Business RadioX ®

Luciana Nunez With The Preston Associates

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Luciana Núñez, co-author of COACHING POWER, is a partner and Head of Americas at The Preston Associates, one of the world’s premier executive coaching firms.

An accomplished executive coach and former CEO with more than 20 years of leadership experience at Fortune 500 companies, including Bayer, Danone, and Roche, she blends her strategic expertise with a passion for mentoring, serving as a board member, investor, and advisor to entrepreneurs and executives worldwide.

Connect with Luciana on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The “Emotional Leadership Flow”
  • What are the “Trilogy Questions” she describe as the secret sauce of effective coaching
  • What are the most critical first steps a company can take to embed coaching into its organizational DNA

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 Luciana Nunez, who is the coauthor of the book Coaching Power and partner at the Preston Associates. Welcome.

Luciana Nunez: Julie. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to before we get too far into things. Tell us about the Preston Associates. How you serving folks there?

Luciana Nunez: We are one of the very few, if not maybe the only, coaching boutique that serves leaders all over the world from San Francisco all the way to Hong Kong. And we’ve been in the market doing leadership coaching for well over 20 years from well before coaching was a thing. So we’ve done it all, we’ve seen it all, and it’s still as exciting as it was on day one.

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

Luciana Nunez: You know, I was a corporate leader for 20 plus years and I got into coaching, to be honest with you, a little bit by accident. So just to to give you the gist of it. In one of my corporate roles, I had a big scope of 3000 people under under my management. And I had a very simple brief from my boss which was upgrade the leaders. And at that time I thought, how do you upgrade 3000 people all over the world from Indonesia to Mexico? And I concluded that it was going to be through the lens of coaching. So then I became a coach, but I thought that I would use coaching as just another toolset in in my leadership belt. And then fast forward to a few years, as I was already the CEO of a company, I decided that actually coaching was the main vehicle that I wanted for the second half of my life. So I left the corporate world. I became a full time coach and here I am maximizing the power of coaching. Now, luckily for the thousands of leaders that I get to work with. So I did. The corporate life, got into coaching, and I love being on the outside in, but still very much in the world of of business and leadership.

Lee Kantor: So how have you seen the coaching profession evolve over the years? At first it was like almost for only the highest of the high potential people, the executive leadership were the only people really getting coaching. And now it seems like it’s being democratized across corporations, where pretty much everybody is getting can get access to coaching if they need it.

Luciana Nunez: You’re absolutely right. I think at the beginning of the profession, it had two components. I would say the first reputation that that was associated with coaching, actually, was that it was a remedial thing. You got a coach if you were in trouble. Over time, it became what you were describing, which is is that perk for the C-suite guys that that are in in the track path to to becoming the CEO. But in the last, I would say, five years, that trend has really democratized. And there’s different models of coaching and different layers of an organization, from entry level coaching that is very much AI enabled, driven by systems all the way up to still the top of the house, as we call it, very much getting that that one on one coaching. So that’s one aspect of how it has changed. Exactly. To your to your point, it has been democratized and scaled up. The other way that I have seen personally coaching change a lot, especially for me as a practitioner, is through the lens of team coaching. This is something hugely beneficial to companies, and it’s relatively recent that we have seen companies really embrace team coaching 80% of the coaching I do is, in fact, team coaching, and it’s a real game changer. But it’s not that popular yet. Not every coach can be a good team coach, and not every team is willing to to really take coaching to the next level by by committing to a process of of team coaching. So those are some of the key changes that this profession is experiencing. But I can see much more in the horizon still now.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a little bit about this team coaching? Are you working with specific teams within an organization? Or is this kind of group coaching where there’s a disparate number of people with different types of skill sets that are all together for this type of coaching?

Luciana Nunez: Ooh, great question. And yes to both. So we do both types of, if you will, collective coaching. Team coaching is for a team of people that work regularly day in and day out with each other. And that’s a very specific design of coaching because you want to deepen the foundations of trust, ways of working. You’re going to work on the business of the business. It’s one of my clients calls it. So it’s a much deeper form of coaching that maintains the same group of people throughout the journey. Typically for a year or two years, I have some teams that I’ve been working with for up to even 4 or 5 years. The other kind of coaching that you describe is what we call cohort coaching or group coaching, which is cross-functional coaching people that operate at the same level. Newly promoted director from different functions that they all at the same time want to work on similar things. They want to grow their strategic thinking abilities. They want to improve their executive presence. They want to understand how to influence stakeholders at the same time. And because they have the same need to grow at the same time in the same areas, it’s actually very beneficial for them to work with each other. So you could have a guy from finance working with a guy in marketing, and they both want to improve their their influencing ability. So they’re going to be able to be coached at the same time, but then also to coach each other to be able to develop that. So it’s a slightly different flavor of a collective coaching with different designs, different objectives. But but a lot of fun to to do as well.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with teams, um, that are cohesive and within the organization, how does that differ than their manager?

Luciana Nunez: Mhm. Well often the manager is in the room and that’s part of what we designed for in terms of dynamics. Because all of a sudden yes, you have the manager in the room and there’s a component of hierarchy in in the conversation. But you also have to make everyone feel equally comfortable to sometimes challenge the manager, challenge the leader, put their opinion on the table and have a conversation with they’re going to hash it out and debate it. So to some extent, in in good coaching, a good coach can get that dynamic out of the way, because you also read the leader of the team to also create space for the team to show up. Because if everybody keeps deferring to the manager or the boss, you don’t shift the the power dynamic. So a capable, experienced coach learns and knows how how to both leverage the presence of the manager in the room, but also put it to the side if it’s not helpful.

Lee Kantor: Now, how does Preston associates, um, with, um, kind of coaches all over the world? How do you handle kind of the cultural differences when it comes to, um, how organizations behave and what their expectations are from, uh, workers and executives and leaders and coaches?

Luciana Nunez: That’s actually a super insightful question, because to your point, different companies have different corporate cultures, one layer of culture. Different countries have different social cultures. Um, environment? Cultures. So for us to be able to competently as a company, to competently navigate all of these layers of culture, the first thing that we do is we have coaches that are operating in that culture. Um, in a fluid way, they are they are native to that culture. They know how to navigate the cultural component of their their country, their, um, demographics, the the day to day reality of your culture. At the same time, we also have only coaches that bring a personal experience in the world of leadership, with at least 15 years of experience in different companies, in different organizations, because this makes coaches very comfortable with navigating a corporate culture, but also being able to understand, oh, this, this corporate culture is a little bit more open, a little bit more willing to take risks, a little bit less hierarchical, whereas the same coach starts to work with a different client, then that coach will very quickly realize, no, this company is much more process oriented. This company is much more risk averse. So you become a really good reader of cultures. If you’re an experienced business coach and you become a great navigator of cultures if you’re an experienced coach. So a big part of how we select for this is, again, by picking a local coach and an experienced former business leader. And the way we leverage them, a global view is that all of our coaches really work super closely with each other behind the scenes to connect the dots between, even in the same company. What’s the culture like in the US versus in France, versus in the Middle East? So we have a lot of conversation to really unpack the elements of those cultures.

Lee Kantor: So is there a Preston Associates Methodology that you expect your coaches to all adhere to? Or is it, you know, like you said, you hire somebody in Indonesia that’s a local Indonesian executive, former executive that can share their specific knowledge there, and then you’re just helping them get the gig. Is that how it works, or is there a Preston Associates way of going about this activity?

Luciana Nunez: There’s definitely a Preston Associates way of of going about it. And even internally we call it the TPA way. We call ourselves the shorthand for the Preston Associates. It’s TPA, so we call it the TPA way. So throughout the last 20 years we’ve we’ve really leveraged and created and took hundreds of frameworks through the test of time, but also through the test of different geographies. So through that process, we we know what works and what doesn’t. And we train all of our coaches to be super fluent with every single one of those, those frameworks. But then we also trust their expertise and their seniority to adapt the framework to the culture, to the client, to the situation. So we are able to do both keep, if you will, a certain quality control that we have to make sure that if you’re coached by a person coach in the US versus in the Netherlands or in Singapore, you’re going to get the same quality of coaching, you’re going to get many of the same frameworks of coaching, but you’re also going to get the coach to adapt to your environment, to your system, to your surroundings. So that’s one way we we guarantee, if you will, that quality of delivery, the second way that all of our coaches operate is through the lens of what we call the process. We coach a person doing a role within a system, and we prepare every coach to be equally fluent in all three levels of of this reality. Because regardless of where you are in the world, you will always be a person doing a role within a system. Does that resonate?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, absolutely. Now talk about the book coaching power. Was is this kind of the methodology? Is that the reason the book is here?

Luciana Nunez: Yes, the methodology is the how of the book, but if you will, the why of the book was a little bit, you know, rocked by the big shifts that we see in the world of leadership in the last 2 to 3 years, where we have realized that the old command and control model of leadership is broken. If if you think of the the old school leader that had all the answers, that gave the direction that was there to be the expert. That model is no longer valid. The world is moving too fast. The new generation’s Gen Z’s millennials. They don’t want to be bossed around. They want to be coached. In a world where you can Google anything or ChatGPT anything, having all the answers is no longer differentiable. So we truly believe that coaching is the ultimate leadership skill for the future. And the book, to your question, is all about the how. How can I live with a coaching style? How can I build the fundamentals of coaching to learn to coach my team, my people in one on one? In a team setting? Asking good questions is a big part of the art of coaching the right active listening, the right ability to have an empowerment conversation. So. So if the why of the book is to make leaders comfortable leading with a coaching style, the book is all about how.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re saying the why about coaching is kind of at the heart of this. And then you’re going to give that the how to do it, the nuts and bolts of how to do it. But it’s a mindset shift, right? You’re asking the person to kind of change their way of thinking, to say, okay, let’s take more of the mindset of a coach rather than this, um, you know, kind of ivory tower methodology that might have been successful, you know, a generation or two ago. Is that a difficult, um, ask for the, the leader or, you know, this is something that maybe they hadn’t grown up with, that this is kind of news to them. Is is it a challenge to kind of open their mind to this way of thinking?

Luciana Nunez: I think it’s that.

Luciana Nunez: Challenging at this stage, because what I have found with the clients that I work with is that they get it intuitively. They realize that the way they have been leading, if they’ve been, you know, in in the world of business for 20, 30 years, they have first themselves understood that the old way of leadership that they used to be very comfortable with ten, 20 years ago is no longer giving them the same results. The world is now a place where people work remotely. There’s hybrid leadership. So for them to be able to give directions and tell people what to do and expect that that’s enough, they know it’s not enough. So I think they’ve all first hand experience that, that that model is no longer working. And then intuitively, they start to realize that when they change gears to go from like you describe the leadership mindset more into a coaching mindset, they start to see, you know, intuitive results. They start to see how people engage differently, respond differently, take more, more ownership, find their own way to their solutions versus expecting them to solve it for them or to give them the answer. So when people intuitively try coaching skills, they see that it’s a better way. What I do think they sometimes struggle with is, okay, so how do I do that more consistently? How do I do that more regularly? And how do I how do I do that more effortlessly so that it starts to become second nature? And that was really the premise of the book, is to help people practice those skills on a small scale, first in ways that feel very practical, very simple, very approachable, because we realize that there was nothing like it when we started to write the book and we did a bit of research, nothing was fully focused on helping leaders lead with a coaching style, so that really inspired us to make it to your point, applicable to both help create that mindset shift, but then also help create that up skill in terms of how they embrace it.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there anything you’ve learned over the years to help that person that might be struggling. To become more vulnerable. To become less controlling and more trusting. Um, these are some of the qualities that it takes to be a good coach. And it’s something that a lot of people have a difficult time with. You know, a lot of people’s ego is such that it’s hard to, uh, you know, give up some control and to trust that other people are going to, you know, end up where I’d like them to go.

Luciana Nunez: Yeah.

Luciana Nunez: You know, I, I can relate to what you’re describing because we have seen as coaches that leader that came, you know, very confident, confident, very, very assertive. And even those leaders, at some point in time start to realize that it’s no longer working for them. Sometimes that realization happens in in their business life. Sometimes it can happen in their personal life. I can tell you that with some of my clients. The big aha moment happened when they started to look at how were they showing up, even in their families as parents. They realized that, you know, at some point when your kids started to grow up, if you if you were trying to control what they do and how they, they do it, it’s just not going to fly. So in working very closely with clients, we get to see what’s under the hood and we get to understand their their motivation. So sometimes if someone is, to your point, a bit resistant to make that mindset shift in the world of business, because they were very used to the results that they were getting from that style. The unlock is to actually help them see the power of leading with a coaching style in their family or in their social ecosystem, because then they start to see, oh, people respond to me very differently when instead of telling them what to do, I start to be curious. I start to ask questions. I start to engage. We start to have a thinking partnership, a conversation among peers. And that makes people, to your point, start to trust, to open up, to become more vulnerable. And sometimes for some people, it’s easier to practice those things in their personal life. And then when they bring it to the world of business, boom. Game changer.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the remote office, uh, you know, remote remote working and things like that. And it seems that, uh, especially during the pandemic, obviously there was a big shift towards that by necessity, but it seems like there’s more than a few companies that are just trying to go back in time and to pretend that that didn’t happen and that making people return to office or these people just laggards and that that they’re not going to kind of buy into this type of thing. Or is that the trend that’s going to overwhelm the people that are trying to be more open to this level of flexibility and this kind of kind of coaching thinking.

Luciana Nunez: You know, we’ve we’ve seen.

Luciana Nunez: Everything in the spectrum. The beauty of working in, in a very global business and with very different sizes of companies from very mature and very conservative to younger startups that by, by, you know, almost design were born remote. We’ve seen all of the different variations from, you know, the all remote, all virtual, all distributed, all the way back to hardcore, everyone back in the office, everyone back 9 to 5. We’ve seen the different degrees of of this shift. And what we have concluded is that the world of the future is going to be in the middle. There’s going to be a degree of flexibility that allows people to have some time in the office and some time working from home. But what we’ve also seen is that the more intentional you make the design of every situation to the objectives. The more you engage people. So for example, instead of mandating people to be back at the office Tuesday to Thursday, 9 to 5, make it around those meetings where there’s going to be co-creation, there’s going to be creativity, there’s going to be problem solving, but there’s a clear added value for that magic that does happen when you are face to face, when you are in an in-person environment where you’re shooting the breeze to try and come up with a new idea, but build the situation and the and the location around the business objective and not the other way around.

Luciana Nunez: And then if you need the same people to have heads down time, planning time, time to process, to think, to read, to, you know, be strategic, that’s a good time to actually do it in the quiet of your house or even in a different location. Some people might actually sometimes be outside of their regular office, and they might book a co-working space or a different place where they can engage their reflective gears or even, um, creative gears into a different mode of work. So, so designing the moment and the environment to the business objective is what we think is going to be the biggest trend of the future. The companies that get that right are going to be the difference between the best and the rest.

Lee Kantor: So now, uh, can you share a little bit about what that ideal client for Preston Associates looks like? Is there like you mentioned, all different, uh, size and stage companies? Is there a sweet spot for your firm?

Luciana Nunez: Um.

Luciana Nunez: To some extent, I think I think we we add the most value in instances where there’s either a big strategic challenge or where aware, there is something that needs to shift in terms of how things work today are not going to be the same thing as how things will work tomorrow. So if you’re in very, very early stages, if you’re still very much in the doing mode, building a product, testing your hypothesis, coaching any kind of coaching. But coaching in general is not going to be necessarily that helpful for you, because you’re not yet thinking about the leadership aspect of things. So we add the most value when there is already a strategy in place, when there’s already a team in place, when you already are going from where you are to where you want to be. That’s our sweet spot. And we do a lot of work with finance, with fast moving consumer goods companies, in the pharmaceutical space, in the industry of energy as well. So companies that have, by definition, complex challenges in their hands. We’ve done a lot of work in the in the education and technology intersection because this is very much booming and in in in the face of transformation. Another sweet spot that we find we really add a lot of value is when teams have dysfunctions. This this happens a lot, especially in this context of remote leadership and strategies that need to change a lot in a short period of time. That’s when we help bring clarity back to the table. We help rebuild the foundations of trust of a team, and we help get that team back into different routines and norms. To go back into that high performing team stages that that we know is one of the drivers of of performance.

Lee Kantor: And who is the ideal reader of the Coaching power book?

Luciana Nunez: Well, we were very.

Luciana Nunez: Inspired by that leader that wants to lead with a coaching style, the leader that has a team or even a leader that needs to influence peers in a cross-functional setting. So if if you have realized that the old command and control is not giving you the results that that it used to, and you want to learn to live with that coaching style. This book should be on your bedside table, because we’ve also written it so that it’s very easy to navigate. You can zoom in the chapter that feels most relevant to you. So if you really want to understand the foundation of one on one coaching, zoom in that if you want to go into what does it mean to do team coaching, zoom in that so so the leader that wants to bring and build those coaching skills is the leader that I think is going to truly, hopefully enjoy the book. We’ve given a lot of heart to the writing process, a lot of soul to the to the process, and we can’t wait to put it out there in the world and and get the readers to tell us what they think.

Lee Kantor: And, um, what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more coaches? You need more clients?

Luciana Nunez: Well, we.

Luciana Nunez: Are very happy with the cadre of coaches that we have at the moment. So thank you. First of all, for for asking that we look, at the end of the day, you become a coach because you want to maximize your impact. You want to be able to help more people. Nobody became a coach to to get rich fast. We are in the business of helping people. So yes, we are always wanting to help more leaders, help more companies perform, engage, do what they do better and and also do it with with more enjoyment and and more, more passion. So if you think that your team has more fuel left in the tank and you want to take it to the next level, let’s let’s definitely work, work together and explore what we can do.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, either about the book or about the Preston Associates, what is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Luciana Nunez: You can go to the Preston Associates. Com and then you’re going to have the bios of all of our coaches, the different methodologies of coaching that we had the different offices that we have in the world from the Silicon Valley, Bay area all the way to Hong Kong. I think everything you can read about is on that website. And then you also have emails to reach out to me personally and start a conversation. We’re big believers in people connecting in, in, in a real life environment. So I welcome anyone reaching out also on, on LinkedIn. My name is Luciano Nunez. I’m based in New York. Find me on LinkedIn and let’s get the conversation going.

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

Luciana Nunez: Thank you. Lee. It was my pleasure.

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

Omar Qureshi CIMA®, CPWA With Hightower Wealth Advisors | St. Louis

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Omar Qureshi, CIMA®, CPWA®, is the managing partner of Hightower Wealth Advisors | St. Louis. His life-long love for computers eventually led him to where he is today—using technology, modeling, and his innate ability to problem solve as the lead investment strategist with the organization.

Having started his career as a computer repairman and IT specialist at Rogers & Company, Qureshi worked his way up the ranks, eventually becoming partner and co-owner of the company before merging with Archer Wealth Management in 2017 to form Hightower Wealth Advisors | St. Louis.
Qureshi oversees the practice’s investment philosophy and strategies, and has a profound understanding of proper portfolio construction and asset allocation to match an investor’s goals and needs. With an analytical mindset, he has a rare ability to understand numbers and implement complex systems and technologies to deliver sophisticated strategies.

