Jacob Lapera, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Using Everything DiSC to Navigate Conflict and Build Cohesive, High-Performing Teams

May 19, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

Using Everything DiSC to Navigate Conflict and Build Cohesive, High-Performing Teams

00:00 /

In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Laura Davis, founder of Laura Davis and Associates, celebrating 31 years in business. Laura shares her journey from corporate marketing to leadership development, specializing in emotionally intelligent leaders and high-performance teams. She discusses using the Everything DiSC assessment to help organizations understand behavioral diversity, build trust, and improve team dynamics. Laura highlights the importance of self-awareness, growth mindset, and coaching cultures in driving employee engagement, retention, and profitability. She advises leaders to seek feedback, appreciate their teams, and adapt their leadership styles to bring out the best in others.

Laura Davis is the CEO and Founder of Laura A. Davis & Associates, Inc., an Atlanta-based transformational executive coaching, leadership and team development, and DiSC assessment training firm. Since 1998, she and her associates have been coaching leaders at all levels of Fortune 500 and mid-sized companies as well as major non-profits to become more emotionally intelligent and aware of their role in creating a healthy, engaged corporate culture.

She and her associates focus on assisting teams within organizations to become more cohesive by building cultures of high trust, productivity, accountability, and results. She coaches and trains individuals, teams, and organizations in the midst of transformational change on the mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets needed to create high performance and inspired success.

Prior to starting her business, she held both line and staff marketing management positions at Exxon, Equifax, and UPS. She was also an Adjunct Professor of Business Studies at Mercer University and holds an MBA in Marketing from Emory University.

She earned the coveted Master Certified Coaching designation through the ICF in 1998 and has maintained that credential through ongoing training & development in the fields of emotional intelligence, neuroscience in coaching, accelerated learning, team dynamics and more.

Her ongoing thought leadership is demonstrated in the talks she gives at professional industry conferences around the country. She is a contributing author to the book “A Guide to Getting It Self-Esteem” and has published articles in leading industry publications such as Choice magazine, ATD newsletters, and more.

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Leadership development and coaching
Emotional intelligence in leadership
Building cohesive, high-trust, high-performance teams
Importance of self-awareness for leaders
Use of personality assessment tools like Everything DiSC
Evolution of the coaching profession and coaching culture
Challenges faced by leaders in modern organizations
Benefits of behavioral diversity within teams
Strategies for improving team dynamics and communication
The role of feedback and appreciation in employee engagement

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio in. This is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Laura A Davis with Laura A Davis and Associates. Welcome.

Laura A Davis: Thank you Lee. I’m delighted to be here.

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

Laura A Davis: Yes. So this is our 31st year, I’m proud to say. And we work with three populations basically, or in three areas. The first is to help organizations of all sizes, primarily fortune 500 companies, to develop emotionally intelligent leaders. And that starts with self-awareness. And we have lots of tools that we help people with the mindset and skill set and tools to become more self-aware. And then that extends into building cohesive, high trust, high performance teams. And the outcome of that is a culture where people actually want to come to work and give their best, and that results in more profit, more engagement, more retention, and all the things that organizations are seeking to do in this very volatile, ever changing environment right now.

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

Laura A Davis: Yes, well, I was a marketing director for Exxon, for Equifax and for UPS. And I actually had a wonderful manager at Equifax in my late 20s who noticed some of my strengths that I didn’t see for myself. For example, I really liked to teach people and coach people and train. And at the time, coaching wasn’t even a profession. So I had a master’s in business from Emory, which is how I came to Atlanta. And I taught at Mercer as an adjunct professor while I was working full time. And I really became interested in this whole organizational development field. And so I networked my way into it by going to professional associations, getting my coaching certification. I’m a master certified coach with the ICF and have been since 1998. That makes me sound really old, doesn’t it? I got it when I was really young. No. At any rate, I, um, just really became passionate about how some leaders were effective in some weren’t, and how some teams were just a delight to work on. And we got a lot of accomplished, even though we worked hard and others were a drain. And there was a lot that leaders and teams and organizations can do to create the kind of conditions where people really thrive and where the company then does well. And so many people are not aware of that. So that’s been our, our mission and our passion. All these all these years.

Lee Kantor: Now, how have you seen the coaching profession evolve over those years? You mentioned that when you were started, it wasn’t that prevalent, and maybe it was prevalent only to a certain group of people. How have you seen it evolve into now? It’s more kind of company wide, and there is such a thing as maybe a coaching culture within organizations. Mhm.

Laura A Davis: That’s the ideally and unfortunately, we still have a lot of opportunity for growth in just that mindset. Many companies are still somewhat command and control driven. And there’s a place for decisive get it done yesterday, leadership in certain situations. That said, what we encourage people to become is a multi-dimensional leader. In other words, I think there’s a a feeling in the general public that someone with charisma and a take charge Attitude and get it done. Sort of, uh, sparkling personality is the only kind of leader that’s effective, and that’s just not the case. And often a humble leader can be very powerful and a leader who’s more analytical and a leader who’s more, uh, affirming. And you need all of those things. So to have a true coach and culture, there needs to be a recognition of the, the need for all of those kind of behavioral styles. And we use the everything disc assessment with Wiley, the original disc, the small eye disc. And we have for many, many years, we’re fortunate to be Diamond award winning partners, meaning we use it a lot in all the coaching and training that we do. And we empower talent development departments and so forth to use the tools so they will buy the assessments from us or buy the training materials from us, and we support them in doing that. I think we’ve made progress. It really depends on the leadership. And I wish I had a, a, a way to really assess whether it’s size or industry, who’s most receptive to a coaching culture. And I think it really depends on, on the leader and the leadership team, whether they understand the real value and they’re willing to invest and take the time to create that kind of culture, because there’s tons of research to show that, in fact, that is more profitable. People want to work in that kind of environment. They want to stay. But we still are not there yet.

Lee Kantor: Now, what in your clients or prospective clients, what is kind of the pain that they’re having where they said, you know what, maybe we should be calling Laura and her team. Like, is there something or are there signals or they’re clues for a leader to say, hey, you know what? This seems a little out of whack here. Maybe we need some fresh eyes on this.

Laura A Davis: Yes. Well, that can take many forms and often it can be a team, usually a senior team. There’s some kind of disconnect. Either people are duplicating efforts, they’re withholding information. They’re not necessarily working with other teams well in the organization or there are silos. There are all kinds of changes in today’s environment now. So just trying to adjust to the magnitude and the rate of change is a signal, uh, why people call us in, how do we get people to adapt to change? And again, I go back to self-awareness and encourage a leader who might call me to self-reflect first. What might be the impact of your behavior on this team and how can you adjust and really model more mature, emotionally intelligent behavior. So I’ll give you some examples of what that might look like. Um, you know, and instead of sending a sharp text or reacting when someone gives you bad news, you know, taking a moment, hit the pause button and reflect and maybe send a clear text or, you know, some people have the tendency to say yes out of guilt or to appease people. Sometimes it might be stepping back and saying, let me think about that, or I can’t do that right now. Let’s discuss this at a time where we both really have the time to, to analyze all the facts and, and so on, rather than just react or, you know, when someone asks a team member something uncomfortable, there are certain styles that might tend to withdraw and not speak up.

Laura A Davis: And so taking the time to step out of your comfort zone and perhaps ask the difficult question or to reply in a way that really helps move things forward. And you know, what I see too, is people are under so much stress today that it’s important to understand that you as the leader or even as a team member, you set the mood. You make a huge difference in terms of how other people show up. You know, there’s sort of an emotional contagion that I think people aren’t necessarily aware of. So I help leaders and teams understand how to regulate some of those moods and focus on what is working and, uh, really work together in alignment and, and develop a trusting environment where they can discuss problems openly. So that’s a long answer to your question. But, um, those teams, uh, that, that do that, that really, uh, take the time to focus on interpersonal relationships are so much more successful and can deal with all of the changes coming at them much more skillfully than those who don’t.

Lee Kantor: Now, early on, you mentioned disk. Can you explain to our listeners why you’ve kind of leaned into disk and what benefits you see from folks who, uh, also lean into it and, and take the assessments and, and take action based on what they learn.

Laura A Davis: Absolutely. So there are many assessment tools out there. And I really am a big proponent of everything disk, which is the Wiley brand for several reasons. And some people might not be familiar who are listening. So Disc is an acronym for dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness. And it’s certainly not to label or pigeonhole people at all. We’re all a combination of all four styles, but most of us for sure we have a primary style. We may have a secondary style, and I really love this because it is scientifically validated. It’s a proven tool. It’s been around for decades and many, many people have taken it. And while he has done a wonderful job of investing in an online portal platform that really allows people to compare themselves to someone else, has nothing to do with your competencies or your intelligence. It’s really your personality, style, tendencies and preferences. So it’s a wonderful, validating tool to help people move from judging other people because there’s a tendency to, as human beings, we think our way is the right way. And sometimes people are unaware that people really do see the world completely differently. They’re motivated by different things. They’re stressed by different things. They have different needs and disk is a needs based model. So the D really is results focused. Someone who’s direct and get it done and fast paced. The I and I’m giving you of course the high level overview stands for influence. That’s the person who’s more of the connector, more enthusiastic, usually a little bit more sociable. Um, really likes to keep people energized. The S stands for steadiness and the steady um, personality style is someone who is a great listener, is generally patient, a calm influence, uh, often process oriented.

Laura A Davis: And the C stands for conscientiousness, which is someone who’s more analytical, more challenging, often a little bit more skeptical, sort of your quality control eyes, uh, and the combination of those different behavioral preferences and personality style traits, um, are really valuable to understand because then you can move from judging someone who’s not like you, particularly at the diagonal, we tend to have the least in common with, uh, the style at the diagonal. It’s a circle. Uh, so the D’s and the S’s and the eyes and the C’s sometimes misunderstand one another. If you can appreciate the strengths that everyone brings to the table, then you can move from judging someone else’s behavior to accepting it, to really valuing it. And sometimes we just judge it or we tolerate it, you know, that’s just the way Lee is, you know? But if you understand where they’re coming from and the value their perspective brings to the table, then you have the advantage of, of looking at any kind of problem in, in the business environment from those different perspectives, you’re going to get a much richer, more comprehensive solution. And the problem we I see is many times in organizations, a leader will hire people like themselves or with a similar style because that’s comfortable. And you want to, of course, hire someone who’s the most qualified for the role. But how they show up in the interview process makes a difference. And so you want to make sure that you’re, um, not biased by just the likability factor of someone who’s like you.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with your clients and using this model, does it help them kind of under give them more empathy and maybe more grace for folks that maybe they were had friction with, but this allows them to kind of reframe that friction to, oh, okay, now I understand where they’re coming from. I can give them maybe more benefit of the doubt. I can give, I can understand a little bit more about their why of their, they’re not doing this to sabotage me necessarily. This is just their lens on the world, which is different than mine.

Laura A Davis: Exactly. That’s very well said. And that’s exactly the benefit. It’s very validating. And you see that to extend your your point. Most people don’t get up in the morning to try and make other people’s lives difficult. Some people do, but very few. And often what happens is everyone brings strengths to the table. And by virtue of being human and also having these personality style preferences, we have blind spots. And so if you have a team that has a little bit more behavioral diversity, then you can make sure that you’ve got all of your bases covered. And yes, exactly what we want to encourage people to do is be curious about the other person’s perspective. And just because it’s not like yours, doesn’t mean it’s not inherently valuable. And what we do a lot is help people communicate more effectively and use coaching skills to to draw that out rather than what most people tend to do in stressful situations or where there’s some kind of miscommunication or someone is frustrating you is you tend to overuse your strengths. So I’ll give you an example. If you’re a strong, dominant style and you want things done quickly and you’re trying to move a project forward, you might bulldoze over people or railroad people who are asking questions, or being more thoughtful, or wanting to really understand how all of the steps might connect.

Laura A Davis: Right? And that might be the steadiness style. So if you’re that that person who’s driving forward, you want to pause, you want to take a breath, you want to ask a question of the person who might be questioning the approach and really give it credence. Maybe they don’t have a valid concern, but even if they don’t, you want to get buy in from them. You want to involve them in the process. And most people, if they’ve been involved in, in a change or an initiative or a process, and they understand the rationale, even if they don’t agree, but they’ve weighed in, they’re going to buy in, right? And I see too often people moving forward quickly and not bring other people on the team or in the organization along, because they haven’t slowed down enough to communicate why we’re doing something. Now, that’s a common scenario.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with the leaders, um, is that a lot of your work is to kind of give them the tools on how to navigate, uh, the, the personalities of their team so they can get the most out of them. They, like you’re saying they might, you know, when you have a hammer, everything’s a nail. So you’re giving them kind of a wider array of tools to use to help get the most out of their team, which. Ultimately, that is their objective, right? They want the whole. They want the organization to succeed. And in order to do that, they have to have their team, you know, running optimally. And this is giving them just more tools in their tool kit to help that outcome get achieved.

Laura A Davis: Yes, that’s very well said. I think people underestimate how important the interpersonal dynamics are, and the leaders that I’ve worked with are more attuned to that, or they wouldn’t be hiring us. That said, it’s a spectrum. You know, some people really get it and others don’t. And it’s not, uh, it’s easy intuitively to understand, but to actually practice can be very challenging because it requires people to look at themselves and what am I doing? How am I positively impacting this person, this person, and so on. And what else could I do to be more effective? So some of that might be just asking for feedback. You know, what am I doing that is helping this situation? And what am I doing that might be getting in the way and really understanding the impact of, of your behavior on others. Because if I’m not aware that people do come to the table with very different worldviews, they’re motivated and stressed by different things and they have different priorities in the, in the disc language, then I am just not seeing how I can bring out their, their strengths. And so that is a critical piece. We also, of course, are teaching people things like how to coach or how, you know, there’s a skills component, how to delegate, how to prioritize or do some kind of strategic planning. All of those tools are important In order to implement, though, what you need to understand is how to get that done through people. And that’s where the personality style understanding can come in. So useful because it’s the core, it’s the foundation around which people will either do what they need to do or not, to put it very simply.

Lee Kantor: And it gives everybody kind of a common language. So now we’re all saying the same thing and we all understand what these things are. So now we can speak freely and I can have more empathy. I understand what you’re trying to do. You understand what I’m trying to do. It kind of. We’re all kind of reading from the same playbook now, instead of each having our own kind of lens in the world.

Laura A Davis: Yes, it’s very useful. And again, you want to use it properly as a tool, you know, tendencies and, uh, you know, traits are not set in stone, and hopefully people have learned to act out of the positive side of what’s natural for them. And I often talk about it sort of being your home base, but we all have to do some stretching and adapting into areas that might not necessarily be comfortable for us. So, you know, understanding that really helps us, as you say, have more empathy and compassion for the others, but it also helps us work together more effectively. There are some things that some people just are not going to be skilled at and don’t want to do. Why make yourself do that? Why not? You know, really, um, leverage the gifts that somebody else on a team might have where they really enjoy that. And that way you really have an orchestra, right? You have people playing their parts, you’re all in harmony and you can accomplish a tremendous amount in that way. But too often I find somehow people have gotten the idea that they have to be all things to all people, and that’s really not possible either. And I loved what you said about this gives a shared language, which it does. Then everyone is much more understanding not only of others, but of themselves. And I think that’s really a critical piece of this kind of work as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share about an organization that came to you and how maybe share don’t name the organization, but share the challenge that they had and how you were able to help them get to a new level?

Laura A Davis: Yes. I’m fortunate to say we have many of those. And on our website, we have a document called, um, Success Case Studies. And there are three of those. So I’ll pick one of those as they’re relatively recent. In fact, one is a team I’m currently working with. So I started to coach the CEO of this healthcare organization, and it happens to be a nonprofit. And the reason was this particular individual was newly promoted to CEO and wanted to change the culture of the organization of about three, 400 people. And, uh, we began that process for a year. And I was very thrilled to see that this person had a growth mindset. And I think many people might be familiar with that, but really open to learning. Open, open to understanding their strengths and where they might have some blind spots. And so we worked on that. And then we started working with her leadership team of seven people. And we went through everything disc, and we did a number of other trainings around conflict and team development. We use also the five behaviors of a cohesive team, which uses Pat Lencioni model some people might be familiar with The Five Dysfunctions of a team, which is a wonderful business fable of a team in Silicon Valley that had the best people, the smartest, best and brightest players on the team. But they weren’t making any progress. Even though they had money, they had a great product because of the interpersonal dynamics.

Laura A Davis: So this particular healthcare organization I’m still working with has undergone some major challenges in terms of the geopolitical environment. I’ll put it mildly, in terms of funding and just some challenges in the external environment. And they gave me a nice compliment. And of course, I would say it’s it’s their work, but I helped facilitate the work that they did because they worked on becoming a cohesive team and understanding one another’s strengths and talents and blind spots. And they’re all working together, uh, as a leadership team. They have come through and, and changed their delivery model, their care delivery, uh, model in record time with record effectiveness because they were much more, uh, cohesive in terms of not only understanding their mission, but how they needed to communicate with one another. And that’s not to say that, you know, disconnects or mistakes don’t happen. They do because we’re all human, but they would apologize or would recognize the problem and take action to, uh, do whatever repair work needed to be done, whether that was interpersonally or strategically or, you know, legislatively, whatever. And they’re, they are really thriving. And it’s not to say that we hope the environment doesn’t change again, but they’re doing really well given the circumstances. And. And I think that’s because they did so much work to. Become more cohesive and more, um, emotionally intelligent. And we’re now. Cascading that, oh, excuse me, I’m gonna take a sip of water here. Throughout the organization.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned, um, healthcare and nonprofits as people you work with in this case. Do you have a niche or is this kind of industry agnostic your work?

Laura A Davis: Yes. When I first started, I thought I would focus on a particular industry vertical or perhaps marketing people, since that was my background and it’s really industry agnostic. And the great benefit for me and my associates is we get to learn a lot about a lot of different businesses. And if you understand what the strategic drivers are and you go through a discovery process, which which we always do at the beginning of any engagement, ask some questions about what’s going on in the business and really do some discovery before we get into any kind of, um, team or leadership development. You can see that there are similarities. You know what, how does the company make money? What are the drivers? What are the values? And, uh, it’s very interesting. And I think the fact that we are not focused in a particular vertical or niche, uh, helps because you can have that beginner’s mind. Like, why do you do that? You know, why, why is it organized this way? And that can help, um, people really question, is there a better way that they might be doing what they’re doing a more innovative way? And certainly in today’s world, with so many technological changes and the geopolitical changes and AI and many trends and headwinds that we haven’t necessarily dealt with all at once before. That’s really valuable to bring an outside perspective to the table.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any, um, characteristic of a leader that is kind of a knockout for you in terms of a good fit? Like if what something we talked a lot about what makes a good fit, but is there something that is a okay, this is not going to work. And I can tell pretty quickly.

Laura A Davis: Yes, yes. And that would be really having a very fixed mindset my way or the highway. Uh, can you come in and fix this person or this team? And I will graciously say, no, that’s not how it works. And it really does begin with the leader. What kind of environment are you, uh, modeling, setting the stage for? And that doesn’t mean that leader has to be perfect, but they need to be willing to learn and grow, have a growth mindset again. And that that’s the real differentiating factor. And, you know, sometimes someone wants a particular, uh, approach that may not be our, uh, in our wheelhouse. And I would would say that, uh, freely, uh, you know, if somebody wanted coaching, uh, in a technical arena, I mean, we’re really doing what I call essential power skills, which used to be called soft skills, but they’re not soft. They’re essential for success. And so we call them power skills. But, uh, yeah, I think if the person is really closed to learning and growth, then they won’t benefit.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice you can give a listener that that’s actionable right now? Is there some low hanging fruit that an individual or a team could be doing right now that might make some change?

Laura A Davis: Yes, I think again, Going back to the basics of self-awareness. Uh, using a tool like everything, disc is always a great start. Understanding what your strengths and blind spots might be and asking for feedback. Really thinking through, uh, how your team might help you improve and asking that really sincerely. So it doesn’t sound like I did a great job in that meeting, didn’t I? Or don’t you agree with this approach? You know, that’s obviously a leading question, but really sincerely asking, what can I do to facilitate your growth? Or how would you like to be managed if it’s a manager and a direct report? I remember the the man I mentioned earlier, Jeff Folmsbee at Equifax would ask me that. And I remember being sort of surprised by that and just really understanding that each person on your team might have different needs and different motivators and stressors or things that really light them up, you know, ask them about that. And, and I think the other thing that people overlook is sincerely giving people what I call developmental feedback. People would call that positive feedback or praise. I don’t like to say positive or negative, but developmental is, you know, I am seeking to improve people’s behavior, but reinforcing feedback, really recognizing people and the contribution and, and what they bring to the table. People are moving so fast today that they forget to do that. And it makes such a big difference. If you genuinely appreciate people, get to know people, understand the people that you work with, whether you’re a leader or just a, you know, or not, just if you’re a team member. Uh, just really appreciating the contributions of others can go can go a long, long way towards making everyone more successful and happier at work.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more about you or your practice, is there a website? What’s the best way to connect?

Laura A Davis: Yes. Thank you. So our website is Laura a davis.com. Someone got Laura davis.com a month before I did. So it’s Laura a Davis. Or you could email us and someone on my team will definitely get that to me. And we will be happy to have a conversation and do a discovery. See if your team or your organization would be interested in some of the things that we offer and the benefits that we might be able to contribute, uh, or not. And so my email is Laura at Laura davis.com, LAURA at That you are aadavas.com. So that would probably be the best way. And we’re on LinkedIn. Laura, a Davis and Facebook and all of the social media outlets. So we. It would be great if someone would link in with us too, because we post a lot of. We hope is helpful information about tools, not just disk, but, you know, how do you have difficult conversations or how do you have a performance conversation? Many things that many leaders and teams would be wanting to know more about.

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

Laura A Davis: Thank you so much. Lee. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

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

Inside Caring Senior Service: The Journey of Building a Hands-On, Tech-Savvy Senior Care Franchise That Changes Lives

May 19, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

Franchise Marketing Radio

Inside Caring Senior Service: The Journey of Building a Hands-On, Tech-Savvy Senior Care Franchise That Changes Lives

00:00 /

In this episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Jeff Salter, founder and CEO of Caring Senior Service. Jeff shares how he launched the non-medical home care business in 1991 in West Texas, eventually expanding to 62 locations across 23 states through franchising. He discusses the ideal franchisee profile, emphasizing passion for helping seniors over purely financial motivation. Jeff also highlights the importance of hands-on involvement during a franchise’s early stages, the company’s early adoption of technology, and how strong systems and communication are critical to successful launches.

Jeff Salter, founder and CEO of Caring Senior Service, a national non-medical home care franchise with 60 locations across 18 states. He began his career in senior care in 1991 and founded Caring Senior Service at age 20 after seeing firsthand the challenges seniors face when aging in place.

A longtime advocate for innovation in home care, Jeff developed Tendio, Caring Senior Service’s proprietary home care software, and has led the creation of a suite of AI-powered tools designed to empower franchise owners, improve operational efficiency, and enhance care delivery.

He serves on multiple National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) advisory councils, including the Home Care Technology Advisory Council, and is a frequent speaker on the future of home care and the role of AI in the industry.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Origin story of Caring Senior Service and its founding in 1991.
Transition from a single location to a franchise model for expansion.
Qualities sought in potential franchisees, including passion for helping others.
Importance of hands-on involvement in the initial phase of franchise ownership.
Evolution of business systems and adoption of technology in the home care industry.
Development of proprietary software and systems for franchisee support.
Strategies for launching new franchise locations and ensuring effective communication.
Personal connections to senior care as a motivating factor for franchisees.
Trends in younger franchisees entering the senior care industry.
The tangible impact of senior care work on communities and local employment.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio. It’s Franchise Marketing Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have the founder and CEO with Caring Senior service, Jeff Salter. Welcome.

Jeff Salter: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: Well, Jeff, before we get too far into things, tell us about Caring Senior Service. How you serving folks? Yeah.

Jeff Salter: So we’re a non-medical home care business. So we send caregivers into a family’s home to typically help with personal tasks that that elderly individual can no longer do safely. Maybe it’s helping them get up in the morning, get their bath, might be some restroom assistance, but also their to cook meals, go grocery shopping, errand running, and just overall make sure they’re safe at home at that point in time, which they maybe did a little bit of assistance.

