nonprofits may not have that expertise that’s needed.

Lee Kantor: Now, is your service like an advisory service where you’re kind of coaching them on how to do it? But are you also the place where they can, um, invest their funds?

Karen Houghton: Yes, we do both. So we are a registered investment advisor. So we do financial planning with them where we work through short term, mid term, long term strategies, whether it’s hey, do you want an FDIC sweet program so you don’t have to have six different banking partners to, you know, not go over your 250 K FDIC coverage to a brokerage money market, which is better than bank money markets typically. Right. And then we get into investment strategies where we do a lot of endowment creation, long term, uh, financial management disbursements, things like that. So yes, we’re investment advisors, but it often starts with cash. And how do we steward that cash? I actually have a book, uh, that we published called Funding Your Mission, and it’s a modern guide to nonprofit finance. You can find it on Barnes and Noble on Amazon. We’ve been a bestseller in nonprofit. Uh, but it talks through a lot of that of of hey, how do we think about moving from a scarcity mindset to a strategy mindset that ideally leads to sustainability? Or, hey, you have a checking account and you have an investment account, but isn’t there a whole bunch of funds that kind of sit in the middle right where you could have this midterm, like, hey, maybe you’re in fixed income, maybe you’re in mutual funds where you can grow cash in a conservative way. Um, and then even having, you know, the strategy and framework to use with boards and donors on, on how to move in that direction is quite helpful and often lacking in banking partners.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share the story? Maybe early on when you had this idea and you were going to approach some non-profits? Can you share maybe that moment where somebody you know was your first client, or the first person you talked to and advised that helped them get kind of a return or an outcome that you were like, okay, this is something that that I can I’m getting traction. I have something here that’s going to help a lot of people.

Karen Houghton: Uh, sure. Like in our early, early days, uh, you know, we did a lot of customer discovery. We did over a hundred, uh, nonprofit leader interviews. Definitely made sure that we were building something with a large market. Um, the small to mid-size nonprofits, which is under 25 million, is securities, and savings is actually a $500 billion market here in the US that is incredibly underserved. Um, so we knew the market. We knew we had a lot of the data points. Um, and then once we launched, uh, I don’t think Aaron would mind me sharing this. So Aaron Hurst was the executive director of Endeavor Atlanta. And I sat down with him and he was like, yes, I understand the problem you’re solving, I experience it. I know we should be doing more with the funds we have. I know I should be receiving stock gifts. We don’t have access to any of that. There’s not an easy way to do it. Sign me up. And we had a few of those, um, just right out of the gate where it was a. Hey, we’ve got money that we want to. We want to work in steward. Uh, better. And we also want to open up those giving paths, um, to, to more of our donors. It may seem silly, but opening a brokerage account for a nonprofit, you and I individually can go online and do it in five minutes.

Karen Houghton: When you’re a nonprofit, it’s generally a 50 plus page application that requires wet ink, snail mail, and can take up to 12 weeks just to open a brokerage account. That’s why 90% of them plus don’t. And then there’s high minimums. A lot of organizations require, you know, a $2 million minimum, a half $1 million minimum. And that’s where it becomes really limiting. But we are one of the only firms that has the ability to streamline the entire painful process for a tax exempt entity. In fact, we have the only online brokerage account opening that exists for nonprofits in the country. So we take this very painful snail mail waiting 12 week process. And it’s a 30 minute appointment online and we have them up and going in three business days. Uh, and so we are trying to streamline all of that because again, we’re not serving business retail. And oh yeah, some non-profits, we were actually created to exclusively serve non-profits, which means we’re able to streamline a lot of the complex compliance requirements that non-profits have. We were made to serve them. So we solve a lot of pain points that they that exist for them in the traditional financial system.

Lee Kantor: And it sounds like the pain points are at the beginning, so that it would kind of preclude them from even starting, because it’s just too cumbersome to even attempt to begin because like, you know, whenever you have one of those situations where it’s it’s that difficult to apply. People just say, you know, they try it maybe, and then they get pushback and they’re like, why are we doing this is a distraction. There’s, you know, we should be doing other things where they’re missing out on a huge opportunity.

