Business RadioX ®

Elisabeth Constantin With Abreo Executive Services

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Elisabeth Constantin With Abreo Executive Services
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Based in Nashville, TN, ABREO is an outplacement and executive transition services firm born out of the Executive Education communities at Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford. We support CHROs and CLOs when it matters the most: in high-risk exit scenarios at the C-Suite, President, and Director levels.

Elisabeth Constantin, M.A., M.Ed., began her professional journey in Europe in Marketing, Communications, and B2B Commerce. After moving to the United States, she built a career in global HR Service Delivery, Total Compensation, and Expatriate Consulting. She founded ABREO after a decade of supporting Fortune executives’ career transitions across the global manufacturing, IT consulting, bio-engineering, and raw materials industries in North and Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

As a public speaker focused on executive and C-Level career ROI, Elisabeth Constantin has been invited by Ivy League Clubs across the U.S., the Harvard Business School National Women’s Association, and leading industry organizations, including Finance Executives International (FEI), the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Dell, and EuroFinance (Economist Group).

Constantin serves as a board member for the Center for Global Citizenship at Belmont University in Nashville. She was educated in Germany and furthered her studies at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, MA.

Connect with Elisabeth on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What does ABREO do.
  • Why do companies offer this service. What’s in it for them.
  • What sets her business apart from other players in this field.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Elisabeth Constantin, who is with a ABREO Executive Services. Welcome.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Lee. It’s a pleasure to be here.

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

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. So we are an executive, outplacement and transition provider based in Nashville serving C-suites nationwide. So that’s probably a little bit obscure, if you will. But like what we do essentially is the best way to describe it is when large publicly traded companies and large private companies led top level people go. So CEOs, C level leaders and a couple layers down. We get brought in to help those transitioning executives find their next opportunity. And in the US, that demographic like C-suite vice president directors, is approximately 2.5% of the workforce. So you could say essentially that it’s job search support for the top 3%. And it’s needed because the job search at those top levels is very different than what it is for middle management or vocational demographics, and it takes a lot longer. So companies will often provide this support as part of the executive severance package when they’re letting senior leaders go.

Lee Kantor: So when a company is contacting you, that means that changes already happened or it’s on the way.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah, it can be either. So, you know, I don’t terminate top executives myself. Like, sometimes I’m in the room, but most of the time we get brought in in the aftermath to move the leader forward towards their market reentry. So it’s not necessarily the sexy or the glamorous work, but it’s deeply impactful and important work. And we’re not meant to be seen. We serve quietly behind the scenes, and when we do come on site, sometimes it’s very interesting, like we get brought in under a different name, get rushed past security because it’s all very hush hush at that level. And a lot of people understand that world and companies don’t want to start rumor, but it’s typically, yeah, top level shakeups. New CEO comes in, wants to clean house or an opportunity. Simply didn’t work out with the leader where it’s not a where it’s not a fit. Or it could be large scale change from like M&A or other activities. It’s very case to case.

Lee Kantor: And then so is the board the one that kind of contacts you or is it, like you said, a new leader comes in and they’re like, okay, I want my own crew in here. So we are going to transition.

Elisabeth Constantin: It really depends. So we are a business that has grown over the past four years entirely by word of mouth. So oftentimes it’s the chief human resources officer or the corporate general counsel who reaches out. Sometimes CEOs know us and pass us down. Sometimes board directors that we are connected with bring us into their organizations. It truly always depends. It’s always different.

Lee Kantor: So that movie with George Clooney up in the air, is that kind of about kind of what you do? It seems a little different, though, than what the way you described it.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah, it’s it’s it’s relatable. So I would say, you know, I’m a I’m definitely not as like good looking as Ryan Bingham in the movie. I would like to say we’re a little more qualified because the Bingham approach in the movie with this whole like, sorry, you’re fired. Here’s a brochure for your path towards greatness. That sort of approach doesn’t exactly cut it for top level terminations, but, um, you know, it is similar in the sense that, you know, we we catch the departing leader with empathy when they are getting let go. We then get them ready for market. We write the resumes for them, their LinkedIn profile. They get a lot of consulting from us on how to navigate the hidden job market, because it’s different at a certain level. So, you know, the the, the up in the air approach isn’t quite how it works at the top. Um, but it is it is a good reference.

Lee Kantor: But don’t, um, anybody at the C-suite level, they know that this typically isn’t a job for life, that they are on a clock. And there is kind of certain expectations. And, I mean, I would imagine that some of them kind of see the writing on the wall. They know that at some point this is going to happen.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yes. You would think so. But, uh, a lot of, you know, leaders at that level still need the support, because if you think about how people get to those levels, oftentimes it’s not by job hopping from company to company, like they get to the executive ranks through internal promotions, and they don’t necessarily know how the game is played in the market and the hidden job market, how those jobs are found sourced, how relationships need to be cultivated with a large executive search firm. So, um, there’s absolutely a need for support. And also, um, if you think about it, just from from what this means, from a change in life perspective, this is a very high stress situation for leaders at that level, even though change should be expected. And you’re absolutely right that roles at that level often have a shelf life. It still catches a lot of people by surprise, because a lot of people tend to think that it only ever happens to other people. And when when folks are in a situation where they are often pulling kids out of private school or they’re selling assets like vacation homes because liquidity is at stake, you know, that’s a that’s a tough time. And that’s when companies often provide support for different reasons. And we can dig deeper into that. But yeah.

Lee Kantor: Right. But I would imagine that your service, I mean, is, uh, comforting in a way to these people that, like you said, they just I guess got, you know, punched in the face here with a, you know, a change of life that’s about to happen and there’s nothing more for them to do. They’re not going to be able to talk their way out of it. So they need help now to get, you know, resituated in a, in somewhere else. And then at that level, I would imagine that that often means moving out of the city they’re in. I mean, so it’s very turbulent and it’s very stressful. So to have somebody like you and your team on board to help them kind of land gently somewhere else, I would think it’s much appreciated and very rewarding on your part.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. Yeah, it’s definitely, you know, it’s meaningful, deep work that happens behind the scenes. I mean, the reason why companies offer this service varies. It’s circumstantial. Um, often there’s an element of risk reduction to it. So oftentimes companies provide the service because they legitimately want to do the right thing and help a good employee find their next opportunity. But oftentimes an executive exits. These situations are deeply political, highly volatile, and often very unpleasant for everyone involved. And, um, more so there’s often substantial legal risk for the company. So good outplacement support, if it’s done right, is an effective way to smooth things over and sort of reduce risk by incentivizing the employee to sign the exit paperwork. So it’s a good tool for companies to manage the not so pleasant reality of corporate life, which is that sometimes things don’t work out for a variety of reasons, and people are being asked to move on. And obviously, like you said, like to the leader who is impacted by this, if they get good support, um, it is, uh, life changing and it can reduce the runway in the market to, to find their next opportunity.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, I’m sure you’ve done or seen a lot of research when it comes to this stuff, but in the C-suite, like, what is the shelf life of a typical kind of a CEO or CFO or COO? Like, I would imagine it’s under five years. I mean, on average. Yeah.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. 3 to 5. In typical corporate and private equity. Sometimes it can be a little shorter. But, you know, 3 to 5 years these days is a pretty good.

Lee Kantor: That’s a good run. Pretty good.

Elisabeth Constantin: Pretty good run. Yeah. But but you have to factor in that there is often an expiration date and there’s downside. Right. Like the executive job search uh, at that level can easily take six, nine, 12 months. So if you factor if you’re kind of forced to factor that in and then you do the math, you know, it’s, uh, you, I mean, you I think you know what I’m getting at, right? Like you have it’s it’s not as glamorous as it looks. And there’s a lot of risk. And you have to take that risk into your overall financial situation.

Lee Kantor: So, um, when they’re working with you, what does that engagement look like? Are you kind of working as a consultant in the terms of your giving them tools for them to implement? Or are you kind of like an agent where you’re kind of helping connect them to possible next opportunities?

Elisabeth Constantin: It’s a little bit of both. So, um, there are a few areas where we operate different from other companies, um, and where our service scope, you know, tends to surprise. And, um, if I can say so, like also impress HR and legal departments. The biggest one is so we get hired by the company for those kind of executive odd placement situations. And then we work with the individual in like a 1 to 3 month engagement, depending on how much service the company wants to provide. Um, where we are different is in how concierge and hands on we are with the departing leader. So as an example, we completely take the resume writing and LinkedIn writing process from the leaders plate so other companies they may provide feedback or provide like self-study tutorials, but that doesn’t really cut it at the executive level. And that’s why this space has a historically not so great reputation, high decline rates among top level executives because most people can’t write a financials based resume on a good day that meets the strict demands of the executive search space. And then they certainly can’t do it under substantial stress after losing their job.

Elisabeth Constantin: So that’s where we take the heavy lifting off of the plate to get them ready for market. And then they also get a lot of consulting from us. On how do you navigate the agency world? How and why should you negotiate your severance on the way in, in the next opportunity to protect your downside? How do you weave legal into an already pretty high stress, multi swimlane negotiation process? So that’s where departing leaders we really get them ready so that their next entry is more financially rewarding for them. They protect their downside, and they will also speak more favorably about their past employer. Because while no one will ever be happy that they lost their job, the ideal situation is that, you know, they land pretty quickly and then a few months later they’ll say, you know, I’m still not happy that my job with, you know, ABC Fun Corporation ended. But I do respect them for the fact that they gave me good support to help me find my next opportunity. And that is a lot more than a lot of companies will will get now.

Lee Kantor: Um, so when you’re working with them, you’re helping craft the resume. You’re helping, you know, polish their LinkedIn. Um, and are you actively kind of looking for opportunities for them, or is it something that you recommend like, okay, these are target companies you should think about. Like, like, um, where I’m trying to get the edges of where your work begins and ends.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah, exactly. So we will connect them to headhunting firms where we have connections.

Lee Kantor: So you’re not a headhunting firm.

Elisabeth Constantin: Correct? Yeah, we are purely outplacement. We don’t play in the search space. We’re not a Korn Ferry or hydrogen struggles or an ego. And Zander, we do purely market readiness prep. Um, the reason why we don’t do that, you know, legwork for them of finding opportunities for them is because 80% of positions at that level are found through executives networks, which means that, you know, the agent, um, approach in in what I’ve seen in like eight years of doing this work, um, doesn’t really work at that level. So if we do the heavy lifting and get the person ready for market, they have to walk the talk and connect, uh, reach out to their network, connect with with headhunting firms, contact target companies, and we advise them how to do that, but at the end of the day, they need to get active, and that’s also part of taking them off the job loss, shock, paralysis and then getting them to move forward and start, you know, hitting the road.

Lee Kantor: And how it sounds like it’s part therapist too, because when they’re dealing with this kind of a blow, I would imagine their first move is not to, okay, I have to go out and look for another job. A lot of times it’s just like what just happened to me. You know, I just got hit by a truck. Um, so, you know, I’m going to mourn this loss for a period of time. And I’m sure you’re trying to get them to start being proactive as quickly as possible.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah, very much so, because time is money, right? And, um, also, you know, yes, there’s a big empathy and, you know, confidence rebuilding component as part of the work. There’s obviously, you know, high skilled, high touch transition work that needs to be done to get the resume ready. The LinkedIn, the consulting piece. But a lot of the work we do is really to get them emotionally and mentally ready, because they will need a lot of resilience when they reenter the market. It’s I like to compare it to kind of like a football player who may not have had such a great season when they when top level executives lose their jobs. One thing that always hits them the hardest, hardest is that their market value is down. Their leverage is down. The phone isn’t necessarily ringing with opportunities, and they really have to get over that and put themselves out there. And um, oftentimes leaders say, you know, I’ve been working for 20, 25 years. I just want to take a sabbatical and do nothing for six months because I have like 12 months or 18 months of severance. And that is the least optimal thing that anyone in that position can do, because the longer you’re out of work, the worse it looks on paper. So our job is to get them ready so they can start spinning wheels and contacting their network. And if they want to do the rest of their job search from the from the Bahamas or wherever, like that’s great. But it’s important to get out there quickly and to also catch them with empathy, because it is a very substantial cut on someone’s confidence.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that 80% of the their next jobs are going to come from probably somebody they know or their network rather than the recruiter or, you know, somebody, you know, finding, you know, choosing them and saying, hey, you’re the perfect fit for this next thing. Um, any advice or tips to kind of manage your network, to let people know in an elegant manner that you’re available and like, how do you go about, um, you know, targeting the, the right people in the right places in order to let them know that you’re available now. Without sounding desperate.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. The key to not sounding desperate at that level, because everyone understands that, you know, executive terminations because of the shelf life should be expected, right? Some people skate through their careers and they never let get let go. But downsides in careers, they do happen, right? And, um, because of that, one of the biggest or most important areas of advice that I can give is if you are an executive director level or higher, people cannot afford to let quality connections lapse, right? Because if something happens, you don’t want to be the person who hasn’t checked in in five years. And now you call and you say, hey, uh, I haven’t talked to you in five years, but I just got let go. Can you help me by keeping your ears open? And you’re asking for a favor, right? That’s all. No one wants to be the person who only gets called when someone needs something. So it’s really important for top level leaders to like, curate, grow, and also maintain their network to like, stay in touch with people when they are on the sunny side of life, if you will. You know, check in, um, even if there’s kind of like a transactional component to relationships, make it personal, stay in touch about the family and what matters to people. And then when you are in a position that you need help, you’re not coming from a place of neediness, but you have, you know, a trusted relationship. And that’s when people will be, um, empathetic and willing to to help and go beyond, right, open their networks, make further introductions and things like that. So I think that’s the piece that’s really important to to stay in touch with quality connections, whether that’s former bosses, CEOs, board directors in your network, like people who often hear about open positions before even the headhunting firms get involved. Like, um, relationship building at that level is everything.

Lee Kantor: And that’s a good lesson for folks that are right now seemingly secure in their, uh, in whatever they’re doing today. They should be thinking about tomorrow and kind of planting the seeds that might help them later on. Right. Like this should be in your calendar that you touch base with X number of people a week or a month, just because you might need them down the road. So it’s it’s probably worth investing the time and doing that type of, you know, kind of casual networking.

Elisabeth Constantin: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, relationship equity and change. Change readiness doesn’t happen or shouldn’t happen when the change happens, right? It should happen long before. And it also gives an opportunity to maybe help someone. Someone in the in the network. If you reach out and you come from a place of care and wanting to stay in touch, there might be an opportunity to help them with something, an introduction or doing something for them. And then you have elegantly activated what I like to call the reciprocity reflex. And then you’re really not going to feel bad if like two years later something happens and you call and you have you have to make the phone call and you are asking, you know, look, you know, something happened here. If you hear something, would you mind keeping your ears open? For me, it’s a lot more elegant than the other way around.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, absolutely. Now, you recently published a book, Like a Boss How Top Executives Elevate status, Grow wealth, and Protect their Downside are tips like this inside the book? Like, what’s the book about?

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. So the book was a fun departure from, uh, from the from the day job, if you will. And it does incorporate a lot of those lessons and a lot of the topics that we consult on with senior leaders in transitions, especially those lesser known areas around navigating your servants on the way in incorporating legal breaking into paid board service sooner so that you can open up other runways for revenues like pass the pass the corporate career. Um, so all those areas where leaders have blind spots, um, and so they can better protect their downside. That’s kind of what the book is about. And clients had asked me for it, you know, for a long time that I should make this information available to a broader audience. And I suppose at some point you have to give the people what they want. So here we are. But, um, you know, I’m pretty excited about it because it’s this kind of book where readers send me private messages and they say, you know, Elizabeth, I can’t say anything publicly, but I’m telling all my friends about it at the country club, and I’m giving it to my kids who are in senior management right now because they need to know how to play the corporate game. And, you know, in my mind that’s that’s perfect because the wind in the markets is getting rougher out there. Um, so I don’t care how we raise the tide of all boats as long as we do raise it, because at the end of the day, you know, careers are not charity and people are not a commodity.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, is there a story you can share? Don’t name the name of the person, but maybe, uh, share what happened when they got let go and how you were able to help them transition into a new opportunity.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. I mean, we obviously see a lot of different transition stories and circumstances. Um, I would say, you know, irrespective of what happened, I have always believed that, you know, good things always happen to good people and preparedness is everything, and then it’s really a matter of putting yourself out there once you’re ready. So with us, we are often able to reduce the the time to market by a good bit. So you heard me say earlier, like executive search can often take six, 9 or 12 months or even longer, depending on how picky they are. Um, we have had over the course of the past two years, you know, several leaders, CEOs, CFOs who, um, where we took the heavy lifting off the plate, we, you know, aggressively wrote, rewrote their resume with financials and metrics and KPIs that the next CEO would want to see. We advised them on how to go about their search, the multi-pronged approach they should take when it comes to networking. And we’ve had several leaders who found their next opportunity in under three months, which is unheard of at that level. Um, and that’s obviously really great for them, especially if they negotiated a 12 month, um, you know, severance agreement because then they get to double dip for like nine months, which is, uh, that really moves the needle financially at that level for people. So, um, that’s I would say that is how we drive value, not just for the departing leader, but also for the companies who bring us in, because they also want to see good value for for the service they’re paying for. And that’s fair.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you just exclusively work for these large enterprises that are going through transition, or do executives sometimes that are struggling to find their next opportunity contact you, as well as a way to kind of relaunch their job search?

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. So we started as a private client business. So, um, corporate outplacement work came later. I originally started the business four years ago as a resume writing business for senior executives, um, mostly out of the executive ed At communities of like Harvard, Wharton, Stanford where executives just spent $100,000 on like an executive education program. And now they want to level up. That’s how it started, and we’re still doing that. But we are doing more and more corporate work because the leaders who know us, trust us, refer us, work with us privately. They then bring us into their corporations when they, um, have to make difficult decisions in their next opportunity or make cuts. And, um, again, this this space doesn’t historically always have a high utilization rate by senior executives because very few companies go the extra mile in terms of actually writing the documents, etc.. So that’s how we’ve always grown as a as a word of mouth business that operates pretty under the radar, if you will. So yes, we still do. We still do both. But, um, growing more and more into the corporate work side.

Lee Kantor: So, um, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, uh, what is the website? What’s the best way to connect or get Ahold of your book? Um, any and all.

