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Scott Kelly With Bank of America

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

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

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

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

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

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

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsors CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on Atlanta Business Radio. We have Scott Kelly, who’s the Senior Vice President, Market Executive with Georgia Business Banking section of Bank of America. Welcome, Scott.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lee Kantor: Should they just walk into a bank.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will Christensen With Entrepreneur’s Apprentice

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

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

Connect with Will on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

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

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Will Christensen, and he is the co-founder of Data Automation and founder of Entrepreneur’s Apprentice. Welcome.

Will Christensen: Hey, thanks for having me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lee Kantor: And what does that mean?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will Christensen: Exactly. That.

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

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

Will Christensen: Sure thing.

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

Will Christensen: Great.

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

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

Will Christensen: Glad to be here.

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

Andre Melchionda With Arrivato Imports

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

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

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

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

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

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

Connect with Andre on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What does Arrivato Imports supply

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Andre Melchionda and he is with Arrivato Imports. Welcome.

Andre Melchionda: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lee Kantor: Is it 20? Is it 50?

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

Lee Kantor: It can’t be a hundred.

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

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

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

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

Andre Melchionda: Chefs all the time.

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

Andre Melchionda: Absolutely.

Andre Melchionda: Yep, yep.

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

Andre Melchionda: Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

Sara Daw With The CFO Centre

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Sara-Daw
Atlanta Business Radio
Sara Daw With The CFO Centre
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Sara Daw, Entrepreneur, Researcher, Writer & Speaker, Future of Work Expert.

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

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

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

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

Connect with Sara on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

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

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor are here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Sarah Daw. She is the co-founder and CEO of the CFO center, and she’s author of the book Strategy and leadership as a service how the Access Economy meets the C-suite. Welcome, Sarah.

Sara Daw: Hello. Thanks for having me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sara Daw: In terms of the.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sara Daw: Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Madeleine F. Wallace With Windrose Vision

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Dr. Madeleine F. Wallace With Windrose Vision
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kanter interviews Dr. Madeleine Wallace, founder of Windrose Vision. Dr. Wallace discusses her consulting framework for organizational transformation, emphasizing the importance of upskilling and reskilling in the face of technological advancements, particularly AI. She shares her personal journey from Peru, where her parents’ business struggles influenced her career path. Dr. Wallace highlights the need for adaptability and continuous learning, advocating for “exploratory sprints” to discover career interests. She also discusses the evolving landscape of education, where skills are becoming more valuable than traditional degrees. Her book offers practical tools for career development in the digital age.
Dr. Madeleine F. Wallace is a dynamic and versatile professional, author, serial entrepreneur, scientist, investor, and the founder of Windrose Vision, a strategy and research consulting firm in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Originally from Peru, she immigrated to the US, excelled academically, and is less than 1% of foreign-born Latinas in the US who hold a doctorate.

She is a recognized expert and seasoned trainer in data-driven decision-making, change management, and adaptive culture.Dr. Wallace has assessed the effectiveness of diverse training and career development efforts for professionals, scientists, and the underemployed across federal, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Her contributions to national studies include evaluating the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) award, the Early Independence Award, and the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) program, as well as the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) ADVANCE program.

Connect with Madeleine on LinkedIn and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What prompted Madeleine to write her new book
  • How digital and AI technologies have affected the workplace and what this means for career seekers and entrepreneurs
  • Insights on people who have used the SEAM framework in his or her journey—searching for a career or as an entrepreneur

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 Dr Madeleine Wallace with Windrose Vision. Welcome.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Hi. How are you this afternoon?

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

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. So Windrose Vision is a consulting company and we assist organizations in their transformation. We focus on four areas the finances, the employees, their partners. And also like, what do they do? And then based on that, we come up with a strategy so it can increase the increase the performance. And we identify different areas where maybe a new market. So we use my framework that is called the sync framework. That is a snapshot ambition act and measure. And the snapshot is when we assess the needs. And then the envision is where we identify where we want to go. And then on the third step that is the act is where we have a plan and we execute the plan. And then number four, which is the most important, is where we actually assess progress and assess whether or not we have achieved the goals that we established in the envision step.

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

Dr Madeleine Wallace: So my father and mother, I’m from Peru and my parents had a vocational school in Peru. And they used to teach back then like shorthand, typing, accounting, Bookkeeping. And guess what happened in the 1980s? Well, in the 1980s, my parents couldn’t transform. They couldn’t re-engineer themselves and buy the computers and start teaching computers. So my parents had to close the business and we had to move to another city. And that was a cultural shock for me in everything, but also in that I saw my parents from being owners of a business to become employees, and that really shaped the person who I am today, because I want to provide the the tools for businesses to succeed and to transform because it’s technology that is changing everything. I so that was my first book, and then my parents also were excellent mentors. They were ahead of their time in terms of the role of women and also the different roles for men. So I decided to write my second book and my second book is about thrive in the AI and digital age. And again, I use my framework to help individuals and also organizations to upskill and reskill. And so all of this was motivated for what happened to my parents.

Lee Kantor: And then what got you to America?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: That’s right. So then I, I wanted to come to the United States to study. So I came to the United States by my own. So my my father’s passed away, but I came by myself. So I went to the I did my undergraduate and then graduate school. And I say my motivation has always been get as many skills as as many as you can. And that is going to be something that nobody can take away. So when I was in graduate school, I was teaching at the university, but I was able I had a teaching and research assistantship. So as long as I taught my classes and as long as I took the coursework required for my PhD, I was fine. But since I was an international student, I couldn’t work outside the university. So during university I went to University of Tennessee. I taught sociology, social problems, and statistics. So since I couldn’t get out of the university, so then what I did was I took a lot of classes in engineering, in political science, in statistics. And that has given me, um, these different perspectives. So you have a problem. I can look at it from different angles. So what it was challenging or became an obstacle in the past has become my biggest asset for my company because I can do projects from diverse fields. Um, and I used to be the director of performance and evaluation for the National Institutes of Health. And I know I don’t have a background in biomedical. I’m actually a sociologist and statistician. So but because of my, I would say, interdisciplinary background, then I’m able to assess the effectiveness of programs and be able to come up with a good framework for organizations and individuals to achieve their goals.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you left academia, did you immediately start your own practice or did you work for an enterprise level organization?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Okay, so when I left academia, I had a unique opportunity that my husband moved to a small town because he’s an engineer. So that’s when I started doing working with nonprofits. So I started working with nonprofits and then from nonprofits. We moved to Washington, DC. And then in Washington, D.C. what we did was, um, I work for large companies, for corporate America, large federal contractors. Like, um, um, back then was like ICF. Um, well, still today, Northrop Grumman. So huge companies. And they have large contracts. So then I left consulting, and then I went to the government and I worked for the National Institute of Health. Then I left the National Institute of Health, and I created my new company, vision. So I have experience in different areas and in different sectors. The nonprofit, the for profit academia, um, you know, the government and of course the small businesses. My company is a small business.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s the pain uh, your prospective clients are having right now where Windrose can help them.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: So I think there are two going on. Um, one is about how to incorporate technology into their business processes, specifically AI, but in a way that they can actually see return on investment. And many times we spend too much time on social media because we think that’s going to be the one that is going to give us the most. But many times you need to put it into your processes. So even though we have made a lot of progress on that, I still I still think that is a challenge because you really have to see your return on investment and it may take a couple of years. And the other one that is the my second book is the one about. Individuals specifically how they are going to upskill and reskill. Since the job marketing is changing constantly and many people think they are going to be replaced by AI, right? So my book, I have a different exercises. I have also an assessment for the skills, and provide a perspective where individuals can basically engage in what I call a sprints. And on those little sprints they gain new knowledge, new skills, and then they are ready to go ahead and and decide what career they need to or what path they need to go through. So my point is that everybody is overwhelmed, right? So what I provide in my book for individuals is to say, hey, this is your career profile based on what you want right now at this point in time.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: That gives them like a push for them to try different things. And once they try different things on those little sprints, then they can go ahead and decide what path they go. It’s very different than the traditional approach. They tell you, oh, start with your goals or start with your career vision, when actually you don’t really know. We don’t really know. There is so much going on. So my book is very action oriented to give individuals basically the tools so that they can change their career, pivot their career, um, decide what they want to do. So that’s for individuals. And then for HR departments. For companies, my framework can be used for HR because it tells them what to do if they want to upskill their current employees because, you know, AI is everywhere. But how do you implement something that is going to work and and take into consideration, like the people you know, your staff, uh, consideration, your finances, your partners, you know, your customers? So I provide the, again, the framework for them to say, hey, you can do this, and this will help you to, uh, your employees to gain your skills. And these are different strategies you can do to be effective and actually see the return on investment, which is the biggest challenge.