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

Jeff Salter: Well, I started now years ago. In 1991, I started the business in West Texas, recognized that families were really struggling with the scheduling and the management of caregivers. There wasn’t an industry at the time, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for them to call someone to help coordinate the caregiver when they were going to be there, and at times, multiple caregivers. So I saw that there was an opportunity to help families out and started my business initially as kind of a it was a side business, something to do while I was in school. But I quickly learned that families really needed this type of help and attention, and the business just started growing from there. My first office in 91 grew it to about five locations through 2003 and then become a franchise system. So today we’ve got 62 locations across 23 states.

Lee Kantor: So what was that kind of thought process in deciding to go the franchise route because you spent a long time not franchise. So what kind of put you over the edge of, hey, I think this can be a successful franchise?

Jeff Salter: It was early days, and for me, at least in the early 2000, to make a decision, we want to grow the business. I tested it out in multiple markets. Odessa, Texas was a small 100,000 population city, uh, McAllen, Texas, which is about, you know, the entire what’s called the Valley. There’s 300, 000 people, but a wide space. And then finally 96, I moved to San Antonio. So metropolitan area knew I wanted to grow the business and expand. But I was trying to make that decision. Do I want to invest a lot of my own dollars in building the infrastructure needed to have a kind of command and control over a large geographical area? Or do I look at this opportunity and franchise, and we’re helping other people start their own business. Strong advantage. And the fact that I had built a business that was operating the same way in every location, so it wasn’t five locations that were operating differently. They were all operating the exact same way. So for me, it was easy to kind of take what we had done and turn it into a franchise system, help other business owners use their capital to gain the benefits of what we’d learned over those first ten years, and it just made the right sense. It was it was better to, to share that with, with individual owners and entrepreneurs that, you know, really want to do something different. They’ve been working in corporate America. They had jobs working for someone else. And those jobs oftentimes were and still are not meaningful to them. It doesn’t really give them purpose. And they find that a caring senior service operation and what we do each and every day, helping families and helping caregivers find work, it really gives them purpose and gives them something to feel proud about each and every day.

Lee Kantor: Now, was it a difficult transition from you, from changing the customer, from being that caregiver or family member or senior to now I’m helping an entrepreneur grow a business in their local market, and I have to give them the support that they need. Yeah.

Jeff Salter: You know, um, I think every founder goes through that transition or change. I had luckily, um, had gone through that when I, in my first location to the second location and I moved, I mean, I moved from Odessa, Texas, West Texas, to McAllen, Texas. It’s an eight hour difference in those two places. So that was a big change. And then to go to San Antonio was another dispersed location. Turned out to be between those two locations, but also Corpus Christi, kind of throughout Texas. And for me, I’d really been having to reinvent myself already. I go from being a solo entrepreneur, one location to a second location, which is a big leap when you’re in business. Second growth challenge. But now, 5 in 10 years meant that I really had to reinvent what I was focused on. So for me personally, having that runway of ten years of kind of reinventing myself, it was a little bit easier to become a franchisor, to change my focus on helping those entrepreneurs get, get their business started. And then, of course, you reinvent yourself again. The more success you get as you grow that business and expand, you have to then think about team members and you’re leading a promoting what was once your your baby, if you will.

Lee Kantor: Now, what does that ideal franchise, uh, franchisee candidate look like to you? You mentioned kind of having, you know, wanting a bigger why and having something mission oriented. What are some of the qualities you look for in your franchisees?

Jeff Salter: You know, it’s, uh, for us, it’s a matter of finding someone that really does want to make a difference in other people’s lives. Well, we can do very well financially with a senior care business, and I think there’s a lot of motivation for people to look at this because of that. But if it’s financial motivation alone, I think that’s not enough to keep people involved long term, because you do have a bit of a passion for helping people, and you’ve got to be really caring about your caregivers. You want to make sure that that they have fulfilling meaningful work as well. And that means a lot of management of people. So it really, we’re looking for someone that likes to work with people, wants to have a business that’s going to employ a lot of people, and they actually want to give back to their community. They want to feel like they’re doing something that kind of keeps us all grounded, makes sure we make the right decisions when we need to. Because, uh, it’s, it’s a people business and it’s not just producing a product and shipping a product or producing a food item and serving that food item. It’s about a long term relationship with those clients and families. And that’s something really professional specialty, um, from an individual. But I’m also very respectful of the fact that I did this when I was 20 years old, when I started the business. And I tell people that if I can do this, anybody can do it. It’s just you have to have the right motivation and the right desire to be successful.

Lee Kantor: How important is it to be hands on and kind of live in the business for a period of time?

Jeff Salter: Yeah. You know, we we feel that our new owners benefit greatly if they’re very involved in the first 6 to 12 months after that. We encourage people that if they’ve done it well in those 6 to 12 months, it’s time to think about a second position and try to help more people. And you can only do that if you actually expand and maybe open a second location in another city or in another part of the city if you’re in a large metro area. Um, so we really encourage that people live in the business at first, but then as soon as possible, step out, hire people. We have a. We’re unique in the space and that. We have very specific positions within the organization, and those positions are designed to run the whole operation. I’m still an owner and operator, still have my five locations. I have a team that helps me manage that. Got a layer of two people that really helped run the locations, but each location has those positions that run the office locally that are managing locally. But you can’t do that from day one. You can’t expect that they’re going to have everything they need. They still need leadership, and they need leadership that has the knowledge of how the business operates. Because that leadership comes coaching. You’ve got to coach people up and get them to really execute the business model. But we’re really proud of the fact that we do have a business model that is intended to be ran by, by employees, and doesn’t require the owner to be there day in and day out.

Lee Kantor: Now, how have the systems changed? Because I would imagine over the 20 years you’ve seen, uh, you know, the advent of now AI, but technology, the internet. Um, and how have you adapted your systems to kind of this, um, rapidly evolving technological, uh, you know, changes that we’re going through.

Jeff Salter: Yeah. I think it’s a, it’s, again, I kind of hit on this theme of reinvention. Um, for us, it was a matter of really in healthcare in general is at least in the home care space, home health, hospice and home care. They’re actually really slow to technology advancement and they resist it quite a bit. Example is um, paperless office. Uh, most businesses look at banking. Banking went paperless many, many, many years ago. Um, at least started down that pathway. But in home health care and home care, that transition is only probably the last five years. People have really leaned into it. We were doing this though almost 15 years ago, we were working towards that paperless office focusing on computer systems and programs that would allow us to capture signatures in the field. Uh, you know, we had this in 2013. We had this ambition that a caregiver being hired by us would write her name, only type her name only one time. After that, she doesn’t have to type her name or write her name anywhere else. And that was kind of our guiding light was like, let’s make it super easy for the employee so that their onboarding process is easy.

Jeff Salter: And then we took that same concept and walked it through every other aspect of the business. How do we get clients and families onboarded? So because we have to provide critical care plan for each one of our clients depending upon the state licensing, but even making that experience really painless, if you’re in healthcare and you’ve been to a doctor’s office, you know what it was like originally to fill out all the forms you had to fill out, and then that all went to electronic format. Still fill out a lot of forms, but at least a little quicker if you have a tablet or you can do that on a phone. So we brought all this technology into the equation to make it streamlined for everybody involved. And that just meant that we started gathering information that gave us insights into our business and really allowed us to focus on things that others we feel weren’t focusing on at the time, because they were still doing things kind of older, older way. But it was we had all that data into a system. We could start really doing interesting things as an organization.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice for other emerging franchisors out there listening when it comes to a successful launch for one of your franchisees? Do you kind of have a good system to help a franchisee get up and running as quickly as possible?

Jeff Salter: You know, we we’ve looked at there’s obviously a lot of, uh, partners in the franchising space that help with these things. And there’s a lot of opportunities and a lot of options that are out there. We looked at a lot of those and felt that, um, uh, I’m a big bill, which was by person, I like to go and build the systems I need versus buying them off the shelf. We create our own our own software to manage our actual locations, scheduling of caregivers, client management, applicant tracking, and and HR systems. And we did the same thing with, with our franchise onboarding process to really control that experience. And that was for us what it was really all about. The experience needed to be as positive as possible. And we want to make sure we could, we could launch the way we wanted to launch, share the information, the way we want to share the information. It’s not to say those systems don’t work, and I would advise anyone that they should investigate and look at those systems and find the right tool that works for them at that moment. And as they grow, those, those decisions change, right? The larger you get, the more capital you have. And you can maybe think about creating your own systems. And today, I think that with the advent of AI, the ability for people to create systems very easily. It’s really changing that, that question for everybody. And I’m I’m not sure where everyone should necessarily fall on our side. We’re building just about everything we can, and we’ve got the capability and the people to be able to do that.

Lee Kantor: So is there anything actionable you can share? Like that is a best practice when it comes to having a successful launch of a new franchisee, or are there some must haves or must do’s that you recommend?

Jeff Salter: Yeah, I think the, the we ourselves are guilty of, of failure. So we only put systems in place because we found that what we were doing didn’t work. And I think that’s important that once you you’re honest and sometimes as an owner, especially as you get a kind of five, ten locations under your belt and you’re, you go through that change process, you’re like, okay, I can no longer do all the work I was doing. I’ve got to hire people and bring them on board. That’s when you start. Things start kind of breaking down because you were maybe able to handle it. Keep all the plates spinning in the air. But as you hand those off, sometimes there’s, uh, just gaffes that get formed. So that’s when you really have to look at what systems do we have in place to make sure this process is being followed? Because it can be as simple as just one email that didn’t go out, or one thing that didn’t get completed on that checklist, and suddenly everything grinds to a halt. So for, for, for us, it’s a matter of really focusing on that checklist. What are all of the items that need to get completed for a successful launch of a location and then looking for ways to streamline that through, um, you know, systems, you know, we start a paper based is the easy way to do it.

Jeff Salter: We then went to, uh, electronic checklists kind of simplified, but that was, we found as we were launching more than a few a year that required us to really rethink that process. And what we found was probably the most important was clear communication capability. I’ve assigned as a task to complete. It’s a blocking task, meaning until they complete that, I can’t do the next step in the process. And they could communicate back and forth to whoever’s in charge of helping them with that part of the process. And, you know, it’s marketing team might be doing brochure design, there might be licensing, helping with getting the licensing set up. And so there’s multiple people communicating and just making sure the system allows for a free flow of that communication so that nothing gets missed. We had to go off of email because email just became a trap for us. So we had to look for systems that allowed us to communicate inside of them.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share about a franchisee that maybe is memorable for you or, um, rewarding? Uh, example of how someone can really impact their community when they do this, right?

Jeff Salter: Yeah. I think I’m lucky in the fact that just the work we do in general is, is in itself is intrinsically Rewarding, and we get to sit down with families at one of the most vulnerable moments and help them solve a problem that they’ve never had to deal with before. The fact that their aging loved one your mom, your dad is now the hero in your life, but now they’re at the point where they actually need people to help them in a way that they never needed before. And it’s really tough for families going through that. And for us, it’s a matter of finding owners that also want to take on that challenge. And some people come to it because they, they think it’s just a, um, the latest and greatest thing to do. But the ones that really are successful, uh, lean into that. And I’ve got a number of stories. I know that I had a group of that were in my Phoenix area that came to this and they themselves had had successful business ownership prior. They’ve been in the printing business. So you definitely don’t see a clear path to go from printing to senior care. But they wanted to get out of printing because it was not giving them fulfillment. They didn’t think they were really doing anything. Thing. And it was at a time when I was younger. I was in my early 30s.

Jeff Salter: They were already in their in their late 50s, at the start of this new business venture and this new chapter in their life. So it was really humbling for me to see someone who had far more business experience than I did, but really leaned into what advice I was giving. They respected the experience that I had, and they, they took everything that I said, like, I’m gonna make sure that I follow everything Jeff’s telling us because he’s been successful. And this is an area in business that I’ve never done before. So they didn’t want to, you know, bring their preconceived notions and ideas to that until they were successful. They became our most successful franchise EAS for, for a long period of time. And they always went back to say, you know, we just made sure that we followed this system. And when we didn’t know what to do, we we’d would ask questions, but then later on they were able to really help our system grow and give advice back to our existing franchisees of how they didn’t change what we told them to do, but really enhanced those things they added to and brought value to those simple things. Maybe it was their sales techniques and the way they implemented the sales strategies. They used the core, but then added to it. And I think that’s what makes a great franchise owner.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a thread amongst your franchisees that they were touched by a senior, or they had a close relationship with their grandparents? Is there anything that, you know, folks who kind of had that kind of an upbringing that end up being good franchisees down the road?

Jeff Salter: Yeah, I don’t, um, there’s definitely a thread of if you talk to our, our franchise owners at the start of their experience, nearly every one of them came to us because they had some kind of an experience either directly with a parent, or indirectly with a grandparent or other loved one. I think that’s pretty common theme amongst just about every one of our franchise owners. But recently we’ve been seeing more younger folks that don’t have that actual experience, but their biggest expression is that they want to do something that has meaning. And I think that’s a very interesting take on the current generation that some of the younger generations is that they really are looking at. We already knew that they want to give back. They want to work for companies that are have a purpose and that they’re in any of the business itself doesn’t have purpose. They want to know that that business is doing something with purpose, that they’re involved in their community. They’ve got a charity tied to them. They’re doing something that’s a give away free services when they get clients. This, there’s a generation that really appreciates that. And I think you’re seeing that now getting manifested in that. They want to take it a step further and they only want to they want to focus on something that really has purpose and gives them kind of self-fulfillment. Um, so I think that’s something that we’re noticing more and more, but just about all of our, our owners, that if they’re in the 45 to 55 age range, they more than likely they’ve been experiencing it. And that’s what turned them to senior care when they started thinking about, you know, what’s the next chapter in my life?

Lee Kantor: So you’re seeing kind of a trend to younger folks being open to the idea of being a franchisee.

Jeff Salter: Yeah, we just just had some training with one of our newest franchise owners. And, and they’re, they’re not unique. They might be our youngest group. They’re, they’re under 30. They’re in, they’re, they’re like 26 to 28 range, which is pretty young for an entrepreneur and, and especially in senior care. Um, I’ve not yet found someone that wants to be at the age of 20 like myself, but we are seeing that more people under 30 are leaning towards senior care as a kind of a life passion. And that’s for me. That’s amazing See, I, um, you know, in about five years ago. I went on a big bike ride to celebrate 30 years of our business. One of the messages is I was, as I was talking to people, was that I hoped that I would inspire people at a younger age to get involved in senior care, because people don’t tend to think of it when they’re at that young age. And not that this this couple that I referenced came from that directly, but it, it feels good to know that there are people out there that are younger in age, that are looking at senior care as a place they want to kind of put a stamp on, on their career. So I want to, I want to do this because it really matters.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, because the impact is real. It’s impact. You can see, you know, on a day to day, week to week basis, and there’s not a lot of jobs that you can, you know, get that level of appreciation on a regular basis. People are hungry for that.

Jeff Salter: Yeah. And I, you know, part of becoming a franchisor and being in the franchising world is you get to you get to experience all these cool businesses that are out there. I respect every single franchise order that’s out there. The fact that the Oscars and they’re building businesses that other people can become part of, and it’s it’s important that we have that in every sector that we can. But there is something about having to having to like, go home every night and know that what you did made a real true difference in someone’s life. And that’s and we get it on both sides because we are helping the senior and their family, the seniors, getting the the safety and the support that they need to remain at home. Somebody is getting peace of mind. But with us, every step we bring on board, we bring on at least one caregivers to working jobs in our communities with every client we land. And that’s really important because if we get the messaging right to get more clients, that just means we’re employing more people and won a client that needs 24 over seven home care. And that’s not uncommon. We have to employ up to seven people to care for that one person at home, and that’s a really good position to be in.

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

Jeff Salter: Yeah. Karen. Franchise.com is really the easiest place to go get more information and be connected directly to us. I’m available on LinkedIn. If you search for Jeff Salter Caring Senior service, you’ll find me on LinkedIn. Um, and our website, caring senior service.com. Also, all three of those places are the easy way to connect.

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

Jeff Salter: Yeah, thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

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

Mastering Pricing and Profit Margins: Financial Wisdom for Entrepreneurs Nearing Retirement

May 19, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio

Mastering Pricing and Profit Margins: Financial Wisdom for Entrepreneurs Nearing Retirement

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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee interviews Randall Avery, owner of Deasil Wealth Management. Randall shares his journey from corporate finance to personal financial planning, focusing on retirement-minded individuals and service-based business owners. He highlights common financial mistakes entrepreneurs make, including underpricing services and neglecting profit margins. Randall emphasizes the importance of tracking revenue, profit margins, and cash reserves, while advising business owners to pay themselves consistently. He also discusses exit strategy challenges for service-based businesses and the value of investing outside the business to build personal wealth.

Randall Avery, CFP®, CFA, is the principal and owner of Deasil Wealth Management, an advisory firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. With over 15 years of experience in finance, accounting, and investment analysis, he specializes in helping individuals and families achieve financial independence through strategic planning and personalized asset management.

Before founding Deasil Wealth Management, Randall held senior financial roles where he led budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis for multi-million-dollar initiatives. Today, he’s committed to helping individuals and practice owners build clarity, confidence, and long-term financial stability in their lives.

Connect with Randall on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Mission to increase community wealth, focusing on individuals nearing retirement and business owners.
Common financial mistakes made by business owners, such as underpricing services and neglecting profit margins.
Importance of proper pricing strategies for entrepreneurs.
Challenges faced by service-based business owners in building equity and planning exit strategies.
Balancing business financial health with personal wealth management.
Key financial metrics for business owners to track: revenue, profit margin, and cash reserves.
Recommendations for consistent personal compensation for business owners.
Systems and tools for managing business finances and collaborating with financial professionals.
Strategies for retirement savings, including recommended savings percentages.
The significance of reinvesting in businesses to enhance their value and sustainability.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the Accelerated Degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor. Hear another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on the show. We have the owner and the financial planner with Deasil Wealth Management, Randall Avery. Welcome.

Randall Avery: Thanks for having me. I’m excited to share my story and some of the knowledge I’ve gained by working with clients.

Lee Kantor: All right, well, let’s kick it off with mission and purpose of Deasil Wealth Management. How are you serving folks?

Randall Avery: Yeah. So the mission and purpose of Deasil Wealth Management is to increase the wealth of the communities that I serve. I specifically target two main areas. One are going to be those who are about to retire, and the second one are going to be practice owners, people actually running a business. A practice could be a mental health practice, a dental practice, a law practice. I have a passion about working, helping business owners because that kind of aligns with my background and how my career journey has went.

Lee Kantor: So share a little bit about your backstory. How’d you get here?

Randall Avery: Yeah, sure. So I started off my career. I graduated in 2008 from Georgia State University with a degree in finance, and at that time I thought I was going to be a big time investment banker. But I think we all know what happened in 2008. Right. And it was during the financial crisis. So I had to pivot. And I did three years in an internal audit program at a large manufacturing company. After that, I spent about seven years working for a financial planning analysis at a couple of other major corporations in the Atlanta metro area. And that’s where I thought to myself, I love companies, but there’s something missing. My work was missing an actual soul. I love the analysis. I love, you know, creating profit and growth for the businesses that I work for. But I felt like it needed a soul. So I decided to jump and transition from working with businesses to working with individuals and specifically individuals who own businesses. That way I can marry both my financial background and my individual, my desire to help individuals win with money.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk about how you help your clients win with money. It sounds like you deal with a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business people. What are some of the mistakes you see business people making time and time again where you’re just like, oh, here we go again.

Randall Avery: I think the number one thing is underpricing their services. I especially started off going into your business. The beauty of having a business is that you can charge whatever you want to charge. There is no metric that you can go off of, and people usually underprice their services because they’re passionate about what they do. But that causes a lot of, you know, other things that happen within your business. Number one is going to be stress because you’re usually going to overwork yourself. The number two, which is most important, you’re not reinvesting back into your business to grow in an adequate way. So the number one thing I see is people not pricing themselves. The last thing I would talk on is people aren’t just keeping an eye on the numbers themselves. All they’re focused on is revenue, revenue, revenue. They don’t focus on the expenses. They don’t talk about profit margins. They don’t look at the little nuances of their business to say, hey, is my business actually healthy? I believe those are the differences that people aren’t focusing on when they started their business.

Lee Kantor: So you mentioned pricing. What’s your recommendation on how to come up with a price?

Randall Avery: I think the number one way is to talk to different people. I recommend all entrepreneurs do this process, which I like to call 100 cups of coffee. Find the vendors, the people in your industry that do what you do and the way that you want to do it, and sit down with them and have a cup of coffee with them. And part of that conversation is, how should I be pricing my services, understand what the market is actually bearing, because I think that’ll do a couple of things before you actually go into business that’ll help you understand the profit opportunity of that industry and that business and what you can actually charge. That way you can have a more informed way of what you can charge for the services that you offer.

Lee Kantor: So what is a sign that you are charging too much?

Randall Avery: Yeah. A sign charging too much is probably people are just walking away. People are not seeing the value that your service is providing. They say, hey, that’s a little bit too tight. That’s a little bit too much. And that could be a couple of things that could be you’re not addressing the right market. You could not be presenting yourself well, or it could actually be too expensive, meaning there’s not enough value for the client versus the services that you’re offering.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk about kind of the day in the life of Randall. What, what does that look like for you? Um, what, what’s a day in the life look like?

Randall Avery: Yeah. So because I service individuals, busy professional individuals, a lot of my work actually happens in the evening time. So the privilege of that is I don’t really start the the technical work of my day probably until around 10:00. So the morning time is something that I own. That’s where I can get grounded. That’s where I can work out. That’s where I can do the things to take care of my life. But from 9 to 9, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., I’m probably usually working or taking care of myself in different ways. So it usually starts off with compliance. You need to have a culture of compliance in the financial services industry, figuring out making sure all the documentation is up to date, making sure you’re, you know, dotting your I’s, crossing your T’s. That’s the first thing I start off with most of my days. The second thing is going to be client files, making sure client files are noted and dictated, and then the rest of the day is usually client work and client meetings, whether that’s working on an analysis for clients or actually meeting with the client, discussing their financial situation to do more analysis later.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, you mentioned that kind of the niche that you’re working in are people with practices is a big part of it. Can you talk about what is the pain that those people are having right before they decide to call you? I would imagine the kind of people you’re dealing with are either doing it themselves when it comes to wealth management, or they have or working with another firm. So what is causing them to stop what they’re doing currently and talk to you?

Randall Avery: The ideal client is usually somebody who’s being successful, meaning having a lot of revenue, um, able to fund their lifestyle, but they’re actually thinking about what is next, what is that transition? How can I have more work life balance? And they’re also thinking about what’s next. Meaning how long can I do this for? And how can I be putting money aside so that when I stop working, I’ll have some funds to and invest and live on? For practice owners, usually the wealth does not come from the sale of your business. Sometimes it does, but a lot of times it doesn’t. So being what I like to call independently wealthy from your practice, having investments, saving up is important. So it’s usually that person who says, hey, I’m stressed out. I’m not sure how long I can do this. Um, that’s usually the person who usually calls me and say, hey, can you help me out? Am I actually have a financially healthy business? And also, am I financially healthy? Um, a lot of the times, to be honest, and this is just full transparency, their spouse, their spouse triggers them and say, hey, you need to call somebody or they’re the business owner and say, hey, I need somebody who can communicate with my spouse in a better way. That way we’re in line because sometimes having a third party in the room can really, really move things forward.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that a lot of clients don’t have an exit where the wealth is made. Can you talk a little more of that? Because I would think that that is kind of the goal of most entrepreneurs is to have some sort of an exit that they can, uh, you know, benefit from.

Randall Avery: Yeah, yeah. That is the goal for most entrepreneurs. But when you talk about a service based business, a lot of people build businesses that are around them, their name, who they are, their process, their network and their connections for somebody outside. When they look at that, they’re looking at, well, I’m not that person. I haven’t built that network and it feels like I’m buying a job. A lot of people do not put professional managers within their business so that it can operate without them. It’s just the way life works. Most businesses are small or micro sized businesses, so most practice owners, all those type of professions that I mentioned earlier we’ll probably not have an exit valuation from their business just because it’s usually built around them.