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. Yeah, certainly. So they can contact us on LinkedIn and maybe we can put the information into the into the show notes. Um, our website is, uh, the farm. Com and those would be the best ways to reach out. And then our book is available on Amazon and all the major book retailers like a boss.

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

Elisabeth Constantin: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

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

Tracey Powell With PEER Center/Tarkenton/gener8tor

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Tracey Powell With PEER Center/Tarkenton/gener8tor
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Tracey Powell is the Senior Vice President – Office Leader for the PNFP Economic Empowerment Resource Center in Atlanta, GA.  In addition to leading a full-service bank office, she promotes financial dignity through assisting mastermind participants in increasing their credit scores, increasing their savings and reducing their debts while creating a mentality of wealth that will last them a lifetime. She focuses on educating and providing the tools necessary for her clients to live a wealthy life – mentally and financially.

She is a leader in financial literacy, banking and finance.  She is dedicated to the wellness and personal growth of families in metropolitan communities, as well as rural areas.  She strives for excellence as she creates, directs and participates in programs that empower individuals and families to be productive members of their community.

Her career has mainly focused on the banking and finance industry.  She has always found time to educate clients on how to improve their credit scores, create savings plans and follow their budgets.  Many of her clients have become homeowners and small business owners with her guidance and coaching.  She continues to be an active volunteer at Marietta Housing Authority where she facilitates financial literacy workshops.

She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Management and a Master’s of Business Administration – Marketing from Saint Leo University.   She is a certified Housing Development Finance Professional (HDFP), a certified HUD Housing Counselor and a Toastmasters Competent Communicator.

Connect with Tracey on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Pinnacle Financial Partners
  • Tarkenton
  • gener8tor Launch FinTech Accelerator for Underrepresented Founders in Atlanta

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Tracy Powell, who is with PEER. Tracy, can you hear me? All right.

Tracey Powell: I can hear you. Great.

Lee Kantor: All right, Tracy, tell us a little bit about the PEER Center. How are you serving folks?

Tracey Powell: We’re serving folks each and every day, one person at a time, to help them be the best versions of themselves financially. But I want to start off just letting you know that the Pinnacle Pier Center stands for Pinnacle Economic Empowerment Resource Center. So we are a full service bank. But in addition to that, we have the Economic Empowerment Resource Center connected to us, where we have a learning center, and we help individuals, as well as small businesses realize the tools necessary and use those tools in order to be successful.

Lee Kantor: So how did you get involved with the Pier Center?

Tracey Powell: I got involved with the Pier Center because I’ve been in banking for over 25 years, and I was actually working my own business, and someone reached out to me and told me that they were going to have a pier center in, in Atlanta and in the Pier Center they were going to be facilitating classes, doing masterminds, working with other agencies, nonprofits and governmental entities that wanted to help businesses start, grow and scale. My background is in facilitating those classes and bringing people together to help them grow their businesses. And so I got involved, starting off as someone that would facilitate those classes. And it turned out that I became the office leader. And so with that, I’ve been able to have a vision that takes us into a space where we’re connected to the community in a way where people are now seeing that we’re here. We are hosting masterminds for businesses and consumers. So we’re helping people understand how money works, what that looks like, how we create, help them create wealth and give them the tools necessary for individuals to actually increase their credit scores, increase their savings, reduce their debt, and become more viable when it comes down to what they look like on paper, so that if they were to apply for a home or if they wanted to start a business, or if they just wanted to get out of the out of debt and give themselves a raise, we help them do that. For small businesses, we have our masterminds where we walk them through the process, understanding how to put the business together the right way the first time so that as you work your business, then you’re able to actually set up a succession plan or whatever you want to do with it, to help you grow and to go into new states of mind, whether it’s to get another business or expand or, you know, branch out, whatever that looks like, we’re going to give you those tools necessary to be successful in what your goals are.

Lee Kantor: And you said that this is all kind of housed within a pinnacle financial office.

Tracey Powell: Yes. It’s housed within the Pinnacle Financial Partners Economic Empowerment Resource Center. And this is the first one in Atlanta. We do have others, but we are looking to be so successful that we’re going to need even more so.

Lee Kantor: But this is like a rethinking of what banking can be.

Tracey Powell: Yes, yes. A lot of times people are given tools, but they don’t know what to do with those tools. And so we can sit at your feet or sit at your table and tell you, here’s the instruction manual on how you can be successful in whatever you’re doing financially. But if we don’t walk you through that, if we don’t take the time to help you understand how to use those tools, then it really didn’t make sense for us to put it out there for you. So we’re here to walk with you, to help you understand what we have to give, to help you implement the tools and the different, um, resources that we’ve put before you so that you can have success, but we can walk through that success with you. So we’re creating relationships that last a lifetime. We’re creating an environment where you don’t have to come here and leave. You come here and you stay, and we help you grow. And if we don’t have what you need, we have partners that do. So we are actually that hub to that allows you to come into this space to grow, whether it’s personally or in business. But we want to see you succeed and we want to see you do well. And we’re not just doing that with lip service. We’re actually here physically working with you to help you be the best version of you.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, this services is geared to the, um, like, founders of businesses, um, in the area. Is that the is that kind of at the heart of this.

Tracey Powell: For our, uh, general program, which is our pinnacle Atlantic Innovation accelerator program? Yes, it is geared towards people that are starting their businesses or. They’re actually needing help in order to launch their business in the correct way. Um, so we’re looking for early stage startups that are looking, um, that are having challenges, maybe in innovations in banking or regulatory compliance or fintech solutions. And we’re going to help them by creating an ecosystem that will help them grow.

Lee Kantor: So that’s that’s just one aspect of the pier Center. So you also have um services for just consumers, just regular folks that don’t have businesses necessarily. You can help them as well.

Tracey Powell: We can we can we can help anyone that walks in that door if they are ready for change, if they’re ready for growth, we have a program that can help them.

Lee Kantor: So let’s dig in a little bit about this accelerator for underrepresented Founders. Um. How did that come about?

Tracey Powell: Um, that came about with a partnership that we have with the Tarkenton group and generator. Um, generator has been around doing the different accelerator programs in different states. And, uh, thank goodness they were able to actually come to the table and find partners such as Pinnacle and Tarkenton to work with them to offer this accelerator program in Georgia and in Atlanta specifically.

Lee Kantor: And then what does that, um, what what’s involved with the program? Like who who is it for? And is it something that you apply to be part of, or it’s open to anybody who wants to kind of become part.

Tracey Powell: Of actually accepting applications right now? Um, the application deadline is July 22nd. Um, is going to the program’s going to kick off September 23rd and it will end December 19th. Um, we’re going to invest in five high growth Startups and they’re going to focus on fintech or related industry.

Lee Kantor: Okay. So it has to be a technology firm that you’re going to be helping.

Tracey Powell: Yes. Yes. And then and they have to be actually, um, to be eligible, your startup must be majority owned by underserved founders and have a significant business presence in DeKalb County, Cobb County, Fulton County, Gwinnett County.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, so do they have to be generating revenue at this point, or is it is it kind of a pitch competition? So if they have a good idea, they can apply.

Tracey Powell: If they don’t have to be generating income at this point. But if they have a good idea they can apply, they do need to be in a space where we can help them get to a point where they are generating income, right.

Lee Kantor: So I’m sure as part of the application, they have to fill out a questionnaire about what they’re doing and what they aim to do.

Tracey Powell: Yes. And then the easy questionnaire is not long at all. Um, we actually have a link, um, and that people can use if they reach out to us, uh, that they can actually use to apply, uh, but they can also just reach out directly to generator.com and they’ll see the link on their website as well.

Lee Kantor: And then and um, but this is open to anybody in the counties you mentioned that have an idea or a company that’s in the fintech space.

Tracey Powell: Correct, correct.

Lee Kantor: Now is there um, so once they’re admitted into the accelerator, what are the benefits of being in this accelerator as opposed to any of the other accelerators we have around town?

Tracey Powell: I think one of the best benefits is the fact that we’re, uh, selecting five businesses, five high growth startups. Um, And that to receive $100,000 investment in return for a 7.5% equity in the company. So if you are in business and you need funds to help your business grow, and then this may be the right place for you, because as we walk you through the accelerator and help you get where you need to be in order to fund your business or get to the place where you are actually making money, you can actually have someone come in as a partner with you and seed you $100,000 in return for 7.5% equity in your business.

Lee Kantor: Is it 100,000 in cash or is that in services?

Tracey Powell: It’s in investments so that we’re looking at cash. But also it could be services as well. So it’s possibly a mixture of all of that depending on the business and what’s needed now.

Lee Kantor: Um, what type of help are they getting? Is it is it just folks from pinnacle that’s consulting and advising them or, um, or you know, what kind of advice are they getting? And, you know, if someone’s investing in my business, one of the biggest things they can do for me is, uh, connect me with other people within their network to help me grow and maybe help me get clients and things like that. Or like, who are the people that are going to be helping these startups grow?

Tracey Powell: Now, pinnacle is the main partner. We also have the Tarkenton group, but as we work through this, we are going to have a managing director from generator that’s going to partner with us at pinnacle, uh, to actually go through the process with these business owners as they sit at the table, we will have experts in different topics come to the table that partner with us. So that doesn’t mean that it’s all going to be under the umbrella of pinnacle or Generator. Um, but we will have experts in the field, whether we’re talking about insurance or what have you, we’ll have experts come in and talk with them as well. So it’s a partnership, a community partnership as a whole.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, so does when pinnacle is setting up these, um, accelerators. Are they is that the typical Mo. They partner with other people locally to help the participants grow?

Tracey Powell: Yes. We want to give them all the tools necessary to be successful. And in that we will have partners come to the table with us. Um, of course, if we have the experts in-house, we will use them. Um, but we can always find additional information from experts in the community that have already proven to be successful in the different areas that we’re looking in. And so we’ll bring them to the table as well.

Lee Kantor: So now, right now, uh, I’m sure you have a search for who are these five companies going to be, right? Like right now that’s a priority is to have people start applying and start, and you start kind of trying to hone in on those five that you’re going to be able to help through this program.

Tracey Powell: Yes, Lisa, we do have the application already out. People are applying right now and they have until July 22nd to submit their application.

Lee Kantor: And then, uh, is there a website for them to go to to apply?

Tracey Powell: Yes. They can actually apply@generator.com. And that’s g e r t o r. So it’s not an A it’s an eight. So gener8tor.com. And if they look at investment accelerators they will see the upcoming program which is the Pinnacle Atlanta Innovation Accelerator fall 2025. And they’ll be able to apply now just by clicking on the link that says apply now. And once they submit their information, um, all of the applications will be held and until July 22nd. And so all of the information, all the information that they submit will be reviewed. And then the applicants from those who are reviewed will be reviewed. Um, sent to the table. And the top five will be chosen to be a part of this, this uh, accelerator.

Lee Kantor: And how long does the accelerator program last?

Tracey Powell: It’s actually 12 weeks. So it’s going to be from September 20th 3rd to December 19th.

Lee Kantor: And then it will take place at the Pier Center.

Tracey Powell: Yes. It’s actually going to take place right here at the Pier Center. Uh, we’re actually located next door to the gathering spot at 384 North Boulevard, right in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: And then. Is that something they’ll have to go to every day, or is it there’s going to be sessions weekly or how is that going to work?

Tracey Powell: Well, it may change, but right now it’s going to be weekly sessions. Um, and they will have things that they will have to do each week before they come back.

Lee Kantor: Right. So, you know, this isn’t something that they just, you know, submit their name and get a check for $100,000 and go on their way. This is a very hands on work together, get you moving quickly. Kind of a boot camp accelerator, right?

Tracey Powell: You hit it on the head? Yes. It is. Um, they have to put the work in, and it is going to be hard work, but it’s going to be worth it.

Lee Kantor: Now, at the Pier Center, are there other, um, kind of programs like this one that you work with, uh, business owners and help them grow, or is this the only thing that’s kind of geared to the small business community?

Tracey Powell: No, this is the icing on the cake. This is one of the many programs that we have. And for businesses, the main program that we offer is the Small Business Mastermind. And through that we actually use Our, um, the the E-myth revisited as the book that we walk through with our small business owners to help them with the process of understanding how they set their business up. Is it, uh, working for them or are they working for the business? How have they set it up to just work as a job? Or are they truly business owners, or are they looking at it as an entrepreneur or a manager or a technician? You know, how are they working the business? And so we walk them through the process of understanding all of that and what it looks like to set their business up for succession, what it looks like to build a great business plan and understand how to develop the business itself, and making sure that they have their organization set up correctly with the appropriate strategies, uh, necessary in order to be successful. So we do have the small business Is a mastermind that we do, um, on a regular basis. And in addition to that, we were actually fortunate enough to be a part of the generator program where we now have the Innovation Accelerator program.

Lee Kantor: So the Innovation Accelerator program is kind of happening for a 12 week period. But that other thing you described is happening throughout the year.

Tracey Powell: Yes. Continuous.

Lee Kantor: And then that do you have to is there an application process where you choose certain people, or is that kind of open to the public or anybody who has a business in the area?

Tracey Powell: It’s actually open to the public, though. The business mastermind is a 6 to 8 week process, and we take up to 15 businesses at a time. And so if you make it into this cohort then or you don’t make it, we’ll put you on the list for the next one. Um, but we do those throughout the year, and they usually run 6 to 8 weeks. Um, and basically as long as you, um, are business looking to start growing and scale, then you can be a part of that business mastermind.

Lee Kantor: And then if somebody wants to learn about that, how do they find more information?

Tracey Powell: They can actually reach out to me. Um, and, or they can go to our website at. Com and look up Business Mastermind. Or they can reach out to me directly, um, just by shooting me an email at Tracy Powell at dot com.

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

Tracey Powell: Thank you so much, Lee.

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

Jennifer Einolf With Bold Whisper LLC

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Jennifer Einolf With Bold Whisper LLC
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Jennifer Einolf is a leadership coach, speaker, and founder of Bold Whisper LLC, where she partners with visionary leaders to translate complexity into clarity and channel creativity into powerful, aligned action.

Drawing on her background in design and her unwavering belief in human potential, she leads Ditch the Doom—a revolution that rejects the paralyzing narratives of fear and scarcity in favor of courage, collaboration, and creative leadership.

Her work challenges the norms of marketing by rooting visibility in trust and positions coaching as a strategic, truth-centered engagement that catalyzes bold outcomes.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Visionary leadership and everyone is creative–cultivating creativity for leaders and teams
  • Ditch the Doom–the revolution she’s starting to move is from the Doom song to singing hope with courage, collaboration, and creativity
  • Pain points and coaches–building trust and still being able to market to pain points

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Jennifer Einolf. She is the clarity coach and founder and CEO of Bold Whisper. Welcome.

Jennifer Einolf: Thank you. So glad you invited me for this conversation.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Bold Whisper. How you serving folks?

Jennifer Einolf: Certainly. So I work with creative leaders, the kinds that think of 4 to 5 new worlds before breakfast, and then bring that to their team and create a lot of chaos. So I work with leaders who need to design the clarity necessary to be able to explain what it is they see, and then uplevel their communications so that they can communicate that to the people, the key stakeholders that are going to make it happen and support it, and to harvest all of that creativity in themselves and their teams. I also work with teams doing retreats because I believe everybody is creative, and sometimes we label some people as creative, but everybody is. You wouldn’t still be here if you weren’t creative. You’ve solved a problem at some point. And so it’s really critical for organizations, for leaders and teams, to understand their own brand of creativity so that they can nourish it and they can harvest it.

Lee Kantor: So what’s it like working with leaders who are kind of in the classic, like you described, the the creative that the visionary who’s coming up with idea after idea and then, you know, excitedly shares that with the team and then kind of intellectually moves on to their next great idea that they’re having at lunch. And then while the rest of the team is just like, are we not doing what we did yesterday? Like, is this the new most important thing? Like, how do they actually create systems to move from idea to execution?

Jennifer Einolf: Yeah, absolutely. One of the big misunderstandings that you just outlined so beautifully is the difference between something that occurs to you and something you want them to do. And so working to leave plenty of space for all of that messy ideation and creativity and starting to build, build an awareness and a skill set around determining which ones they need to pay attention to. And when I’ve worked with leaders who mention things off the cuff and everyone thought they meant by next Tuesday and they meant, oh, in the next 30 years, this is probably what’s going to happen. And their brains require that they need to play. They need to poke at it and say, well, what if we do this? And what if we do that? They also need if they want to have the most important things actually happen, differentiate between that bucket of interesting things and the pointed things they want to get done. So that’s why communication is a big part of what I do with my clients. It’s not just communication skills. How do you stand up and speak in front of people? A lot of them are very accomplished at that. It’s the communication skills of how do you design your clarity sufficiently, and then how do you bring that to people? A lot of leaders feel like if I said it once, then they should know.

Jennifer Einolf: But the very dynamic that you just outlined is the reason that most people aren’t sure. Is this the one? Is this the one? And so there’s a negotiation in it. There’s a if you need a certain way of processing, how do you get the space for that processing and create enough social contract with your direct reports, with your colleagues, even with your bosses to say, okay, this is one of those situations where I’m doing this and in a minute I’ll tell you what the outcome is. So there’s a lot of reframing that can go on that doesn’t eliminate all of that beautiful mess. And I think a lot of creative leaders, a lot of creative people in general, are very afraid that someone’s going to cut them off. They’re going to shut it down and say, no, you have to be like everyone else. We really don’t want them to be like everyone else. We need those beautiful brains, but they need to find that touch point where they can communicate effectively with everyone else. And so how do you, like I said, how do you create enough space for all that beautiful mess and signal? When the mess is over, you’ve put the toys away and now it’s time to actually do this. One version of it.

Lee Kantor: Now does.

Jennifer Einolf: It.

Lee Kantor: Does it require somebody on the team to be kind of the translator or the intermediary that the the creative can, you know, kind of vent and process and, and bounce ideas off of and that person then kind of hones in on the priorities it can.

Jennifer Einolf: And a lot of times that happens organically anyway, you know, you gravitate towards the person that understands you, especially one that’s had success in explaining you to other people. Um, it’s what a coach is for. It’s it’s what I do too. Um, and by working with a coach, you can start to understand how to develop those relationships with different members of your teams, because there may be different people for different messes, there may be different people for different forms of creative iteration and design cycle thinking that have different strengths, and identifying who those people are. Yeah, that’s really critically important.