Lee Kantor: Now? Um, what’s your vision of how AI is going to impact the business world? Is it a tool that everyone is going to be able to leverage? If you can kind of figure out how to best leverage it, or is it going to be a tool that’s just going to obliterate, you know, a lot of the working class and they’re going to be kind of left behind.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: You know, that’s a that’s an excellent point. Um, okay. So basically. We do need to understand how AI functions. We have to have a clear understanding of that. It doesn’t mean that all of us have to become programmers, or have to become the ones who develop the technology or use the technology. So I favor an approach where technology and AI and humans, they interact and they collaborate. And because the individuals will still have agency and we have creativity and ingenuity. And that is something that right now, of course, technology is evolving. I at this point. Well, I know just recently what happened yesterday about the new tool that everybody is talking from China. So but my point is that the, the context, we still have to work on the context in terms of AI. And I still believe that it’s a collaborative effort. However, it’s true on certain industries. Yes. Something that is very manual, something that is repetitive. Of course. Um, that’s going to change. That’s what happened in the past with other technologies. But again, I think it’s the individual responsibility and then the companies responsibility to upskill and reskill. So it’s not like it was in the past that somebody’s going to tell us, oh, you all you need to do this. You need to do that. That’s what my book is so important because we are the architects of our own destiny, and we are the ones who actually have to learn about and say, okay, these are my skills.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: This is how I can contribute. And in my book, I mentioned about three areas that we need to keep. So you need to see your skills in terms of the technology trends, the emerging technology, and what is going on in your field or in the field that you would like to be. So all I’m trying to say is that yes, there are jobs that are going to disappear, especially those that are very repetitive, but then it is up to the individual to go ahead and say, hey, this is what is going on with technology, but I can do this other because I have these critical skills. So we still have to analyze. We still have to interpret. Now let’s see that the technology interpret everything. Well I still believe it’s going to be new jobs and new opportunities. We have to have this optimistic view about the future Otherwise, we’re going to become what we were. It’s inertia. And if you if you don’t do anything, then it’s when things happen. But if you constantly move, then you’re going to make progress. You’re going to find out where where your skills can be applied. That’s what in my book I mentioned about sprints. Like we have to constantly try to learn something new. Even myself like right now.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: And I’m teaching myself French with this little app and I’m doing like 15 days, 15 minutes a day. And it’s hard, but actually it is good for my brain. So my point is like we have to learn every day something new and then we will be okay. Then when changes happen. And my last point is that it is up to the business. It is up to the business owner or the company, the role that they want the technology to play. I think the optimal way is that technology does not replace humans. Actually, they work collaboratively, But it could be that some companies or some business owners, they decide that they don’t want that approach, and they go to the other extremes where they say, I’m only going to use, you know, technology. But then I think it depends on the field and depends, um, how they want to take their business to the next level, because it could be that maybe in the future, in about ten years or maybe five years, then people will say, oh, I want the personal touch. I don’t want these robots. I want to go back to, you know, an actual waitress at a restaurant instead of a robot. So you see what I mean? So I guess it’s also a personal decision of the company and all the business owners for how they want to incorporate AI.

Lee Kantor: Now, who is the target for this book? Is it a young person that might be in high school or college or at the beginning of their career, or is it someone at all stages of their career?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Thank you for asking that. It is at all stages of their career. Because, um, since everybody is facing the same thing, that is the AI revolution, but all of us are at different stages, so the different tools are applicable to different stages. So my those who started early in their career. So my um, my book launch was last week, it was last Wednesday. So I had um, two testimonials, one from a scientist who is basically the end of their career, and a young person who’s one of my mentees. Um, they both found the exercises very helpful. Like for Doctor Phillips, she found out that by doing the career profiles, she was a chameleon because I had different career profiles and people choose. And then based on that, they go to different, um, activities. So she found out that, hey, she’s not at the end of her career, actually. She has these skills that she can transfer and she can mentor others. So she was able to find meaning and and that is very important. And then so it’s not the end of her career, it’s just that she’s going to go ahead and pursue these other things and she’s going to try. And then we have Michael, who Michael just starting his career. And he has tried several springs, meaning that he has taken a lot of certifications.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: And that’s what I call a skill right now is what is called a skill based hiring. So you develop your portfolio skills, AI skills and also soft skills. And then based on that, you are deciding where you want to go. So he felt he did this exercise that I call a scenario planning where you have the best, worst unbalanced scenario based on responses to some questions. So then it helps you to strategize and to be resilient. So when something unexpected happens, you say, oh, I can do that because it’s practice. You already envision this scenario where there’s going to be issues. So you try to say, how am I going to address that? And also you envision this scenario where everything works the way you want it. So then you know also how you’re going to address it. But more importantly you need to identify if you really like it. You know, because nowadays we’re also in this shift where people want to do what they want to do. But the problem is like they don’t know what they want to do and they want satisfaction at their job. So it’s a lot of things that were demanding for the job. So that’s what I advocate. You have to try. There is a period where you do your exploratory sprints, and then we move to the next phase.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: And it’s more realistic because you already look at the pros and cons. So anyway, so then you are more realistic in terms of terms of your balanced scenario, because you have looked at your skills, you have looked at all these challenges. You try to envision, do I really like the program? Like in my case, I know how to program, but I don’t like it. I mean, no, I don’t I don’t see myself starting programing and you know, that’s not me. But I did it when I was in graduate school and also my business. I do it sometimes, but it’s something that I don’t enjoy it. So but how do I know that? Because I did it. So that’s the same thing for all of us nowadays. We really have to try and say, okay, is this for me or not? And okay, if it’s not, then how can I leverage what I know to be able to get, um, a career path or to be able to move forward? And so I think it’s a beautiful time. I know people are afraid. I don’t think so. I think it’s for the first time we have choice. You upskill, you reskill, and you don’t do any of that, then it’s your responsibility.

Lee Kantor: Now, what do you say to the young person especially, and maybe even a little older that have been told, look, you have to follow your passion and everything else takes care of itself. You know, find the thing that you’re passionate about. Is that really the path forward in this, or is it something that you got to kind of maybe lean into your superpowers, but there’s certain skills that you have to have if you want to future proof your career.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. So I think people shouldn’t follow their passion because passion is something that doesn’t last. I think people should explore their interests. When you explore their interests and you actually do what you think you are interested in, then is when you really find out if you’re going to enjoy it or not. So that’s what I do, what is called exploratory sprints. So I advise everybody that they do need to go and try different things. So in my book you have a career profile based on your career profile that push you? Basically, you decide what you want and then based on that, you do different. What I would call it tries. I call it sprints because I base it on the agile methodology that is used in programing. So then you try different things and then you realize, oh, oh, I thought I was interested or no, in in being a marketing person and using AI. But then I realized that I don’t like to do that. Okay, so but the only way is that you try. So you have to pursue different things and try. And then after you hire, you know, you have enough data where you can make informed decisions. I think we jump into, oh, I really want to work at home, but what are you going to be doing at home? What skills can you do from home? So you see, I don’t think we think through it.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: It’s just, oh, I have a passion for this. Well, let’s see you do it every day. If actually you’re going to have a passion for it. So I would advise everybody it’s true. It’s a skill base. And eventually I believe it’s going to be the thing that skills are going to become. A certifications are going to become more important than degrees than going to college. But colleges right now are also changing. So we have to wait for the college and universities to keep up with the change, because the curriculum has to change to accommodate the new change, the new technologies. And for some, you still need to go and do the education. Um, but for others, no, you just have the skills and you can get a job with that. So there are several efforts of the big companies Google, Apple, IBM, Cisco, these other huge companies that are providing training for AI and training on different areas. That is for free. So I’ll advise everybody to go and check because Everybody has to be into this upskill and reskill. And it’s something that I think when somebody tries it, then they’re going to feel empowered and they’re going to find their path.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: But if they’re going to wait for somebody else to take the initiative for them, I don’t think it’s going to work and then increases the anxiety. So to me, if you are somebody has anxiety for the future, the first thing that we advise is go ahead and try a new skill, take a course or something and apply it. And that’s how we find out. That’s what happened in the trainings in companies nowadays. They train the people, but if there are no opportunities to actually apply it, then it gets lost. So I think I can help us with training and it can be tailored to the individual. So you see, that’s a way where humans and AI can work together, because we want to train the new generation quickly. So then we can use AI. But again, it’s not going to come out with everything. Thing we have to collaborate with I at this point to teach them what to do. So you see, I see the collaboration there to training new programmers or new people in cybersecurity or even on areas where we thought that is not going to be any technology involved.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more about Windows Vision your firm or get a hold of your book, thrive in the AI and Digital Age. The seem four step career guide and workbook. Is there a website that they can go to connect with you or somebody of your team?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. So I have a website that it is Madeleine wallace.com. And I have there my two books and also my book is available in Amazon. So I have both books in Amazon. But if you go to my website you can find them there too. And they can direct you to the Amazon website.

Lee Kantor: And that’s m a d e l e I n e w a l l a c e com.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. Thank you. It is the French spelling. My grandfather gave me that name. He traveled a lot. And, uh, back then, I believe there was a miss universe from France. And. Yeah. So it’s also like the same name as the restaurant. Um, so. Yeah. So the spelling is the key. So thank you for for telling me the spelling.

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

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Thank you. Lee, I really appreciate this opportunity to share some insights and and thank you to your listeners.

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

Dr. Jarrett Grunstein With Dr. J’s Pillows

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Dr. Jarrett Grunstein With Dr. J's Pillows
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Dr. Jarrett Grunstein, is widely known as Dr. J, is a seasoned chiropractor with 20 years of experience, dedicated to helping thousands of patients overcome neck and back issues.

