Business RadioX ®

Patricia Sampson With The King Center

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Patricia Sampson is the Director of the Bookstore Resource Center at The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She has also work for the High Museum of Art Atlanta as Manager or Retail Shops and Visual Merchandising.

She began her retail career in for-profit retail in her home state of New York. She wore many different hats in the early days of her career from assistant buyer to buyer, and even fashion show coordinator.

She is a dedicated and passionate member of MSA. She has previously served on MSA chapter and national committees, on the regional board of the South Atlantic Chapter, and now serves a third term on the MSA Board of Directors.

Lastly, she is an avid sports fan, volleyball being her favorite. She enjoys sewing, cooking and spending quality time with family and friends.

Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What is Museum Store Sunday and why does it matter
  • How shopping at their local museum store supports museums and artists in Atlanta
  • Special initiatives taking place at the King Center Store on Museum Store Sunday (i.e., discounts, events)
  • Unique products at the King Center Store that make great holiday gifts
  • Museum Store Sunday is prioritizing eco-friendly, ethically-made products created by local artists (highlight sustainable or locally made products available at your store)

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Patricia Sampson, who is the director of Bookstore and Resource Center at the King Center. Welcome, Patricia.

Patricia Sampson: [00:00:45] Thank you. Thank you for having me. Rick. How are you today? I am.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:49] Doing well. I am so glad to be sharing what you do with folks because fun fact this is my secret weapon when it comes to gift giving is museum stores. And we’re here to talk about Museum Store Sunday. Can you tell everybody what that’s about? Yes.

Patricia Sampson: [00:01:05] Well, I’d love to hear that. You’re one of our special shoppers at our museums. The museum Store Sunday is actually a program that was developed by the Museum Store Association, which is a nonprofit that brings information, collaboration and advocacy for our nonprofit retail professionals.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] And for folks who don’t understand, like people go to museums, but museum stores. You should go just for that. I think a lot of times the museum stores has a lot of great stuff that maybe kind of represent what’s what’s in the museum, but it also is really a great place to shop for original gifts that you’re not going to find at the mall.

Patricia Sampson: [00:01:52] Oh, absolutely. You know, museum stores have a curated selection of products that either reflect the art or the mission of the museum, as well as general great, unique items that we find in the market.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:10] And a lot of times you don’t have to, like, pay to enter the museum to kind of enjoy some of the museum and and buy some stuff at the museum stores. Right?

Patricia Sampson: [00:02:19] Oh, absolutely. You can come directly into the museum, either from the street level in some cases, or you go into the museum’s lobby and you can enter the museum store. The most important thing about the museum store is that we are there to support the mission, the programing and the work of our cultural institutions within our community, and that’s very important to us.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:47] Right. So it’s a great place to buy original stuff you’re not going to find elsewhere and support the mission of those museums that you’re enjoying.

Patricia Sampson: [00:02:56] Absolutely. So when you purchase from your museum store, you immediately become a patron of that museum because your dollars are going back into something that is developing and working towards the good within a community.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:17] Now let’s talk a little bit about the King Center. How did you get involved with them? And then tell us about your store there. How were you kind of making it special and taking advantage of of the holiday season?

Patricia Sampson: [00:03:29] Right. So I’ve been with the King Center a little over a year and a half. Prior to that, I was at the High Museum of Art managing their museum store. And so I’ve been in the museum store industry, so to speak, for quite a while, and worked closely with the Museum Store Association, which I am currently the sitting president and just love the work that I do within the retail sector and in the nonprofit sector. And here at the King Center. The focus is really to advance the work, the mission and the legacy of Dr. and Mrs. King. So here we develop products that are specific to the work that they have done. We have several new campaigns, one called love, which focuses on the beloved community.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:25] So now how do you come? How do you kind of go about curating and developing products? Like now you’re at the King Center, do you like every year or every certain period of time you kind of brainstorm, okay, this is this is the theme. Maybe going forward, maybe we should find some artists that can help us with this. Like how do you go about kind of creating the original works that are in museum stores like the King Center?

Patricia Sampson: [00:04:51] Right. So at the King Center, we focus mostly on Dr. King, his the words, his books we are selling in the book, in that bookstore, as well as looking at the center. Overall, how can we tell that story? How can we tell the story of Mrs. King founding, being the founder of the King Center and the mission and the work that she put into place? So you’re you’re looking at the organization overall and trying to figure out how you can tell that story through merchandise, which is can be tricky. But we work with local artisans, we work with in-house graphic artists as well, and we work a lot with the museum store vendors. They are also a part of our membership and they support us during Museum Store Sunday, which is very important because that’s coming up on this Sunday, which is the 26th of November.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:59] So tell us about that event. I know everybody’s competing with there’s Black Friday, there’s Cyber Monday. There seems to be lots of gift giving opportunities this time of year. How did Museum Store Sunday come about, and is there anything that’s happening collaboratively in the Atlanta area amongst the museum stores here?

Patricia Sampson: [00:06:20] Yes, actually we are in our seventh year with the museum store Sunday and we have over 2100 museums throughout all 50 states, four continents and in the UK. So we have this is not just an Atlanta thing. This is a global initiative and a global event that will be happening on November 26th. You can go to W-w-w Dot Museum Store sunday.org and find out what museums are participating in your local area. And it really came about because there was Black Friday, there was Small Business Saturday. And so the only other day that was open was museum was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. And the initiative came about to bring that awareness that as you’re purchasing from your museum stores, that we have great gift giving items as well as everyday items for any occasion. And your dollars go back, as I said before, they go back into the organization to create something sustainable within a community. And so we found that we got on board with Museum Store Sunday and we have not stopped since. It continues to grow to be a national and global event.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:55] So you mentioned that you are part of the Atlanta chapter, right, of the Museum Store Association.

Patricia Sampson: [00:08:03] Yes, yes. We have several other institutions that are part of our chapter, the High Museum, the Fernbank, the History Center, and throughout the state of Georgia as far as Savannah. So we have several museums that will partake in Museum Store Sunday.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:29] So now when a person comes in to shop, is there a favorite items you have at the King Center that they should be taking a look at?

Patricia Sampson: [00:08:39] Yeah, we have wonderful quote plaques, quotes of Dr. King’s and Mrs. King’s that’s a favorite for us. Also, we’ll be having a great book drive this year, which is going to benefit Sheltering Arms. So not only now are you giving back to the mission of the King Center, but you can extend that and give back to the community as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:05] So so for folks who want to check out the King Center, I mean that the King Center is a year round. You don’t have to just wait till Sunday. But if they want to go by this weekend or or during the holiday season to look for that unique gift that’s really going to capture the spirit and heart. Of the King Center and Atlanta. Is there a website for the King Center, or kind of the the best time to go? When would you recommend them coming to take advantage of all the good stuff over there?

Patricia Sampson: [00:09:37] Oh, you can start today and come and take advantage. But if you want to join us on Sunday, we’ll have trivia, activity tables, refreshments. We’ll give a swag bags for purchases of $75 or more, and we’re offering 20% off books so you can purchase a book to donate to a young child and give the gift that keeps on giving this year. And you can also purchase online at w-w-w dot King Center.org.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:14] Good stuff. Well, Patricia, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Patricia Sampson: [00:10:21] Oh. Thank you. Lee and I enjoyed talking to you and telling you about the programs we have here at the King Center and through the Museum Store Association for Museum Store Sunday.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:33] Yeah, for those folks out there that are struggling with gift ideas, the King Center store is a great place to start. And really, any museum store is a great place to start when it comes to gifts that are unique. That is not going to be just another thing that you can see elsewhere. These are very they’re customized almost to those the spirit and heart of those museums. So I would definitely check them out. If you’re struggling to find a gift for a loved one this holiday season.

Patricia Sampson: [00:11:00] Oh yeah. Absolutely. We look forward to seeing everyone come in our doors and enjoy the holiday season. We hope that everyone has has a safe and peaceful holiday.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] Well thank you again, Patricia. Thank you. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll be back next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Author and Coach Doug Fleener

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Known as “The Daily Performance Expert,” Doug Fleener is an ex-addict turned successful CEO, business advisor, keynote speaker, and coach. His extensive experience and journey of over 30 years in recovery and business give him a unique perspective with proven expertise and fast, high ROI results. His success started with his failures and the low-point in his life.

He bankrupted a family business due to his alcohol and cocaine addiction. He started anew on that fateful day, applying the same tenets of recovery to the business world: living one good day after another, believing in the power to change, taking responsibility for his actions and life, simplifying processes, and helping others succeed.

He lost that business but gained a whole new way of living and working. He was a corporate director at the Bose Corporation and CEO of a national company. He has spoken and consulted around the world. All from losing everything and learning the principles that saved his life and made a life.

He now shares these insights globally, fostering high-performing, engaged workforces that improve short and long-term results. He believes that higher levels of performance and success can be achieved within a day—the day that makes the year that shapes a life.

His new book, The Day Makes the Year (Makes a Life): Transform your work and life with One-Day Success (Five Leaf Clover Publishing) is now available.

Connect with Doug on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Top techniques for successfully practicing Relentless Simplicity throughout the day
  • How to tap into the Superpower of Taking Responsibility
  • One-Day Success: The 6 principles and accompanying practices to achieve more growth, success, and happiness
  • The ​Power of ​Intention and how to choose what to prioritize
  • How he used the principles of recovery to transform from a jobless addict to a successful CEO, ​executive coach, and international speaker

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Doug Fleener. He is the author of the new book, The Day Makes the Year Makes a Life. Transform your Work and Life with One Day Success. Welcome, Doug.

Doug Fleener: [00:00:33] Thank you Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:34] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the the first of all, the premise of the book. What’s it about?

Doug Fleener: [00:00:43] Well, the premise of the book is that about 37 years ago, my life hit rock bottom and from a cocaine and alcohol addiction and had to rebuild my life and went into recovery. And I learned some very, very valuable lessons in recovery that obviously not only helped me stay clean and sober for 37 years, but more just as important has helped me in business. And so I really wanted to share those principles. Luckily, most people don’t need to go into recovery, but some of those principles can really help someone be successful in whatever they do, both business and in personal life.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:21] Well, even people not in recovery have heard the phrase one day at a time. It sounds like you’re taking that and really looking at that in different facets of that phrase.

Doug Fleener: [00:01:32] Yeah, yeah, it really is the premise and the foundation for the book. There are six principles altogether, but the very first one is the day. And you know everything. Everything you need, everything you want, your future, everything is really is created in the day. And I work with a lot of business owners and, and they’re either in the past or far out in the future and not doing what they need to do in the day to be successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:56] And what are kind of some symptoms that you’re not kind of in that present moment, that you are either kind of time traveling backwards into some nostalgic past or into some future that may or may not ever occur.

Doug Fleener: [00:02:12] Well, showing you’re stuck in the past is kind of when you talk about what you used to do, or probably even bigger, is that there’s kind of resentment and regret, and a lot of us carry around a lot of that, and that really keeps us from being in the moment. And for about the future, I think, is people have a lot of plans, a lot of ideas, a lot of things they want to accomplish. But if you ask them, what did they do in the day? They spent most of their day on task that isn’t necessarily really creating that future. And so when you’re really focused on what you want to have, it’s not like you don’t think about the future, but it’s what you have to do in the day to create that future you want.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:49] So how do you attack each day so that you do wring out the most out of each day? Is there kind of a template that you have for the day that it begins a certain way, and it has its own rhythm that’s predictable and repeatable, like how does it work?

Doug Fleener: [00:03:04] Good question. And, you know, I think it really starts with how you start your day, the mindset, the plan that you have, the priorities. And so one of the things I learned early in recovery is trying to identify who did I want to be that day and what did I want to accomplish that day. And early on, it was just get through a day without a drink or a drug. And over time it started to be manage organizations and what have you. So I think it’s about understanding. You start your day with where you want to go. You just don’t hop in the car and think you’re going to go on vacation and don’t know where you’re going, but you do have a map, if you will, of what you want to accomplish. So it really starts right there.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:44] Now, how does an individual, especially an entrepreneur, kind of balance all the the different priorities they might have? So, for example, they might have a priority of, okay, I’m the leader of this company. So I want to achieve these things at the end of the year or the end of the, you know, as my legacy as this business owner. But I’m also a husband, so I want to have these, you know, I want to be this type of a husband, and I want to be this type of a father, and I want to be this type of a community member. How do I kind of structure the day so that I am kind of winning at all of these things that I’m trying to accomplish as a person in totality?

Doug Fleener: [00:04:28] I love that question. And because I talk a lot about that, and it really starts with priorities. And when people think and use that word, and when you think of priorities, most people think about prioritizing tasks. But you said it. You want to prioritize your life. Understanding what are your priorities. And as you mentioned, right, I’m a business owner. I’m also a father. I’m a husband. And understanding that what those priorities are and really investing your time and energy in that. You’ll talk with people again. They’ll say that, you know, so obviously if you’re a business owner, probably, you know, the number one on the business side is revenue, you know, revenue and profits. But if you ask them where they’re spending their time, you know, they’re focused on social media. They’re, you know, if they’re a retailer, they’re unpacking an order or what have you. So, you know, I do believe that you can have I like to call it work life harmony because it can’t always be in balance. Right? There are just times we have to work more, and there are times if we go on vacation with the family, we need to be in our personal life more. But we can create harmony. But it starts with really having intentional actions each day to achieve all those priorities.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:41] So in your work as a coach, how do you kind of triage someone’s situation? I know in a coaching environment, I’m sure most of the time, hopefully, that they’re coming to you and saying, I have a problem and help me. So they’re at a vulnerable point of humility, maybe where they are asking for hope. So they are kind of at least have their guard down and they’re not as reactive, hopefully. But when they come to you and you see like, okay, things are out of whack, maybe they do have addiction problems, maybe they’re have strained relationships. How do you kind of triage that and give them kind of bite sized ways to improve so that don’t overwhelm the situation? Because I’m sure when you were in the midst of your addiction, it was difficult to have conversations to you about, hey, you know, maybe this isn’t the right thing to do. You know, you may not have been open to having those conversations.

Doug Fleener: [00:06:35] Well, you know, I like to start off with, you know, helping the the owner or whoever the person is being coached is first identify what their priorities are. I look at my priorities every day, you know, and and they move around in level and rankings, if you will, based upon the day. But my recovery comes first and then my family and my friends and and then drive in revenue. One of my priorities is helping more people. So I have a little process that we call the we call it the map. And the the map is where is mindset, actions and priorities. And it really starts with, you know, with the priorities. But the map is a better analogy, if you will. And so again, understanding what your priorities are and then get the person to focus on what’s their mindset for the day. You know, I start my day every day again trying to determine what kind of person do I want to be. But, you know, the issue is that most people don’t turn that into actions. You know, we aren’t what we think. We are what we do. And so, you know, I’m very good on liking to use simple little things. Like every day I have a reminder pop up in my phone to do five good things a day. Now, I’d like to think I would just do them without a reminder, but I know that when I get out of myself and do something for others that I’m going to, I’m going to be a better person. And as a result, I think that comes back to me three fold. So really get a person to understand how they think, what they focus on and then what they do. And it’s really a shift for most people.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:15] Now, the day before your first day of being a non addict, could you have thought in these terms?