He holds various securities registrations, including the Series 4 registered Options Principal, and has earned one of the most rigorous designations in the securities industry, the Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®) designation. The CIMA® program, conducted through the Wharton School of Business, is a comprehensive study and examination of advanced portfolio management concepts and processes. Qureshi was an also member of the first class to receive his Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA) designation. The CPWA is an advanced designation through the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business.

Qureshi currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Villa Duchesne & Oak Hill School, Chair of the Investment Committee, and Chair of the Head of School Search Committee, as well as serving on the Board of the Clayton Chamber of Commerce. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Information Systems and a minor in Economics.

Follow Hightower Wealth Advisors | St. Louis on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Investment strategies, portfolio construction and asset allocation
  • Holistic financial planning
  • Financial technology
  • Cryptocurrencies
  • INDUSTRY: Practice management & team dynamics
  • INDUSTRY: Tips and benefits to recruiting young talent

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Saint Louis, Missouri. It’s time for Saint Louis Business radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Saint Louis Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Omar Qureshi. He is the managing partner and investment strategist with Hightower Wealth Advisors, Saint Louis. Welcome.

Omar Qureshi: Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me on the show. Great to be here.

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

Omar Qureshi: Yeah. So at Hightower, put most simply, you know, we really help clients simplify the complexities of wealth. So I often tell people that, you know, if you don’t have any money, you always think that having money would make your life a lot easier. And in reality, the opposite is true that the more more wealth you accumulate, the more challenges and the more things that you have to deal with. And that’s where we come in to basically help our clients who are high net worth or ultra high net worth clients. So that means, you know, net worths of 5 million plus help, you know, navigate through all those complexities of wealth.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? Do you mind sharing a little bit about your journey? How you got here?

Omar Qureshi: Yeah, yeah. Love, love to share this. You know, I’m going to go all the way back to the early 1980s. I was given a mac two computer by my parents for Christmas, and that started me on a love affair of technology, and it was just something that always interested me. I have a very active mind. I get bored easily. And so technology was one of those things that, you know, you can hardly get bored or you can hardly master. And you know, when you fast forward into the 1990s, of course, it was the first of the internet revolution and the internet boom and the dotcom, you know, boom and bust. And, you know, a lot of the companies that were making a lot of money in the stock market, I was very familiar with from my kind of tech interests. So I started trading stocks, actually, in my dad’s pension account. We did it together, and I read the Wall Street Journal, and that’s when I sort of discovered the stock market. And, you know, yet another thing that kind of changes every day and you can never really master. So I’ve always had kind of a finger in both pots, but when I graduated from college, I was, believe it or not, fixing computers for a company on the weekends, really for for kind of beer money. It happened to be a financial services firm, and at the end of the summer, when I’d done all my computer related projects, they kind of knew I wanted to get into the financial side of the world, and they offered me a job. And so that company is actually one of the predecessor companies of Hightower. So I’ve been there 25 years. So short version is I started by fixing computers on the weekend at this company, and now I’m the managing partner.

Lee Kantor: So that’s the modern version of the mailroom is the. Yeah.

Omar Qureshi: Yeah, exactly. I guess so, I guess so.

Lee Kantor: So, um, your clients you mentioned are high net worth. Are they coming to you? Um, because they’ve tried to do this on their own, and then now they’re like, hey, this is getting too complicated, or I’m missing things. I need an expert. Or are they coming to you from maybe another wealth advisor who is just maybe not as attentive?

Omar Qureshi: Yeah, I think it’s a mixture of both. You know, I think and by the way, this answer is going to be different based on the different generations. So, you know, the meat of our clientele are boomers, and boomers generally tend to be delegators. So, you know, they’re happy to basically pay somebody like us to help manage their financial affairs. That’s that’s not as true for the younger generations who want a much more active part. But I think what I found true across all generations is when you get enough money, when you accumulate enough money, you start to realize, man, this is this is serious. And I can’t screw this up because there’s a lot at stake. And I think that’s where people reach out for help. Or, you know, they can do the basic stuff on their own. But when it gets to taxes or estate planning or more complicated investment strategies or corporate benefits, they think, you know, I have no idea what I’m doing, and I don’t have the time to learn to deal with this. And you know, and that’s where we see a lot of demand. Um, we do, you know, we do pick up new clients from from other advisors. Um, you know, in the Saint Louis market in particular, it’s an incredibly fragmented market. So there’s tons and tons and tons of people who call themselves some version of me. Right? Um, but there’s a lot of, uh, divergence in terms of what services they’re actually providing people. So I think the end consumer has a hard time differentiating how these firms might be different and might support their needs better or worse than others. Um, and so, you know, oftentimes we see people who’ve had bad experiences or they just feel like they’re not getting the attention or the services or the depth of knowledge for their particular situations. And that’s when they look to, uh, to make a move.

Lee Kantor: Now, you know, when there’s a bull market, everybody’s system works or seems to work. It’s just a matter of degree. When it gets a little more chaotic and a little more volatile. Um, that’s where I think a professional comes in handy. Um, what advice would you give maybe that person who’s on their own right now and everything seems it looks like they’ve got everything figured out, but as volatility and chaos ensues, possibly, uh, you know, things might change. Is there any advice you would give someone who doesn’t have a wealth advisor right now? You know, maybe some of the trade offs that they’re not maybe taking into account.

Omar Qureshi: Yeah, yeah. No, I love this question. I think it’s a very timely question with the amount of uncertainty that we’re currently facing as a country. Uh, which, by the way, is manifesting itself in the markets and generally not in a good way. Um, to your point, you know, markets have been very, very Be positive. Over the last handful of years, they’ve actually returned, you know, roughly two and a half times the average return for the last two years, which is to say, people have made a lot of money. Um, and you know what? What I’ve personally seen across not our clients, but but, you know, maybe new clients and even folks outside is that they’re taking on a considerable amount of risk, and they may have outearned the market that two and a half times return because they’re just taking so much additional risk. And it makes you look brilliant when it’s happening and things are going your way. The problem is, as you said, when things are going down, that level of risk has an equal impact, but this time to the downside. So the first thing I said. And I think a lot of this started, you know, during Covid where people more so than ever started viewing things like the stock market as sort of like a hobby as a casino.

Omar Qureshi: So we’re seeing people, you know, whether it’s cryptocurrencies, whether it’s, you know, options, strategies and a subset of that called zero days to expiration, zero RT options, leveraged funds, which are, you know, goosing up the returns. There’s a there’s a ton of people using all of this stuff, and I fear that they don’t really understand what’s going to happen when things go the other way. So my my advice to anybody today, um, is, you know, know your risk, know what you own, figure out what you can afford to lose and rightsize your holdings to to match that. Because I think we’re in for a period of time where there’s, you know, a shakeup of sort of the global world order that we’ve known for 40 years. That’s all happening very fast. Uh, you know, obviously that coming out of Washington today, for sure. Um, and, and that always puts, you know, markets at risk. So I think it’s a great time. If you have gains, know what you own, know what the risk is rightsize those things before it’s too late.

Lee Kantor: Now do you see any impact on the prevalence of gambling in in sports and where it just they’re, they’re making it seem like this is almost like an investment strategy and you’re bombarded with opportunities to literally in real time make bets. Is that does that positively or impact your industry in the wealth industry, especially with young people.

Omar Qureshi: Yeah. So so I haven’t I haven’t seen a huge impact directly of that. But but where I think there’s certainly parallels is that mindset, that mindset of oh I’ll, you know, put some money down and I may get paid 5 to 1 or 10 to 1 if it hits. People are treating the stock market that way also. Um, and that’s where I think you get into trouble. Um, you know, sports gambling has obviously become very popular as states look to collect more tax revenue, right? Ultimately, that’s why a lot of this stuff gets approved. And, you know, it’s just like Vegas. Uh, if you think you have better odds than the house, you know, think again because you don’t. Uh, the house is always going to win. Um, that’s I would make that same statement. If you’re treating the stock market as a gambling venture rather than an investing game investing approach. You know, for participating in sort of the longer term fortunes of good companies, you know, in the market.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I just I mean, I’ve talked to a lot of young people and they just spend so much time and energy in their mind that they’re they think they’re, you know, planning for their future by, you know, studying, you know, football lineups. And they could be taking that same money and just using the power of compounding that is going to have a better chance of success. Um, it just I just think the younger people especially are equating what that is and what you do as similar. And I don’t think they’re similar at all.

Omar Qureshi: Yeah. I think, you know, to your to your point, I totally agree. And I think, um, they’re viewing the stock market though like the casino as well, that. Oh, I can just make these big bets get paid off and I’m going to get rich this way. So that’s the commonality is there’s this notion amongst younger folks that they can make these insane bets and make huge upside and somehow become rich from that, where that that is not going to work. You know, maybe a handful of people are lucky enough where that works, and then there’s going to be millions of people where that doesn’t work versus the tried and true method. To your point of saving regularly, investing in a good portfolio, letting the markets do its thing, compounding wealth over time. Um, that’s a much higher probability to create wealth. And when, by the way, you look across all of our clients at Hightower, um, that’s how they all made their money. Uh, they didn’t gamble their way to good fortune. Um, they worked hard. They started businesses. They saved a lot. They invested wisely. And that’s that’s why they’re in the positions that they are today.

Lee Kantor: Now let’s talk a little bit about kind of maybe the mindset of your clients as they go through the different stages of their life. You know, when they’re younger, you know, obviously they’re trying to accumulate wealth. So they’re investing regularly, like you said. But when they get to be of a certain age there, there comes a period where they have to accumulate. And that might be challenging for some people who spent their whole life saving. And all of a sudden they’re like, well, I don’t have money formally coming in anymore. And now I’m taking this out. How do I come up with a good, you know, accumulation plan that feels safe and comfortable and will, you know, keep me, uh, having money throughout my entire life because I don’t know when it’s going to end. There’s a lot of unknowns when you get older and you’re in the accumulation phase.

Omar Qureshi: Yeah, yeah, it’s a good question. And I’ll approach this from, from a couple of different aspects. I want to start with, you know, kind of client psychology first, as that has a huge impact on clients in these different phases. And so, you know, the question I ask, you know, new folks who come into our office to learn about what we do, I always ask them the question of, you know, tell me about your experience with money, uh, before you were 16 years old. You know, tell me about your family. Did you have money? Did you not have money? Did your parents resent people who had money? Did you not have a lot, but, you know, acted like you had plenty. You know, tell me all of those kinds of stories about your childhood. And I’ve heard everything from people’s, you know, father going to jail and, you know, all sorts of stories that come out of that. The reason why I asked that is because your relationship with money is imprinted in your brain by the time you’re 16, and so all of the, you know, coping mechanisms or habits or feelings about money or relationships with money, those are all determined by those formative years. Okay. And so as you as you think about, you know, somebody who’s retiring, for example, and needs to switch from taking, you know, for adding money to the portfolio to taking money out of the portfolio.

Omar Qureshi: Well, imagine if their childhood, they didn’t have any money, their parents just scraped by, saved every nickel, didn’t waste a dime on anything, you know, were completely frugal. Well, imagine what happens to that person when they’re at retirement. It it is like it’s worse than pulling teeth to get them to take money out of their portfolios to live. Because they are not wired to do that. And so it’s part of what we do, one, to elucidate these kind of thoughts around money and bring them out, because a lot of people don’t think about this stuff. Uh, you know, more often than not, but then also help them kind of cope with this fact of this is why you accumulated all this money was to retire and eventually, you know, take, take money out. So, um, it’s a very emotional time for clients in that retirement phase, right? They they sort of question who they are. A lot of their friends typically are coworkers that you don’t really hang out with those coworkers after retirement anymore, and you don’t have something to fill your day anymore, right? Of going to the office or whatever. Um, so so it’s a big change and money is obviously a big a big part of that.

Omar Qureshi: Um, and so what we do is try and help clients, you know, through those phases. A lot of it is, um, you know, planning way ahead of time. Um, so, so when you mentioned kind of accumulation versus accumulation, we we map that out and we constantly are planning and incorporating new facts and figures and goals into that client’s plan and then presenting them to say, hey, you’re on track for this or you’re going to, you know, you have a great, great probability of this all working out exactly as you want to. So reassuring them along the way. Um, is very important and I would say a good advisor in our industry. Um, you know, even though we’re known for investing people’s money as sort of the primary thing we do. The best people in this industry are going to be the ones who insist on planning first, and then figuring out the investments in the context of that plan. I would I would tell people, if you’re if you’re quote unquote advisor is just talking about investments, and that’s the only conversation you have, you’re missing out on a much richer picture of of planning for your future and taking advantage of a lot of strategies.

Lee Kantor: Now, why don’t you share a little bit about what it’s like working with your firm? Um, when a person, you know, raises their hand and says, Omar, I’m ready. Um, can you talk about what it’s like when you onboard them and what the regular kind of rhythm of your conversations are with your clients? So, so the listener can get an idea of what it’s like. Um, you know, to be working with your team.

Omar Qureshi: Yeah. Yeah. Um, I’ll mention, first and foremost, uh, we are a very high touch service, uh, firm. Um, you know, we want our clients to be welcomed and taken care of in every single way we possibly can. Um, you know, even down to the phone, we don’t have phone trees. You don’t have to dial one for an operator. We just answer the phone. We want people to appreciate working with us and and feel like they’re really, uh, a part of our family and vice versa. And that they’re very well taken care of. And and by the way, our clients are high net worth clients. And so they, they expect that that high touch service as well to a large degree. So, you know, the interactions with a new client will always start with us getting to know you as a person and then getting to know you on paper. Um, you know, and that’s a little bit of an x ray, a little bit like a doctor’s office when you have to fill out way too much stuff. We ask for a lot of information up front, um, so that we really have a full picture of your situation. So things like taxes and insurance documents and, you know, wills or trusts and investments and corporate benefits and, you know, all of the various things that you might have. Um, and we’re going to sift through all of that, and we’re going to put together a presentation where, uh, at no cost, we kind of give you a high level thoughts of their situation. And here’s what we see.

Omar Qureshi: That’s good. Here’s some deficiencies. Here are some things we might recommend. We’re going to tell them essentially a roadmap of what we might do for them if they choose to work with us. And again we do that at no cost. Um, up front. Then they get to decide, hey, is this going to bring value to my situation? Um, is this firm going to help me achieve my goals? Um, and then if they sort of, you know, decide to move forward from that and become a client, then we moved into the implementation implementation phase. Um, you know, where we’re going to start doing the recommendations, get more specific, more detail oriented around a lot of the different things. Um, you know, and that, that honestly that that phase could, depending on a client’s complexity, could take up to a year, right, to, to to get everything in tip top shape. Um, and then we moved to an ongoing cadence of reviews and education, uh, with the client to make sure that they’re on track. You know, if the markets have changed or tax laws have changed, or if something in their lives have changed, we obviously want to know about that. Um, and again, that education piece is making sure that they’re up to speed about all of the things happening in the world that might impact them. We also do things like family meetings. So you mentioned, you know, getting into the decumulation phase and then eventually getting older. You know, what we find is that after a certain number of years after retirement and the client becomes kind of comfortable being in that retirement phase, they kind of, you know, graduate to this next phase, which I’d call legacy.

Omar Qureshi: And that’s basically asking them, you know, or themselves asking the question, what what’s going to happen to my wealth when I’m gone? Who’s it going to go to? Who’s going to be in charge of it? Am I going to leave any money to charities? What are the restrictions in place? And they have this legacy mindset to want to really focus on on all of those types of issues. What I will say. That’s true of the boomer generation. That’s not at all true, say, of the Silent generation is boomers don’t want to be a burden to their children, whereas the Silent generation, you know, went out of their way to make sure they didn’t tell their kids anything about anything. And it was sort of like, figure it out after I pass away. Boomers generally don’t want to do that. They want to have everything buttoned up. And even when they’re gone from this earth, everything is in good order and it’s easy for their kids to handle. So we do family meetings, for example, where we’ll bring in their children and we’ll educate the family about the parents situation. What do they need to know? Who do they need to call? How are things set up? What’s the intent? What’s the sort of value system of the parents that they want to, you know, pass along as well. Um, so that’s that’s kind of the end part of that, that cycle.

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

Omar Qureshi: Yeah, our website is just ww dot Hightower s t l.com. Um, or they can email me directly. I’m just Omar at Hightower stl.com.

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

Omar Qureshi: Yeah. Thanks, Lee. Thanks for the opportunity to be on the show today.

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

Katie Wagner With KWSM: a digital marketing agency

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Katie Wagner spent 15 years as a television and radio journalist, working for news outlets all over the world, including ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN & National Public Radio. Today, she owns a full-service digital marketing agency made up of brand journalists. KWSM specializes in lead generation with services including websites & SEO, content creation, videography and digital advertising.

Katie lives in San Diego, CA with her husband and their 5 rescue dogs.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn and follow KWSM on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How lead generation has changed in the 15 years she have been in business
  • What Nearbound Lead Generation is and why it’s important
  • The biggest mistake business owners make when approaching digital marketing

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Katie Wagner. She’s the CEO with KWSM. A digital marketing agency. Welcome.

Katie Wagner: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about your firm. Tell us about KWSM. How you serving, folks?

Katie Wagner: Sure. So KWSM is a full service digital marketing agency, but we specialize in lead generation, so that means all of our clients need to scale or grow, and they’re looking to generate more leads and sales online. And then sometimes that’s sort of outside the box lead generation applications like recruiting because hiring recruiting is lead generation just aimed at candidates instead of clients. So we can also help with things like that.

Lee Kantor: So do you mind sharing a little bit about your journey? How’d you get into this line of work?

Katie Wagner: Sure. Happy to. So I was a television anchor for 15 years, actually, before I started the agency. And in the last few years of my TV career, nobody was going home to watch the 5:00 news because they get headlines on Facebook and Twitter and see videos on YouTube. And so the powers that be at my station said, get out there and learn how to use these channels and get our audience back. And the more I learned about digital, this is back in the early 2000 when when Facebook was just coming out and these channels were being popular. The more I learned, the more I realized that we weren’t going to get our audience back, that people liked the immediacy of digital, and that’s how they wanted to get information. And so I retired from TV and opened the agency in 2010 with the goal of helping business owners tell their story and learn how to use and harness these new channels.

Lee Kantor: So was that a difficult transition to go from being on air to being kind of behind the scenes, helping other people?

Katie Wagner: No, not at all. Not at all. So I say that my favorite part of not being on TV anymore is that I don’t have to wear makeup to the grocery store, so it’s nice to be a little more incognito. But also, Lee, it’s the same job. I mean, we tell stories for a living, and these days we just tell them from a certain perspective rather than sort of neutrally. And for that reason we call ourselves a brand journalists. But it’s the same. It’s the same skill set. We’re asking questions. We’re trying to uncover the stories behind the work they do every day, and what’s appealing to their audience, and then help them position that in a way that captures attention and drives action.

Lee Kantor: What are some of the misconceptions when it comes to lead generation? Because the word is kind of bandied about very liberally and I get bombarded. I’m sure you do. And I’m sure most business owners do with just spam in their LinkedIn about their. Here’s a new magic lead generation system that will do this while you sleep.