Lee Kantor: So does it ever occur where you have a visionary who has ideas and maybe started as a solopreneur themselves? So they were kind of executing the stuff. Then they grew a little bit, and then they get to the point where they’re now like a frustrated visionary, where no one really understands and no one’s, you know, getting their their ideas out the door in a, you know, monetized manner.

Jennifer Einolf: Yeah. I was very tempted to respond in a sarcastic manner, but I wasn’t sure it would read properly. Of course. Absolutely. There is a growth pattern in all leaders and the the founder to leader that well, the crazy idea guy founder leader. Pipeline is a is a very common story where you did these amazing things and you attracted these amazing people to you and you said things no one else was saying, and you created all this energy, and then you went and you took that, and you venture pitched it and everybody was excited. And then you go into the office one day and you realize, wait a minute, now I have to execute on this. I have to herd these cats that I have attracted to me. I have to I have to be able to make good on this. And that is a crisis point for a lot of leaders. It’s an absolute crisis point. It’s also the place of amazing opportunity for both growth and development of them as leaders, but also for what their organizations can do when that traction starts to happen. So yeah, absolutely. It also happens in in the corporate world where they hire in the, the the bright new guy, the bright new woman who’s going to change everything. And then the organization itself Self begins to resist that person. Yeah, but we’ve never done it that way. And even if they don’t say it out loud, you can kind of hear it. And so those transition moments where what got you there isn’t going to get you there. Those are absolutely the moments where having a coach, having someone who is very much invested in what happens to you without being invested in the situation can really help you see, what am I not seeing? What’s missing here? What’s the potential? Because in those moments of crisis, you have a choice to either shut down or go fish for where the opportunity is. And I’d much rather that they fish for where the opportunity is now.

Lee Kantor: Um, is most of your work with, uh, kind of smaller, more nimble firms, or do you work also with kind of larger enterprise where, like you mentioned, they hire, you know, somebody into a more bureaucratic environment and they say this person’s here to disrupt the status quo, and then everybody realizes that they’re part of the status quo and they don’t want to be disruptive.

Jennifer Einolf: Wait a minute. I didn’t mean for them to disrupt me.

Lee Kantor: I didn’t want any of that on me. That was for the other people.

Jennifer Einolf: Well, that’s it. Go fix. Go fix them. Um, the mandate to go fix them. I work in a variety of settings. A lot of times it’s, uh, someone will meet me or hear from me and realize that this is the time. And that time happens in a lot of contexts. So I work in a lot of contexts. I’ve worked in corporate, I’ve worked in, I’ve worked I’ve done a lot of work with the federal government over the last few years, and you can imagine that that’s that’s a transition for me right now. Um, and also small firms. Uh, firms that are about to venture pitch firms that are, uh, post funded. And so it’s really more about those moments of leadership transition of, okay, how do I continue to harvest this incredible creativity that I’m bringing to the plate because something is resisting, whether it’s the situation has changed or the people who hired me don’t know whether they want me to do this thing, or just that deer in the headlights look of your team. You know, everybody knows that it’s really lonely at the top. But what people don’t realize is it can be very lonely out in front where you think you’re charging forward and everybody is with you, and you turn around and there’s nobody there. And that happens in all kinds of contexts. So I work in those moments, and as I said earlier, I also work with teams. So doing, um, retreats or team trainings or team coaching to really get at. He’s not the only creative person. She’s not the only one here with spark. Let’s see what your spark is, because you’re going to need to be creative in delivering this thing. And I love when I get to do, you know, get to play the dynamic in that direction where we get to bring people closer to that center point where the ignition actually happens. So, yeah, an answer to your question. I work in a variety of contexts. It happens everywhere.

Lee Kantor: But it sounds like one of the kind of linchpin, uh, People involved in working with you. There has to be somebody that’s a creative visionary, either for themselves, they need help, or they see the value of bringing that type of skill to their team.

Jennifer Einolf: Yeah, it’s usually the visionary themselves. Sometimes I’m brought in to work with a visionary, but I find that that often doesn’t work because the person who’s bringing me in often feels like they need to fix the visionary instead of enable the vision or enhance the visionary. I have been able to do that successfully a few times, but often it’s it’s partnering, partnering with that leader that I just really believe that the quality of our leadership right now is what determines what happens for us as a species on this planet. And partnering with the people who are hearing things and seeing things, the rest of us aren’t to make sure that those things happen, because that’s how we go forward. That’s absolute jet fuel for me. So it tends to be me forming, forming partnership with the leader. And then if I’m working with their team, it’s in service of getting everybody forward.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the what’s a symptom that that leader may or may not have the self-awareness to know that they have a problem. But there’s if certain things are happening, it probably warrants at least a rethinking. Is there some things that happen in their organization or in their kind of emotional state that is signaling, hey, maybe you need a coach to help you get through something.

Jennifer Einolf: I love.

Jennifer Einolf: That question. So how do you know if we’re talking about you? That’s such a good question. That’s a really good question. So some of the things that happen are the leader starts to get really frustrated because they keep being brought, things that they didn’t know they asked for. And they see their team getting frustrated because the team has worked on this thing. You know, that’s that’s the most obvious version. And then you don’t know. You said this last Tuesday and they’ve been working on it for a week or for a quarter or whatever. A real disconnect between it’s those points of resistance when when you when you have a vision of what you want to see happen, how smoothly is that happening? You know, you’ve got good people. You trust your people, you’re amazed by your people, and yet somehow you’re getting beat to market by other companies with similar products that you didn’t know anybody else had even thought of. You’re just feeling that resistance. And like I said, that deer in the headlights look. Or it can be employee retention issues where people are wandering off because they’re frustrated, looking for signs of that frustration. In a high functioning team, that frustration is not happening. And so, yeah, one of the one of the first awareness points are I had a I had a coach, I had a coach for me at one point who asked me to carry a paperclip around in my pocket, in my pocket, in my wallet. And it was to remind me that a paperclip is sometimes simply for putting two pieces of paper together, because I’m the kind of person that looks at a paperclip and thinks of all the hundreds of things you could do with a paperclip. Sometimes if you if you enjoy that, that’s the light of your skill. The shadow is is that disrupting other people? Is that disrupting your ability to ever get traction on the things that you really want to move forward? Do you need to carry a paper clip just to be reminded that sometimes simple things aren’t the enemy? They’re the answer.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with somebody, what are those early conversations look like? Uh, you know, how do you kind of assess where they’re at and the outcome they desire?

Jennifer Einolf: Oh, absolutely. So I’m trained in ontological coaching, and ontological coaching is based on the idea that we take actions, we get outcomes, we don’t like those outcomes. So we go and take a totally different action and we get the same outcome. So it must be this must live somewhere else. So it’s about building our awareness of who we are and how we see the world that starts to create opportunities for us to open up new possibilities. So working with my clients includes a variety of ways of getting at that. So we use words. We use words beautifully. We can use words. We can also use physical awareness. How does that feel in your body? I know that sounds really woo woo, but this idea that you are living in this body and it may have some things to tell you and emotion. We in our culture, we’re not very good with emotion. And so what are your emotions telling you? What? I was really surprised that I felt sad or I really surprised that I felt angry. Okay, what might that have been telling you about your response to what was happening? So we go back to really fundamental ways of knowing who you are. Um, I use some really fun modalities. I’m trained in Lego serious Play. Sometimes when you’re stuck, you can export what you’re thinking into a physical object, and in exploring that object and making meaning out of what you just built, you can unlock things.

Jennifer Einolf: So much of coaching is about unlocking. And then when you’ve decided that you’ve seen something new, something you haven’t seen before, what are you going to do with that? So co-creating an experiment with my client. Okay, wait a minute. I just realized that this thing is happening that I have been ignoring, or I really want to do something with this. All right, what does that look like? Is it a new habit? Is it an experiment we’re going to run? What does that look like? And that’s why coaching unfolds over time, for the most part, because you need that time to have the aha moment with the coach and then go do something with it in between. And that’s where the real transformation starts to happen. And when it comes to leadership skills, there is a real need for awareness. And I think a lot of us are afraid if we go too much into what we think or what. How is that helping me communicate with other people? But it’s the it’s the things we’re not seeing. It’s, you know, the fish is the last one to understand that they’re swimming in water. It’s the things that we’re not seeing that blind us. It’s not that we’re blind.

Jennifer Einolf: And so working with a coach to really build awareness, to figure out where you even want to work on things. And then there’s the skill set. There’s working on communication skills. There’s you know, sometimes we do we do role play. There’s a difficult conversation coming up. Let’s talk about how you’re going to approach that. Or there’s a really critical thing you want people to understand. Let’s let’s really play with that and think of all the ways that this could this could be delivered and what the what the outcome is that you’re, that you’re shooting for. So it’s a, it’s an ongoing unfolding of, of possibility of potential with a lot of real world practice in between sessions, which gives you a real edge on people who are not learning, not growing, and not trying to figure out what they need to do. So basically that’s yeah, that’s how that’s how I work. We go in, we rearrange your brain. I, I have an interior design background. I used to be a commercial interior designer. So I always laugh and say I used to do external interior design, moving furniture around. Now I do internal interior design, moving your internal furniture around. But you never know. Are you tripping over the same chair in your head over and over again? Let’s let’s move the chair now.

Lee Kantor: Is there an exercise you can share with our listeners that maybe would kind of at least spark a glimmer of light in what they’re doing now that might uncover something that they need help with. Do you have kind of a basic homework or an assignment you give people or something? They can just try right now?

Jennifer Einolf: Yeah. Basic homework. You know, if you’re trying to build awareness and, you know, we all have people have meditation practices or they are resisting meditation practices, which is a whole other thing. Um, but awareness really comes from having a moment to notice what’s happening. And so one of the things I like to do that, uh, with my clients is set some random alarms. We’re all carrying alarm clocks around in our pockets now, so set some random alarms and on the alarm rate. What’s happening right now? It can be that simple. How do you break into the flow of what you’re doing anyway? To create a moment of awareness? And you may catch yourself, oh, I thought I was doing this, but I feel really angry or I, I am doing something that I would rather do because I’m putting off doing the thing I should do. I don’t know, I don’t know what it is. But if having having passed you ask present you an intrusive question can start to build that awareness. How else are you going to break into the flow of what you’re doing? So set 4 or 5 alarms for tomorrow. Set them at random times, and when they get when they go off, ask yourself, wait, what’s happening right now? It’s worth a shot.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And you’ll find out if you’re doing the things that you want to be doing to lead that ideal life that you think you want to lead, so.

Jennifer Einolf: Your life to build.

Jennifer Einolf: Are you building relationships or tearing them down in that moment?

Jennifer Einolf: Right.

Jennifer Einolf: Are you, um, are you moving forward or are you spinning wheels? How are you feeling about it? I’m doing it, but I’m really upset about it. Well, what could you do to be a little less angry about what you’re doing? Whatever emotions come to tell you what you’re up to, you don’t have to stick with them. You can say, well, I think I would rather do this from a place of and maybe there’s a shift of mood you could make, which might make things easier. So yeah, just just doing that basic awareness can be a really good start. And what’s happening because I’m doing this might be that’s your extra credit question. So what am I doing right now. And then what’s happening. Because I’m doing this. Well I’m really angry because I got cut off in traffic this morning and I’m talking to my colleague. Oh, and I’m still angry. And and they have this frown on their face. So in the flow of it, I don’t know if it’s worth the experiment to check in on ourselves occasionally, you know. A big part of building creativity or nurturing creativity, um, is breaking through habits. Our brains do a lot of things to save energy because our brains are energy hogs. They they use a tremendous amount of energy, which is good.

Jennifer Einolf: That’s why we’re so successful. And if we never ask our brains to do something outside of those habits, then we don’t know what else is possible. So something as simple as writing with your other hand, or taking a different route to get to where you’re going, even if you’re walking from one office to the other or driving to the supermarket, taking a different path, you know that road that you’ve passed a hundred times and you don’t know where it goes. Take that road every once in a while in in asking your brain to do something new, you are growing your capacity for creativity and creative people still need to nurture their creativity. That’s why famous artists, famous writers get writer’s block because they haven’t nurtured it. They’ve just continued to utilize it until they’ve depleted it. And so having a habit, like having a trying a little experiment, like, what am I up to right now, can give you some insight into that too. I need a creative break. I need to take a breath. I need to take a drink of water. But maybe I need to just soak in this beautiful view outside the window. Or maybe I need to o engage my creativity here. You never know what your brain’s going to answer when you ask that question.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that maybe from one of your clients? Don’t name the name of the client, but maybe share the challenge they came to you with and how you were able to help them get to a new level?

Jennifer Einolf: Yeah, that’s always a difficult question because trust is the most important thing with my clients. And so how do I tell these stories without ever running the risk of having someone know, um, that that’s who I was talking about. But I worked with leaders. This has happened several times, so maybe they won’t hear themselves in the story. I’ve worked with leaders where the container that they’re in, the room that they’re walking into is impacting how they’re communicating. So for instance, um, a, a large space where you are an afterthought way down below the slides and you’re, you’re needing to command that room. Sometimes it’s as simple as booking a different room. So don’t have 50 people in a room that seats 300, have 50 people in a room that’s almost standing room only. And make sure you’re positioned up and up and in front. So some of the some of the things that some of the solutions that pop into people’s heads come when we shift, what question we’re asking and we shift shifting the question from, why am I uncomfortable doing this? To what am I trying to accomplish here? And what might help that happen. What might what might facilitate that. So yeah, that’s a that’s a pretty decent example because that has happened on numerous occasions where the answer was hiding in plain sight, and it was a matter of asking a different question.

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

Jennifer Einolf: Absolutely. Bold whisper comm. And if you go to the About About Me page, there’s a place there to connect with me, and I, I love conversation, I would love to speak with you.

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

Jennifer Einolf: Thank you so much. I really appreciate the chance to come in and speak with you.

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

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard, Ph.D. Brenau University And Kimber Armstrong With Better Business Bureau

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Shatrela Washington-Hubbard, Ph.D. Brenau University And Kimber Armstrong With Better Business Bureau
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Dr. Shatrela Washington-Hubbard currently serves as the Swinton A. Griffith III dean and program director of human resource management programs for the College of Business & Communication at Brenau University. As dean of the College of Business & Communication, Washington-Hubbard is focusing on building strategic alliances to grow the college, differentiate the program offerings, and create programs that are regionally and nationally recognized.

Prior to her current role at Brenau, she instructed various business courses in the Technical College System of Georgia and served as the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Development. Washington-Hubbard has also worked as an educator in the Georgia Public School System and in corporate America as a human resources professional.

Washington-Hubbard’s research areas include entrepreneurial mindset, leadership development and women’s career development. She has presented her findings at regional and national conferences. Washington-Hubbard has volunteered for several organizations, including the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, where she facilitated computer training programs for parents seeking employment as they transitioned from homelessness to lifelong stability.

Various boards have also benefited from her membership, with her longest tenure being with NGBC Educational & Community Services Inc. She is actively involved in several professional organizations and provides coaching and consulting services for various companies and professionals.

Connect with Shatrela on LinkedIn.

Kimber Armstrong is a versatile professional with extensive expertise in strategic partnerships, business development, and program coordination. Her impressive career includes pivotal roles at the Better Business Bureau in both Atlanta and Middle Tennessee, where she has been instrumental in developing and managing programs aimed at enhancing business awareness and education.

Kimber’s dedication to supporting business growth is complemented by her passion for motivational speaking, where she collaborates with community and government organizations to strengthen partnerships and outreach initiatives. Her ability to efficiently multitask, swiftly analyze issues, and implement innovative solutions ensures that projects are completed successfully, on time, and within budget.

A motivational leader, Kimber excels in fostering a productive team work environment through her skills in team supervision, training, performance development, and mentoring. She is a certified Life Coach, Everything DiSCCertified Trainer, and Dental Hygiene Board Exam Grader, with ongoing training to become a DEI Trainer. Kimber’s educational background includes an AA in Dental Hygiene from the University of Mississippi School of Health-Related Professions, where she graduated with honors and received the Clinical Excellence Award.

Through her work at Tools for Empowering Women &Armstrong Professional Training Solutions, Kimber has made significant contributions as a published author, motivational speaker, and development trainer, empowering individuals and establishing trusted relationships with boards, donors, staff, volunteers, and community supporters.

Connect with Kimber on LinkedIn.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Shatrela Washington Hubbard, who is with Brenau University, and we have Kimber Armstrong with the Better Business Bureau. Welcome.

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: Thank you for having us.

Lee Kantor: Well, why don’t we get started with Kimber? Uh, Kimber. We’re here to talk about this exciting program, bridge. And can you share a little bit about mission purpose? What is bridge doing for folks?

Kimber Armstrong: Yeah, absolutely. So bridge is a 501 C3 non-profit, and we have just launched, um, just in this last month, and our initial launch was at Brunel University. And we are a mobile resource center that goes out into the communities across the whole state of Georgia, providing actionable resources for small business owners. And we do, um, have a focus on minority and women owned businesses because they usually need more help. So our mission is to empower those businesses that are struggling and to help them succeed and to improve the survival rate for for those businesses in the state.

Lee Kantor: So now, why was it important for the Better Business Bureau to partner with them? Him.

Kimber Armstrong: Well, Better Business Bureau is steeped in the small business community, and it was just kind of a natural progression for us to branch out and provide, you know, resources we see up front in the community what the needs are. Customer complaints, customer reviews. We process about 65,000 customer complaints every year and around 26,000 customer reviews. So we have a front row seat to what’s going on in the market and who needs help. And we just we see entrepreneurs. We know that they have a passion and they they hit the ground running from sunup to sundown and they’re wearing all the hats. And while there are many, many great resources in metro Atlanta, we know that small business owners typically don’t have a half day or a whole day to spend chasing down those resources. So that’s why we come up with the idea to come directly to them. And so we partner with experts. Um, we pretty much stick to two main buckets of content that we’re teaching them. So it’s access to capital and financial management and legal and administrative services. So we have a broad network of amazing partners that help us.