Before pursuing his chiropractic career, he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Contemplative Psychology with a Minor in Yoga Philosophy, studying at Emory University and a Tibetan Buddhist college called Naropa University.  Dr. J deepened his Yoga practice while  spending three months studying at a Yoga Ashram in India.

His innovative treatment approaches have distinguished his career, including serving as an official chiropractor for the Toronto Blue Jays for four years. Dr. J is an expert in sleep health, anxiety, and the critical connection between spinal alignment and restorative rest. Specializing in sleep and musculoskeletal health, Dr. J has dedicated his career to helping people achieve better sleep and optimal health through innovative sleep solutions.

Connect with Dr. J on LinkedIn. and follow Grunstein Family Chiropractic Center on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The role of anxiety in sleep disorders and practical ways to overcome it
  • Stress Management: Relaxation Techniques and Better Sleep 3
  • How Dr. J’s Pillows were designed to revolutionize the sleep 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 wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Dr Jarrett Grunstein with Doctor J’s Pillows. Welcome.

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Oh, thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Doctor J’s Pillows. How you serving folks?

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Well, this has been a long journey. It started about 14 years ago. I’ve been a chiropractor for 20 years in practice. And early on in my career, I started recognizing the very close link between neck pain and how people were sleeping at night. In other words, I would fix someone’s neck in my office, a patient, and I’d get a call back in a week or two that they slept wrong and their neck hurt again. So I started looking around the pillow market and realizing there just wasn’t a pillow that actually was scientifically designed for both back and side sleeping, which is how most of us sleep at night. So that started this 14 year journey.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is kind of do most people? Are they okay with their pillows or are they okay with the way they sleep? Or is this something that affects more people than maybe you realize?

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Yeah, I’ve had a lot of pillow talk in this life more than most. On the average, probably. And what I’ve discovered is that most people, believe it or not, don’t love their pillow. They generally don’t even like their pillow. And particularly one if you have any neck pain or just have trouble sleeping at night, you’re probably on the hunt for the perfect pillow and have wasted a lot of money along the way, and likely have a closet filled with pillows that just didn’t quite work.

Lee Kantor: And then some people have pillows, like for years and years and years. Like, is there kind of a like, should you be getting rid of and updating your pillow on a regular rhythm? Like, is that I mean, I don’t think there’s a lot of education when it comes to this.

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Yeah, this is really a black box for a lot of people, I agree. And the truth of the matter is that, well, so let’s just start with sleep position. So if you’re someone who shifts between your sides and your back, which is about two thirds of us, after a lot of research on my part, you actually need a pillow with two levels of support. In other words, when you lie on your back, you only want a pillow that’s about maybe an inch high or so underneath your head. But then when you go to your sides, you need a pillow that has more like four inches of support. So right out of the gate, any pillow that just provides one level of support really doesn’t work for both sleep positions. That describes about 98% of the pillows in the marketplace currently. So you can see there’s a huge gap in what people need and what’s being provided by the pillow market.

Lee Kantor: Now, what about the material that the pillows are made of? You know, there’s at hotels, they are made of a certain material at your house. It’s made of different material, like then now there’s memory foam material, like there’s all kinds of materials. How do you land on the the appropriate material?

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Okay. So that’s a great question. So the pillow I designed, there’s two components to it. One is the shape. And second as you’re bringing up is the material. So let’s just go with the material because that’s where we’re talking pillow material. Most of the time in the marketplace currently is either polyfill or memory foam. Those are the big ones, and unfortunately they’re both polyurethane, which means a couple of things. One, they off gas VOCs, volatile organic compounds which are not really good for us. And secondly, since they’re petroleum based, they actually are highly flammable and therefore by law need to be sprayed down with flame retardant chemicals. Again, these chemicals aren’t good for us. So I decided to go with a material called latex, which actually it comes from a rubber tree. It’s natural. And not only is it latex, but it’s grown from organically grown rubber trees. So this is organic latex that is free of any chemicals. And it’s hypoallergenic, which is a big issue since we’re placing our head on this thing a third of the night.

Lee Kantor: So then, um, you’re addressing the material, and you’re you created the shape. That’s the appropriate shape, so that if you if you buy this one pillow, then you’re kind of you don’t have to worry about pillows for a while.

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Yeah. So the shape of this took me only about 5 or 6000 hours to design. Uh, and I say that tongue in cheek, uh, this was the design is actually based on over 30 scientific studies. Uh, I’m also a spinal scientist and have written studies on, uh, scoliosis and, uh, spinal related issues. So I was very adamant that this pillow actually have a lot of science to back up why the dimensions are the way they are. And, uh, this is an audio program, so I can’t show it to you, but the pillow actually has a bowl in the center that your head sits in perfectly. It’s cradled perfectly. And then a neck support when you’re lying on your back. That is designed with a lot of specificity so that your neck is perfectly supported. And then when you roll to the sides of the pillow, it’s much higher, which you need to make room for your shoulder, because what a lot of people do on their sides is they’ll place their arm underneath the pillow, which ends up causing all sorts of shoulder issues. And a lot of your listeners probably do wake up with shoulder pain, and that’s because they’re propping their pillow up because it’s just not high enough. So all those issues needed to be addressed in this design.

Lee Kantor: Now, is the pillow kind of the heart of the problem when it comes to people who have some sort of sleep disorders is like, would the pillow alleviate some of this stuff? Like, a lot of people have trouble sleeping. A lot of people, you know, maybe snore. They have issues in their sleep that maybe it’s a lot of it is just the wrong pillow.

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Well, insomnia is a huge issue in this country. Insomnia simply means either you have trouble falling asleep or you have trouble staying asleep at night. And this is affecting over half of us in America at this point. Estimates suggest, and part of the issue is mental. We can’t get our minds to be quiet. So I actually wrote a book on this in terms of meditation and breathwork that helps slow the mind down. And then the other component is physical. In other words, if your neck isn’t comfortable and you’re constantly trying to rearrange yourself and rearrange your pillow naturally, it’s very difficult to lull yourself into a relaxed state enough to fall asleep. So yes, it’s very important that the pillow is the proper shape. And then also, I do have a lot of recommendations, particularly in the book I wrote about sleep hygiene. And there’s a lot of issues related to this. But yes, these are physical and psychological factors. Participate in insomnia. The other issue you mentioned was snoring. When we’re on our backs, the throat is supposed to remain open enough for us to breathe. But people who have what’s called obstructive sleep apnea. This is a difficult issue for them because these snoring episodes, uh, allow for uh, or I should say disallow for enough oxygenation to occur. So we wake ourselves up with this snoring, which leads to fragmented sleep at night, which is not a quality sleep. So the pillow I designed it does. When you’re on your back, keep your neck as neutral aligned as possible, which does translate into the throat passageway being open more. However, I want to make very clear we haven’t done studies on this, so I don’t want to make any medical claims at this point.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any like what are some clues that you might have sleep problems? Is it like is it obvious or your partner is telling you or like, you know, your your, uh, your fitness watch is telling you, like, what are some clues that you might have issues?

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Well, there’s a lot of good clues. Uh, one of them, I think, is fatigue. If you’ve been in bed for seven, eight hours and you wake up and you don’t feel refreshed. That is suggestive that you’re not getting good quality deep sleep, and that is probably the biggest clue of all. But as it turns out, if we’re not sleeping between 7 to 9 hours a night, there are all sorts of health issues that can arise everything from heart disease to digestive troubles to overeating to depression, anxiety and the list goes on. So there’s actually a lot of health issues that are directly linked to when we’re not getting at least that good seven hours of sleep per night.

Lee Kantor: Now, what do you tell the. I mean, there’s a hustle culture that, you know, people are bragging about how little sleep they get and need.

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Yeah, this is a real problem right now. I mean, America, on average is sleeping. They say somewhere between 6 and 7 hours a night, which is below that seven hour threshold. So that means as a culture, we’re actually praising ourselves for getting more done. But the reality is, is that when we do sleep that full 7 to 9 hours a night, we are much more effective during the day. In other words, issues like concentration improve when we get enough sleep. So you might be at work at your desk for an hour, but not getting nearly as much done as if you actually had a strong level of concentration. So it’s not only issue of timing, but it’s also efficiency. So that’s where good good night sleep really comes into play.

Lee Kantor: Now do you have any advice for the listener out there when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep? Is there any relaxation techniques or anything you can share that might help someone sleep better tonight?