Katie Wagner: Yes, that happens frequently and there is no magic bullet, so we should all proceed with caution with those emails and messages. But I think one of the problems is that lead generation can mean a lot of different things. So sometimes it means cold outreach or appointment setting. Sometimes it means inbound marketing with blogging and SEO, and there are a lot of different ways to generate leads online. And I think how we generate leads has changed quite a bit over the years. But at Wzzm we do. Lead generation. By positioning our clients as thought leaders and as experts in their space, and we really try to position them as best in class companies. And by leading with that expertise and that thought leadership, we can generate leads through people that are searching and want to work with best in class companies. So our leads are mostly inbound, right? They come through the internet to the website, but these days it’s harder to rely only on one lead generation tactic. And so we often combine those strategies with some outbound, which is cold outreach, sometimes through email or ads, and then near bound, which is strategic partnerships, um, you know, leveraging partnerships and relationships to reach new audiences that way. So really, everything we do is about positioning our clients as experts and as as credible partners for their clients.

Lee Kantor: What are some examples of Near Bound?

Katie Wagner: Well, this is an example the podcast you and I are doing because, um, you know, at the end of the day, you’re going to interview me and then I’m going to take this content and I’m going to share it with my audience, and you’re going to share it with your audience. And what we are doing is exposing our constituents to each other. And so often for our clients, it can be as easy as doing a webinar with a strategic partner or co-creating blog content or social media content, something like that, where you’re each sharing with your respective populations and then you’re exposing the other to your audience. But what happens is, because my audience trusts me and is used to consuming my content, that is sort of a transfer of trust that happens with anybody that I bring into that content. And so it essentially delivers warmer leads for the other person. So for our clients, we’re constantly thinking about who are the strategic partners, who are the adjacent types of businesses that we could couple with to create content and to add more value. And we’re brokering and leveraging those relationships for them.

Lee Kantor: Is that kind of an area where maybe a lot of business owners don’t think about that as a, as an avenue to kind of grow their network and grow their business, that they’re not looking for those collaborative, complementary partnerships.

Katie Wagner: Absolutely. And even the word near bound is very, very new. Not a lot of people are talking about it. But, you know, it’s it’s a concept that we’ve all known about forever. You know, how many of us have gone to networking meetings or tried to, you know, cultivate referral partners? Um, people like people. We connect with people. Um, I think the reason Near Bound is coming to the forefront is that, candidly, trust in the internet is declining, right? There’s a lot of misinformation out there. There’s a lot of AI generated content that may or may not be fully accurate. And people know that where ten years ago, 15 years ago, when I started the company, they could Google, they could get an answer that was reliable and they can make decisions that way. These days, there’s a lot more distrust around that. And so it’s a lot harder to generate leads strictly online. And so I think there’s there’s been this mind shift where, you know, when we can’t find something trustworthy online, what do we do? We ask other people, you know, I need a mechanic. Do you know somebody I need a lawyer. Do you know somebody? And we trust what other people tell us. And so Near Bound is actually just the latest iteration of how we leverage that trust and, and systemize it for our clients. But I don’t think many people think about it, and I don’t think many businesses have a formal plan around how they’re going to leverage those relationships. And if if they did do that, it would exponentially increase the amount of leads they could drive for their businesses.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, early on, you mentioned how you when you started, there was kind of a different landscape when it came to come, came to lead generation. And as the technology has evolved and the media has grown less and less trustworthy, and people have had to alter their tactics, obviously we’re talking a lot about this near bound as a tactic. Um, have you is it difficult to when you’re communicating with your clients because a lot of them obviously aren’t as attuned to the trends and the and kind of the, the landscape change that you’ve experienced because you do this 24 over seven. Is that a kind of an eye opening, difficult conversation where they’re kind of begrudgingly going along with these new tactics as opposed to look back in the day, you know, we ran commercials or we did pay per click ads or some of those things that, you know, like you said earlier, used to be effective but are losing a lot of their effectiveness.

Katie Wagner: Yeah, it’s it’s a new conversation, right? It’s conversations they haven’t had in relation to marketing in the past. But I don’t think it’s difficult because most people are experiencing what you and I are experiencing. We’re flooded with outreach online. We’re seeing a lot of stuff on the internet that’s just not very valuable. And so most people, when you explain that that landscape makes it harder to generate business, they’ve already been feeling that and seeing that. So it tends to resonate. I think the part that’s new is most business owners don’t know what to do about it. Right? What are my choices? We’ve been taught for so many years that you just continue to do the marketing, and this should help grow your business. And there hasn’t been a lot of exposure to new ways to look at that. So I think once we explain it to our clients, they do get it. And it does resonate. And it doesn’t take very long to show them the value. Right. If we can just create a webinar or have them guest on a couple of podcasts, or create a survey or a blog or a study together with somebody else, they sort of see the power of amplifying that promotion through the partner. And so it’s it’s a tactic we can prove pretty quickly. Um, but sure, it takes a little bit of of openness to new ideas and thinking outside the way we’ve sort of always done things. And we’re we’re lucky activism because we are first and foremost trusted advisors to our clients. And, you know, our our goals are aligned. We need to help them grow or else they don’t have to continue to work with us. And so I think there’s a lot of trust in our relationships that way, that most clients will will give us a shot and hear us out at least.

Lee Kantor: Right. So they’re open to the conversation. But I don’t know. I just feel like we’re there so much misinformation about how there’s all these leads that are just kind of waiting for you, and all you have to do is do whatever this magic thing is, and then they’re going to be kind of flooding to your door. And in this new world, that sounds like and I’m a proponent of this. Well, and this is a personal challenge for us as to, to explain this in a way that they believe that this is a better way to do things, is that it’s kind of a longer play in that you got to nurture relationships and you have to build relationships, and there’s no kind of magic unlocking of hundreds of people just can’t wait to hear and learn from you. Like you got to kind of grind and earn them one at a time.

Katie Wagner: Yeah, no, you’re exactly right. There is no magic bullet, and lead generation in general is not a fast process. It is a long term strategy. But I think it helps to think about sort of what I’m going to call active prospects versus passive prospects. So active leads or active prospects are people that are out there searching for the thing that you do, right. They know they have a need. They want to find somebody to help them. They’re searching for your product or service, and those are the leads you can capture with things like SEO and blog posts and a great website and maybe even ads placed in the right place. But there is a lot of competition for those leads, those people that are showing intent to purchase already. And so it becomes a game of can you get in front of them first? Can you stand out against the competition sometimes? Do you have the budget to compete in a crowded landscape and that, as it gets more crowded, is getting more and more and more difficult? So what tactics like Near Bound capitalize on are the more passive prospects, the people that may not know they have a need, but if they hear your content and resonate with with it, it plants a seed. It gets them familiar. They start to build a relationship with you, and it may mean that they need to read 3 or 4 blogs, or watch a couple of webinars, or hear 5 or 6 episodes of your podcast. But it’s that connection and that emotional tie that you’re trying to build that builds trust, and that can lead them to explore your services, even if they weren’t actively looking.

Katie Wagner: I would tell you, those are much warmer leads for you because they’ve chosen, after consuming your content to start the conversation, rather than the the people that are out there searching that are probably going to talk to 5 or 6 companies and you’re you’re literally trying to sell against those companies in Near Bound, you’re building a relationship that leads to a business conversation. So yes, it takes a lot longer, but also it’s a lot stickier and a lot warmer when you’re having those conversations. And it’s easier to close business. And and I sort of liken it to when we all go out and go to networking events. Very rarely do you meet somebody at a networking, you know, happy hour and they hire you the next day. But maybe you stay in touch and decide to go to coffee with them. Or maybe you exchange some emails or talk about your business a couple times, and then a few weeks or months down the road. They say, you know, I want to talk about what you do. Maybe you could help me that know like and trust factor that you’re building then leads to business that is no different than what has to happen online these days. Because that quick find me and sell to me immediately. That’s getting too hard and too crowded in this environment. It’s not a reliable lead generation strategy anymore.

Lee Kantor: So who is the ideal customer for your services?

Katie Wagner: We usually work with, um, usually low lower middle market businesses, maybe 1 million to 50 million, something like that. And we’re industry agnostic. We work both B2B and B2C, but there’s four different buckets we’ve worked in quite a lot over our 15 years. One is professional services. So law firms, CPAs, wealth managers, those sorts of things. One is manufacturers and distributors, companies that make something. We work a lot with nonprofits and local governments, city and county governments to help communicate with their constituents. And then the last one is direct to consumer, which sometimes is consumer products, but not often. Often it is things like banks and gyms and businesses that serve consumers but don’t have a tangible product. They’re more service related. So we, um, we’ve been in business 15 years. We have about 200 clients a year. So it would be hard to find an industry we haven’t worked in at least once. But those are four buckets we find ourselves returning to quite frequently.

Lee Kantor: And is there an example you can share? Maybe a story? Don’t name the name of the company, but share maybe the problem they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level?

Katie Wagner: Sure, absolutely. So, Um. Let’s see. I’ll tell you a story about a CPA firm that came to us. They’ve been working with us for about five years. So to your point, long term, um, and the CPA firm came to us and it was just a single person, a CPA that was doing great work. And they had a niche in helping older adults with their finances. So often they were hired by the kids of those older adults to help put the finances in order. And so we started really marketing to those children of older adults that needed this help. And we were writing blogs and we were interviewing clients that we that our CPA had helped. We were interviewing our CPA about the work they do. We did a lot of SEO optimization to get our content in front of the right people, and over the years, we were able to build it up so that we generated about 150 reliable leads every year. So, you know, 12 to 15 a month, something like that. And each of those, uh, Leeds was worth. Um, uh, let me think. Maybe several thousand dollars, like 3 to $5000 at the outset. And then the lifetime gets a little more. So it was a reliable revenue stream. But the reason I like this story, because we can just say we helped them grow and things went great.

Katie Wagner: But the CPA firm actually got acquired recently by a much larger regional firm. And typically when a client gets acquired, that brand would be folded into the new brand. And, you know, our marketing might go away because now they’re going to market as the larger company. But in this particular case, Lee, the the buyer company, said to us, what you’re doing is a valuable revenue stream for us, and we don’t want to change anything. So we want to keep the CPAs website and lead gen system exactly as it is. We’re not going to wrap them in, and we want you to continue to run it. It’ll just be part of the larger company now. And I thought that was a really big win because it showed the value of what we were doing, and that we had created this equity for our client that could live on even as part of a post-acquisition scenario. And it turns out that later on today, I have a call with the larger company to talk about taking over lead gen for the entire company, because the portion we’re running now is going better than their overall strategy. So, um, that’s a story that’s near and dear to my heart because it’s a big win for us.

Lee Kantor: Now, you started in California, but now you have offices here in Atlanta. Can you explain why having a presence in Atlanta was important for your growth?

Katie Wagner: Yeah, yeah. So first of all, I’m from Atlanta. I grew up in Atlanta. I went to Westminster for high school. So Atlanta is home to me. But I moved to Atlanta 15 or sorry, I moved to San Diego 15 years ago when I started the business because I also married my husband and he lived out here. So we did start the company in California. But about.

Katie Wagner: Two.

Katie Wagner: Years in, we opened our Atlanta office, and we’ve had it ever since because we have clients all over the country. And I realized that we needed a presence in both time zones to be able to serve them to the best of our ability. And so, um, so we opened the Atlanta office, and we have a staff and a physical office there, just like we do in California. And then we’ve expanded over the years. So we also have we have two California offices and one in Las Vegas. Um, and I actually split my time between California and Atlanta every other month. So I have, um, home base in both places, and I’m back and forth dealing with our clients. And, you know, it’s unusual for a digital agency to have physical spaces like that, but we’re really invested in building relationships with our clients. And I think it’s really important for us to be able to sit down and meet with them face to face and have them meet the team that’s working on their accounts. And in this post-Covid world, that’s a little bit rare, right? Most of our business is done over zoom these days, and we really felt like it was important to hold on to that personal touch and that that human relationship building that was been has been so important to us over the years.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more, more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Katie Wagner: Yeah, our website would be great. It’s k w s m digital.com. Or you can always find me. Katie Wagner on LinkedIn I’m really responsive there and I would love to chat and just love to brainstorm, even if it doesn’t lead to a working together conversation. I’m passionate about this stuff and I’d love to help you think through marketing things you’re stuck on.

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

Katie Wagner: Yeah, thanks for having me.

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

Jason Schneider With Schneider Williamson Personal Injury Law

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Jason Schneider brings a wealth of legal experience to his role as the managing partner of Schneider Williamson.

He focuses exclusively on advocating on behalf of personal injury victims and making a positive impact on their lives.

With a robust portfolio of over 100 trial cases and a multitude of substantial settlements, he has secured millions of dollars in compensation for his clients.

This impressive track record has garnered the respect of his clients and peers alike.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, he earned his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York in Binghamton before completing his studies at Emory Law School in 1984.

His legal journey began at prominent Atlanta law firms. He represented insurance companies, grocery stores, and pharmaceutical manufacturers in various claims.

Jason leverages his expertise and early career on the opposite side of the courtroom to passionately champion the rights of individuals harmed by the negligence of others.

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How the claims process works
  • How Schneider Williamson works with other lawyers to settle cases
  • Who their firm works closely with during referral cases (chiropractors, medical doctors)

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jason Schneider, and he is the co-founder and managing partner with Schneider Williamson Personal Injury Law. Welcome.

Jason Schneider: Hi, Lee.

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

Jason Schneider: Okay, well, thanks for having me on. It’s a pleasure to share information with you and your audience. We’re a personal injury law firm here in Atlanta. We have three attorneys and eight staff total. And we represent victims of injuries primarily that occur in auto accidents. But really, any kind of injury you’re in and we help folks navigate through the complex insurance requirements and if necessary, take their cases to court.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you choose this direction to go in?

Jason Schneider: Oh, sure. Yeah. So I graduated from Emory Law School and actually went to work for a law firm in downtown Atlanta that specialized in defending the insurance companies in these kind of claims, and did that for two different firms for about five years, and then decided I’d rather be representing the folks that were injured in, in accidents. So I switched sides and came to the light or whatever phrase people use. And since that time, I’ve been practicing personal injury law on behalf of injured folks.

Lee Kantor: So how do personal injury law firms like yours compete against these huge billboard attorneys that have huge call centers, and they seem to be just bombarding every, like, carpet bombing you with their brand?

Jason Schneider: Yeah, and that’s so true, Lee. And that is something, you know, we are a small business and that is something I think that’s probably universal to any small business is is competing with the big guys. So the answer is I really don’t try. I have to go in a completely different direction. I do it through networking. Here. Here’s an example right here talking to people through your show. So really networking through other attorneys and just, you know, we do some stuff on social media, but we do not try to compete in that landscape of the billboards and the TV because the big guys just suck that up and you know, they spend a lot of money and they’re very successful at that. But there’s there’s a large market, and there are also folks that don’t want to be represented by those behemoths. So there is a there is room in this market for smaller firms that specialize in customer care and customer satisfaction and doing a good job for people.

Lee Kantor: Now, I don’t think the regular person understands that just because their pictures on the billboard doesn’t mean that that’s the person that’s representing you. A lot of times those are just call centers and they’re just funneling them through a system, and who knows who could be representing you.

Jason Schneider: That is so true. And that is why a lot of times clients do come to us because they do recognize that. Or frankly, sometimes they hire one of those firms and quickly realize that they’re not talking with forget about talking with the lawyer on the billboard. They may not even be talking with a lawyer at all, just like you say, dealing with a call center. So when you get to talk with our firm, a smaller firm, you get that kind of personal attention. You know, people reach me directly or reach other attorneys in my office. And that is something that is very valuable to have someone with my level of experience actually representing you and talking to you, giving you advice. And that is something that, of course, the bigger firms just can’t because of the scale.

Lee Kantor: So let’s try to educate our listeners a little bit about what should they do if they get in a car accident? I mean, they’re happening probably every hour of every day here in Atlanta. So I’m in the car. Somebody hits me.

Jason Schneider: I did want to talk about some tips, things you can do to protect yourself and and increase the chances of getting a good recovery in the event you have the unfortunate situation of being in a car wreck. And the number one thing you can do actually is before you’re in a car wreck, something you can do today is look, pull out your declarations page or deck sheet, the page that says what coverage you have. There’s a there’s a myth that, excuse me, there’s a myth that people have what’s called full coverage and that really what full coverage does is protects the car, because oftentimes you have a note, and the note is issued by a bank or the car dealer. And what the note means is that your car is covered. So you have collision, you have comprehensive, you have coverage in the event your car is damaged. What you don’t necessarily have is what’s known as uninsured motorist coverage. Now that is an optional coverage that you can keep or reject. And what uninsured motorist coverage does is to protect you in two situations. One, most people understand, two, they may not. So the traditional uninsured motorist coverage is if you’re hit by somebody that has no coverage. And then of course, that will not only fix your car but pay you for your personal injuries. Uh, um, as it’s known in the industry, also covers underinsured situations, which is very common because the minimum coverage in Georgia is 25,000 per person. 50,000 per occurrence. 25,000 for property damage. And many people have cars worth more than that. Many people have injuries worth more than that. So if you have, um, coverage, underinsured motorist coverage and larger limits than the 25, 50, 25, then your own company will step in and provide additional coverage to you in the event you’re hit by someone that either has no insurance or does not have adequate insurance to protect you. So that’s something somebody everybody in your audience can do today is just check their coverage. It’s not a super expensive coverage. It’s really the most valuable coverage you can have.

Lee Kantor: Now you’re talking about the insurance company. And I would imagine that a lot of, um, people maybe are just trusting their insurance person to set them up with everything they need, but it sounds like that it might be a good idea to have somebody like you or on your team, kind of at least share the other side because you’re the one dealing with them. If something goes wrong.

Jason Schneider: Yeah, it’s. You know, and this again, is a universal message. It pays to be an informed consumer. Uh, unfortunately, I’ve had situations where clients have been with the same insurance agent for many, many years and thought they had really good coverage and then were in an accident. And it turns out they don’t. So yeah, take out your deck page, review it. I think if you called your insurance agent or adjuster, they would go through it with you and you’d, you’d, you’d see what exactly you had and didn’t have, because certainly, I mean, if you want to buy more coverage, the insurance company will sell it to you. It’s kind of surprising to me that they don’t always sell it because it would be a premium to them. But but I can’t really speak to why they do or do not. But yeah. Then of course you can reach out to a law firm such as mine or any other insurance professional, and get independent advice as to what kind of coverage you have, because surprisingly enough, many people are Underinsured either, because they don’t have the, um, coverage I just mentioned, or there’s other things that they may or may not have that they really need, such as sufficient liability coverage. I mentioned earlier that you only have to carry 25,000 per person, 50,000 per occurrence. That is not enough money. If unfortunately you cause or somebody driving your car with your permission causes an accident.

Lee Kantor: So, um, so the types of insurance we should have may not be what we have. And it’s a good idea to check either with your insurance provider and or an independent person to give you kind of a, you know, maybe a less biased version of the choices that are out there and the ramifications of what happens if you try to use it. I mean.

Jason Schneider: Because, I mean, in medicine, you would call that a second opinion, right? Right. Have a second opinion on your insurance coverage.

Lee Kantor: So then every time somebody gets hit, is that something they should call a lawyer as kind of the default position. Like how do you decide what’s lawyer worthy?