Kimber Armstrong: A partner can like host an event. They can sponsor us, they can provide subject matter expertise, or they can help us get the word out to get businesses there. Um, and it is this mobile resource center is an expandable trailer. It’s 53ft long. And once we park it, it expands 15ft wide and it ends up being about 850ft² of Oval Office space. So it’s really cool. And it’s it’s kind of futuristic looking. It’s it’s drawing a lot of attention in the state of Georgia so far. Uh, when we went to the DMV to get our, our title, they said, oops, you’re going to have to come back. We don’t have one of these in the state of Georgia yet, so we’ve got to come up with a number. We’ve got to assign it a number. So it’s it’s new and exciting. And um, like I said, people just seem to be enamored with the whole whole trailer aspect, and there seems to be a great need in the state for it now.

Lee Kantor: Uh, Doctor Washington Hubbard, um, what was the thinking behind Brunel’s involvement with this venture?

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: So when Kimber initially reached out to me about what bridge was trying to do in communities, it was a natural fit for us. Um, Hall County has been number one in the state of Georgia for small businesses. And so we know that small businesses are growing in the community. However, as Kimber said, there are some small business owners who do not have access to certain resources. And so, as the College of Business and Communication has been trying to infuse experiential learning into our courses and partner with the community more, this seemed like a natural fit for us to support the community as well as the college and that entrepreneurial ventures.

Lee Kantor: So can you tell us a little bit about how the event went?

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: So for the event, we had a two day event as our kickoff. There was a networking night on Thursday, and that was the arrival of the Mobile Resource unit. During the networking event, we had representatives from bridge from Brunel University as well as community partners, faculty, staff and students in attendance. Individuals were able to network with each other and sign up for the day two um, which was on that Friday, to actually receive um services on the mobile resource unit for day two, which was that Friday. That was when the mobile unit was open, and we had partners here who were able to provide one on one, um, consultations with small business owners to support them with their small businesses. Individuals were also able to tour the mobile unit on that day. So, um, from the statistics that I received, I think that we serviced over 35 individuals on that Friday. So for the initial launch, I would say that this was a very big success. And we’re just appreciative, um, to bridge for having the honor of having the first, um, service date at Brunel University.

Lee Kantor: So now is it touring around other is that the plan to go around to other universities around the state, or are you going to other locales as well?

Kimber Armstrong: Yes we are. So we um, we just got the trailer about a month ago and, um, you know, very quickly have done the kickoff and, um, have been at some other events and, um, we’ve got 25 confirmed events on the calendar so far. And we know that, you know, we’ve heard from, um, some state leaders that there are plenty of communities that need help. And whenever you know we’re ready, there’s a list they’ll give us so that we can go into other communities. We are building this initiative to scale. We plan to serve a thousand businesses within the first 12 months and 3000in the next 12 months. And by year four, we plan to have about five of these mobile resource centers.

Lee Kantor: And then so then, can you share a little bit about what exactly is happening? Say, I’m a small business owner. I see that you’re coming to town. Um, what is what what should I be doing in order to get the most out of this?

Kimber Armstrong: Yeah. So we we have an events page on our website. Um, the, our parent company is called M works m w o r x. Uh, so it’s powered by M works. And if you go check out the events page, there are registration links. We’re going to be in Henry County. Um, we’ve got a commitment with them to go out monthly. Um, we’ve got a commitment with Doctor Washington, Hubbard and Brunel University to provide ongoing resources for their community for three years at least. Um, and so some some of the events we do are like more of a pop up event. Um, but we are providing actionable resources. It’s really important to for us to provide, you know, we don’t just want to we don’t want an entrepreneur to come spend a couple of hours with us and then feel like they’ve just been handed off to someone else. So, like when we were at Brunel, um, the, the individual business owners came on board and they sat down with, um, like access capital for entrepreneurs who actually can offer lending products and can tell them whether they qualify for those loans. And as we progress and, um, you know, build out the programing more, we’ll be very intentional about advising business owners who are coming, like if it is a loan application, they want, you know, you need three months of bank statements and a couple years of tax returns, whatever the requirements, because there’s so many different lending products out there and so many different things that are needed at the time. So, um, and then also we have attorneys that we’re partners with. We know that what we hear is small business owners don’t, you know, it’s kind of intimidating if you don’t know the legalities of maybe it’s contracts with customers or vendors, vendors. Um, so anything like that, if we have an attorney that day, um, and they need to bring anything that they need to have looked over, um, it could also be like their formative documents for their corporation, as a corporation, those kind of things.

Lee Kantor: So they’re actually getting it’s not just like, oh, you need to call a lawyer and here’s my card. And then, you know, this is something they have to purchase. This is actually giving them free consultations and actionable things at the event. It’s not just, like you said, passing them on to somebody who’s going to charge them a lot of money down the road.

Kimber Armstrong: Yes. That’s correct. So we’re actually providing the services there. Um, one of our upcoming events, we have our Department of Revenue partner that will be there with us. And it’s always interesting. She’s done um, some educational programing with us before. And it’s interesting to see this audience of entrepreneurs, their eyes get really big when they when they, they are understanding what is required from them through the Department of Revenue and running their business. They’re like, oh, I didn’t know that. You know, so, um, just a lot of really helpful information like that to steer them in the right direction, to do business the right way so that they can, um, thrive and grow.

Lee Kantor: So you mentioned ace, um, the access to capital for entrepreneurs, folks, are they they’re like actually filling out applications to, you know, help them get some money or funding.

Kimber Armstrong: Yes. So they, they, um, and we have, we have like 18 financial partners. We’ve got an extensive array of, loan products and other type of financing, credit, business credit, those kind of products that ace is very you know, they have their criteria. And so there’s a certain, um, business owner where they are in their business life cycle that fits in with their loan products very well. Um, and then we have other lenders who may offer, um, like equipment loans, you know, small, smaller loans. We have, you know, ones that offer bigger loans. It’s just there’s so many different products out there. So it’s it’s kind of like a little matchmaking game to, um, you know, work with our partners to decide who we’re inviting, who’s going to be there, and exactly what services we’re going to offer. And then also like in what language, because Doctor Washington Hubbard, um, when she and I first started talking about this, she said there’s a large Hispanic small business population. And so that’s, you know, that’s something that we’re factoring in as we’re, planning and building out the programing that we will have Spanish speaking professionals, because we know that they they need that in order to trust the information that they’re getting. So it’s very tailored to the community and the businesses that we serve.

Lee Kantor: Now what stage of an entrepreneur life cycle are you dealing with? Are these folks that have been around for like a year, or are they folks that have been around for ten years, or are they people that have an idea on a napkin?

Kimber Armstrong: It could be all of the above. So, um, our our definition of a small business is a business up to $1 million in gross annual revenue.

Lee Kantor: So up to a million, which is kind of the opposite of what, uh, the, the official government small business description is.

Kimber Armstrong: Well, and we’re so we’re, you know, in private nonprofit. So we, um, it’s, it’s important to us to help the businesses that really need it. And so at this point, that’s our guideline, right?

Lee Kantor: No, that seems that’s the majority of the businesses I would imagine. I think what small business definition, according to the government, is like $50 million or something.

Kimber Armstrong: Oh, wow. Yeah, I didn’t I would I would have had to look that up.

Lee Kantor: But yeah, it’s.

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: That’s not.

Kimber Armstrong: That’s not very small.

Lee Kantor: Exactly. At least in my experience though, I think you’re going to hit a lot more people.

Kimber Armstrong: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now you mentioned.

Kimber Armstrong: Out there that need it.

Lee Kantor: Absolutely. And and the most fragile like this is where this type of information and resources are the things that, you know, make or break an organization. So if you’re really trying to give them the best chance to thrive and survive and grow, you’re doing it at the right time.

Kimber Armstrong: Yeah, I think that sweet spot is kind of somewhere in that 2 to 3 year mark where things are either they’re going to they’re going to figure it out and they’re going to soar with their business or they start really floundering, you know, and they need they need to grow. But they may have, um, maybe on poor advice or just not knowing. They, they report, you know, no earnings to the IRS. They, you know, write everything off. And then they want to go to a bank and get a loan. And you can’t do that. A bank’s not going to loan you money if you’re not showing any income. So it’s really taking those things that we know, um, that they need help with and getting out ahead of it so that we can, you know, help them not get to that point where it’s like, oh my gosh, like, the wheels are falling off and I’m just gonna have to close the doors like there’s so many steps leading up to that. And that’s what we hope to accomplish is to interject at the time that they need it the most.

Lee Kantor: And you’re partnering with, uh, other folks like Doctor Washington Hubbard at universities, but you’re also partnering with chambers of commerce and other kind of business hubs and communities.

Kimber Armstrong: Yes, absolutely. So honestly, like a host partner needs to be able to, um, accommodate a 53 foot trailer number one, which they have the perfect space at Brunel University. And, um, you know, chambers are a great partner too, because they have those networks of small businesses that they can help get the businesses there. Um, so yeah, that’s you’re exactly right.

Lee Kantor: Now, Doctor Washington Hubbard. Um, what was your thinking? Your, um, the dean of the College of Business and Communication, but you were also the first one in and you took action before anybody else. Um, what was so compelling about this, um, organization and this vision that that got you to take action so quickly? And if you have any other advice for other folks out there that should be hosting this type of, uh, an event, uh, what would you tell them?

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: Well, as a university, um, and specifically as a college, we’ve been working with a lot of organizations, specifically with small business owners. And when they told me the population that they were really targeting, it was really a passion for me. Um, we’ve been servicing small business owners, not just in the United States, but we have been partnering as a university with different municipalities, with, um, different universities and programs in Costa Rica and Panama as well. So this is an expansion of the work that we’ve been doing as a university and a college. And so with Kimber, I’ve actually worked with her on a few other projects, and we serve on a board together with the Georgia Women’s Chamber of Commerce. And so, um, we both have always said that we felt like we would be doing more work together. And so she pitched the idea to me, and I knew that in the Hall County area, there’s a real diverse group of small businesses. And so I brought together a small group of individuals to see if this is something that the community would want and need. And everyone was in agreement that we should move forward with this. So even with being the first, one of the things that I told Kimber is I know we would have hiccups, but I was willing to just power forward. And I think it’s a great initiative. It’s very needed. A lot of businesses are still going through that post pandemic struggle, um, and trying to recover. So I thought that this was the right time. And so I was glad to step in to, um, be the first.

Lee Kantor: So what do you all need more of? And how can we help you? Do you need more sponsors? You need more locations to host the, um.

Kimber Armstrong: Yes, yes we do. Like, as I mentioned, we, um, our intention is to serve thousands of small businesses and to grow, um, you know how many vehicles we have out there across the state. So we we definitely desperately need sponsorships. We, um, we need host partners. Like for now, University. Um, we need other organizations that can help us get people there. So we’re bringing the mobile office space and our network of partners. Although as we’re growing this and building this like it’s very community focused. And Doctor Hubbard has introduced me to leaders in Gainesville with many more to be introduced to. So as we’re going into each of these communities, we’re reaching out to, um, leaders and professionals in those communities so that the small businesses that are there have, you know, have somebody that they know and trust where it’s not like we’re, um, our office is in Alpharetta, but it’s not like we’re bringing in, you know, all these folks from metro Atlanta with their great, great, great resources in metro Atlanta. But we’re unearthing and building those partnerships in the communities that we serve in.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you also building community for the entrepreneurs that are going through this, um, experience? Is there a place for them to connect with each other and to. You know, as a alumni of going through there. Is there a an effort to create community around them as well?

Kimber Armstrong: Yes there is. That’s a great question. And it’s not something that I that’s like completely finalized at this point. But we’ve talked to them about it internally among our team that they absolutely need to have that, um, that core group that they’re, you know, working through these stages with and that they can, um, mentorship is huge. And I hear that from, from small business owners often, like from, um, black female entrepreneur. Like, I don’t even know how my white counterpart is networking at the level that she is. Like, I don’t even have that access. So providing that ecosystem, it’s right now it’s a mobile ecosystem, um, which we know we can address digitally, but we can also address by, um, you know, reconvening at these at these Yeah. Community locations. I foresee that with Grinnell University that as we go along, we talked about having, you know, whether it’s quarterly or bi annually, um, you know, a congregation, a high level networking group where we can go and have leaders present, um, and also these businesses that are, um, committed to, you know, doing what it takes to, to succeed.

Lee Kantor: So let’s, um, help people connect. Um, what is the best way is there a kind of a center point for learning more and getting on a list if they’re coming to a community near them?

Kimber Armstrong: Yes. Um, our website is worksource. And you’ll you can, um, become a member there. There’s no charge for that. You can look at the events page and register for upcoming events. You can reach out through the contact form on the website. And that comes directly to me. So I just encourage, you know, anybody who has a desire to learn more, go to the website and reach out. I’m happy to connect with you. Um, we’re also having a kickoff at State Farm Arena on June 16th. That is, um, there’s a registration link on our website. We do ask people to register, but there’s no charge to attend. And that’s pretty exciting. We’re going to have the trailer actually, um, in the arena, and we’re fingers crossed we’re trying to get Mary Dickens there to speak and some other, um, some leaders from the Hawks and the Atlanta Dream. So, um, check that out on our website, too. We’d love to have a big crowd show up.

Lee Kantor: And then if somebody wants to learn more about brenau, uh, Doctor Washington Hubbard, is there a website you can share? Uh, if somebody wants to learn more about Brenau or connect with you or somebody on your team.

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: Yes. So Brenau University, our website is brenau b r e a u.edu. We’re also on social media channels so you can look up Renown University and specifically the College of Business and Communication. So we are CBC at Renown on Instagram. And um, you can connect with us on LinkedIn as well.

Lee Kantor: And Kimber, if somebody wants to learn more about the Better Business Bureau or connect with you.

Kimber Armstrong: Yeah. So we’re we’re all over LinkedIn and Instagram and Facebook. So we are um, our handle on LinkedIn is Better Business Bureau Atlanta and Northeast Georgia, I believe that’s kind of our official name for this, um, locale.

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

Shatrela Washington-Hubbard: Thank you for having us.

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

Dany Hernandez With Sonaara

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Dany Hernandez With Sonaara
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Dany Hernandez is a Cuban immigrant pursuing his passion for connection and community through technology and business. He graduated from Emory University in 2023 with a focus on Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Organization & Management.

He’s working on a startup called Sonaara, a meetup app that connects users to one another at local spots, creating authentic, spontaneous connections and turning online matches into real customers for local businesses.

Connect with Dany on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What inspired the creation of Sonaara
  • How does Sonaara foster spontaneous in-person connections differently from existing social and dating apps
  • How are local businesses a key part of Sonaara’s ecosystem
  • How they’re building safety, trust, and authenticity into a spontaneous-first experience

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Danny Hernandez, who is the CEO and founder of Sonaara. Welcome.

Dany Hernandez: Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here. I really appreciate you having me on board to talk about, you know, my story in Sonora.

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

Dany Hernandez: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, sonaara is basically this app. It’s a social media app that we created, you know, a few months ago back in 2024. And basically the premise is that we’re facilitating spontaneous meetups at local venues, right? So let’s say it’s a Friday night, you know, and you’re looking for something to do or someone to hang out with. You can ping a local business, whether that be, let’s say, like Taco Tuesday to a local Mexican restaurant, or if there’s a bar that’s having, you know, like maybe 20% off cocktails, you can ping it to show people that you’re interested in going. And so people in a 15 to 20 mile radius from you see that notification. And if they’re also interested, then they match with you. And then you guys end up actually going and hanging out at that, uh, you know, restaurant or coffee shop or bar or whatever it be. So really, what we’re creating is a double sided marketplace for both users to create connection and for businesses to get new customers.

Lee Kantor: So what stops a business from just always paying themselves?

Dany Hernandez: Well, that’s exactly what we want them to do, right? So let’s say you’re, you know, a restaurant and they go on the app and you’re having some sort of special. Right. You might put up a ping saying, hey, you know, come here. So basically what you’re doing is you’re letting everyone know right through like a bullhorn, like, hey, come check me out. And so people that are around your restaurant, right, they can see that activity. And if they’re interested in it, they can, you know, facilitate that spontaneous meetups themselves by matching with others. Right. Because for businesses, a big problem is that, you know, especially for small business owners, doing social media advertising and other forms of marketing can be like very, very expensive. Not to mention that creating content that stands out in today’s oversaturated social media space, like, takes up a lot of time, right? So by basically just paying yourself and saying, hey, come here, it saves them a lot of time, and it really greatly increases their return on investment because they don’t do any of the work, right. The app and the users on the app do the work for them because they facilitate their own meetup.

Lee Kantor: So do they have to say like have a special of some kind or like it doesn’t have to necessarily be a discount. It could be like a unique beverage or a unique, you know, sandwich or something. It could be something unique that they’re sharing. Hey, this is happening right now.

Dany Hernandez: Exactly. So it’s not like you need to have some sort of special or discount to, you know, make a ping for yourself if you’re a business. It can literally be, let’s say, you know, you are Palo Santo, which is one of my favorite, you know, Mexican restaurant rooftop areas here in Atlanta. You can just make a ping for your for yourself, right. And so people can match at that location just, you know, maybe during your normal hours of operation or whatever it be.

Lee Kantor: Now what does a match mean.

Dany Hernandez: So match basically means that, you know, let’s say you’re looking at a ping right for, um, that same example, palo santo. You see a list of people that match your filters and your preferences. So let’s say I’m looking to meet, you know, male friends in Atlanta that are between the ages of 22 to 28, right. I’ll see a list of people that have paid that activity that matched my preferences. And if I look through them and I see someone that seems really cool, I can check out their profile, see that we’re interested in sort of some of the same hobbies or activities. I can let them know, hey, I’m down. We’d love to, you know, meet up and send them a message. And if they accept my response, then we exchange contact cards and make plans to meet up at the location.

Lee Kantor: So it’s not that they’re going to just you’re you’re not saying, hey, I’m going to be at this place at this time, and then you just hope other people show up. This is like you’re kind of making plans.

Dany Hernandez: Yeah, exactly. So you’re making more of a spontaneous plan, though. There could be a use case where, let’s say maybe you’re out at the Beltline or something, right? And you want to make a ping saying, hey, I’m at the Beltline, who wants to hang out then? That could also definitely be done as well. So it really depends on the on the user and what their preference are. You know, because you’re not going to go to a, you know, maybe like an Italian restaurant by yourself, ping it and hope someone responds, you know, so it really depends on if you want to create a plan for that same day, or you’re already somewhere and you want to let people know around you like, hey, he wants to meet up.

Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea? How did this get created in the first place?

Dany Hernandez: Yeah, so the genesis of the idea is that basically, you know, it was like a Friday night and I just wanted to do something, but all of my friends were busy and I really wanted to explore, you know, this new bar that opened up or this new club. And it was very difficult for me to try to find someone that was also down that same night to hang out through the existing apps, because the current solutions for people to meet others, they’re not really catered towards spontaneous, you know, sort of like in the moment hangouts. So I tried using them and I couldn’t find anyone to hang out with that same night. So I just thought to myself, like, what if there was a way for me to instantly connect with others who are nearby, free right now and ready to hang out? And so it’s sort of what really inspired me to start developing the app. And, you know, one of my one of my major passions in life is really just connection and community. So I think being able to bring people together in a way that also supports local businesses is something that I’m really proud to be working on.

Lee Kantor: So, um, when you had the idea, are you a coder? Like, did you are you a technologist? You were able to create this or you had to find other people that kind of buy into the vision?

Dany Hernandez: Yeah. So not at all. Which is honestly like crazy because I didn’t really have a coding background. Right. So I went to Emory University. I majored in marketing and entrepreneurship and organizational management. Right. So absolutely zero coding background, but I knew that I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and I wanted to make some sort of app. Right? So I tried to learn how to code myself. And, you know, the progress was very, very slow. But this was right around like, you know, 2021, 2022 when ChatGPT and I started coming out. And I’ve just been able to leverage artificial intelligence to really expedite coding processes. So, you know, the entire app has really been developed through the help of AI.

Lee Kantor: So it’s just been you and I.

Dany Hernandez: Yeah. And I did have some, you know, tech interns as well that have hired from other colleges throughout the country, as well as a partner. That did help me out for a little bit. But the majority of the work that has gone into the app, which was made using React Native and Firebase for the back end, has been with the help of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence, you know, tools like windsurf and cursor.

Lee Kantor: So, um, do you have any advice for other kind of aspiring entrepreneurs that aren’t kind of technologists but want to leverage AI? What are some of the things you learn? What are some do’s and don’ts when using AI to build an app?

Dany Hernandez: Yeah, I would say, you know, don’t. It’s so easy and literally anyone can do it. Like it’s so easy to. If you have a vision for an app or a software, you don’t need to try to find someone that has that experience or spend like, you know, months or years trying to code it yourself, right? Because also software development can be super, super expensive. I remember I was working on another app. Uh, that’s not sonar, but it was something previous to it. And I was getting quotes from people right from different companies. And I remember some charge from $30,000 all the way to over $100,000 for an app, right? So if you don’t have that capital yourself and you can’t bootstrap, um, you would have to go to like the VC route, you know, and get funding, but that, you know, could give up equity. Even then it’s not really guaranteed, right? Um, so if you have a vision for a software, just go for it. Like use AI, go to ChatGPT, say, hey, I’m trying to work on this type of app. Uh, you know, how do I set this up? And it’ll teach you how to make that coding environment. And then just little by little, feature by feature, you can go ahead and code it out, right? Because when you break it down in a step by step process, coding an entire app really becomes very doable. So definitely don’t feel like, you know, if there’s any constraints. We’re in a world right now where anyone can really create a startup. And I think that’s been done through the help and, you know, the advancements of AI.

Lee Kantor: So what are some of the basic prompts you use to get started on something that’s like at first it’s obviously starts broad, and then you have to slowly kind of hone it and narrow it down to the exact thing you want in your app.

Dany Hernandez: Exactly. Right. So, you know, when I first started working on the app, I still have an idea in my head of what I want it to look like, right? So for Sonora, I knew that I wanted a very simple, you know, easy, intuitive map interface because the way that sonar works is basically there’s a map, right? And in the map you see the pings around you. Right? So I knew that I wanted a map interface. So I would go to like touch and be like, hey, I’m working on this social app where people can, you know, meet others instantly. Um, create a map screen that shows, you know, like pings nearby. A ping is like a restaurant saying, hey, we’re having like, this deal, we’re having this activity. Um, and then it’ll give you, you know, a very basic response that sometimes it could be, you know, riddled with bugs, but over time, you just keep asking like, oh, I’m getting this bug, fix it, and it’ll fix it over time. Uh, and then from there you can really go, oh, now add this feature, or a user can create a ping and now add this feature where they can look at notifications. So it’s all about creating that foundation and then you build up on top of it.

Lee Kantor: So now in this app you need you said it was a double sided marketplace. So you need the restaurants and bars to ping. Right. And then you need the people to also react to that. Like which comes first.

Dany Hernandez: Yeah. So this is, you know, classic chicken and the egg issue of a double sided marketplace. What is the most important thing on top of anything is definitely the users right. Because for the businesses right. You us as like the sonar team can put these activities on the app ourself, right? Like, oh, come to this restaurant, come to this bar. But you can’t really fake users, you can’t create artificial demand. So the user is definitely the most important. So we’ve tried to do is develop, you know, marketing strategies that would really try to help us growth grow, including, you know, campus ambassador programs, psychologists like Georgia Tech and Emory, you know, trying to get that student population active on the app because that’s definitely more of our target market, you know, or maybe just like younger, more spontaneous, adventurous, you know, young adults aged, um, maybe like, you know, 20 to 30. So definitely getting users on the app is the most important thing because once you have those users, you can then go to the businesses and say, hey, look, we have a thousand people here in Atlanta that are ready to meet others that are looking for places to go, right. And the great thing about this app is that there’s already 75 million Americans that are using apps to connect online, right? But the problem with these other apps is that they’re leaving businesses out of the conversation. So Sonera is including them by enabling people to match around activities instead of just profiles.

Lee Kantor: So now how do you kind of deal with, um, safety and authenticity and, you know, make it, you know, kind of a safe environment where people feel comfortable saying, hey, I’m going to meet you somewhere.

Dany Hernandez: Yeah. So this is definitely a very valid concern. We’ve gotten a lot of a lot of, you know, questions and thoughts about that. Safety is definitely like a huge priority for us. We have some features that will make our users feel more safe. Uh, for example, we’re going to have verified profiles where if you interact with someone on Sonera, you know that they’re actually a real person and not a bot or a catfish. Additionally, when you’re making a ping, you actually take a picture of what you look like in the moment, which further, you know, um, protects against, like catfishing. And the user can set their own preference preferences and filters as well. Right. So their pings are only visible to the type of people that they set in their filters to. So all these features really help to, you know, um, make the user feel more protected and safe. And in addition, we also have reporting and blocking features. Uh, so if there’s ever, you know, like any bad actors, we can take care of them quickly.

Lee Kantor: So what have you learned about building community? Um, did you start with this kind of college ambassador plan, or was that something that was evolved over time?

Dany Hernandez: Yeah, well, I knew that I wanted a campus ambassador program because even when I was going to Emory, I would always see other companies, you know, do that. For example, like I remember Berea, which is also another very popular social app, would have booths at Emory and would get people to to download the app. So I know how important it is to build, sort of like, you know, demand through a college population, through ambassadors. Uh, so it’s definitely very important. And like, really what my goal is with Sonera is just to get people as connected as possible, because there was a lot of times, you know, when I was in Emory and I was just like in my dorm or in my apartment and like I wanted something to do, but, you know, like, I didn’t know what was happening, like, on campus or didn’t really have anybody to deal with because my friends were maybe like studying for exams or they were busy. Uh, so I want to create a solution where no matter what day it is or, you know, like how lonely you are, you go on the app and you find someone to hang out with on demand. So I hope that being by being able to provide this for, you know, students and just people in the Atlanta area, people can feel more connected. And we can we can really drive community forward.

Lee Kantor: So when you had the idea for the app and then you started building it, is it right now at a stage where it’s it’s live? It’s it’s out there.

Dany Hernandez: Yes. We recently probably within the last week just made it live in Atlanta. Uh, and our goal now is just growth. So we’re really trying to get as many users as possible. So, um, you know, going forward we’re going to do some outreach like on the Beltline, you know, just getting people to like download the app or maybe even like giving out free waters to people that are like walking, especially if it’s a hot day and you get a free water by downloading an app. Like, who wouldn’t take up that offer? You know what I mean? So trying different tactics and strategy just to just to build growth. Um, and then also, you know, we’re posting on our own social media, like our TikTok and Instagram to try to get more eyes on the app as well. Uh, but yeah, definitely just, you know, user growth is a top priority right now.

Lee Kantor: So have you gotten to a point or do you have kind of signals that, hey, this is going to work? Like, do you have things that you’ve experienced with people at least trying the app or playing around with it that you were like, okay, this is just a matter of I got to just get more eyes on this.

Dany Hernandez: Yeah, definitely. So there’s a few things. Number one, uh, before I even started really like developing the app, I did some customer discovery. So I interviewed some college students, you know, to discuss their current experience with, like, other apps and how they meet people. And through them, I really identified what was causing the issue with other apps, uh, leading to not really being able to connect in person. So, uh, just to preface what the current apps that exist out there. It’s like Bumble for friends, you know, or like, you know, Hange or any of those apps. Less than 2% of matches actually convert to an in-person hangout. And after, you know, interviewing college students like figuring out why. There are three main reasons. So the first reason is that schedules don’t align, right. So some people would be free like on this day, but this person will be for the other day. Another major reason would be that conversation would fizzle out. So, you know, they might talk for a little bit, uh, but eventually, like, it would really just go nowhere, right? And another major reason why people didn’t really connect is because there was a lack of genuine interest. So just because someone would, like, swipe on one person, it didn’t really necessarily mean that they were actually interested in hanging out in person, right? So what we created with sonar was just a way for people to actually show, hey, if I match with you, it’s because I genuinely want to hang out, like in person as fast as possible And just based on the, you know, discussions and conversations that I’ve had with students by showing them the app.

Dany Hernandez: Um, it does seem to have like a lot of interest. And even on the social posts we’ve made on our TikTok, all the comments are very positive. And, you know, I’ve heard things like, you know, I really love the idea. I can’t believe this hasn’t been done before. So I’ve gotten a lot of positive reception. Uh, and users have been joining the app. So I think right now we have about maybe 300 users that have, you know, signed on and created a profile, uh, and joined the waitlist that we just, you know, made it live the other week. So definitely just focus on growing the users. And I have seen some signs to show that people are actually interested in this. And they would use it.

Lee Kantor: And then, um, but are you organizing like, like you said, you’re going to show up with waters and stuff to get more users, but are you kind of being the instigator and saying, hey, everybody show up at, you know, Krog Street on the Beltline to hang out like we’re all, you know, going to get, You know, a meal there or something like are you as an organization, like trying to be the impetus to kind of attract a crowd so that they’re all going somewhere?

Dany Hernandez: Yeah. So I think at the very beginning, we definitely have to do that. Like, you know, some sonoro sponsor, like meetups where it’s like, hey, come here. We’re gonna, you know, like maybe pay for people’s drinks or stuff like that. Um, but like the hanging out in the beltline. Beltline stuff that’s just like, you know, marketing, like trying to talk to people as they’re walking by and be like, hey, check out the app. Like, maybe we’ll have a table up or something like that. But definitely, you know, at the very beginning stages of a startup, you got to be super scrappy and trying to find ways to get people interested in the app. So I’ve definitely explored things like, you know, having partnerships with organizers that host events and, you know, trying to, you know, help them get more attendees by having people match on Sonora for their events and stuff like that.

Lee Kantor: So so you’re looking for partners, you’re looking for, uh, restaurants and bars, and you need more users. That’s the kind of what you’re working on right now.

Dany Hernandez: Exactly. And on top of all that, I’m definitely trying to grow the team as well. Because right now we have a group of, you know, very talented people, but we maybe have, you know, 4 to 5 people on the team right now. Uh, so definitely try and grow it as fast as possible. And to grow quickly, you need a big, dedicated team. Uh, so trying to get more people on the team as well, to really push us forward is also a priority for me.

Lee Kantor: And the thing that makes Sonera unique and different is it’s about the the spontaneity of the moment, right? This isn’t like, let’s make plans for next week. It’s like, let’s do something now.

Dany Hernandez: Exactly. So it’s one of like the major things that really make us unique. And then the other thing that really just makes us stand out from the other apps is that we actually involve local businesses, right? So with Sonera, you don’t just match around profiles, you match around activities. Right? So by letting people sort of match on, hey, I want to go to this place. Who’s down? That’s also something unique that we offer that a lot of other apps don’t as well.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, um, play around with the app. What is the best way to learn more about it? Is there a website? Is there a way? Is it on Apple and Android and Google stores? Where is it at?

Dany Hernandez: Yeah. So right now it’s on the Apple Store. We’re still working on the Android version and that should be released in the coming months. And you could also check out sonar.com. S o a r a.com to just learn more about it. You know, see some press that we’re on and get any updates about the app there.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well congratulations on all the momentum.

Dany Hernandez: Thank you so much I appreciate it. And thank you again so much for having me.

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

Shannon Earle With Coach with Shannon

by

Shannon-EArle
High Velocity Radio
Shannon Earle With Coach with Shannon
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Coach-with-Shannon

Shannon Earle, Life Coach at Coach with Shannon.

With a Masters in Communication and Leadership, she have worked with individuals for over 18 years. Before coaching, she worked in therapeutic boarding schools for young adults, assisting them in finding themselves and helping the family to learn to work together.

She then incorporated neuroscience, and everything changed! She coached individuals, school staff, and students on shifting how they experience and relate in their lives. The tools that she teach have impacted her clients lives in such an amazing way, it is a gift for her to be their coach.

Working with CEO’s and School administrators allows her to utilize her skills in leadership to inspire new ways of approaching their teams. When we understand the basics of what the brain is doing it is a lot easier to understand that our employees also have fast brains and with slight shifts we can create cultures of growth.

She have two amazing daughters who inspire her every day! She was a Division one swimmer and one of the most amazing jobs she have is to bring mental performance skills to Fresno state swimmers. She love people and I she love what she does.

Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • If you want to create change you will need to pay attention to what the brain is doing
  • When you are in charge of your reactions and shift to making choices we are truly free
  • Fast thinking/Slow thinking
  • Our internal emotions are up to us
  • Thoughts create our perceptions so if we want to have a different experience we will need to change the thoughts we are thinking

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Shannon Earle, who is a life coach with Coach with Shannon. Welcome.

Shannon Earle: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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

Shannon Earle: Um, well, I have been working with clients for the past, um, 18 years and a whole bunch of different capacities. Um, I started out working with young adults who were meeting some assistance and kind of finding their confidence. And then I worked with their parents, and then eventually I moved into creating my own kind of coaching practice. And now I work with anyone who is ready to shift maybe their mindset so that they can start to move in the direction that they want to. So I have athletes, I have parents, I have CEOs, I have, you know, really anyone who’s really ready for a change.

Lee Kantor: So what are some symptoms that a person might, uh, be ready for a change or might consider getting some coaching?

Shannon Earle: Yeah. Good question. Um, I think that a lot of the times what I see with clients is that they come to this place where they feel like there’s no hope. You know, like the brain has kind of created these limiting belief systems, um, throughout their lives to the point that they can’t see outside of that, the possibilities have kind of dimmed. Um, and they’re just they’re at this place where it’s like, okay, this is not how I want to be living my life. Um, I would like something different, but I’m not really sure how to get there. And so when they then show up like that, it’s just amazing to help them understand what the brain is doing to keep them in that state, and how they can start to kind of work around what’s happening until the brain starts to understand that they would actually like to live a different life. Um, so yeah, usually it’s like for me, I think in my 40s, it was like I felt like I was in a tunnel and I was just like, is this it? Like, is this what life’s gonna be like? Um, for young adults? I think it’s a little different for them, and it’s more of probably self-doubt. They’re just like, I’m not really sure what I’m doing. Um, and helping them gain some control over what it is they’re thinking so that they start to gain that confidence. So it’s a little different depending on the age of the client.

Lee Kantor: Something you said that struck me was you said the brain is doing this. So how does that come about? Like, is this just kind of a result of a bunch of habits? Or you’re kind of like, I picturing kind of a record where it’s just a needle in a groove, just going over, kind of creating a pathway that maybe isn’t serving you.

Shannon Earle: Yeah. So it’s not a bad, um, description of you get into these grooves. It’s, you know, what neuroscience is saying is that we have these neural wiring systems in our heads, and they get created based on what’s happened in our lives. So one of the statistics that neuroscience figured out was that we take in 11 million bits of information in a second, but the brain and its beauty will edit it to 40. So you’re only receiving 40 bits of information out of 11 million. 11 million that actually happened, was said it was around you, but your own. Your brain’s editing it because you can’t actually handle all of that information. The problem is, is that those 40 bits are based in maybe when you were five, right? Like whatever happened, the brain was laying down the wiring to get you to where you are now, making quick work. It’s always wanting to make quick work of what’s happening. So when something happens, the brain’s going, oh, well, this is just like when you were 13. So this is what’s happening. It’s just it’s not always accurate. It’s just old. And so if we’re wanting to approach life a little bit differently, we actually have to start to create new neural nets in our head for the brain to follow.

Shannon Earle: And the way to do that is through our thoughts, right, is to think in a new way, which isn’t easy because the brain’s like, let’s not do that. Let’s do it tomorrow, right? I don’t really feel like it. It doesn’t really like new the brain. It prefers to stick with what we know, even if it’s miserable. It’s easier for the brain. Doesn’t have to use as much energy. And so my job as a coach is to help. I’m outside of that neural system. Right. And I get I can see it a lot easier than, say, the client, because it’s hard when it’s yours, because it feels real. Um, then I can start to help create that new neural wiring. Right? And then with practice, the brain eventually will just kick in. It’ll be its new automatic. But the beginning part is more challenging because we have to bring our awareness up and we need to be able to understand that what we’re thinking, because the brain’s always thinking, it’s always having some sort of thought process. We’re just not always consciously aware of what it’s thinking. But those thoughts are creating our perception of what’s happening in front of us, which then we respond to the world in a certain way.

Lee Kantor: So how did you develop this methodology that kind of gets people out of this rut and opens their mind to, you know, this new pathway or doing things a different way in order to get a different outcome?