Lee Kantor: So that’s a lesson for a lot of folks out there that have service based businesses where you are kind of the product or service. You better figure out a way to build something that can be sold, right? Like you wouldn’t you recommend as a wealth manager? You’re what I’m hearing you say is you better take your money and invest it in some companies. And if it’s not your own company, it better be a portfolio of assets that appreciate over time.

Randall Avery: That’s correct. So an individual, when they’re in business after decide, do I want to have a lifestyle practice, a business that fully supports them? Well, because it’s a lifestyle practice, it’s not going to have a strong equity or business valuation for somebody to buy or value. You may do something special or unique or have a unique customer base that somebody might want to buy, but that’s far and few in between. But if you do decide to have build something that has value, then you have to reinvest in your business accordingly. Professional managers, processes and procedures. Having the brand of the company versus the brand of yourself. But if you want to have a lifestyle practice and there’s nothing wrong with the lifestyle practice, you do have to be quote unquote, independently wealthy, meaning you have to save up, use the profit from your business, and you can be extremely profitable in a lifestyle practice. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But planning because you have that profitability to reinvest in your future, I think is important.

Lee Kantor: And that’s where you need a professional to kind of be by your side to help you through that. Right?

Randall Avery: That’s correct. I think business owners are used to, um, you know, outsourcing different services. Um, I think of it as, you know, the people who are listening to this call are probably in college or have a college degree. We can all figure out. Go on YouTube and change your oil, but we’re probably not, and we’re not going to spend our time doing that because there’s better use of our time. There’s better enjoyment of our life than changing our own oil. Similar to finances, those people who they know changing, you know, having their finances in order is important, but they don’t want to do those type of things. They want it done professionally. That’s where I step in and help clients out.

Lee Kantor: So now when you’re working with this client of yours, what is how much of your time is spent helping them shore up their business to make sure that they understand the numbers and that it’s running profitably? And what percentage is on growing kind of their wealth with a portfolio of investments? Um, because it sounds like you’re, you’re got a foot in each side there.

Randall Avery: I would say for those who own their businesses, it’s probably 30% of our conversation. Actually, one on one client time is discussing their business. Um, and I would probably say around 20% of the analysis that I do is purely on is their business healthy? What do you see within my business? What are some opportunities? And I think the important thing of having a niche is you can talk to other practice owners. See, does this number look right? What are other people doing? How are my pricing this? Do you think this will work within the market? So I can kind of bring a collective wisdom to them when it comes to their business. The other side is the what I like to call the traditional financial planning, which is making sure they call it asset allocation, making sure they’re investing in the right places, whether that’s a Roth IRA, whether it’s extraordinary. And there’s specifically, there’s, um, business owner specific retirement accounts, whether that’s a simple IRA, a sep IRA or a solo four one K, there are actually business investments that are only for business owners that having a niche allows me to specialize in that area.

Lee Kantor: So how do you work with their other professional, trusted advisors like their CPA? Because it sounds like you’re kind of doing some of the, the work of a good CPA would do.

Randall Avery: Yeah. So it all depends on the services that a CPA provides. Some CPAs are just tax preparers. All they’re going to do is take the information that you provide and file a tax return. Some CPAs also do something called bookkeeping. Um, bookkeeping is where they actually are recording the different transactions that a business has, or the tax preparer and other ones actually do something called tax planning that’s actually focusing on how they can reduce their tax bill. The issue with that is none of those professionals are usually focused on wealth accumulation. They’re primarily focused on what I like to call Kemp compliance and tax payment reduction. So what I when I come in, when I work with other CPAs, it’s really saying, yes, that’s probably the best tax move. But what is the best financial benefit for the client as far as growing wealth? And sometimes that’s not what maximizes their tax return.

Lee Kantor: And then it’s up to the client to decide which direction they want to go in.

Randall Avery: That’s spot on. Yes.

Lee Kantor: And then so if you were advising a business owner right now or aspiring business owner right now, what are some of the key numbers they should be tracking and know, uh, like from the back of their hand and the ones that maybe are popular but maybe aren’t as important.

Randall Avery: So I would say there are three numbers that I love for my clients to track. The first one, which everybody tracks is revenue. How is revenue doing? You should be able to quote your monthly revenue. You should be be able to quote your yearly run rate revenue off the back of your head. That should be the first starting point to understand your business. Um, because revenue dictates, you know, how many employees I can hire, what are some of the things that I can invest in in the future? The second number is going to be profit margin. So profit margin is going to be your profit, your revenue minus expenses divided by your revenue. That is your profit margin. To me, that is a a one of the many health indicators to say, hey, is my business healthy? Because I can have a large revenue number, but if I have a lot of expenses in my profit margins aren’t, well, that’s not a good thing. And what do you compare your profit margin to? Because it is a relative measure. Compare it to, you know, industry standards within your industry because you’re a lifestyle practice, should you have a certain profit margin because you want to build enterprise value? Should you have a certain amount of profit margin? That should tell you how you’re managing the expenses of the business. Last but not least is going to be cash reserve. The business owner at all times need to have an idea of how how much cash they have, and Keely, how much cash fluctuates throughout a given month and throughout a given year and season. Most businesses have some type of seasonal up flow and down flow, and understanding the season of your business and how that relates to your cash flow is important because if you want an employee to look for a job, an employee that you have to look for your job, try to pay them at a later date than what they expect. So making sure you have the cash reserves necessary to pay your vendors, pay yourself during the ups and downs of your business year, I think is important.

Lee Kantor: So talking about pay, how do you recommend business owners pay themselves?

Randall Avery: What usually happens when somebody goes into business, they receive revenue, they pay off their expenses, and they have this lump of cash left over in their business account. And it’s natural for somebody to say, hey, let me just gut out that account and I can spend that in my personal because I probably can spend it better myself than I can in my business. My recommendation for all business owners is try to pay yourself a consistent rate. What will that do? That’ll first, moderate your personal lifestyle. Say, hey, this is how much I’m bringing in. This is what I have to live on. And that way I won’t have as much fluctuation fluctuation as if I just emptied out my account every year. The second thing for your business, you have money hopefully set aside within your business that you can Humanistically reinvest back into your business versus liquidating all your cash. So my number one goal for all my clients is to figure out what they need to pay themselves on a fixed regular rate to handle their personal lifestyle, but also to reinvest back into their business.

Lee Kantor: Now, what types of systems do you recommend owners having so they can keep track of all this stuff and manage the different professional service relationships they have with people like you, their CPA? How how do you recommend they keep track of all of this information?

Randall Avery: Yeah, from a practical standpoint, a lot of people use Google Sheets. Um, they actually record their transactions on a Google sheet. Now that’s okay starting off, but you do need to move up to a, you know, an accounting software, um, to help you actually track those things. And once you move up on the revenue tab, you’ll actually bring in a bookkeeper and they will usually have a system to help track. What I do see is when people receive a bookkeeper, they’re like, oh, they have it. But usually bookkeepers will meet with you on a monthly basis or a quarterly basis. Make sure you keep that meeting so you actually can keep a pulse on your finances and what happens. And look at the reports, look at the vendor reports, look at your expense. Look at your profit margin. Really, I would say allocate maybe an hour or two a month, just where you look at your business financials to see if things are healthy. See how you want them to be. See what they actually are and see how you can actually reconcile those two.

Lee Kantor: So now when you’re growing your business, um, how do you recommend how much money do you recommend putting aside for future you like for retirement? Is there a kind of rule of thumb when it comes to that?

Randall Avery: Usually start off around 10% and moving it up to 15%. Usually if you’re able to put away 15% of your gross income, you should be able to retire to suit your lifestyle as you’ve lived at that time. So start off with 10% and move up to 15% of reserve for retirement.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, you mentioned in your business that, um, people with practices should consider having conversations with you. What do you need from us right now? How can we help you? Are you just looking for more conversations with those folks? Are you, um, looking to grow your practice outside of the Atlanta area? You know, what is kind of your vision of the future for Deasil?

Randall Avery: Yeah. So I’m actively taking on clients right now. Um, and, um, I, I’m registered with the secretary of state in Georgia, but I am able to service clients outside of the state of Georgia. I do have clients in Texas and Florida and North Carolina. So I am, I’m regional, but I can service clients across the United States. So my goal is really just to increase the number of practices that are under my umbrella, um, hopefully create some type of referral network where a lot of trusted service providers who are adequately reinvesting in their business, we can kind of bounce the services that we offer amongst each other and really just grow the wealth of practice owners. I truly believe that if practice owners do well financially, they can actually service their clients better, and that actually creates a better society. So that’s kind of my goal.

Lee Kantor: Well, Randall, it has been a joy talking to you. I learned a lot. If somebody wants to connect with you and learn more, get on your calendar. What is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Randall Avery: Yeah. So first of all, thank you for having me on here. This has been a fun conversation. I love talking about business. If you are about to retire or planning a retirement or in retirement, are you on the practice? And you’re like, hey, I really want somebody with an expert eye looking not only at my personal finances, but on my business finances. The best way is to go to my website, www.com. That’s wwdasilw.com. There, you can book a 15 minute consultation is completely free. We sit down and we talk. No sales at all. That would be the best way. And if you’re not ready for a financial planner, I do have a YouTube channel where I actually interview practice owners. So you can hear what other practice owners are doing, how they’re reinvesting their business, how they’re providing a service to their clients. Because I feel like all business owners, we need to talk, communicate, and stay open. And last but not least, I am the author of the book Hacking the System by Creating your own System. So if you want something in your hand that you can read to say, okay, how does Randall really think about money? You can receive that resource considerably less than what I charge for my financial planning fee.

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

Randall Avery: No problem. Thank you for having me.

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

Pitch Secrets A to Z: Practical Tips from a $2.5 Billion Sales Veteran to Help You Communicate and Sell Better

May 15, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

Pitch Secrets A to Z: Practical Tips from a $2.5 Billion Sales Veteran to Help You Communicate and Sell Better

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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Forbes Riley, the “Queen of Pitch” and author of “Pitch Secrets A to Z.” Forbes shares her journey from Broadway actress to pitching expert, having generated over $2.5 billion in product sales. She discusses the difference between sales and pitching, emphasizing relationship-building and storytelling. Forbes highlights how pitching principles apply across platforms like TikTok and Instagram, the importance of testimonials, automation, and practicing pitches before real prospects. She also introduces her book, structured A to Z, and her free weekly Zoom training sessions at pitchsecrets.com.

Dr. Forbes Riley, widely known as the Queen of Pitch ,is a globally recognized entrepreneur, media personality, and communication strategist who has generated more than $2.5 billion in product sales worldwide.

A 2x TEDx speaker and 3x bestselling author, she has built a multi-million–strong following around one core principle: your success rises and falls on your ability to communicate it. Her strategies aren’t motivational theory, they’re market-tested methodology. A recent media appearance demonstrating her techniques reached 6.2 million views in just 24 hours, underscoring a universal truth: when you master your message, you change your outcomes.

In her upcoming book, Pitch Secrets A to Z, Forbes reveals the communication framework behind her billion-dollar career—offering entrepreneurs, leaders, high-achieving professionals across to stay at home moms, seniors and anyone looking for a side hustle to supplement their income.

With 197 infomercials to her credit and 30+ years of on-air experience as both host and guest expert on QVC and HSN, Forbes mastered the art of real-time persuasion. Diverse and talented with a passion for communication in all forms, she started out as a Broadway actress, appeared in several soap operas, movies and major television hits including FOX’s 24, The Practice, and Boy Meets World.

But her accomplishments don’t start there – she pioneered pitching fitness on cable tv hosting FIT-TV alongside Body by Jake, hosted 2 National Talk shows (Essentials on TLC and Forbes Living on Oxygen) and debuted as host alongside Stuart Scott as the original co-host of ESPN’s X Games.

In true entrepreneurial spirit she launched a fitness empire as the creator of SpinGym®, her patented fitness innovation with over 2 million units sold globally, earning her induction into the National Fitness Hall of Fame, an honorary doctorate in Business and the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award.

Through her global training platform, the Ultimate Pitch Academy, she mentors thousands of entrepreneurs with her ground breaking techniques, from college to corporations, with her Elevator Pitch 2.0 revolutionizing communication skills. Whether sharing stages with icons like Les Brown, Mel Robbins and Jay Shetty or delivering high-impact television appearances, Forbes brings actionable strategies, bold energy, and practical tools audiences can immediately implement.

Her message is clear: when you sharpen your pitch, you sharpen your life.

Connect with Forbes on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Importance of mastering pitching skills for effective communication.
Differences between sales and pitching, focusing on relationship-building.
Practical advice for crafting pitches, including the use of testimonials and storytelling.
Adapting pitching techniques for modern platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
The significance of understanding audience needs and desires in pitching.
Leveraging automation in business for efficiency and income generation.
The role of storytelling in creating compelling pitches and engaging audiences.
Common mistakes in pitching, such as practicing in front of prospects for the first time.
The value of physical books in sharing knowledge and creating a legacy.
Encouragement for individuals to share their ideas and products to avoid being the “best-kept secret.”

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have the Queen of pitch, best selling author with Ultimate Pitch Academy, Forbes Riley. Welcome, Forbes.

Forbes Riley: Hey, hey, nice to hear you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Ultimate Pitch Academy. How you serving folks?

Forbes Riley: Well, I’ll tell you what. When you’ve got an idea or a product or a service and you want to get it out to the world, get it to someone else, you want to get a raise, or maybe you want your kids to clean their room. You want to fall in love with the word pitching. You know, it’s funny because for the last 20 years, most people have said to me, oh, Forbes, pitching is such a sleazy, nasty word. I’m like, no, that’s sales. And by the way, sales makes money. And I think people who go, oh, like that, check their bank account. So I started my life out. I just wanted to be an actress. I loved performing, I’ve done Broadway, I’ve been in lots of your favorite movies and TV shows like 24 and The Practice. And it would have been very happy doing that. Except one day I bumped into an audition that said, sell me this pen. I grew up in a very broke household. My dad spent three years in the hospital. He had a horrible accident, so we didn’t have a whole lot of money. So selling anything was not my favorite thing to do. And when I got off to college, I was very young.

Forbes Riley: I skipped two year high school and my mom used to write me longhand notes in pen, and I realized a pen can reach out and touch somebody’s heart. Well, I said that, and I expected just to leave. And Jake of Body by Jake in the early 90s walked out from behind the camera. He grabbed my face and said, you’re gonna make me a lot of money. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He just started his own cable health network, and he wanted to pitch products. And no one was really doing that at the time. And somehow he was looking for 8 or 9 people. He found me, tapped me to do this, and we ended up selling over 1500 products in five years. He sold the network to Rupert Murdoch for $500 million in 1993, and I went off to host infomercials because all of a sudden I became this pitch queen. It seemed that I could sell and promote anything. Well, I’ve done that to the tune. Lee, get this of $2.5 billion and you’ve seen me on TV late at night for about 20 some odd years. And then I did home shopping. I wrote a book recently because one of the things that I realized is people didn’t know who I was.

Forbes Riley: I was the one standing next to Tony Little, standing next to Ron Popeil. I didn’t stand next to Kim Kardashian. I just gave her her start in TV. But there were so many images of all of these people that I’ve done. And then I know you can see this on your Zoom screen. Your audience can’t, but there’s 197 infomercials here, and when we read the history, it reads something like AB or ab rock or bioform, buns of steel, buns of abs of steel, bye bye, baby Fat Cami secret all the way to Z for zoo books. And so I put in this book the stories of that time, because not many people have his intimate stories as I do, And also some of the secrets for communicating and getting somebody to say yes to you. You know, you pitched me to be on your show. I pitched you that. I was qualified to be here. No money exchange. So it’s not technically sales. It’s definitely a pitching. And I promise you guys listening, if you want to get more yeses in life, mastering this skill is a game changer.

Lee Kantor: So now how do you take the skill that you have and then translate it into the world that we’re in? When there’s TikTok and Instagram, like, do these principles kind of work in any media?

Forbes Riley: Oh, it works in every media. Somebody called me the godmother of TikTok shop, and one of my videos just got 21 million views. How do you do that? Well, there’s a couple of principles. And I suggest if you’re listening to grab a Pen, because these are worth writing down. When you get excited about a product or service or anything you’re doing and you get overly passionate about it, you use the word need. Gosh, you really need this. You need to know what I’m all about. And you need my book. Well, the truth is, nobody ever bought anything they needed. We only buy what we want. So a skilled pitcher will get the other person to want what you have. Have you ever been married?

Lee Kantor: I am married, yes.

Forbes Riley: Good. And you pitched your wife to marry you?

Lee Kantor: Yes, yes I did.

Forbes Riley: And she said yes.

Lee Kantor: Yes.

Forbes Riley: You know, she bought into an entire life with you. You must have had a really good pitch.

Lee Kantor: I’m one for one.

Forbes Riley: There you go. But think about it. You literally pitched her an entire life together. So you somehow in your relationship, managed to see the future. Get her to understand that doing it with you is the right idea. And it became her choice. She was the one who could have said yes or no, even though you asked the question. That really is what happens in business with new products, new ideas. And the cool thing that you just mentioned for Instagram and TikTok is now anybody, you don’t have to be an entrepreneur. You can just be a side hustle, you can be a kid can earn extra money because we’re in a crazy economy. And now if you know how to position a product, know how to message who you are, build a brand for yourself. The world is your oyster.

Lee Kantor: Now, a lot of the listeners of this show are business coaches, people in professional services. How do you do pitching in a way that doesn’t feel transactional and is more relationship driven, or is that even important?

Forbes Riley: Oh no, no, it’s major league important. In fact, that’s the difference between sales and pitching. You know, sales ends when you get the credit card. For me, it’s all about the hours. You want to build rapport with somebody because pitching means that you’ve got a solution to someone else’s problem. So let’s play a game. Give me any product or any service.

Lee Kantor: Um, let’s see business coaching.

Forbes Riley: All right. So a business coach and who am I pitching?

Lee Kantor: You’re pitching a person that would possibly benefit from that service.

Forbes Riley: So what I would do is I would do a little research strategy and leverage. So my research would be before I even talk to that person, I might want to know a little bit about them. Do they want to grow? They want to scale. They want to scale back. They want to sell their company. They want to hire people. What am I pitching them to? But say, hey, you know what? I’m a great business coach and I can make your company exponential. The first thing I would want to do is make an assumption about them. Where are they at this moment? And I would look and see how can I fill in the gap. I would then not sell my services. I wouldn’t tell them how wonderful I am. And I’m this and I’m that. I would find the gap and do what I call a question flip. So let’s say that they’re a small shop and they really want to go online for the first time. Say, hey, you know what? I know that being online can be scary and overwhelming. What if I told you I’ve got a very unique system that can make it so painless, and you reach such a broader audience than you could ever reach? In fact, if we do a video of you, we call this one to many. Now you’re not selling 1 to 1 because when you do that and the guy doesn’t want what you’re buying, you wasted an hour. But if you’re online and you’ve got an audience of 100. Odds are you’re going to close five of them. So I’m telling you now that we could probably five x your business in the same amount of time you’re out there trying to find customers. Would that be interesting to you?

Lee Kantor: Yes.

Forbes Riley: Bingo. That’s all you do is get a yes. And once you get a yes, then you move to that next level. Don’t overtalk we call it throwing up on people. And by the way, for all my business coaches and owners, and one of the things is you should be doing is networking. And I created a whole elevator pitch for this because I used to be kind of shy and insecure about talking to people. Ironically, now I’m not. But when people ask you, what do you do? Lee? What do you tell them?

Lee Kantor: I help business people get the word out.

Forbes Riley: Cool. Now, what if you shifted it? Can I give you a little coaching?

Lee Kantor: Sure.

Forbes Riley: Where did you come from that you’re qualified to do that?

Lee Kantor: Um, I have a degree in advertising, and.

Forbes Riley: Okay, you have advertising. You obviously love it. What’s a big success story? What’s a company that you’ve had some credibility for?

Lee Kantor: Um, I’ve. Let’s see. I’ve helped, uh, associations grow their membership. Um, how much by how much? Um, I don’t, I don’t know the exact number.

Forbes Riley: Well, so here’s an interesting thing, guys. When you’re formulating your pitch, these little nuggets help if I’m if I’m generic, I don’t close the deal very well. So if you just say I help associations grow, I’m like, okay, good for you. But if you say, you know, over the last three years, I’ve helped two associations grow by more than 200%. They not only increase their revenue, but their membership grew to such a point that they had to open a new chapter. Well, that makes you so much more interesting, doesn’t it?

Lee Kantor: Right.

Forbes Riley: And so when you say to somebody rather than just, hey, I help businesses, as someone who is so passionate about the world of business, I now focus on entrepreneurs just like you to scale your business. And I’ll tell you, I’ve got some incredible statistics I’d love to share with you.

Lee Kantor: So how would you frame the association I was talking with? Um, we help them capture 169 testimonials in one year from their members.

Forbes Riley: And what did that do for their bottom line.

Lee Kantor: That helped keep their members sticky? So I don’t have the exact, uh, numbers from their point of view. So that’s an important component is to to ask your clients for that specific information.

Forbes Riley: It’s one of the best things. Well, it’s ironic that you got 169 testimonials for them. Now we need to get some testimonials for you. And one of the things, you know, coming from the world of infomercials, you guys all remember seeing them on TV. There was a formula. And that’s what we do at the Academy. We truly teach you this eight step formula. One of those is to get those testimonials, because there’s different kinds of testimonials, but it lends instant credibility. When a third party likes you. I mean, think about what is reviews done for Amazon. You go there not because Amazon tells you how wonderful the product is, but you want to read what everyone else is saying about it. So every customer that you get, every business should really think about how do I get written testimonials? How do I get video testimonials? Make it a part of your business practice.

Lee Kantor: So that’s kind of table stakes in today’s world.

Forbes Riley: Oh, absolutely. And now that you’ve got videos and phone, I mean, literally you walk around with a cell phone all the time. Somebody says, hey, I love that. You go, great. You know, when you start a sentence says, hey, the reason I love Lee’s work is boom. Hey, the reason I love Lee’s work is he took us from here to here. And again, the more specific and intentional you can make them, the more impactful they are to the other person listening when you want future business.

Lee Kantor: So now you have a layer of testimonials. What is in your kind of, um, regular cadence of communication to the public at large? Or do you not do kind of general content? You it’s more specific.

Forbes Riley: Well, I’m not quite sure how I, how that goes. I’m, you know, there’s something you and I said earlier is that the world is rapidly changing. I’m going to share with you as a business owner, I used to work for QVC. I spent over 45 years working for QVC and HSN. Hsn just closed its doors. They had over 700 acres here in Tampa, Florida. That 50 year old business got bought out. Their stock died, and QVC about three weeks ago filed for bankruptcy. Now, you got to be kidding me. These are billion dollar enterprises who did not see the world of of phone shopping coming. They missed it and I remember being on campus with them a decade ago. They also missed how quick the internet was going to come and take away just their television. You got to see what’s going on. So an interesting thing just happened to me. I’m a little bit of a slow adapter. I loved Facebook, and then I saw Instagram and it seemed like kids were dancing and I, I didn’t do it very often. And now I’ve leaned into it and I have 310,000 followers who, by the way, I monetize a lot.

Forbes Riley: And then TikTok was like, oh my gosh, really? I’m 66 years old. At some point, you gotta, I gotta, I gotta go eat. I don’t have time for all this. Well, the funny thing was this young TikToker came up to me. He’s called the school of Hard knocks and he runs up to rich people. So billionaires and millionaires and ask them, how do you get rich? Well, he did that to me at the Vinoy Hotel down in Tampa, Florida, and I was a little shocking. We did this exchange and I laughed li I didn’t think anything of it. I’m now at 21 million views on that single video. Another 18 million over on Instagram. And now I’m getting recognized everywhere I go because. By the way, I knew what I wanted to say because I practiced pitching all the time. So when he accosted me, it was not a I know what I talk about, I know how to make my points, but that one video has changed my life. It’s been fascinating.

Lee Kantor: So I mean, that was kind of just serendipity, right?