Jason Schneider: Right. Another great question. And you know, I hate to kind of say something that sounds like I’m just advertising or promoting myself, but I’ve just seen so many situations where people thought that either one, the insurance company, would take care of them, or that they didn’t really think they were injured, or that the other person had accepted fault. So they went about their way, and then later on, things fell apart for them. So unfortunately, the best advice is yes, seek. Seek well, seek medical attention right away and seek legal, legal representation or legal consultation right away because you just never know. I’ve had so many clients drive away from an accident, think they were fine, and it turns out they weren’t. They had some hidden injury or injury that developed over time, and that happens a lot. And then of course, you have a situation where somebody causes a wreck and says, I’m going to cover it. Here’s my information. Please don’t call the police. You go about your way and then it turns out the claim gets denied. So I you know, I hate to even say these things because you’d like to be able to trust people to and insurance companies to treat you fairly. But but the fact of the matter is, oftentimes that’s not what happens.

Lee Kantor: So walk me through if this is a friend of yours or your kid, they get rear ended. What what are the you know, the first maybe 3 to 5 things they should do immediately after that happens. And, um, including, you know, contact an attorney.

Jason Schneider: Yeah.

Jason Schneider: Well, it’s funny you should mention that, because when my son was in high school, he was he was in a wreck, and he did call me and he said, what should I do, dad? So, uh, yeah, I said, call the police. You don’t even know. It’s minor, you know, call the police. You want to have a record of what happened? And, uh, that is the number one thing to do, uh, and make sure that if there are any witnesses. Sometimes people stop and say, are you okay? But people are busy, right? They want to go along their way. I mean, if somebody does stop and ask you if you’re okay, say, hey, can I get your phone number? You know, put it in my phone. Do you have a card? Because as I said later on, oftentimes even obvious claims are being denied. So see if there’s any witnesses. Of course, now we all have cell phones so you can snap a few photos. You know, snap a few photos of the damage to your car, the damage to the other car. So those are the immediate things you do at the scene. And then, of course, just wait for the police and share your information. Uh, only answer the questions I asked. You know, there’s two sides to it we’re talking about if somebody rear ends you. But the other side of it is, God forbid, you’ve caused an accident, right? Or maybe you’re in a situation where it’s not all that clear. Who had the red light? You know, who had the green light? Um, you know, so if you’re in a situation where somebody is blaming you for the accident, well, you want to be very careful about what you say and how you word things. So the number one thing is to just, uh, stay at the scene, provide information and get all the necessary information you can.

Lee Kantor: And you want to document whatever you can document. And, and people like you said. I mean, I’ve had personally situations that I had a thing that happened to me where at the scene the person apologized, took responsibility. But later on they concocted a whole other story that was just, you know, made up to take the blame off of them.

Jason Schneider: Right. And had you called the police?

Jason Schneider: Yes. Okay.

Jason Schneider: Did it work out okay?

Jason Schneider: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: It all worked out at the end, but it it was just just because at the moment, you know, they’re apologetic. Doesn’t mean after, you know, their spouse starts talking to them and their friends that all of a sudden they’re like, what do you might be able to get away with this, you know?

Jason Schneider: Sure. Very unfortunate, but true human nature being what it is. Uh, so yeah, that’s why witnesses are great. And now, uh, you know, that often happens. There’s somebody seeing it. And of course, now also, we have a lot of cameras, you know, which helps a lot. There’s either cameras from the from the municipalities or the cities. And then of course, many businesses have cameras. So we’ve had a lot of success when there has been a contested claim. The most common one is not a rear ender, obviously. It’s like in the traffic light who has the right of way, because if a police officer comes to a scene and there’s been an accident in the middle of the intersection, somebody turned in front of in front of you, and that person says, I had the green light, and you say you were the green light, or he had a red light. Oftentimes the officer doesn’t know who’s at fault. So this is a little different from your situation. This is a situation where you know you’re in the right. But but the person that caused the accident is not admitting it. So what do you do in that situation? Uh, you know, a lot of times you can go around to the businesses right there and there’s surveillance footage. We’ve had several cases where that kind of nailed it down. And the old picture’s worth a thousand words. You know, there’s clear video of what happened. That is so common now. Uh, law enforcement’s going to do that on a crime. They’re not necessarily going to do that on a car accident. So now we’re back to if you contact an attorney early on, you know, that’s an investigation they can do. Usually businesses will keep that. But after, say seven days or ten days, it just automatically erases and they rerecord. But if you get, uh, legal help early on, you know, perhaps that information is available to you. And it can make the difference between whether your claim is successful or not.

Lee Kantor: And can you give people an idea of how many accidents are happening in the metro area?

Jason Schneider: I believe the.

Jason Schneider: Figures are 1000 a day.

Lee Kantor: A thousand a day.

Jason Schneider: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: That’s just mind blowing.

Jason Schneider: I know.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that as part of the way that you go to market is you network and partner with other folks. Can you talk about some of the are partners that you work with in the different types of industries that they’re in, that I guess you all kind of work together and help each other, help the client get the best outcome.

Jason Schneider: Sure. Well, the number one thing, and this also relates to the second thing to do if you’re in an accident and that is to seek medical attention, right? Even if you feel like you’re not hurt or you just saw, you certainly don’t have to go to an emergency room. I’m not recommending people go to an emergency room. Emergency rooms are already very busy with very sick people, and if you’re just sore and just not sure how you’re feeling, you know, perhaps you go home, you take some Advil, see how you feel the next day. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you wake up the next day and you’re still sore, then go, you know, maybe go to an urgent care, make an appointment to see your doctor. Uh, that’s important for a couple of reasons. First of all, uh, it provides an accurate history for the insurance company because I’ve had so many clients that just wait to see how they’re doing. They continue to take the Advil. They kind of try to tough it out. And then after about a week or ten days, they say to themselves, you know, I’m just not well, I just don’t feel right. And then they call their doctor and they go see their doctor. Perhaps they have to wait another week for an appointment. So now they’re maybe two weeks out from the accident when they have their first medical appointment. And guess what the insurance company says to that? Well, gee, you couldn’t have been that hurt because you would have sought immediate medical attention so that that actually diminishes your claim. Of course, the insurance company really has an answer for anything, because if you go to the emergency room the day of, they say, well, why don’t you wait a minute to see how you were doing? So they’re always going to have an answer for you.

Jason Schneider: But the best thing to do is to seek immediate medical attention. And the reason I mention that is because you’re asking me about sources of business. If we’re not advertisers or billboard lawyers and frankly, getting to know doctors and is something that’s been successful for us, uh, because medical offices, chiropractic offices, physical therapy offices often see their patients that have been injured and want to make sure that they’re properly represented for two reasons one, just to make sure they have the right representation. And two, oftentimes people are uninsured. You know, we were talking about auto insurance, but we really haven’t talked about health insurance yet. And unfortunately, I think it’s what close to 50% of Georgians do not have health insurance. So oftentimes it’s necessary for a person to get treated on what’s known as a lien, which means that they have a lien on your settlement and that the doctor gets paid when the case settles. Just like if the roof if a roofer fixed your roof, he’d have a lien on your house. And if you didn’t pay him, then of course, when the house sold, he’d get paid. So that’s what a health insurance lien is. Hospitals file that all the time. So any medical provider files a lien to get paid at the end of a case. So they’re very interested in making sure their patient has the right representation.

Lee Kantor: So is there anything happening in from a legislative standpoint that we should be aware of? Are there any new laws or bills coming up that, um, maybe affects this industry or your firm and your clients?

Jason Schneider: There is a huge thing going on right now in the legislature. If anybody is following the news or reading the AJC, it’s been a page one article. Governor Kemp has been pushing what’s known as tort reform. There’s a bill that’s now passed. The state Senate is in the state House that’s going to very much affect, uh, injury trials in the state of Georgia. And, you know, there are some things in there that probably are worth talking about, but there are some things in there that are just not really good for average Georgians. And unfortunately, it’s being touted as a way to make Georgia a better state for business and to reduce insurance rates. But really, the truth is that it’s not doing either of those things. It’s just taking away victims rights without really any guarantee or requirement that the insurance companies raise their, lower their rates, or even keep the rates the same. So, uh, it’s unfortunate, uh, you know, we can dive into some more of the details if you like. But in general, there is definitely a law in the legislature now that’s going to affect people’s rights when it comes to injury claims and injury trials.

Jason Schneider: And is there.

Lee Kantor: Anything the listeners can do to at least learn more about this and maybe take some action?

Jason Schneider: Uh, yes. If you are interested, obviously reach out to me. I’ll be glad to talk to anybody about it. There’s been a lot in the news about it. You can Google, uh, the law that’s in the legislature. If you if you know who your legislator is, if you’re interested, you know, they’re always interested in hearing from voters. Uh, so if it is something you’re interested, I would recommend, uh, that people do educate themselves on this law and reach out to their legislator to say that we want you to protect us, the people, not necessarily the insurance companies. You know, the insurance companies manage to always make huge profits no matter how many claims they pay. They can raise their rates and adjust their claims so as to always come out fine. But oftentimes people are the ones that are hurt by by laws that take away their rights to sue, or what jury trials look like, or the amounts of money they can recover in those cases. And of course, there are always those huge one off cases that everybody wants to talk about. Remember years ago there was the McDonald’s coffee cup case, uh, and everybody said, well, why should you sue for that? Of course, that case ultimately settled for much less than what the verdict was. And when there is sometimes a very crazy verdict that makes people shake their heads and say, how could that be? Oftentimes, if you follow the story, you’ll see that, uh, the verdict was overturned or significantly reduced and taking away people’s rights to a jury trial, taking away the decision. You know, people that serve on the jury are just regular people and taking away their right to assuming that they’re not going to do the right thing and really listen to the evidence is really an insult to them, to regular Georgians and to the jury system as a whole, which of course, is guaranteed by our Constitution.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? And how could we help? Are you looking for more relationships with those referrers, the chiropractors, the doctors? The physical therapists? Are you looking for more clients? Are you looking for people just to kind of reach out to you in case they are one of the 1000 people who had an accident today?

Jason Schneider: Yeah. Thank you for asking that, Lee. Sure. We’re we’re we’re very happy to represent people that have been hurt. And, you know, if you want kind of the more special attention, personal attention that you may not get from the billboard lawyers. And I didn’t mean to cast any aspersions on them. They’re great lawyers and they do great work, but it’s a very different experience. I guess it might be the difference between going to your to a Home Depot or your local hardware store, you know, and some people like the Home Depots and some would rather have, you know, the local hardware store. So if your interest is more in the personal attention and, you know, having a local lawyer represent you, then by all means you can reach out to us. And the same thing for, you know, physical therapists, chiropractors, doctors that may have a situation where they’re treating their patients and their patients may not have the adequate insurance, and they don’t want to turn that, uh, you know, what’s the first question you’re asked when you go to a doctor’s office? I think even before they ask, what’s wrong? They may be second to that is, you know, what’s your health insurance? Or do you have insurance? So so for people that don’t have insurance but need care, you know, that’s something that, uh, if a health care provider is working with a reputable law firm, they can rest assured they’ll be compensated. There will be paid at the end of the case. So, yeah, those are those are the kind of people we’re looking to talk to, either people that have the unfortunate situation of being hurt or providers that that want to make sure that their patients can get seen and get treated, and that of course, their bills get paid at the end of the case.

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

Jason Schneider: Sure. Thanks for asking. Our again, my name is Jason Schneider. The name of my firm is Schneider Williamson. Our website is Schneider Williamson. Com and our phone number and email is on the website. The general office number is (770) 394-0047. And my email is Jason at Schneider williamson.com.

Lee Kantor: And Schneider spelled c h e I’d e r Williamson. Com.

Jason Schneider: Correct.

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

Jason Schneider: Well thank you, Lee, and we love what you do. And thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

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

Uguanda Simpson With Picture That Atlanta (an affiliate of Picture That Houston)

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Born in Albany, GA, Uguanda W. Simpson embarked on her military journey by enlisting in the Active Army in June 1991. After completing Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC, and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Lee, VA, she was designated as a Petroleum Supply Specialist (MOS 77F). Following her training, Uguanda returned to her hometown to pursue higher education at Albany State University, where she also participated in the ROTC program.

Rejoining Active Duty in January 1996, her career progressed significantly. In 2009, she transitioned to the Warrant Officer ranks, specializing as an Information Systems Technician. Over her distinguished career, CW3 Simpson held pivotal roles in various command positions, including Chief of Network Operations at the Military Intelligence Readiness Command and Chief of Cyber Security Operations at the 1st Information Operations Command, both at Fort Belvoir, VA. She retired from military service in September 2019 at Fort Myer, VA.

Post-retirement, she embraced her entrepreneurial spirit as the co-owner of Picture That Houston, an events and entertainment business located in Fresno, TX. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Information Technology department at Albany Technical College, where she shares her expertise and passion for technology with her students.

She holds undergraduate dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Management Information Systems and Criminal Justice Administration, as well as a Master’s degree in Information Assurance from the University of Maryland University College. She has completed numerous military courses focused on leadership and technology.

Her commendable service has been recognized with several awards, including three Meritorious Service Medals and the National Defense Service Medal. She is actively involved in her community and is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and Top Ladies of Distinction.

Residing in Fresno, TX, with her husband, CW4 Ajamu Simpson, she is a devoted parent to three adult children and a proud grandmother of four. With a strong belief in the power of passion-driven work, she continues to innovate in her field while contributing to her community through exceptional event planning and services.

Follow Picture that Houston on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How she started her business
  • Her experience and background
  • Why did she decide to expand to the Atlanta, GA area
  • How and Why an event/meeting planner can benefit a host and guests
  • What services they offer, how people can find them, and where they see themselves going in the future

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Uganda Simpson with Picture that Atlanta welcome.

Uguanda Simpson: Thank you. I’m happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about picture That Atlanta. How are you serving folks?

Uguanda Simpson: Yes. So picture that Atlanta is an affiliate of picture that Houston. We are a Houston based company. But we expanded our services to the Atlanta area. I’m a an original Georgian. And um, by way of retirement, I am a Houstonian now. I’m a transplant to Houston, Texas. So we’ve expanded our services to the to the Atlanta area where we service the public sector to include the local government.

Lee Kantor: And what is it exactly you do?

Uguanda Simpson: Yes. So we are a premier event planning and entertainment company. We provide entertainment and event planning solutions. Our services range from everything from full service, a la carte day of coordination for the event planning side and for the entertainment side, we provide an array of services that includes photography, and it’s a special photography because it’s a facial recognition photography. Our clients love that. We also provide photobooth, DJ services, decor and party rentals and videography services. I’m sorry.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in the event planning business?

Uguanda Simpson: So my backstory is this back in 2013, we were planning a surprise. Well, not a surprise, but a sweet 16 masquerade party for our daughter. And my daughter actually wanted a photo booth for her party, and we could not find one within 270 miles of where we were located at the time. We’re a military family, and when I told my husband, he said he was going to see what he could do and when he went out searching, he comes back the next day and he says, I found one. And I’m like, where did you find it? He said, I bought it and I’m like, oh no, what are we going to do with that? Like, we have no clue what we’re doing with the photo booth. So that’s kind of how our business got started planning our daughter’s sweet 16 party. But I’ve been in the planning business for many, many years. When I was in the military, I was on the, uh, dining out committee, dining in committee, where we did protocol and event planning to put together events for the soldiers.

Lee Kantor: So you’ve kind of dabbled in it, and then it became your profession.

Uguanda Simpson: It did. So when I was in the military, I was in the cybersecurity world. And I although I enjoyed doing that, I knew when I started this with my daughter that, uh, it was something that I truly, truly wanted to do. And to be honest, my husband kind of planted the seed in my head. He was like, you know, when you retire, this will be something that you can do and you don’t have to worry about anything else because this is something you love. And I said, well, I love cybersecurity as well, but I truly, truly love bringing someone’s vision to life. So that’s what we did. After I retired, I started, I went full head on full speed to my event planning business.

Lee Kantor: So do you mind sharing some advice about how when you make a transition like that. Like what? So you kind of had a feel for how to, you know, build an event out based on a person’s desires. Um, but did you know how to kind of get clients and do kind of the business side of this, or was that something you were just figuring out as you went?

Uguanda Simpson: No. So prior to me retiring from the military, what I did was, um, I did a lot of self-learning. I, um, downloaded a lot of ebooks and went through those. And then I actually, uh, when I was going through my transition, I ran into a gentleman at the, uh, the post exchange, and he asked me about, you know, what I did in the military? And I said, you know, I mentioned to him what I did, and I said, well, I’m actually getting ready to retire. I’m preparing for retirement now. And he asked me what were my plans afterwards, and I told him about them. And then he said, well, you know, I went to, uh, Syracuse University and they have a program for veterans that, you know, are transitioning from the military. And when he explained it to me, it was very similar to the program that the military has for you when you’re preparing for transition. And, um, I learned more about it. Uh, reached out to Syracuse University and I enrolled in the Ivmf program, which is, uh, individual. I think it’s individual veterans, military families or something like that. And, um, I got enrolled and when I retired, I was out maybe about six months, and then Covid hit and I had to postpone my travel to attend the courses that they had. But once we got back on track, I went to the training, learned more about how to start and run a business, and after that I decided to go ahead and get certified in the business that I’m in because I felt that people would it would give me more credibility to the clients that I know what I’m doing and that they would trust me. And once I did the first event and saw it and, you know, others saw what I could do, it actually gained me more clients. And from there, you know, it was a.

Lee Kantor: It was kind of word of mouth from that point, like people were referring. Oh, that was a great party. You know, every I guess every guest at one of your events is kind of a prospect, right? Like you’re showing them what their next event could be like.

Uguanda Simpson: Absolutely. Um, so it’s primarily word of mouth, but we also like to get reviews from our clients. So we we do reviews and testimonials, and we post those out there on our website so that people can see what our work and what we’re doing. We also, you know, when people request information from us, we like to send along with our proposal photographs of events that we’ve done in the past to give them an idea and inspiration for their event and what we can do for them. And, you know, a lot of times when people are searching for, um, well, when they’re planning an event, I should say they don’t know where to start and they’ll start searching for all of these services. And what we did was decided to bring all of these services into one place. So not only do we do the event planning, but we actually have all of our own, um, supplies and decor and everything. So we don’t have to outsource those things. But we are very capable of managing vendors and coordinating with vendors, and we do that for the things that we do not provide, the services we don’t provide. We do, um, coordinate with other vendors to source those for events that we’re doing now.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a little bit about maybe there’s people out there listening that think, oh, I can do this. Like, you know, I planned my kids party, like, you know, this is just a few more people. I can do this. Can you explain why? Maybe they can’t or maybe some of the things that they’re not considering. And, you know, which is the benefit of hiring a professional who’s been there and done that.