Shannon Earle: Yeah. Um, well, I have to say I have to give a lot of thanks to the young adults I worked with because they were not, um, coming on purpose. They were very resistant. And so I honed my skills in having to kind of show up differently all the time. And then I’ve just I’ve studied and didn’t really read a lot about neuroscience. Um, I had an amazing teacher who helped me kind of uncover some of the tools. It’s there’s there’s so much information out there. It’s just sometimes putting it all together and being creative enough to say, okay, well, that didn’t work, so let’s try this. Um, but I’d say it’s I’ve, I have worked, you know, one on one with people for so long that I think I’ve just got a, I’ve created a huge tool bag to be able to help, um, people kind of work around the resistance that the brain’s going to bring and, and also teach really clear tools of, okay, look, this is what’s happening. So if you want to do it differently, you’re going to need to pay attention and start choosing. Um, but I think mostly I really do think the young adults and their parents. Right. Like, the parents, um, really helped me hone my skills of being able to just meet people where they are and with no judgment. I mean, I’ve heard I’ve heard some of the most horrific stories of people’s lives and watch them overcome them. Um, that really nothing surprises me. Uh, and so I think that that’s a gift that I have of just like, okay, you want something else? And let’s get there. And there’s no judgment on who you are or where you are. Let’s just start to practice what you do want.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a little bit about maybe some of the behind the scenes so a listener can visualize what happens when they’re when you’re speaking with one of your clients, like they’ll come to you. And you mentioned some of the reasons they come to you. Are you, um, kind of prescribing a hey, try this exercise. Um, are you just listening to them or do you give them homework? Like what? What are some of the actions you recommend them taking and what how do they come back to you with kind of the result of that? And then how do you kind of make whatever tweaks necessary in order to keep them on track or keep them at least trying to create these new pathways.

Shannon Earle: Yeah. Um, so a little bit of all of that. Uh, in the beginning, when I first have a new client, there’s a little bit more on my side of teaching because I want them to have an understanding of some of the basics of what the brain is doing.

Lee Kantor: So they have to buy that, right? They have to buy into that premise. Right? That the brain there’s neuroplasticity, that it’s not a permanent thing. That what was yesterday isn’t necessarily what’s going to be tomorrow. They have to intellectually believe that in order for any of this to work. Right.

Shannon Earle: Sure, absolutely. Um, and it’s interesting because, you know, we all have our, our belief systems. And so some people are going to lean in a little bit faster and some are going to lean in a little bit slower. But yes, without a doubt, like they need to have a a want. And even if they have to suspend disbelief, like, just like I don’t really I’m not really sure that what you’re saying is true. That’s okay. As long as they’re willing to lean in a little bit and try it out. Usually at that point that it’s going to work right. Things are going to start to change. Like, I’m not really sure what’s going on here, but this feels different. Um, if they can get to at least that, then it starts to make sense. Because if you think about it, so what I’m bringing is so new, a lot of the times, not as much, because it’s so out there in the world right now about how the brain’s plasticity is malleable. Um, but it’s new and the brain’s going to resist it. So if we can just work our way through to where we’re creating just slight new neural net to where the brain’s like, oh, I understand what you’re saying, because in the beginning, it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Shannon Earle: Sometimes it seems too easy, even though it’s not. Um, so it’s absolutely the client needs to want to. And the clients that show up and they’re just ready. It’s unbelievable what they can do in such a short period of time. Because some of the things like just to give you an example, that can be kind of challenging is, you know, we have our current reality and it feels so real. We have all the emotions that go with that reality. We have the thoughts that go with that reality. We’re in this particular space. And my job, a lot of the time, is to then allow and help them create the possibility. Right. Where are you going? Well, that’s not real, right? So the brain’s going to resist that because that’s scary, right? To create a new reality where you’re happy or you have more joy, or you’re in the career that you want. Um, the brain just keeps going. Yeah, but that’s not true. And so it’s my job is to keep this possibility, which is in between, in this unknown uncertainty which we do not like. Um, we can get better at it until that new possibility becomes the new reality.

Shannon Earle: And that’s quite challenging for the brain, because the brain wants to know what’s happening, even if the knowing is going to keep them where they are. And so to suspend that needing to know in order to move towards this new possibility takes practice, and that’s where my job as a coach is to just help, help keep their brains focused on where they do want to go, because the brain’s automatic is what’s wrong or what’s about to be. And if we stay focused on what’s wrong and what’s about to be, we’re going to create more of it, because that’s where the focus is. So the energy goes there and it’s helping them learn how to acknowledge that’s what’s happening because it’s going to. We can’t stop that. It’s biological and keep moving it back to. Yes. But it’s also possible that I can move over here. And I’m going to start looking for things that are moving me in this direction. Right. And so it’s this constant bouncing back and forth until the brain understands this is where we’re going. Right? I’m in charge of what it is that you think. And we’re going to think and move in this direction.

Lee Kantor: Now is it in order to get the, um, complete buy in. And not just the lean in is do you have to come up with ways to get some, like quick early wins? Like something that demonstrates, hey, this is going to work. You know, I know I asked you to suspend your disbelief for a minute, but there we’re on a path that is going to get the outcome you desire. Do you have to? Is there a way to demonstrate kind of, um, evidence? That’s not just I want that I hope that I wish that, but something like, oh, yesterday it was this, and today it’s this, and then tomorrow it’ll be this other thing. Is there ways or exercises you can do or the listener can do right now that can show them evidence of the possibilities?

Shannon Earle: Um, yeah. Uh, you know what I when clients come to me, I, I have them, you know, sign up for a certain amount of, uh, calls because I know the bounciness that’s going to happen for the brain and resistance, so that I have that in my favor and that, you know, within, you know, six calls, things should be moving. Um, but just for the listeners today, the one thing that I would say is, um, the brain’s going to give you an automatic answer to whatever it is it’s happening. It’s just going to tell you, here’s what’s happening. And what I’d say is maybe, you know, that might be the accurate answer. But if you can start to practice just within things that don’t just anything in your life actually. So you’re driving along and someone cuts you off, you have an automatic response to that. And instead of just going with the automatic response and following the neural net that that takes you down, stopping for a minute and saying, okay, how else could I respond to that? Right. And find 3 or 4 other ways, not right ways. You’re not trying to, um, fix the situation. You can’t. The person already cut you off. You’re just trying to come up with some creative ways to approach whatever just happened, and it could be in any area.

Shannon Earle: Say you have kids and your kid does something, spills something all over important paper, you’re going to have an automatic response. So you could then say, okay, I’m going to look for other responses that I could have had. You could be like, oh my gosh, that was brilliant. It’s like a monet. Like, did you see how it spilled all over that right now? That’s not automatic because the paper was important. It’s chosen. And so it’s looking for different ways to respond to different situations in your life on purpose. And the only way that you can really do that is if there’s the first fast thought that comes which you can’t stop, that it’s going to come automatically, not the one based in your past. But if you can find three other ways to look for, look at a situation and how you could think about it, actual thoughts you could have. Now you have four choices. Choose the one that feels best to you, Not right. It just feels better. So if if my kid spills stuff all over something that’s really important, I’m going to have a wave of just, like, anger, frustration, whatever happens to me. And if I can slow down and say, okay, I could respond in a way that like, oh my gosh, that’s like a monet or oh my gosh, you know what? I didn’t really want this job anyway.

Shannon Earle: Um, which is just crazy, right? And or you know what? I really like the color purple. If it was soup. Now those aren’t. I’m not trying to fix anything here. I’m just trying to get my brain to understand that are options. There’s not just the automatic frustration and anger. I could choose these other things. Right? And once I’ve interrupted what the brain’s doing, now I have a shot at deciding, okay, what am I going to do here? But if you can’t interrupt that automatic response, you actually are not in choice. So I it’s called I call it shopping, but and it’s like looking for 3 or 4 other ways that you could see or perceive or approach whatever it is that’s happening. What else could be happening here? Right? The guy cut you off in traffic because his wife is pregnant, and he’s trying to get her to the hospital. Um, you know, he just, like, was on his phone. Um, I don’t know. Aliens took him over. It doesn’t really matter. It’s that you want to start utilizing your frontal lobe to think differently. And when you start getting good at thinking differently pretty soon now you can start to open up your horizons for the possibilities that exist. So, yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now that’s a fantastic example. Thank you for sharing that. And I think a key element of that is you do this preemptively. You you look at a scenario maybe that’s triggered you in the past, like someone cuts you off and I get angry. And then when there’s no emotion or no stake, then you come up with these multiple other, um, responses that you shop for so that hopefully next time when this happens, your brain already has other choices. It’s not going to that default, you know, just instinctively.

Shannon Earle: Hundred percent because and this is one and this is for all your listeners. The amazing part about the brain is that and I love how you just put that together because it’s so true. Like, we can take scenarios that have happened in the past that really got us and then rewrite them right. Look for 3 or 4 other ways we could have handled it. And the brain, because you’re thinking it, you’re doing it in your head. It thinks it’s happening, which this is a brilliant tool for parents, because if you can get your kids to walk through how they would have responded differently on multiple ways with no energy of that, there’s a right way. That’s the hardest part for parents. Um, now the kid is walking through their head, right? And even us, all these different scenarios, which is what you’re right when. Then something happens again that is high stakes. And you’ve been practicing. Looking for other possibilities in these lower stakes things that the brain’s not really worried about. You’ve got a shot at actually going, whoa, wait a minute. I think I could actually choose how to respond here because I’ve been practicing on the day to day. Right? Like at the grocery store or whatever, when the brain, it’s not resisting you because it doesn’t care if you choose an orange, an apricot or a peach. Right? It’s not making. It just doesn’t mind about that. But you can still practice in all these areas, and you’re building the neural wiring for choice, right? So that you can do it when it’s when it really does matter.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that this and I think this is one of the benefits of working with the coaches. You can play out scenarios in a safe space so that when there is kind of more, at least perceived stakes or the there is more emotion in a given situation and you happen not to be there. Your clients have now choices and it’s not. They don’t always have to just pick the default that they’ve always picked. Now they see that, oh, there’s five other things I could be doing here. And I’m going to pick this one. This is going to make me feel better at the end of the day.

Shannon Earle: Absolutely. And you know when we can move into choice I have a client that it’s amazing what she’s done. Like, so her husband said to her one day, I want a divorce. And she did not want a divorce, right? And so then, knowing that I had a period of time to work with her, I. We decided she’s like, okay, so you’re not tell him I’m not thinking about that or talking about that until July. So she had some space and time, right, to start to shift who she was being and how she was being without putting all her energy into my life is over. I’m getting a divorce, right? Because once we shift our thinking towards this is terrible, which I’m not saying that it’s not. Nobody wants to hear that, right? But if we focus then on that, we’re going to we’re moving in that direction. We’re moving towards divorce. And she didn’t want to. And so for the last, you know, I don’t know the period of time that we worked with each other, she started focusing on. Nope, I want to stay married. What do I need to do for that to happen and start shifting who she’s being and how she’s thinking and paying attention and being aware of her life. And she transformed a lot of the things she wanted to transform anyway.

Shannon Earle: And the husband is not really sure what’s happening. Right? He wasn’t sure like, what the heck’s happening and whether or not they’ll stay married or not, I don’t know, but there’s a lot better shot at them staying married with her, deciding and putting all my energy into the thing I do want. Even though throughout our time together, her brain kept moving back towards, oh my God, this is a catastrophe, right? This is terrible. And and with her saying, you know what? Take time to catastrophize. It’s okay. Just don’t let it go all day long because that’s not your goal. Your goal is not getting divorced. Your goal is staying married. So I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s the kind of stuff that I’ll do with a client is really helping. If you have a goal, it’s helping keeping that brain focused over there, even though the brain’s going to constantly want to attend to what could go wrong. Um, but you just don’t want to stay there. You can stay there for a little while. There’s nothing wrong with catastrophizing. There’s nothing wrong with feeling sad or any of that. Just do it on purpose and give it a time frame so that 90% of your day is on purpose, focusing towards what you do want.

Lee Kantor: Right? Like, you can feel it, but you don’t have to live it every second of your life. Like there’s a difference there is.

Shannon Earle: It’s like you’re you’re feeling the sadness on purpose for, you know, 20 minutes and then the brain’s like, yeah, remember, you’re kind of sad. Yeah. No, I’m going to give you 20 more minutes tomorrow. Um, and you do actually take the time to feel all those feelings on purpose so that you can then be free to create the rest of your day, right?

Lee Kantor: It’s like you like to have dessert, but you don’t want every meal to be dessert.

Shannon Earle: Exactly. Really great analogy. Yes.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, let’s talk a second about the the business of coaching. You mentioned you serve so many different groups of people. Like what is it? How do you get a client in any given. Like, how do people know to to choose Shannon. Like, how do you, um, you know, get the the calls you need in order to get the clients you need in your marketing?

Shannon Earle: Yeah. Um, you know, it’s been amazing. I actually feel really blessed that, um, I most of my, almost all my clients are word of mouth. Like, it just people talk about what’s happened for them, or people are watching people’s lives transform and change. And so then they reach out to me. I’ve, you know, I have my website, which is wrong on the little thing. Um, coach Shannon. Um, but really it’s word of mouth, which, you know, I think with coaching, it’s kind of like you want somebody, you know, uh, somebody used and it’s been effective because it’s it’s so personal. Um, I also I work with, um, Fresno State swim team. Um, so that’s the athlete piece. Is that actually coach the team? The women’s team, um, uh, every week during their season, um, which is I was a swimmer in college. I swam at ASU, and, um, so that’s how I get the athletes is people start spreading that that mental performance side. Um, but yeah, mostly it’s word of mouth. Um, I do have Instagram for parents, uh, where I focus because I’ve, I’ve worked a lot with parents of young adults. That’s been the 13 years I was working at a program. Um, but yeah, mostly it’s been word of mouth, which has been amazing. Uh, and, uh, you know, I just I’m always honored that somebody would say, hey, you should work with Shannon now.

Lee Kantor: We didn’t even, uh, maybe we can get this in a future episode. But just the mental toughness element of sports is. Must be just a really interesting, uh, part of your job as well, having come up through the ranks as an athlete.

Shannon Earle: Yeah, absolutely. I.

Shannon Earle: You know, I went off to college at 18 to go, and I was at this, you know, I didn’t even really understand what I’d gotten myself into. But, you know, a D1 school, Pac ten at the time, and I was not mentally prepared for just just catching up to the fact that I’d made it on a team like that, um, which I think is pretty prevalent among athletes in college in the beginning especially, is that, you know, imposter syndrome. So really helping them with that. But, um, just helping them choose like, okay, so how are you going to show up? I mean, athletes are just like a rare breed in that they they hyper focus in on this one sport and they have so many skills that the thing that I hope I can do with some of the athletes is help them translate those skills that they do in the water, or in water polo or soccer or softball, whatever it is they’re doing over into their life. Um, because that’s the piece that I got into was that when I left swimming, I’d been a swimmer since I don’t even remember when I learned to swim, I think I swam before I walked, um, but when I left college swimming, I was at a loss. I wasn’t sure who I was. And, um. So I help them when they’re in the swimming, you know, in the pool and trying to help them get to the goals that they want. But I also try to help them in that transition into life, which can be quite rough, uh, to, um, shift into, on purpose, the life that you want and take the tools that you learned in swimming with you because or whatever college sport. And I think that the higher level athletes go, the harder the transition can be into life.

Lee Kantor: Right? Because like you said, you started this, you know, at birth almost, and it becomes your identity. And if you don’t have that, then then who are you? It’s a very difficult transition.

Shannon Earle: Absolutely. Yeah. For sure.

Lee Kantor: Well, Shannon, it has been a joy chatting with you. Uh, one more time, if people want to connect, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Shannon Earle: Yeah. Coach Shannon. Com is the website, and I think you have my email on the on your radio. Uh, yeah. And that’s a good way. Yeah. So.

Lee Kantor: Well.

Shannon Earle: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

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

Shannon Earle: Thank you.

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

Doug Levin With JobStars USA

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Doug Levin With JobStars USA
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Doug Levin is the Owner of JobStars USA, a career services practice serving entry through executive-level job seekers.

He is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and Career Coach with 10+ years of experience in the world of career services.

Connect with Doug on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How to build an interview-winning resume
  • Why large job boards aren’t your best bet
  • Tips for building your LinkedIn profile
  • Differences between a private sector resume and a federal resume (government)
  • How to connect with recruiters
  • How to build your network

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Doug Levin, who is the owner, resume writer, and career coach with JobStars USA. Welcome, Doug.

Doug Levin: Hey, Lee, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Job Stars USA. How are you serving folks?

Doug Levin: Sure. So Job Stars USA is a career services practice that I started back in 2013. We provide resume writing, career coaching and job seeker services. So all sorts of things ranging from resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, personal bios, career coaching in terms of making a career change. Interview prep and then some kind of job seeker services. So things like applying to jobs on behalf of clients, sending the resume to recruiters. Everything is geared around the B2C, helping individual job seekers achieve their career goals.

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

Doug Levin: Yeah, so like I said, I started the business in 2013. Coming out of undergrad, in 2005, I joined the company CareerBuilder, and I worked there from about 2005 to 2011. You know, back in those times, CareerBuilder and monster were kind of the top two job boards. And so I kind of got, um, you know, a good education on the whole world of job seeking recruiters and job placements. So basically, I worked there for six years. My last role at CareerBuilder was with They had a they had a business called CV resume and it was basically their resume writing service. And so I ran that for two years and learned about the resume writing world, learned about the career coaching world, and after kind of having enough of the corporate world and had just earned my MBA, kind of had an entrepreneurial itch, decided to quit my comfortable corporate job and start a business. So I kind of, from 2011 to 13, kind of laying the foundation, eventually launched my website job stars, uh, another few years of kind of learning the craft and kind of fine tuning the offerings, doing kind of some side hustles along the way. By 2017, I was doing this full time, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

Lee Kantor: So those big job boards like monster and CareerBuilder are those like, do people really get jobs that way? It just seems like a lottery ticket strategy.