Doug Fleener: [00:08:26] Oh no. No not not at all. And um, you know, there was a point when, uh, and my backstory is I bankrupted a family business. I hurt a lot of people. Uh, it was back in Florida in the 80s, and it was in the cocaine cowboy Miami Vice days, and I just. I stole a lot of family money. And, you know, one of the reasons I had to learn how to live like this is because I had such regret. I had such shame, such guilt, and I had to learn how to live this different way. And that’s why I like to start within the day is, you know, what are you going to what are you going to accomplish in this day? Who are you going to be in this day? But without recovery, I don’t think I ever would have started thinking like this. And again, it’s it’s interesting. So I run a Facebook group called The Highly Effective Business Owner. And what I really focus it on is being effective, being effective in the day, being effective as an owner. And again, these are things I never could have done without first learning how to live my life differently.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:33] So even in the even when you’re struggling with having multiple priority, the word priority and the word priorities to me are they might one might be a plural of the other, but to me that has they have different definitions because a priority means the most important thing. So if there’s priorities, now you’re saying there are several most important things, which it kind of goes against the definition of the word priority. How do you kind of I know you’re shooting for harmony, but how do you kind of prioritize the priorities?

Doug Fleener: [00:10:14] That’s a good question. And, you know, there are so many different elements of of our life. And, you know, so I do I again we start off, most people have five, six, seven different priorities that are important to them. And you know, I’m really like to keep things simple. They all can’t be the priority at the moment, right? I can’t be a maybe a good husband while I got a fire at work and what have you. So it’s really about understanding what is the right choice to make at the right time. And we always have choices, and I think that’s where that’s another element in the book. We call it taking responsibility. It’s kind of a superpower, if you will, because when you own everything that’s happening to you, you have the power to change it. If you think you’re a victim of it, you think some some circumstance you have no control over, then you can’t fix it. So it’s really making those right choices at the right moment.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:16] Now, at some point, don’t you have to determine, as a human on this planet, what is my true north like? What is, you know, kind of the goal of goals? What is this like? I have to have that clear vision of what my standard is before I can prioritize anything.

Doug Fleener: [00:11:42] Yeah.

Doug Fleener: [00:11:43] I think it’s knowing, right? I mean, it’s kind of, you know, cliche, if you will, but, you know, at the end of the at the end when the end of the road comes, you know, what did you accomplish? What do you want people to see. And, and rarely, you know, does anyone say, oh, man, you know, he, he, he ran a hell of a warehouse chain. Uh, right. It’s it’s who we are as people. And I think it’s again, it’s in balance with family and friends and what have you. But for me, it’s I always want to make sure that my actions are congruent with who I want to be. And, you know, a lot of people get in a lot of trouble, if you will, because there’s such a disconnect between those. And again, I think there’s just times where, right, we we need to make money. We, we need to spend time with family. And it’s making sure that we’re really making those right choices at the right moment and understanding that you can have it all. I mean, I like I like to joke and say that, you know, whoever said you can’t have it all didn’t own their own business. Because when you own your own business, especially, you get to make some of these choices.

Doug Fleener: [00:12:52] Right?

Lee Kantor: [00:12:52] Because ultimately the buck stops with you. There’s no kind of, you know, obnoxious boss who doesn’t get you. You’re the obnoxious boss who might not be choosing wisely. Now go ahead.

Doug Fleener: [00:13:06] Let me just say one thing real fast on that. It’s funny, I worked with with a coach, Alan Weiss, and I love it. But he would say to the people is he says, you know, so most of you people who are self employed work for a terrible boss.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:21] Sadly that’s true. They may not thought it was.

Doug Fleener: [00:13:25] A great line.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:26] Now, is there a way to prevent kind of an overwhelm? Because I can see, especially in entrepreneur, when they’re wearing multiple hats, that by itself seems overwhelming. But to to create kind of action items for myself just on my business, that to do list can get really out of hand quickly. And then if I layer in my personal life and my family life and my community responsibility life, all of that stuff can really overwhelm. Is there a way to manage each of those so that I am being effective with each of those different priorities that I do have?

Doug Fleener: [00:14:09] But I think that’s where starting off at the start of the day, understanding, you know, what do you want to advance? What is my most focused, my most important, my priority. And so again, if I think about, say, driving revenue, it’s not one thing is just to open the doors and whatever your business is, but it’s also making sure that we are doing the strategies and we’re doing the things in the day that will drive revenue. And if you’re the owner, you know, unless you’ve got a sales manager and you’re positive they’re doing it, then then you have to be doing that. So it’s knowing that, you know, when you do get overwhelmed, what happens? Nothing happens. So it’s really focusing on what are those that next most important thing I like personally I like the time block. So I’ll block out, you know, if I have something very important, you know, if you wanted to, if you had the opportunity to meet someone who’s really important in your life and you could meet them for an hour, you would put it on your calendar. You’d even probably go to that location early. You would really block it out. But we don’t block it out for ourselves and for the people around us. So time blocking, I think, can really be important. It’s like, you know what, for the next hour, this is what I’m going to do. The other thing I think owners have that entrepreneurs and owners have to do better at is learning just to say no and just say not now. So often they don’t own their own time. They don’t own their own day. Anyone can interrupt them. And I think sometimes when you’re really focused on the right things to get done, you have to be able to say, hey, not now.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:44] Now in your life when you were making the transition from addict to being in recovery, when did you start believing that, okay, this time it’s going to stick. This time is the time that I am going to, you know, get to the other side of this.

Doug Fleener: [00:16:05] Yeah, it actually for me, it happened very early in my recovery. At the time, I owned a marine supply store, and I went to into a recovery meeting after about 3 or 4 days. And I walked in and, and I saw some guys that I really that I knew some of my customers. And they walked up to me and they said, we’ve we’ve been waiting on you. And so that kind of tells you how well I was hiding my life. But you know what? I what really inspired me is that I saw happy people. I just remember walking in this room and it was bright and there was laughter. And I thought, you know what? I, you know, people can live this way and be happy. And and I try to bring that not only to people in recovery, but also people outside recovery. And, you know, and I appreciate this conversation we’ve had about, you know, keeping this work life in harmony or in balance, whatever you want to call it, that, you know, there’s a lot of people out there who do it, and it’s understanding that the payoff is so well worth it. You just have to do it a day at a time.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:13] Now, any advice you mentioned how during the period that you were an addict, that things didn’t go so well for a lot of people, and I’m sure some of the people were close to you and some of the people might have been family members of you. How would you recommend a family member that has a member of their family going through something like this to help them help themselves? I know you can’t fix anybody else, but as a I’m a parent and if my child was going through this, it would be I know that I would be torn. You know, I’d want to do everything to protect my child. But I also they got to kind of deal with the ramifications of their actions and their choices. How would you advise a family member to help somebody that’s going through addiction?

Doug Fleener: [00:18:07] I really appreciate that question. I think first, first and foremost, you have to take care of yourself. And a lot of people get lost in someone else’s disease. And and so it creates just even more turmoil in those. If, if you’re in a relationship and connected in any way with someone with addiction, alcoholism, and obviously there’s many addictions beyond drugs, you know, it can become a very chaotic life. So first and foremost, take care of yourself. And the second is to not enable people, you know, part of a part of the turnaround that can happen. And whether it’s, you know, you mentioned someone come to you for coaching and business and they’re hurting or on the recovery side, you know, at some point someone has to hit a bottom and kind of say, I’m done with this. Now, alcoholics and addicts have a potential to keep digging the hole quite well, but you can enable them. And I think that would you know, that would is the hardest thing for a parent is to watch your child suffer and and not try to fix them. You can give them every opportunity to, to get help, but ultimately you can’t enable them to the point that they can continue to destroy their lives and others.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:31] So when you started coaching, when did you start feeling like, okay, this is something that I do have a message that’s resonating. I can help people. And when when that happened, can you share a story that maybe kind of illustrates how you were able to help someone through their own challenges to get to a new level?

Doug Fleener: [00:19:52] The.

Doug Fleener: [00:19:54] And, you know.

Doug Fleener: [00:19:55] The coaching actually came out of I was director of retail for Bose Corporation. So it was with them and took them from one store to 100 stores. I ran a law office title firm. So, you know, the coaching was just a natural part of leadership. And so, you know, I’d been doing it. I just would never necessarily called myself a coach, but I was coaching people. And the story that I think about, I love to tell is about this woman named Kim. And we were opening a store up in Foley, Alabama. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there. Um, so they have some of the best royal red shrimp anywhere. And we met Kim and Kim. You could just tell she was this, this young woman who had so much potential, and she was the only person who probably didn’t see it. And I told him, I said, you know, I want you to be in a I want you to be a head cashier. And Kim was like, oh, no, I could never do that. And we would just like, Kim, just try it, don’t worry. And each time we Kim mastered what she was asked to do and what we did is and I think this is so important when you coach people is and it’s true in recovery is, you know, when when someone can’t believe in themselves, you believe in them, you walk with them, you show them that they can do it. And I will tell you, nothing made me prouder than when Kim would eventually become store manager of the year at Bose. And this is a woman who just didn’t even want to be a full time cashier. And so, you know, each time Kim got a new opportunity, she nailed it. But she and eventually she got to that place where she believed in herself. And to me, I think that’s just, you know, coaches just don’t, you know, tell you what to do, but definitely walk with you and get you to that next level.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:54] Good stuff. Well, Doug, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you. If somebody wants to get a hold of the book, the day makes the year. Where should they go? Is there a website that you have for your coaching? What are the best coordinates to connect with you?

Doug Fleener: [00:22:12] Uh, thanks. So the book The Day Makes the Year Makes a Life. It’s available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other online sites. You can find me on Doug at Doug fleener.com. And again, if you’re a business owner, I’d love to have you join our group where we help each other become much more effective for more personal and business success. And you can get that at the highly effective business owner.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:40] Good stuff. Well, thank you again, Doug.

Doug Fleener: [00:22:43] Thank you, Lee. Really appreciate getting the message out.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:45] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Forrest Tuff: Visionary Thought Leader

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Forrest Tuff is the CEO and Founder of One Vision Productions, an award-winning media and branding agency voted “Best of Georgia” and one of Atlanta’s “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.”

Recognized among Georgia’s Most Influential Leaders, Atlanta’s Most Powerful Leaders, and the Top 100 Transformational Leaders by the John Maxwell Team, he is a Master Life Coach, Master Certified Motivational and Accredited Speaker®.

Known as the “Brand Strategy” expert, he has given keynotes and workshops throughout the U.S. and 15 countries across five continents. He is also an accomplished producer recognized by his trademark Filmpreneur® due to his creativity and entrepreneurial skill set.

His projects include commercials, documentaries, films, music videos, podcasts, stage plays, and television shows. An avid volunteer and philanthropist, his Pay It Forward program annually awards a grant to a nonprofit.

He is a recipient of the Outstanding Georgia Citizen Award, MLK Community Service Award, and President’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Connect with Forrest on LinkedIn and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Servant Leadership
  • Professional Speaking
  • Coaching Services (Business/Life)
  • The Film Industry
  • Philanthropy and Volunteerism
  • Fatherhood and Parenting

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Forrest Tuff with One Vision Productions. Welcome.

Forrest Tuff: [00:00:44] Hey, thanks for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am so excited to get caught up with what you got going on. Tell us about One Vision Productions. How you serving folks?

Forrest Tuff: [00:00:52] So basically we’re a media production and branding agency, and our job is to make other companies look good. We tell their stories through various media outlets, and we work with them to get their best message out to their consumers.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] But your business also is beyond just the actual act of production, right? You’re helping people in a lot of ways speaking, coaching, philanthropy, there’s tons more facets to this than just producing videos and media, right?

Forrest Tuff: [00:01:18] Yeah, absolutely. But as far as One Vision Productions, that’s where it started. That’s where everything kind of spearheaded, just with that mission to just make our customers look good. And so now it’s grown into other aspects, as you said, you know, speaking, training and doing other things to help businesses grow.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:36] So for the folks out there that maybe are right now working in one space, how do you kind of expand into those other complementary services? How did that come about?

Forrest Tuff: [00:01:46] You know, actually it was kind of organic, you know, working in this media space. I actually had someone to say to me, hey, we having a conference and we’d love for you to come out and speak. And in doing that, they asked me, you know, how much would they would it cost for me to come out and speak? And so that started my professional speaking. You know, I wasn’t really thinking about it, but that was the catalyst that got me going in that space. And for years, for about seven years, I wanted to give back to other organizations. So I became a mentor with Score. That’s a resource partner through the Small Business Administration. And so I had the opportunity to mentor hundreds of businesses and teach workshops and help individuals grow their business and actually help others sustain their businesses. So that’s how some of these other things started to branch out from just the production.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:38] So that’s a great lesson for entrepreneurs is to always be open to other things, to not just go, okay, this is all I do. So, you know, I’m not interested in anything else. So if something is interesting to you, you should kind of pursue it a little bit, right?

Forrest Tuff: [00:02:51] Yeah, absolutely. And you know, one thing I always say about business, because we’re in the business and I always tell people we’re in the business to make money. Yes, we’re serving a customer, but we’re in the business to make money, support our lifestyle, support our families and kids and other things. So you have to know when there’s an opportunity for you to pivot and create more revenue and not pigeonhole yourself if that opportunity makes sense. So I will say this if it makes sense, and you can prepare yourself mentally and get the things you need to help you make those pivots, then I think it’s great to continuously grow your portfolio.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:28] So how do you kind of decide if something makes sense or not? Do you have kind of a checklist, or is there some philosophy that helps you decide, okay, I’m going to pursue this or I’m not going to pursue that?

Forrest Tuff: [00:03:42] Yeah, I operate out of the storytelling vein. It’s kind of weird, but when I started out doing this video thing, even when I was a kid, it was just video. Tell stories, capture memories. So as I started a business 20 years ago, that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to continue to tell stories. And as it grew, we started to tell stories not only from a wedding, from films, but also we’re telling the stories of government agencies, corporations. So I’m in that vein. And when I got into. Public speaking. I was doing the same thing. I was telling stories. I was finding ways to share things that would help others to grow. And so is the same with coaching, listening to stories and and listening to people. And so it’s all about really taking the time to care about people, listening to people. And that’s usually the things that help me to find out what I could be interested in.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:38] Now, throughout your whole career, you’ve been recognized as, you know, best and brightest, best of Georgia, great place to work. All these kind of all this recognition around kind of really the culture of your company. How did you kind of build a culture that gets recognized so often? What were some. Like where did you go for mentorship or for learning in order to build a team and a community that you’ve done so far?

Forrest Tuff: [00:05:11] I think one of the things that originally helped me was. Coming up, I played sports, I played sports at a collegiate level. I actually wanted to play professionally, but due to an injury I didn’t go. So I did play at the collegiate level and I learned how to work within the team since I was a kid. So I use those same principles when I work with people. I had the small stint where I worked in retail and corporate, and there were some things that I may not have agreed with, but there were also some things that were very valuable in terms of team building and those exercises. So I use that positive mantra of reinforcing people and letting them know the vision and being a part of that vision, because when people can take ownership of something and you also support them to grow, oftentimes it can have a positive effect. So in my case, that’s what I did. And that’s how I’ve been able to have such an impact with not only my team members, but just individually and just the things that we’ve done with our clients and customers over a period of time.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:14] Now, what are some dos and don’ts? Maybe for some young leaders and then even some that have come through sports? Because in sports, for every nurturing, benevolent dictator like coach, there’s the, you know, kind of my way or the highway. I’m, you know, listen to me or I’m going to yell at you or humiliate you. Any dos or don’ts for that new leader, because sometimes there’s some, you know, poor examples, especially in the world of sports.