Karen Houghton: Right? It takes away from the mission. When something administrative becomes such a heavy lift, it becomes a burden rather than an opportunity. And it shouldn’t be that way. And even organizations who are like, okay, yes, we went through all that process ten years ago. We have a Vanguard account. Um, you know, it’s still like, great. Well, who’s rebalancing your accounts? Um, who’s suggesting no strategies? Who’s pulling your investment policy statement? Um, who’s looking at what other nonprofits are doing and helping with audit support? Oh, you receive stock gifts. Did you do the manual? You know, verbal confirmation? Did you sell it? Did you transfer the funds? Did your finance team create the receipt? It’s a very manual process, um, that we streamline all of that from receiving the gift to managing an endowment, handing the annual disbursement. So it’s more than just a strategy. There’s a whole process. Um, that’s very compliance heavy for tax exempt organizations, uh, that we really help streamline and lighten that lift, whether it’s their first time or they already have an investment strategy and they have a structure in place, but it’s still very manual. They don’t have that consistent fiduciary oversight. It’s somebody on the board who’s a volunteer. What do you do when that person rolls off the board? What do you do when you have three investment advisors on the board? You have conflict of interest. So really, the best practices for nonprofit organizations are to outsource, have an affordable, consistent fiduciary oversight that works very closely with the boards on that now.

Lee Kantor: Um, is there a story you can share regarding the once they unlocked, um, you know, people being able to donate and, uh, gift stocks that maybe they were skeptical or they were like, okay, let’s try it, but we don’t know. And then all of a sudden they got, you know, more than they had even imagined.

Karen Houghton: Absolutely. Well, the average online cash gifts like credit, debit online is $128. The average stock gift on a national level is $8,000. So these tend to be much larger gifts. Through the Infinite Giving platform, it averages closer to $14,000. And the reason these gifts are bigger, they’re less common, right? It’s anyone listening who is a donor. Right. It’s highly tax efficient to give stock gifts. Most of us hold the majority of our wealth in securities. And so you’re able to avoid paying capital gains taxes. And you get to deduct the full value of that gift. So it’s incredibly tax efficient to do so. Which is why those often tend to be larger gifts. So whether we’re streamlined, they already are doing it. And we’re streamlining a very archaic manual process. Uh, Or we’re allowing them to do it for the first time. Uh, it is a joy for us because we are seeing donors be generous. We are seeing non-profits be good stewards and do great work, and we get to be that processor and the bridge that connects those two.

Lee Kantor: So you’re seeing so sometimes you’re kind of unlocking something new and it’s dramatic, the amount of impact that’s coming to their bottom line and how many people they can serve and help and all that stuff.

Karen Houghton: Absolutely. It’s more tax efficient for the donors. It’s larger gifts for the non-profits. And then even if they’re already in that process, we are massively streamlining that experience, both for the nonprofit finance teams and the donor. So we’re increasing transparency and the administrative burden on a very traditional process.

Lee Kantor: And you mentioned that this, uh, this can you serve a variety of nonprofits so they could be a church, they could be an association. They could be any type of nonprofit.

Karen Houghton: Absolutely, yes. So any tax exempt status we can serve you.

Lee Kantor: And and that means even, um, you know, a family, um, what is it called, the family foundation or things like that? Trust foundation.

Karen Houghton: We can serve we we serve some foundations. Uh, here in Atlanta, we serve Venture Atlanta, we serve fintech Atlanta. So those would be associations. Uh, we serve a lot of charities, um, land trusts. Uh, so, yeah, a wide variety if there are multiple types of tax exempt statuses. But if you’re tax exempt, we’re able to serve you.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, connect with you or somebody on the team or get a hold of that book, Funding Your Mission The Modern Guide to Nonprofit Finance. What is the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Karen Houghton: Yeah, funding your mission you can find on Amazon. That’s just a great resource to give to board members or your finance teams that is like, hey, here’s a framework that makes sense. We try to do a lot of storytelling. So for a finance book, uh, it’s pretty engaging. We got a lot of free resources in there. If you’d like to learn more, uh, we’d love to see how we can best support you. You can find us at Infinite Giving. Uh, and you can schedule a free consultation with us. Uh, you can do a 15 or 30 minute call, uh, and we can talk you through things. Uh, and, of course, you can email me directly if you’d like. Karen at infinite.

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

Karen Houghton: We want to help more nonprofits. Uh, and so really, it’s sharing and spreading the word, uh, and making sure that more nonprofit organizations have efficient tools made for them who can essentially help them, you know, steward what they have with wisdom and ease.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success. Um, and, uh, thank you for everything you’re doing. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Karen Houghton: Thank you. Lee, I appreciate it. It’s an honor. The when we look back and we see hundreds of nonprofit organizations who are becoming more financially sustainable. It is the greatest honor because these people are some of the most passionate folks doing some of the most important work, and we just get to be a small part of their journey. Uh, as they do that work.