Forbes Riley: It was. And what it did though, was it reminded me because I gained about 200,000 followers in the last month on Instagram. Now, if you understand new technology, you no longer have to say to people, hey, go visit my website, what you do, and you want to learn the lingo. Guys, here’s the crazy thing about business. It’s moving so fast. If you do not jump on the ship, it will just leave without you. And it doesn’t care that you’re left behind. You’ll get scraps. You can still run your business, but if you’re smart enough to get on board, all kind of magical things happen. So I’ve taken those and you literally say, hey guys, at the end of a video, if you like what you see, make sure you comment the word pitch below automatically. This is so phenomenal. That person and their DMs will get a message from going, hey, so excited that you reached out. Hey, I’ve got a free class. And this is true every Sunday that I’ve been doing for the last six years. I go live at 5:00 on Zoom. It doesn’t cost you anything. You go to Pitch Secrets training.com and you can listen to me hang out, talk for about an hour and a half. And then I work with as many people as I have time for to flip pitches completely for free, because that’s a bit of my give back. Well, all of a sudden my audience went from a couple of hundred people to now a couple of thousand people because I leaned in to to Instagram and I also leaned into LinkedIn.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you leverage leverage automation in your processes?

Forbes Riley: Okay. Automation is everything. In fact, I co-own a company with my kids called GSD. It stands for Get Shit Done. And I got to be very honest with all my listeners out there. One of the reasons this 66 year old chick is successful is because I’ve got 23 year old twins who are relentless. One owns a company. She made her first million and 17. My son’s got 500 clients and he’s still managing college. What does that mean? That means it’s mom. You got to keep up with this. You got to keep up with this. If they weren’t always in my ear. I might not be as active as I am. But it is totally changed. It’s a game changer. So so automation. So GST stands for get shit Done because my daughter said mom, she calls us. She calls us older folks seasoned. She’s like, you seasoned people. She thought she thought, mom, I thought you were the only one who didn’t understand the internet. Turns out it’s a generational thing and I can change that. So her mission statement is that she helps men and women 40 to 80 years old get online and leverage this new technology. And now that Claude has come out, oh my gosh, Claude, bots can do everything for you. Why would you want to handwrite messages when you can now send it out to 200 people on your mailing list? I didn’t know this. You know, years ago, I created a fitness product called Spin Gym. I did $1 million a day of spin gyms. It was a very successful product to a point you don’t know about it.

Forbes Riley: So it didn’t hit the mouse market. But we did really, really well. And so my kids are like, mom, you now can send everything automated. You never have to touch anything. Wouldn’t that just change your life and allow you to go to the beach and take a day off? So you got to lean into this. I will say though, be careful. One of the reasons my kids are so committed to helping me is that prior to them, I got screwed over two times. There’s a lot of people out there who will tell you they can do things happily, take your money and walk away. Make sure that you find a reputable company, but please don’t miss the automated boat. It will help you with your emails and your marketing and. And all of a sudden you can have a life and generate income. I’m going to leave you something else. My younger generation. I want to be a billionaire. No you don’t. Billionaires work really hard. I think there’s three ways to become a billionaire, Li, and I’d love to see if you agree. One, you can be born, one, you can marry one and or you can inherit it. Or you can sell a company. If you’re working for somebody else, your odds are you’re not going to get that. But you know what? I know some very unhappy billionaires. I would set beautiful goals. I would attain them. I’d build your confidence, your clarity. And at the end of the day, I think the thing that’s missing in business for most people is you got to find your own happiness.

Lee Kantor: Now, uh, for a lot of the folks listening, um, some of the things that they’re struggling with is they’d like to attain the, the wealth that you’re describing, but they feel like they’re good at what they do, but maybe they’re not good at communicating the story behind it. How do you help, um, a new or an aspiring entrepreneur to develop the story, to create the why that gets people excited to work with them.

Forbes Riley: And that is what I teach. That is what I love and that’s what I live for. I’m going to tell everybody out there, we were not I was not taught this in college, but you should create a continuing ed fund. And what do I mean by that? If you’re a lawyer, you’re a doctor or massage therapist. You have to get continuing education credits in life, no one requires you. In fact, I remember when I left school going, I never needed to do that again. Well, that’s not true. You want to create a fund that you should be in a mastermind. You should be able to pay for a mentor. You should be able to afford to go to certain classes because there are skill sets that you don’t have. Pitching is a skill set. Understanding how to do a discovery and a question flip is a technique I use all the time. It’s learnable. Understanding how to make assumptions so that you don’t ask silly questions is a skill set. Understanding how to close people is a skill set, and telling your story is probably the most important thing. I just did my. I just finished two Ted talks and I just got booked for my third one on July 4th at a Kentucky farm and celebrating the 250th anniversary of our amazing country. And it’s because I learned how to tell stories. And if you don’t, if you’re not good at that, if you’re at a party or dinner and people go and they’re like, when you tell a story, take a class, get skilled at it. Stories have a beginning, middle and end. And the most important part is an entrepreneur. Every story has a point, and every point you want to make should have a story.

Lee Kantor: So what are kind of the basics when it comes to crafting your story?

Forbes Riley: Remember that somebody listening to this, why are you telling this to them? Is it just because you want to talk? And most people never admit it. If they’re just talkers, they just talk. If you want to move your needle ahead, you should always be thinking, what can you do for them? Why are they listening to this story? What journey are you taking them on and what is the point of it? Why are we talking here? You know, we’re having a great conversation here, Lee, but it’s not about either one of us. You are very aware of your audience. You keep asking questions that you’ve heard them ask you. And so you’re filtering that into me. My intention being here, it could be just to sell a book, but it’s not. In fact, I’m going to share one more thing about this book before I go. At the end of almost all the chapters is what’s called an Easter egg. It’s a beautifully decorated QR code. And I created a world, a whole community online for free. Let me say that I’m not charging for these things. And by the way, sometimes free is overlooked, is as not valuable. But there are 26 letters in the alphabet. There’s 26 beautiful videos that go along with it. They just talk about other aspects because a and let me ask you a question. What do you think A would be in my book? What letter. What word?

Lee Kantor: Um. Let’s see. Pitching book. The letter A would be for address.

Forbes Riley: Right. And you would think that. But see I’m much more of a holistic entrepreneur. A is for attitude. I got to tell you, if you’re not a who, you are the one pitching. And when you forget that pitching is not a business skill, it’s a life skill. And when you walk into a room or a boardroom or a meeting or a lunch and you got a crappy attitude, or you’re not fun to work with, people will stop working with you. And I learned that from a very amazing Academy Award winning TV director. That was one of my one of my acting coaches at attitude monitors talent. At the end of the day, nobody really cares how talented you are if you’re not fun to be around. They only tolerate you for so long. B what do you think B is?

Lee Kantor: Um. If A is added to then B would be bandwidth.

Forbes Riley: See again, you’re very business oriented and yes, bandwidth is very important, but in mine it’s belief. Because again, if you are the pitcher and you don’t come across that you believe in what you’re doing, you believe in yourself, you believe in your product and your company and your team, the other person doesn’t get to work with you. And then I get to C, and C is closing and D is demonstrating. I’ve got a lot of business principles in here. I’ve got some fun ones you might not even have ever heard of. N is called neurolinguistic programing. That is how your brain talks to your mouth. Because my skill is all about getting you to communicate effectively, understanding when pauses are understanding how to make a point, and then in negotiation, how to stop talking. My other favorite one is O. An O stands for Open Door Lee. Has anyone ever pitched you in an uncomfortable way? Like they just got a network marketing product? They won’t stop talking at you.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Of course.

Forbes Riley: Right. And that feels kind of weird and awkward. Right? And they didn’t make a sale. And sometimes they’re like, hey, I don’t want to talk to you anymore because you won’t stop pitching me. Understanding how to jump rope with another human being. When are they ready to talk about business? When are they ready to talk about food? And just because you’ve got an agenda doesn’t mean the other person cares or and wants that. So I have an exercise in there about how to understand when that moment is right to keep talking, or when you’re telling a story, when their eyes glaze over. It’s the time to go. Oh, and in conclusion. Da da da boom. So those skills, I think need to be practiced. See, I don’t think people realize pitching is a skill that you can practice. The problem with most people, especially my network marketers, my new people in the world. No one teaches them how to do this. They just say, go out there and talk about the product. Make a list of your ten friends and family and and hawk them. Nobody likes that. I have unbelievable success stories, mega millionaires in the network marketing space because we reframed. They no longer work for that company. They’re a health and wellness expert. They become a health and wellness expert. They love that brand. We tweak their social media because the company they work with sells a vitamin. But if you do it wrong, it’s like, hi, I just signed up with a network marketing company. I’ve got a really great vitamin. You should try it. That’s a terrible pitch. But if accidentally. You know what? I’ve been dealing with migraines for the last ten years. I started taking this supplement, and all of a sudden, I am pain free. I know your wife suffers from this. You want to be okay? If we had a quick conversation about what I’ve discovered and you go, yeah, of course. Getting a yes is the ultimate win in a pitch.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the, um, what? Where’s the danger? What are some of the mistakes that people make that you see.

Forbes Riley: That the first time that they go to practice their pitch is in front of a prospect? Most people don’t think, oh, I should practice my pitch. Well, who are you going to talk to? This is where having a mastermind, a community that you can lean into or a mentor is really important. I do think that pitching an idea or something you care about is a lot like being the coffee in your own cup. You cannot see what’s written on the outside of the cup. So unless you test drive this, unless you see how the pitch itself lands, you know you see this all the time on Shark Tank. They always practice those first 30s. Hey, sharks. Here’s. Uh, they end that. Then the sharks start asking questions and you watch some of their faces just completely fall apart. They don’t have all the right answers about their own company. What’s the manufacturing cost? What are the sales numbers? What did you generate? What did you gross? What did you net? And it’s because they don’t practice that part. They don’t realize that they’re going to be asked those questions, which seems crazy to me. And so in our world, we even set up a thing called pitch pods, where you go into a virtual room with three other people and for 45 minutes, twice a, twice a week, you get to practice this so other skilled people can go, oh, that’s, that’s springboard story that you did that, that went on so long, I forgot what you were selling or you didn’t give me features and benefits. Here’s another product, another concept. Features versus benefits. You know the difference. Yes.

Lee Kantor: Yes.

Forbes Riley: Well, features tell and benefits sell. Here’s what most people get wrong. Hey, I’ve got a I’ve got a new book here and we’ll do three features. The feature is it’s in full color. It’s it’s got nice paper and it’s written by Forbes Riley. Okay. That’s nice. What’s the benefit of those? You want to make a sale, do what I call two plus two feature benefit. Hey, guys, I’ve got a new book here. It’s in full color. That’s the feature. The benefit is it reads like a magazine and you love flipping through magazines. It’s so much more fun than a stodgy old black and white book. Another feature, it’s written by Doctor Forbes Riley. The benefit of that, she sold $2.5 billion. She teaches pitching. She’s a master at this. And for the first time ever, she’s giving secrets that’ll help us. Do you see the difference? If you’re like, oh, oh, I want that. So understanding the psychology of humans is really one of the smartest things that you can do as a pitch person. And most because you think you’re not a pitch person, you wrote a book, you have a dog walking company, you run insurance brokerage, you’re a real estate person, right? But you’re not studying pitching. So how do you communicate what you do to somebody else?

Lee Kantor: Now, why did you decide to put this information in book form?

Forbes Riley: You know, people love books. That’s a great question, my friend. I started teaching, I own a studio here in Tampa, Florida. And then when Covid hit, I took it online and I realized I could affect people around the globe. I have students all over the globe, and it’s been fantastic. And we all get into these beautiful rooms. I have up to a thousand people on a Sunday, but everybody seems to respect the physical book, and I don’t see this going away anytime soon. This. And I’ve done other books, but never one with just my name on it. And I will tell you, we did a little unboxing last night. I had about 200 students on and people are loving it. They’re like, oh my God, it feels so good. It’s so much fun to read. I have it on my desk. I’m talking to my team about it. And I realized, this goes for all of you. I used to write a lot of ebooks, but I’ll tell you what a physical book is a lot like a baby. You can talk about it. You see the baby bump, you know, nine months and it’s no real big baby bump. You’re pregnant. All of a sudden that baby comes out and everybody wants to hold it. Everybody wants to gush over it. Everybody loves it. And that is the concept of a book. I will promise you, if you’ve got a great idea or a story worth telling, especially nowadays, it’s easy and affordable to print books. I would, I would memorialize it. It’s a bit of your own legacy and it feels so good to hold.

Lee Kantor: Are you doing the book because you want to make money from the sale, or do you like the idea of a book from a positioning and authority standpoint?

Forbes Riley: Oh, let me share with you all out there. You do not make money on books. You will lose, I will lose. I’m probably gonna lose six figures on this book. No, I did this because it is a place because I’m a very visual person. I’m a little tired of the internet. My eyes get tired of the screen. I don’t like, I don’t have Kindle, I’m not interested in that. I do like audiobooks and I did that of this. But seeing the photos and reading the chapters, My chapters here are three pages long and everything is very actionable. So no, you do not ever write a book for money. That’s a misnomer. But you do write it because it collects the. It’s just a great place to reference material. You guys, every chapter here is three pages long. Now. I graduated college, by the way, with two degrees in three years. Technically, I’m very smart. I have a doctorate. You know what? I don’t want to read a textbook anymore. I want to be entertained. I want to be educated. I want to be delighted when I look at a book. And that’s what I put in this one.

Lee Kantor: Now, is the book geared to the seasoned entrepreneur, because I don’t know how many physical books or magazines your kids are of. People of your kids age are are looking at.

Forbes Riley: You know, that’s where the Kindle comes in. But I, you know, it’s a funny thing. Um, that’s one reason I made it in color. I made it a little different. I made it three chapters, three pages you get into and you, there’s information and there’s actionable things to do because attention spans are short, especially mine. Although, having said that, my daughter’s 23 years old, she traveled all around the world last year with a backpack and a thousand page book. She found these romance novels, this wonderful writer and McKenna’s like, I’ve been sitting on a beach mom just reading books, and I love it. So I’m kind of anti 1984. I don’t want books ever to go away. I’ve got libraries all over my house. I am friends with some of my books. I go back to augment Enos, the greatest salesman in the world, and traction when I realized how companies are run with inventors and visionaries by Gino Wickman. I mean, I can go down a list of all the books I’ve loved, and I don’t. I hope that’s not going away in my lifetime.

Lee Kantor: So did you do any type of market research to see if this is a still, um, a path for books? Or are you trying to reinvent books to make them so that they come back? I mean, there’s so much data when it comes to books that people are, are not buying physical books anymore. So like you, you’re definitely being a contrarian in this in with this idea. I just want to understand kind of the thought process to invest this much time and energy into a physical product.

Forbes Riley: Well, I will tell you, I launched last week, we’re still in prelaunch. We technically launched on the 19th. I launched in the first week I sold 5000 books. I’m going to say that my audience is pretty prime. I’m also, like I said, a little bit senior to the younger generation. And the crazy thing about that is, you know, at some point there was more baby boomers alive than any other generation. And I’m going to appeal to the people who remember The Brady Bunch, the Partridge Family and the monkeys. But I’m also going to inspire. And especially since the School of Hard Knocks hit on TikTok, I’ve been getting DM’d by 15 year old kids around the globe and DM from people from as far away as Nigeria. I’m getting these amazing questions. Can you please come to India? Can you come to Sri Lanka? We’re in Nepal. We heard about you. I’m. I love carrying this. I love the delight when I hand this to somebody. I’ve been doing it for the last seven days. That’s all this book has been alive. I’m watching people smile from ear to ear. That’s never happened. When I turn my phone around and you watch a YouTube video with me. Make sense?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I mean, I, I’m on your boat. I like books too. I’m just. It seems like the younger generation is, uh, their attention is more, uh, maybe fragmented and they don’t have the patience for a physical book anymore.

Forbes Riley: And, you know.

Lee Kantor: I’m rooting for you, though. I hope you’re right.

Forbes Riley: Well, hey, here’s the deal. And I know you’re in, so I’m going to go do my very first book signing. And here’s a problem that I’m having with that. And I am looking at the whole book industry and seeing how it works and how printing and all. It’s an interesting phenomenon. My dad was was a printer. So I’m going to go to my first book signing here in new Jersey in Paramus, and I’m going to see people coming into a bookstore. When my publisher said, hey, you’ve got to go around and tour bookstores. I’m like, I don’t even know where the bookstore in my hometown is anymore. Turns out that my only Barnes and Noble is like 30 minute drive. And so to your point, bookstores are still around. The thing I can’t comprehend now that Amazon is here, and I thought everybody just buys their books on Amazon. No, there’s a whole sect of people who like to go to physical bookstores. And I remember growing up in one, I would sit there and look at books and, and read and have a cup of coffee for hours. It was one of my favorite things to do. So it’ll be interesting to see. You know, it’s funny to talk about is we’re on radio. I was just in Nashville. I was recording my, the, the audio version and a guy had a Victrola, I guess we call it a record player. But remember what Victrolas are.

Lee Kantor: Yeah.

Forbes Riley: Yeah. And he had a whole series of vinyl records and my daughter went nuts. She’s like, mom, these are like the coolest things. Have you seen them? And I’m like, baby girl. I grew up with them.

Lee Kantor: They were the only game in town at one point.

Forbes Riley: Right. I’m I got I started with 40 fives.

Lee Kantor: So, um, your message for this in a nutshell is that you are giving people a path to, um, sell better, sell more and to help them get the word out about their product or service so they don’t have to be a best kept secret anymore.

Forbes Riley: Yes. But beyond that, they don’t have to become the best, the best kept secret. I’m going to tell you the reason it starts out with attitude and belief is I’m a huge fan of people, of pictures, of people who have an idea, a product or service. Because my dad was an inventor, he was a magician. He was a second generation Ukrainian immigrant who was very quiet and just worked with his hands. And I was in his little tiny garage in Long Island. One day I was and he turned to me and said, kiddo, how do I get my ideas out to the world? I said, dad, I have no idea. I’m eight. Well, fast forward, my parents never moved out of that house. It was a small 1300 square foot house and his whole garage never saw a car because it was full of these things. Like he made a go kart out of a half a garbage can, a lawn mower engine and papier maché, and it looked like the Batmobile. He made some crazy, wacky things, and as I was standing there, my parents had both just passed away. I felt really sad. He never got any of his really cool gadgets out to the world at all. And when the trashman came in and they threw all these things away, I remember thinking, if you don’t get your idea out while you’re on this side of the dirt, when you’re gone, it’s too late. So if you’ve got a great story, I’m looking at all the Holocaust survivors come over.

Forbes Riley: I think one of the last ones just passed away. That’s an era. That’s a generation. If they never told that story, if we didn’t read those books, we would never know about that time. And maybe it’s a smaller story, like Tuesdays with Morrie, that was a book about a young man who sat with a guy, an older man who was dying and asked him his wisdom. And I think we have great things inside of us. Don’t let the world of publishing keep you from getting your idea out there. Nowadays you can self publish a book. My ideas are, and this is what pitching is, is that we’re all innately have some sense of purpose. It gives you great pride to share it. It’s more exciting when somebody pays you for it. But it’s not just about selling an idea or service. It’s about finding out who you are, no longer playing small and leaning into a level of you feeling great. Because when you are, not only do you smile more, but that’s that light that you pass goes on to your kids, your neighbors, the guy that cuts you off in the roadway. You don’t give them the finger. You give them the thumbs up because you’re innately happier. You’re just living a more fulfilled life. And that’s a very grandiose mission for the word pitch. But I’m on it. I’m going to preach it. And I got the book to prove it.

Lee Kantor: Now somebody wants to get the book Pitch Secrets A to Z or join your academy. What’s the website? What’s the best way to connect and plug in?

Forbes Riley: So simple. Two things. I’ll give you one go to Pitch Secrets within s book.com. When you do, there’s about $5,000 worth of free goodies. There’s video series, there’s there’s all kind of fun things that we give away. Then if you want to come see me live on a Sunday completely for free, you go to www.training.com. Come and meet me. Come and test me. Ask me questions. Let’s do a question flip. It’s a fun, fun community. We have over 142,000 people right now and I absolutely love it. And of course, all over social media. My name there’s only one Forbes. Riley.

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

Forbes Riley: Leah, you asked really, really insightful questions. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well thank you. Well, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

How Guided Visualization and Hypnosis Can Reprogram Your Subconscious for Success

May 15, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

How Guided Visualization and Hypnosis Can Reprogram Your Subconscious for Success

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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Karen Ross, a coach specializing in solution-focused coaching, mindset work, and hypnosis. Karen shares her journey from radio host to certified hypnotist, influenced by her psychologist father. She explains how she helps athletes, executives, and others by focusing on solutions rather than problems, using techniques like thought stopping and guided visualization to overcome negative thinking and self-sabotage. Karen also highlights the power of accessing the subconscious mind through hypnosis, sharing a compelling story of a retired physician who achieved his “impossible” golf score goal.

Karen Ross is a Performance Mindset Expert who uses dynamic guided visualization, solution-focused coaching and hypnotherapy to help clients break through mental barriers so they perform at a higher level.

While she has a strong niche with athletes of all ages, executives, entrepreneurs and other high-achievers also overcome anxiety, sharpen focus, strengthen confidence, and unlock peak performance in both life and business. her diverse background, from executive search to interviewing renowned thought leaders on a former Chicago radio show, has sharpened her ability to quickly connect with people and uncover what truly drives their success.

She uses a variety of processes based on what will most benefit her client. This work can include hypnosis and many are surprised to learn that the practice of hypnosis has been used by icons like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Albert Einstein, and is now used at renowned institutions like Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. When used as a therapeutic process, it can be life-changing.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Solution-focused coaching and its emphasis on solutions rather than problems.
Understanding the conscious and subconscious mind and their roles in personal development.
The importance of mindset in achieving peak performance, particularly for athletes and executives.
Techniques for managing negative thought patterns, including thought stopping.
The use of hypnosis and guided visualization to access the subconscious mind.
Differentiating self-hypnosis from meditation and its applications.
The impact of self-sabotage on personal goals and how to address it.
Success stories illustrating the effectiveness of coaching and hypnosis.
The potential for group coaching with organizations, such as sports teams and schools.
The process of transitioning from traditional problem-focused approaches to a more solution-oriented mindset.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have Karen Ross, who is with karenrossnow.com. Welcome, Karen.

Karen Ross: Hi, Lee. Happy to be here today. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to get caught up with what you’re doing. For folks who aren’t familiar, do you mind sharing a little bit about your practice? How are you serving folks?

Karen Ross: Uh, through solution focused coaching and mindset work, helping them understand their conscious and subconscious mind. That’s where I start with people. I ask, what do you know about your conscious and your subconscious mind, and many don’t realize that they’ve got two different minds, if you will. So that’s kind of the starting point. And then we find out what the conscious mind is saying that does not serve the individual. And that can relate to anybody’s life experience. I work a lot with athletes. The same concepts carry over to executives, entrepreneurs, artists. But that’s kind of the starting point. What do you know about your conscious mind and your subconscious mind?

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

Karen Ross: Oh, gosh. Well, let’s see, if I were to tell my whole story, we’d have to have another show, but I will. I’ll, I’ll back up and just kind of jump around to the high points. My dad was a psychologist, so early on I was exposed to Psychological topics, and he at one point incorporated hypnosis into his practice. So I learned a little bit about that at that time. But over the years, I have done a number of different things, and I’ve worked in executive search with my late husband. I had a radio show for about ten years here in Chicago, where I interviewed nonfiction authors, thought leaders, people like Doctor Wayne Dyer. Some of your listening audience may be familiar with his name. He certainly was a prolific author and and certainly a thought leader. And then when the radio career appeared to be coming to an end, no fault of mine. It’s the entertainment world. So it’s very fickle. But I was at my own crossroads. What do I do next? And personal coaching was becoming more widely accepted at the time. So I hired a coach to help me determine what’s my next step. Where do I go from here? And it ended up that she suggested I would be a great coach. And my my initial reaction was, oh, that doesn’t interest me at all. I don’t know why I reacted that way. But anyway, she encouraged me to ask people who knew me well what they thought of my moving in that career direction.