Forrest Tuff: [00:06:42] Absolutely. I think training is necessary. I would be remiss to say that all of these things that we’ve accomplished were without training. So if you find yourself in an area where you recognize that you may not have. The best training or the most knowledge. Go get it. Anytime I wanted to step out into another arena, just like public speaking, it wasn’t something I just jumped into. I actually went in. Trained with Toastmasters, and then I became a member of the National Speakers Association. So it took time and training, even with your team members taking leadership classes. So those are the things I would encourage anyone. Is that as you move into these new spaces, there’s so many different certifications or trainings that you can take to not only become better at what you do, but to also help your team become better. So that for me is how I did it. And I would encourage anyone that’s embarking in entrepreneurship or any type of leadership to make sure that you stay on top of training and always listen.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:46] Now when it comes to coaching or training, how do you kind of discern which are the people that really know something? And then who is somebody who might just be saying they know something because it’s kind of the Wild West out there, and it’s hard to tell because people can look slick on a one page website and, you know, they can be persuasive even in person. But how can you tell? Or how do you kind of recommend vetting? What’s a good coach like? Who’s a good coach and who’s maybe, you know, need need some more time?

Forrest Tuff: [00:08:22] Well, I would say interview the person that you’re going to hire to be your coach. You know, one of the things that I did personally before I became a coach, and this isn’t for everyone, is I was a score mentor for almost eight years. I spent a lot of time learning just how to listen to people, how to find the right information. And once I did that, I began a journey with Transformation Academy to become a certified Master Life Coach. So there’s a process for me that took anywhere from 8 to 10 years. Now, that’s not to say everyone has to have that same journey, but for me, I wanted to make sure that I had a history and I had people that could verify the work that I’ve done. And I would say, for someone who’s embarking on working with someone. If you don’t feel comfortable, ask for references. Try to find people that can attest to what they’ve done and how they were able to support them in their growth. So that’s the thing. I would just do your due diligence. You don’t have to get caught up in social media, but, you know, find out what you know from them, spend some time talking to them.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:33] So when you were deciding, you know, you say, okay, I’m going to be a coach. Now, this is important to me. I think I can provide more value. How did you kind of land on transformational leaders? Like what? I’m sure you went through some. You had to kiss some frogs, right? You had to go and go, okay, this one isn’t for me. You know, this isn’t resonating. This one is more of a fit. Like, how did you go about choosing transformational leaders?

Forrest Tuff: [00:09:58] Well, I actually go through that vetting process myself. When I’m working with someone, I’m not just eager to, hey, let’s give me your money and I’ll coach you. I actually find out what is the end game, what are they trying to accomplish? Who are they? Because that that coaching fit is more like a synergy. It’s like a team, if you will. We we need to work together to try to find how we can grow in this space. So for me, it’s not just about you paying for something. We have a conversation. There’s a first thing we have. We have a 30 to an hour, minute long conversation just about what it is you’re trying to accomplish and your goals. And there have been some people that have suggested this may be a better fit for you to maybe try this route. Or maybe let’s try this on a small basis and see how it works out before we go further. And some we didn’t go further. You know, we maybe had 1 or 2 trial periods. We recognize that this wasn’t a fit and we moved on. So I think for both parties, I think you have to be open and willing to be honest about the relationship and about how you can communicate and if it’s going to work for you to gain that end result.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:05] So what are some when you’re having those initial conversations with someone, what are kind of some of the qualities that they must have, and what are some of the qualities that are kind of super red flags where okay, I know this isn’t going to work.

Forrest Tuff: [00:11:21] Red flags as if they already know everything. As you’re talking about it. That’s a red flag. Someone who already knows all the answers but is reaching out for help. That’s a red flag for me if you know everything. Secondly, if you’re not willing to engage in dialog, meaning true dialog is I listen to you and then I respond and then you listen to me. You respond that type of dialog to be able to actually hear one another. One of the things that I think happens so often is people. Talk at each other as opposed to talking to each other. They talk at each other. They’re saying things. They’ve been here, they’ve done that. And you know, often times it can lead to. A non synergistic, I would say energy between those two people. So for me I would say just having that. That place of actually being able to listen to one another and actually respecting the concept, to actually see if it’s going to be something that helps you.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:26] Now, is there a story you can share? You don’t have to name the individual, but maybe a success story where they came to you, maybe at a plateau, or they were struggling, and then after working with you, they got to a new level.

Forrest Tuff: [00:12:40] Yeah, I actually had a story. It was a family owned business and it was a mother and a daughter and. The challenge is that the mother was trying to exit the business, and the daughter was coming into the space of running the business, and they had done very well. The business had been around for about 25 years. They had been very successful. And the thing that happened is that. The daughter had different ideas, she had a different methodology. And I think that often happens when you run a business one way and you’ve had success, and then here comes someone now who’s like, oh, I want to do this and do that. And so that innovation oftentimes can seem daunting to someone who’s actually sustain that business and kept it afloat and kept it profitable. So in that sessions, in those sessions that we had, we were able to find a place where they embraced each other and respected one another’s viewpoints. And so it was a transition. And this happened over a period of time. I think we were working together for about three months. And in that transition, they began to embrace one another’s ideas and and see how they were able to work together and still be able to keep some of those old values, but add innovation and keep things up to times.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:00] And then in circumstances like that, a lot of times your role is just being kind of that, you know, honest third party, right? Like you’re you’re not there really advocating for one or the other. You’re just trying to keep everybody playing nicely together so they can all get the outcome they each desire.

Forrest Tuff: [00:14:17] Absolutely. And it involves a lot of listening in order to truly hear. Each person’s perspective and to see where they are having a miscommunication. So that is one of those areas. That was a very unique situation for me. But it was it was a great opportunity. To to sit back and listen and to see the end result for them to come to a conclusion. Because at the end of the day, when you’re coaching, you’re not telling someone. It’s almost like a physical therapist. A physical therapist isn’t going to fix you. They’re going to work with you until you get to the point where you can do it on your own. So I kind of look at coaching almost like an analogy of a physical therapist, someone that’s going to work with you and get you to a place where you start to be independent and you start to see how you can do things. And that, for me, was one of those great moments.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:12] Right. And it’s important to note that a lot of times, if they don’t have the humility to ask for a coach or the vulnerability to ask for a coach, and they try to do it themselves, they might have offended each other. They might have, you know, hit some hot button issue that they knew the other person was going to react to and they could have really done damage. And just like you said, with physical therapy, you can go, okay, I know how to do this, and then I can hurt myself worse than when I got here.

Forrest Tuff: [00:15:41] Absolutely. Absolutely. And I can attest to this, Lee, because as a person who’s. Coach others. I’ve also received coaching and it takes a different level of humility. It takes a certain level of being open in order to. And, you know, sometimes you have to have a little thicker skin because some of these things aren’t going to always rub you right. But if you want growth, you have to be able to receive it and know that it’s coming from a place of trying to help you grow. And, you know, don’t fight it, don’t fight it. So I’ve had coaching and I had to I’ve heard some things that made me go, oh yeah, I don’t really feel comfortable with what you said, but I had to realize that it was in the best interest, for I was trying to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:30] Yeah. And that’s the important part, is a coach like you said isn’t there to do it for you. It’s to help you be the best you. And sometimes that is some tough love or some asking you some hard questions.

Forrest Tuff: [00:16:43] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:44] So what do you need more of? How can we help you? You got so much going on. There’s a lot of plates spinning in your world.

Forrest Tuff: [00:16:51] Well, everything is kind of coming to a head. It’s it’s all in the same vein because now, you know, I’m running the media business, we’re doing films, you know, I’m doing speaking and also leadership training. And one of the things that I really focus on is youth. I really focus on helping the youth find their voice through teaching them how to speak, how to communicate, how to interview, how to present themselves. And that’s something that is now more for me, like a passion. I really love working with youth and I love giving back and into the next generation, so that’s kind of where I really am. I’ve always done this, but it’s just something now that as my kids are getting older, they’re out of college getting their master’s, I now can start to impart into other, other children. So that’s really where am Lee? I’ve just really want to continue to keep the business steady and grow it and continue to work with youth and give back.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:48] So if somebody wants to connect with you and learn more, what is the website? What’s the best way to get a hold of you?

Forrest Tuff: [00:17:54] Well, if you want to get in touch with me and other things, you can go to forest. Tough.com. That’s for two hours. Two t’s, two F’s forest tough.com. And if you want to know more about my business and working in the production space, you can visit One Vision productions.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:14] Good stuff. Well congratulations on all the success. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Forrest Tuff: [00:18:20] Thank you so much Lee. I really appreciate you having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:22] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Michael Williams With Bank of America

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Michael Williams holds the corporate title of Senior Vice President and a Small Business Banker Manager for Bank of America. He is responsible for leading 13 Small Business Bankers across Greater Atlanta. This team is responsible for delivering the full capabilities of our company to small business owners.

He joined Bank of America in July of 2011 as a Consumer Market Manager in Augusta, Georgia. During his 12 years, he has held multiple leadership roles in different markets and segments across our consumer, advance client solutions and small business enterprise prior to his current assignment.

He has championed various region and divisional initiatives and takes pride in being a change agent. Prior to joining Bank of America, he successfully held such positions as Regional Service Director, District Manager and Community Bank President during his ten-year career with another Top 5 Financial Services Institution.

During this time he received a great deal recognition for his success in sales, service, operations and team member development. He is committed to building high performing teams through the coaching and development of others by consistently and effectively executing trend based and real time coaching sessions with direct reports.

Michael defines success by his ability to make himself available to all team members as a sounding board as well as mentor, coach and to provide career developmental advance. He is an active leader within the community, volunteering and supporting organizations such as Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Autism Society and Special Olympics.

Connect with Michael in LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What’s driving business owners’ positive outlook towards revenue expectations despite the threat of inflation
  • The economic factors small business owners are most concerned about
  • How women business owners’ recent experiences over the past 12 months have differed from those of male business owners
  • How women business owners have fared gaining access to capital
  • Factors that can create additional challenges unique to women business owners

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Michael Williams. He is the senior vice president, small business banking manager, Atlanta with Bank of America. Welcome, Michael.

Michael Williams: [00:00:42] Good afternoon and thanks for having me. Good to be here with you again.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am so excited to get caught up with you regarding some of the things that are happening in the business world here in Atlanta, and you have kind of a unique lens to all of the activity. Can you talk a little bit about your role?

Michael Williams: [00:00:58] Yes. Well, my role as a small business banking manager is I lead a team of small business bankers who are active in our local community, out in the field meeting with business owners, entrepreneurs, making sure that we’re providing access to capital, finding ways to help simplify their business, streamline productivity, as well as optimize overall cash flow.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] Now in your career, you’ve worked in a variety of roles in banking, including some work with community banks. Can you share a little bit about how a small business person should choose their banking partner? Like, what are some of the trade offs of going with a large enterprise bank like Bank of America versus a community bank?

Michael Williams: [00:01:48] Yeah. Listen, I will tell you that banking, just like anything else in life, is about connections, right? You want to get a team of good people around you. And so my personal recommendation is, you know, almost like an interview process, get to know your local bankers, whether that be through networking events, whether that be through Chamber of Commerce or just going in to some of your local institutions and, and really find out who’s listening to you and providing advice based on where you’re looking to take your organization and some of the specific challenges you may be facing.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:24] So what are some of the questions that small business owners should be asking of that banker?

Michael Williams: [00:02:30] You know, it’s always good to know a little bit about person’s professional background, the different programs and services that the institution provides. But I would tell you, it’s probably more about having someone who’s very interested in you and your business. How did your business get started? Right? Why are you passionate about what you do and what are some of the challenges you faced? And where do you want to take your business in the next 12 months, 3 to 5 years? So I would tell you more so than, you know, someone giving you their credentials. From a banking solutions perspective, it’s good to be with a true advisor, someone who’s going to take the time to understand your priorities, where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re looking to take your organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:19] So if you’re not getting that kind of relationship with your banker, you should probably shop around a little bit then.

Michael Williams: [00:03:27] Yeah. Or let the person know also. Right. Hey listen, feedback is a is a gift. And so, you know, if I’m in a situation where, you know, I’m not getting exactly what I need or I don’t feel heard, I think one of the first things to do, especially if you vote both both parties have invested time in those relationships, is the first. Share that feedback. But definitely there’s nothing wrong with getting a second opinion.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:54] Now, because you do work for one of the largest banking institutions in the country, probably, probably in the world. I would think you have an interesting kind of lens into the small business community, and you’ve done a lot of work with surveys and and a lot of communication with a lot of people in the market here in Atlanta. What are you kind of sensing from the business community here in Atlanta?

Michael Williams: [00:04:22] Yeah, I will tell you, some of our recent surveys have shown that business owners overall are still very optimistic about the next 12 months. They are expecting revenues to increase. That’s down slightly from our last survey. But overall they’re expecting revenues to increase. And a number of businesses are expecting to expand and continue to hire.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:53] Now is it something just because entrepreneurs and business owners tend to be optimistic and look at the glass as half full? You know a lot, if not most of the time. Is it a function of that, or is there really kind of a true belief that, hey, that things aren’t as bad as maybe some of the headlines are saying they are?

Michael Williams: [00:05:14] Yeah, I would tell you that to your point, right? Small business owners, entrepreneurs are typically very optimistic. They’re courageous group. And so that’s a part of it. But the other part is listen, we’ve gone through some some major events. When you think about a global health crisis and being able to manage through that, and those things are also bleeding into the confidence that our small business owners are feeling as well. When you think about 67% of those business owners overall say they expect revenues to increase over the next 12 months.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:54] Now, is there anything that you’re seeing when you kind of parse through the data, like maybe break it down between male business owners versus female business owners, or maybe a minority business owners versus non minority business owners? Or is this just across the board.

Michael Williams: [00:06:12] It is across the board. But there are some things that are unique based on different factors. Right. So for example women entrepreneurs, business owners that were surveyed 63% of them expect revenues to increase. When you look at their male counterparts, the males are about 70%. If you go into some of the ethnic groups as well, Hispanic Latino business owners, 91% say they expect revenues to either increase or remain flat, with 63% of those surveyed saying they expect revenues to increase. Right. And you’re seeing that also increase in the African-American community as well, with 86% of black business owners saying they expect revenues to increase and three of four expecting to expand their business. And I’ll give you some examples of those just here locally. I think about we just helped a. A woman dentist opened up her practice, right? She’s been in the industry for quite a few years, has a great brand within the local community, and we were able to work with our Practice Solutions team that specializes in doctors, dentists, vets and help with accessing gaining access to capital to. Identify and open up a facility, as well as get the equipment she needed, and also cash flow for the staffing until the business can start generating enough revenue to sustain itself in a few months.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:02] Now we do hear a Business RadioX. We do a lot of work with women owned business businesses and the organizations that serve them. A lot of times you hear women business owners have a harder time accessing capital. Is that something that’s changing? Is there some tips you can recommend for a women business owner to get access to some of that needed capital?

Michael Williams: [00:08:31] When you think about women, business owners and access to capital of about 78%, right? Say that they. Plan to obtain financing. 1 in 3. Still feel like it’s very difficult for women to obtain access to to capital. Um, and so a lot of that has to do with, you know, access to advice. So once again, you know, having a relationship with a lender, right? 42% of women owned businesses said they didn’t have a relationship with the lender. So that would be one of the steps, right? Making sure that like we spoke about earlier, you develop a relationship with a local business advisor who understands what your business priorities are and can be a part of advising and helping you build a roadmap to get that access to capital. And then 31% felt they didn’t have the proper information or qualifications that made them feel confident. Would applying for access to capital. So, you know, really having your financials in order, right, 2 to 3 years of business and personal tax returns, being able to speak to your personal and business debts, having an advisor and an accountant or a CPA who understands what your long term goals are for the business. And taking that into consideration as they’re working on your financial documents as well, and advising you. But I would say the number one thing, there was an access or relationship with a lender.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:18] Now, in any business relationship with an advisor, are you and especially when it comes to banking, is it reasonable to ask of the banker for advice for, hey, what do you think I should do? Or is it something that you’re just presenting the banker with information like, here’s my tax returns, here’s my, you know, the bookkeeping information, and you know, you’re telling me, okay, maybe you could get a loan here, or if you did this, that would, you know, help you maybe make more money next year. Like, where is the consulting line as opposed to just, hey, we have access to capital. And if you bring me these documents, I check I have a checklist here and I check them all off and I have that. Then I can present this and then I can help you get a loan or, or help you kind of grow your business. Like where is consulting, advising? How do you kind of discern all of this?