Lee Kantor: Right. But the impact is real. I mean, the impact you’re having in the ripple effects that it’s causing. It’s just extremely, I’m sure, rewarding work.

Karen Houghton: Absolutely. I mean, to date, we’ve helped create more than $30 million in additional funding for nonprofits we serve.

Lee Kantor: Wow. Amazing story. Congratulations again.

Karen Houghton: Thank you. Lee. Appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Building Trust in the Age of AI: Strategies for Organizations and Employees

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Building Trust in the Age of AI: Strategies for Organizations and Employees
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On this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Patrice Lindo, CEO of Career Nomad, about navigating the rapidly changing labor market shaped by AI. Patrice discusses how Career Nomad helps organizations and individuals adapt to workforce disruptions, reframe work around outcomes, and communicate value. She shares insights from supporting students and workers through job transitions, emphasizing transparent communication, strategic impact, and personalized support. The conversation highlights the importance of trust, adaptability, and empowering people to thrive in an AI-driven economy. Patrice also outlines her triage-inspired approach and invites listeners to connect with Career Nomad for guidance.

Patrice Williams-Lindo is not your average career strategist. As the CEO of Career Nomad, she’s a no-nonsense advocate for companies that want to break out of the talent retention rut and build a reputation for resilience and adaptability.

With over a decade in high-stakes consulting and a proven track record in the restoration and insurance sectors, she brings fresh, fearless insight to her audience.

Connect with Patrice on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The impact of AI on the labor market and workforce development.
  • Challenges organizations face in implementing AI technologies.
  • Employee fears and misconceptions about AI replacing jobs.
  • The importance of reframing work from task completion to outcome-focused value.
  • Strategies for individual contributors to advocate for themselves and articulate their impact.
  • The role of transparent communication in building trust during AI implementation.
  • The significance of involving employees early in the AI adoption process.
  • The need for organizations to help employees understand and communicate their value.
  • Examples of Career Nomad’s approach to supporting students and workers in transition.
  • The importance of strategic thinking and precision in navigating the modern job market.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have the CEO with Career nomad, Patrice Lindo. Welcome.

Patrice Lindo: Thank you so much, Lee. It’s a pleasure talking to you. I’m looking forward to our chat today.

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

Patrice Lindo: Oh my goodness. Well, as the founder of Career Nomad, we are working at the intersection of workforce development, leadership and AI. We basically help people and organizations navigate this uncertain labor market that’s moving faster than the speed of light, right? So we don’t have the systems to support it. And we’re trying to figure out what that looks like.

Lee Kantor: So who is your client? Is it the organization or is it the individual?

Patrice Lindo: Both. Both. Both both. Because what’s happening is that right now we’re not facing a talent shortage. Right? People are looking for jobs. We’re facing what they call a crisis. We have people that are being laid off. You know, AI is coming in and people feel like it’s taking their jobs. So, you know, as people are being told to reskill, upskill, pivot, we’re figuring out what they need to do next. Right. Because that slower, more predictable economy is gone.

Lee Kantor: So let’s take each constituent one at a time. And let’s start with the organization. What is kind of the pain the organization’s having where career nomad is available to help them? What what’s kind of their challenge that they’re dealing with where they need your help?

Patrice Lindo: Absolutely. So from an organizational perspective, right. Leadership is literally changing real time. It’s not just about the title in these organizations. It’s about what people need to do within this fast changing, you know, world as it speaks. So how can they help their employees? You know, that’s coming in every day to do their jobs as they know it, do it efficiently. Right. So, you know, how do we get people to understand that AI isn’t eliminating jobs wholesale, right? It’s basically just exposing those roles that were never clearly defined in the first place. So how do we help those organizations lead in a way that people can trust, so to speak, what’s in place to keep them employed, to keep them employable, and to help them innovate in a way that hits the bottom line, which is what the organization is ultimately care about. So we help them to navigate that, you know, how do they communicate to their employees? How do they let them know what they need to stop, start and continue? How do we, you know, have that conversation if in fact, their employees are going to be, you know, let go? What does that need to look like in a way that develops that sense of trust and also can, you know, match the changing needs as it relates to our, you know, our economy and the world as it’s changing.

Lee Kantor: So what does that kind of pain look like in the what’s happening kind of boots on the ground in that organization that they can recognize symptoms, that maybe they have an issue that they need your help with. Like what are they seeing? That should be kind of to you, a red flag, but to them might just be like a yellow flag.