Uguanda Simpson: Oh great question. Absolutely. And I can’t tell you how many times I work with someone and they will call me and give me their vision of what they want. I’ve actually even had clients that will put together presentations to send to me for what they want. And when I schedule my consultations with them, and I start going through the process of asking questions, and I find that a lot of people really don’t know what they want, even if they put together a presentation and they don’t think about the whole aspect of what goes into planning an event, they don’t think about the setup time. They don’t think about the breakdown time. They don’t think about what other services that they need to offer to their their guests at an event. Um, and I kind of, during our consultation process, you know, helped them to understand the, the planning process that goes with it is not just about, oh, I just need to find a venue. Um, and it allows them the opportunity to enjoy their event rather than, you know, having to go around and make sure every aspect and detail is in place and going smooth, running smoothly. So we make it an easy process for them. And, um, will we do the setup? We do the breakdown. I have an awesome team that I work with. Um, we go out, we can do the, uh, find the vendors, the venues we like. I said, we provide the entertainment, we provide the decorations, everything from, uh, envisioning it to conceptualization. And when we are done with this event, you know, once we complete the setup and my client sees this, they’re like, oh, my gosh, there’s no way I could have done all of this. And they’re very, very happy with the overall presentation afterwards when they, uh, see what it is that their vision is in culmination to what it is that we offer to them and bringing it to life for them.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share? Don’t name the the name of the people or the organization, but maybe share that how they came to you with an idea and you were able to kind of, uh, make it bigger and better than they even imagined at first.

Uguanda Simpson: Yeah. So, um, I’ll bring I’ll give you two stories. So one was back in 2023. There was a company. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with them. Uh, niece, which is the National Council of Engineers and Surveyors. Um, they came to us. They were from South Carolina or either North Carolina, I don’t remember. They came through us, uh, by way of the Houston Hospitality Group. Um, they were referred to us. And when they were referred to us, they were referred only to get entertainment from us. However, once I consulted with the client on the, uh, from the niece organization and found out that they actually needed other services and they were not from this area, and they asked, I actually told them what services we offer and how we could help them. You know, especially if you’re coming from out of state. And once we did that, we got on a we scheduled a consultation. I put together a nice presentation for them, and I got their vision of what they wanted, and I showed them what we could do. Just, you know, through the presentation and some of our past events. And they they agreed to it. And from there it was it was a, it was a huge thing because they had, um, people coming from all around the country to Houston, Texas, and which is where the event was based. Um, they they had people come from all around the country and they wanted a they didn’t really know what they want. They wanted, um, a Texas theme. And, you know, I said, wow, okay, a Texas theme. That could be anything. But I was like, you know, Texas is we’re cowboy country, you know, and we take a lot of pride here in Houston.

Uguanda Simpson: So I said, well, you know what? What about a rodeo theme? You know, something that, you know, it culminates the colors of the spirit of Texas and the our state flag. And then we bring like, a country feel to it. And when they saw the room turn out, they were amazed at the transformation. They really loved it. Everyone. Even the guests. And another one was our last, um, our last big event that we put together, which was for the Houston Regional Veterans Chamber of Commerce. We did their business awards. This was the first inaugural business awards, and I’ve been on the planning committee with the Houston Veterans Chamber, um, for almost three years now. And I have planned a different event for them, which was our expo back in 2023. But last year when we did the the Veterans Business Awards in November. They we it was about five months of planning and I gave them just like I did with anyone else during the consultation. You know, my vision of what I thought it could be, you know, once they gave me what they wanted to see and I incorporated what they wanted and some other things, and once they saw the transformation, it was amazing. And there were people there that really, really loved a lot of business professionals that really loved the room transformation. And they wanted to work with me. So I gained clients from that. And that’s a lot of what it is outside of just people coming to my website. They’ll come to an event, they’ll ask, who did this? Like, we want to work with this person and it’s been wonderful.

Lee Kantor: So, um, who again is that ideal customer for you. You mentioned some government associations. Government and associations. Is there kind of a profile or is it like an event too small for you? It sounds like there’s no event too big for you, but is there a sweet spot for your business?

Uguanda Simpson: So absolutely, there’s no business, no event that’s too big or too small. We service social events. We service the corporate events, uh, government events. We also did federal events. So we our ideal client is to work with corporate America. However, we also work with social events as well. We’ve done weddings. We’ve done parties. So we don’t turn away clients. Um, we try to get what it is that they need, and not every client that comes to us are looking for event planning. A lot of clients will come to us just looking for entertainment services, and we provide those services that they they offer. And, you know, a lot of times when they come with what it is that they want, we will offer other things that we help. We think that will help enhance the event even more and keep their guests entertained throughout the event.

Lee Kantor: So you mentioned a couple of things that I’d like you to just give a little more detail on. One is when you’re saying entertainment services. Like what? What does that mean? Like a band or a musician or something along those lines?

Uguanda Simpson: Yes. We’ve had clients that have come to us that have wanted live bands. As a matter of fact, last March we did a corporate event. It was a 75th anniversary for a oil company, I believe, and, um, they wanted a live band and we were able to source that. Now we ourselves do not have a live band, but through our coordination piece, that’s where the coordination piece comes in. We have bands that we actually work with and that we can reach out to based on the type of music they may want to hear. We have different bands that we work with, and we’ve had clients that may only want event photography services. So an example of that. Last year we had an event for a sorority that had a week long event and they only wanted, well, they wanted photography services for the to cover the entire event and they wanted also photobooth services. So we were a photobooth and decorations. I forgot to mention that we also were able to provide three provide three different types of services to them, and they were highly pleased on that. We covered a week long event that started with a golf tournament, um, a proclamation from the mayor. And then we we went to various places around Houston as well as Galveston, and we did. We covered their entire event. So we also offer a DJ services. I’ve had people who or clients that will come to me and want. D.j. and um, and photobooth services. We’ve offered video videography services. That last event that I was mentioning, that was a week long. We offered photography and videography services for coverage for that event.

Lee Kantor: Now, you also mentioned early on some unique way of doing photography that people really like.

Uguanda Simpson: Oh yes, I love that question. So we offer what we call Spotme th, which is Spotme. Uh, picture that Houston. But it is a special face facial recognition software. It’s very innovative. Um, what it does is it maps the features in your face. So when we go out and take a picture or we’re doing photography services for an event, um, we’ll have some clients that, uh, will want their photos immediately. You know, if a lot of times when a person hires a photographer, they have to wait for a while for them to get the photos, because as a photographer, I’ve explained to clients, it’s not about just point and click. We want to make sure that we deliver the best, absolute, best product that we can to them and that they’re very satisfied with what we do. So with the facial recognition after it does the mapping, we actually can send those photos directly to that person by having them enter their phone number. We have a our software that connects with our phone. And we actually just have them enter their phone number in, and it’s almost like working with the roaming photo booth. They actually get those photos right then and there.

Lee Kantor: Wow. That’s a great service.

Uguanda Simpson: Yeah. And we can turn that feature on and off because we’ve also had clients who just specifically wanted event photography, but they didn’t want the they didn’t want the guests to have immediate access to the photos, so we turned that feature off for those those type of clients.

Lee Kantor: Right. And then they if they want to share the photos, they then can hand them out to their guests.

Uguanda Simpson: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Right.

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

Uguanda Simpson: Yes, our website is w WW dot picture that houston.com. And they can connect with us on all social media platforms. Under picture that Houston we are on Facebook Instagram TikTok I x and we’re on LinkedIn and YouTube as well. They can also reach out to us at our telephone number (281) 819-0274. And we’re also getting ready to implement A18 hundred number for our Atlanta clients. And um.

Uguanda Simpson: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: So picture that Dot com. That’s where you started in Houston. But you’re you have is it active right now where you have boots on the ground here in Atlanta?

Uguanda Simpson: Yes. It is active right now. We actually have done any uh, we’ve done two events in the Atlanta area, and we are still actively, uh, soliciting clients. We’re working with the local government on on event services for them. So we are very much active. All of our sites are social media. They can go there. They can see reviews, testimonials, they can see work we’ve done in the past and they can see some of our upcoming events.

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

Uguanda Simpson: Thank you so much for having me.

Uguanda Simpson: All right.

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

Scott Kelly With Bank of America

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Based in Atlanta, Scott Kelly serves as Bank of America‘s Georgia Market Executive leading the Bank’s Business Banking Team in this market.  His team is focused on delivering customized, comprehensive financial solutions for companies with annual revenues up to $50 million.

Scott has led this team for the past 14 years and has driven top performance in numerous production and leadership roles throughout the Commercial Bank during his 27-year career with Bank of America. Originally from North Carolina, Scott has managed teams on both the east and west coasts for the Bank.

Scott is an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and is a former Scoutmaster of Troop 69 in Alpharetta, Georgia. He completed BSA National Woodbadge Leadership Training in 2017 and is a member of the Golden Eagle Society of Scouting. Scott is also a graduate of the Forsyth County Sherriff’s Department “Citizens Law Enforcement Academy” (CLEA), served as a 4-year board member for Habitat for Humanity of Southern Nevada, was a multi-year Club President for Civitan International, and served for 3 years as Board Treasurer for Denmark High School Football. He is a member of First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Georgia where he and his family reside and are active throughout the local community. Scott enjoys tennis, travel, and water sports in his free time.

Scott earned a double major in Banking & Finance from Appalachian State University in 1998 and was a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the College of Business Honors Program. He was a 2005 Appalachian Young Alumnus Award Winner and continues to serve in various capacities with the Alumni Council and Appalachian Athletics.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Why is it important for Atlanta small business owners to evaluate the state of their business each year
  • What should business leaders consider when conducting an analysis for their company
  • How might inflation affect a business, and what steps can be taken to adjust to economic changes in the year ahead
  • How does technology play a role in optimizing operations for small businesses
  • What are the various capital sourcing options available to entrepreneurs, and how can they determine the best fit for their business

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 sponsors CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on Atlanta Business Radio. We have Scott Kelly, who’s the Senior Vice President, Market Executive with Georgia Business Banking section of Bank of America. Welcome, Scott.

Kelly Scott: Thanks so much. Good to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to get caught up with what’s happening at Bank of America. I think we’re going to talk about why it’s important for entrepreneurs and business owners to kind of do a state of the business every year. And since we’re in the first quarter, now’s as good a time as any to have this kind of conversation.

Kelly Scott: Well, we couldn’t agree more. And again, thanks so much for having me today. I’ve been with Bank of America for 27 years, entirely on the business and commercial side of the bank. So your topic today is a very important one, and one that I know. Well, you know, there’s 33 million small and midsize businesses in the United States, and that makes up 99% of all the firms in the U.S.. So if you take out large corporate and fortune 500 companies, the small and midsize businesses are really the backbone of the economy. And so they account for roughly half of the GDP, half the private sector employment. They drive 70% of new job creation. And so, to your point, I think every year it’s so important to kind of take that step back and really evaluate and review the state of their business.

Lee Kantor: So put yourself in the shoes of that entrepreneur or that business leader. What are kind of what’s what should be on that checklist to get done at the beginning of the year?

Kelly Scott: It’s such a great question. And it’s so important because strategies have to be adjusted. If you look at the election cycle we just came through and all of the volatility and the headwinds our business owners have had to face, they have to be flexible and adaptive and recognize that, you know, this landscape is constantly evolving. So in the start of the new year, you know, we always recommend businesses and owners do a Swot analysis to really analyze their strengths, their weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And it really it helps you look for improvement, but also maybe where there’s challenges. And while the bank expects this to be a really good overall economic year, we do recognize there will still be some volatility. So doing this review and you know looking at productivity. And you know, what’s anticipated in the year ahead is so important because some of the things we’re looking at are inflation and the jobs market. And we’ll continue to see I think equities and rates have some volatility as that longer term yield curve does start to normalize. And while we think we’re kind of still in that mid cycle bull market, really taking that deep look each year at your business and evaluating, you know, what you want to change or accomplish in the year ahead is super critical.

Lee Kantor: Now should these business leaders be doing this exercise by themselves or in concert with their trusted advisors, like their banker or their CPA or their attorney, like the other people that are kind of working with them, their insurance guy, like, where does the banker come into play in this?

Kelly Scott: Well, we always want to be a part of that equation. And so I think the best advice is for them to consult their advisor. And hopefully that’s their banker, at least one of the seats at the table in terms of, you know, seeking that advice and being a part of, you know, those proactive solutions to make sure they are truly positioned and, you know, understanding the headwinds as well as the opportunities in that new year.

Lee Kantor: Now, a lot of people, obviously all business owners have a bank of some sort. And their relationship with the banker, though may not all be the same. Is should an entrepreneur or a business leader really invest time in getting to know the banker, having the banker know them personally, where they, you know, look each other in the eye, periodically shake each other’s hands or on zoom or however they do this and really kind of have the banker involved at this level and have a conversation and talk about, hey, this is my challenge that does the banker want to hear from them?

Kelly Scott: Absolutely. Not only do we want to hear from them, but we want to be proactively contacting them. And it looks a little bit different and unique with each business. It’s not a one shoe fits all. And what one business might need that, say, has a traditional storefront versus another that may be more internationally focused and or online. That contact with that relationship manager or advisor may look completely different, but that’s one of the great things about Bank of America is we really, you know, we listen to the needs of each customer and create customized solution based on what those are. And if you think about it, I mean, there’s a lot of things out there these business owners are dealing with. I mentioned the election cycle earlier, but think about inflation and supply chain. You know that those weren’t just Covid problems and done. We’re still seeing lingering effects of that. We’ve got the new administration, as I mentioned, driving regulatory and policy changes. We have, you know, uncertainty around tariffs and trade. There’s still pressure on energy and commodity prices and look at everything going on geopolitically. And so I would just say relationships are more important than ever. Having that trusted or key advisor and really doing that Swot analysis and that deep review of the business strategy at the beginning of the year is probably more important than it’s ever been.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that 99% of businesses are small businesses, and they’re not the fortune 500 or these kind of unicorn companies. Is there services for that? Mom and pop, the person who has kind of the the store on the square. Is is there a place in Bank of America to have kind of a human interaction with a banker to get help, or is that something only for that, the 1% that are the, you know, the big mega companies, the enterprise level organizations?

Kelly Scott: No, that’s that’s such an important distinction. Bank of America has a a platform for any size business. And recognizing that stat that I shared earlier that, you know, 99% of the businesses fall into those small to midsize. We’ve invested so much in, you know, technology, um, people, resources, skills, you know, digital and mobile, all of these things to support a business essentially from a start up phase to, you know, establish and sophisticated businesses to where they might need M&A services or taking a company public or, you know, these more complex needs that you see in up market companies. But not only do we serve all of those companies across the spectrum, we have dedicated professionals within each segment. We have eight lines of business that we serve at Bank of America. And each of those niches is an area that we may start in our retail center and then move up into small and, you know, business banking and then eventually evolve into, you know, some of our corporate and some of those larger companies you mentioned. But we have services to support all of those businesses.

Lee Kantor: Now, how are you seeing AI kind of impact your business as well as kind of your clients businesses? It’s what everybody’s talking about nowadays.

Kelly Scott: Well, technology is almost the part of every conversation and it’s truly impossible to avoid. And, you know, today’s business era. So we just say businesses have to continue to evolve. They need the tools and resources that come with technology and AI, and that’s why Bank of America is so heavily invested in mobile and digital. And we want to help our clients do business wherever they operate on the move worldwide. But we also recognized with technology comes other risks. And our our largest responsibility is information protection. So we have to help our clients with technology and AI. We have to give them mobile and digital access. But we’ve got to do it safely and securely. And there’s a lot of really, you know, good bad guys out there that are very complex and good at what they do. So we have to, you know, constantly evolve and build out increased protection for our clients. But 71% of small business owners say they have digitally optimized their business over the last year. I mean, that’s a huge number. And while technology can help with a variety of challenges, you know, it does, as I mentioned, present some risks. So you have to kind of manage both both sides of the platform, but AI and automation can assist with things like screening, you know. Interviews, you know, new candidates that businesses are looking to hire. It can help with project management, team collaboration, workflow and managing customers. So we give a lot of, uh, help with that through digital and mobile devices. And, you know, many of our clients now do business, as I mentioned, internationally, we we do business in over 200 countries now and support over 150 currencies. And we couldn’t do that without the part of technology.

Lee Kantor: Now, when, uh, a business leader is having a conversation with somebody on your team, is this conversation primarily about capital sourcing? Is it about finance, or can it kind of expand into just kind of general business advice?

Kelly Scott: Yeah, it may start with, you know, typically there’s one topic or one catalyst that that kind of leads into initial conversations. And at Bank of America, we deliver as a team. So you might have that banker at the forefront, but they’re surrounded by experts across the bank, from Treasury solutions to, you know, cash management to lending needs. So capital and Treasury are two areas we focus heavily on. But to your point, it might evolve into broader advice or broader discussions around, you know, how do I find and recruit the best talent. How do I, you know, grow in an increasingly international business marketplace? So we do have a variety of services, but we don’t do that with, you know, with only one person or one team mate. They may be the initial quarterback, but having that team of experts around that quarterback to deliver for the client holistically and create those customized solutions I mentioned earlier, I think is one area that really differentiates us.

Lee Kantor: So you’re looking to kind of be that, um, partner in there helping the leader with whatever the challenge might be and it might obviously you’re going to a banker Anchor for either you’re giving them money to hang on to, or they’re helping you get more money into your account in some transactional manner, but you’re available for anything. Like you mentioned. It could be talent. So talent isn’t part of Bank of America’s services, right? If you’re not helping them recruit or anything, but you have enough experts there that can give them some recommendations.

Kelly Scott: Absolutely. And, you know, talent is an area that we focus on tremendously because people are your greatest assets. You can have the best brand, the best technology, and some of the things that we’ve talked about. But without your people, it’s very difficult to drive a relationship focused business. So it starts with attracting the best talent, but then you’ve got to retain that talent that you’re so heavily invested in. And a lot of businesses think that it’s mostly or all about compensation. It matters. You’ve got to start by being competitive, but once you retain that talent or recruit it to retain it, you have to be more, um, differentiated. And so business owners now are doing things like bringing educational resources for employees directly on site for things like career growth or even personal and professional seminars. We see things like family planning, uh, financial wellness, first time home buying. You know, many of our young employees have never bought a home for the first time. Or maybe our employees that have been in the workforce longer are looking for that bridge to retirement and need some advice. So we come in and help companies with things like talent, recruiting and retaining the best, um, you know, employees without, uh, only focusing on banking services. So it’s a really good question.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about when it comes to, um, sourcing capital? A lot of firms struggle in this area. They don’t maybe have enough collateral or they, um, maybe don’t have enough revenue right now. Is there kind of more creative ways to source capital nowadays? Um, or is this something that you and your team can help them with in terms of getting access to capital and maybe areas that were more difficult in the past?

Kelly Scott: Absolutely. And, you know, so capital is one of the things I think businesses most commonly think of banks for. I need a loan or I’m growing my business. How can the bank support me? So sourcing capital is clearly one of the areas of expertise that we have. And that refers mostly to traditional capital. You know what we typically think of as a core bank lending. And that’s working capital lines of credit. Maybe they’re buying a commercial property for their business and they need a real estate term loan. They’re buying some new equipment and they need to to, uh, you know, stock the warehouse or the medical facility with that new equipment. And we finance acquisitions and we offer SBA loans. So there’s a lot of traditional sources. But I think to your question, in today’s business marketplace, um, entrepreneurs have to think more broadly because many times there’s a specific need that is is maybe it’s an emerging company that’s just too new for traditional debt, or maybe it’s too large of a loan and they need, you know, multiple layers of capital. And so there’s other sources, you know, that that are available to clients such as, um, you know, government and foundation grants, equity partners, uh, venture capital, angel loans and other alternative lenders and even asset specific lenders. So the state of Georgia has roughly 200 bank charters. It’s one of the highest in the country. So it’s a very competitive marketplace for loans and access to capital. And that’s really good for clients because each bank kind of defines their client selectivity model differently. So that competition and accessibility is good for our clients. And we want to, you know, compete in that marketplace. But then it’s great to know that through these additional resources, clients have access to other sources of capital, as you’ve asked.