Michael Williams: [00:11:21] Yeah. Listen, I will tell you, I think back to Hispanic and Latino business owners, and 84% of them who surveyed said they wish they had more educational resources, right, centered around their small business. And so, to your point, you know, um, a banking financial professional is a part of that. But sometimes it’s also about access to resources, educational resources, whether it be online or in person or courses or different websites. At Bank of America, we have our Bank of America forward slash small business site, and there are a lot of resources on there, including feedback and and best practices from other business owners. And so, you know, I would start leveraging additional resources. Your advisor is there to provide some level of direction and support. But at the end of the day, you are the quarterback of your business, right? Nobody’s going to care as much about that business as the owners and the people who are putting their blood, sweat and tears into it every day. And so just continue to do your research. Definitely leverage your banking professional. Right. But they can’t discourage you, nor should they discourage you from applying and leverage your different educational resources, whether it be through our site that has a multitude or some other resources out there, and then make sure you do your homework to make sure you’re aware of the different government programs and resources that are available as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:04] Right. But when you’re like most business owners obviously aren’t as knowledgeable about finance as a banker. Like this is what bankers do every day. This is all they’re thinking about 24 over seven, where a business owner comes in and they might be good at, you know, cutting hair, or they could be good at fixing a car, or they could be good at, you know, marketing programs. But to have somebody in your corner that’s kind of watching your back and then guiding you a little bit or encouraging you to to proceed, like you said, with government, there might be government money available, but you don’t even know what you don’t know. But the banker might see 50 applications of this in a week, and then they can say, hey, have you considered this? Is that reasonable?

Michael Williams: [00:13:52] That is reasonable to expect your banker to provide at, you know, point you in the right direction of different resources that you may be able to take advantage of, even things like community development programs as well, that that may be available that a lot of banks support. Bank of America, number one is a is a big supporter of community development, financial support that’s out there. So but everything is about having a team of advisors, right. No one person is the the keeper of of all answers. But between your team of advisors, I would say to any business owner, you know, get a team, a good team of advisors, who’s your banker? Um, who’s your your CPA or accountant, who’s your trusted person in the industry or mentor that you can work with as well? So I definitely agree with you. You should be able to lean on all of your advisors to make you aware of different resources that they’ve come in contact with, with their years of experience or resources that are available through that organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:06] Well, I think that that’s at the heart of what a good, trusted advisor is, because if. Are not helping you grow your business in tangible ways, not just executing whatever their job is. If they’re not kind of watching your back and letting you know, hey, there’s an opportunity here. Or, hey, you should meet this person here that I just met. Like, if they’re not actively helping you grow, then you better find a different trusted advisor because they’re not. It’s too hard to do this on your own. And you can’t just have vendors or service providers like bankers. Just do the minimum of just, you know, putting deposits in the bank and, you know, sending you a statement every month.

Michael Williams: [00:15:51] Yeah, exactly. We got to be thinking, like, as I said earlier, how do we help you streamline your business? How do we help you simplify your business, if you can, or how do we allow you to hold on to cash longer so you can invest in other areas? I met with a client earlier this year who was really right, starting to have a few issues when it comes to labor, right? And so they were thinking about ways that they can run their business more efficiently. And we were all able to get together and they connected with some folks and research and development, and we were able to help them finance a new piece of equipment that did not take jobs away. It actually allowed them to be more efficient with the staff that they had, and to invest in those employees in a way that they were able to build a different and even more complex skill set, which would serve them better in the future as far as higher wages. But all that started from a tour of her plant, right? And understanding the different challenges and where the business was growing and some of the challenges that the business was facing when it comes to talent, access to talent as a resource. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:16] And that’s not an obvious place where a banker would help. But it was critical in the growth of this company. And that’s that’s a true trusted advisor.

Michael Williams: [00:17:25] Yes, sir.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:27] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the coordinates?

Michael Williams: [00:17:35] Um, go to Bank of America, backslash small business. That’ll be our resource site, which also allows you to set appointments with your local small business specialists, either in the financial center or one of our small business bankers that could come out to your place of business as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:56] And then when you have a banker and you are working with somebody, a Bank of America, is it something you should check in with them in person every quarter, every six months, every year? How often do you recommend having these kind of human to human conversations?

Michael Williams: [00:18:12] Yeah. Listen, I would definitely say at a minimum, um, every six months, but ideally about every 90 days. I was looking at one of our prior surveys, and it said that over 80% of the business owners had an action plan and were looking to adjust or revisit their action plan on a monthly, quarterly or semiannually basis. So a lot of business owners are starting to see the value of not only having an advisor, but to your point, meeting with them on a regular basis. So definitely every six months and ideally at least once a quarter, even if it’s just a touch base, um, to make sure things are still the same and folks move, right, folks? Folks get promoted or they go and follow other passions. And so you want to make sure that you and your advisor are still connected.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:10] Good stuff. Well, Michael, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Michael Williams: [00:19:16] Oh, thanks for having me. And you guys do a wonderful job informing and advising the local community as well. So keep up the great work.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:25] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

Kristin Bell and Laneisha Roberts With ReviewTailor

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Laneisha Roberts, Co-Founder and CEO of ReviewTailor.

She has over 15 years of leadership experience in government and healthcare industries and has proven track record in leading and developing exceptional talent.

Previous founder of social app featured in AfroTech (BlessApp).

Connect with Laneisha on LinkedIn.

Kristin Bell, Co-Founder and COO.

She has experience with HR tech startups and fortune 500 companies across healthcare financial services, and manufacturing industries.

2019 SHRM Central Arkansas Rising Star Award and Advisory Board Member for VC-backed DEI/HR tech startup.

Connect with Kristin on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Founding story
  • How bias manifests in the performance reviews/importance of equity
  • Who ReviewTailor targets

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the land and business radio, we have Kristin Bell and Laneisha Roberts with Review Taylor. Welcome.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:00:45] Awesome. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Lee, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about review Taylor. How you serving folks.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:00:53] Yeah, yeah. So Review Taylor is an HR tech platform right now focused on performance management, performance management reviews. And we do our very best to enable employees and managers to have a more equitable and time optimized experience when it comes to performance reviews.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:13] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did this even come about?

Kristin Bell: [00:01:18] Yeah, so very funny story. Laneisha and I met in a Facebook group and kept in contact, and we started just to share our passions around having equitable outcomes in the workplace for people having very similar pain points. Lanisha from more of a manager people leader perspective, myself from an HR practitioner perspective, and decided that our current tools that we use around performance management were not solving for the root cause of the problem, which is saving time and equity within the process. And so we said, why not us? Let’s solve this problem together.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:55] So now walk us through what it’s like for a typical performance review happening right now in corporate America. Is it? Is it just super biased and subjective, or is it really getting to the heart of who are my real, true, you know, high performers and who are not?

Kristin Bell: [00:02:15] My question. So a typical performance review today, say is a very clunky and in some organizations manual process. If you were to ask 100 managers what was their most painful time of the year, I’m pretty sure at least 90% of those would say performance review time frame. The reason for that is because oftentimes managers have to keep track of employee performance highlights. If they are, let’s just start there. If they are keeping track of it in a potentially a spreadsheet or some disconnected data source. And so when it’s time for that annual or semiannual or whatever, the cadence is a review cycle, they’re having to reference various different sources to piece together one review for a single employee. And assuming that manager has multiple employees, this could be a very tedious process, and through that process, it can often lead to biases in the overall performance review process. You know, some biases that creep into the process could be halo or recency bias, where you know what, I can’t quite remember what you did 12 months ago, but I know there’s one thing you did last week. And so let me just highlight that and use that to support your overall performance for the year.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:38] Now, I have talked with several people in large organizations and they run into this. They too, as an individual, they dread this performance review time because they never can remember all the stuff. And then a lot of times they don’t. They dismiss some of the things that might be really important. And then, like you said, the recency effect where they remember the latest thing. So I was coaching them to just put a folder in your, you know, in your desk and just start just throwing stuff in there as you’re accomplishing things. Just so you remember the things that happened 12 months ago, because you’re never going to remember, you know, by going through your calendar or however you’re doing it now. It just seems so inefficient. But if you have somebody wrote a note complimenting you, or you have some success, throw it in this folder so you have at least data to support your, you know, whatever you’re trying to accomplish from a promotion or raise.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:04:39] Yeah. And that’s a really good point, Lee. And something that you, you point out there is that employees will still have to make the effort of creating whatever that performance highlight was or going into the system to update their goals. And that could be through whatever system that they’re currently using today, or if it’s just being kept on a spreadsheet or via email. But the one thing that I think really also sets Revue Taylor apart in this space is that for managers and employees, that information can now be tracked in one system, right? A centralized location. And at the time of the performance review, our system allows for all of those nodes and those performance highlights that have been gathered and the goal updates to now generate a review for you summarizing those accomplishments with the click of a button somewhere between 6 to 8 seconds. And so that’s also saving some time. That’s also supporting removing some of that recency bias or even some of the affinity bias. If there is, you know, just not the recollection of the data that’s been there and the accomplishments from throughout the year. So I think it’s a really important piece that that is missing today from a lot of the systems and the processes that we use. So even if employees are currently using a system where it doesn’t have that ability to pull everything in, they can still use what we have as our single user solution, where they can create their own review and then add that into their current system.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:08] Does this prevent some of some people are just better at these reviews and they’re better at spinning, you know, something that might be kind of minor into something major just because that’s their personality, they’re good at it, and other people are not good at it, where they kind of downplay the the contributions they make. Is does this kind of help each of that out so that the manager has a truer picture of what’s really happening?

Laneisha Roberts: [00:06:34] Oh yeah. Absolutely. And again, you know, the training that companies will give their employees and their managers about how to write a performance review will translate differently depending on how that information was delivered, how the employee and or the manager was able to adopt it. And so I think what I does in this case generative AI does in this case is it levels the playing field, right. It creates a space of access for people to be able to use something or system or technology that can help them to write and really thoroughly explain what they’ve accomplished throughout the year.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:15] Now, do you have any data to support the hypothesis that it’s inefficient, that there’s biases that are affecting performance, that the people with the highest performance aren’t necessarily being rewarded in the same manner as they should be? And maybe the there’s people in the lower end that aren’t being, you know, accounted for in that manner as well as their kind of data to support this is a better mousetrap.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:07:44] I’ll tell you what data we do have. Lee. We did a survey back in the beginning of the spring where we talked to a number of different employees, managers as well as HR administrators who would be overseeing the performance review process. And I want to say over 50% of those survey respondents really felt that there was a huge opportunity to create a more equitable practice within the performance review. The only other data that I would encourage organizations and people to look at is take a look at the demographic makeup of the organization. If you are able to see that a certain population of people are not advancing in the organization at similar rates, then there is an opportunity to really take a step back and assess and determine, are we evaluating talent in a way that is fair and that is equitable? Do we have a clear criteria that has been identified for singing? What is top talent. And those are usually conversations that don’t happen very often. And so many organizations are still operating from practices that are and could be outdated. So that is the data that I would encourage people to reflect on is what is your current organization look like and what people processes have been reviewed to to change that if it’s not a favorable outcome?

Lee Kantor: [00:09:10] Now, is this for the leadership of the organization? Is this something that is solving a problem that is a pain point for them right now, or is this kind of a nice to have? This would be great if we were able to do this. But, you know, by not knowing exactly if our performance reviews are optimal or optimized, you know, across the board, it’s kind of it’s kind of a wash, like, you know, you win some, you lose some. But is this something that they’re really missing out on opportunities? Are they really missing out on talent because they’re not rewarding the right people effectively? Like is this something that is a true pain point, or is it something that’s a kind of a nice to have?

Kristin Bell: [00:09:59] I’m sure. So I will say that review Taylor is solving for two pain points. One of those being the time aspect. And there is data numerous data available. One of those metrics is that on average, a manager spends 210 hours a year just on the performance management process. So we know that this is a pain point, not just experience in isolation and individual locations or organizations, but it’s something that’s shared across the board. So with our solution, part of our our aim is to truly address that time piece. And so because it’s such a tedious process, there are folks who are often, you know, truly left out of that process from a developmental standpoint, because if the review is just done to check a box, for example, because it’s a tedious process, then we miss valuable opportunities to truly nurture and develop and hold these crucial conversations with the employees during these, not just in the annual review stages, but also various points throughout the year.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:11:09] And I’ll also add on to what Lanisha shared there, something that comes to mind for me as a true HR executive here is cost saving mechanisms. And so when you think about traditional HR, you think about a non revenue generating function. However it is your people function and it is the function that drives the employees experience throughout their time at the organization and what their experience can be like post leaving the organization and cost saving mechanisms really contribute a lot to the bottom line, such as being able to retain employees, being able to develop the talent that you need internally, creating a culture of engagement that translate and that translates into productivity, which can then translate into, you know, how you’re able to acquire new business or market expansion or innovation for different ideas, ideas that can drive revenue. So being able to get employees the information that they need to continue their development, you know, largely benefits the organization. And we want to find a way to make it easier for the employees and the manager. I think that’s a definite area of concern and should be a priority to any organization that wants to be successful and go the distance.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:30] Yeah, I agree, I think that if you talk about it in terms of culture, that you’re not leaving anybody behind, that everybody is going to get kind of a fair shake at this. Then you have an opportunity to really, you know, kind of visibly practice what you preach. When you say people are your most important asset here is to say, I’m treating everybody equally here and everybody’s going to to kind of get the same treatment. It’s not going to be as affected by bias as these other more subjective ways of doing performance reviews. And I think that that could help in retention and in also acquiring the talent that you need to grow and to demonstrate that you actually do care about the people.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:13:16] Oh, yeah. Lee, it sounds like you’re already a believer. And we need to get you access to review Taylor.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:21] Well, what? Like, how does it work for, like, say, I’m in? What do I have to do in order to make this tool work for me?

Laneisha Roberts: [00:13:28] Yeah. So there’s two approaches here. One is a for a for a single user solution. So Lee, if if Business Radio or Radio X is using a system that is not currently review Taylor, and maybe you still want to make the process easier for yourself as an individual. We offer a freemium model where you can still download the solution and create an account, and you can keep your performance highlights there and you can still generate your review. You’ll just need to either export it as a PDF or download it, or copy and paste it. And then the second piece of that is, if you are a small business or a business that has less than 500 employees, then you have the option of exploring one of our packages and and being able to pick the right plan for you and your organization, and having that customized hands on support to getting this implemented and in access for all of your employees. So you can do that just by going to booking a demo on our website review taylor.com and one of our team leaders will reach out to you to to provide that support.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:40] So your target you’re really I mean, I would imagine your main goal is to get in front of HR people in companies under 500 employees, like the more of those you could reach, the better.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:14:52] Yeah, yeah, that would be for our business solution. And again, we do have another option available for those who may be at organizations where their H.R team is not budging. Or they maybe they’ve just signed a contract that they’re locked into as an individual contributor or an employee. You can still use that. And even as a manager, you can still use the single user version and create a review for your employees. And again, so we have two different audiences there. We have just the individual contributor, the manager for the single user, and then for the business solution. We want those small organizations that really care about their people and who care about getting it right early on in their journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Well, thank you both so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:15:40] Awesome. Thank you so much. We are very passionate about this space and hoping that we’re creating the impact that will outlast us both.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:48] Yep. And that website one more time is review Taylor t I l o r.com. Thank you both.