Doug Levin: You know? It’s definitely not necessarily the best way to go if you’re a job seeker. I mean, I do think some people certainly get jobs, you know, whether it’s indeed or ZipRecruiter or monster. I mean, these are very popular places to go search. It’s very like just convenient and easy for job seekers. But the problem is, you know, it’s it’s definitely highly trafficked. There’s a lot of competition. There’s a lot of spam jobs. I do think there are real jobs on there. Um, so, you know, it’s it’s a tough, tough place to pin all your hopes as a job seeker. Um, yeah. But, you know, using personal referrals, um, connecting with recruiters, you know, attending in-person events, networking. These are all things you can do besides just, you know, kind of relying on the job boards.

Lee Kantor: So what’s a spam job? And why would someone create a fake job?

Doug Levin: Well, back when I worked at CareerBuilder, lots of companies would kind of purchase. Um, you know, like I said, spam jobs where for one reason or another, they’re posting a job so that they can get access to applicants. Um, whether it’s, you know, people uploading their resume, their phone number, email. I mean, there’s a bunch of nefarious reasons why. I don’t know exactly, but we did have a problem at CareerBuilder where companies would, you know, they would pay CareerBuilder for, hey, we’re posting a job, but then we would learn it was spam job and whatever they were using that for. Um, it wasn’t beneficial to the job seekers. It was making them upset. And so we had well, CareerBuilder had to put in some safeguards to be like, we’re only selling job postings to, you know, actual, legitimate companies.

Lee Kantor: Now, if you were a job seeker in today’s market, um, what are some of the kind of do’s and don’ts to, um, you know, get your next gig?

Doug Levin: Yeah. I mean, I think the number one thing that I would recommend is to leverage your personal connections. So, um, identifying people you can actually count on to, um, put in a good word for you is, is the number one avenue? Um, now, not everyone has the most extensive network of people they can ask, but, you know, kind of that water cooler, you know, two people in an office, you know, um, really has that connection where if you know somebody that works in a company and that company is hiring. That person you know can put in a good word with the decision maker, the hiring manager. They might be friends. They might pass each other in the hallway. And that carries a lot of weight. So it’s a little more strategic to kind of think of it that way. And again, like I said, I understand not everyone’s going to have those connections. Um, but that’s number one. Beyond that, um, you know, if you’re forced to apply to jobs online, which a lot of job seekers are, you know, it’s important to personally, I recommend avoiding the job boards. So kind of what we talked about with the indeed the monster, the ZipRecruiter. I would recommend going directly to a company’s website and applying versus applying through one of these platforms. Same with LinkedIn. So let’s say, you know, Boeing, for instance, is hiring for a position you want to apply to. And it’s and you find that job on indeed. Let’s say you know option A is you can apply through indeed. Option B is you can go to the Boeing website, find the find the posting and apply through there.

Doug Levin: The reason you want to apply through the company website versus a large job board is it’s just another step. It’s another layer. Um, and most job seekers aren’t going to put in the effort to, you know, kind of find the job on the company website. And so they’ll just kind of apply through the job board and it’s just flooded with applications. And even if your resume is perfect, um, you know, the competition is just so high when it’s so convenient and easy to apply. Um, so that’s, that’s, you know, applying through company website. The last thing I would say is making sure your resume is ATS friendly and visually appealing, which basically means if you’re applying to jobs online, you know, taking that example of applying to a job on on the Boeing website. Boeing uses an ATS, right? So there’s all different types of ATS. Ats stands for Applicant Tracking System. Um, it’s basically software that manages the flow of applications. One of the functions of an applicant tracking system is the ability to analyze your resume against the job description that they’re hiring for. So they’re looking for keywords. It’s an automated process. So it’s really important that your resume is free of distortions like graphics images charts, tables things like that. So when we say ATS friendly, you know it should be a document that’s free of those things. And then also it should have the right kind of keywords that are tied to the job posting that you’re applying to so that you have a good score. Um, so yeah, there’s a lot of different things. Those would probably be my top three broad tips for job seekers.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned LinkedIn. Is there, um, some do’s and don’ts around your LinkedIn profile? Are there some things that you’re like, hey, never do that. If I see that that that person’s never going to get hired or things that are like, okay, then this is going to give them a leg up.

Doug Levin: Um, yeah. So, you know, LinkedIn is an important piece of your presentation as a job seeker. So, you know, really it’s your resume and your LinkedIn profile. Those are going to be the two things that recruiters are going to focus on. Um, usually the resumes first, you know, you’ll apply. They’ll look at your resume if they’re interested. Then they’ll if they want to do a deeper dive, check out your LinkedIn. So when you’re approaching, how do you present all your information? The resume and LinkedIn should work in tandem with each other. You know, be complementary to each other. So in a case where, let’s say you have 20 years of experience and you’re trying to keep your resume at two pages, which really isn’t a lot of space. The LinkedIn is kind of your opportunity to kind of backfill and complement your resume. So maybe certain things that don’t make the cut on your resume could go on your LinkedIn. You don’t have the same space limitations over on LinkedIn as you do on the resume. So it’s a strategic thing where, for instance, LinkedIn has a project section where you can include long form descriptions, you know, projects you led, um, programs, engagements, things like this that might just take up too much space on the resume.

Doug Levin: So, you know, if you have projects you want to highlight, use the project section. Build that out. Um, I mean, to your broader question of are there do’s and don’ts? You know, I think everyone’s a little different. Um, I can’t. Nothing comes to mind as far as. Oh, this is a, you know, definite do or don’t red flag, but you just want to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is, is populated with good quality content. Um, so similar to keywords on a resume, you kind of want to think of it the same way over on LinkedIn. So if you imagine a recruiter might be searching on LinkedIn for certain keywords or terms, you want those populated in your resume or in your LinkedIn profile. So in the summary or in your job descriptions, you know, you just want to think about from a search perspective, if a recruiter is looking for someone with B2B sales experience, for instance, you’re going to want that term, um, in your LinkedIn.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about LinkedIn posting? Is there anything you could be doing proactively, strategically to connect with people in the organizations you’re trying to work in and, and either through your own posting or commenting or or dealing with, you know, other people’s posts from the companies you’re targeting. Do you have a strategy around that?

Doug Levin: Yeah. So I think, um, posting is a good way to kind of stand out in the crowd a little bit and to show a little bit of your knowledge or personality or a different side of, you know, your professional presentation. So posting is, you know, different for everybody. Um, one way to approach it is to share other people’s, you know, kind of like a retweet over on Twitter X, you know? So on LinkedIn, you can follow, um, people that you admire in your industry or more broadly. So if you’re a little hesitant to like, you’re not sure what you should post, you can start with just sharing other people’s posts and commenting on it. Um, or, you know, if you do feel comfortable enough to post, um, you know, posting about things, you know, you know, your personal experiences, whether you’re in sales or marketing or you’re in a particular industry, um, you know, just kind of sharing nuggets or tidbits that people might find helpful. And, um, it’s certainly, you know, a way to demonstrate expertise and just willingness to put yourself out there and share your opinion.

Lee Kantor: Now, should you also be using LinkedIn as kind of research for your own intelligence when it comes to targeting individual companies? So like you mentioned, the importance of, oh, if you know somebody at that company, you know, ask them to say, hey, my buddy sent a resume in, you know, so maybe that’ll get them higher up on the list at least. Maybe they’ll get an interview because of that. But on LinkedIn, should you be kind of saying, okay, who’s the second or third degree connection? Maybe, um, that I can kind of warm my way in there to at least identify or find somebody that might know me or somebody that I know so that I can get that referral in.

Doug Levin: Oh, 100%. I mean, I think LinkedIn has to be the number one place where you can kind of map your, you know, connections to companies, to decision makers and really, you know, find who the who the right person is. Um, that’s either making the decision or could be the connection that you need. So, um, one thing is, you know, obviously everyone kind of has a LinkedIn profile, but, you know, companies also have their own profile, you know, so one thing that I like to do and one thing I recommend is following company pages. And so once you follow a company page, you can actually click and see who the employees are of that company. Now if you’re like on just kind of the free LinkedIn service, um, there’s limitations to kind of, you know, the level of employees you can see that work at a company. If you have LinkedIn premium, however, um, you can kind of, you know, peel back the layers and find all the employees that work in a particular company. So, um, and that can be very valuable because let’s say you find a company that’s hiring for a particular position. Um, oftentimes they’ll even show who posted the job. And then so if you can pull that person up and see what common connections you have, I mean, you might be able to, you know, identify that that connection and kind of work your way into a referral or something like that. So, I mean, yeah, LinkedIn to me is just a gold mine for kind of doing research on companies and decision makers and, and finding what you need.

Lee Kantor: Now, you also mentioned recruiters and um, some people, you know, get bombarded by recruiters contacting them, but other people never hear from a recruiter. Um, what are some of the things you could be doing that catch the eye of a recruiter?

Doug Levin: Yeah. So recruiters, um, you know, I think the first thing to understand as a job seeker is that recruiters don’t work for you. Um, recruiters work for, you know, the company that they are trying to place positions for. And so, you know, unless you’re highly specialized or highly, um, you know, highly sought after, you know, recruiters again, their interest is in finding the best candidate and serving their client, which is, um, which is the company that they represent. So, um, but, you know, a savvy recruiter still wants, you know, qualified candidates, you know, coming through their, you know, their inbox or their desk. Right. So most recruiters, um, I mean, and it depends if we’re talking about an in-house recruiter that works for a company or a third party recruiter that works at a staffing firm. But let’s take the example of a third party recruiter that works at a staffing firm. They typically earn their salary when they place a candidate into a role. And so they’ll earn like a percentage of that placement. And so a good recruiter is going to want, you know, qualified candidates coming across their desk so that they have more, you know, a deeper pipeline of candidates that they can present to, to the company. And so while I, you know, while I kind of suggest, hey, it’s important to remember that recruiters work for the company, not you. They still want to hear from, you know, qualified candidates. So as a job seeker, um, you know, there are ways to outreach and, you know, kind of introduce yourself, whether it’s going to a recruiter, um, like a staffing firms website.

Doug Levin: Most staffing firms have a contact us. They’ll say, upload your resume. Leave us a note. You know, and that’s a way for recruiters to for job seekers to kind of connect with recruiters. There’s no guarantee or promise of anything. But, you know, that’s one simple way to just get your resume into the hands of recruiters. And if they find you valuable. Valuable, they might have an opportunity. Um, another thing is like, uh, distribution services. So there are. There are resume distribution services where you could basically email your resume to recruiters at staffing and search firms. That’s a little more like, um, less work than what I just mentioned as far as going from firm to firm and uploading your resume, that’s kind of more convenient. Um, it’s like an email blast and you’re sending your resume out to a bunch of recruiters, um, oftentimes thousands at once. And that’s just a simple way to to kind of, um, get your resume out there. Otherwise, if you want to be recruited, if you want to be headhunted, you know, it’s it’s really building a strong LinkedIn profile, making sure your profile is populated with content, um, the right keywords and all that so that recruiters can find you. You have to make yourself visible and attractive so that recruiters want to contact you.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk a little bit about Job Stars USA. Um, who is the ideal candidate to be working with you?

Doug Levin: You know, so I work with a pretty broad range of clients. What I would say is, you know, we’re exclusively B2C, which means business to consumer. So we work with entry level through executive level professionals. However, we don’t, um, kind of do the B2B side. So large outplacement or anything like that, which is beneficial for, you know, our clients because we’re we’re able to kind of keep a little more of a boutique feel, um, a little more personal focus. We’re not serving these large outplacement contracts. Um, having said that, within the B2C Career services. Like I said, entry level through exec. Um, a broad range of industries. There isn’t necessarily one particular client. I’ve worked with 22 year olds coming out of undergrad. I’ve worked with CEOs of companies. So a really broad range there.

Lee Kantor: So what is their the pain that they’re having where they have to call Doug. Are they just frustrated or they just want this to happen faster. Like what is their struggle.

Doug Levin: Yeah, I think it’s both those things. It’s a lot of different things. You know, the job search is is full of rejection and frustration and difficulty. It’s highly competitive. Um, I guess I would say kind of the most prominent thing is people need help with their resume, um, building something that’s visually appealing, that works with applicant tracking systems, that communicates you know, the extent of their experience and achievements. There’s a lot that goes into that. Like even with even with AI and all the different resources out there, building resumes is a craft. You know, I’ve been doing this a while now, and it really is it a craft. And so a lot of people just, you know, don’t have the time, don’t have the experience or the, the want to, to kind of engage in that. Um. Also a lot of times, you know, it’s, it’s the career coaching side. So it’s the interview prep, it’s the career change. It’s the dissatisfaction with the career path and identifying a new a new way forward, um, or preparing for interviews. So, yeah.

Lee Kantor: Is there merit for people who are maybe they’ve already started their career, but to, you know, kind of job hop their way to higher salary faster than by staying in one organization for a long period of time.

Doug Levin: Um, I wouldn’t recommend that. I suppose it’s possible. But, you know, the risk with job hopping is, you know, it kind of, you know, doesn’t look great on a resume. And you’ll get questions about how come you’re only in this role for a little while or, um, and so it might be beneficial or advantageous in the short term, but in the long run, I think you’re probably better off sticking it out with the with the company that you’re with. As long as it’s a good company and there’s upward, you know, potential and that most employers hiring managers appreciate longevity.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. Where should they go? How do they connect with you?

Doug Levin: Sure. So job stars.com. It’s all one word. Uh, I’m the owner. You’re welcome to reach out and, um, send a contact us through the website. You can give me a call (312) 788-9686. Happy to, um, review your resume or LinkedIn profile or just kind of provide any support that I can.

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

Doug Levin: Awesome. It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me, Lee.

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

Ross Sonnabend With Verusen

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Ross Sonnabend With Verusen
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As CPO, at Verusen, Ross Sonnabend is responsible for product and design, the product portfolio and the customer experience. He brings exceptional expertise and industry knowledge in technology products with over 20 years of experience with established and startup companies, drawing on a background in Business Strategy, Finance, Operations, and Product Management.

He has worked with investors, founders, and management to help strategize and develop company vision, bring products to market, and ultimately take ideas from paper to scaled businesses. Ross was recognized as a Supply Chain Pros to Know by Supply and Demand Chain Executive in 2021, 2022, & 2023.

Most recently, he was Senior Vice President, Product, Strategy, and Marketing at RF Code, a leader in industrial IOT and hardware asset management for data centers and supply chains. Before RF Code, he served as COO of Univa (sold to Altair in 2020) and was a founding member of Interset Software, a leader in Security Analytics, which was sold to Microfocus in 2019.

Connect with Ross on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About Verusen
  • About Verusen’s clients and what industries they’re serving
  • About Explainability AI Agent

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories today on the Land of business radio. We have Ross Sonnabend, and he is the chief product officer with Verusen. Welcome.

Ross Sonnabend: Hey, Lee, it’s great to be here. Thanks for having me.

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

Ross Sonnabend: Sure. Verusen is a purpose built AI solution that serves the maintenance, repair, and operations MRO space. The MRO space is part of the indirect supply chain that helps keep manufacturing lines up and running, stamping out widgets.

Lee Kantor: And then we’re here to talk about a new AI product that you guys have developed.

Ross Sonnabend: Yeah. So we just released a new bit of functionality around our solution in general that helps explain the decisions our AI solution actually makes.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we get too far into that, do you mind kind of giving us an AI 101 about what you’re seeing today on the landscape of AI, what’s available for enterprise entrepreneurs, organizations, and, um, where maybe there’s an opportunity there for them?

Ross Sonnabend: Yeah, absolutely. So I think first and foremost I is a catch all at this point, right? It means many different things to many different people. And so when I’m talking about AI, I’m talking about a collection of techniques that allow for more automated decision making. Uh, you know, starting with, you know, things like natural language processing, things like machine learning, things like agentic AI, you know, all the way up through generative AI, which is what I think most people think today when they talk about when they think about AI, they are thinking generative AI, which are the ChatGPT, the Claude’s, the Gemini’s of the world. Right. And that’s that’s because those guys are taking a lot of oxygen out of the room. And it’s very cool. It’s very cutting edge. But the big question for those types of technologies are, how can it be used in an enterprise context, whether you’re an entrepreneur or whether you’re an enterprise enterprise software company like we are or an enterprise itself. The big question is, out of all of these different techniques that are available to you, what’s the right use case and when is the right use case to, you know, to use these particular techniques? And so I think, you know, where where we are and what Verusen does is a, you know, purpose built application for this MRO space using purpose built AI.

Ross Sonnabend: So if you think of Gemini or you think of ChatGPT, all of those are generally available models. That means that they’re trained on, you know, publicly available information that’s out there in the world for the purposes of answering general questions. Right. You know, like the other day, I was asking ChatGPT about my low voltage wiring. So that’s great for answering general questions. But when you want to get down to domain specific areas like MRO, for example. There’s not a lot of training that’s happened on that stuff. And so where the opportunity is, is to go deep into domain specific areas like MRO and then build on top of, you know, build solutions that are purpose built for the domain that you’re going after using the techniques and technologies that are available to you.

Lee Kantor: And then so that’s what Verusen has done, right. Like, so you created us your own AI around this specific, uh, industry and the work that you’re doing.

Ross Sonnabend: Right. So like we said, MRO is a very specialized space, right? It’s focused on procurement, folks. It’s focused on maintenance and operation folks. And it is unless you’re in the space, you don’t really know about it, right. And so what Verizon. And so all AI solutions kind of start with the data. What Verizon has done is amassed a certain amount of data about the MRO space. Like for example, we have ingested over 40 million parts that are used in MRO space. That comprises over $12 billion in annual spend. We’re growing that and looking at, you know, expanding that data base, you know, with every customer that we bring on. And so that data forms the basis of all of the AI models that we build or the training that we do that allows us to be able to build what I like, I would call this like a small language model where instead of thinking about it as an LM, you know, we’ve built a model that has knowledge and is specific to to our space.

Lee Kantor: So now how does that help your client? Like how do they leverage this, um, amount of data that you’ve accumulated and put it in a machine that’s going to give it, I guess, more actionable information.