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

Kelly Scott: Well, I think it starts with an introduction. We, you know, we want to work with every business and consumer client that we have, and we do that through the power of every connection. We do it one client at a time. As I mentioned, it’s a relationship business. We want to bring the best resources, expertise, data to our clients and then help them as they’re growing, whatever their goals are. And again, recognizing that there’s a lot of changing, uh, you know, environment in today’s business world, but that we through customized solutions, can support our clients. So it starts with that first conversation or that first, um, you know, contact and your audience can go to Bank of america.com. They can drill down to we’ve got links for small business and business banking. They can explore a variety of resources to just help them move their bank, their business forward and see what the bank can help them with. We also have a website. It’s access to capital. Directory.com that’s access to capital directory.com. And there they can explore some additional sources of funding that I mentioned earlier. So those are just a couple of areas. But really an introduction and an initial conversation will get us started.

Lee Kantor: Should they just walk into a bank.

Kelly Scott: Well there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. But we have great access through our consumer financial center channel, and they are equipped to handle any ask that comes in and get them in touch with the right resources across the bank. But as we talk about that great technology earlier, right from a smartphone device or their laptop going to Bank of America. Com or reaching out to Merrill Lynch or any of our other lines of business, we work together to to get our customers connected with the right areas of our bank.

Lee Kantor: So it’s better to connect that way rather than a bank, because that local banker may not be the right resource for you.

Kelly Scott: Well, I think every way, you know, regardless of how that connection starts, our teammates are trained to help, you know, do that initial screening to make sure we ask the right questions, to get them in touch with the area of the bank that can best help them. Again, a mortgage need is going to be something very different than, hey, I’m looking to, you know, sell my business. So we’re going to really triage that and help get them regardless of how they come into the bank. We want to work with them to find the best partner and the capabilities to align with their need.

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

Kelly Scott: Well, we truly appreciate the opportunity to speak to your audience. You have a great show, by the way, and it’s just truly been a pleasure. Hope to talk to you again soon.

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

Will Christensen With Entrepreneur’s Apprentice

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Will Christensen, founder of Entrepreneurs Apprentice and co-founder of DataAutomation, is known for his “Automate, Delegate, Eliminate” framework and unique 15-1-1-5 rule, which identifies key tasks to automate or delegate.

He’s a Zapier Certified Expert with deep expertise in workflow optimization.

Connect with Will on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Unlocking Growth for Visionary Entrepreneurs Outcome: Take business to the next level by optimizing processes
  • Scaling as a Solopreneur Outcome: Gain time and leverage without losing control
  • Future-Proofing Your Business with Automation

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 Will Christensen, and he is the co-founder of Data Automation and founder of Entrepreneur’s Apprentice. Welcome.

Will Christensen: Hey, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Uh, tell us about your work. How are you serving folks?

Will Christensen: So there’s two places, but the main thing is I teach people my framework called automate, delegate, eliminate. And I am helping them scale and, uh, run their businesses more efficiently. Connect different dots on one of the original gangsters. From the standpoint of automation, I’ve been doing automation since before it was a buzzword I actually applied to be like the seventh member of Zapier. If you’ve heard of that mainstream company, and they ended up turning me down, and I ended up becoming a key partner of theirs in the early days of their growth around helping companies get on their platform. So got a lot of experience automating, delegating, and eliminating.

Lee Kantor: So what is your backstory? How did do you have that? Just from scar tissue of trying a bunch of stuff, or did you learn from somebody else?

Will Christensen: Great question. So I’ve always been inherently my wife would probably say lazy. I call it efficient. And as I kind of dug into this idea of being efficient and considering all of those different pieces, I just got off on this idea of of making things easier. And so I’ve always looking for the the next way to, you know, let’s make this a little easier next time. Let’s make this a little easier next time. And I graduated from college. It’s about let’s see 2025 Almost 20 years ago. Graduated. I graduated 20 years ago from high school, but college in 2010. And when I when I graduated from college, I went and took my first job and I was the low man on the totem pole. And I did 18 hours of copying and pasting every single week. So like half of my job was copying and pasting to make these big old reports that we would send off to our clients. And, and I was like, this is really dumb, why are we doing this? And they were like, this is the lifeblood of our business. Our clients keep us hired based on how well we do our reports. And so I was like totally bogged down with that.

Will Christensen: And I thought, you know what? I don’t really like this. I don’t know if I like this job. And it was all in Excel, and I was in my boss’s office and I was showing him some of the manual process that I had done, and he showed me a Vlookup and a light bulb went on for me. I was like, Holy crap, if Excel can do that, what else can it do? So I taught myself to code. I became an Excel wizard of sorts and automated all sorts of stuff in that job. Took my 18 hour process down to two hours and fell in love with this idea of making things more efficient. So fast forward several years. I started an automation company before it was cool to have a digital operations company, and we have helped in the e-commerce space and the law space and all over the place, um, connecting different dots. So it’s been quite the journey, and now I’m focused a lot on the delegation side. And, you know, like I mentioned before, the 15 115 rule, all of those different things. I’m digging in and teaching people automate, delegate, eliminate.

Lee Kantor: So the lesson is to if you want something done, hire the laziest person on the team.

Will Christensen: Uh, yeah, you nailed it. So if you hire the laziest person on the team.

Lee Kantor: They’ll figure out the best way to get something done.

Will Christensen: You know, it’s interesting that you say it that way because they have to be to be lazy but driven, which I think is a unique combination. Like I am driven to get things done more efficiently, which might be considered lazy, but like in a healthy way I guess. Yeah, that’s an interesting observation.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, so you, you get the bug to say, okay, I’m going to figure out how to leverage technology to get things done more quickly, easier for however you want to describe it. How did that kind of turn into okay, now I’m going to teach other people this number one and number two, who are the kind of low hanging fruit for this, because not everybody really wants that. Some people take pride in taking a long time to do work and and grinding.

Will Christensen: I think the interesting thing that I’ve discovered is those who insist on doing it manually have not yet tasted the fruit of having some of those things automated, or they’ve automated in such a way that it actually damaged the product. Very common for people to to get overwhelmed or overlook at different pieces of what’s there. Um, I’ve seen some amazing things, um, happen when people open their minds to kind of considering that. So the person who I think is most adaptable and ready to consume that information is the ones that are the ones that are trying it out for themselves. Um, and, and testing things and signing up for new products and considering how things can, can work. The tinkerer, so to speak. Um, and I think the, the way that you help the individual who is more conservative and less interested in trying that new stuff is by showing them the time output opportunities, um, for what’s there, because there are lots of wasted human hours out there today in the world that shouldn’t be Shouldn’t be done by a human.

Lee Kantor: Now, who is your ideal client? Is it that kind of solopreneur that kind of has a taste of this, but kind of is overwhelmed by all the possibilities? And would you know, sometimes you need help, but sometimes you need a helper, you know?

Will Christensen: Yep. So so my experience is the individuals who I can help the most are the overwhelmed entrepreneurs who are having a tough time keeping up with sales and fulfillment. So they, you know, they’ve gone out and sold a whole bunch of stuff, and now they’ve got to go fulfill that, and then they’ve got to run back and get the sales pipeline going. And they’re kind of going back and forth between those two. Those are the individuals that I can have the greatest impact on. Um, because I’m able to, um, help them see where they’re challenged and create a pathway for growth. Using automate, delegate, eliminate. Um, and we do that with an entrepreneurial cloning chamber, actually.

Lee Kantor: And what does that mean?

Will Christensen: So the entrepreneurial cloning chamber is, uh, a program that I’ve created. It’s community meets staffing meets coaching meets apprentice. So I call it Entrepreneurs Apprentice. And basically, we clone an entrepreneur, um, first physically. So we, we help them find a young entrepreneur who has the aptitude to lean into risk, to pay attention to detail, to care about this company as much as they do. And it’s the perfect, um, first step towards letting go of the business, because I found that if you just let go and hand it to someone like a VA, oftentimes that VA is not as invested as you. They’re just there to do the 9 to 5 thing and be done. And so it can be quite difficult to get some of those different things to play out the way you want them to. Whereas in apprentice, with our With our guidance, we we guarantee the relationship success.

Lee Kantor: So how was that person, um, compensated? Is it they are going to be the successor or they are just paid an hourly wage?

Will Christensen: Great question. So, um, they actually get a stipend from Entrepreneur’s Apprentice. They’re at 1099. And that’s on purpose because we’re helping them take on their first client as an entrepreneur, essentially. So they invoice us and then we invoice the, um, entrepreneurs on a monthly basis and support them both in the relationship. Um, and so that’s kind of how the, the model comes together. Um, I tell people it is a great idea to show that entrepreneur that you’re willing to put a piece of the business out there for them to, um, consume and or become an owner of, um, if they’re willing to, to push in that way. I knew we were on to something when, um, one apprentice, about six months into her apprenticeship, turned to her mentor and they had been doing payroll together, and the mentor had had been taking pay cuts for the past couple of months because the business was struggling. And she turned to him and said, I think it’s my turn to take a pay cut. And I about lost my crap when I heard this story because I was like, wait a second. She cared enough about his business that she was willing to let go of her ego and even some of her money. She was like, you told me that I should treat this like it’s my own business. And if it’s if you’ve been taking a pay cut for the past six times, I think it’s my turn to take a pay cut. And so it’s just fascinating to see her level of commitment and drive to, to grow and help that entrepreneur.

Lee Kantor: So what is your kind of day to day look like? Um, it sounds like you have a bunch of different tools at your at your disposal and a bunch of different initiatives that you have. Kind of leveraging some of those tools. So what is kind of a day in the life of will look like?

Will Christensen: Well, right now it’s a lot of discussions like this one. I’m I’m guest podcasting. I think I’m I think you’re my third podcast today. Um, so today’s an abnormal day. I don’t usually have three podcasts in a day, but I do record, um, for my own podcast. I record 3 or 4 episodes. It’s called automation Hunter. Um, and I also record two episodes for another podcast that we started a year and a half ago called, um, Monetizing Your Mental Capital. And that’s more around e-commerce and helping, um, e-commerce sellers, uh, with that side of scaling the business. And so I spend a fair amount of time on calls like this, podcasting. Um, and then I also meet with individuals who are my ICP ideal customer profile, as well as systematic referrers of those individuals. So anyone who’s, um, getting in contact with overwhelmed entrepreneurs on the regular. I meet with them as well. Um, and tell them about the business and, um, you know, get lots of referrals that way and connect those different dots. And then outside of that, I’m supporting the mentors and the apprentices as they work together.

Lee Kantor: Now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the EOS model where there’s visionaries, and I think it’s called integrators. Um, it sounds like you have a you’re kind of a flavor or a, a taste of that is inside of your methodology. Uh, can you explain, for those who aren’t familiar, kind of the different roles of the entrepreneur and the kind of the person that would be delegated to.

Will Christensen: Yeah, absolutely. So so there’s two different books I’ll pull from here. So one is rocket fuel, and that’s the EOS system. And you have visionaries and integrators. Visionaries are those individuals who have big ideas. They’re about selling things. They’re they’re kind of that future thinker. Often the visionary is the visionary is the one who starts the business. Not always, but often. That’s the individual who starts the business and they’re trying to figure out how to scale it. But in order to achieve any sort of scale or make any money, they actually have to do it well. The doing it part doesn’t light them up. It actually really frustrates them. And so they need to find somebody who’s an integrator who can kind of fill that other side. So Michael Gerber, in his book, he talks about three different individuals the technician, the entrepreneur and the manager. And the technician handles the now, the manager handles the past and the entrepreneur handles the future. And so it’s similar to the visionary in the integrator. And the integrator handles the now and the past and the visionary handles the future. So so whether you’re whichever side you’re you’re more familiar with these apprentices that we find in any individual for that matter, even if you don’t hire an apprentice, they need to be a get or done kind of person. And so I love asking people that question like, are you more of a get or done person or an idea person? Which is a really tricky question because everybody wants to be both, right? Everybody wants to be both. But I found that the ones that are most honest and will open up and say, you know what, I ideas are not my strongest suit. I like them, they’re fun, but I just I don’t have this like unending flow of ideas coming from me. I’m more of like a let’s get this crap done kind of person. And I found that the person who answers in that way is going to make a decent integrator. Um, and there’s several other things you should test for, but that’s a decent beginning indicator that you found the right sort of integrator.

Lee Kantor: And then you are kind of a matchmaker in finding the right visionary for the right integrator, and vice versa.

Will Christensen: Correct. So individuals who come to me and they’re looking to try to figure out, you know, where to go about that process and what to look at look at that they are. Um, often they’ve hired a VA and it didn’t work out. Or they haven’t hired a VA yet, but they’re pretty confident they’d mess it up. Those individuals, um, or even they’re just looking to to to see whether or not a VA is the right pathway. Those individuals come to me and I give them a Colby test. Colby. Um, and, uh, that Colby test tells me a lot about the things that light them up, the things that give them energy. Um, so it’s it’s different from a true personality test. It’s more of a modus operandi test. So the way that they function in the world. Um, after we give them that, we then matchmake them with somebody who is their opposite.

Lee Kantor: Now, earlier you mentioned a 15 115 rule. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that?

Will Christensen: Yeah, absolutely. So uh, 15 115 is a methodology that I came up with. And I just added something to it today. So I’m excited to this will be the first place that I’m, I’m debuting another piece to the 15 115 role that I think is going to be pretty powerful. So, um, what you’re what you would do is you get out a sticky note and you put that sticky note on your desk, and you and you write 15 115 at the top. And the 15 115 is to remind you to write down anything that is taking you more than 15 minutes a day, more than an hour a week, or more than an hour a month. So you’re writing down 15 one one, right? So 15 minutes, one hour, one hour. Then the last five is do it five times manually. So 15 115. Um, after you’ve written it down, you’re then going to start doing tally marks. So let’s say it was like invoicing and you’re like, well, I do invoicing once a week and it takes me about an hour. So each week you would write down those tally marks when you got to the fifth tally mark. So if you’re if you’re doing tally marks, you get one, two, three, four, the diagonal tally mark.

Will Christensen: You need to do it without a keyboard. So you go find, uh, there’s there’s several different voice, uh, apps that you can use where you can talk to your computer instead of typing. Um, and it’s kind of an annoying thing to do, but take and this is the part that’s new. This keyboard keyboard trick is new. Take the keyboard out. Um, like like set it to the side and only use your mouse and only use, um, beyond the mouse. Uh, this voice typing technology and anything that can be done without touching the, um, keyboard means that it went straight from your brain into the computer. That’s going to be a harder thing to automate. That’s probably a more delegate task. If you’re touching the keyboard, there’s probably an opportunity, because then you’re taking it from an app inside the computer to another app inside another computer. You know, you’re copying and pasting. You’re you’re digging into some of those different pieces. So. So I guess if you’re not using the keyboard, no copying and pasting either, because if you’re copying and pasting, that’s that’s an indication that there’s probably a good opportunity to automate there. So that’s 15 115 with the no keyboard rule on the fifth try or fifth manual attempt.

Lee Kantor: And then that helps you kind of build these standard operating procedures, uh, for the most important activities you’re doing.

Will Christensen: You nailed it. So so the that part is actually key to the entire process, because once you’ve done it five times manually, then you actually have enough information that you can write that standard operating procedure. If you haven’t done it five times manually, you don’t know enough about the IFS, the thens, or the buts that are going to come up in that process, and you’ll automate something that doesn’t need to be automated because you don’t know how often things are going to come up in the process. And if you try to automate it, it’s not automatable well, write down the SOP and hand it to somebody else to do, and you’ve delegated it.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, say there’s somebody listening here that’s like, you know what? Uh, that idea person. I need someone that’s a getter. Done person. I’m going to contact Will and his team. What does that kind of first conversation look like between you and that ideal prospect? What? What are the questions or homework you’re going to give this person so they can ensure that this is going to be a good fit for both of you?

Will Christensen: Yeah. So the first questions I’m going to start asking them are things like tell me a little bit more about the biggest pain in the business. And if they just start to describe a pain where they’re trying to chase their tail between sales and fulfillment, um, that’s an immediate okay. Yeah, there’s something here. The other thing I’m gauging on that call is, is this person humble enough or coachable enough, um, that they’ll listen. And so that first call is often a coaching call. So we get really clear on what it is. That’s their long term vision and what they’re trying to do. Um, if the individual that I’m working with is not currently bringing in enough money to make ends meet or look at those different pieces, sometimes I can help have a sales boot camp that we put people through. Um, but a lot of times that means they need to struggle or find a niche that that works a little better before they come to me. Most of the time when they’ve come to me, they have, um, a system that’s working. They’re making a decent amount of money, but they’re like, I can’t even keep up with all the business like I got, I got I’m completely overwhelmed, um, with some of what’s there. Or, um, I know I could keep up with the business if I could figure out how to get my sales pipeline to go. Well, and I already have 3 or 4 clients. I just need to figure out how to scale that up. So those two different scenarios we dive into. What’s the bottleneck? We look at, you know, what is it that you’re really facing. And most of them come away saying, you know what? I’m the bottleneck. And if that’s true, we can help you.

Lee Kantor: And then once you all agree that, hey, this could be a fit. How long does it take to see kind of noticeable results? Is this something that you got to be in for a year before you start seeing anything? Or is there clues early on that this is working and that you should kind of be doubling down?

Will Christensen: So, uh, there are clues early on. We actually have a six week guarantee. So you put down a deposit, and if at any time during those six weeks, you’re like, yeah, this isn’t for me, we refund you. No questions asked. So, like, we’re that confident in the first six weeks that you’re going to find and see results, um, that we that we guarantee it. So and the reason for that is we don’t allow people into the program who aren’t going to succeed. Um, so we we vet out entrepreneurs who are willing to change and grow, um, and connect some of those different dots so that we, you know, get to a place where everybody’s happy. The the key indicators for success that often people find are just raw time saved. If you think about a new employee, they often don’t make real impacts till like month three. Not so with an apprentice, because an apprentice is meant to take on tasks that are ambiguous that you didn’t even know how to do yourself. So go change my domain name on G-suite or Google Workspace from Equity Comm or excuse me, from Web Services net to equity. Com that was the first task I gave to my apprentice when I brought her on three years ago. And she said, do you know how to do that? I said, no. She said, I guess I’ll go figure it out. And she did. So. So did she take down the email server? Yeah, for 15 minutes. But she knew to call my cell phone. And she saved me five hours of time that I would have had to go in and figure that out myself. Did it take her five hours? No. It probably took her, like ten. But it but it didn’t matter because she saved me five hours in her first week.

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

Will Christensen: There’s two places to connect with me. One is on LinkedIn. So just William Christiansen. And if you if you type in William Christiansen Data Automation or William Christiansen Equity Hammer, you’ll you’ll come right up. Um and then equity Hammer. Com is my website where I describe several of the different ventures that I’m working on. And there’s a spot where you can, um, connect with me there to talk about an apprentice.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we wrap up, I have a question about the apprentice side of things, and it sounds like an important component, but what is for the young people out there that are listening? What are some things they can be doing to get on your radar when it comes to something like this?