Laneisha Roberts: [00:15:56] Awesome. Thank you Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:57] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

Mandy Aran With Insight Food Group, Inc.

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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Mandy Aran is the CEO of Insight Food Group. He is sought out as an industry expert in the food & beverage category.

With more than 40 years of experience, he has spent his career building, executing and creating brands for a host of companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, ARAMARK and Naturipe Farms.

He has developed long-term professional relationships and leverages these connections. At Insight Food Group, he brings together all facets of the food & beverage industry. From the color on the package to the quantity in the carton, his obsession with product perfection drives success for his clients.

Connect with Mandy on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Learnings of year one
  • Understanding the power of relationships
  • The importance of organizational alignment – Sales and Ops
  • Giving back time to help others

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Mandy Aran and he is with Insight Food Group. Welcome.

Mandy Aran: [00:00:33] Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me on the show.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] Well, I’m excited to get caught up with you. But for the folks who don’t know, tell us a little bit about Insight Food Group, how you serving folks?

Mandy Aran: [00:00:42] Well, you know, it’s funny because. 15, 16 months ago, I made the decision of going out into the business world on my own and use those years of expertise that I have in the food and beverage industry and kind of offer that specialized service to customers. So what we do, it’s on really three different fronts if we think about it. Number one is I buy and sell broker raw material to suppliers. We further manufacture it. I also represent brands in the marketplace as far as presenting to supermarket chains, wholesalers, distributors, etcetera. And then there’s the consulting piece where I help companies that need a little help on whether it’s general business consulting, management, consulting or, you know, how do I get my international item into the US? What do I need to know and how do I get there? And those are kind of the services that I’ve been offering for the last 15.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:45] So now what are some of the learnings of having been in business now for these 15 months? Was it as easy as you thought? Was it as simple as putting your shingle out? And then, you know, you build it and they will come? What have you learned?

Mandy Aran: [00:01:58] Well, you know, it’s been a humbling time, to say the least. First of all, happy birthday to Inside Food Group. We are officially a year old now after many months of trials and tribulations. But, you know, the first year of operation has been kind of humbling and inspiring at the same time. You know, you start with a vision and work to execute that vision, and then the business starts to grow and evolve. And it’s nothing like you plan for, okay? That’s also the beauty of being an entrepreneur As your presence in the marketplace starts to expand, you make those informed decisions and you might end up in a different direction than you would plan. But that’s part of the learnings and the experience of year one, right? And I wouldn’t want it any other way. There’s been a lot of support from family and friends, colleagues and most importantly to my wife who’s put up with me the last 31 years that I’ve had her unwavering support. So it’s a team effort on the home front. It’s a team effort with your relationships and how you bring them opportunities that since you have that relationship, you’ve cut down that time cycle of trying to introduce an item or a product or a service because you’ve targeted them specifically and they trust you to bring them only items or opportunities that work in their realm.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:19] Well, you mentioned that you have been doing this for a minute. It’s not like you had this idea one day and said, Hey, let me start offering this to people. So you had a network already. How important was that network in terms of getting feedback from them in terms of, you know, hey, this is a great idea. I’ll think of you the next time. And for them to open the doors and kind of advocate for you and say, Hey, I got a guy that knows how to do this. Has that been paying off for you?

Mandy Aran: [00:03:51] It happens every day. Okay. I have got a short list of folks that I call colleagues. Many of them are friends. I mean, I’ve been in the business for over 40 years, and I can tell you 5 or 6 people that I still have as business partners and business opportunity folks that are also my friend. So they’re going to give you not only the good and the bad, but the ugly. They’ll tell you, listen, if you do it this way, things might be a little better for you or think about this. So when you talk about learnings and experience, that’s where you get a lot of your learnings and experience from those relationships that you’ve built up over the years. And it doesn’t make it any easier. But at the end of the day, if it comes to a tie and it’s you and somebody else, seven out of ten times you’ll come out winning. You’re not going to win every time, but you have a leg up because of those relationships and that they know the way you do business is the right way to do business. There’s a lot of folks out there that, you know, don’t don’t preach it. I preach it and I live it.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:09] And that’s great advice for other people that are looking to go out on their own. It isn’t like a sign of weakness to ask the people, you know, for help and and to just say, hey, I’m out here doing this. You know, think of me next time you have that need because you already know me. I might have been somewhere else, but I’m the same person where I’m at today. 100%. 100%. Now, a kind of a corollary to that is listening to your clients, are you finding that the people that you are doing business with, when you really kind of immerse yourself into their business and helping them be successful, that that also bubbles up opportunities that maybe neither one of you had thought of initially.

Mandy Aran: [00:05:56] 100% agree with you on that one as well. You know, I remember having a simple breakfast meeting with a dear friend of mine who recommended that I reach out to a gentleman at the Latin American Chamber of Commerce here in South Florida called Carmichael. Now. They are a membership based organization. So I obviously became a member. But, you know, it’s not always being at the right place, at the right in the right time, but it’s also trying to give back to the folks in the community that you live in. Okay, So I’ve done a couple of workshops for them, both in English and Spanish because I am bilingual, you know, And that in turn led me to be a participant at a couple of trade shows as a presenter. Again, you’re giving your time, You’re giving your your expertise. Not only for the health of the organization, but in turn to help yourself. You know, there’s been plenty of opportunities where I’ve done some community outreach, gone to farmers markets, for example, where those start up brands start, you know, and get to know the folks and hear their passion about their business and their brand and what makes them a little bit different. That is eye opening When you get down into the grassroots of people that this is what they do all day, every day. It’s a little humbling when you can help them, when you can take them to the next step, when you can get them slotted into a small store opportunity where only, you know, the organization may only have 4 or 5 stores, but to them that leap into retail, into that marketplace is a tremendous opportunity. So, yes, to your point, there are learnings that come from all of this, but a lot of it comes from putting yourself out there, giving your time to others and helping them as much as you can.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:54] Now, as an entrepreneur now, and I’m assuming that a lot of your business is you, right? It relies on you to acquire the business and a lot of times it relies on you to execute the business. How do you kind of balance that, you know, your daily or or weekly workflow in terms of how much how often are you wearing that business development hat and how often are you wearing that consultant? Do the work hat.

Mandy Aran: [00:08:26] Well, thank God there’s 24 hours in a day. Lee You know, the most important thing for my organization, for Inside Food Group is to generate revenue, period. It’s if we don’t generate revenue, none of this helps. So I tend to spend and block hours of the day to do nothing else. But. Obviously, if there’s a, you know, a dumpster fire somewhere, you go and you solve it and you fix it. But I organize my day by blocking hours of time to dedicate my entire focus to that particular task. If it’s business development, then that’s what it is. If I am engaging with customers and following up on emails and phone calls, then that’s what I do. It’s getting yourself into a routine that you make, the time that you need to make the time some days or more, some days or less. There are no weekends and there are no holidays. You work and I have found that that recipe so far has worked well for my customers, my prospective customers, and for my work life balance. Okay. You make the time. You do what you need to do when it needs to be done and good things will come in the long run.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:44] Now, when anybody is starting any venture, it’s very tempting to just take business from wherever it it kind of bubbles up. Have you gotten to the point where you feel confident that you know that ideal client for yourself, the one that you wish you could clone, The one that if you had more of them, you could really serve the heck out of them. And that becomes the sweet spot for your business. Is there an ideal client persona for you?

Mandy Aran: [00:10:13] Well, the biggest thing that I’ve seen over time is a lot of folks think that they’re ready to take that leap. Okay. Of having someone represent their brand or having someone have someone help them generate all the necessary paperwork to come into the country. And more chances that than not, you find that those folks are just not quite ready. Because once you start peeling that onion and looking at the different things that the organization has done and that the organization needs to do, and you bring this to life to them, they start thinking about, Oh, you mean I needed to do this before I manufactured all that product? Yes, sir, you do. And that’s why it’s important to count on a consultant like myself that knows those steps in the progress and knows that step in the systems so that when you say you’re ready, you’re ready. There’s no worse feeling than, you know, going through the whole rigorous process of getting your brand approved and having it ready to go. And then you find something else over here on the side that you didn’t think about or you should have thought about and you weren’t ready. So part of that consultancy piece is make sure your customers are ready to go to market with everything, full guns blazing.

Mandy Aran: [00:11:42] You’re ready to go. And that in turn generates. The interest coming from the retailers when you tell them, listen, I’m licensed, here’s my distribution point. This is my marketing budget. This is how we plan to strategically place our products in your store. And here is an ad calendar, for example, of what our thoughts in because the leading presence in this marketplace, you’ve got to support your brand and there’s no backup. Yes, the brand is wonderful. The product is what you say it is. The retailer sees value and what you’re bringing to them, but there isn’t a plan behind it. The product just isn’t going to sell itself on the shelf. You have to create the excitement. And that’s what inside food groups and the other companies that I use to assist me in my business, you know, add that level of seriousness and integrity. You have to have all your ducks in a row. Everything has to be pristine because as I mentioned the last time on the show, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. And that first impression is critical.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:54] Now, is your ideal or an an ideal client fit for you, somebody that’s here in America that wants to expand in America? Or would it be somebody in another country that’s trying to get into America and then expand into America?

Mandy Aran: [00:13:12] It’s a little bit of both, Lee. There are folks that are have a presence in other states, for example, in Florida and are looking to break into the Florida market. Then that’s one opportunity. The second opportunity, obviously, is the international customers. Now, those take a little bit more time because there’s regulations that have to be met in labeling requirements. And, you know, something as simple as a UPC code. A lot of folks don’t think about that. But if you don’t have a UPC code, you can’t come to this country because there’s no way to distinguish what categories are coming in. So it’s a little bit of both. I’d like to call it a little piece of humble pie, for lack of a better term, where you got a little bit of a mix. You’re not, you know, depending on one category of business to run the entire business. So it’s good to have a nice mix of both and both opportunities exist and are being carried on every day.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:12] So what is happening in your prospective client’s business right now, where they should be going? You know what? I got a call, Mandy, at Insight Food Group. I think they can really help me. What is the challenge that they’re facing? What are the things that are keeping that person up at night when in terms of growing their business where they’re at today?

Mandy Aran: [00:14:38] Well, a lot of it has to do with with prior planning, right? The retail sector in the US is very strategic. It’s planned out your typical life cycle of entering a product into the US and getting it on the shelf is somewhere between 12 and 18 months. And that’s just the reality of the process, right? By the time you find that retailer that you’re interested in pursuing because it’s a geographical winner or whether it’s close to a port or something like that, you have to have somebody in place that really knows how to manage that process, that knows the process on the back end, so that when you’re guiding your customer, you’re giving them 100% solid information. Now, some customers insist on going another way. My job as a consultant is not to tell them what they want to hear, but tell them the realities. And that’s where folks learn to like you. That’s where folks learn to respect your opinion. And it’s a matter of guiding them in the right direction. Do I bring on every customer that I deal with? I wish. But that’s not the reality of this world. The reality is you’ve got to give them a reason to like you and seriousness, your experience in the marketplace. Anyone that comes in that wants to know what I do and how I do, the first thing I like to do is give them a reference to an existing customer. Here’s a number, here’s a name. Call them up and talk to him about what I’ve done for them. And I have that relationship with my customers where they’re excited to tell two people about me.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:24] Now, you mentioned going to these farmers markets and seeing all these people that are just out there taking a shot and grinding a lot of them. And a lot of times this is their first time, you know, they might have a day job and this is just a passion for them. They want to, you know, put it out there and see what the public thinks. Is there any advice for that person that is aspiring a food and beverage entrepreneur that you can share that can help them maybe get to a new level? You know what, Some of that low hanging fruit that these folks that you see that if they would just do a little more of this, maybe that would help them a lot.

Mandy Aran: [00:17:05] Well, the one thing I can tell you is when I go into these farmers markets and I talk to these startups or entrepreneurs, however we call them, I don’t come in there with a standard corporate grade. Okay? Many of them are working hand to fist, hand to mouth on keeping their business alive and keeping their dreams alive. So. I do. So I’m not going to say it’s free, but I do so at a much reduced cost so that they can take the expertise that I have and the experiences that I have with these organizations and elevate it a little bit. At the end of the day, they have to be committed to it. And yes, it’s going to require a little bit of an investment, but much less than if it were a standard organization coming in from an international organization just because of the level of work. Number one. Number two. You get to feel their passion. A lot of what we do when we’re out there selling is we tell a story. We tell a story about how that organization is, how it started. What’s driving them to get to where they are. And there is no better feeling than going to one of these markets on the weekend, talking to someone engaging and then two, three, 4 or 5 months later, you’ve got product on the shelf for them. That can be the next piece of sliced bread that America wants to buy. And you never know. And I want to give them that opportunity to succeed and be that Amazon of product of the week or what have you. That’s what gets me going. That’s what wakes me up every day saying, let’s make a difference for them. And I feel that with my expertise and the folks I know and the relationships I’ve built, I can give them that shot. And when this shot hit, the sky is the limit for them. And then in turn, I’m sure things will work out nicely for me as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:10] Well, mainly if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you. What is the website? What is the coordinates to get a hold of you?

Mandy Aran: [00:19:21] Okay. My coordinates are w w w dot insight food group.com. There’s a button down the bottom that says to link up or let’s chat with me or hello insight food group and I can take it from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:39] Well thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Mandy Aran: [00:19:46] Lee, I thank you for the opportunity and hopefully I’ll get back on the grid next year and give you an update on year number two.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:53] Sounds good. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.

Aly Merritt With Atlanta Tech Village

by

Aly Merritt is a former copy editor with a residual addiction to journalism, and is currently the Managing Director of Atlanta Tech Village. She was previously the Head of Community at SalesLoft, an Atlanta-based sales engagement software company, and in past Lofter lives, she’s also been a part of customer experience, support and product management, as well as Chief of Staff.

She has spent the last decade of her career working with the Atlanta startup community to advance both local startups and Atlanta itself on the national stage, with a special focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, and contributes to their growth and culture by connecting startup hubs, VCs and organizations across the city. She also works daily to build a network of strong women in business and tech in Atlanta and across the country.

She previously organized and emceed the ATL Startup Village, a bi-monthly meetup to generate publicity, visibility and potential investment for startups in Atlanta, hosted at Atlanta Tech Village. She sporadically spends time writing about tech and the startup community on her blog, AlyintheATL.com.

Aly lives in Atlanta with her husband, Alex (who is an attorney and therefore very challenging to argue with), and their toddler son (who primarily argues over which is the “right” blue sippy cup). She still is unable to reconcile herself to the Oxford comma.

Connect with Aly on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Update on what’s been going on at Atlanta Tech Village
  • ATL Unlocked
  • InnovATL and the ATL innovation ecosystem

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s New standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Ali Merritt with Atlanta Tech Village. Welcome.

Aly Merritt: [00:00:44] Hi, Lee. Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I am so excited to get caught up with you. So what’s been going on at Tech Village?

Aly Merritt: [00:00:52] Oh, gosh, there’s been a lot going on, not just at Atlanta Tech Village, but in the Atlanta ecosystem as a whole. And I am super excited to talk about it. Where do you want me to start? What’s been going on or what’s getting ready to happen?

Lee Kantor: [00:01:03] Well, let’s kind of get an overview of this. The Atlanta innovation ecosystem. How do you kind of see it all like from a 40,000 foot view?