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Absolutely. So let’s go back to the sleep hygiene issue I had mentioned earlier. There’s a couple just basic things that we can do that will promote a much better night’s sleep. One of them is a sleep schedule. Making sure that we try to go to bed at around the same time and wake up around the same time, because our bodies are like a clock. And when this clock gets continually run at the same pace every 24 hour cycle, it works much better. We will naturally feel like we need to go to sleep at the same time when we do this ritual type of thing night after night. Another issue is light. Our body is cued by light. So in other words, if we are exposed to light late right before bed, that cues to our brains, it’s not time for sleep. And this is a real problem. So we want to dim lights out as much as possible that last hour before bed. Another thing is temperature. Our bodies will naturally drop in temperature as we’re falling asleep. So we ideally want the temperature in our room to be somewhere between around 65 to 68°F, which some people might be shaking their heads and saying, that sounds pretty cold. But in fact, that is what science shows the optimal sleeping temperature. Um, so those are big ones. Another thing I highly recommend doing some type of relaxation technique. Um, I like breathing, uh, the breathwork, uh, that I recommend because I used to practice yoga in an ashram in India. So I learned this in India, uh, many years ago. And that is breathing in and out through your nose, never your mouth. And the in-breath is three paces in three beats, if you will. And then the outbreath is six beats, and that long outbreath through the nose slowed down will really relax our entire nervous system. And that’s a great way to slow our minds down and to get into that more relaxed state, which will definitely benefit us as we’re trying to fall asleep.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that you’re a doctor Is the pillow only available through doctors, or is it something that anybody can get their hands on if they need it?

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: All right, so we are just launching. I have to be very clear about this. We’re launching our presale on February 1st. And what that will allow for is people who go on to our website. Uh, is it okay if I share the website, please? Oh, okay. So it’s w-w-w dot d r j s pillows.com. So it’s Doctor J’s pillows.com. And when you order, there’s gonna be a place for you actually to put in your height and weight. Because we have five sizes of pillows. Because just like if you were to buy a pair of jeans, you wouldn’t go to a jean company that just offers one size. And so we have this specially sized for you. And then when you order, we’re going to be sending you the pillows this summer. So they’re going to be available in June. And we’ll call you right before we send them out, uh, so that we have your proper shipping address and we make sure the size is correct. But this is an exciting journey because what we’re going to be doing is manufacturing these pillows ultimately in the United States. We are really excited to be a US manufacturer in the future, and not only manufacturing here, but paying a living wage to our employees. A very high priority for me is really making sure people are paid properly and treated with dignity, because I believe when you have a company where the employees are treated properly, they’re going to do their best for the company. It’s a reciprocal relationship. So that’s our that is our mission.

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

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: Thank you. I appreciate you having me.

Dr Jarrett Grunstein: On, Lee.

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

Zachary Larson With IntentGen Financial Partners

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Zachary Larson With IntentGen Financial Partners
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When Zachary Larson launched his career in the financial services industry nearly two decades ago, he wanted to take a different route than most. One that was purpose-driven rather than fear-driven. One that focused on the joy of living generously and serving others, not just selling products. The opportunity to do just that presented itself to him in 2001 when he joined Thrivent.

And today, as a founding partner of IntentGen Financial Partners, he is able to live out these values – empowering people to make intentional financial decisions so they can live with greater purpose.

Zac and his wife, Kristin, have been married since 2003 and have four boys. In his free time, he likes to coach his sons’ basketball teams and enjoys golf, scuba diving, skiing, and bike riding.

Connect with Zac on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About IntentGen Financial Partners
  • His book “Retire Intentionally” and the target audience

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 Zachary Larson, and he is the wealth advisor and founding partner of IntentGen Financial Partners. Welcome, Zach.

Zachary Larson: Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

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

Zachary Larson: Our firm is in some ways very similar to other financial organizations. And yet we think it’s it’s very unique in a way as well, because we’re focused on helping people use their money intentionally. And what we find is a lot of people approach their finances a little bit accidentally. They just kind of deal with stuff as it comes up and then try to figure things out. We try to flip that order and empower people to live intentionally.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in this line of work?

Zachary Larson: I have since coming out of college. I felt really a calling towards this work. We we approach it as a ministry in a lot of ways to to just give people confidence to spend and give and live the life they want rather than being paralyzed by by money, which can happen to all of us. And it has happened to me as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, you’ve recently written a book, retire intentionally with it’s with a question mark. Is that is that are you asking the question or are you making a statement that people don’t usually do that?

Zachary Larson: Well, I, I would prefer it with an exclamation point. Honestly, I think that that’s the goal is to equip people to be able to have confidence that they know they can spend money, that they can give money the way that they want, and to encourage people to retire to something. So it’s my experience that I’ve learned from others and lived and journey with them is that when people are just trying to get rid of something in their work life, retirement doesn’t always crack up to be what they want when they’re retiring to something, whether it’s hobbies, volunteering, family things, and new career and new business and they have confidence around money, then it can be an amazing new chapter. That’s what retirement intentionally means to us.

Lee Kantor: Now let’s talk about kind of the process of retiring. How do you what stage do you typically get your clients? Are they beginning to have conversations with you at the at the beginning of their career, or are they towards the end and they are nearing retirement. So then they are kind of curious about that, but it might be too late. Like if they would start it earlier, they’d have a better outcome. Like when did when do you begin relationships typically with your clients?

Zachary Larson: That’s a very interesting question. I think our firm is equipped and we have advisors that can help people across the spectrum from the beginning of their careers and journey towards savings for the future, all the way post retirement, as people are thinking about leaving their legacy and passing money on. But really, our niche is helping people that are plus or minus five years of that retirement transition time. So if you want to put an age around that, maybe it’s someone in their mid to late 50s through their mid to late 60s who are saying, I’m in that red zone. If you want to use a football analogy, we’re trying to to push this across the, the end zone.

Lee Kantor: So but are they have they been just managing their finances themselves or they have maybe they work in a corporation where they have, you know, their 401 K, where it’s just getting kind of every every paycheck. Money’s just getting kind of siphoned into that and they’re not really thinking about it. And then they know that the end is near. So I better, you know, hire a professional to help me.

Zachary Larson: Yeah.

Zachary Larson: Some people are are truly do it yourselfers and they’ve done it. Actually. We meet a lot who’ve done an excellent job doing it on their own. Uh, others have worked with advisors, but most of them have been in the mindset of accumulators. And if you’re an accumulator, you’re focused on what you’re focused on. A number like I need to hit X so I can retire. And there were commercials in, in years past where, uh, people walked around with these little bubbles on their head. And their numbers, of course, were all different, but maybe it was a million bucks or 3 million bucks, or they had to work towards this number as a target. We want to break that mentality and say your value as a person, your retirement that you want is less about a net worth number, and it’s more about the income that you can create, which will free you up to think about your impact, which is essentially what do you want that money to do? What do you want your life to be about now?

Lee Kantor: Do you find that people’s mindset have shifted over the years that maybe, um, years ago people were like, well, I’m going to retire, and then I’m going to, you know, live at the lake and fish all day and play golf. And it’s kind of a life of leisure and that nowadays people like maybe it’s because they’re living longer in this stage that they do want more of a legacy. They do want more of an impact. They do want things that have more meaning than just leisure.

Zachary Larson: I not only think that, but I see it. I feel it from clients. And it’s not always about having a a specific role or a title in this new phase of retirement, but it is about having purpose, and I would encourage anyone to really give that a lot of thought as they’re preparing for a transition towards retirement, to say, what will my purpose be? How be? How do I want to spend my time? Why do I get up? Why do I save money? Why do I spend money? Because lake time, fishing, golf, skiing, cycling those are all things I love. Those are probably what your your listeners love to do. But whatever the hobbies are, um, a life of of leisure doesn’t usually fulfill people the way that they think it might.

Lee Kantor: And when I talk to people at that age, it’s like every day you have to do something like the hours have to be filled. And it’s like, you know, if you like, uh, cake. You can’t eat cake for every meal. It’s you’re gonna get tired of cake no matter how much you like cake.

Zachary Larson: You’re totally right. It reminds me of a story, and this is something I shared in the book. But when my wife and I were younger, we. We have four teenage boys right now. But when we had four younger boys, we said, let’s take them to Disney World. And that was just kind of like people said, you should go to Disney. And we took them and it was filled with candy and fun and all the magic that Disney is and and we loved it, but it was filled with chaos. It was filled with illness. It was filled with unexpected things. It was filled with no routines. And and all of a sudden we’re looking at ourselves on like day five and saying, what did we get ourselves into? And then you compound that with the fact that money was literally like flying out the door. And in some small way, I think that’s what retirement becomes like for some people, is they think of it as this magical, fun time, and then life starts to happen. And if there’s no routine, if there’s no purpose, then you get these days of chaos in a lot of ways, and you just can feel like money is flying out the door. And and so purpose is a big part of part of that, and then having a paycheck continuing to come in is a big part of that. So you have confidence to keep doing the stuff that you want to do.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you help people with the transition? You mentioned it like they spent their whole careers and lives accumulating. So everything was about save, save, save or invest, invest, invest. And I’m putting it away and putting it away. And at some point you have to kind of flip the switch here and say, okay, do I have a machine now that with this nest egg that I can get that paycheck, can I feel like, oh, money’s coming in in a predictable, reliable way that I will be able to sustain me and my family, you know, for the foreseeable future without me necessarily adding to it with new funds, but just kind of, um, maximizing the funds we have and hoping they’re compounding and they’re still growing.