Karen Ross: Well, to the last one they all said, oh, that’s a no brainer. You’d be so good at that. That’s exactly what you should do. So that started 16, 17 years ago with very in depth year long training in coaching. And so I really learned from the best from one of the top companies that trained people to become life coaches. So that was quite a few years ago. But then I found as time went on, I’d be exposed to other ideas and methodologies and when they were attractive to me then. I would also study that, uh, that method. So, um, about five, six years ago, I was introduced to a program that was based on hypnosis. I thought, well, isn’t this interesting? Almost coming full circle, sort of with my father’s work. And, um, so I got certified in that ultimately became a board certified hypnotist, hypnotist, and, uh, incorporated that into my coaching. So we use, I use it a lot. I don’t always use it, but there again, I help people understand how, how beneficial hypnosis can be and that people can learn self-hypnosis. And, you know, if all they’ve seen is stage hypnosis, that’s a whole nother world and not one that I venture into. But, um, I think that’s kind of a thumbnail sketch that, uh, brings everything current and be happy to go from there with you.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Early on, you, I think you mentioned the words solution focused coaching. Can you explain what that is?

Karen Ross: Yes, indeed. I’d like to, uh, a lot of people step into coaching or therapy, uh, with the idea that they need to talk about their problems and all the things going way back to childhood and, and so on that bring them to having this current problem. I’m not going to sit here and say that none of that is important, but we’re going when they work with me, we’re going to spend a very short period of time talking about what is and talking about the problem. I want to focus on the solution where, what what’s the solution here? They’re going to be telling me what they don’t like, what their, what they don’t want in their lives. I want to focus on what do they like, what do they want in their life? What? What is their life look like when it’s the way they want to be living it? And, um, so the focus is on the solution and not the problem.

Lee Kantor: So what does that look like when they’re working with you? How do you kind of, um, tease out the solution when they’re sharing what’s kind of, um, blocking them?

Karen Ross: Well, I, I very pointedly ask, uh, how do you want your life to be? Uh, it may be very different from what they are currently living, but I ask them describe first of all, I’m going to be curious about what, what is a day in their life like now? And they’ve already shared with me what their problem is. So I want to know how does that problem factor into their daily life. So we get a picture of that. And then I want to know, what would you want to be different? What do you want to not look that way? What do you not want to be? Uh uh what? What do you want to be different? And there again, focusing, um, on what they do want versus what they don’t want. So focusing on what’s different. Paint a day in your life when everything is the way you would like it to be. And, um, that that would be relative to the problem they have stated.

Lee Kantor: Now you mentioned also the word mindset. Um, how important is kind of getting your mindset right when it comes to solving some of these problems and also ultimately helping your clients get the outcome they desire.

Karen Ross: Gosh, I think mindset is critical. Uh, if you’ve got the wrong mindset. Okay, let me give I’ll give you an example. I think that’s the better, better way to approach it. I work a lot with athletes, young athletes, college age, uh, high school, and, um, and I’ve worked with some who have graduated from college, moved on to a pro team or ready to move into another part of their life. Um, and, but let’s, let’s stick with their, their sport. And typically the ones I work with are already peak performers. They’re already working or manifesting good performance. They’ve reached the top. If they go into a game or a competition with the attitude, their mindset says, I really can’t do this. I’m not as good as people say I am. Well, I’m really not as good as I think I am. So I, I don’t know if I can make that shot or not. I doubt if I can make that is going to have a tremendous impact on their performance. If they go into the game and they say, I am the best basketball player on the on the on the field, I hit every basket. I, I throw up. I’m just stating things differently to their mind just makes a huge difference. Now, they may not be the best basketball player in the world, but if they go into a game or a competition with that belief, with that mindset, they’re going to be more likely to function from that place than if they say, well, I’m really, you know, I’m not really all that good after all.

Lee Kantor: Now, when they come to you, are they typically at a peak position where they’re just trying to get better, or are they kind of at a plateau? Or maybe they’re struggling and they want to kind of get back on track.

Karen Ross: Well, Interesting. Well, it can vary. Um, there can be a situation where injury has factored in and coming back from injury can be a particular situation. And we work with that because they, they will probably come back with a lot of doubt and fear that maybe they didn’t even expect. But generally speaking, what I have found, the people coming to me sticking with that athlete, um, scenario is they are a peak performer. They’ve reached the top, they may be captain of their team, they’re really doing well. But if they lose a game, if they throw a bad pass, do something on in the game that is not their best. When they come away, they focus on it rather than saying rather than looking at it, what did I learn? And next time I’ll do this. They start to Um, bad mouth themselves. And especially if they get that kind of feedback from their teammates, which they may or may not, but they start focusing on the fact, what did I do wrong? How could I possibly do that? Oh my God, I can’t believe I did something like that. And the word that they seem to almost all use is I start to spiral down and once it gets started, it’s like I can’t stop it. And when you allow that to take place, whether you’re an athlete or, or an executive, an aunt or whatever, and you start to just beat yourself up about something you’d think you could have or should have done better and start to spiral down. It takes you deeper and deeper and deeper. And, um, what I do is help people catch those thought processes quickly. We can’t always stop them from coming up, but we can stop them in their tracks. And, uh, in fact, thought stomping stopping is a process that I use. We stopped that thought. And we shift not always to the opposite, but to something different. It may be totally unrelated, but it gives the message to the brain. We’re not going to that spiral down. We’re not going to do that. Does that does that make sense? Does that answer the question?

Lee Kantor: Absolutely. Is there any advice you can give right now to the listener that might be, um, have these issues when it comes to spiraling? Is there some things they could do today? Um, or in the short term, when it comes to stopping a spiral before it really gets going?

Karen Ross: Well, recognizing it first, that’s the first step. And often, uh, an individual doesn’t always know when it’s starting. They, it’s kind of, uh, like they look back on it and say, this is what I tend to do. So the the first step is recognition. Becoming aware of, oh my God, there’s that, that thought that kind of gets me caught in a, in a spiral, a negative spiral. I, I want to think something different. And then to learn, here’s, here’s where I think working with someone like me or, or somebody else helps someone develop those tools, change that habit, you know, if they’ve been going down the rabbit hole, so to speak, for years, changing that is not going to always be that easy or that quick, and working with a professional to help them know when the thoughts are starting, know what to do with their thought process. When they do acknowledge it, uh, can just Accelerate healing, if you will, from that kind of a condition.

Lee Kantor: Now, when folks are working with you, is this something that they that takes, you know, months or years of time, or is it something that you’ve been able to work and solve some of these issues in a short period of time?

Karen Ross: Oh, gosh, we can solve many issues in a short period of time. Um, I, I don’t, I should say what I do, do I like to start people with a package of five sessions. And at the end of those sessions, it’s really up to them. Uh, we talk about it together, but they make the decision. They like this kind of support. They want to apply it in other areas. And so they want to continue. So I, I do have a handful of clients that I’ve worked with for, for many months. And that’s where the coaching factors in a little bit more. Um, and then on the other hand, I had a young man, a 15 year old, not too long ago, and his. One of his parents had contacted me and said, you know, can you help him with such and such? He was he was a track star. And um, he too would just get caught in this negative mindset when he couldn’t run fast, didn’t think he could run fast enough and his legs would get tired, and then he would focus on the fact that his legs were tired. And so we worked with that. And after five sessions, he said, you know, I these words coming from a 15 year old I thought was kind of cool. He said, you know, I see I think I feel very complete and that, you know, you hear adults use that phrase and I, I was very impressed by this very mature, uh, 15 year old saying that. And he did, um, I worked with another member of his family. Different story. He wanted he wasn’t it’s not a sign of weakness or strength or anything like that, but, uh, worked with another member of his family who really wanted the ongoing support because, excuse me, wanted to apply the techniques that he was learning into various portions of his life and academics in addition to athletics.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, how do you handle the individual that maybe is struggling with some self sabotage? Is that an area you see? Um, and if it is, can you share some ways that you can help a person maybe prevent it from kind of permeating more of their life?

Karen Ross: Um, I don’t know that it’s that different from what we’re talking about because when, when the conscious mind starts delivering those negative messages, that is a form of self-sabotage. Um, it, it, it’s a way of, for whatever reason, you know, keeping us from achieving our best, um, reaching our goals. You know how however the individual wants to state it? Um, but I think it all kind of works together. I think that is a form of self-sabotage.

Lee Kantor: So do you work? It sounds like you work a lot with individuals. Do organizations ever kind of contact you, maybe sports teams or schools or things like that to help them so you can impact, uh, you know, more of the folks on their teams.

Karen Ross: Well, it’s interesting that you asked that because right now is the time where I’m talking to, uh, one is a very large, um, sports club in the city of Chicago, and another is, uh, a good sized private school. And so I’ll be working with them. Um, more from a team perspective. To date, I’ve worked more one on one. Um, but I like the idea of working with teams, and I always like to throw out the historical fact that in 1983, the Chicago White Sox hired a personal hypnotist to work with all of their team members, and they made the playoffs that year for the first time in 25 years. So that’s just an example of how it can impact a team and how a how sports professionals can view in that case, just the topic of hypnosis. And, um, I’ve gotten. So I’m, rather than using the word hypnosis because some people still kind of clutch with that word, but I’ve gotten more so that I’m referring to doing Dynamic. Um, I just just drew a blank. I’m getting ready to say it. And then drew drew a blank, but dynamic guided visualization. And that’s what I do with hypnosis. Um, is the, uh, maybe can we touch on hypnosis for just.

Lee Kantor: Sure. I was going to bring that up in terms of how do you know when it’s the right time to bring that up with your clients?

Karen Ross: Okay. Um, that’s going to vary from client to client, and I’m going to have already determined what their thought process is or their, their beliefs about hypnosis so that we’re clear on that. Um, and, and then, um, I will just ask them, you know, we may be in a certain subject and I’ll ask them if they’d like to do a little bit of hypnosis or guided visualization. And um, once they experience it, they realize what a wonderful experience it is. I almost without fail, people at the end of that session will say, I don’t know that I’ve ever been that relaxed. Well, when we can really relax both our body and more specifically, our conscious mind, um, that’s like a new experience for many people. And it’s by quieting the conscious mind that we’re able to access the power of the subconscious mind. And that’s where beliefs live. That’s, uh, we, and we can go in and change those beliefs. I had one client that I worked with and, um, he wanted to solve a relatively simple situation. And we worked together, I, I think, just for a few sessions. And when we determined that he had a particular belief. We always hoped the client would do this. And we don’t have to. We hope they will recognize. And he did. He said, well, my God, I don’t need to believe that anymore. That’s ridiculous. And it was a belief that he had formed as a child, as a toddler, but it had impacted a particular behavior for well, he was in his 60s. So for 60 years, 60 some years. And, um, so that’s one of the things that we work with is what does somebody believe about the behavior that’s causing them concern? And that’s often a surprise to the individual.

Lee Kantor: Now how do you kind of differentiate um, self-hypnosis from meditation.

Karen Ross: Well, um, it’s a good question. And a lot of people ask that with meditation. We’re quieting the, the conscious mind and we, you know, we talk about there are so many different approaches to meditation, but the, the idea being that you just want to quiet everything, quiet your body and so on and so forth. We certainly do that with hypnosis, but meditation does not necessarily well, it doesn’t access the subconscious mind. So in hypnosis or the kind of coaching and visualization I do with people, we quiet that conscious mind, but then we activate the subconscious mind and make it more alert. Um, the, the nice thing about the subconscious when we haven’t talked that much about that. The difference between the conscious and subconscious mind. But the conscious mind is the one that talks to us all the time. It never shuts up. And often what it says is not very kind. It’s where the self-sabotage comes in. And, uh, but that conscious mind is just active all the time. Our subconscious mind, though, just kind of sits there waiting for direction. It doesn’t ask questions. It doesn’t second guess us. It doesn’t argue with us. It is there to serve us. In fact, one of the things I like to point out to people is that the subconscious mind is the most powerful creative instrument in the universe, and it can access complete fields of knowledge.

Karen Ross: Everything we’ve learned is in our subconscious mind, and we all have a subconscious mind. Fine. We just don’t know how to distinguish between the two. The conscious and the subconscious. Um, when I talk about knowledge, um, I don’t want to get off on a whole nother track, but I’ve worked with people who are taking very critical exams like Lsats and Mcats and, and sometimes it’s the last time they can take it, you know, for another year or two years, whatever. They all had different rules. But what I work with them before taking the test, and they’re amazed at some of the stuff that comes back up for them because I help them understand, you know, all the answers. This isn’t something you have to figure out, and you just I help them learn how to open their subconscious mind and just know the answers in there. And when you need it, it’ll come up for you. So that’s an oversimplification, but it can be that simple if you allow it to be that simple. So I got a little off track there.

Karen Ross: Forgive me, but, um, the subconscious mind is just so powerful, so creative. And when people learn how to use. You asked about self-hypnosis. My apologies. Um, I can teach people how to just take themselves into even a momentary peace of quiet and, uh, quiet. That subconscious mind. I could picture somebody in the dugout, you know, in the middle of a game, and you’ve got all this activity around you. And if they can just step away for a moment, close their eyes, take a deep breath, and they learn how to say certain things to themselves. And that’s something we create together. What can you develop or create as a trigger word that when you say that word, your whole body just kind of gives way. Maybe you can only do that for 10s and it can work. But if you can step away for two minutes, five minutes, 20 minutes, all the better that you people can learn those techniques. It’s still a lot easier when you have someone guide you, but you can absolutely learn how to do it. I feel like I’m using the same words a lot, but access quiet your conscious mind and access your subconscious mind.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that can illustrate maybe the power of the work that you’re doing? Um, maybe share a rewarding story or somebody who came a long way where they were able to, uh, either get out of their own way or achieve a new level because of the work you did together. Don’t name the name, but maybe share the challenge that came to you with and how you were able to help them overcome it.

Karen Ross: You worked. Sure. Yeah. There are many. Uh, there is one that, um, that I particularly enjoy telling. And I’ve already mentioned that I’ve worked with, you know, a 15 year old and 20 year olds and, and that seems to be more the, the age group that I work with. But I had a man come to me who is a retired physician, very successful, uh, medical practice. And now he was writing books and, um, you know, a very active individual. And he said, what I really want to do is improve my golf game. He said, I’m not going to become a pro at this time of my life, but I play with the same guys every Friday, and I want to keep playing with them as long as I possibly can, and I just want to play a better golf game. So I asked him at one point what would be a dream score for him, and he gave me a number. And then he laughed and I said, well, why are you laughing? He said, there is no way I will ever golf that score. It’s absolutely impossible. And I said, well, let’s just use that number anyway as just kind of a guiding light, if you will. And he was a very creative person. So he took that number and he used AI, and he created like an emblem with that number in the middle.

Karen Ross: And I suggested that he make several copies of that and put it everywhere, put it on your bathroom mirror, the inside and outside of your office door. When you open your laptop, it’s the first thing you see. Put it on the dash of your car, put it on the bedside table. It’s the first thing you see when you get up and don’t give it any more thought. Just put it out there. And so he, he did. And he and he loved doing that. He loved playing around with AI and all that kind of thing. So, um, he found that he was making some gradual changes. He changed his stroke a little bit. He changed his stance. Um, he was using a different club for certain shots. He said there’s subtle things he said, but I’m just finding I’m more comfortable. So it was very gradual. Well, we stopped working together and he felt good about where he was. About six months later, I get a text from him with a picture of him holding his golf score for that day, and it was the score that he said absolutely was impossible to golf. Wow.

Lee Kantor: And that that must have been such a great moment for him and for you.

Karen Ross: Absolutely. And I, uh, heard from him later. He said, what I didn’t tell you is he said, I golfed that score again the next day. So it was not a fluke. And, uh, you know, you might have said, oh, boy, you know, once, once in a lifetime golf score. But he did it again. Um, but yeah, that, oh, that made me very happy. And it certainly did him also.

Lee Kantor: Well, Karen, if there’s somebody out there listening that wants to learn more about your practice or get on your calendar, is there a website? What’s the best way to connect?

Karen Ross: Absolutely. Um, if they would just email me at info at Karen Ross now.com or they can go to the website and they have more than enough opportunities to click to schedule and, uh, just get on my calendar. I have a brief complimentary call and just find out if it’s a good match. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but it’s worth a conversation, whatever issue somebody might be dealing with. It’s, uh, it’s worth a 30 minute or however long we been talking, but it’s worth that conversation to find out. Could this be a fit? You know, what have you tried that hasn’t worked? And that’s what a lot of people, come to me in that situation. So yeah, just info at Karen Ross now.com. That’s my direct email. Or they can go to the website and, um, all kinds of places to click schedule.

Lee Kantor: So and the website is Karen Ross now.com.

Karen Ross: That’s it. Thank you. Yes.

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

Karen Ross: Well thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be on here. Again, I think I mentioned it’s been a couple of years, but, um, I, uh, was on with Stone and now I get to meet you. So thank you for this opportunity. It’s very meaningful to me. Appreciate it.

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

The Art and Science of Leadership Coaching: Building Better Leaders Across All Levels

May 15, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

The Art and Science of Leadership Coaching: Building Better Leaders Across All Levels

00:00 /

In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee interviews Robina Bhasin, founder of RMB Leadership & Talent Strategy Consulting. Robina shares her journey into leadership coaching, shaped by her multicultural background and 20+ years of experience across industries. She discusses the importance of building a culture of continuous learning at all organizational levels, not just for executives. Through real-world examples, she illustrates how coaching helps leaders overcome blind spots, empower their teams, and improve workplace dynamics. She concludes with advice to practice curiosity and extend grace to others in professional settings.

Robina Bhasin is a certified coach and talent leader with more than 20 years of experience developing leaders and building high-impact organizations across five continents. She partners with individuals and organizations to strengthen leadership capability, foster inclusive and empowering cultures, and design programs and systems that enable people to reach their full potential, thrive in their roles and find meaning in their work.

Her approach integrates evidence-based leadership frameworks with emotional and cultural intelligence, grounded in practical application.

She has supported leaders and led teams across the private and nonprofit sectors, including finance, tech, healthcare, life sciences, and higher education, helping them navigate complexity, overcome challenges, and create sustainable, people-centered success.

Robina is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) through the ICF, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a TypeCoach Certified Professional, and a Center for Creative Leadership 360 facilitator.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Tufts University and a Master’s degree in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Connect with Robina on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Leadership coaching and its significance in organizations
Evolution of coaching practices over the past 20 years
The importance of creating a culture of ongoing learning and development
The role of leaders in modeling coaching and feedback behaviors
The distinction between coaching as a remedial tool versus a developmental resource
The impact of coaching on individual leaders and organizational dynamics
The importance of self-awareness and reflection in leadership
The universality of leadership challenges across different industries
Balancing organizational consulting with individual coaching
Actionable advice for leaders on curiosity and empathy in communication

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have the founder and leadership coach with RMB Leadership and Talent Strategy Consulting, Robina Bhasin, welcome.

Robina Bhasin: Thank you so much and beautiful pronunciation, lee.

Lee Kantor: Thank you, thank you. That’s that’s the hardest part for me. Well, I appreciate that. Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about your practice. How are you serving folks?

Robina Bhasin: Thanks. Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. Pleasure to be with you and with everyone who’s listening. So the work that I do, yeah, leadership coaching, a lot of it is really focused on supporting leaders within organizations. I really have chosen to focus on this space because I feel like leaders have such an outsized impact on our experience at work. Um, and because in all my years of working in different countries, sectors, organizations, I’ve never actually come across anyone who’s intentionally trying to be a bad leader. You know, just we all have blind spots and often no one’s really helped us to figure out how we want to show up and be leaders. So I do a lot of work partnering with organizations to support leaders and also to support teams to help leadership teams often think about how they want to be showing up with each other, and how they want to collaborate to really bring out the best in each other. So most of my practice focuses in those areas.

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

Robina Bhasin: Yeah, well, I would say the starting point was like way, way back. I would say I was born in the US to immigrant parents from two different countries. And then I grew up here. So I’m in a third country, and I only share this as a part of the story because I think it instilled in me from a really early age or from, you know, as far back as I can remember, a real love of bringing people from different backgrounds and spaces together to be able to kind of connect with each other. I always have felt like there’s like a magic in that space. And so I have worked in talent and leadership development throughout my career, and it’s always really been about creating spaces for people to be able to connect individually or in groups, just, you know, to be able to learn from and with each other. And so I did this initially more internationally with ministers of health and doctors from post-conflict countries. And then I worked with teachers in the Middle East and North Africa, and then in the US with physicians and scientists and university setting and with with leaders in companies, in tech and finance. And so I think that piece of connecting with people, not just talking to them, but like the real connections and conversations that, that, you know, kind of bring up candor and honesty and vulnerability that space is so energizing for me, and I find people and organizations fascinating.

Robina Bhasin: So coaching and particularly coaching leaders has been an integral part of my work forever, really, for as long as I’ve been working, which is over 20 years now. A little shocking for me, but and then I took the step to become a certified coach after being inspired by an external coach that I ended up bringing in when I was leading talent and a tech company. And I thought she was such a brilliant facilitator and able to create such valuable containers for people to share openly and draw out great insights. And I just thought, if this is what it means to be a coach, then I want to learn how to do it. And so I’m not sure I ever if I’m as good as she is, she, she really is brilliant in what she does. But, but that was the impetus for me to sort of get into this space to, to be able to pursue the certification myself. And so this shift into being a coach officially, not just as an informal part of my in-house roles, that just felt really like a natural progression of what I’ve been doing over the last 20 plus years.

Lee Kantor: Now what what was coaching like kind of throughout your career? Was coaching very important in the different places you worked? Was it not there at all? Like what was like? How have you seen it evolve over the 20 years you’ve been in this kind of world?

Robina Bhasin: Yeah, I know it’s such a great question. So I don’t, I, it actually was not a formal part of any of the organizations I was part of, except for that one that I was mentioning. That was like a hand more than a handful of years ago. That was an ed tech company where we actually did go out and hire external coaches to support some of our leaders. But otherwise, I would say that the work that I was doing was like, it included so much coaching because I was meeting with leaders on a regular basis. I was meeting with people on a regular basis to really help support them with whatever challenges were going on. So, um, you know, when I was working in an academic setting, it was working with the faculty who were trying to figure out, well, okay, I’m in this place in my career and where do I go from here? Or, you know, I have this team that you know, that I’m working with. And this is always astounding to me. It was these brilliant doctors who could be having such challenging conversations with their patients, but then they were leading a team, and that felt extraordinarily difficult to figure out how to hold people accountable and get feedback. And so I was supporting them to think about how they could go about doing that. So it wasn’t necessarily that they were like, oh, I need to get coaching. And they were coming to me. It was more that in the roles I was in, I was like a natural sounding board and thought partner for them. And so they would look for guidance and support. And I just found that I really enjoyed being in those spaces. Um, so yeah, that’s been how I have integrated it into the work that I’ve been doing over these years.

Lee Kantor: So it was kind of informally there and you were doing kind of coaching things, but it wasn’t in a structured coaching way that it’s being done nowadays.

Robina Bhasin: Exactly, exactly. And eventually I realized like, oh, this is a thing that I could go and get certified in and actually do. And so now, um, I actually do both. I do some consulting to really help organizations think about, you know, how either, how they, uh, how they’re thinking about what’s important to them organizationally as a culture and really serving as like a sounding board and thought partner for some of their senior leaders and sometimes a little bit, yeah, more structured in terms of, you know, I’m here and I’m trying to get there and I’m looking for some support to be able to get there. And then we have like a more structured coaching relationship.

Lee Kantor: So you’ve been on kind of both sides of the desk now. Is there like if you were, um, kind of in the executive role in an organization, how would you kind of build that ideal coaching culture? Um, like in a given organization, you must have some thoughts on this, because you have seen both sides of this and how it could work and how people could benefit. So do you mind sharing kind of a maybe a dream scenario of how you. Yeah.