Aly Merritt: [00:01:13] Oh, 40,000ft? Well, I think that one of the great benefits of Atlanta is that collaboration is our superpower. And so the Atlanta innovation ecosystem is made up of not only innovation hubs like Atlanta Tech Village, we include I think we’re at eight innovation hubs in the Unlocked group now, and we are adding in corporate innovation centers like the Chick fil A hub and boomtown accelerators up at up at the Battery. And then we’ve also got all sorts of things happening at the university innovation hubs at Emory and at Georgia State and obviously Georgia Tech, Morehouse and more. And then you’ve got all of the groups like Metro Atlanta Chamber and Startup Atlanta. So I think there’s a bunch of different pieces in our innovation ecosystem that make it up as a whole.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:00] Now, is there a kind of quarterback for all this, or is everybody kind of doing their own thing, serving the niche as they see it?

Aly Merritt: [00:02:08] Great question. For a while it’s been sort of a organic, bespoke effort, if you will. But more recently, obviously Metro Atlanta Chamber has a intense interest in the innovation side, although Mac has to cover, I think we have 17 or 19 counties that they cover. And so they cover a bigger piece than just innovation. It’s the Metro Atlanta Chamber or the metro Atlanta area as a whole. But startup Atlanta, which has been around several years and has been doing great work, has more recently been able to come to the forefront of driving a lot of the innovation pieces and sort of spearheading the more startup hub side, like what I run and interlocking that with some of the Metro Atlanta Chambers efforts and then connecting into the city and the mayor’s office, especially for driving some of the innovation visibility forward at a high level in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:01] And I know that here at Business RadioX, we’ve worked with the folks at Tag on some of the events that have been going around around the city as well. It’s just there are so many things happening and there are so many groups that are touching technology and innovation. Sometimes it’s hard to know how do I as an individual kind of plug in and where is you know, where are my people? Where is the appropriate place? Do you have any recommendations on how to, you know, first kind of get a lay of the land, but also to to find where where you would most benefit?

Aly Merritt: [00:03:33] Absolutely. And I think we’re at perfect timing for that. First of all, Tag is one of our fantastic ecosystem group partners. We have several, including Tie Atlanta, and they all play a specific part in the system by reaching out across the different hubs and actual physical spaces and schools as well. But one of the best places to start we’ve got I’ve got two suggestions. The first one is start up Atlanta. As mentioned, they sort of are quarterbacking a lot of the efforts. They have not only an ecosystem guide. They have not only an ecosystem guide on their website startup atlanta.com where you can find out all the different everything from a VC to an accelerator to a place to go, but they also have a shared events calendar. And that’s really where I recommend that a lot of people new to the Atlanta ecosystem are new to jumping into the innovation side start. I specifically asked my team and every other hub as well as the ones at Emory, the ones at tie tag events were all putting events into the shared community calendar so that you’re able to see at a glance what’s happening in the ecosystem. You can find things by geography. So where you are in Atlanta, which can be really important with rush hour traffic, but you can also find it by topic or by areas of interest.

Aly Merritt: [00:04:50] And then Startup Atlanta is working with a push from the Metro Atlanta chamber in the city called Innovators. So I in N of ATL and ATL 2023 is we’re right in the midst of it right now. It’s running September 26th through October 20th. So it kicked off last week with a lot of the events around Venture Atlanta, which is one of the largest venture conferences in the country, as well as a ton of ancillary events. And it’s continuing through this week and for the next couple of weeks. And so those events are not only at the start of Atlanta calendar, but also at the end of ATL 2020 3.com calendar. And you can see areas all across the city. One of my favorite panels just happened a couple of days ago called Built in the Burbs, and it specifically was focusing on the Hatch Grigg incubator at KSU, talking about the fact that there’s more going on than just ITP. I love ITP. I’m an ITP here, but OTP also has an enormous amount of innovation going on and we should be able to cross that border.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:51] Yeah, that’s Atlanta is less of a geography and more of a state of mind. I think there’s people all around, you know, Georgia that consider them part of Atlanta, you know, that aren’t in the city downtown.

Aly Merritt: [00:06:07] Now, there’s a larger, I think, mindset to what Atlanta encompasses. And to your point, more than just geography.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:16] Now, I know that your work is very tech centric. Is there a place for the folks that are doing things that aren’t, you know, software or technology may be first, but there they obviously use technology, but they they is there a place for them to kind of join this innovation ecosystem?

Aly Merritt: [00:06:37] Oh, absolutely. I think that’s the beauty of all of the different hubs and spaces in town, is that we all have slightly different verticals, niches or segments that we’re focused on, but we have a really lovely Venn diagram at a high level where we all overlap. Obviously we are very focused on the tech side. We’re working for proprietary tech startups at DC, at Georgia Tech, the Advanced Technology Development Center. Their focus is a bit heavier on tech, although they also have a lot more physical product side. I sent somebody there the other day that really wanted to get into some electrical engineering questions, for example, but then you’ve got innovation across the city. So the gathering spot has a huge focus on music design, media and entertainment, for example. And then you’ve got other areas that are focused all across the board of innovation. The Russell Center, which is the largest black innovation center in the country. And they focus on innovation at a high level, and they have an enormous amount of hospitality, for example, in addition to some tech, some media, some entertainment. But you’ve got areas like Salt Box, for example, which is doing great work for the people who used to have to ship out of their garages. You can only stack so many tiny boxes in your garage and ship them out for Etsy or your storefront and salt box streamlines the shipping, logistics the storage and gives you a space to work out of. At the same time, for people who are doing a lot of B to C and physical products. And then because we do still have a heavy duty tech focus, though, across the city and a variety of areas, the Atlanta Blockchain Center looks at tech in a different way than we do. And Atlanta Tech Park has really cool autonomous cars and then tech Alpharetta, while they have a focus in tech, they’ve been doing a lot of gaming and esports up there as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:20] Yeah, and we work with the GSU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute and they’re, you know, a lot of folks that are going through that program are more brick and mortar and smaller kind of mom and pop. And it just that’s what’s so exciting to me about Atlanta. And I think why Georgia such a strong state for from an economic standpoint is there’s so much diversity and collaboration. I mean, when you combine the amount of folks that are doing interesting things and couple that with people that want to help and collaborate and lift each other up, you know, you really have a magical opportunity, I think.

Aly Merritt: [00:09:01] Absolutely. And I think your point about brick and mortar more traditionally brick and mortar enterprises, there’s a lot more programing happening now to support what previously were considered lifestyle brands or mom and pop businesses to enable them to start utilizing I’m going to use the word tech again, but I really mean tech in a very low level form of things that can make your life easier as the mom and pop brick and mortar business owner, but also in ways that you could in fact scale that that it doesn’t just have to be a franchise anymore. There are ways to scale brick and mortar in a sustainable fashion that also allows you as the owner and the team to grow.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:38] Yeah, I mean, at one point I think that a lot of, especially the tech oriented businesses were looking at like it was either a home run or an out or a grand slam in and out even. But now it seems like people are more open to, Hey, look, you can make a living doing this. Good for you. I mean, go for it. Like there’s a place for that person. It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing part of the adventure because it’s hard enough to start a business, but to have one that’s thriving at some level and feel like they’ve failed, you know, where that could be really a good lifestyle business or a smaller scale business. And that’s okay.

Aly Merritt: [00:10:20] Absolutely. That contributes to the ecosystem. It contributes to training new employees, making a change of life for a bunch of different people and life better in your in your neighborhood, in your local area. Um, and, you know, I think the other part of all or nothing is for a long time. I think brick and mortar have thought about tech as also all or nothing. You’re either you’re tech enabled or you’re not. We’re going to do everything on paper. And a lot of times when I’m speaking to small business groups versus, say, a startup group, startup groups are asking me which tech to use. And the small business groups are asking me why they should be using tech. And I think that’s starting to change as the small business groups are seeing ways of making things more efficient and those small efficiencies of scale allow them to do things like provide better health benefits for their workers because now they’re not spending all that time and money doing something else. And that’s changing the quality of life for themselves and their local ecosystem.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] So where do you think that the innovation, the Atlanta innovation ecosystem needs more of and how can we help?

Aly Merritt: [00:11:22] Oh, that’s. That’s. He said we only have like 15 minutes. I think that’s a bigger question. Unfortunately, I think at a small scale, to your point, starting to think less narrowly about what a innovation business or an innovative business looks like, that it doesn’t have to fit. We’re going to scale and become the Uber of whatever fill in the blank. I think opening up and thinking about the fact that we do have a thriving media entertainment music business in Atlanta and that they’re doing innovative things as well, sometimes with tech and sometimes not. But basically, I think reaching out and continuing that level of collaboration that is Atlanta’s superpower and strengthening the bonds between all the different networks in town. Because as soon as you reach out to one person, another network, that exponentially opens up connections for you and for your network there and the right person with the right idea, the right resource might be in that other network. They just haven’t thought about it like that. So I would say broadening our horizons a bit and being open to including a variety of definitions under innovation.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:35] So let’s try to help some of the folks out there that are listening that maybe aren’t, you know, kind of taking advantage of the many, many opportunities there are to connect with people and collaborate. If you let’s look at different personas. If you’re a maybe an aspiring entrepreneur, maybe you’re somebody who is working in a in a corporate job and you have this itch that, hey, I’d like to be an entrepreneur at some point. Where would they where do you think a good beginning step for them to go and see if there is something with that idea that they’ve had that that might be potentially be able to kind of grow?

Aly Merritt: [00:13:14] Yeah, absolutely. I very heavily push for in-person events when you can make it. Right now there’s just a level of serendipitous interaction that doesn’t happen in a Zoom chat window, for example. And so I strongly encourage people to start looking at the calendar and coming to events. Most of the events for Natal and all the events that we host in the other hubs in town are free. We are participating, for example, in Unlocked, which is a series of events at different locations throughout the metro area. About every month or two we are putting out a different location. Ours is, let’s see, Tuesday, the October the 10th. So our next one is coming up shortly. And then there will be one at Atdc, one at the Russell Center. I strongly recommend you going to those and start learning about the different spaces and start meeting people and putting yourself out there. First of all, there are also a fair amount of virtual webinar style events going on, but I do really believe that a lot of the connection that you need to make when you’re trying to dig into an ecosystem and see if it’s the right fit is the in-person events. And so starting there and finding something that’s in your area of the city so you’re not having to fight traffic is a great place to start.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:30] Now, what if you’re at maybe a larger enterprise level company and you haven’t really tapped into this ecosystem yet? Is there places that you would start at or is that website you mentioned earlier, the startup or was it startup?

Aly Merritt: [00:14:47] Oh yeah. I mean, one of the things that we see a lot of is people who are moving from a more corporate position, who are looking to break into tech or startups or just interested in it is going to, for example, a pitch event because usually you’re going to have a swath of the people across the ecosystem, everything from investors to startup entrepreneurs to people who work in the space, and they can start getting a feel for what it’s all about being in a tech space and just meeting people. We have a bi monthly event, Atlanta Startup Village, but there’s an upcoming event called Startup and Standups. For example, the Atdc is doing where they’re doing comedy and startups together. What better way to start breaking into something then with a little bit of humor and just start meeting those people? A lot of the corporate innovation structures also have built in in-house innovation spaces, and so we get people who are coming in from those teams in the corporate areas, and a lot of the corporations have partnerships with the different hubs and especially at the university level in the city. So just going to those locations and starting to chat with people I think is the very first thing. But I do strongly recommend starting with an event, even if it’s just attending, say, a tech star’s demo day to see some of the startups. Pitches are a really great place where you can see what it’s all about. Encapsulate it in five minutes, but meet a lot of people in the ecosystem at the same time.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:12] So now that you mentioned Atlanta Tech Village, is there stuff there that a person could plug into or is that something like an invitation only? Like can anybody just show up and start going to events there? Or what’s the best way for someone to plug in there?

Aly Merritt: [00:16:32] Great question. Most of the events for us and most of the hubs in town are all free and open to the public. We would just love people to attend. Atv does the first and third Fridays we do start up chow Down where we feed all our villagers lunch, and people from the public can buy a ticket for that lunch for like $10 and come in and meet with different entrepreneurs. They can attend pitch practice, which happens right after, and get a feel for watching people do their 32nd pitch and refine those tech. Alpharetta and Atlanta Tech Park both do coffee mornings where you can just come and meet the startups, meet different people and socialize. And we also at Atlanta Tech Village, like I said, we’ve got the bi monthly pitch event, so I strongly recommend that. But we offer workshops on a weekly basis, most of which are free and open to the public, and they cover everything from entrepreneurship 101 to things that you need to think about with IP that are a little more advanced. And those are all free and open to the public and on our calendar and on the startup Atlanta calendar as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:31] Now, what’s been the most rewarding part of your job at Tech Village or just kind of cheerleading this innovation ecosystem? What what is there a story you can share that maybe you saw somebody or you met somebody and you saw them kind of grow and, you know, kind of you watch their dreams come true.

Aly Merritt: [00:17:53] That’s that’s exactly it. That is the most rewarding part, is watching someone start with an idea that they’re super passionate about to the point where they will cash in everything else that they have going on to focus on it because they think they’re going to change the world and then watching them actually be able to do so. It’s so incredible. We had a founder pop into our office yesterday or day before and say we just signed our term sheet. It’s not even public yet. We just told the team, Y’all are the first people we’re telling. That kind of excitement where we’re able to celebrate with something, with somebody, that it’s a life changing moment for them. And we’re the first people they want to tell. We are the first people that they want to share that news with because we’re able to be a part of their journey and we’re there to support them and celebrate them, frankly. So as soon as their PR comes out, you’ll see it all over our channels. That’s what’s so rewarding is I’m helping people change their lives and the lives of others.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:47] And what I love about the Atlanta ecosystem is that when those people do have massive success, they want to stay connected to the community. It’s not like they’re just checking out and saying, okay, you can find me at the beach, you know, like they still want to plug in and they still want to help that next wave of entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

Aly Merritt: [00:19:10] Absolutely. We have an entire roster of mentors and advisors, many of whom are made up of very successful founders and people who have already had their exits and they want to give back and pay it forward and be able to help the next group of people.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:24] Well, Ali, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you. Before we wrap, though, can you share again the tech village website and the startup website so people can connect with you and the ecosystem as a whole?

Aly Merritt: [00:19:42] Absolutely. Atlanta Tech, Village.com And we do offer a tour a week. If you wanted to come tour the space and get a feel for the community. You can sign up on our website for those tours and then start up atlanta.com. We’ll give you the shared community calendar and the ecosystem guide. And then in ATL in oV, ATL 2020 3.com will give you all of the events that are happening for the remainder of this month.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:10] All right, Ali. Well, thank you again for sharing your story. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Chef Maria Kemp With Beyond Decadence, Inc.

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Maria Kemp is an award-winning French-trained Pastry Chef specializing in DEI&B (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) baking demonstrations and speaking engagements.

Her love of baking remained a hobby while learning the ropes of corporate America as an Information Technology Consultant for Fortune 100 companies. She left her 20-year IT career in 2007 to enroll full-time at the prestigious French Pastry School’s L’Art de la Patisserie program in Chicago.

After graduating, she immediately took a leap of faith and opened her first brick & mortar bakery. But two years into her venture, her aging mother needed care. Maria prioritized family and made the difficult decision to close her bakery.

By 2014, she refocused on entrepreneurship and launched Beyond Decadence, Inc. in Illinois. Maria relocated the company to Cornelius, North Carolina in 2017, becoming the first and only artisan pop-up bakery specializing in handcrafted gourmet desserts.

She secured certifications as a small/minority-owned business with the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, NC Department of Transportation, Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB), Carolinas-Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council (CVMSDC), and Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

Local retail sales and corporate catering kept her busy, but everything changed when the pandemic hit. Tapping into her resilience, she transitioned Beyond Decadence from selling desserts with nationwide shipping to launching interactive baking experiences for corporate team-building.