Ross Sonnabend: Yeah, it’s a great question. So in our space, along with, you know, almost any other space I’ve ever worked in, you know, data is a problem. In the first question they have to ask yourself is, what do I have to do to prepare my data to be used by some of these systems? What Verizon has done is we’ve kind of eliminated that question by using AI. So we take data as it stands in your legacy systems and ingest that data. When we ingest that data, we use advanced technologies using Llms and NLP to make sense of that data and fit it to our data model. Once it’s in our data model, then we actually run machine learning models to make recommendations on these inventory stocking policies. Right. And that’s something that historically humans have had to do, right? They had to look at maintenance records. They’ve had to look at the expected life of every little part that goes into a machine and make a gut feeling, you know, recommendation that says, I think we need to have, you know, five of these on hand and ten of these on hand. What we’ve done is we’ve taken that knowledge, built our machine learning models to make these recommendations, and then we use generative AI through this new capability that we just launched to explain the decisions that you’re making. So the benefit and upshot of all of that is a as a customer of Verizon, you can get to value in under 90 days, which is which is really good.

Ross Sonnabend: Second, you don’t have to tell us everything about your data. The system understands the data as it’s been given to us. We map it to our model and we’re able to make recommendations very, very quickly. And thirdly, you know, lots of companies use AI or ML machine learning to make recommendations or help make decisions, but what they don’t do is help explain why they made those decisions. And so there’s this criticism of AI that it’s a black box technology. In other words, if you were to go and say like, why did it make this decision? A lot of companies will say like, well, it’s just the AI algorithm making the decision for you based on the inputs that we’ve trained on it. You know, what we’ve tried to do is go that extra mile to be able to say, if you know nothing about AI, but you know a lot about MRO, we want to be able to give you the data that you need to validate the decision that was being that was made. And we do that in a plain English generative AI, uh, set of statements that we generate for every recommendation that we make.

Lee Kantor: So this AI agent is not a kind of a search box for your clients to use. This is just an engine for you to help your clients.

Ross Sonnabend: So I think that’s a really good distinction. It’s a really good point. When we talk about agentic AI, we’re not necessarily talking about chat bots. You know, when I talk about agentic AI, what I mean are task driven, purpose built, like for for our purposes, let’s call them little applications that do one thing really, really well. So this agent that we’ve built that we call our explainability agent all it does, its entire purpose in life is to look at the outputs that our machine learning models output and explain them using plain English understanding.

Lee Kantor: Right. But again, this isn’t like your clients aren’t going to a portal and typing in. Explain this to me. You are using this to give reports to your clients that explained things to them.

Ross Sonnabend: Right? It’s less about reports. And like in our in our user experience, every part that we have, we make a recommendation on. So every recommendation also has an explanation on the screen. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: And that explanation is a new development right. Like that’s the new thing.

Ross Sonnabend: Yeah. I mean it’s all relatively new, but that the new new thing is that we’re using generative AI to, to develop those explanations so that if you don’t know anything about AI, but you want to understand why our system made the recommendation that it did, it tells you, you know, 4 or 5 plain English sentences right there on the screen.

Lee Kantor: So, um, giving this new information to your clients, is that like, how is that helping them make better decisions or helping them, you know, make another dollar.

Ross Sonnabend: So the benefit of our system in general is usually working capital savings, cost savings, or not buying something that they would have otherwise bought. Spend avoidance. Right. So what we’re doing, what explainability does in general is it builds a layer of transparency, right. Because we’re not afraid of explaining why we made the decisions that our system made and trust. Right. So that now you have a skilled operator on the other end saying, okay, why did Verusen make this decision? We tell that operator why the decision was made. And then they get to either agree or disagree with it, make sure that they, you know, make sure that they agree with it. And then they, you know, they go and are able to execute that. That bit gives someone who doesn’t necessarily trust AI the ability to feel good about the decisions that it’s making. Number one. Number two is in our space. At least, there’s a growing problem of skilled workers aging out and not enough skilled workers coming back into the same roles. And so our system, being able to explain the decisions that it’s making, can actually help people who maybe have less experience in making some of these decisions, gain more trust and be able to make the decisions that they would otherwise not be able to make.

Lee Kantor: And does this happen faster than it did previously?

Ross Sonnabend: So it is for every recommendation that we make. The explanation is there instantaneously. So if you were to pull up a record in our system, you would the first thing that you’re going to see is the explanation that the system has given it. So other before we implemented this, you know, what you would do is you’d go and you’d look at the screen. It would have these different metrics and KPIs on there saying, here’s what your old policy was, here’s what your new policy is, here’s the service level it’s expecting. And then you, as a skilled operator, would have to put all those different data points together and say like, do I agree with this or disagree with this? What the explainability does is it removes the need for someone to spend the time connecting those dots. We’re connecting the dots for them.

Lee Kantor: And then what is this thing rolled out right now or what stage are you at in its development?

Ross Sonnabend: Oh yeah. So this is this is our first generative AI solution, and it’s the first agent that we’ve built. It is generally available today with our software. Um, but the really cool and exciting thing is, is that this is a foundational capability for other types of AI agents that we are currently in development on.

Lee Kantor: Oh, so this is the first of many?

Ross Sonnabend: Absolutely. Like, we are committed to Agentic AI, which again is more focused on building task oriented AI applications that do one thing really, really well. So like for example, one of the next agents that we are, you know, working on is around accepting recommendations, right? So today in our system, you have if you have 250,000, uh, materials that you are keeping, an inventory will make a recommendation on all 250,000. And we expect that someone is going in and reviewing that and making a decision. That’s not that’s that’s good. And it’s important. It’s kind of the state of the state. Uh, you know, three years ago Today, we think we can use AI to help accelerate those decisions and acceptances with human guardrails on there so that so that humans are not taken out of the decision loop. But instead of focusing your time on accepting or rejecting a recommendation, we really want you focused on achieving the business goals that you’re trying to achieve. And in this case, those business goals are identifying where you already have materials and, you know, in your company instead of having to buy them. Identifying obsolete materials, identifying where you have, um, off contract buys that can be made on contract buys. These are the kinds of things we want our customers focused on. Not not, you know, having to go through 250,000 recommendations and make a an agree or disagree decision.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you decide which, um, kind of specific thing to focus on next. Like how are you prioritizing this? Are you getting input from your customers, or is this something that internally you’re doing on your own? Like how do you decide you know, which is the next? You know what comes next on the roadmap?

Ross Sonnabend: It’s a great it’s a great question. Right. And it’s always, you know, this is the the biggest burden of of being a product manager in general is how do you make the decision on what gets prioritized when you have all of these different competing priorities. Right. So we’ve got customer feedback. We’ve got our own set of views. We’ve got prospects feedback. We’ve got our sales team’s feedback. You get feedback from, you know, ten, 15 different vectors. Um, ultimately it comes down for us to two things. One is what about our system? Can we use AI to improve and kind of ten-x, right? How can we make the experience ten times better than it is today? And that example of just making a a, A giving an explanation. You know, today when we didn’t do that before, that’s like a ten x type of improvement. Um, so that’s one that’s one branch of the decision tree. The other branch of the decision tree is, you know, where are customers struggling, right? Where do customers want help? Uh, because that’s the lowest hanging fruit. We see challenge here. Let me help fix that challenge. And that’s where we, you know, we got to this acceptance agent idea. It’s customers don’t want to have to go through and accept 250,000 recommendations. They want the value that you get after you review those recommendations. So how can we use AI to help them get to that value more quickly, you know? And then thirdly, you know, um, sales. Right. What are gaps in the market or gaps in our product that we can use AI I to to shore up. So those are kind of the three main vectors that we look at when we think about how we productize the so product.

Lee Kantor: So 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?

Ross Sonnabend: Uh, the best way is uh verusen.com. So it’s www.verusen.com or verusen.ai. And, you know, we have lots of materials available there, demos available. And then if you want to get in contact with someone, there’s a button right in the middle of the screen to say contact us.

Lee Kantor: And Verusen is spelled v e r u s e n.

Ross Sonnabend: Yes.

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

Ross Sonnabend: Thanks, Lee. I appreciate you having me.

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

Leigh Burns With Fox Theatre/Fox Gives

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Leigh Burns With Fox Theatre/Fox Gives
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Fox Gives is the philanthropic arm of Atlanta’s historic Fox Theatre, dedicated to preserving historic theaters and supporting local communities. Opening in 1929 with nearly 100 years of history, the Fox Theatre has become a driving force of preservation, with dedicated efforts to maintain its original character while inspiring hope and revitalization for other historic venues throughout the Southeast.

Since 2017, Leigh Burns has been the Director of the Fox Theatre Institute, a division of the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. Before joining the Fox Theatre, she held positions as the Education Coordinator with the Georgia Main Street Program and additionally served as the Outreach Program Manager and Certified Local Government Coordinator with the Georgia Historic Preservation Division.

Most recently, Leigh was named as director of Community Partnerships for Fox Gives, an enhanced community partnerships program dedicated to preservation efforts and support for theaters throughout the Southeast. In this new role, she will focus on the overall success of Fox Theatre’s Multiyear Grant Program and sustaining and leveraging partnerships for Fox Gives. She will also oversee staff of the All-Access Pass Program and will extend bilingual education goals for the nonprofit’s Fox in a Box Program.

Leading Fox Gives, she oversees all grant programs, education, membership, statewide theatre presenting and preservation partnerships. Since 2008, the Fox has awarded $3.2 million dollars in financial support for historic theatres in Georgia and the Southeast. Additionally, her team supports more than fifty-five statewide non-profit theatres and arts centers through Georgia Presenters.

She has twenty-five years of professional historic preservation experience including internships with the National Park Service and the Historic Oakland Foundation and received a Masters of Heritage Preservation Degree from Georgia State University. In 2014, she received an Award of Excellence in Historic Preservation Service from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission.

A native of College Park, Georgia, Leigh resides in Druid Hills and serves on the boards of the Georgia Downtown Association, the Red & Black and Young Harris College Alumni.

Connect with Leigh on LinkedIn and follow Fox Theatre on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What is Fox Gives, and how did it grow out of the Fox Theatre Institute

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories today on Atlanta Business Radio. We have Leigh Burns, who is the director of community partnerships with Fox Theater Fox Gives. Welcome.

Leigh Burns: Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me today.

Lee Kantor: Well, for folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Fox gives? How did that begin and how are you serving folks through that?

Leigh Burns: Absolutely. Well, Fox gives is now kind of the the second generation of the Fox Theater Institute, which started in 2008. Anyone who’s from Atlanta probably knows a little bit about the Fox Theater history. And we were saved in the 1970s, and our board has been amazing and really giving us the opportunity to share not only professional development and trainings across the state, but grant funds. We’ve now given away about $4.2 million in grants and have about five different programs to kind of help smaller theaters around our state, and even some in the southeast grow and then continue to have success.

Lee Kantor: So when it comes to the giving part of Fox gives, you mentioned helping the other theaters, but how did that evolve at first? I mean, as you mentioned, the Fox Theater was kind of in a tricky situation in the 70s. And then how did it grow out of it, and how did it get to the point where now you can be so generous?

Leigh Burns: Sure. Well, I mean, you fast forward a couple of decades, and the Fox Theater has been fortunate to really, um, have a great opportunity for selling tickets, for having big events, for earning end earning revenue that could be shared with other theaters. But the step in between that that we saw, where theaters were reaching out to us a lot at the Fox for referrals for work, especially conservation, restoration type work, also with operational advice and the outreach from the theaters became so strong that the board really thought, you know, this would be a great way for us to continue the legacy of our early years as Atlanta landmarks. What people probably don’t realize is the Fox was going to be just one of many buildings that are our first original kind of grandfather board started. And so this gives us an opportunity to work on other historic buildings and pay our successes forward. So of course, first, operating well in the black, having great opportunities with Broadway, with comedy, with dance, with everything, and and making that success known. And then also, I think you have to remember the, the groundswell of kind of a return to Midtown and the success that Midtown’s have. So being able to pay that back around our state has been a huge gift for us.

Lee Kantor: Now, there’s a lot of talk about how movie theaters are struggling. Is live theater not being impacted in the same way that movie theaters are?

Leigh Burns: No, we’re really not seeing that.

Leigh Burns: Um, we’ve had a tremendous Broadway season this year and plan for one next year. I think there’s a couple things at play. I think post Covid, people want that sense of community. Um, they want to experience live theater together. Comedy shows are definitely more successful and more popular than they’ve ever been. I think there’s this sense of that isolation that we felt and needing to come back out and be together to do things and maybe even step off technology and put the phones away and experience something, live together in a shared environment.

Lee Kantor: So you think that in movie theaters, it’s too close to being watching it in their house with their big screen TV? And then that live theater is like a totally different event and experience.

Leigh Burns: We do. I think it’s a very different experience. I mean, obviously there were, um, opportunities to see, um, musicals and things like that during Covid through all kinds of, you know, launch platforms. But we really don’t think you can duplicate the experience of seeing that live and in person here at 660 Peachtree Street. We just think that’s still a priceless experience for most people.

Lee Kantor: So can you talk a little bit about what the day to day looks like? Um, for Fox gives, are you? I’m sure you’re bombarded with requests, but how do you kind of curate and decide? Um, you know how the funds are shared?

Leigh Burns: Sure.

Leigh Burns: So once a year, um, we start that process in July. We have an open application where you, um, submit a letter of intent. Then you’re given access to proceed with the application. Your theater has to be a nonprofit or operated by a city or county. Of course, some of our grants require a match. So you have to come to the table with match for that project. Um, you submit the application. We have a committee of outside reviewers that scores those. We award those by by competition. We award them typically around September. And then you have until the end of the next fiscal year, which actually wraps up for us around June 15th. So it’s a pretty quick process. We usually have about 2020 to 25 applicants for half $1 million in annual funding. So it’s fairly competitive. Um, but we see a lot of theaters and performing arts centers coming back to get multi-levels of funding. So they might start one phase with securing their roof. Then the next year they come in and do historic plaster repair. Then they might wait and come back and work on some things like replacing seats and those kind of things. So everything’s kind of done in phases. Um, but it’s, it’s been very successful. And, and we’re now in our 17th year of Fox gives and so proud of what we’ve been able to share.

Lee Kantor: Now um, is there any effort, um, in the education space with so many cuts when it comes to the arts, whether it’s music or theater programs? Um, from the schools themselves, is there any outreach that Fox does when it comes to education?

Leigh Burns: Absolutely.

Leigh Burns: In March of 2024, we launched our new high school program. It’s called All Access Pass. It provides an opportunity for high school students to come here to the Fox and experience not just a show, but shadowing professionals here at their Fox, at their day to day jobs at the Fox, we also go out to the schools and we work with them, and we really talk to them about not just singing and dancing and acting, but what life looks like for our own careers. For those of us who might work in sound design and light design in marketing. So we have made a conscious effort really to ramp up our education program. We’ve had our Fox in a box program for over a decade, which is our K-5 program. But this expansion into high school has really given us opportunities to look at job development. That was something that our board and when we went out and did strategic planning, really wanted to focus on how we could encourage that. So that’s what the All Access Pass program does.

Lee Kantor: So how do you, um, see Atlanta’s arts and theater community as compared to other kind of similar sized cities out there?

Leigh Burns: I think our arts.

Leigh Burns: Programs are still continuing to grow. We collaborate a lot with our fellow partners around the city. We’ve worked with theatrical outfit Seven Stages. Um, we still have art centers not yet to open. We’ve been working with a community in Grove Park for about seven years, and they’re going to be opening a new performing arts center. So I think the health of performing arts is very strong. Um, in spite of what we’ve seen at the federal level with cuts to NEA and other programs, I really feel like, um, now more than ever, people need this outlet and this place to be social. Around the arts. Um, the high museum is thriving. Center for Puppetry arts. So many of our neighbors. Atlanta Botanical Garden has amazing performance based, you know, opportunity. So we just see it as room for growth. And and we’re excited.

Lee Kantor: Now where do you see some opportunity? Is there any, uh, types of theaters you’d like to see more of, or is there any types of, um, whether it’s more comedy? You mentioned that there’s been a lot more comedy lately. Do we have enough of those and enough diversity around the types of content that’s being made in those venues?

Leigh Burns: Well, I think we’ve started to see a little bit more dance. Um, focus on dance again in Atlanta. It appears that, um, people really are connecting to more of an opportunity to diversify programing. You know, we’re so lucky here at the Fox that we host Alvin Ailey American Theater Company every year in February, and we’ve been able to work with our students around that. We’re just hoping that we can continue to provide the best diverse programing for not just the Atlanta audience, but for the Georgia and with our grants program. You know, if if there’s things that our grantees need, um, to diversify their own programing, maybe they need a spring floor for dance, maybe they need Technology upgrades to their ticketing and website systems. That’s even something that we provide here at the Fox through Technical assistance grants.

Lee Kantor: So, um, how does the the money get generated for Fox gives? Is that donations or is that just built into ticket pricing. Like how do how do you kind of build the funds so that you can, you know, reinvest them into the community?

Leigh Burns: Right. It’s earned income here at the Fox. Um, portions of tickets also concessions, um, some merch. And then of course, we have our amazing ballrooms which earn a, a nice, um, you know, profit for us. So we return that out back into the state. And again, it goes back to our mission of to preserve and share. And so we take a portion of our funds that we earn, and we give it back to communities around our state. We’ve been so fortunate, um, that we’ve been able to do that.

Lee Kantor: So what’s on the, uh, kind of roadmap moving forward? Anything you’re excited about?

Leigh Burns: Well, the roadmap moving forward looks great with grants. We selected a multiyear grant last year. We gave one grant for half $1 million to Hart County Community Theater. They have made a lot of efforts around rehabilitating their facade and beginning to make a lot of upgrades to their interiors. So we’re looking at seeing kind of that investment come to fruition. That’s the largest investment we’ve ever made in a single theater, um, with one check at a time. So that’s really on the horizon. And then our second season, our second, um, school season of our all access pass program will begin. We’re in the selection process right now, so that will begin in September. And just really looking forward to continuing some of these programs and and inspiring youth and, you know, really getting them talking with their other family members about how they can be engaged generationally in the arts.

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

Leigh Burns: What we would love more of is.

Leigh Burns: People to support their local theaters. Get out there and volunteer. Um. Get out and come to a performance. Support them. Have their children engaged. You know, all kinds of opportunities around art education. Many of our theaters are in performing arts centers that offer classes, um, that have galleries that sell items to continue their business. So just really being aware of what’s around you. We have a great, um, website where you can find out more about our grants and our theaters we work with, and we would love that engagement.

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

Leigh Burns: It is Fox theater.org.

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

Leigh Burns: Thank you so much, Lee. We appreciate this opportunity.

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

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