Robina Bhasin: Like how do you do this as an organization? Right? If you’re in the leadership role, how do you create a culture like this? So I would think about it a little bit less as a coaching culture and more a culture of ongoing learning and wanting and sort of normalizing the fact that we all have space to continue to improve and grow. And what coaching offers is a space for greater self-awareness and reflection, and being thoughtful about how we really want to be showing up with each other, with our teams. And so I think from the organizational standpoint, the ideal is that from the very top, there’s open talk about this is something that we all seek out, right? This is a normal part of what it means to be great at our jobs is seeking out support, training, ongoing learning in the form of coaching and other ways. Right? It doesn’t just need to be in the form of coaching, but this is a part of what it means for us to really do great work is not just to sort of say, oh, I’m good, so I’m going to just stick with this. But continuing to look for the kind of feedback that we need to continue to get better and for opportunities to grow. Does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And would you say that, um, kind of a healthy organization would have this type of thinking and culture trickle down to all levels of the organization, or should it stay kind of at the, the higher level?

Robina Bhasin: Absolutely. Thank you for drawing that out. Yes, for sure. I sort of say it starts at the top because I think that modeling really matters. But I think absolutely, ideally, this is something that is in all parts of the organization. I think sometimes it’s interesting. I’ve seen coaching treated in a couple different ways, either that it’s sort of something that is only for the executives. You know, it’s like this exclusive sort of idea or something that’s done for the people who are a problem, right? So it’s like remedial coaching, right?

Lee Kantor: Like fix fix, Bob.

Robina Bhasin: Yeah. Right. Exactly, exactly. And I would say I find the latter to be more, um, challenging. It’s not typically the work that I’m doing. There are situations where there are people that, you know, they have been successful, they bring so much value and they have some blind spots. And there’s a desire to help them sort of gain some greater awareness around those and maybe like broaden their toolkit of the things they’re working with so that they can show up a little more effectively. But I think often we think about it as like, either it’s this exclusive thing or it’s like a remedial thing. And I think the ideal is that it’s really normalized. It’s like, this is a part of what we all do to continue to get better in our roles and, you know, in who we are as professionals.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think it’s a way that an organization can kind of lean into that mission statement. They always say that their people are their most important asset. Exactly. It’s like, okay.

Robina Bhasin: 100%.

Lee Kantor: Let’s upskill all of our people then. Like that should just be part of the DNA of the organization.

Robina Bhasin: Yeah, absolutely. And I think a part of the work that I do, I mean, I used to always say that what I do is think about how do you create great places to work. And I think this is a part of it. And I’ve chosen to really kind of lean in on this. But for many years, I was focused across like, what are all the pieces that go into creating a great place to work? And for sure, investing in your people is a huge part of it. And thinking about like, what’s the environment that they’re operating in? Right? And how do we think about how we set that? And so things like this where we say we’re normalizing ongoing learning and sort of saying that this is a part of what makes us great is, um, is essential to that.

Lee Kantor: So now what’s it like to work with you? Are they coming in to triage a situation typically when they call you, or is it something that they’re being more proactive?

Robina Bhasin: Yeah. You mean like how why are people coming in?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. For that, that like the first call, the, the reason why they’re, uh, having a conversation to begin with.

Robina Bhasin: It really varies. So I would say I’m trying to think, I’ll give you a couple examples. It varies from, um, you know, someone in the organization. So often I am working with my initial contact in an organization is someone who sits in the C-suite. So, you know, could be CEO, could be chief people officer, could be COO, but someone who’s sort of saying, hey, you know, there’s, there’s stuff here that we think like needs some support. And so it could be an individual that they’re saying we’re seeing someone who’s like, great in many ways struggling in certain ways. We have someone who’s looking for, you know, who’s at a certain point in their career where they’re looking for some for some additional kind of inspiration and space to be able to think about where they’re going. Or it could be someone who’s newly promoted into a leadership role and wants to be able to have some support as they navigate that so they can be intentional about what they do. Um, and then sometimes it’s about a whole group, right? Sometimes it’s like, hey, this is like a program that I’m doing right now. It’s like there’s a set of managers, um, you know, that the company has gone through some changes and some through new leadership and they’re saying, we have a whole set of people that we really want to be able to upskill and sort of shift the way that they think about what it means to show up as a leader, um, and help them with some skills and help sort of create this conversation as something that’s happening. Um, on the team across our, you know, various functions.

Robina Bhasin: And so we’ll create something like that that serves what they’re looking for. So it, it really looks a bit different depending on the organization. And I think my approach similarly is that it’s not that there’s like one thing that I would do in every situation. I, for me, probably the one thing I do do in every situation is to figure out where are people at, right? Like, where are they? What’s drawing them to coaching? Is it something that someone else asked them to do? Is it something that they wanted to do? Um, and like, what do they hope to get out of the experience? What, what do they want to be different on the other side of our work together? And so from there, we just do some self exploration about, you know, what they feel is getting in their way, what’s important about it to them, um, understanding sort of what are the mindsets or beliefs that are behind whatever is going on. And I think, um, you know, what they think would better serve them. So I think helping them have some greater awareness and tools that are going to help them be able to navigate things differently going forward is the goal. But I would say it’s not that there’s one specific way to get there. I think it really is about understanding where that person is at. And, um, you know, often I talk about like holding up a mirror to help someone better understand themselves by asking them lots of questions to uncover what’s truly important to them. And, you know, the wisdom that they already hold about how they want to go forward.

Lee Kantor: Now, as your work kind of industry agnostic, because that challenge sounds industry agnostic, even though that your background is kind of specific. Are you working in similar areas you worked in previously, or have you expanded kind of to be industry agnostic at this point?

Robina Bhasin: So in a way, I’ve always been industry agnostic in that. I always say people are people, and I’ve been struck by how the challenges that we struggle with look very similar. Whether we’re in a tiny nonprofit and working more globally, or we’re in a huge organization that, you know, is in tech or in finance or in education or in health. Like I think, um, because the work I’ve done has always been focused around like the people and talent side of things, but I’ve done it in so many different kinds of organizations and that continues to be true. Um, yeah, it really, it’s, I am currently working with organizations that are in tech and the nonprofit and health services. Um, and in finance, I’m trying to think, um, but yes, in education, so there’s, there’s like a nice spectrum, but at the end of the day, you know, some of the jargon is different. The specifics to some of the things people talk about are a little different. And so yeah, it’s helpful to have a little understanding of that and understand some of the acronyms they use in their world. But and, you know, the hierarchies and challenges that exist, but I think, um, the, the real crux of what it is to work and show up together, we’re all humans and we all tend to struggle with similar things. And so, um, I, it is really sector agnostic.

Lee Kantor: Now is your work, like, how would you describe the split between helping an organization versus helping kind of an individual person that might have plateaued and needs help kind of getting to a new level?

Robina Bhasin: Yeah. Um, it varies a little bit depending on the moment in time right now. Uh, I’m trying to think what the split would be. Maybe, um, 30, 70, the 30s, organizational and 70s with um, individuals or teams. Um, but it, you know, that it changes a little bit depending on just the set of, of clients that happen to be working with at the time. Uh, I love both. And I think actually part of what I feel so grateful to do is to be able to do work in these different spaces. It certainly keeps it interesting, um, because the day is filled with all kinds of different engagements and working with people in different capacities, sometimes as teams, sometimes as individuals, um, and sometimes really just being able to help be like a thought partner on what’s going on in an organization and what else can be done to help make things better.

Lee Kantor: Is there a story you can share that may be, um, kind of illustrates that on how you work with an organization, don’t name the name of the organization, but maybe share the challenge that they had and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Robina Bhasin: Yeah, sure. Um, so the first thing that comes to mind is because I was on a call with them earlier today. Um, so an organization that has really wonderful leadership, um, senior leaders and executive team that’s been working together for a long time, really solid working relationships. And they have, um, they have a set of leaders that work directly under them in, um, in roles that all have the same sort of level, right? They’re all director level people, but the day to day looks quite different because of the different kinds of roles they have, and they have come into the organization at different times. And part of what’s been going on is that despite all kinds of efforts to, you know, really create a great working environment and have a space where people feel like they can show up and, um, you know, their psychological safety and all that. There’s still some stuff that is getting in the way. There’s sort of underlying dynamics and challenges that are going on across this team that is making their collaboration more difficult and is leading to. So one, you know, they’re not working at the level that they could be. And, um, and you know, what happens, like then there’s like undercurrents and back channeling and gossiping and sort of things being said behind people’s backs instead of really coming out.

Robina Bhasin: And so, you know, when you’re in those spaces, like everyone senses that something’s not quite right, but no one’s really having the conversation. And so, um, they have asked me to help them sort of figure out what’s going on and how this team can work more effectively together. And we’re in process of this. But I think it started for me with really trying to understand where each person was at and you know, what’s going on and how they see things, right? What is, what does the world look like through their lens? And then bringing the team together to think about how they want to be showing up with each other, doing some work with individuals where there’s particular attention and supporting the team overall to uncover like how what is important to us, right? How do we want to be showing up together? And what are some tools that we can use to have some of the conversations that we’re not currently having because we’re all just a little afraid to have them? Um, so yeah, that’s like, that’s an example of, of the kind of work that I would be doing with an organization. Right? Working with a team, but, um, helping surface what’s not being said, um, and helping them identify how they want to be together and have some tools to actually do it.

Lee Kantor: So let’s change gears to the individual. Can you share a story about how, uh, maybe an individual came to you with a challenge and how you were able to help them?

Robina Bhasin: Uh, yeah, let’s see what’s a good one. Um. So, um, let’s see, I’m trying to think of what’s going to be a good one to share. I had an individual that I was working with who, um, had been extremely successful in his, in his career and his ascent. He had done super well within this company. He was reporting into the CEO at the time that we started working together and he was hitting some sort of bump. You know, it was like for as smooth as things had been and as well as he had done and has respected as he really was in the organization. There was something that was kind of getting in his way. He was starting to get less positive feedback from his team. And, um, and he was starting to get a little discouraged. He was kind of like, I don’t, you know, he was looking to take the next step, you know, advance even further and feeling like he was getting blocked. And I think in situations like this, and it was certainly true with him. It’s tricky because sometimes when we’ve been so successful, we lean very heavily on the strengths that got us there. Right? So in this case, he was a brilliant he is a brilliant engineer who grew and had the success he did because he knew a ton and was in the weeds on everything.

Robina Bhasin: And what was happening over time. What we uncovered was that because he was so tied to that notion that being in all the weeds and knowing everything that was happening was so essential for the team or for him to be successful. He wasn’t letting go and he was disempowering his team in some way. And, you know, in the meantime, over these years, he had grown quite a large team, some really, really bright people with, you know, fantastic backgrounds, some who had skills that surpassed his in certain areas. And yet he wasn’t necessarily letting the team have the space to really shine. And, and he was unintentionally, um, sort of, yeah. Demotivating a bit, right? And not giving them the space to do the work they really could do. And that was holding him back. It wasn’t allowing the team to be as successful as it could, and it was creating a little, you know, a lot of frustration, I would say, in the organization and like on his team. And then it was kind of filtering out. And so helping him be able to see that. And there was, you know, more complexity to it than just this. But I think just that uncovering of the fact that something that he had, he was doing because it had led him to be so successful in the past, was now actually getting in his way, in some way.

Robina Bhasin: Um, that that discovery made a huge difference for him because it made him realize like he could step back and think a little differently about how he engaged the team. He was exhausted too, because he was working all the time. So I think just having that space to recognize what was going on, recognize the patterns, see the underlying beliefs that were leading him to show up the way he was. Um, and to think about, you know, just to be more intentional about how did he want to be showing up with his team. All of that allowed him to make some real shifts in, in the way that he engaged his team and the way that he developed people and the way that he appreciated them and in the space that he gave them to really shine in their own right to it, pretty drastically turned around. Um, what was going on in his team, the impact they were having, how his team felt about him, how this team felt at work generally, um, you know, a lot greater levels of retention. Um, and yeah, it was just, it was a, it was a great sort of turnaround story for him to be able to get over. Um, this bump that was really had become quite a barrier to him being able to continue to thrive in his career.

Lee Kantor: That’s a great example of the power of coaching. And the impact that can have is having fresh eyes on, on, um, on a situation and having a sounding board that’s a safe place to share. The impact is real. I mean, there’s definitely a trickle down effect of once you kind of get that aha moment with your clients, you can see the impact it could have throughout that individual and the organization.

Robina Bhasin: Yeah, exactly. And that’s so much of the reason that I enjoy working with leaders specifically is because the trickle down impact impact or effect is huge, right? It’s like our, our experience at work is so shaped by the leaders that we, that we report to, you know, in positive and negative ways. And so where you can help people really show up as the leaders they want to be, it makes a huge difference in, in how they feel at work. And it definitely changes the experience of their teams as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice you can share? Maybe something that’s actionable today or in the short term when it comes to leadership? Um, is there anything that comes to mind that, um, might be useful for our listeners.

Robina Bhasin: You know, there’s two things that I think of. Um, I one is around curiosity. I think it’s so easy for all of us leaders or not, but, but certainly when you’re in a leadership role, maybe more so. It’s so easy to look at situations and assume that we know what’s going on. You know, what might be going on with another person or why they’re showing up the way they are. And I think I really, I try to practice this in my own life. And, and I certainly talk about this with so many of my clients and, you know, colleagues over the years to approach situations and people with curiosity, to genuinely seek to understand what’s going on for them, what their perspective might be, what might be getting in their way, and to then use that as the starting point for figuring out how to solve whatever the issue is that’s going on. Um, versus listening to the narrative that we often have in our own heads, right? Which is like, wow, it must just be lazy, must not care. It must be prioritizing other things. You know what all kinds of other things that we come up with, but to to really understand what might be going on for someone else. Um, and I think the other one, which is potentially related, I don’t know, is, um, just to give each other grace. You know, I, what I have found in all my years of work is that everyone’s really showing up doing the best they can, right? We’re all, we’re all trying. And so taking time to like, listen and understand each other just so that we can work together a little more easily. Um, and with, you know, a little bit more compassion, it just, it’s worth it to, to give people that space and grace.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Empathy is an important component of life. And I think the sooner people realize that than the less stressful and happier they end up being.

Robina Bhasin: Yeah. Right. It feels like it lets us all kind of live with a little more ease, feel like, okay, they’re doing the best they are. And frankly, I, I should apply it more in my personal life, but it’s something that I, in my wiser moments, think about as well, you know, with with my husband or with my kids or with other family members where you might be getting frustrated and you’re like, you know what? They’re doing the best they can, and I’m doing the best I can. And let’s just figure out how we can just sort of have a little bit more compassion and empathy for each other, right?

Lee Kantor: It’s the you give the benefit of the doubt to your friends, but you don’t give it to like acquaintances or strangers as quickly.

Robina Bhasin: Yeah. True. Exactly. Yeah. And sometimes I’m even harder on the people like my immediate family. But, but I think being able to sort of step back and recognize like we’re all trying. Right. And, um, and then approaching things from that lens helps us just engage with each other a bit better, right?

Lee Kantor: I read something that it’s kind of the beginner’s mindset is just look at everybody as if we’re all in training.

Robina Bhasin: I love that. Yeah. Beautiful.

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

Robina Bhasin: Yeah, well, I’m happy to share that information. Um, it’s a, the website in itself is a little long. I’m happy to say it out loud if it’s useful, but it’s r m um, so yeah, you’ll have the letters, but RMB talent consulting.com so you can see more about me and um, schedule time if anyone’s interested in just like a complimentary get to know you session. Um, and, uh, and you can find me on LinkedIn as well.

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

Robina Bhasin: Thank you so much, Lee. Thank you for taking this time and for this opportunity.

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

Healing the Hybrid Workplace: A Therapist and Coach’s Guide to Rebuilding Human Connection

May 12, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

Healing the Hybrid Workplace: A Therapist and Coach’s Guide to Rebuilding Human Connection

00:00 /

In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Jessica Connell, owner of Confident Minds Psychotherapy & Coaching. Jessica discusses her unique dual role as both a psychotherapist and executive coach, explaining how her clinical background enriches her corporate coaching work. The conversation explores post-pandemic workplace challenges, including social anxiety among younger employees adjusting to in-person work, generational communication gaps, and the importance of human connection. Jessica shares practical strategies like team building, role-playing, and hybrid work models to help organizations and individuals thrive in today’s evolving professional landscape.

Jessica Connell is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and International Coach Federation (ICF) Certified Executive Coach in Midtown, Manhattan who specializes in Anxiety, Perfectionism, including Generalized Anxiety, Panic Disorders, and Adjustment Disorders, Depression, Grief and Bereavement, Trauma, including PTSD related to receiving a cancer diagnosis or chronic illness, Career-Related Stress, Fertility Issue Support, LGBTQ+ Issues and Relationships Issues.

She is trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and utilizes this technique in office to help clients release acute traumatic events and developmental traumas from their bodies.

She received her MSW from New York University, BA in Psychology from LIU and a Professional Coaching and Executive Coaching certification from World Coach Institute.

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Integration of psychotherapy and executive coaching
Challenges of interpersonal dynamics in the workplace post-pandemic
Impact of remote work on social anxiety and communication skills
Differences between therapy and coaching approaches
Importance of team building and in-person interactions
Navigating generational differences in work-life balance expectations
Role of employers in facilitating workplace transitions
Strategies for enhancing human connection in professional settings
The significance of informal social interactions for employee well-being
Addressing misunderstandings in digital communication methods

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have the owner and lead therapist and coach with Confident Minds Psychotherapy and Coaching. Jessica Connell. Welcome.

Jessica Connell: Thank you. It’s great to be here.

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

Jessica Connell: So in two ways. So I’m an executive coach and then also a psychotherapist. So we have a psychotherapy group practice in Manhattan. And each one of our therapists has a different specialty. And then on the other side of things, I’m also an executive coach. So what that means is that I’m working with corporations, also with individuals at the practice as well to help, you know, team building interpersonal dynamics in the corporate setting and in the team setting, and then on an individual level, just kind of taking people to their optimal performance.

Lee Kantor: So what came first, the psychotherapy or the coaching?

Jessica Connell: So it’s hard to say because it’s a bit of a back and forth type of story. So I did go. I got my undergrad in psychology. I kind of got sidetracked. And then I worked in investment banking for, for a bit for about eight, eight years or so. And then I realized that the people component of, you know, what I was doing was still just at the forefront of my mind. And I decided to go back to school to become a psychotherapist. And within that, I was kind of like, you know what? It would be so great if I could somehow get psychotherapy or therapy in some capacity into the corporate environment, into finance, into law firms, into things like that, because I saw, you know, such a need for that. And I’m like, how do we do this? And so actually the show billions because I was looking at performance psychology and I was like, how am I going to how am I going to do that? That that aspect of things and get in there because, you know, um, in corporations, it’s not so big yet to have an actual psychotherapist on staff. But so actually billions came out and I was told that although that character is very, you know, dramatized and fictionalized, um, was actually based on executive coach. And I was like, oh my gosh, so let me look into that. Looked into executive coaching, became certified ICF certified in executive coaching. And I figured that was kind of a way to, you know, bring, bring the best of therapy, but also what is actually, you know, what is accepted right now to corporate space. So it’s like, they can see how a little bit of back and forth there. They were kind of in tandem with each other.

Lee Kantor: So how is the client perceiving this? Are they thinking, are they leading with the therapy or are they leading with the coach coaching? Like how do you kind of move between the two realms? Because I mean, they’re so I mean, I interview a lot of coaches and they make a point to tell me it’s not there. Over and over again. And you’re kind of created a bridge between both of them.

Jessica Connell: Kind of. I think it’s more of just about who I am. So a client will pick either coaching or they’re coming to psychotherapy for more, more clinical diagnoses and treatment, which the clinical aspect of it is different in that we look at the past, we look at behavioral patterns. There’s, you know, I’m trained in psychodynamic theory and cognitive behavioral behavioral therapy. So we’re looking at patterns. We’re looking at your past, we’re looking at, you know, more of like the feelings that are involved and the person as a whole. There’s diagnostic and treatment there. Um, so if somebody’s coming for that, that’s like more kind of, uh, developmental traumas, anxiety, things like that. Um, you know, I do eMDR so there’s trauma work there on the coaching side. It’s more so I, I don’t know what’s holding me back. I want to move forward and set goals for the future. Um, the little bit of the bridge is just that, uh, me having that, that training I can assess and kind of see things from a behavioral aspect of how you’re interacting with other people that is maybe holding you back in your here and now to be able to have different conversations, have understand how people are affecting you, um, interpersonally and how that’s making you communicate with them. Does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. So when you’re talking to a person, there’s a distinction. You have a different hat on when you’re either a therapist or a coach.

Jessica Connell: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: Right. So I mean, so it’s a clear delineation. It’s when you’re coaching, you might kind of have some background information that you might be able to weave in that might be useful, but it’s a different experience when you’re wearing your therapist hat versus the coach hat.

Jessica Connell: Yes it is.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, from your clients standpoint, is that something that gives them more comfort? Like how are they perceiving it?

Jessica Connell: Well, I think that the comfort could be on if somebody’s is coming for me for coaching, they know that I probably can assess the behaviors. There is a deeper understanding of the psychological background of what is going on with them. And I’m I’m licensed to be able to, you know, assess those things. Um, you know, whereas a coach is, is, is certified as a coach and they’re not really supposed to dig deep into those feelings and stuff like that. So I think the comfort is, is more so around like the clinical background and the training and the psychological theory and like the knowledge base around that. So some of my executive coaching can have can be informed in some ways by my clinical experience.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with organizations, do they perceive this as a higher value when they’re working with you versus working with a coach that doesn’t have the therapy background that you have?

Jessica Connell: Honestly, it really depends. It depends on what they’re looking for. Um, I think that some, uh, corporations don’t want to go anywhere near the clinical aspect of things and they want to kind of keep it as like team building and like the here and now. Um, and don’t really love the idea of that behavioral assessment, whether it’s because it’s about the team or they’re incorporated in the team and maybe they’re not ready for like, because, because therapy is a different type of process and it can be, it’s a healing process can be a hard process, right? So I think there can be some fear around that sometimes if I’m going to poke at that. And then, but I think on the other side, I think there can be, you know, some corporations or, uh, see it as, um, you know, extra credentials and credibility.

Lee Kantor: So when the client comes to you and they are having those initial conversations, are you helping them kind of choose the path or they’re coming to you with coaching? And then, hey, we’re not going to get into the therapy aspect of this unless you see a need. Like how does the, the work if you have to move between the either one of those.

Jessica Connell: Yeah. So we, we talk about it. We usually have a phone consult, um, Beforehand, and some clients know that they just want the coaching they like. Like the executive coaching side of it, we’re just going to work on work stuff. Don’t necessarily want to dig. And they’ll tell me that, um, uh, and then some client. Like I can explain like where we could start off with therapy. Uh, if there are some, some things that have, you know, that kind of need to be addressed in terms of feelings and, um, maybe developmental traumas and things that are informing some of their behaviors. And then we could then we say, okay, well, this is now time. We can, we can switch to coaching and we can do the goal setting portion of this and really do the very results, uh, driven kind of output work.

Lee Kantor: Now, which one of these do you enjoy one more than the other? Or do you see, do you think that this is the dynamic that you’ve been able to create? Do you think this is kind of a roadmap for future coaches to explore therapy or future therapist to explore coaching?

Jessica Connell: Um, not necessarily.

Jessica Connell: I think that like, I think most clinicians and practitioners, they have their idea, they have their specialty, they have their ideal client in their niche that they they want to go into. Um, so I mean, I guess it could it, I guess if somebody was from a corporate background and then also wanted to be a therapist, it kind of does, uh, naturally kind of marry the two. Um, so I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be like a, you know, a future type of thing that people are going to be jumping toward because I think there are so many different specialties. There’s so many different niches, there’s so many different, um, populations that people have the desire to work with. So, um, that’s, that’s really nuanced. What, what my, what is my favorite? I do like having, you know, all different clients. So I do love working with professionals. I do love kind of, you know, like the coaching aspect of, of, you know, you got this, we can get to the next level or even just in the interpersonal dynamics of the, how they’re communicating and interacting with with people at work and just seeing people get promotions and things like that, and seeing teams have a better relationship with each other. And, um, you know, all those dynamics, making everything kind of flow and be more efficient is absolutely great. But then there’s the clinical side to my work. Um, I specialize also in, uh, eMDR, which is trauma work and couples therapy. And I love that as well. And, um, I’d say those, those three things, executive coaching, couples therapy and eMDR are my favorites.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned several times about interpersonal dynamics. Can you explain, uh, some of the things that you’re seeing along those lines and what people are struggling with and maybe some advice to help people with that?