Patrice Lindo: So the red flag would be, oh, you know, we got this new AI tool everybody’s going to use, for example. I don’t know, Claude, let’s just say or ChatGPT. And they’ve gotten it at the enterprise level, and you have a whole sector or sectors of your organization that don’t even know where to begin. So it gets to the place where the rules have changed and people don’t know what to do. And here it is. The organizations like, see, we are 21st century. We have brought in all of the amazing technology that AI has to offer, and you have people that are very mistrusting of it and feel like, oh my goodness, AI is taking my job. So it’s a red flag to the people that are on boots on the ground. But for the employers, it’s a yellow flag in a good way because hey, we’re getting ready to level up. So the conversation is more like teaching the organizers or the people within the organization that AI can be a multiplier, right? It teaches your your employees how to be clear, how to be strategic, and how to amplify the good work that they do. In other words, the messaging is that AI doesn’t replace people. It replaces ambiguity. So how should they be doing that differently? Right. Talent. You know, helping to teach people what the impact is that they need to do, not just complete tasks. If people are confused, they don’t know how to innovate, for example. So basically teaching them how to give career clarity as a retention strategy for those people that you actually want to keep.

Lee Kantor: So what I’m hearing you saying is that the organization thinks, hey, we’re being, you know, keeping up with the times because we’re leaning into this and we’re doing you a favor. This is helping you. Yes. And the employee is looking at it as like, oh, you’re just trying to replace me. And here I am just going to train some AI person to replace me.

Patrice Lindo: Correct? Correct, correct. So how do we bridge that? Excuse me. How do we bridge. Bridge that conversation. Because a lot of times, you know, people have been in these jobs for X number of years, you know, meeting their daily tasks and assignments and, you know, basically getting things over the line. Whereas now, you know, you can automate, for example, those tasks. So how do we rebrand them in a way that the work that they do still lands impact in a way that not only builds whatever the relationships are that your organization is building to sell whatever it is that they sell, but also in a way that people feel like they’re getting the employees feel like they’re getting something out of it as well, so you can recognize people truly for the value that they’re already delivering.

Lee Kantor: And so that’s so if an organization is thinking about implementing some AI solution, it’s probably a good idea to talk to you before they do that rather than to triage kind of something where you now have a trust issue after the fact.

Patrice Lindo: Absolutely. So take people on that journey. And when I say on the journey, it’s less about asking permission. It is still directional, like, hello XYZ employees, we have great information to share with you. We are going to be implementing AI. We’ll start out with a pilot, we’ll do X number of people in this particular department and then we’re going to roll it out. But again that communication right. That transparency in a way that it makes sense so that people feel less blindsided and more that they’re a part of the journey. That’s usually what decreases the level of anxiety and builds that credibility and trust.

Lee Kantor: All right. So let’s switch gears to the individual contributor. Um, when you’re working with that person, what are those conversations look like? Are are they kind of also living in this moment of fear? And they’re kind of not, you know, they’re kind of losing faith on all the expertise they have that it’s not going to be ready for the next kind of wave of technology.

Patrice Lindo: Absolutely. It typically starts there because here it is. They have, you know, met the moment where they have kept up their end of the contract, right, their end of the bargain, where they show up to work every day. They do their specific, you know, assignments and tasks and, you know, they’re they’re meeting, you know, kind of the need where they knew it to be. And so all of a sudden now it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under them because the things that they used to do now, you know, a machine, quote unquote, can do. And so then we have to reframe that to conversation. One of the things that I talk to them about is what are the outcomes, though, of the work that you do. So for example, if you take, let’s say nursing, for example, if you’re a nurse, excuse me. And you used to let’s say, you know, distribute medicine and take patients temperatures and maybe their blood pressures and that sort of thing. Now the hospitals may have brought in, let’s say, a robot. Right. To do those things. Now you can focus on, for example, the actual health of that patient as opposed to their, you know, vital signs.

Patrice Lindo: Not that the vital signs aren’t important, but the time that it would have taken you to do that, you can actually sit down and say, well, okay, if this patient has, let’s say, a particular heart disease or, you know, maybe they’ve broken a hip, you can find out what it is that they need to do to impact the outcome of getting that patient healthily out of the hospital, because before you still are expected to do that, but you were so mired down with those tasks, you were less focused, less able to focus on that. So it builds capacity. So we reframe that conversation conversation to capacity and outcomes. And what we found is that once people really take a step back from what they’re doing, they’re like, wait a minute, I have already been doing it. It’s just reframing the conversation. And that’s whether you’re in health care, education, consulting, you know, you name it. It’s just a matter of becoming less task oriented and more outcome focused and being able to articulate that now.