Zachary Larson: Yeah, you’re you’re totally right. So the first thing that we try to break is this mentality of a net worth. And obviously we obviously we help our clients track it. And I think we all like to see our net worth numbers growing. But then the tendency is to say, well, if it hit a new high and it goes lower, then I’m immediately anxious. I’m immediately reserved about using more of it. So we break that mentality by setting up income. And when we look at income, we talk a lot about net income, which just simply means your income. What you can spend and use after taxes are considered. And the biggest source of that for most people is Social Security. And so deciding when to take a social social security payment is a key point. There’s lots of reasons to extend it as long as possible. There’s lots of reasons to start sooner. I’m not going to even try to go into that right now. Um, people can check out the book, they can read things online or talk to their advisor about what’s ideal for them.

Zachary Larson: But the point would be you get that cash flow going and then there’s other layers to put on top of. There could be dividends from investments, could be interest from conservative things. Uh, could be uh, annuity payments coming out. It could be business income, rental real estate, a lot of different ways to do it. Uh, not really right or wrong. It’s just finding pieces of it. And what we try to come up with is a, a paycheck number that says every month I’m used to X coming in so I can pay all my regular expenses, my routine expenses. And the best way to estimate if you’re on track for that is for a person to just look at what their net paycheck is while they’re working. So don’t worry about your total income. Don’t worry about what you save or where you spend it. But if you have $5,000 a month coming in every month, then you better figure out a way to have 5000 a month coming in in retirement, because that’s what you’re used to living on.

Lee Kantor: Now, can we get in the weeds a little bit about, um, some of the things like you mentioned, net worth, and I think sometimes people get confused like, okay, well, my house is worth, you know, $1 million. And, um, you know, should I consider that as part of my net worth? Because if I do, that means I have, you know, more money available to me. But in actuality, I have to live somewhere, and that’s going to cost me money. Like, how do you even go about calculating your net worth? I know you say it’s not a number to aim at, but it is. You know, you are accumulating assets and that is one of your assets.

Zachary Larson: Yeah, it’s.

Zachary Larson: Absolutely an asset and it’s a big part of most people’s net worth. But it’s not a spendable asset. It’s not an investable part of your net worth. And so unless people have big plans to move and downsizing is this concept I hear all the time from people. But, um, there are very few people who I have seen downsize their physical space without upgrading their living conditions. So think about what’s happened in the housing market around the country. Your home value is probably worth more, but you got to live somewhere. And even though you may drop from a four bedroom home to a two bedroom, you may be at a point in your life where you say, I want something nicer. So there’s kind of this fallacy of like, yeah, I’ll downsize my house, I’ll save a bunch of money. We just don’t see it play out for that many people. And so for that reason, we would not even include the net worth of your home in your investable net worth number when we calculate it. What we look at is a tool we use. We call it the tax efficiency checklist. And people can find that on our website at dot com. But it helps people look at their money the way the IRS does which is when does it get taxed. So your money gets taxed as it grows. We call that tax now. It gets taxed later in vehicles like IRAs and 401 plans or annuities, and if used properly, it can never be taxed if it’s in things like Roth IRAs or life insurance. So there’s a lot of different tools, but based on your purpose, if it’s college savings, you can use a 529 plan. If it’s retirement savings, you can use a Roth IRA. We’re going to lay things out across those three columns and help people say, how can they use that money on a regular basis?

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you help people kind of manage, um, the changes that are happening in life, like, you know, you retire and you feel good and everything’s great, but, you know, five years in and all of a sudden some health situation might occur. Um, or the markets could drop dramatically. Um, you know, like things. I think that’s what makes it so hard for people in retirement especially, is there’s so many unknowns that you have to plan for, and it’s hard to plan for things that you can’t even imagine happening, um, today, but might happen regularly, you know, in ten years.

Zachary Larson: Yeah. Very insightful. There was a famous philosopher named Mike Tyson. Okay, not not really a philosopher, right? Right.

Lee Kantor: But no, he has a great saying that everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face. And I think that that’s a good in a lot of that. That philosophy is a pretty on the nose in a lot of different areas and retirement being one of them.

Zachary Larson: You nailed it. And so we talk about that with people. Um, there is a lot that’s unknown about the future and we can model it. There are tools that are called Monte Carlo simulations. It comes out of the physics and mathematicians, uh, sphere, and it looks at probability. So it doesn’t assume you’re going to earn X amount per year and inflation goes up by Y. It randomizes all that. So we can use good statistical tools. But then there’s just things that are out of our control when when we pass away. If there’s health care things, if our kids or grandkids need help and we label that something, we we refer to that as a what if kind of retirement planning. And when people live their life in what if, then there’s really never enough money to prepare. And those who get stuck on that end up leaving a bunch of money behind. So what we want to do is, is plan for the best. Let’s say we use this probability tool and we give you confidence to go spend it, use it, give it, have experiences with the people you care about and then have contingencies in case things happen. This is how I will restructure my life. This is how I will reprioritize things. Otherwise, we can spend our whole life worrying about what if and not do the things that we could have along the way if that remote thing doesn’t happen.

Lee Kantor: Now, how often are you kind of working with your clients to have these conversations? Because, you know, things can change pretty rapidly. All it takes is one doctor’s visit. It could your your lifespan might be adjusted, you know, from living till 80 to living till 65. I mean everyone is that vulnerable.

Zachary Larson: So we look at proactive planning with people and our firm reaches out on a regular basis. Usually we’re meeting with clients a couple times a year, at least proactively, to say these are things that we see on your horizon that we want to keep talking about. And then there’s a lot of reactive things when life changes for them, when their priorities shift, when an opportunity comes up, we meet and go through that. But the biggest thing I would say to that is for people who are doing this on their own, it’s not so much about you having to entrust your assets to somebody else to manage. It’s about having a partner to walk on that path with you and give you confidence to say, you can do these things. I’m going to use a weird, strange word to think about Lee, but if I gave you permission to use your money, your initial thought might be, well, who’s this guy to say that I have permission? So it’s never about me giving you permission, but it’s about empowering you to give yourself permission to use your money. And I think that’s what a good partnership can do for people is to say, yeah, I can do this. I have the confidence to do it because I’ve dealt with the contingencies. I’ve I’ve thought about things that could happen, and now I have a plan to deal with them.

Lee Kantor: So now if I am, say, five, ten years out from retirement and I get this book, are there kind of is it is it kind of a workbook where there’s things for me to be doing and I can be plugging in my own numbers and getting kind of my own sense of, of a plan at the end of the day by going through this book.

Zachary Larson: There absolutely are. There are exercises at the end of each chapter to help people walk through a progression of looking at net worth and then shifting towards a net income mindset of cash flow and tax efficiency. And then a net impact, uh, which ultimately is to say, what do you want that money to do? Who are the experience or who are the people you want to have experiences with? How can you give it away to people in places you care about along the way? And make sure that at the end of your life, it gets to the people and places you care about. And step by step, there’s a progression for people to walk through that if they want to do that on their own. And if they say, I’d love a partner along that journey, then there’s information they can find out how to work with our firm.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re building a team of people like yourself, like who should be part of this team, um, when you’re nearing retirement, obviously kind of a wealth manager, which is somebody like you, but who else should be on the team?

Zachary Larson: Ideally there’s a a family member or a close friend that is a sounding board for you. So one of the things that we’ve walked with with our clients is how hard it is to make a decision when you’ve spent a lifetime as a couple, and then one of the people from that couple is gone. So whether it’s a divorce late in life, whether there’s an early death. Decisions are hard. So you need you need trusted contacts in your corner to help you with that. Might be a kid, might be a relative, a close friend. Um, the other things or other people involved. A proactive accountant. So anybody can do taxes pretty easily. Now on TurboTax. That’s what we call reactive accounting. Um, a proactive accountant says, let’s plan ahead and look at a lifetime of taxes rather than just year by year. That’s another valuable piece. And then someone to help with the legal structure as well, to make sure that the things that you want for your healthcare, for your property, uh, are able to be executed if you’re not able to make those choices.

Lee Kantor: So now if somebody wants to learn more about your firm in the book, what is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Zachary Larson: It’s w-w-w.

Zachary Larson: Dot com. And that’s the two words that come up when we pulled our clients and pulled people about our company. Intentional and generous. That’s how we try to live. That’s how we try to operate as a company and empower others to do that. So intent gen.com. And you can find the book on on Amazon. Retire intentionally.

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

Zachary Larson: Thank you Lee.

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

Neil Bedwell With LOCAL

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Neil Bedwell With LOCAL
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A digital-native and strategic leader with 15+ years running work, teams and businesses in London, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and Atlanta, Neil Bedwell is now building LOCAL, a Change Marketing agency that creates people first communication programs for some of the world’s best companies .

Before launching LOCAL, he led digital strategy and content for Coca-Cola’s Global Content Excellence group. His work included leadership of the digital program for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, developing new ways to create and publish content in real-time across multiple social channels and managing global digital agency relationships.

Neil is an advisor to multiple start-ups, a General Assembly Instructor and a regular keynote speaker on brand-building and marketing innovation in the social age. Before that, he trained as a race engine designer for Benetton F1 and ran a digital incubator for young filmmakers.

Connect with Neil on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How LOCAL came to be
  • The importance of employee engagement
  • How to build a thriving team
  • Why change is hard and how marketing can make it stick

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 Neil Bedwell with LOCAL. Welcome.

Neil Bedwell: Hey, Lee. Good to be with you.