Will Christensen: Absolutely. So if you go to Equity Hammer Apprentice, there is a really extensive, um, questionnaire. It’s like 13 questions that you have to fill out. And that’s how you start the process of going to the pool and kind of connecting those different dots. So if you are that young entrepreneur and you’re like, man, I want to mentor, um, I encourage you to, to come and apply for the program and know that it’s, I mean, it’s only 3% that actually make it all the way through to the end, but don’t let that discourage you. Dive in. Um, I’ve been very, very impressed with the level of candidates that are coming through the pipe. Um, and we’re working on other offerings for the other 97% to, to help them better their skills and better their aptitude to connect with mentors.

Lee Kantor: Are these people in college right now or in school right now? Are they graduated? Like, where are they at in their kind of career when they are kind of intrigued by the apprenticeship.

Will Christensen: Early career, slash college? So I’ve got a guy who just graduated this last year, and he’s been doing like a grocery store thing in between to kind of supplement while he’s doing his apprenticeship. Um, I’ve got others who, um, they’re not going to school at all. This is just what they’re doing. And I’ve got others still that are doing 18 to 20 credit hours and still managing to keep a mentor very happy with the level of support they’re able to provide while they’re going to college.

Lee Kantor: And any advice for the entrepreneur out there who maybe is not ready for your services but would like to get better at this kind of, uh, automation delegation elimination strategy? What are some low hanging fruit for them?

Will Christensen: So the first thing I would tell that individual is it’s probably a good idea for you to consider going and getting the $20 a month plan on, um, ChatGPT. Um, the advanced mode is, is pretty amazing in there. And, um, it’s good enough that it, it does all sorts of cool stuff. So like if I were to, you know, bring advanced voice mode to this podcast and say, hey, advanced voice mode, like, tell me, you know why? Why should an entrepreneur use you to get better at automating, delegating, or eliminating?

Will Christensen: Three steps freeing up more time to focus on strategic growth. It’s like having a personal assistant to enhance your productivity.

Will Christensen: And I could, like, have conversations with you while I’m driving in the car.

Will Christensen: Exactly. That.

Will Christensen: Being said to stay productive on the go.

Will Christensen: Well, thanks for being on the podcast. Do you mind saying hi to Lee for me and and hi to the. Hi to the listeners.

Will Christensen: Sure thing.

Will Christensen: And hello to all the listeners. Thanks for having me on the podcast.

Will Christensen: Great.

Will Christensen: So that was completely unplanned. Um, but but I’m trying to point out to you that if you’re not already using AI, that’s 20 bucks a month. If you can afford 20 bucks a month as a business owner, you got you got bigger problems than that from that side of it, right? There’s a product issue at that point. Um, but but that’s that’s the sort of automation that’s at our fingertips right now. And if you want to coach, that can help you get better at automating delegate and eliminating 20 bucks a month. There’s one of your back pocket.

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

Will Christensen: Glad to be here.

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

Andre Melchionda With Arrivato Imports

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Andre Melchionda is the Owner and Founder of Arrivato Imports, a leader in the specialty and luxury food space. he works with suppliers from across the world and locally to curate a one-of-a-kind portfolio that services top restaurants and chefs with Truffles, Australian/Japanese Wagyu, Caviar, lamb, and more luxury products.

After leaving the corporate world in 2021 to pursue his passion for specialty Italian cuisine products, he soon realized the lack of high quality and luxury products on the market and set out to source the highest quality ingredients on the planet.

As a leader in the specialty and luxury food space, he works with James Beard Foundation Award Winners, Michelin Starred and Recognized Restaurants, Forbes Travel Guide Five Star winners and AAA Five Diamond Award winners.

As a fluent Italian speaker having lived outside of Rome during his childhood, he is able to communicate with his Italian suppliers on a deeper level than most, establishing lasting connections and relationships. He is passionate about supporting his community, donating time, money and products to charitable causes, oftentimes collaborating with chefs and restaurants through events and special dinners.

He is a graduate of Florida State University where he studied economics and double minored in business analytics and business. Prior to establishing Arrivato Imports, he worked for a Private Equity Firm based in San Francisco.

He currently lives in Atlanta, the nation’s up and coming fine-dining destination, where Arrivato’s headquarters are located.

Connect with Andre on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What does Arrivato Imports supply

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 Andre Melchionda and he is with Arrivato Imports. Welcome.

Andre Melchionda: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

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

Andre Melchionda: Yeah. So Arvato Imports is based here in Atlanta, and we are the leader in luxury foods. We source from all over the world, also here domestically and locally, to just provide a portfolio of products that no one else really has here.

Lee Kantor: And then what do you do with these foods? Are you selling a direct to consumer or you sell them to restaurants?

Andre Melchionda: Yeah. So right now our business model is just restaurants, resorts, hotels, things of that nature. But we have some things in the works, some exciting things here coming up. And we’re going to be making them a little bit more widely available to everyone else.

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

Andre Melchionda: Yeah, that’s a that’s a good question. You know, one that I get probably most often because it is pretty uncommon. Um, you know, I have a finance background and was working in private equity for a while and, you know, was thinking about next steps. You know, what I wanted to do with my career, interested in what I’m passionate about. And so I’m Italian, I speak Italian, have a pretty good network over there. And, you know, it was a matter of, you know, what sort of advantage might I have over someone else or, you know, competition. And I knew I could find basically anything I wanted to in Italy with, you know, a couple phone calls, texts here and there. So it really started there. And just kind of, you know, being passionate and understanding the quality of food in Italy and Europe relative to here and why there was such a big lack of it and just wanted to help kind of bridge that gap and educate and make a lot of those products a little bit more available here.

Lee Kantor: So did you start with one type of food and then kind of expand just organically, or did you just have a good purveyor in Italy that you were able to get pretty much whatever you needed?

Andre Melchionda: So yeah, it started really small. You know, it started with truffles really. And then, you know, olive oil and then balsamic and caviar. And then just the more that I became immersed in the industry and what I was doing and just always learning and listening and asking questions to chefs and, you know, getting requests and stuff like that. It just became a matter of finding it and finding the best products, the best farms and producers. And now at this point, you know, we offer so many different products, it can be overwhelming at times.

Lee Kantor: So how do you kind of maintain that quality control? Are you just trusting your purveyors in Europe, or is this something that you’re personally overseeing?

Andre Melchionda: A little bit of both for sure. You know, there’s a lot of brands out there that are really well known for their quality and their reputation. So those are kind of the easy ones. But, you know, after that it’s, you know, talking to people recommendations, um, you know, a lot of just research and seeing what’s out there and also trying the products too ahead of time before, you know, kind of going full scale as far as, you know, making them widely available to our clients.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you first had the idea, okay, I’m going to go, uh, I know Italy, I have connections there. And in America There’s less, you know, lesser quality. Um, did you have a customer here in America that you were like, you know, hey, buddy, if if I get this, is this something your restaurant’s going to buy? Like, how did the kind of the the marketplace start, uh, start up for you? Did you have personal connections with chefs or restaurants that kind of put in requests from you to. Look, if you get this, I’ll buy all you got.

Andre Melchionda: Uh, a little bit. I mean, honestly, it wasn’t a deep network at all, by any means. Uh, it was kind of. So I’m from Saint Simons Island, Georgia, you know, small town, southeast Georgia. And, you know, I knew there was basically none of these products there. So I knew I could start there with the relationships that I had. And, you know, there were a handful of places that would buy these types of products. Um, but for the most part, no, I mean, it was a pretty cold network overall, and it was just a lot of, Walking into kitchens and talking to the right people and just having the the quality to support, you know, the service and it it spoke for itself in a sense. And, you know, people started to to understand a little bit more of what we were trying to do and what what was going for. And slowly but surely, we, you know, grew the client list. And, you know, we’re rocking and rolling here full time in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: So, um, did you have a chef or a couple chefs that kind of fell in love with what you had and became kind of evangelists?

Andre Melchionda: Uh, in a sense. You know, I think it was more so. So, yes, with the olive oil for sure. You know, especially olive oil is a big one because there is a lot of olive oil in today’s markets that is really just not quality. Um, you know, there’s a lot of them out there that are mixed, that are blends of oils from all over Europe. So to have a real, you know, pure Italian olive oil coming out of southern Italy was definitely like, you know, I got a lot of, wow, you know, it was when you taste real olive oil, you can you immediately recognize the difference and can immediately see the quality in it. Tasted quality. I mean, it’s totally different than the majority of honestly, all the olive oils that you find, especially here in the southeast too. Right? Because I feel like we’re slightly behind when it comes to fine dining and really high quality products relative to a New York or, you know, a Chicago or an LA. So bringing these products here definitely, you know, opened some eyes for sure.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, I’m not a connoisseur like you, but I’ve noticed even, uh, locally here, the first time I had a, um, kind of a farm raised chicken egg compared to, like, a store bought egg. It was like a different food. Like when you’re. It’s even difficult to explain that the color was different. The richness of the flavor was different. Um, when you’re coming across something like that and you bring it to a chef, I’m sure you know they’re open to having the conversation because most chefs want, you know, to be the best they can be and differentiate themselves with the quality. Is it do they have a difficult time translating that to, okay, now my customers got to pay more? Uh, now, you know, I got to educate my customer to appreciate this as much as I’m appreciating it.

Andre Melchionda: Yeah. For sure. That’s that’s definitely a challenge and a hurdle with some people. Um, you know, there are the people that are willing to spend on quality and are really good at storytelling and making it come through. Um, you know, at the end of the day, it’s it’s simplicity. Um, if you use really high quality ingredients, you don’t have to do a whole lot to it to make it shine. Um, but yeah, I mean, you know, so many people and chefs and restaurants are price conscious that it, you know, with that increased price cost, it can definitely be hard to get them to understand and get the consumer to understand. Right. Because it’s one thing to to sell them, but then they have to educate their clients and have them understand, okay, you know, I’m paying a little bit more for this, but wow, I can absolutely see the quality difference and taste it. And okay, I understand why I’m paying a dollar or two more for this dish. Um, but yeah, it’s definitely, you know, it’s it’s an ongoing education. Um, every day we’re getting one step closer and it’s just, you know, time with time, it’ll come, and we’ve just got to stay at it.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this one of the things where your clients are those kind of, uh, top of the line restaurants, It’s the, you know, Michelin star restaurants, the ones that really, um, kind of lean into quality and experience and that, that, that those are the people that are going to buy your stuff. Or does it kind of trickle down to a more, uh, mainstream restaurants?

Andre Melchionda: Yeah, absolutely. You know, the the high end Michelin starred restaurants, five star resorts, you know, James Beard Award winners, those are definitely our main clients for the most part, just because they they understand and appreciate and can really make those products shine. Um, and we’re the more mainstream ones, right? You know, obviously none of the fast food or even kind of the chain restaurants really none of those. I mean, it’s really kind of boils down to the chef and the owners and how much they want to put their attention on the food. Right. Because it can, depending on the restaurant, the vibe, what they’re what they’re going for, right? They could be going for a really good cocktail program, solid food, but really great vibes or, you know, any kind of mixture of that. Or maybe they focus a lot on hospitality and, you know, maybe the food is, you know, an eight out of ten. Um, so it kind of depends on the restaurant, the ownership itself, as far as what they’re willing to, to kind of invest in and spend on. Um, so it’s kind of each case is a little different. But yeah, definitely the higher end Michelin starred restaurants, you know, we work with the majority of them here in Atlanta. And uh, that’s definitely our main clientele.

Lee Kantor: Now, one, uh, you do build a relationship with the chef, and I would imagine the chef is the the person, you know, you want to get more relationships with. That’s the the driver of the relationship is the chef to explain, hey, this is what we have today. And I would imagine this changes frequently. Right. Like there’s some things, like, all of a sudden you got some caviar or, you know, next month it might be truffles. Like there’s, I would imagine, seasonality. And there’s an optimal time to get each of the things that you offer.

Andre Melchionda: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It’s a very seasonal business. Right. Because the products are so fresh and, you know, hard to find. Honestly, a lot of them, it’s they come and they go, right. You know, there’s seasons for everything from truffles to, you know, even certain bluefin tuna to, you know, uni there’s low seasons, high seasons, you know, ramps, chanterelles, morels, all of these fresh products. They definitely come and they go. And sometimes the seasons are shorter than it has been in the past. Sometimes it’s longer, sometimes there’s ample supply and sometimes there’s not. And it’s, uh, you know, causes pretty big price swings now.

Lee Kantor: Um, so, so how does that work? So, like, you get something in or you hear you’re going to get something in, and then you just put the word out and it’s kind of first one in, you know. Game on.

Andre Melchionda: Uh, yeah, in a sense. So I mean, most chefs who are really in tune with it and have been doing this for a while, they understand what’s coming up, what’s, you know, about to be in season and what’s going out of season and what to expect, when to expect it. So it’s more of, okay, I know this is coming. Let me menu plan a little bit and reach out ahead of time and say, hey, you know, we’re going to be using X, Y and Z. Um, can you make sure you know, have it or keep us posted on pricing and availability. Um, so it is a somewhat fluid situation, but, you know, a lot of these guys are really dialed in with what they’re doing that they know what’s coming. And it’s just really a matter of supply and demand at that point.

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

Andre Melchionda: What do we need more of? Um. Let’s see. I mean, I think exposure, just general exposure. You know, we’ve been in business for. It’ll be four years later this year, and we haven’t really done a whole lot of, uh, marketing really at all. It’s been purely organic and just word of mouth to this point. Um, so, you know, I think just just getting the story out there and having people understand that, you know, we’re local, we’re headquartered here, you know, from Georgia. Um, and we’re just trying to do good work and bring products in that, uh, typically aren’t here and help educate.

Lee Kantor: Now, is the initial target just Georgia or like, if, you know, if there’s a Chicago restaurant, is that somebody you’d want to know?

Andre Melchionda: No, I mean, there’s no limit. Absolutely not. Uh, you know, we have clients in eight different states at this point. Definitely concentrated here in Atlanta. Just because, you know, this is where we have, you know, a presence on the ground and we can go see someone and talk with them a lot easier than, you know, someone in Chicago. But yeah, I mean, we work with people all over the country. Uh, so we’re Were absolutely open to anything and everything. If it makes sense and we can provide value. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Now how many like, what would be the universe in Atlanta of restaurants that would be appropriate for your services? I mean, I wouldn’t think that there’s that many that check the boxes that you need in order to, you know, to buy your stuff.

Andre Melchionda: You know, I think you’d be surprised at the amount of restaurants that are using quality. Um, you know, it’s definitely not in New York. It’s not Chicago, it’s not LA. But, you know, we are moving in the right direction. Absolutely. And there’s places that are opening, you know, every day it seems like. Um, and with Michelin coming here, you know, I think that’s going to bring a lot more of these higher end restaurants. And, you know, people are going to be gunning for a star, two stars eventually. Um, so I think it’s a good time to be here in its infancy and be able to watch it grow and help it grow as well.

Lee Kantor: Is it 20? Is it 50?

Andre Melchionda: Um, you know, I would say.

Lee Kantor: It can’t be a hundred.

Andre Melchionda: Yeah. So we have a pretty broad.

Andre Melchionda: Product list, right. So we can essentially find a placement for a product. Right. We have we work with, for example, a bunch of Australian Wagyu. And just because someone can’t afford, you know, the high end stripling cut, you know, maybe they can afford the, you know, eye of round or one of these other off cuts that are a lot more cost effective and can make sense for someone who doesn’t necessarily have the budget of one of these, you know, Michelin starred restaurants or larger groups. So, you know, as far as caviar, truffles, A5 yeah, it’s definitely limited to, you know, probably 20 or 30 restaurants and clubs. But, you know, from a broader conversation, I mean, I think and, you know, once you get into Alpharetta and, you know, Decatur and, you know, if you get up into Milton, I think, yeah, you’re looking at probably, you know, 75, 100 that could find something that we offer, right.

Lee Kantor: Is there a place for the private chef who works with celebrity clients?

Andre Melchionda: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we work with, uh, private.

Andre Melchionda: Chefs all the time.

Lee Kantor: So they would obviously, they’re not buying the quantity, but they’d still buy the. What you got?

Andre Melchionda: Absolutely.

Andre Melchionda: Yep, yep.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, what’s the best way to connect?

Andre Melchionda: Yeah.

Andre Melchionda: So we’re on Instagram at Arrivato imports and also on our website w-w-w Arrivato sports.com. And I would definitely give us a follow on Instagram because as I mentioned, we have some really exciting things in the works. For the general public and not just, you know, B2B restaurants. So at Arvato Sports on Instagram, I had to keep up with us and all the cool things we’re doing. You know, we do events and dinners and stuff all the time. So, um, yeah, it’s, uh, it’s a it’s a fun time right now.

Lee Kantor: And arvato is spelled r r I v a t o import.com for the website and find them on their socials. Well, Andre, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Andre Melchionda: Yeah, we appreciate it. Thank you for, uh, the conversation.

Andre Melchionda: It’s been a good one. And, um, look forward to keeping in touch.

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

Sara Daw With The CFO Centre

by

Sara Daw, Entrepreneur, Researcher, Writer & Speaker, Future of Work Expert.

Listed in the 2024 E2E Female 100, she is passionate about designing the future of work for C-level talent and organizations. She has helped thousands worldwide build successful team-based portfolio careers in the disruptive access economy for fractional C-suite professionals.

As well as publishing the first research on the Access Economy for C-suite talent Sara’s latest book, published by Routledge, made the Amazon Kindle Best Seller list in HR and Personnel Management. Strategy and Leadership as Service isn’t just a nice idea; it is a practical alternative vision of the future of work for senior executives that is gaining significant interest and is being adopted by businesses globally. Her research focuses on what holds relationships together in the C-suite access economy for the long-term in the absence of traditional employment contracts.

She is Co-Founder and Group CEO of The CFO Centre and The Liberti Group. Operating in 17 countries it is the global number one provider of part-time and fractional C-suite professionals to entrepreneurial owner-managed, mid-tier businesses, and larger organisations.

She is a graduate in Chemistry from Oxford University, a Chartered Accountant, holds an MBA from The London Business School, and a Mastère Spécialisé® in Consulting and Coaching for Change, run jointly by Oxford University (Saïd Business School) and HEC Business School in Paris.

Connect with Sara on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Fractional C-Suite leadership and the role it plays in the new access economy
  • About Sara’s book, Strategy and Leadership as Service

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 are 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 wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Sarah Daw. She is the co-founder and CEO of the CFO center, and she’s author of the book Strategy and leadership as a service how the Access Economy meets the C-suite. Welcome, Sarah.

Sara Daw: Hello. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. First off, tell us about the CFO center. How are you serving folks?

Sara Daw: So the CFO center provides fractional CFOs to growing entrepreneurial organizations. So it’s for those businesses that don’t need, don’t want and can’t afford a full time CFO, but they still need the skill set to scale, and they can work with one of our team on a fractional basis one day a week, two days a month, whatever the business needs, flexibly and affordably scaling it up and down as they go so they get all the skills they need to get to big, which is normally what a lot of those organizations want to do.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s your background? How long have you been involved in this line of work?