Lee Kantor: Do you think that that’s kind of at the heart of things that folks have been, I guess, kind of misguided in the in the way they’re defining their value? They think their value is completing 14 tasks during the day when their value is kind of like you described, is improving the outcome of the patient. That’s that’s the value. Not doing the 14 things. The 14 things were just kind of what you had to do in order to do the other thing.

Patrice Lindo: Correct, correct, correct. And I don’t know that it was misguided. I would say it’s a sign of the times, right? Because there have been times in our society where busyness, right, like motion was the thing to do. Like, oh my gosh, they’re running around like a chicken with their head cut off. Whereas to be honest, if you took a step back and really, you know, took as opposed to the 5000 foot view, the 20,000 foot view, we always should have been talking in terms of outcomes. But the way that society was set up, that was not necessarily rewarded. But now we’re being forced to evolve, right. So what is it? What’s the difference, so to speak, that you being in a particular role makes, for example. So if you were a consultant and you know, you worked with clients to, let’s say, figure out how to make their process more efficient, let’s say if they were, you know, producing beans. Well, at one point, you know, people used to count the beans, you know, figure out the quality of the beans and then figure out which could be packaged. Well, now you can have that first half, you know, automated, and you can talk about maybe different markets that could use your beads, or maybe different uses for the beads. So this is where your inner entrepreneur, um, within organizations can really come to life. And so I think, you know, there were a few that did that before, you know, relatively speaking. But now that the shift has happened, right. So I, I call it less misguided and more evolved.

Lee Kantor: Now the, the genie’s out of the bottle, right. Like this is not we’re not going back anymore. This is you. You better accept this and and learn how to leverage it rather than complain about it. Right.

Patrice Lindo: Absolutely. No. You’re absolutely right. She’s definitely going not going back in the bottle. And you know this is a reckoning of sorts right. It comes to a place where if you can translate your value in a way that is meaningful to the person or the entity that you’re talking to. So think about, let’s say, performance conversations at the end of the year, if you can translate what you’ve done over that year or that whatever that marking period into value that that, that boss, you know, can appreciate for that organization. Then you don’t have an issue. It’s those that are, you know, kind of vague, not really sure they’re talking about, like you said, the 14 tasks that are suffering at this point. So you got to get on this bus because it’s left the station for sure.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice that you would give, uh, kind of an individual contributor right now? What can they do to kind of elevate themselves into one of those people that are the the people that the organization is going to invest time and resource into? What can they do to upskill in order to kind of leverage this moment?

Patrice Lindo: I’d say your very first step is to turn invisible work into visible value, because there isn’t an algorithm, right, that’s going to come and advocate for you. You you are your own best advocate. So if you think of your career as an ecosystem, you can create your own stability. You can talk about, you know, this is what you’ve done over this marking period. And these are the outcomes you’ve driven. This is how you’ve increased value. This is how you’ve collaborated with other, other groups. For example, in your organization. This is how you’ve gotten, you know, more efficiency, um, you know, when it relates to your work, but you have to speak in terms of outcomes that meet the goals of that organization, um, of that team, um, of that particular industry, whatever the case might be. But you’ve got to share those distinguishing characteristics. So it’s less about, oh my God, I work, you know, 30 hours a day. And, you know, I’ve done a hundred things. It’s like, no, at the end of the day, what did those things mean? Who did they benefit. And it basically creates this ability you’re looking forward to. Right. You know that optionality that you know, you’re not a one trick pony, so to speak. But these are the things you drive. So for example, Um, when I work in consulting, I talk about not just how I’m going to coach, for example, my team, but I also talk about how infrastructure, the infrastructure that I’m building as it relates to change management impacts, you know, an 800 000 person organization or talk about how in healthcare, you know, this one tweak can make this particular difference. And so you again, you live outside of your title and really build beyond that into the ecosystem of whatever industry you’re working in and the impact that it creates.

Lee Kantor: Now, from the company standpoint, what advice would you give them when they’re kind of, um, dealing with their talent to get the most out of them, to keep them and keep them happy, and to attract the right folks to the team.