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

Neil Bedwell: Well, we LOCAL. We’re based down here, not too far from the Beltline on Edgewood, and we are a employee marketing company. So a group of marketing folks from all different industries and disciplines now working to try and help companies basically reach their employees better.

Lee Kantor: So how did this idea come about?

Neil Bedwell: Well, um, you probably figured already. I’m not from Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: It sounded it was Smyrna. That’s what it sounded like.

Neil Bedwell: Tennessee. Yeah. No, I’m a Brit, born and raised and grew up in the advertising industry in London, but lived in a few different spots. But like a lot of folks who have similar accents to me, the Coca-Cola company lured me from California to Atlanta, Georgia. So, um, the origin story for this company that we built, and this is our ninth year now, is really the experience of my first ever really big corporate job inside one of the biggest companies. One of the the biggest brands in the world, Coke. Trying to convince colleagues of mine in different divisions or in different countries. All to jump in and participate in one idea. The. And this was the advertising campaign for the World Cup in 2014, the World Cup in Brazil, which Coke is obviously a huge sponsor of. The idea for a marketing company that focuses on employees was that we had a hell of a time trying to reach these colleagues, these employees of Coca-Cola, across all these different divisions and and companies. And with hindsight, we could have used a lot more of the, the stuff we know as marketing folks to cut through and actually create that awareness, to create that adoption, create that interest that we needed around a single idea that was supposed to be activated around the world.

Lee Kantor: Now, what made you think you know what? Employee engagement. That’s really the key here. And companies aren’t leveraging employee engagement enough. They’re not serving their employees in the way that really makes the most sense for the wellbeing of the company. So when did that kind of that thesis. Like, I understand that you were trying to wrangle everybody and it was difficult, but what made you say, you know what? I think that this is kind of where more companies should focus. And and I want to do something about it.

Neil Bedwell: Yeah. I mean, I’ve got pretty thick skin, but, um, being sort of ignored and, you know, enough times by, uh, by colleagues is enough to kind of wake you up and go, hey, we must be doing something wrong here. You know, if all if you’re in the outside world, if the customer if every potential customer walks past your store, your shop window probably isn’t, uh, as good as it should be. Uh, and so we needed, um, that that was the awakening. Um, and then really getting under the skin of of employee engagement. I’ve learned a ton over this last sort of nine years or so. I mean, more than two thirds of us seem to be pretty unhappy with the thing we spend half our waking lives doing as adults with, with, with our jobs. Um, employee engagement is kind of the biggest secret problem in business, I think. Um, because if you look at it, um, for most companies, the employees are both the single biggest asset and also the single biggest cost. Um, when you have disengaged employees, you lose out on, uh, things like productivity or, uh, customer loyalty or profit and earnings per share. Um, things like, uh, you know, retention. Um, you have to hire more people because more people leave you. Um, they don’t serve their your customers, particularly the frontline folks, aren’t serving your customers in the way that you want them to, and living up to the promise that you’re making those customers because they’re disengaged and unhappy. So, um, for me, it’s a root cause of a lot of, of the deficits that we feel in, in business when it comes to growth or when it comes to efficiency or effectiveness. Um, yet we we try to fix those symptoms rather than going to the cause, which is really this the biggest asset in your business is, is pretty miserable and pretty disengaged.

Lee Kantor: Well, it’s interesting you say that because if you, uh, I’m sure if you looked at the mission statement of 100 companies, 50 of them would say that people are their most important asset. So they’re they’re at least giving lip service to the importance of their Her team, but what are some symptoms that maybe they aren’t really, um, delivering on that mission statement or promise?

Neil Bedwell: I mean, if you look at the data, you said it. Lip service. Um, you say it, but I don’t see you do it. Um, I don’t see you say that. That, um, people are at the center of this company, but it looks like profits at the center of this company. Um, you say that, um, that the, you know, we are human centered, but we restructure and lay off people on a regular basis. You know, it’s on a day to day, um, a day to day sort of experience. Um, if you tell me something, um, from a, you know, in a business town hall with a group of executives talking about the future and telling you what’s going to happen, but then I see something different happening in my day to day. I’m going to believe what I see versus what I hear. Um, and so those are some of the symptoms. Um, and I can tell you, um, how we approach some of those symptoms, uh, which is really if you most companies, successful companies, are pretty good at understanding and engaging their customers on the outside. They’re pretty good at getting those folks to stop walking past the store and get them in the store. You know, um, and most successful companies are pretty good at keeping those people. Um, we need to start to think of as our employees, our people inside as customers, too. And actually, if you think about it, the in order to win the customer on the outside, I kind of have to win the customer on the inside first. I have to win over my employees so that they will then do the the customer engagement on the outside every minute of every day, in every location. Um, so we our philosophy, um, really is that employees are not just customers, they’re your first customer for anything that you’re doing. Um, if you if you can reach them and engage them, you’ve got a lot better chance of engaging every all of the other customers that you need to spend the money to drive your revenue to get the growth that you want. So it’s a first customer principle.

Lee Kantor: Now that I would imagine takes. That’s a mindset shift for most organizations, because most organizations spend a lot of resources in trying to get the brand new customer. They don’t even spend as much resources in nurturing the existing customer. And now you’re asking them to not only nurture their team and and emphasize the people that are already there, rather than focus on anything new. So how do you kind of help them understand that what you’re saying is true, that your employees are your first customer, and that’s where you really should invest time when they’re typically they’re not spending time on their existing customers. They’d rather find a new customer.

Neil Bedwell: And, you know, all the data will tell you that finding new Finding new customers is way more expensive than keeping the ones that you have. Same goes for employees, by the way. Finding new recruits is way more expensive than keeping the one the folks that you already have and keeping keeping them happy. Um, you just got to look at the data. The Gallup huge, hugely respected organization produce a report on employee engagement every year. And, um, whatever metric you’re trying to move, whether it is a revenue or profit metric, whether it is a customer loyalty metric, whether it’s an earnings per share metric or any other thing in companies with engaged employees, outperform those with disengaged employees on every metric. Um, and it’s not just about keeping your employees engaged and keeping them retained as, as employees. It’s all the other stuff that those happier people do because happier people, when people are happy and engaged at work, then they’re more they’re more productive. Then they show up and go that extra foot or mile for the customer. They sell more to the customers. Um, anything that you’re trying to do is done better if your employees are engaged.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you kind of measure the level of engagement your employees currently have? I can’t believe that just by asking them or giving them a bunch of smiley faces on a form is going to tell the truth. There has to be actions that they’re taking that are kind of illustrating whether they’re engaged or not. And I’m sure that, um, you know, if they’re quitting a lot, that’s probably a clue. But are there clues for engagement?

Neil Bedwell: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, you can go from the hard, hard, um, if you like, lag, measure of retention or of, um, Customer success or or revenue growth or profitability. But really, what you’re trying to do first and foremost is, um, as a as a leader, make sure that you reach every single one of your employees. A lot of internal messaging doesn’t reach most of the people inside companies. Um, I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with with companies in almost every industry. And, uh, often there’s a common theme where where leaders will stand on a stage physically or, or digitally and sort of project a message of, of, of, of the story of the next quarter or the story of the next year. They’re often called town halls. Um, and we’ve been, uh, able to go out into the field for some of the companies that we work with and, you know, meet folks who drive trucks or, um, work in maintenance or handle, you know, handle baggage for airlines, things like that. They don’t see those things. They don’t see the town halls. They don’t go on the internet.

Neil Bedwell: They don’t look at email. They talk to each other. Um, and so the message, first and foremost is often not reaching the majority of employees, particularly in industries that have a lot of frontline folks, not just sort of head office folks. Um, then what you’re looking to try and get is, well, okay, did we get what was the response to that messaging? Was it understood? Um, and then if you have understanding, then you’re going to to if you like, the harder, more tangible, um, elements. Are people adopting new behaviors because of this? Are they using an online system or are they following a process more? Um, are they actually taking actions based on, um, the reach and engagement that you’ve created? And if they take those actions, do those actions, then drive to these hard, if you like CFO level metrics of revenue, profitability, uh, employee churn, all of those kind of things. So you’re you’re looking at sort of lead and lag measures all the way from, first and foremost, did your message even reach all of your people?

Lee Kantor: Now, who is your ideal client? Are they kind of these enterprise level organizations that have kind of like a global presence, or are they like startups or are they like, where do your customers lie?

Neil Bedwell: We we found a sweet spot as local with large companies, with distributed workforces, you know, in in head offices, different offices in on locations, out with customers, um, that have a desire to change, to transform to, to, to take on new behaviors or use new technologies but struggle to reach their employees and in, in so doing, not reaching those employees hampers then those initiatives. I’ll give you a you a very simple example. If you have a new piece of software, a new piece of technology that is going to increase efficiency for 50,000 people on the front line across the country, the what you actually have to do in order to unlock that value is get those 50,000 people to actually use the technology successfully. And a lot of companies spend all of their money on the technology and the integration of the technology, and nothing on actually getting people to use it. And if you think about employees as customers, if you think about external customers, you never create a new product without thinking about how you’re going to sell it. And so we really urge any of our clients to think about what they’re doing as a product, and the fact that whatever new thing that they’re trying to bring inside that company is a new product, and you’re trying to sell it to this audience of employees. And we will work with, um, leaders across every discipline to do that. So if it’s a piece of technology, it’s often with the technology team, with the CIO and her or his group. Um, if it’s a new brand or, um, or product launch, maybe it’s with the marketing team. If it’s a new, um, learning program, it’s with the chief learning officer. If it’s a new, uh, new vision or values or, um, sort of working processes, then maybe it’s with the HR group. Um, we’ve we have experience across all of those different, uh, disciplines. And really, we’re a marketing team for anybody that’s trying to make change stick.