Jessica Connell: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I’d say the trend right now given, um, you know, come, come. I know we’re a few years out of Covid, but I think that the effects are still, um, so acute on, um, you know, just the social aspect of the young people coming into the workforce and not being in an office and not getting that that business communication experience firsthand to just kind of be able to turn around to their coworker or pick up the phone or go over to, to their coworker. I think there’s a lot of, um, there can be a lot of isolation and introversion in that. So, um, the interpersonal dynamics right now, I think there’s the, the social anxiety portion of it. Um, and so I think that that’s going to be a little bit challenging in the workplace going forward, especially that. I mean, I think it’s a good thing that, you know, most more companies are going into hybrid and bringing people back into the office because it’s really needed for that socialization. Um, but I think struggles are going to be, uh, even around, um, you know, just being in the workplace and even some of the emotional components that are coming out with the younger generation of, you know, needing, uh, the work life balance, which is absolutely okay.

Jessica Connell: But I think that there’s a way to communicate that that hasn’t, um, you know, hasn’t really been perfected. So it comes off sometimes as, um, the person is taking too much time off or they’re um, complaining or things like that. Um, to, you know, maybe the older generation who was pre Covid used to kind of like head down, uh, working when we’re at work and not necessarily taking that personal time for ourselves. So I think that the way that that’s communicated is going to be an issue. And then just in general, interpersonal dynamics come into play, uh, based on how people trigger us and how we’re communicating with people. Um. It can trigger something from our, our childhood or our past or the way somebody has talked to, like talk to us in the past. And then we don’t see that person for what they’re, what they’re actually saying. We’re interpreting it in a different way. There’s projections and stuff and that can hold, that can hold, uh, team members back either from, from the peer relationships, from, you know, manager to managing relationships. Um, and it just, it kind of creates the morale for the entire team.

Lee Kantor: So do you see the trend of, um, you know, during the pandemic and coming out of it, there was a, a work from home. Uh, remote work is totally cool. You live wherever you want. And now there obviously is a push more for return to office. And, um, and that’s creating some friction. How do you help organizations with that transition in order to, um, help explain why it’s of value to come back to the office, if that’s the policy and how maybe a young person can adapt or be better equipped to handle that return to office.

Jessica Connell: Mhm.

Jessica Connell: Yeah. I mean, I think like team building is really important in that aspect where it’s like, it actually shows the, the, the generation that did start working from home, what the benefit is to being in the office. Right. So I think if there’s a shy component, there can be the social anxiety component. The person’s going to maybe like just sit at their desk and be like scared and not and not be comfortable in the environment with other people around. If we can show them that there can be a good team team rapport and they can be friendly with people and that working together in, in person, in that capacity and just bouncing ideas off of each other and having the conversation flow, um, is super important right now. I think conversation flow for, you know, the generation that is not was, is kind of more isolated is hard. So small talk, you know, having more like it’s not your best friend type of conversation, you’re not comfortable with somebody. I think a lot of people are shying away from going to into the office because of that. So the way that I work with, with that is, is team building. And then also an assessment of, of, you know, having one on ones with everyone in that team and see where they’re at with social anxiety. And then kind of like having these mock conversations, or here’s what it could look like, or just kind of really working out some of the social anxiety portions of it by exposure. Well, let’s have this conversation. We’ll see how, you know, see how the interaction goes. Right. And so a lot of it is kind of almost like role play in a way to, to help desensitize the person to just being in person with people again.

Lee Kantor: Do you think that coming out of the pandemic, the young people were maybe sold a bill of goods and then now we’re kind of changing the rules and they’re having a tough time adapting to the new rules?

Jessica Connell: I think so. I don’t I don’t see how you couldn’t, right. Like we post pandemic, it was like, you know, and this wasn’t a good thing either. Not really having work, work life balance. I mean, especially, you know, my experience working in finance, like sometimes you couldn’t even get off your desk. Right. So that was like the norm for us. You know, we’re we’re in the office, whatever, probably more than 9 to 5. But, you know, we’re kind of at our desk head down. Um, optics are that that is good. Um, so imagine coming into the workforce and being at home, kind of having everything casual. You’re kind of be on, on your phone and on the internet and kind of doing what you want, laundry in the background and all of that. And then being kind of almost like quote unquote, trapped at a desk again is going to be a big, it’s going to be a big transition in shock. That’s why I do think the hybrid models are, are probably a good way to go. So this way it’s not, um, kind of like an overload of like just getting back into the office and, and having to really learn a whole new way of working life.

Lee Kantor: Right? But for a lot of young people, this is a new thing. Like even their last probably year of college or so they were at home and then their first years of working were at home. And now you’re saying, okay, that’s not how we do things anymore. Now you have to come in the office, and now this is new. Like they’re out of practice. This. And and especially during that formative years of probably their brain growth. And now you’re being thrust into this new world and new expectations and new ways of doing things that now you got to learn as like for the first time ever, that has to be extremely stressful.

Jessica Connell: Yeah. They’re not even just, they’re not out of practice. Right? Like you just said, they’re, they’re learning from scratch basically how to be in that type of environment. You know, so it is definitely stressful. But I think that as people are going in, they’re being desensitized to the social anxiety and socialization, uh, fearful portion of that and realizing how beneficial it can be to get out of the house, you know, to even, you know, get up and get dressed. Um, and really seeing that like there is benefit to just be able to turn around and talk to a coworker, get up and go to somebody’s desk like they’re, I think they’re seeing the the efficiencies once they get there. But I think the the fear portion is like the anticipatory anxiety portion of it. What is that going to be like? Can I do this? Can I, you know, can I sit there all day? And a lot of people, the feedback is like, I’m actually more productive sometimes in the office, you know, and there’s other things that are better suited for at home. Um, so it definitely is a learning curve, but I think as you know, I think the best thing that can, that an employer can do is actually make those days mandatory because you’d see a lot of, if it’s not mandatory, then people aren’t going in.

Lee Kantor: Or they’re going in in a manner that they’re just checking the box that I went in. So it’s like counterproductive almost because they’re both resentful, like the, the worker’s resentful that they have to go in and pretend to be there for five minutes. And then, and then the employer is resentful that they’re doing kind of the minimum. So it has to be kind of symbiotic in order for it to be effective, I think.

Jessica Connell: Yeah. And the benefit has to be, you know, seen. Right.

Lee Kantor: Like, yeah.

Jessica Connell: Analysis on both sides.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that that’s when the pandemic happened. I was I remember having conversations about you. If how are you training and onboarding a new person? How are they learning? How are they being like a fly on the wall? How are they getting these kind of, um, uh, the random conversations or the pop in to ask one question like, how are you doing? If you’re not mindful about that? They’re missing out on a lot of the ways that you learn and you, um, become more effective as a worker in that environment. And now the, the pendulum has swung to the other side, where now we’re trying to encourage them to come back in a way that they feel that this is worth it.

Jessica Connell: Yeah, absolutely. And it definitely I mean, it is worth it. We we need to be around other people. That’s the way that we learn. Like a lot of the companies that are staying completely remote, there is a very disconnected aspect to it, right? Like you have to wait for the person to, to call you back, right? Like there isn’t just like, okay, let’s get this done. And like the efficiencies around that, right? There, there isn’t the, the small talk or just like really just being able to communicate and just have like one off conversations that, that, that you wouldn’t have. Right? Like it, socialization is extremely important to, to us and being able to interact with other people.

Lee Kantor: Right? And, and those serendipitous moments are important. They’re hard to track and measure, but they have a big impact over time.

Jessica Connell: Mhm. I mean, I think like people.

Jessica Connell: Don’t even realize sometimes what, like, as they leave, as they leave their apartment and they see their doorman, the doorman smiles at them or the person that’s, that’s in their office, that’s the first person they see and smiles at them, you know, or even just people on the street. Like those interactions are really important. So staying in all the time is, is really is detrimental to a person’s confidence, self-esteem, and the way that they interact with the world.

Lee Kantor: Right? And that you’re seeing that in all these surveys about loneliness.

Jessica Connell: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: I mean, what better way to, uh, deal with that than interacting with more people more of the time?

Jessica Connell: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So, uh, when is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how you work with an organization? Do you have a favorite story that you mind sharing where they came to you with the challenge and you were able to help them?

Jessica Connell: Yeah. Um, so I worked with an organization just kind of very similarly to what, um, what I was talking with you about. Like there was a very disconnected. It was, I’d say a few years ago. So more so coming out of, out of the pandemic when people were starting to go, um, go back to work. And so they had called me to do, um, some team building work and then also kind of sit in and do one on one coaching with people and then kind of give an overview of, of kind of, you know, what the recommendation was going forward. And the, you could see from the beginning, like there is such a, a disconnect and a coldness kind of as I had them in the room and I was talking about what we were going to be doing. And, you know, even just talking about some of like the coaching and like a little bit of psychoeducation around, you know, team building and team dynamics and interpersonal dynamics and also, um, social anxiety, right. You could see in the room the disconnect where it didn’t feel warm, it didn’t feel so, so friendly. Um, I think again, like you were saying, like people were resentful to be there. Um, they didn’t understand why they had to be there. Uh, they weren’t connecting with their coworkers because everybody was of like different ages and stuff like that. Um, as we did team building exercise, um, you could just see them interacting with each other in a way that like we did some, we did some fun, um, uh, kind of, uh, putting pictures together of of what? Certain, um, you know what? Like certain words, I forget what the words were at this point, but like with certain words, like meant to them.

Jessica Connell: And so like kind of, um, uh, picking, picking pictures out of magazines to be able to do that. And they were, and they actually started to interact with each other in a, in a humorous way that I think totally seemed like it was missing. Um, when I was sitting kind of doing the little psychoeducation portion of it and, um, and, you know, people were raising their hand and they were saying like, they, they do want, like the things that they, they want, they do want to be more friendly with their coworkers. They do want to be able to, to interact with more ease and stuff like that. So you could, you could see just even laughing with each other, open things up so much more. Um, and then I sat with, uh, you know, individuals after that and, um, you know, they were like, I have a little bit more like faith that this is going to be okay being back in the office and, um, there, there it was. The common denominator was like, I don’t know if people are going to like me. How do I get the team to like me? How do I know what they’re thinking? You know, and, and I think what a lot of what I, what I did also with management was saying, like, we have to figure out some sort of, um, what kind of feedback guidelines. Um, so that the, you know, like team leaders, management understand how to give positive feedback to their employees as well that like they’re doing a good job. Everybody’s acting, everybody’s interacting in a good way. Um, I think that was, it was, it was so, um, stark in this situation that that was kind of like lost.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And you were able to bring kind of humanity back into the organization.

Jessica Connell: Exactly, exactly.

Lee Kantor: It’s, uh, it’s so funny that with so much technology and all this AI and all these things that people are getting farther and farther away from human to human interactions. And that’s where we ought to be leaning more into. I think.

Jessica Connell: Yeah, actually, I was reading an article the other day that, that, you know, like, we don’t know where this is going to go with AI and everything, but that it probably will come full circle. What will be important once everything kind of settles is, uh, like human interaction. So the way people are with each other and how, how warm they are and how they’re interacting with other people is going to become really important again. Um, I mean, and it should be, and a lot of what I try to teach is how do we understand how we are the interpersonal dynamics, how we are affecting the other person? It’s kind of self-awareness. How are we coming into this conversation? How are we projecting and seeing something that maybe this person isn’t saying because of, of what’s going on with ourselves? Right? Um, how is that person triggering us? So we’re coming into the room in a way of more empathy. Empathy and understanding of like this person is, is someone totally different than me. And they’re going through, they have a different upbringing. They’re going through something completely different in their life. So I’m not going to assume or be paranoid that they’re coming at me in this way that might be triggered by something I’ve gone through in the past or, you know, um, something about them, you know, like where they come from, like not having any assumptions. So really the empathy for each other is going to be really important in the way we interact in that, that, that human connection that obviously can’t happen through AI and that that warmth and nurturing way is going to be really important, right?

Lee Kantor: And it’s hard to do that by text.

Jessica Connell: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: You’re going to have to learn how to, to, to be a whole human in front of other whole humans in person to read. There’s a lot of data that’s being shared that it’s really difficult to do that, you know, virtually or through text or email or Slack. You know, it’s.

Jessica Connell: Absolutely especially text. Things get taken out of context all the time and email and slacks and, you know, it’s just the it’s read completely sometimes like completely different than what should be coming across, right?

Lee Kantor: Because you don’t see the smile or the wink or the smirk, like you’re, you’re making a lot of assumptions based on, you know, just a handful of characters. And that’s it’s impossible. That’s not how humans interact.

Jessica Connell: Yeah. Like even if the person, like if, if you were talking to somebody like, say, like over your cubicle, right. And, and then like, they all of a sudden got startled because they’re like, oh my gosh, I have to go. I forgot I had to go do this stuff. And they run away, right? They’re like, oh, okay. Well, you know, that they’re, they’re busy and they forgot something, you know, what’s going on there. So if somebody goes and slacks somebody and then they like and just really quick and then they get distracted, it could, it could come off in a completely different way. And they and the other person has no, you know, context as to why that happened that way.

Lee Kantor: Right. And our default move isn’t usually grace.

Jessica Connell: No it’s not.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you about your practice or get on your calendar. What’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Jessica Connell: Yeah. Best way to connect is, um, email me. My email is jessica@cmpcnyc.com. That’s, uh, the website, uh, Confident Mind Psychotherapy and Coaching NYC. Those are the, the letters of it. Um, and then our website is www.nyc.com and you can also give me a call. Um, our practice number is (917) 727-1435.

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

Jessica Connell: Oh, I appreciate that. And thanks for having me.

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

Overcoming Capital Challenges and Navigating Georgia’s Three-Tier System: Inside Dalton Distillery’s Growth and Brand Strategy

May 12, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio

Overcoming Capital Challenges and Navigating Georgia’s Three-Tier System: Inside Dalton Distillery’s Growth and Brand Strategy

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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Chuck Butler, founder of Dalton Distillery and Responsibly Brands. Chuck shares how he launched his distillery in 2013 while working in law enforcement, driven by a desire for more family time. He discusses pivoting from moonshine to vodka, navigating Georgia’s three-tier distribution system, and winning a rare contested brand transfer case. Despite being undercapitalized, Chuck grew his brand into 389 Georgia stores. He also explains how his law enforcement background inspired the “Responsibly” brand name and describes services offered to entrepreneurs looking to build their own spirits brands.

Chuck Butler is a Georgia-based distillery owner and founder of Responsibly® Brands, building a fast-growing spirits company with his son. A Georgia Trend “40 Under 40” honoree, President’s Volunteer Service Award recipient, and 2021 Distiller of the Year, Chuck has grown Responsibly® into hundreds of retail locations across Georgia and Tennessee.

Built on resilience and authenticity, Responsibly® is connecting with consumers across the Southeast and available at your favorite local liquor store.

Connect with Chuck on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Chuck Butler’s journey from law enforcement to starting a distillery.
The challenges of launching a distillery with limited capital.
The shift from producing moonshine to vodka based on market demand.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on distillery operations and the production of hand sanitizer.
The three-tier distribution system for alcohol sales in Georgia.
The importance of branding and customer service in a competitive market.
The complexities of working with distributors and the experience of a contested brand transfer.
Growth strategies for expanding brand presence in liquor stores.
The use of corn in vodka production and its advantages.
Services offered to help others build their own alcohol brands.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is gonna be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have the owner and founder of Dalton Distillery and Responsibly Brands, Chuck Butler. Welcome.

Chuck Butler: All right. Thank you and thank you. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Well, let’s start with Dalton Distillery. Tell us about it.

Chuck Butler: All right. I started the distillery in 2013. I was working I was primarily in law enforcement, so I had to work a long hours. And during that time, my dad, he got a false diagnosis of cancer. So it was frustrating for me. I’m working long hours and not spending time with my family. I had a son. He was around eight years old at the time, so I thought I should invest my what little money I have into a business. And I was betting that people wouldn’t quit drinking alcohol. So I ended up starting that so that I could spend more time with my dad and my son.

Lee Kantor: So how does somebody go about even starting a distillery? Like, had you known anybody that had done that? Had you seen it in operation?

Chuck Butler: No, no, I only visited, like, uh, Jack Daniel’s distillery now. Um, and really, uh, I believe the reason why we’re still in business today is that I was just too ignorant to the fact of giving up and refusing to give up and working. Because most people that own a distillery has a lot of working capital, and that’s something that we didn’t have, but we just fought through it pushed. Because if you look, most people that own a distillery, they have you have to have cash flow, you have to have working capital. And I’ve just done all the paperwork myself. I rented a small space and we was planning on being like a small boutique craft distillery where people would come in, visit, talk with us. During the Covid deal. That changed a lot of operations that, you know, people couldn’t come in, we couldn’t do this. And we was, uh, requested by the state and the federal government to make hand sanitizer. We started doing that, and then we ended up getting a lot of good media attention from donating. Well, like we donated over $180,000 worth of materials. So that was a lot of money for my little company. We donated that and really not even keeping track of the funds we was just doing because it was so chaotic. We done that and we started building our brand responsibly. Now we’re not open to the public. We’re strictly manufacturing, building our brand scent, uh, getting cases made up and sending it out to the district distribution companies. So we have, we sell our brand to Georgia Crown and, and Tennessee Crown both. So our brand responsibly is available throughout Georgia and throughout Tennessee. We’re excited about and proud about now.

Lee Kantor: When you started the distillery, how did you decide which type of liquor to produce?

Chuck Butler: Um, really my my dad, he he only wanted to make corn whiskey. That was it. That’s all he was going to make. And when people drive around and you talk with people, they say, oh, they love moonshine. And that’s exciting. And that’s what a lot of people, when they come into a distillery, that’s what they want to taste. That’s what they want to buy. However, it’s totally different whenever you’re going on a commercial scale and whenever you go to a liquor store, most liquor stores, they’re allergic to the word, uh, moonshine. You know, they, they want a vodka. They want whiskeys, um, aged product. That’s a huge capital investment for us. So that’s where the shift came about is whenever we was making moonshine. Dalton is, um, a large city, but it’s really small to support a boutique distillery where, you know, there’s really not enough foot traffic for us to support that. So over the past 12 years, I’ve rewritten my business plan probably 25 times because of, you know, looking, pivoting and finding out what works and what doesn’t. And the moonshine is great if you have a good location and people can come in sample and they’re going to buy in Georgia. You can only sell up to 1 to 3 bottles. Where in Tennessee you’re not limited on a daily amount. So we was only confined to Georgia sales because we’re only based in Dalton, Georgia. Um, that’s whenever we decided to change from moonshine to vodka because that’s what the distributor and that’s what our main customers, the liquor store owners and the patrons of those liquor stores wanted was vodka.

Lee Kantor: So then once you made the switch to vodka, how do you go about making a brand that stands out amongst the sea of other vodkas?

Chuck Butler: Uh, you know, one, we are still working on that. You know what? Uh, we’ve always been under-capitalized. And of the main thing that I’ve realized about being under-capitalized is that helps bring out your creativity or it does, uh, ours, you know, and that’s why we come up with the name. Like whenever I was in law enforcement, I was a police chief. I would speak out, go to governor’s office, highway safety conferences and meetings on a monthly basis and do, uh, press releases and speak with the media. And I’d always say, please drink responsibly. Um, that name, that slogan that’s really helped us where it resonates with people. A lot of the stores think it is a little comical, and they love the branding behind that, where our slogan is we help people drink responsibly and economically. Um, well, you know, as far as a craft distillery located in Dalton, Georgia, we are one of the most economically priced vodkas out there because we care about margins and volume. Like we really cut our margins down. And, you know, one of the things about running low margins is it really hurts whenever we have tariffs applied and when it hurts with all these, uh, high inflated freight because of, um, our compromised fuel increases, that really helps us adjust and look about trying to add other SKUs, you know, and we’re constantly maneuvering and looking about adapting. And our main product is always our main thought down the road is how can we make sure that our product is always top quality, high and quality at an economical price because that’s what we try to be as a, a good high quality, value based brand.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned having, uh, partners and distributors. Can you educate the listener a little bit about that? Because it isn’t as simple as. Oh, I think I’ll just call all the liquor stores and then they’re going to place my brand. You have to go through a middleman, right, in order to sell liquor.

Chuck Butler: Yes. In Georgia is called a three tier system. So the me the manufacturer supplier, we are required by Georgia state law to sell to a wholesaler or some people call it distributor. They’re the alcohol distributor. So I have to sell to the distributor. The distributor is the second tier the distributor sales to on premise. Um, which is restaurants, bars or liquor stores or off premise. Your, uh, your liquor stores. So we’re working as fast as possible. Like one of the things that, you know, if we’re giving advice to somebody building an alcohol brand. The only contract between the supplier or the brand owner and the distribution company is a thing called 8105 through the State of Georgia Department of Revenue. They’re the ones that says, all right, your brand is now assigned to this distributor, and that distributor has the rights to sell your brand throughout the entire state. And, and the brand owner is only allowed to sell it at the manufacturing facility, which in Georgia, you don’t have enough volume, as far as I know, at any place to really support a brand. They don’t have enough volume to really support a distillery operation. So you have to be out in liquor stores. So in Georgia you have 1300 liquor stores. We’re only in 389 stores and we are growing. So what we do is a little different. We’re not spending a lot of money on advertisement. We ride with our, uh, distribution company sales team. We follow up, we call our liquor stores. And what we’re trying to do is because we was well known with customer service and providing a customer experience, we’re trying to provide that customer service to the liquor store, whatever they need from responsibly brands. Our team is here to support them and help them.

Chuck Butler: And then whenever we’re speaking with their patrons, if they’re looking for a vodka, we are more than happy and excited to tell them about responsibly. Vodka that is a Georgia grown brand. It’s award winning. We’ve won several awards with Georgia trustees, Wine and Spirits at, um, the, um, and then SIP international and, you know, countless brands that we’ve sent in to win these awards and we try to provide that customer experience with just a little sampling taste in that, uh, tasting experience at the liquor stores whenever we’re invited. So that’s something we try to do Friday and Saturdays. Visiting these stores. And that helps us where we have one. Our main store throughout Georgia and Tennessee is Augusta Liquor. They sell 25 cases of our half gallons every week. Every week they order a 25 case drop. And having customers from relationships like that, most of them know to call us, and we’re here to help. If for some reason it got slow, we’d show up and we talk with them to try to get that excitement inside that liquor store. And we do postings of on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. My son, he has a a growing account. It’s at at drink responsibly vodka on TikTok, um, where we offer, uh, blind taste tests and try to get that excitement going. And people is really shocked whenever they’re talking with somebody representing a brand and they realize that they’re talking to the owner. They’re normally very surprised and really impressed. And it’s flattering for us. And we know that for us too. We don’t take this lightly. Every day we wake up and that’s what we live and breathe and think of is our building, our brand, and how can we take it to the next level.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that, um, the first step when you start a distillery or have a liquor brand in Georgia is to partner with those wholesalers. Um, does your wholesaler reach all 1300 liquor stores and then they’re just not placed you in the other thousand? Or how does that work? Or do you have to get a different wholesaler for the rest of the state?

Chuck Butler: Well, um, you know, we’re lucky we’re with Georgia Crown. So they’re a huge player. So Georgia Crown is so large, they’re representing, uh, thousands of brands. So if you own a if you own a liquor store anywhere in Georgia, you’d have to buy from them because they carry such large brands. Some of the things is some of your smaller liquor stores, they never heard of us, and they’re worried about taking on a new brand, which is understandable. They’ve never heard of us. Others, you know, for it to be economical, uh, for the investment, they have to invest like a 25 cases so that liquor store has to foot the money to buy 25 cases day one. So, you know, they are worried thinking, hey, is this going to sell? You know, they, they, they don’t may not know me and they don’t 100% trust me that we are going to send people out and help that store sell if it’s not automatically driven and automatically have a customer base. So, um, We are lucky that we are growing as fast as we are, um, to let you know, you know, last year we was I don’t like talking negative at all, so I’ll just touch a little bit. The reason why we know more about this, uh, Georgia brand transfer is if you’re with a wholesaler in Georgia that you don’t like, that you don’t agree with, you can try to work it out as adults and do a brand trade or brand transfer, but the current holder has to agree with it and participate.