Her virtual and on-site baking experiences improved morale at Lowe’s Home Improvement, American Tire Distributors (ATD), CVMSDC, and IDEO-U. Adding DEI&B training into baking demonstrations allowed her to service additional corporate clients at AmeriHealth Caritas, Flagstar Bank, and Kimberly-Clark.

She has received awards from the City of Charlotte, a $10,000 website redesign courtesy of Marcus Lemonis, and a $5,000 ATD scholarship for the University of Richmond’s MBE Executive Management Program.

Maria has been featured on the NBC TODAY show, in live TV cooking demos, an ATD video, radio segments, podcasts, small business seminars, and digital/print magazine covers.  She spoke at the 2022 NMSDC conference, 2023 BMW Supplier Diversity Xchange conference, and teaches continuing education for various community colleges.

Certified ACDBE, DBE, HUB, MBE, MWSBE, SBE, WBE

Connect with Maria on LinkedIn and follow Beyond Decadence on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn On This Episode

  • How Maria “morphed” aka “pivoted” Beyond Decadence
  • What is DEI&B
  • Why diversity matters
  • About merging DEI&B and Maria’s pastry background
  • How clients use Maria’s unique skill of merging desserts and diversity
TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for ABC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Wbrc Open for Business. And today’s guest is Chef Maria Kemp with Beyond Decadence. Welcome, chef.

Chef Maria Kemp: Well, thank you. I love the emphasis you put on chef. That was very.

Lee Kantor: Cool. Well, that’s it. I’m a big fan of Chef, so I want to give you your due.

Chef Maria Kemp: Oh, thank you. Thank you. I’m really excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Beyond Decadence, how you serving folks?

Chef Maria Kemp: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well Beyond Decadence started as a dessert catering company. And then in 2020, when the world blew up or imploded, the most common word was the word pivot. But I adapted. The word morphed because I thought pivot was so overused. And so I morphed the business to focus on providing services in the form of D, E, and B, which stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Training and team building Activities for Corporations.

Lee Kantor: So what have you always been a chef? Has this been a lifelong pursuit or is this also a morph?

Chef Maria Kemp: I love that you used my word already. No, I didn’t start as a chef, actually. I spent about 20 plus years. I usually round up and say a million in the IT world. And then when I was becoming an empty nester, it was time to make a transition and to follow my passion. And I enrolled at the French pastry school in Chicago and left it behind.

Lee Kantor: So what was that like, that transition to go from corporate, which I would imagine has a lot of rules and a certain lifestyle to chef, which is a different, different set of rules and a different lifestyle?

Chef Maria Kemp: Right. It was a huge transition because I had spent, you know, 20, 25 years working as a consultant for Fortune 100 Fortune 500 companies as a senior IT consultant. So you go from all that structure and rigor and processes and procedures, you know, work being a contractor, but also working for some really large corporations to now you’re in your, you know, your student uniform. It wasn’t called your chef whites you know, yet at that point and learning all the ins and outs do’s and don’ts about becoming a pastry professional. So you go from the I wasn’t in the board room, but you almost say like the board room to the kitchen. So it was totally, totally different.

Lee Kantor: Now, what drew you to pastry? Was that something you were always doing on the side that was like kind of a one of your own passions for yourself throughout your life? And you said you want to go all in or what attracted you to that industry?

Chef Maria Kemp: Yeah, I don’t think I was much different than most little girls. You know, I started in the kitchen with my mom, you know, as a kid, you know, learning how to bake and, you know, lick the beater and you know, you’re going to get some vanilla. There’s raw eggs and that. And I’m still here today. And, you know, spending all that time in the IT world and then just, you know, being at a point in my career where I was becoming an empty nester and can pursue something I was passionate about instead of being, you know, as focused on providing for my daughter. And it was it was a huge transition. But I’d always loved to bake. And I had actually baked, you know, as we call it, on the side, just for fun and hobbies. All through that time I was an IT consultant and I was like, Wow, I really love this. But you know, I needed to stay the course to be a to provide for my daughter as a single parent the best way that I could. And contracting was the best way to do that in the IT industry.

Lee Kantor: Now, were you afraid that transitioning from a love of something so much to a profession of that same thing was going to, you know, maybe make you not love it as much? Because a lot of times the business stuff isn’t the fun part. You know, the baking is the fun part and the creating is the fun part. But running a business around it isn’t as fun.

Chef Maria Kemp: Oh, I love how you delicately put that. It’s the best way to kill a hobby is to turn it into a business. And yeah, I mean, at first I wasn’t as worried about that. But then when I got into it and saw there was so much more than just, you know, baking an occasional pie or cake or cookies or cheesecake and taking it into the office. Now, you know, I’m providing customer service. I’m dealing with deadlines and trying to get customers to adhere to deadlines, especially in holiday seasons and then all the back end business, part of it going out, finding customers and courting them and wooing them and pricing and just all the ins and outs that, you know, you don’t have to deal with when you’re doing it as a hobby became, become, became and become front and center. When you’re an entrepreneur and it’s now your livelihood.

Lee Kantor: So going through that. Did you have any experiences that were like, okay, I can do this? Or were there some kind of epiphany moments where you’re like, okay, this is the right path for me to go on?

Chef Maria Kemp: I knew it was the right path for me to go on, but I learned a lot. And you the best way to learn what to do and what not to do is just to dive in and do it, you know, because you can either jump into something. And I believe with my faith, you know, you make you God will either bless it or correct it, but you have to make a step and take an action with the information that you have at the time, the best possible choice. So I had lots of gotcha moments. Some were good and some were not. But I can see now, now that I’m many years past that initial bakery, how those became woven into the fabric of who I am and have absolutely bailed me out and saved me in situations I faced, you know, now in my business in general.

Lee Kantor: So how has wearing that it hat for so long impacted your, you know, your pastry business? Is that where this emphasis in the D and B came in where you’re trying to kind of morph them those two careers together somewhat?

Chef Maria Kemp: Well, the IT background saves me every day because I’m you know, I’m very comfortable, you know, doing a lot of the technical things behind the scenes that, you know, other entrepreneurs, you know, may not be because I spent so many years in that. But the D and B came in through actually, it began with the request of a client at the time. I always have to stop back and remember where it started, where they said, you know, we really want to work with you this year as a pastry chef, and we’re doing this celebration for Juneteenth, and we would love it if you could figure out a way to bring in, you know, the desserts into our Juneteenth celebration and kind of give us a history lesson, too. And so that’s where it started. And then it grew from there as I had my ear to what was going on in, you know, in society, in the business world, where diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging were starting to come to the foreground. I said, okay, you know what? I’m kind of tired of baking for production and doing catering and dealing with orders. So the first customer had this idea, I think I can take it even further. And I walked away from the catering side onto the services side. And it’s it’s been really a rewarding experience.

Lee Kantor: But you must have been doing something, though, for them to even approach you about this. Was there something that you were doing that was attracting that type of a client to you?

Chef Maria Kemp: I believe it started. I go, I’m going back because that’s back a few years now. I was starting to do the team building when the pandemic hit, and I was aiming those. At first I was doing private baking experiences virtually online to the general public, and then when I got certified through an organization, I started offering it to corporate clients for team building. And then that particular client latched on to, you know, you’re a little bit out of the box thinker, a divergent thinker, and we want to think divergently and do something a little different this year. And it was just a marriage that came together and didn’t end in divorce.

Lee Kantor: So. So what are those conversations look like when you’re you’re explaining to your clients that we’re going to take pastry and baking and then we’re going to combine them with D and B, and this is what the outcome will be when we you know, when I hand this over to you or we do this together.

Chef Maria Kemp: Right. First, it’s a little bit of confusion. You know what my daughter and I call the puppy dog head tilt where they tilt their head and they’re kind of like, Mm hmm.

Lee Kantor: Interesting.

Chef Maria Kemp: Yeah. They’re like.

Chef Maria Kemp: Are we going to bake something or are we going to cook something? Are you. Are you a French trained pastry chef or a trainer or both? Yeah, there’s just yeah, there’s all the confusion, like, how are you going to merge the two together? But I just did it for the BMW Supplier Diversity Exchange. They hold that every year. This was year 11 and I was a breakout session speaker, so it was the first time I got to do the full program where it’s very interactive and people were confused walking in. They weren’t sure, but they knew there was going to be dessert, so that was enough to lure some in. So part of my master plan, but when they went through the session, then they they got it. They understood it. So basically what it involves is I call it a dessert presentation, interactive dessert presentation to help bring new understanding to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Because I found when I use the word baking, then people think we’re going to bake, we’re in a kitchen and they’re trying to wrap their head around it. Their brain is going down a rabbit hole trying. Trying to figure out how are you going to do that? I’m looking at my chef jacket and then they’re not dialing into how it’s actually going to take place.

Chef Maria Kemp: So I start calling it a dessert presentation where I use the desserts to help bring that new understanding. And people still are a little bit confused because it sounds like a shark tank idea, but no one’s ever done this before and there’s not anybody doing it in the marketplace. So it is new and it is very hard for people to figure out how are you going to do that? But you can show diversity, equity versus equality, inclusion versus exclusion, belonging versus not belonging through desserts and make that an interactive experience. Because when you bring food into it, you know, adults are just as excited as a kid getting a lollipop or a balloon. They’re like dessert, what are we going to eat? You know, and very involved and engaged and interactive and enthusiastic and focused on what’s going on. What am I going to get? Did they get more than I did? What did they get? And they they it helps the concept resonate because I can show all of those aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through desserts. And that’s what no one is doing now.

Lee Kantor: Can you share how that occurs, like in the session, or is it some proprietary methodology you only reveal at sessions?

Chef Maria Kemp: I’ll share. I’ll share a little snippet. How about that?

Lee Kantor: All right. I don’t want to give it away, but I also want to make people understand that this is a different way to achieve the same outcome, right?

Chef Maria Kemp: Absolutely. Absolutely. I have a video clip which I’m going to be sharing on LinkedIn, which shows part of the session, the same one I’m going to share with you because people do need to see it or they don’t understand it for a diversity, for example, you can show diversity. If I give, if I give a group desserts, maybe they don’t all have the same dessert, they don’t all have the same flavor. They may have different amounts of desserts. They may have different tools to eat that dessert with. And you might think, well, that’s kind of simplistic. Well, no, not really, because think about when you’re putting food in front of people and a luscious dessert, they’re looking around to see, oh, what did you get? What? What? Oh, you got more than I did. It’s a very simple way. Just that’s just the diversity piece. There’s still the other pieces, the E, the I and the B that that can be done with as well. And let me tell you, food resonates. Don’t we all fall asleep watching the Food Network most nights or the greatest British baking show. So when you put dessert in the hands of individuals and then start bringing the concept and the definition together with it, it starts to take on more meaning because then they start to experience what individuals may feel like based on work situations, teams, departments and what’s happening under, you know, in those areas. And it’s just a tip that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Lee Kantor: And that’s something that people learn better when they connect the dots themselves. And you’re having breadcrumbs lead them to a place, but they have to connect the dots and they’re seeing it and that that will help them get that. Aha. Oh, I get it Now you know where it resonates and it kind of sinks in a little bit more I think, than as opposed to being told.

Chef Maria Kemp: Exactly. Exactly. And that’s what was so rewarding. After spending four months putting together this presentation and and mapping out and planning, there’s that it background coming in for detail, you know, of mapping it all out of the flow and how everything had to work together. So it was seamless and the message was understood and watching those light bulbs go on above people’s head like, Oh my goodness, I get it. I understand it now I know how it feels. And that didn’t feel good. And we felt bad for them and we were going to do. And hearing the conversations that resulted was just amazing. And you know, in the presentation I had what I call a three ingredient recipe or three ingredient approach, where I started with dictionary definitions because there’s so much misunderstanding or lack of understanding of what diversity is, what equity is, what inclusion is, what belonging is. People think they know, but they don’t always know. And sometimes they’re afraid to say that they don’t know because we’re all supposed to get it. But it is very confusing. So it started with the definitions then did the audience participation section, which is what I just explained about distributing the the desserts and then wrapped up with the little short baking demonstration to help further illustrate why it’s so. Port and why you have to do things correctly in order to reap the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce and the benefit actually that it has to the corporation. And there’s real dollars and cents behind that.

Lee Kantor: Now, who have you determined who that ideal client, that perfect fit client is for you yet?

Chef Maria Kemp: You know, that’s a really tough question to answer. And I’m digging into that even further because as I look at the different industries that have expressed interest or, you know, that I’m beginning to work with and have conversations with, they don’t follow any particular industry. Like, I can’t say it’s all banking, it’s all automotive, it’s all this, it’s all that. But starting to look at what are those common threads between them. It’s typically going to be an organization that, you know, has someone in a Dei leadership manager or I can’t think of the other term right now capacity and is active in their efforts and is bold enough to say, you know, what we’re doing may not be working and we may need a fresh approach. And that’s where the beginning of where I can come in to help them. The other common threads will start to reveal themselves as I get a little bit deeper into conversations with the corporations.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this a presentation or is it an ongoing training? Is it both, or are you still kind of figuring all that out?

Chef Maria Kemp: No, it’s no, I’ve got that figured out. I figured that out in the four months of planning. And then when I did the two back to back sessions at BMW, I saw very clearly then. It’s kind of funny you ask that because I was having a conversation with the client about doing it for them and we thought we could do it virtually. But then after I did it in person, I’m like, There’s no way this can be virtual. It has to be in person because this isn’t about me making desserts and shipping them to someone and telling them what to do. It’s my expertise, my background, my experience and everything that I bring into the equation that helps helps it be effective. Um, but yeah, it definitely has to be in person to have that interactive experience. I like to call it an interactive dessert presentation because when I put the word dessert in there, people’s ears perk up. They’re like, Ooh, I think I’m interested in that. Even if I’m just hungry, I’m interested. But then they get the additional benefits when they attend. So it is an interactive presentation. It’s not a keynote speaking opportunity. It’s not packaged it up and send it to them. It’s not virtual. It’s an interactive presentation or breakout session.

Lee Kantor: And then how many people does it work optimally for that?

Chef Maria Kemp: Can that can vary. Like for BMW, we planned on 100 per session because, you know, there’s there’s certain logistics that I have to make sure or are planned for in advance. And when all the planning is done, then it’s, you know, it’s easy from there and planning is easy and a comfort area for strength for me. So that was that was the easy part. But you know, we did 100 there. Could it go a little bigger? Yeah, it definitely could. I wouldn’t want to do, you know, like 500, 600 or anything like that, maybe 150, possibly 200. But that also depends upon the the venue and the space that the organization or corporation has the event taking place in as well, and the limitations that they may have on time. Because the more people you have, the more time it’s probably going to take. So there’s a lot of factors that would play into that.

Lee Kantor: And then the people who are attending, they’re going to eat something and yes, but they’re not necessarily going to make something, right?

Chef Maria Kemp: No, exactly. Thank you. Good question. No, they are going to eat it. You know, when I tell them they can, because we have to go through all the all the information and the teaching portion of it. And then then they do get to eat it and they love that part the best. But no, they’re not making anything at all. This is not that’s why I call it an interactive dessert presentation. So it doesn’t, you know, have the air that you’re going to bake something, you’re going to cook something, you’re going to get your hands in there and do anything to create anything. It’s a presentation. And then I share the recipe for the dessert they enjoyed via my link tree after. So if they want to go home and make it, they can. But it’s not in the session.

Lee Kantor: Now, what compelled you to get certified through BBQ and be a certified business owner? Oh yeah.

Chef Maria Kemp: Absolutely.

Chef Maria Kemp: I actually contacted I don’t remember if I contacted someone from there or one of my friends was certified through. Through GW BC and I was able to attend the national conference last year in. Or was it was it Nashville?