Patrice Lindo: They need to help their talent articulate impact, because that’s not quote unquote normal yet that’s a learned behavior. So I’m going to date myself. But do you remember, gosh, probably now maybe 20 or so years ago when they started talking about lean and the different belts you could get or, um, project management, professional certifications. Again, that was something that, you know, leadership had to bring into the conversation because you had onesie twosie people doing it. But as leaders began to talk about the importance of having these certifications and what that could do for forward progression, not only for organizations but for individuals, people took that advice. So they definitely have to help articulate what impact looks like, sounds like what they’re expecting, not just, hey, did you do your ten tasks because it teaches people how to not only be clearer about what they do, but also be strategic about the work that they’re doing.

Lee Kantor: So now, is there a story you can share that can demonstrate the value you provide when you’re working with either a business client or an individual?

Patrice Lindo: Absolutely. So one of the things that I’ve done most recently is that I have a framework that’s called Built different. So it basically means understanding the system that you’re operating in and then moving accordingly. Not louder, not faster, just smarter. So it’s not hustle culture, it’s precision. And so there is, um, an academic organization that I am currently working with. And as I work with them, one of the issues that they have is that typically in this particular, um, university, people would be sought out, right, based on the way that they, uh, the work that they’re doing, companies and organizations would come to their students and say, hey, we need you. We want you. You know, there’s a waiting list. Like, do you have more people? Well, as the economy has changed now, what’s happening is that you have people that are working full time that are going to the university in the evening. You have people that are just out of school that have gone through the program and are getting ready to graduate, and both of those populations now need support getting jobs because you have the people that are working full time that in some cases may have been laid off or have had a reduction in force, or they have an impending layoff. Then you have students that are graduating, excuse me, that the job market just isn’t there because of all the changes happening in the world. And so I had to literally bring to them in a way that it would make sense to them that they can support their student.

Patrice Lindo: And by that I mean we had to be super strategic. What can we do to support their students that are, you know, unfortunately, dealing with forced transitions? And then also how can they prepare their students that are getting ready to graduate in a way that makes sense? And so as I work with them, one of the things that we do is consistently talk about how people can show up. What is the work that they need to do? What are the conversations that they need to have? And so based on that, I outlined a small time bound concept where they intentionally, practically have a shared responsibility of making the connection to that school meaningful but manageable as they anchor the work that the students do. So basically, the students we are looking to retain their current employment or reposition them effectively after job loss. We help them to translate their prior experience into credible, market ready roles today. And then we help to reduce employment related stress. Right. That usually, you know, impacts in this case academic performance graduate performance. And then basically how can they navigate this in their labor market. So the initial cohort had uh seven students. So it was a small it was a pilot that we are going to scale. And then we targeted specific students within this, um, a university that are invested, but that really fit the use case of either being recently laid off or at some elevated risk.

Patrice Lindo: And their adult learners that are balancing work and family in school. And so through doing that, we did a workforce readiness assessment that focused on their employment stability, their transferable skills and any, you know, market positioning gaps. Then we did, um, I think it’s three. Yeah, three different stabilizing sessions where we addressed like job retention strategies and unstable markets. We talked about how to reposition themselves after layoffs or any sort of disruption, and really helping them to get that narrative clarity. The ones that I was talking about before, how to speak to their impact, um, in a way that demonstrates value and experience and direction. And it went really, really well. Like we had two people that had been laid off. They were able to find additional employment. We have some of the students that are currently in school that are getting ready to graduate, that were able to get internships, so it really helped them to get to a place where they were positioned in a better direction for their career in a clearer way. They had like market aligned, um, conversations so that when they were talking with prospective employers that they were demonstrating that outcome value and they had realistic next steps. You know, as it relates to how to plan specific to their circumstances.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there, um, a niche or a best fit client for you, or is your work kind of industry agnostic?

Patrice Lindo: It’s industry agnostic because what we found is that, you know, when people think less from an individual contributor and more from an industry professional, regardless of what that industry is, that’s what begins to create that stability. So I work with individuals and organizations that, um, they come to me with their problem, and then I help them figure out what their space is, because usually it’s that insecurity and instability that’s brought them to me. So once we can sit down and have some sort of assessment, like I was saying, you know, to see where they are as far as readiness goes, figure out how to stabilize them and then basically what their plan is right to roll it out. So it’s basically triaging them similar to what would happen in an emergency room, but with respect to their career or with an organization with respect to supporting the um organizations, employees or students in the case of a school.

Lee Kantor: So what is the best way to connect with you? Is there a website or socials that.

Patrice Lindo: Um, absolutely, absolutely. Across all socials. You can find me at the Career Nomad. Um, and then website is Career Nomad. Org.

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

Patrice Lindo: Thank you so much for having me, and I look forward to speaking with you again in the future.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

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