Sara Daw: Okay, so a long time. I mean, I I’m a CFO and I actually came to came to the fractional CFO world in the early 2000. I was a CA with an MBA, and I was just starting a family, and I realized that I needed to have a fulfilling career that would enable me to be mum, because I was going to grow a family, yet also to work and have something rewarding on the career side. So I saw this niche in the marketplace around these businesses. Entrepreneurial businesses not having access to this full time skill set at the CFO level, and set myself up and then and then found my my co-founder, the founder of the business, Colin Mills of the PhD center, joined him. He he started it a few years earlier, and there were just a few of us at that stage, and off we went. And now we’re in 18 countries globally. So it’s really taken off as a concept.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you exclusively focus on CFOs or do you have other services in and around the C suite.

Sara Daw: So we do have other services not all operating yet in the US, but globally. We operate fractional c suite services across people, so HR, marketing, sales and finance.

Lee Kantor: Now is the thesis of your book that this is kind of the future of business is maybe a mindset shift to having permanent members of the C-suite, but just to have fractional and just kind of partner with different types of experts along the path.

Sara Daw: Yes. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. It is a mindset shift. So the way I see the world of work unfolding as we go forward in response to all the challenges that organizations are facing and to make sure they’ve got an agile talent strategy. What I am seeing happening is roles unbundling into work, and that work is going to be done by humans and by automation and machines, but it’s going to be parceled up into work and we don’t necessarily anymore have to have full. Time, complete roles. And that’s where the fractional concept really meets this head on. And the other mindset shift is that we don’t need to be employed anymore with an employment contract to deliver valuable and important work. So the fractional CFO in in my team are highly committed, intensely engaged with the organizations that they’re helping to grow. They want the variety, flexibility and control of doing it on a self-employed basis, and they want to live and work in a new way. So it’s it’s to it’s these two phenomena that’s coming together. Entrepreneurs who need the skill set flexibly and affordably. And CFOs who want to live and work differently through an access model rather than an employment model.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, Obviously we’re in a world that exists today. Um, if you could just start from scratch, how would you implement this strategy on a business? Maybe you invented, you know, on your head last night. Like, how would you go about kind of building an infrastructure, leveraging, you know, all the experts that you have at hand right now?

Sara Daw: Yeah. So what I would do, I mean, if I was an entrepreneur, I would I would have a core of employees, a core base. But I would supplement that with, um, skill sets that I need on a long term and ongoing basis, but that I just don’t need and can’t afford full time. So I bring in I would bring in a fractional C-suite across the business functions that I feel either in sequence or in tandem, that are the most critical, um, to my growth. So I’d organize that. Uh, finance tends to be one of the early ones. You need to know your numbers. You can’t really fly blind as a business owner. And then, depending on other C-suite roles, perhaps tech depending on on my my structure or how I’m going to market marketing people, etc., I’d phase those in. It’s very affordable to have this whole C-suite surrounding the entrepreneur. And then I would also be looking for to engage with a wider workforce, perhaps in the tech space or the freelance space that I need to bring in to deliver specific skills to enhance my business and get it tech enabled. And I may even have a wider workforce from the gig economy that bring in more flexibility and efficiency on a volume scale. What I’m saying here is the way I think organizations need to think going forward is that their workforce is not just their employee base anymore. It’s all of those that I just mentioned. And we as leaders need to get really good at building one culture and culture and one team because they’re all important and valuable members.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the word culture. Um, how do you go about building a culture where if everybody is fractional or freelance, each of them could be working individually in five other places that could have a slightly different culture, like how do you build a culture in an organization that is, you know, filled with fractionals?

Sara Daw: Yes. So obviously, I mean, the culture is set from the top down, from the leader, from the business owner, and they will have their particular culture and it’s on us. It’s on the fractional leaders to align with that culture. And what’s what’s interesting about fractional work is that the the fractional leaders choose the businesses that they want to work with. So they will only work with the organizations where they match, and the culture aligns and the values match. So they will be in a place that will be sort of the line of least resistance if you like, and they will back up the culture of the organization that the entrepreneur is building. And it’s on the fractional leaders to be good at context shifting. So we get good at working between different businesses. In an ideal world, a fractional leader may have three, four, five businesses they work with, and they will be very good at making sure each business feels like they are the only business they work with, because they know how to do that. They know how to communicate. They’ll be available outside hours. They realize business problems don’t just pop up between 9 and 5 Monday to Friday, and they want to create those long term relationships, and they’ll sit alongside the entrepreneur through thick and thin to help them get where they want to go, because they’re aligned and they believe in the business.

Lee Kantor: Now, this is where I would think that an organization like yours is super valuable, because I’m really having a relationship with your firm and you’re kind of plugging and playing in the fractional expert I need at any given time where I might need a fractional expert to launch a business, might be a different expert to manage and grow a business.

Sara Daw: Yes. That’s such a good point. So a collective like ours, an organization, and I would say we’re a new breed of organization. And I think you’re going to see more of these going forward into the future. We are an organizer, not an employer. And we are the community that supports the collective of the C-suite individuals. So we will be supporting them so that they are fully up to speed with everything they need to know around their function. They share learning and development, they share best practice. And we’re there for the business owner to make sure that we can fill skill and capacity gaps, and that they get the right match of C-suite professional at each stage of their journey. And sometimes what that involves is that an organization will engage with a small team of perhaps CFOs. 1st May be doing a fundraise, one might be doing a systems implementation, but what it means is that they will always get the right skills on board at the right time. They’ll probably have a lead CFO that will be holding the long term relationship, and that may change over time, but they will have others that can come in and perform specific projects that are required on a time critical basis. So effectively, the business always gets the answer they need. And in a very agile, flexible and affordable way.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, what was kind of the thinking behind writing the book? Was it just to kind of get this type of thinking in, you know, in a different format so you can share with more people? Or was that or has this been kind of an itch you’ve been trying to scratch for a while?

Sara Daw: Yes, I guess it was a bit of all of that, actually. Um, the main reason I did it was because I wanted to draw awareness to this area, this niche in the industry and the value it can bring both to the C-suite professionals and the businesses they serve. But importantly, what I wanted to do was bring credibility to this niche because we we at the CFO center, we knew what we did. We knew how we do it, but we didn’t know what the academic concepts were that were underlying it and why it worked. And I really wanted to bring that thought leadership to the world to show that actually, this is actually quite a common concept. So all the listeners here today will be really familiar with the access economy. We are using it all the time. We use it in Spotify. We access our music instead of owning it. We access Zipcar, perhaps a car club. If we don’t own our car, we use Airbnb, we use Netflix. These are all access services and this is no different really. We are part of the access economy. We’re just accessing services of individuals rather than employing them. And it leads to a very, as I said, a very, um, tailored bespoke delivery for the business owner. So I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that this was a disruptive business model, but one that is, um, very accepted in the other areas of goods and services and therefore, um, to give it the credibility and the backing to show that it can work in the service industry.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you kind of address the issue, like you mentioned, kind of Netflix and that type of and unbundling and then unbundling? Uh, historically it’s been kind of a push pull like we went through here in America with cable television, that it was like, oh, all of a sudden now you have access to ESPN, MTV, the Food Network, access to all these channels, and it’s all one price. And then we get angry that it’s like, well, I don’t want the Food Channel because I don’t care. I don’t care about sports. I want it to be unbundled. And now we’re back to unbundling, where now everything’s individual, and now there’s, uh, you know, a desire for rebundling because it’s getting too expensive, because I’m paying for everything individually now, and it’s more than I was paying when it was bundled, like, where do you see this in that continuum?

Sara Daw: Yes. I think that’s an interesting point because I agree with you of, you know, industries, um, uh, go through life cycles of bundling and unbundling and, and, uh, obviously we’re in an unbundling stage here where unbundling rolls into smaller parts to make it affordable to a segment of the market around the SM. I also, though, see that this is and I will come back to your point, but I also see the unbundling as relevant for larger organizations as well, by the way. So the other part of the market that, um, this unbundling is being very, um, we found very receptive is larger organizations where you have a group CFO or a group CMO who have a shopping list of far too much to do, and they need a fractional team around them that they can access dynamically to bring in the skills to fill all the things that they shouldn’t be doing, or that they haven’t got the skills to do or the capacity to do so. That’s another angle. And yes, we may see in the future, um, perhaps a move to bundling up again. But what I would say is that we are so early on in the unbundling phase at the moment because, you know, I know in the US market, you know, fractional CFOs, um, is a concept that’s, that’s reasonably well understood. Yet on my travels, I am still meeting swathes and swathes of business owners and C-suite professionals who have never heard of it. So I still feel we are at are very much at the forefront of the movement, and we’ve got a long way to go on this unbundling at this stage.

Lee Kantor: So who is kind of the ideal fit for a service like this.

Sara Daw: In terms of the.

Lee Kantor: Like, your ideal client that would be open to this type of thinking. Like they’re not so big that they’ve hired a CFO or they’re they already have a CFO. And maybe that that didn’t work out. And now they want to try this. Like where are they at in their life cycle where this is the exact right fit for you?

Sara Daw: Yeah. So for us it would be entrepreneurial organizations who are open minded. The business owner is willing to welcome outside advice to see how that can deliver a return for them. So it’s the open mindedness that is actually the key differentiator. Entrepreneurial business. They want to grow. They may not be growing. That’s okay. They may not have their business model sorted out. That’s okay. That’s what we can help with. Um, Generally revenue. I’m saying somewhere between 5 million and 100 million in in revenue. But we can work with smaller organizations and and as I said, for the large organizations, that’s where we help an incumbent C-suite to fill the skill and capacity gaps that they need. But it is I have to say, it’s about the open mindedness of wanting to welcome in a different way of doing things, a way where we can bring some rigor, some professionalism, some insights, sector knowledge. We can bring our network and we can bring our skills to really sort of turbocharge and get them in a space where these ambitious business owners get rewarded for everything that they put into their businesses because, you know, they’re remarkable people and we really want to see them succeed.

Lee Kantor: Well, I mean, if they’re already at $5 million in revenue, then they must be doing something right, because that doesn’t happen accidentally. Usually they have to be doing something right, and so they and they must also have enough revenue to afford your fractional CFO. I mean, so it’s a combination of things there. But is there a place for the aspiring entrepreneur, the person that’s earlier on below the 5 million where a service like yours may be not may not be the right fit in terms of, you know, I have a person for you to solve your problem, but you have information to help them. Or is that where the book comes in?

Sara Daw: Yes. I think for those organizations, potentially there’s really a mentoring role to be done. So it’s about sitting alongside the entrepreneur from a mentoring perspective and helping them make the right decisions and finding a and then us helping them find a cost effective way to organize themselves. As I said, some smaller organizations would still be able to use our services. It’s mainly the sweet spot I think is, um, 5 million revenue upwards.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, is there a story you can share of a client you have, um, that maybe came to you with a problem and you were able to, uh, partner with the right, uh, fractional that enabled them to get to a new level. You don’t have to name the name of the organization, but maybe share the problem that they had and how you were able to help them.

Sara Daw: Yes, absolutely. I mean, even fairly recently, actually, we had a business come in that was, um, a luxury car business. And, uh, they were actually going through a sale process, and they got to the point where they just couldn’t keep up with the demands of, um, the due diligence and the sale process with everything that they needed to provide and carry on running the business day to day. So we came in and we actually negotiated, It, um, a much better sale price. Um, along the way, we got their data room in order, and we got them, and we got them through the sale. And then we stayed on with them afterwards because there was an earn out, and the entrepreneurs were keen for us to stay, to encourage and enable them to make sure that they, um, that they carry on, um, meeting the conditions of their owner afterwards. So a real safety net for these organizations and leverage, um, of bringing some professionalism and some expertise to a transaction.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with your clients, uh, do you kind of have to open their mind to how, like your vision of this rather than what they think they’re buying? So I would think some of them are thinking, this is like a temp service, that I’m buying something until I’m ready to get the real one that I want. And this is just triaging a situation. And it sounds like philosophically, you’re Your. Your belief is that this is the new way of doing things. So this is not kind of a temporary solution. This is the solution.

Sara Daw: Yes. And that is a mind. That’s the mindset shift. So I do think some organizations look at it as I’ve got a problem. Come and fix my problem. Thank you very much. That was great. I’ll call you again when I, when I need you. And that isn’t the way to get best value. Of course we can do that. And a consultant can do that. And we would we would do that for organizations, of course. But the way to get full value from having, um, a fractional CFO sitting alongside you the whole time is that you can dial down the commitment to them in the quieter times. So it is cost effective, but you’ve always got someone looking across the horizon for you to spot. All those issues and risks that you probably don’t know are coming your way. And what we see is that organizations that do step out too early, then come back to us, and then they’re in rather a pickle, because they have got to the point where they’ve left things too late, got into a bit of a knot about something, and then we have to come in and, you know, unravel everything, which is probably more costly in the long term than keeping us on in the first place. So we’re seeing more and more of that. So I think the message is that this is so flexible.

Sara Daw: And, you know, in larger organizations, you don’t have CFOs that come along every day to fix a problem and then say, okay, I’m leaving now because I’ve done everything. Cfo role is ongoing. It’s value adding. And CFOs, um, if they’re not giving a return. And by, you know, we should absolutely be able to measure our return with CFOs after all. So if we’re not delivering a return, we shouldn’t be there. And if we are delivering a return, we absolutely should be there. And it’s affordable. So I’m saying that the business case for a full time CFO can actually be quite a high revenue number for a lot of organizations. And the way to use fractional to the best advantage is to have a fractional C-suite professional, say, CFO, at the top, and let them organize and use the budget you’re saving by them being fractional at the top to make sure you’ve then designed your finance function properly, and you’ve got absolutely the right skills at the right level in the rest of your finance function. And then you’ve got a very, very comprehensive solution to finance that can take you a long way. And for the long term, we’ve definitely got some relationships that are, you know, 15 years old. And it shows that you can go with clients on their journey for in a very productive way on this model.

Lee Kantor: Which is very impressive because the average tenure of a C-suite, I’m sure is, well, less than that, probably less than five years, I would guess.

Sara Daw: Yes, it would be. And the other advantage is that, um, you know, it’s for larger organizations as well. Um, you know, it’s if when you do hire a full time C-suite professional, it’s, you know, it’s tricky to get it right. And the stats are it’s over 213% of salary cost if you get it wrong, and two years of elapsed time where you’ve stood still or potentially gone backwards. And with the fractional model, it’s very easy to bring someone in, try them out to check that they are the right individual for the role. If they aren’t, you can go back to a firm like ours and say, actually, they’re not quite the right match, but I, you know, I want to flex it this way or that and we can and we can find a better match for them. So it’s a really good way to, um, make sure you find the right person and quite, you know, a lot less risky than putting your eggs in one. All your eggs in one basket.

Lee Kantor: Right. Well, in my mind, I’m, I’m kind of buying you and you’re and you’re going to find the right fit for me. If I believe that we have a good partnership.

Sara Daw: Yes.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk about you mentioned your global firm. Can you talk about your work here in Atlanta? I know you had an event recently. Can you talk about what your kind of how you’re attacking this market.

Sara Daw: Yes. So we have a team in Atlanta of CFOs, and we are very much looking to support the local market there. We see it as an exciting place to be. And we’ve got a team that are really focused on growth, scalability, profitability. Um, and, you know, producing cash flow for the organizations there. The bit that really gets us out of bed in the morning is seeing the impact we can have on the lives of entrepreneurs and their businesses. Most entrepreneurs have set their business up because, you know, they want to change the world. They’ve got a particular purpose or passion, and often we find them getting dragged into areas of business that, you know, perhaps isn’t their skill set. And finance is one of those. And what we want to do is release their time and give them peace of mind that we can look after it for them so that they can do the things in their business that really matter to them. Um, so yeah, that’s where we are with the Atlanta market. We’re gradually building out our network of partners that we work with. So we’ll have a good network to help, um, plug organizations into that, engage with us in the Atlanta market.

Lee Kantor: And then what other markets are you in in the US?

Sara Daw: Okay. So we’re across the northeast, um, up in Boston and New York and across, um, states across the northeast. We’re in Atlanta. We’re in Texas, we’re in Seattle, and we’re down in Miami.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there, um, kind of an industry that you work in primarily? Is it manufacturing services, you know, legal, like, or is it kind of industry agnostic?

Sara Daw: Yeah. Industry agnostic. But we have team in our team. We will have groups of individuals that are specialist in certain sectors. So we will be able to collaborate and make sure that we get the best, um, people on the role or get advice from a particular sector specialist or functional specialist for a business issue. So we collaborate behind the scenes for all our clients. So when they engage with one CFO, they are tapping into the brainpower, the power of many of a team of CFOs, both locally, nationally and actually internationally. So we’re pretty well connected. And one thing we do really well is even if it’s someone in a different continent who’s got the right skills for a particular problem, we will be able to connect them in. And we also can help organizations who want to expand cross-border, um, either customer wise, supply wise, or even take their own business overseas. We’re also pretty good at soft landing them into the other countries that we’re in and plugging them into our network there. That’s all part of the service of making sure that we help these organizations grow.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re kind of doing the match initially, is it more important that the persons from the right industry, or is it more important that they’re in the right kind of stage of growth, like, how do you go about the match making process to ensure the best fit possible?

Sara Daw: I think priority is culture fit, personality fit and culture fit because at the end of the day, business owners are really sharing confidential information about their business. They’re sharing their dreams and desires around how they want to take it forward. We are an insider in that business, and we need to be able to build a relationship with the business owner that’s trusted and long term, and where they feel comfortable psychologically sharing this information with us, knowing that we’re, you know, our intent is to support them with, um, with, with whatever they want to do. So it’s culture fit more than anything I would say. And, you know, if we can have a sector fit and a functional fit on top of that life cycle stage, we will do that. That’s, you know, it’s often possible if we can’t. Um, but there is a particular culture match that we think is important. Then I think we we do that by buddying up. So we make sure that the CFO involved with the, with the client relationship has the functional and sector skills around them from other CFOs to fill any gaps. That’s the beauty of the team.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s the pain that that prospect is having right now, where the best solution is to call somebody from the CFO center?

Sara Daw: The pain will be where sometimes entrepreneurs think that just something’s missing. You know, they’re not seeing something. They haven’t got visibility. So have they got visibility of their numbers? Do they trust their numbers? Are they making profit? Do they know where they’re making profit? Can they tell us which lines, which business segment, which products, which supplier, which customer are delivering the right margin to them? Because actually, a change in margin can make all the difference. On the bottom line. I see a lot of business owners who nail down their overheads, but the gross margin is a black box. So do they really know their numbers? Um, are they getting the outputs that they want? Perhaps they have, um, perhaps they have a particular issue, a strategic issue that they want to solve. Do they want to buy or sell? Are they thinking of exit? Are they thinking of succession? Um, do they want to raise money for expansion? Do they want a funding partner on board? These are all the sorts of pains and questions that we absolutely, as a CFO, a strategic commercial CFO, can help help get the answer for these organizations.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more, what’s the best way to connect the website to learn more about the CFO center and also maybe get a hold of your book?

Sara Daw: Yes. So WW, the CFO, WW, CFO center.com is the website. And if you want to get a copy of my book, it’s on Amazon strategy and leadership and service. And anyone can connect with me on LinkedIn. Sara.

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

Sara Daw: I really appreciate, uh, this this opportunity. And thanks so much for such great questions.

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

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