Chef Maria Kemp: Nashville. Right.

Chef Maria Kemp: Nashville. Yeah. And I attended the conference even though I wasn’t certified yet, You know, I was like, oh my goodness, this is phenomenal. You know, it’s a sea of women business owners or, you know, businesses that are primarily, you know, the majority of women owned and making all the connections, going to the expo, going to the events. And it just the engagement and even the webinars and seminars and all these things that they had available, I was plugging into, you know, as I was going through certification, maybe even before I was, you know, finally fully certified has been phenomenal. It’s just it was another opportunity to meet other women who, you know, are kind of pioneers like me. We’re all charging for it and selling a product or a service and believe in what we do and love finding individuals who are on that same journey and same path as we are. And it’s just been phenomenal. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve attended and the connections I’ve made. There were actually women that I met at an event in Charlotte, the tables of eight at Ally, and I wasn’t even certified yet. Then I got certified in July of this year and they came to Greenville and came to my session at BMW. So that was really very cool.

Lee Kantor: Wow, That’s very supportive and collaborative. Right now, if somebody wants to learn more about Beyond Decadence, what is the website? What is the best way to connect with you?

Chef Maria Kemp: The best way to connect with me is you can always go to the website, which is beyond decadence, dot com. It’s the word beyond and then the word decadence, which is on the screen behind me. I’ll tilt a little bit so people can see it if they’re watching the video or you can connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m all over social media, especially LinkedIn, and I’m under Chef Maria Kemp, and I would love to connect with you and tell you more about these interactive dessert presentation. The title I’m still running with right now because I do like it is Die and Be Powered by Dessert. Kind of had a little automotive theme for BMW, but I like it and I think I’m going to stick with that title for a while.

Lee Kantor: Well, chef, congratulations on all the success and the momentum. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Chef Maria Kemp: Thank you. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Thank you. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you on the next time on GW BBQ. Open for business.

Jessica Kearney With Travelers Insurance

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Jessica Kearney is Executive Director of the Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. The Travelers Institute was established as a means of participating in the public policy dialogue on matters of interest to the property casualty insurance sector, as well as the financial services industry more broadly.

The Travelers Institute draws upon the industry expertise of Travelers’ senior management and the technical expertise of its risk professionals and other experts to provide information, analysis, and recommendations to public policymakers and regulators. She has served at the Travelers Institute since 2012 and has led a number of public policy initiatives, including those addressing distracted driving, disaster preparedness, cybersecurity, small business advocacy, the national debt and insurance education.

Prior to joining Travelers, she held several positions at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank and membership organization based in New York City. She served as Special Assistant to the President and Assistant Director for Foundation Relations, among other roles.

She has a Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration in public finance from the University of Connecticut, where she is a member of the Department of Public Policy’s Alumni Council. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Northeastern University and a certificate in fundraising from New York University.

Connect with Kearney on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Cybersecurity
  • Cyber hygiene
  • Cyber attackers
  • Costs of a cyberattack
  • What can businesses do to address cybersecurity
  • What does Travelers offer for businesses when it comes to cyber insurance
  • Are small companies less likely to purchase cyber coverage or less vulnerable to cyber risks

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s New standard in payroll. 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jessica Kearney. She’s the executive director of the Travelers Institute. Welcome, Jessica.

Jessica Kearney: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the Travelers Institute. How are you serving folks?

Jessica Kearney: Yeah, so the Travelers Institute is the public policy division and really the educational arm of the larger Travelers Insurance Company. And we take on all different public policy topics that intersect with the insurance industry and public policy. Think things like auto safety and distracted driving, autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, disaster preparedness. And we try and bring insights and education to these topics and really be a convener to advance important conversations on these issues.

Lee Kantor: Now, you were here in Atlanta last week. Can you talk about the reason you came here?

Jessica Kearney: Yeah, absolutely. So the Travelers Institute just recently kicked off our Fall 2023 cybersecurity education tour. This is part of our larger national series, Cyber Prepare, Prevent, mitigate, Restore. It’s our educational initiative, which really aims to help businesses tackle evolving cyber threats. And and I think we all know this. These are evolving every day, every week. And so our first stop on this national education tour was actually in Atlanta, as you just mentioned. So we convened folks from across the business community, insurance agents and brokers, small and medium sized business owners for an informational session to really arm them with knowledge around cybersecurity. And we hosted it at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. So we convened experts and partners from across the federal government. So we had folks from the US Small Business Administration talking about cybersecurity for small businesses. We had the US Department of Homeland Security. They’ve got an arm called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or Cisa. This is really the lead cyber agency for the federal government, as well as folks from Travelers and data privacy law firm Mullen Coughlin, really to help leaders understand the threats facing them today and importantly, learn what we can do about it. That’s the most important piece. We started this series back in 2016, so we’ve been at this for for many, many years, but really focusing on those small and mid-sized business owners, arming them with the knowledge that they need to protect themselves from cyber threats.

Jessica Kearney: And since that time, we’re really proud that we’ve hosted nearly 60 in-person events. We’ve hosted a number of national webinars that are free and open to the public, bringing folks together with risk experts, government experts to discuss best practices and access resources. In the last two years alone, we’ve visited 15 cities and we’ve really prioritized collaboration across the federal government, as I mentioned. So bringing in multiple perspectives to help business owners hear about this issue from every angle. We were just in San Ramon, California last week and October. Looking ahead is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. So this is a aptly timed conversation. There’s going to be lots of conversations taking place across the US in October around cybersecurity awareness and education will be in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Kansas City, Missouri, coming up in October. And then in November, we’re going to head out to Washington State, to Bellevue, Washington, and we’ll wrap up the series this fall in Dallas, Texas. So lots going on in the month of October. And your listeners can join us at Travelers Institute.org for our virtual or in-person programs.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned small to midsize businesses, and this issue may not be top of mind for those folks. Can you explain how important maybe cyber hygiene is for that small to mid-sized business because they might think, look, you know, you know, the old saying, the people rob banks because that’s where the money is. And these small businesses may not feel that they’re at risk where some of these mega firms or these large health care financial services companies, you know, have, you know, teams of cyber experts deployed to protect them. But a small business, they don’t feel the threat or they don’t understand that the threat is to them as well. Can you explain how important it is for small to sized businesses to really invest in cyber hygiene?

Jessica Kearney: Absolutely. So we know that all companies are vulnerable to cyber attacks regardless of size. And that’s why it’s really, really important to understand the risks and to foster a culture of security across your business. And so I think that’s the that’s the point of our educational initiative, as I just mentioned, and I’ll give you some stats to kind of back that up. So for the last ten years, we’ve been surveying this traveler’s risk. Index that we publish every year. Cyber risks have remained among the top overall business concerns among business leaders of all sizes. You know, despite everything else right. That’s going on in the broader business community. So we’ve got workplace and workforce risk challenges, the economy, energy costs. You think about supply chain risks, all of these things that we know, the business owners and leaders of all sizes need to be concerned about. And cyber has continued to be among the top for the seventh consecutive year. Our more survey respondents said that their company had suffered a data breach or a cyber incident. So 26% of companies said that they had been a cyber victim in 2022, with nearly half of those reporting that the event has happened within the past 12 months.

Jessica Kearney: So, so fairly recent time horizon, in addition of those who had said that their company had suffered a data breach, 71% and this is this is alarming, said they’ve been a victim more than once. Right. So this is this is really happening. This is out there. And I think we see a disconnect. So when we talk about, you know, small to mid-sized businesses, we’re seeing that many in the survey are very confident that they’ve implemented best practices that they need to prevent or even mitigate a cyber event. Yet we’re also finding that most businesses have actually not implemented some of those basic prevention measures. And so I think this is where, you know, we can’t underscore it enough education, education, education. And that’s why we’ve undertaken this tour. There is so much that you can do. Some of it is, you know, low cost, no cost to help arm your business, to be ready and to be able to bounce back. There are really you know, there are really significant steps that you can take. And that’s those are all part of our tour and why we’re out there having these conversations.

Lee Kantor: So what are some of the the attacks like? What are some of the things that are happening to the small to mid-sized businesses, the breaches? What exactly is going on so that the person could maybe they’re these things are happening and they’re just saying, oh this is just things that happen like they’re not taking it as seriously as maybe they should. So what are some of the common breaches or attacks that are occurring?

Jessica Kearney: So we found in talking to our experts that criminal cyber criminals often go for the low hanging fruit. Right? So you think about those little pop up alerts that come on your screen that say, you know, your phone or your software system. It’s time for that update, Right. One of the most common cyber intrusions is actually just exploiting those very well known vulnerabilities. So one of the things that we really like to emphasize when it comes to taking issues and taking matters into your own hands and really being proactive on these issues is simply updating your systems, right? So so that’s one really easy thing that people can do the most. Again, the most common way attacker gets into the system is by exploiting, exploiting a known vulnerability. So automating those patches whenever possible and making sure that you keep your systems up to date. It’s sometimes it’s the really simple stuff. I think cybersecurity can seem like and many times is, you know, this big, complicated topic. But more often than not, when you do the simple things, it can really arm you against and protect your organization.

Lee Kantor: So I know for myself, I’ve gotten to this level of paranoia when it comes to like emails or any type of communication on the Internet. If somebody asks me to do something, my instinct isn’t to click on the thing. It’s to go to the website of the entity and then check to see if this really is a thing. Is that just me being paranoid or is that just kind of the due diligence you have to do nowadays?

Jessica Kearney: You know, I think it’s part of that due diligence. I think you’re right. I think that all of us as individuals collectively are getting a little bit smarter when it comes to clicking on links and, you know, being being pulled in. But also the sophistication of some of these attacks are getting better and better. Right? So it’s this balance between trying to stay ahead of the latest, the latest attack and the latest scam. And I think, you know, organizations can and should be testing their employees and sending these, you know, educational awareness campaigns in a safe environment. So if an employee does click on a link that is suspicious, you can use that as an opportunity to start a conversation and and provide that educational training. So that is definitely one of the recommendations is for employers and organizations to have these training cybersecurity trainings within their companies for their employees and have that conversation and really build it into the culture. Right? And that’s not an easy thing to build a culture, but it’s a really important one. And to bring all employees on board is really important. I think you just hit that on the head.

Lee Kantor: So now what are some of the other kind of low hanging fruit? You mentioned low cost, no cost things that organizations can be doing to protect themselves.

Jessica Kearney: Yeah. So I’d say one of the big ones is multi-factor authentication. So you think about when you potentially log into your personal banking, for example, I think that’s an example that could be familiar to folks. You often are asked to set up two factor authentication where you might get texted a code, so you’d have to sign in with a username and password, but then you have to have this other layer, this second factor, where you verify your identity and verify who you are. So according to Microsoft, simply doing that, that alone can can really stop an attack in its tracks. So if you have those types of verification systems on your most important logins, your most important systems, that’s shown to be 99.9% effective at stopping intrusions. And I mean, I can’t underscore that enough. That’s just an incredibly powerful number. Multi-factor authentication is usually an expensive it’s often easy and it’s very, very effective. You know, sometimes people can say the reasons they haven’t done it, it might be inconvenient or they don’t know what systems to to begin with. But that’s one where we are really encouraging everyone to lean in and learn more about it and implement it across their systems. It’s very, very effective.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re you’re an organization and you start kind of understanding the threat level, it’s important to understand the bad guys, too. How? Who are the bad guys? And is this it’s no longer kind of this lone wolf, Right. These are kind of organized entities that this is their job. You know, they’re going into an office and whiteboarding and coming up with strategies like it’s not just somebody, you know, in the basement eating Cheetos, trying to, you know, hack into a system for for laughs.

Jessica Kearney: Yes, it’s increasingly sophisticated and increasingly, to your point, operating as a business model. Right. But cyber attackers can really come from anywhere. So they include anything from hackers. You think state sponsored cyber attacks that might target infrastructure like banks or utilities or even hacktivists, which means they could break in for political reasons. But I think you’re right. And I think bottom line is, no matter where they’re coming from, those same cyber hygiene, same cyber preparedness, best practices still apply to help an organization protect themselves from from any of those. All of the above.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it kind of like whack a mole? Like, you know, you start figuring out how to defend yourself and then they’re coming up with ways to then exploit something and then it’s just a never ending thing. Like, is this something that we’re ever going to have an answer where it’s like, Oh, this problem is behind us now.

Jessica Kearney: You know, I think I think you’re right in that I don’t think cybersecurity is something that you can set it and forget it. Right. I think this is an evolving threat. It’s something that business owners and boards of directors are need to be concerned with and need to be prepared for. That said, I think the good news is we know there are things that work. We know there are steps and proactive measures. And I think prioritizing being proactive versus reactive is one really just across the board way for your folks and your organization to to get on board with this issue and really make it a priority across your business.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that Travelers has been evangelizing and educating for a while now. What percentage of folks out there are listening and behaving in the manner you would like them to behave? Is this something that we’re making progress or is there still a ways to go to get the, you know, people on board to be doing even the the kind of the low hanging fruit level of cyber hygiene?

Jessica Kearney: Yeah, I think we’re absolutely making progress. Absolutely. You know, that said, there’s always room to improve. We actually did a survey of Atlanta area businesses ahead of going to Atlanta for our for our program recently. And, you know, and that yielded some interesting results. So you know, for example, um, we we talked about employee training and testing their knowledge from our Atlanta business survey. Less than half of those surveyed train and test their employees regularly. Right? So so that that is an opportunity. That’s one of those low hanging fruit opportunities for that education and training to really come in and help businesses and organizations. 62% in Atlanta said that their company or organization could handle the cost and logistics of a cyber event were to were to occur. So that’s a really great sign. So there are there are good there are good signs, there are positive signs. But there is always more that we should do. And I think as with any evolving area of business, it’s something that we need to stay vigilant on and stay on top of. And I guess one other thing I’ll I’ll add to that when we’re talking about vigilance. So one of the other recommendations that we would make, one of these things that we would consider a must do in terms of cybersecurity preparedness, cybersecurity hygiene is having an incident response plan, right? So once that alarm sounds, you found out through some channel that you’ve been hacked or you’ve had a data breach, how is your organization going to respond? So this is not something that anyone wants to come up with on the fly, right? So this is something that we really encourage folks to have a plan, a well thought out living, breathing document.

Jessica Kearney: Who’s going to do what, When are they going to do it? Like the exact concrete steps for, you know, the moment of crisis. Right. So you wouldn’t want to be standing there figuring it out when it’s actually happening. And it’s funny, one of the one of the one of the elements after you’ve figured out your plan is that you should have copies, both electronic and physical copies that are easily accessed at a moment’s notice. So if your computer’s organizations do go down, you have that plan. It’s in a paper copy somewhere. So you don’t need to go into your computers to access it. You don’t want to have to rely on employee memory during that moment of crisis. So it’s little things like that that you can do beforehand. I think being prepared that preparedness angle is is critically, critically important.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, maybe take advantage of some of the education or attend some of the events that you’re doing throughout the country, is there a website they can go to? Can you share that again?

Jessica Kearney: Absolutely. So you can visit Travelers Institute.org to look at all of our upcoming cybersecurity education programs. And I will just say we have one coming up during October National Cybersecurity Awareness Month on October 11th at 1 p.m. Eastern, free and open to the public. We’re going to be chatting with Mullen. Collins uh, Carolyn Purwin Ryan and our own Enterprise Cyber Lead, Tim Francis here at Travelers about these five key cybersecurity practices, many of which I’ve just mentioned here. But they’re going to dig into it and kind of all the details around that. And so we’ll have a series of articles that are launching that day as well. But we welcome everyone to join us on October 11th.

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

Jessica Kearney: Thank you for having me.

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

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