Chuck Butler: We was with one, um, wholesaler that held her brand and wasn’t paying on time, wasn’t moving the volume that we agreed on. And I had to make an official complaint and do a contested brand transfer due to nonpayment. And this started in February of 2024. And from what the Georgia Department of Revenue told us that had never happened, that a brand transfer went in a contested brand transfer due to nonpayment. It went on and went on for over 220 days, where our company, a very small company, didn’t have orders, didn’t have sales, and we was owed over $50,000. So that put a financial burden on us. I, I am a high school dropout. And so I had to study and look, and I’ve represented myself in the brand hearing and these, this, uh, former distribution company hired a good lawyer and they went in and we had a hearing that took about four hours. And, uh, we proved our case and we was able to get it removed, which is very rare to have a contested brand transfer and win the removal. So now we went from one private small company that only had a place in 180 stores. Now we’re in 389 stores just in five months. With Georgia Crown.

Lee Kantor: So it’s it’s important to choose your distributor wisely.

Chuck Butler: A in Georgia specifically, you know, you need to study it and find out like one of the things that we started offering, if people go to Dalton distillery.com and they build a brand with us, they can look at that and request. And we’re always happy and excited to engage with somebody that’s interested in building a brand. And, uh, we can, we have a consultation fee to where we can either give them guidance on how to build a brand. We can, um, do all the regulatory items if they’re wanting to only build a brand and not build a distillery, and we can actually do a white label brand inside our distillery for them. Um, whereas a white glove where they don’t have to do anything and we help push and promote it and help them find the right distributor because we understand how important it is.

Lee Kantor: And so if they want to do a vodka brand or other liquors.

Chuck Butler: They want to do a vodka brand of tequila brand if they want to do whiskey, um, if they want to do beer or wine, we, we do consultation on that. If they want to do iced coffee or CBD, we help build brands. It don’t have to be in the alcohol industry. We’re able to help people because we’ve, you know, I’ve got now 12 years experience of hustle and it’s hard for me to turn it off where we’re constantly working and, um, helping people be creative and helping people show like there’s a lot of people out there that don’t care to take your money and don’t care about results. If I take somebody’s money, I want to make sure that they get their money’s worth plus some, because I want them to come back and continue working with me. That’s the way we do business.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? You just need more, uh, distribution into all the liquor stores, you need more brand awareness. Um, and then you said you’re primarily in Georgia and Tennessee right now.

Chuck Butler: Yes, yes. So, so like, you know, breaking into all 1300 liquor stores will be a little difficult for us because, you know, if you notice, there are some smaller distribution companies where they, they don’t have 25 cases of very few brands. So if for it to be really economical for the patron, that’s where they’re limited to. So that’s, that puts some people off. Um, then just naturally grow and continue and growing our social media accounts, continuing visitation and, uh, doing market work. Whenever we have time, we go out and we visit and we’ll visit 18 to 20 stores and in the liquor store and talking with them, showing them that we care about adding value to their store, helping them add a Georgia grown. Brand that we’re passionate about building and helping it sell. Um, you know, these economic times, a lot of people are looking about trading down and trading down from a well-known national brand. And some of the customers that we’ve gotten, you know, from ten years ago to now, they’ve only come to us for either thinking, well, I’m going to trade down today because I can save a few dollars. And then they stay with us because of our high quality. And they’re really shocked and surprised where it is a little comical, where so many people are shocked that we’re able to sell it at the price that we are, you know, um, and what we’re getting at is I grew up somewhat, uh, on a, I wouldn’t say poverty at all, but we’re not much above poverty level and we care about the cost of people, you know, and we want where people can buy two handles of ours versus most national brands of vodka. Plus our story and the excitement that we have and the engagement that we offer. Whenever somebody makes a comment on our, on our, uh, videos or on social media. I’m not good at posting videos, but I’m trying to learn to help build that because, uh, I mean, that’s one of, I’m sure that you’ve been in the radio industry for a while, but you noticed how strong and how important social media is.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Now, um, uh, how many other are there a lot of, uh, Georgia vodkas out there?

Chuck Butler: Um, as far as I know, there’s whenever I started the, my distillery, uh, it was in 2013, I think that there was, I think I was the 12th or the 13th distillery in Georgia.

Lee Kantor: Mhm.

Chuck Butler: All right. Now that, you know, they’ve been a few come and go, but I think now they are. I want to think 16 distilleries and most of them end up doing a. They start doing moonshine, but then they gravitate to. The, uh, vodka, the, the. This is the main thing that a lot of people think that vodka is. It has to be made out of potatoes. All right. Uh, Tito’s. You’ve definitely heard of Tito’s. You’ve probably tried it. That’s made out of 100% corn. Uh, kettle one. I think it’s made out of, uh, barley. All right. Uh, gray goose is wheat, so, uh, very few brands use potatoes. I started to try to use potatoes, but the fermentation, I enjoy the smell of fermented corn, you know, and, um, it’s an easier access for us to buy, you know, 200 0 pounds of corn and grind it than potatoes. Plus the smell of fermented potatoes is not as, uh, or I’m not as used to it as fermented corn.

Lee Kantor: Right. So you responsibly brands uses corn.

Chuck Butler: 100% corn. And most of the brands in Georgia, you know, they use corn as well. That’s one of the, um, that’s one of our main crops in, in America is corn.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about Dalton Distillery and responsibly brands, is there a website? What’s the best way to, to find you guys?

Chuck Butler: Yeah, they, they can look at, uh, if they use TikTok, they can go to drink responsibly vodka, send a message, me or my son, if they post a comment, uh, me or my son will do a comment. If they send a direct message, that will be my son. He’ll be he’s the only one that has access to it. And he will reply to the direct message. Um, also LinkedIn, I’ve got like, uh, 27000 connections and I reply to as many as fast as I can on LinkedIn. So they do that at Chuck Butler uh, at, uh, and they’ll say Dalton Distillery on my LinkedIn connection. Uh, or they go to our website, Dalton distillery.com. They look at that and they, uh, look at growing the business, uh, doing business with us. If they’re interested in making a brand, if they’re looking at and they have some type of interest, we’ll look about being as professional and high quality and delivering them, um, as best a service that we can anybody.

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

Chuck Butler: Well, well, thank you Lee, and, uh, I appreciate you and your team. Thank you.

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

ADHD Life Hacks: Turning Boredom Into Breakthroughs with Coaching

May 11, 2026 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

ADHD Life Hacks: Turning Boredom Into Breakthroughs with Coaching

00:00 /

In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Johanna Born, an ADHD and life coach based in Houston, Texas. Johanna shares how her transition from a corporate management career in Germany led her to ADHD coaching after her child was diagnosed. She explains ADHD as a lifelong neurological condition, discusses how it presents differently across ages and genders, and describes her personalized coaching approach. Johanna highlights the importance of understanding the ADHD brain’s interest-driven motivation, shares a client success story, and addresses the connection between ADHD and addiction, including online gambling.

Johanna Born is a certified ADHD and Life coach, trained through ADDCA and MentorCoach®, two of the most respected coach training institutions in the field. She is based in Houston, Texas, working with clients across the globe in English and German. After almost two decades in corporate management across Germany and Asia, most recently at Germany’s largest tech company, Johanna made a life-changing decision to follow her husband to Houston and start over.

She never planned to become a coach. She started ADHD coach training to become a better mom to her own child with ADHD. The progress she witnessed in her child, in herself, and across her whole family turned a personal journey into a professional mission.

Today Johanna works with kids, teens, and adults — formally diagnosed or not — who have spent their lives wondering why everything feels so much harder for them than for everyone else, being told they are lazy, unreliable, or difficult. These are not character flaws. They are differences in how their brains function. Drawing on neurobiology, positive psychology, and a strengths-based approach, that distinction becomes the starting point for coaching.

She meets each person where they are, figures out how their brain actually works, uncovers the strengths that were always there, and builds strategies that fit their real life and circumstances so that managing daily life, school, work, and relationships feels less like a constant battle and more like something they are genuinely in control of.

Because when people truly understand how their brain operates, they stop fighting themselves and start rewriting their story on their own terms.

Connect with Johanna on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Johanna Bourne’s transition from corporate management to ADHD coaching.
The impact of ADHD on individuals across different ages and genders.
Challenges in diagnosing ADHD and the importance of awareness.
Differences between true ADHD and attention deficit traits.
Coaching strategies tailored to the unique neurobiology of individuals with ADHD.
The significance of motivation and activation in ADHD coaching.
Common issues faced by adults with ADHD, including procrastination and feelings of being overwhelmed.
The relationship between ADHD and addiction, particularly in the context of gambling.
The importance of personalized coaching approaches and recognizing individual strengths.
Resources for finding ADHD coaching and support.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is gonna be a good one. Today on the show, we have Johanna Born with Johanna Born Coaching. Welcome.

Johanna Born: Thank you. Thanks for the invite.

Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn about your practice. How are you serving folks?

Johanna Born: Yeah. So I would give you a short introduction. So I’m, um, based in Houston, Texas. And as you might hear from my accent, I’m not a native Houstonian. So I moved to Houston three years ago. And yeah, I left a career of almost 20 years in the corporate management in Germany because my husband received an offer here in Houston. And so deliberately I decided to start something new and try out what life has to offer. And one day I came across an opportunity that was never part of any plan. I was researching ways to better understand and support my child with ADHD. And something caught my attention. It was nothing about professionalism or, you know, it was simply being a mom. And I wanted to support my child with this diagnosis. And I came across ADHD coaching. So I researched further. I signed up for a workshop to just get a glimpse of what it was, because I was not aware that something like that existed. And by then I attended the workshop. I won a fellowship. And what followed actually was completely unexpected. So I’m now in my second year, um, being an ADHD and life coach here in Texas. I, um, work with multiple ADHD diagnosed and undiagnosed folks starting at an age of eight, and I support teens, adolescents, adults, and I deliberately choose to not focus on a single age group. And here is why. Adhd is a lifelong condition, and it can show up very differently at every single life stage, with different challenges and different complexity. But the underlying reasons are always the same and the priority it brings to my business or my practice. It’s so nice. And I yeah, that’s the beauty of my work, actually.

Lee Kantor: So when you were, when you were in corporate, what was your role in corporate?

Johanna Born: I was having different managerial roles. So I was working in Germany, in Hong Kong for a couple of years later. I was a global travel manager and in the largest tech company in Germany that were my role to be.

Lee Kantor: So were you. Had you been a coach in your corporate, or had you gotten coaching at all in your corporate?

Johanna Born: Not at all. I had no interaction with coaching, and it was never on my plan to become a coach. So it was really, by coincidence, coming from the angle of young parents and supporting a child.

Lee Kantor: Right? So your your kid has an issue and you’re like, okay, let me learn about it. And in the process of learning about it, you found out about coaching and then you saw, wow, I could, I’m interested in this obviously to help my child, but also this is something that’s impacting other people and I want to help them as well.

Johanna Born: Yes. So I think, um, you know, at the very beginning, it was really simple to, to become knowledgeable, to become educated. And, um, during the training, I witnessed so much changed with how I approached my child and the family dynamics changed and shifted. And so at one point I simply decided I would like to give that back, because there are so many people who are struggling with this condition and the life circumstances they are facing. And I believe there is really true benefit in having coaching in their life.

Lee Kantor: So let’s educate our listeners about ADHD. It’s a term that is thrown around a lot. A lot of people say they have it or they self-diagnose themselves. Can you share a little bit, just from a macro standpoint about what is ADHD and how does it present itself?

Johanna Born: Sure. And I think the conversation about ADHD has become ubiquitous in the past years. Um, so now even being here back in Texas, I see that there is such a surge of ADHD everywhere you go and what you see online. Um, I would say the pandemic accelerated definitely the diagnosis. I would, you know, routines collapsed. Home schooling, work life, and other stressors impacted daily life. So people were not really able to mask maybe some of the symptoms. They had no routines to follow. And then it increased. And, um, social media supported, um, let’s say the awareness about this condition and as well, the recognition so many people self-diagnosed by then. And, um, in parallel, we see an increase in women being diagnosed, um, because this group was previously dismissed from any um, criteria of ADHD symptoms. So there is those two factors. We are where we really see an increase. And uh, since the pandemic, the demand in ADHD care really spiked. So, um, what I would like to, um, differentiate though, and give a further perspective to that, um, is if you consider ADHD like symptoms on a continuum, we see two, two things which are currently happening. So every every person in a lifetime can at some point experience symptoms of inattention or forgetfulness or impulsivity, um, which result from stress from sleep deprivation, constant exposure to technology.

Johanna Born: And those symptoms look like ADHD, but they are not ADHD. We call them attention deficit trait. Those are temporary symptoms which are the reaction to environmental stress and your lifestyle. So it’s like multitasking, constant digital digital demands. And again, it looks like ADHD. And so many people identify with that. But it’s not ADHD because if you remove the stressors, it it is reversible so it can go away. The true and real ADHD does not work that way because it does not go away. So ADHD itself. Um, again, on the continuum Is a lifelong neurological condition, which begins with birth, with childhood, and it affects every dimension in life. So it starting with relationships, social, social skills, professional or academic success, physical and mental health and ADHD is highly heritable. So it really runs in families and is strongly influenced by genetics. So what I see in my practice and from my observations is that although we have the perception in society that ADHD is everywhere, um, and there might be still some overdiagnosed folks, um, I believe that ADHD is still very much underdiagnosed. Um, and there are cultural barriers, there are marginalized groups and systematic gaps which contribute to this, um, gap, um, where people still don’t understand what ADHD is and don’t have access to the necessary support.

Lee Kantor: So now what are some things that maybe you saw with your child or that parents can be on the lookout for? That might give them a clue that maybe this is something that’s impacting their child.

Johanna Born: Yeah. So I think there are very typical symptoms how ADHD, um, is visible. So I think one very typical symptom is, and I think that’s, you know, history brought that up. Um, since decades is the small boy jumping around the classroom, not being able to concentrate hyperactive, but, um, ADHD symptoms as such are much more complex. And in particular, when you talk about women and girls, they present so differently. Um, they present as masking, as internalizing hyperactivity as um, verbal processing, which means that um, many people with ADHD speak fast and a lot Those are the symptoms where you can really take care of and see. And now with children having ADHD, again, we have to differentiate is it an ADHD attention deficit trait which results from maybe even early exposure to technology? Or is this really the true ADHD? I was talking about.

Lee Kantor: Now when you’re working with adults, um, how is that different? Like what, what precipitates them kind of raising their hand to you and saying, Johanna, uh, I think I need some help in this area.

Johanna Born: That’s a good question. Lee. So first of all, I think many people still don’t really recognize they, they have ADHD and they come to coaching. Um, oftentimes not really because of the diagnosis, but because of, um, you know, not getting further in their life. They are feeling stuck, they are feeling overwhelmed. They do not know where to start. Um, they, they lost control and so they end up in coaching being, um, coaching the last round they can try out because maybe they are coming from therapy already or tribe nation. And so oftentimes people, um, yeah, search for coaching services as um, out of despair. Um, just checking it out first and then seeing, uh, you know, how it can support them further.

Lee Kantor: And how do you get clients because individuals, um, find you directly or do you get clients because maybe you have partnerships with other types of therapists or other types of, um, organizations that might send them to you.

Johanna Born: Yeah. Um, that’s both. Um, Lee I’m, um, getting requests via my website. I’m listed in at least two directories for ADHD coaches being the, um, PAC, which is the professional ADHD coach, um, association and then a co, which is the um, association of ADHD coaches where you can find me and I’m growing constantly my network here in Houston, um, working with mental health, um, practitioners, um, approaching now even schools, um, to, to get acquainted and as well leave my business cards and see if there is any need. Um, and yeah, support these folks with at least having access to coaching.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is it like to work with you as a coach? Are there some exercises you can share with our listeners right now that might be struggling? Is there some things, activities they could be doing or some things they can do right now after listening to you? Uh, that could maybe help them a little bit.

Johanna Born: Yeah. You know, I think what I would like to share briefly is really the, um, ADHD lens because I believe many people are lacking, um, an entry point into ADHD. And that was as well where I started as a mom having, you know, difficulties in supporting my child. So we approach ADHD folks or neurodivergent folks always from the lens of a neurotypical world. And that’s our, um, standard. That’s the standard. We believe it’s the right. But those standards does not work for an ADHD brain. And, um, I think I would like to illustrate a bit, um, how this really boils down. What is the reasons here? So we now know from clinical research and clinical data that neurotypical folks work on an in importance driven nervous system. What does it mean? So for neurotypical person, if something is important, they prioritize it. Um, they do it and it’s done. It’s simple, but the ADHD brain runs completely different. It’s not an important nervous system which is underlying there. It’s an interest driven nervous system. So which means even important things still don’t get done unless they are as well. Interesting, novel, urgent, challenging or fun. For those folks, and I believe the mindset shift has to happen, um, to see that this is not their choice. So it’s, they’re not intentionally choosing the way of living and making their lives difficult. It’s their neurobiology. So again, ADHD is a biology, a biological difference in their brains.

Johanna Born: They don’t have control over it. And for all of us who are neurotypical, it’s invisible. And for many people who are even diagnosed is invisible too. So they apply a system which doesn’t really align with, you know, how their brain operates. And the root cause of it is that it’s a dysregulation of the neurotransmitters which drive motivation and activation. And it’s a dysregulated prefrontal cortex responsible for executive functions like planning, initiating, and sustaining actions. And so when parents or even adults self-diagnosed recognize that they have to apply a different methodology in order to get going or get, um, their brain working and activated, that changes a lot because then it makes total sense why they were struggling in the years before maybe the diagnosis. Um, and maybe one element as well, which is critical is everything. What is mundane for them? It’s considered boring. And boring is the Kryptonite for an ADHD brain. And so of course we can say that life is not always, you know, exciting and fun and everything. We still need to pay our bills and fold our laundry. Um, and there I come in as a coach saying, okay, so if the normal typical approach does not work, what can we do about it so that we find a way which activates your brain and you start becoming, you know, more active and have momentum in the things you would like to work on.

Lee Kantor: So that’s an important component of the coaching is actually because this sounds like it’s your coaching is bespoke to each individual because each individual will have a different kind of motivation and, um, and a way to prioritize what really is important to that individual.

Johanna Born: Exactly, exactly. And there are many, um, you know, elements you find now online, um, which are methods, tools, what to do, you know, with ADHD, which methods you can apply. But I feel I still see that even those methods which are, um, which were created for an ADHD brain do not really work with ADHD folks. So we have to sit down and procreate with the a client and work towards maybe even experimenting with things what works for them. And we often draw in coaching from their past, so they oftentimes don’t see their strengths. They don’t see what is really working and how much they have already accomplished with this condition. And oftentimes it’s an aha moment for them to see, oh, look, I have managed quite many things which I don’t have yet seen. And then we build up on that and create, let’s say, tools and systems where they go back home and experiment if this is working for them.

Lee Kantor: Right? So once they’re aware that they have this condition and they can see, hey, I’ve been using this for my advantage in these areas, and it’s just a matter of kind of transferring that to other areas.

Johanna Born: Correct. Absolutely. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a story you can share? Um, maybe after working with someone, don’t name the individual, but maybe share the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Johanna Born: Sure. Um, so I would like to use a very simple example, because I think it illustrates something important about how ADHD coaching works in maybe even in comparison to other coaching realms. Um, so I was working with an adult ADHD client who came to coaching to specifically address her procrastination, um, problem. And she came to finally get things done, get organized and feel in control of her life. And in one session, she arrived completely frustrated, super angry, full of shame, felt that she could never get her life together, no matter how hard she did and tried. And she was so upset about herself. And that was all very typical to ADHD. It’s the emotional dysregulation and outbursts because they want and they try hard, but it’s never yeah, somehow translating into results. And so I asked her during the session what you would like to focus on. And she pointed back into her room and saying, you know, I have three piles of papers here sitting in my space for months or maybe even years, I don’t even know. And there are important documents I can’t get rid of, I can’t throw away. And I don’t have a system, but they are a symbol of, um, everything she believed was wrong about her.

Johanna Born: And she was so desperate and hopeless and it was really bothering her. And so what we did in that session is we really went into the weeds. Um, the, and it was not like telling her or, you know, her going home saying, okay, go home and sort your papers. We looked at every tiny element of this task. So what was holding her back? What did she need to establish in order to get my day started? Which system does she need to have? Does she need to have folders? Anything. Which obstacles she might encounter doing that? How would she feel if this is really finally done and out of her, you know, scope and um, we know with ADHD there is a challenge of motivation for specific tasks, but oftentimes as, as well the activation. So getting started, it’s the very hard part. A part of it too. So instead her of leaving, you know, with a plan to solve all those papers and I don’t know, have a neurotypical advice. She left with a specific experiment, which was turn on her favorite song and just sit down, look at the papers, and maybe take a look the first 2 or 3 papers pages and look at them and yeah, check that out.

Johanna Born: There was no pressure to finish anything. There was just this one song, and the next session she arrived. It was so nice to see because she arrived smiling. So I was asking her, so what has happened? And she was so happy to explain and share with me that she made such a progress because she got started, got started with a song and she just continued and she finished half of those paths. And I think this type of, um, work represents really that coaching does not fix your ADHD. Adhd will remain and it does not change who you are. But we create micro shifts, tiny moments of progress, um, which build momentum. And that small thing gave her back energy because she was not constantly ruminating about those papers. And it gave her evidence that progress is possible. And what is nice about having a partner, um, she could come back and report those small wins to me. Um, and we were celebrating this without any judgment, um, although it looked very small from the outside, but she knew she was safe and um, I would really celebrate that small process progress for her. And that’s maybe. Yeah. Giving you a glimpse how ADHD coaching works. Very individual and very bespoke.

Lee Kantor: Right? And it’s also leveraging kind of something that’s important to them. And then kind of habit stacking it around a behavior they’d like to change and maybe improve on. Right now I can see how, um, when the brain is an ADHD brain, and you mentioned some of the challenges that, that brain, um, gives an individual that doesn’t have a coach on their side to help them. I, how has kind of this advent of gambling impacted the ADHD population? Because I would imagine that just falls right in line with a potential negative aspect of the ADHD brain.

Johanna Born: Um, may I ask, so in terms of gambling, are you referring to video games and stuff?

Lee Kantor: Well, there’s, there’s so much, um, there’s so much, uh, you know, sports gambling and there’s so much it’s, it’s on your phone now. You can gamble in so many different ways. And, and I would imagine if you have that kind of an ADHD brain where, you know, your impulse impulsivity is impacted and, and quick, uh, attention span and I got to have a new, you know, something new, something new, that type of interaction could quickly spiral out of control for somebody who has that type of brain type.

Johanna Born: Yeah. And it does very often. So we know, um, as ADHD is a dysregulation of the neurotransmitters, in particular, dopamine. Folks with ADHD are typically drawn into activities where there is a dopamine hit and where they receive an instant reward. And that happens with games and gaming, as you say. And so it’s like, you know, creating an addiction to feel the lack you are having in dopamine through an externalized system and, um, addiction and ADHD, they go hand in hand. So it’s very often that people with ADHD have different addictions. It’s not only video games. Um, and this is as well. Yeah, a neurological and biological reason why this happens and it’s explainable. But if people don’t understand how their system works, they literally have no efficacy or nothing in hand. How to maybe even, you know, shift towards a more, um, healthy, um, system about, you know, getting their dopamine hit.

Lee Kantor: Right. And I think that this is an area where I don’t know if you pursued this, but if, if you can help a parent who has a kid that is, you know, just gaming 24 over seven or is on their phone doing online gambling, maybe behind the back of the parent, like somebody with your background and expertise can really help change that behavior before it really spirals out of control because those kind of behaviors can quickly, um, you know, negatively impact that individual. Yeah.

Johanna Born: That’s right.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your practice or get on your calendar, do you have a website? What’s the best way to connect with you?

Johanna Born: Yeah, it’s via my website, johanna.bond.com. Um, or any directory, um, which lists ADHD coaches.

Lee Kantor: And that’s johannaborn.com.

Johanna Born: That’s correct. Thank you.

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

Johanna Born: Thank you so much for having me.

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

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