Lee Kantor: Now, is.

Lee Kantor: That usually your typical first point of entry, that they’ll have an initiative that they want to roll out and then they need help kind of getting the buy in throughout the organization. So they hire local to help them execute that.

Neil Bedwell: Yeah. There’s really, um, like three different ways. There’s that, which is, hey, we’ve got this new thing. We want to make sure everybody knows about it. We need a, you know, an employee marketing company. We and we’re there for that. There’s. We tried it. It didn’t work. It failed. People aren’t using it. What should we do? Maybe we need to do something different. And we are different to traditional consulting firms in terms of the approach to change. Um, we actually have a trademarked process which we call change marketing, which is everything we know about marketing to customers on the outside, but pointed at customers on the inside and sort of with a little hybrid, um, of some of the progressive change management thinking, too, so that we’re actually bringing some of that understanding of organizations. Um, you know, so it’s it’s, um, we’ve got something new and we want to make sure people see it. We’ve launched something and people aren’t using it. Um, or we’re seeing negative results in our employee engagement research, and we want to turn things around. So if you like launching something new as a tangible thing, or trying to sort of win over hearts and minds a little bit more on the intangible side so that you can foster more engagement so that you can actually achieve some of the goals that you have.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are some of the, uh, the qualities of a leader that is a good fit for local? And what are some of the qualities that are probably you’re not going to be a good fit.

Neil Bedwell: If I come back to that point I made earlier about standing on a stage and projecting a story, um, and not thinking about whether people hear you, I think it’s that I think, um, good leaders understand that the most important thing is reaching their audience versus, um, saying what they want to say. Um, and so listening and understanding the audience, understanding your, your whoever you’re leading is the most important thing. And then I’m a big believer personally in, um, doing versus saying. So if you if you model behaviors, if you show what matters and you and you do it with courage and confidence, that is a better way to lead others to want to do that versus to mandate or instruct. Um, and then the final thing is recognition. Um, your job as a leader is to, is to model and show the right way to behave and work and then recognize, celebrate those who do that so that others will follow. People follow people more than they follow leaders. So if you can model something, show others doing it, and then have them basically, um, lead for you the rest of the organization, that’s, that’s that’s the way forward. I think, um, for me at least.

Lee Kantor: Now, you.

Lee Kantor: Mentioned early on that you saw an opportunity when you were working with an organization that it was difficult to roll out your idea. What was kind of a clue when you were had this idea of employee engagement and focusing in on the importance of that, that you were like, can you share maybe that first time you did an initiative that worked and you were like, okay, this is something this isn’t just in my head. This is something that I can see really working here. And then it could work in other organizations.

Neil Bedwell: Yeah. And I have the Coca-Cola company to thank, not just for the experience of of working through something as big as the World Cup. And I, you know, I it was incredibly hard work, but I loved it. Um, but also when we first started local, obviously we had a lot of friends, you know, inside the Coca-Cola sort of ecosystem. And we got offered the chance to look at it at a employee engagement program that wasn’t working. Um, and we we were trusted enough by a leader to say, you know, what would you guys do with this? And that’s where we were able to actually show that a marketing approach, which is really about focusing on the audience, in this case the employees, how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking and then leaning into them. Maybe, you know, more emotionally first than rationally. So more about inspiration than than instruction and taking that slant on it actually did unlock some real wins for that program. And we were able to say, well, look, we made something work at one of the biggest, most complex by the sheer size and, uh, geographic spread of the company that that worked. We think that we can do the same thing for you. Um, and I’m very grateful for that opportunity to do that. Um, and it’s still we regard that that experience back in 2015 and 16, I think, as the sort of genesis of what we’ve been able to build since then.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice you can give an organization? Uh, maybe not an enterprise level, but just a small to small to mid sized company. Is there some low hanging fruit that they can be doing better in terms of employee engagement?

Neil Bedwell: Yeah. My um, uh, my old boss from my Coca-Cola days and and are still a very good friend. You you have this great mantra which is you have two ears and one mouth for a reason. You should use them in that ratio. Um, so listen, so many people don’t listen. Your employees, whether you have a team of 5 or 5000, are telling you everything that you need to do. And they’re also capable of doing it. Um, so if you can listen and understand them, you know, and we always say that in marketing the, the, the, the single greatest competitive advantage over any, you know, any competitor is a deeper knowledge of your audience. And I think the same thing goes for, for for leaders inside companies to the more you know about your, your people, um, the more you understand them and what they’re what they want, what they need, what they’re capable of. The more chance you have of of leading them successfully to the outcome that everybody wants. Um, so that that’s, that’s the same no matter what company you’re in, if you’re a smaller company, you can do it quicker. I think you can be more nimble.

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

Neil Bedwell: Well, local, um, we are happily growing. Um, we are, um, investing a lot in the community here in Atlanta. So, um, we think of our clients, uh, as change makers. So a change maker, is anybody in any, any, um, discipline or division inside any company that is trying to make it better? Um, and using employee marketing is change marketing. Uh, sort of process that we have is a tool in the toolbox of a change maker. Um, and what we what we recognize is that an HR leader from a technology company, um, a technology leader from a product company, um, a marketing leader from, uh, you know, a sportswear company, they’re all change makers, and they can all can learn from each other. And we get the benefit. We benefit from knowing those people, um, in terms of growing our business, too. So, um, we are hosting change maker gatherings, events. Uh, we have a really cool, um, house space, a clubhouse space, um, down here on Edgewood that, um, the last event that we did was, uh, just before the holidays, and we had 60 or 70, um, really interesting change makers from across different industries and, and and companies all coming together, talking, sharing, um, sort of contributing, uh, to, to a dialog, but in a really fun, informal way with some really good wine. Um, so if you’re interested in being part of that, we’re also doing virtual ones because we want to reach people, you know, further and wider. But for the Atlanta community, we’d love to meet you. Um, you can find us on LinkedIn local, the change marketing company. Uh, you can find us at Local industries.com. Um, there’s plenty of ways to get in touch with us. Myself, Neil Bedwell on LinkedIn, and we’d love to meet you and understand what change you’re trying to drive and bring you into this, this burgeoning community. And I really mean this as a Brit, uh, transplanted into Atlanta. There is some incredible, um, people here doing really interesting work across a lot of different industries. And, and we, we get so much goodness out of bringing everyone together.

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

Neil Bedwell: Thanks, Lee. Really enjoyed it.

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

Hugo Gonzalez With Equity Smart Home Loans

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Pasadena Business Radio
Pasadena Business Radio
Hugo Gonzalez With Equity Smart Home Loans
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Hugo Gonzalez is a loan officer of Equity Smart Home Loans out of the Pasadena area. His main goal is to help clients feel as comfortable with the home-lending process as he does. No one should be left in the dark with something this important.

That’s why he puts everything into mastering the loan process and effectively communicating how things are working every step of the way. He hopes that by understanding the process, you’ll be able to trust that he has everything taken care of.

Connect with Hugo on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Equity Smart Home Loans
  • Mortgage brokers vs Direct Lenders
  • Examples of how broker flexibility can save a deal
  • His approach to servicing clients
  • Getting pre-approved before beginning your search

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Pasadena, California. This is Pasadena Business Radio. And now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here for another episode of Pasadena Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today’s episode is brought to you by Xavier Inguanzo, realtor. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. Today on Pasadena Business Radio, we have Hugo Gonzalez with Equity Smart home loans. Welcome.

Hugo Gonzalez: Hey, Lee, how’s it going? Thanks for having me.

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

Hugo Gonzalez: So, equity Smart Home Loans is a brokerage out brokerage out of South Pasadena, but they have licensing in several states. So I myself am a mortgage broker, so I work with over 200 different lenders that are partnered with equity smart home loans to find the right loan, the right deal, the maybe possibly the only deal that would work in some situations. So my job is to just align lenders with my clients to help them get into their homes or get any kind of home financing.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? Have you always been involved in the real estate business like this?

Hugo Gonzalez: Oh, that’s a long one. No. So I actually just got into the mortgage business late last year, but it’s been going great despite the market not being so great. I actually used to be a content creator, so YouTube and such and a professional video game player. And then before that I worked at a big four accounting firm, Ernst, Ernst and Young. So I have a very varied background.

Lee Kantor: But so you have been kind of involved in finance and numbers part of business?

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah. And it’s funny because that part of it taught me the technical side of the business. And then the stuff I did in between with the content and working with, uh, you know, other content creators, influencers, things like that. It built up the, uh, the social aspects of this business.

Lee Kantor: So what was kind of the most difficult transition to go from where you were to what you’re doing today?

Hugo Gonzalez: Uh, I’d say.

Hugo Gonzalez: Honestly, skill set wise, none really. The difficult part was just getting everything started, getting all my licenses right. I, I went through the, uh, the Dre license, the realtor license here in California, then got my Nmls license, and it just took some time. And you can’t really do the job in that time. So you’re kind of just prepping for what’s to come until that’s all done. But otherwise, once I started the job, I loved it and it all just felt very natural.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you running this equity smart home loans office, or is that a bigger company that you work for?

Hugo Gonzalez: No. So that is a bigger company that I work for. They are the brokerage and I hang my license under them. But I am completely independent. I, I generate my own business. I run it the way that I’d like. And they offer their support and guidance. But everything is me.

Lee Kantor: Was that difficult for you to go as an entrepreneur to now working for somebody, or this had all the infrastructure you needed in order to do what you need to do?

Hugo Gonzalez: Uh, no, I’d say it wasn’t difficult at all. In fact, I think it was one of the big draws for me to become a broker because I get to maintain that independence. So they don’t really tell me how to run my business. Uh, I, I can choose how to engage clients. I can choose, uh, the kind of work I put in my schedule where I work from. I get to keep all that independence. Uh, it’s mostly a place that offers me resources and, um, like the various lenders that I have access to, for example.

Lee Kantor: So what’s the difference between, uh, a broker versus, uh, you know, getting a loan directly from somebody? Like, can you explain kind of the difference between the two?

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah, I think the, the two big, uh, facets of this business are direct lenders and brokers. So a direct lender will work directly for one specific lender or one specific bank, and they essentially only offer the loan programs that the bank has available. And they they go by the rules of that bank in terms of underwriting, whether they accept a loan or not. Uh, whereas with me, I shop it with various different lenders so I one can I have many options. So if one bank can’t do it, I do know of other banks that might be able to do it. So I could take the deal They’re on top of that being a broker kind of. It makes you sort of function as an advocate for the client, where you’re wholly incentivized to to close the deal. Otherwise, uh, you don’t get paid, but at a direct lender, you might have some part of it, uh, be salary and then a small portion of it be commission. So it’s just the way it’s structured, there’s just a lot more incentive for me to act on your behalf through the broker channel.

Lee Kantor: And it gives you more kind of space to be creative just because our rules at, um, you know, lender A are such. I can find lender B or C or D or Z.

Hugo Gonzalez: Right? Correct. Exactly. So, um, I think that’s probably been my favorite part of the job is how creative I can be in making the deal work, just because of all the different options that I have now.

Lee Kantor: Um, when you’re working to find your clients, is this something that you need to have kind of relationships with other people in order to kind of serve that client? Because it sounds like, I mean, when I started my business, I would go to these networking meetings and there’d be a real estate person, a mortgage broker, uh, you know, an attorney they had I called them the Mafia. They had their own little group of people that they were all kind of working together to help each other, because one lead would affect all of them. They all would touch that. That client.

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah. Yeah.

Hugo Gonzalez: Um, yeah. Everything is interconnected, and I, I would be somebody that would be at some of those networking events. Um, but I also find that, uh, clients are everywhere. So sometimes I will go to my favorite bar where they’re having a chess night, and I will just hang out with people and play chess there and meet, meet, uh, future business partners or potential clients there, too. And, um, to your point, everything is connected. So if if I do an amazing job and I was referred by a real estate client or sorry, partner or or a financial advisor partner, then that reflects well on them as well. So then and the reverse is true also, right? Like if something went wrong then it would reflect poorly on everybody involved. So there’s a lot of stakes in every single interaction. So you always got to make sure that you’re treating everyone to the best of your ability, with the best service you can possibly offer.

Lee Kantor: And you want to kind of build that trusted advisor network where everybody is in a place where everybody knows that, hey, I know I’m watching your back, you’re watching my back. And that way the customer is going to have a good experience and know there’s like, no weak links in there.

Hugo Gonzalez: Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any room for B or C players. Uh, if, if I, I basically won’t partner up unless I know that you would treat my clients with the utmost care and respect. And, you know, dedication to making something work.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, when you got into this business, was that it was that one of the hard parts is okay, I got to get the lay of the land. Like, who are the A players here? Who are the people that I should avoid? Like, you have to know that in order to do your job well and to help your clients get the outcome they desire.

Hugo Gonzalez: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was probably one of the, um, more difficult things. It’s kind of you’re only going to learn through trial and error in that sense. And sometimes I would work with people where, you know, thankfully, it never led to anything disastrous, but possibly at worst, just time wasted. But you got to know how they operated. And after some time you realize, wait, this isn’t someone I’d like to work with. So now I know what to look out for for the next time. And you get better at it as as you go on and you start to realize who, um, who fits exactly the type of person you want to work with.

Lee Kantor: So now let’s talk about, um, you know, kind of the nuts and bolts of what a day in your life looks like. So a person comes to you, they’re ready to buy a house, or they’re coming to you, you know, to pre-qualify. Like, what is the, um, you know, kind of that first interaction you’re typically having with a client?

Hugo Gonzalez: Uh, it could be all of the above. So sometimes let’s say they were a referral from a real estate agent partner. Then, uh, they’re ready to go, right? They’re looking for a pre-approval. They’re ready to start shopping for homes. Sometimes they are just inquisitive. And they saw me post something online and they just maybe not even to find out more. They just messaged me saying, oh, these rates are kind of rough right now, right? And then we just get to talking and they start revealing their their goals of homeownership. And a month or two later now they’re there, ready to get pre-approved. They’re they’re asking me if I know any realtors that can help them out. Um, sometimes that’ll just. Everything will change very quickly. I’ve had people message me saying, yeah, we’re about a year to two years out, and then we talk and then they find out, wait, we are a lot closer than we thought we were. And then within a week, they’re already shopping for their home. So it it varies. They talk to me about anything at any stage and then we see where we go from there.

Lee Kantor: So do you have any advice for the person that’s looking for a loan. What could they be doing. You know, before having that conversation with you to get ready to maximize their chances of getting the right loan at the right rates?

Hugo Gonzalez: I think the best thing you can do is if you have an interest in buying a home or refinancing or or taking out a line of credit on your home, or doing a fix and flip anything you want to do with a home. If you have questions regarding that, just reach out to a loan officer because I think the worst thing a person can do is go to some heavily advertised or sponsored article on Google that doesn’t actually speak to your situation. If you speak to someone directly that understands your specific circumstance, you would know best what to do from there. Right? Like you. I’ve had people reach out to me thinking that they need to wait a year because they don’t have 20% down, and I say, wait, you have the minimum of 3% down already. Your credit is great. You’re about to get into another year long lease at your apartment. Is that really what you want to do? Or are you ready right now? And then they will see that they’re ready right now. But they might have just avoided the conversation altogether if they just felt like they weren’t ready to talk to me yet.

Hugo Gonzalez: Right.

Lee Kantor: Because they read some blog post that gave them some general rule of thumb that isn’t relevant to their specific situation.

Hugo Gonzalez: Exactly. And that’s not to say that the information out there is wrong. It’s just as you said, it’s a lot of things that are written out. There are rules of thumb and it doesn’t like loans are complicated. It doesn’t necessarily apply specifically to your scenario. So it’s always best just to talk to an expert.

Lee Kantor: And that’s the key thing there. You want to talk to somebody who’s done this before, not somebody who’s you know, just read an article like you like somebody who’s kind of been in the weeds of this that can kind of figure out kind of creative ways to solve these problems that a blog post just they can’t. That’s not what blog posts are, you know, general information.

Hugo Gonzalez: They’d have to write an entire story, like multiple pages to cover every possible scenario. Right? It’s just not practical.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share maybe that explains this or illustrates this type of complexity, where somebody did come to you with a challenge that they thought maybe was insurmountable, and you were able to be to be creative to help them get the outcome they desired.

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah. Sorry about that.

Lee Kantor: You don’t have to name the name or anything like that, but just maybe the general problem and the solution you provided.

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah.

Hugo Gonzalez: Um, so I worked with a, um, a content creator at one point. So this is somebody who who makes videos on YouTube or live streams, games, things like that. And, um, with people like that, they could have a year where they maybe did something viral that took off and they made a lot of money one year, and then the next year their income just goes back to normal. And that normal income in this particular situation I’m thinking about was totally enough to qualify for a loan on its own. However, some lenders would find issue with the dramatic decrease from one year to the next on the income, and they might consider that income in unstable. And so my this is what I love about the job. I get to become creative and I start finding out. There’s a rule where if you are self-employed in the same line of work for five years, you get to a lender will only require one year of tax returns. So the solution was to, you know, get the CPA to write a letter to prove the five years. And then all they needed to see was the one year. And while there was a decrease, they never had another year to compare to. So just to the lender, all they knew was that my borrower made enough money in this given year to qualify. And it was and it was smooth from there. And he had brought this situation to other loan officers, and they just kept giving pushback about the stability of the income. And I just found a solution. And it was smooth and it worked out.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And that and that having the background you had in that industry probably didn’t hurt either.

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah, it makes them very comfortable to tell me their situation and I know how the business works. So when someone tells me they. Dropped an income, that doesn’t mean they’re not going to shoot back up the next year.

Lee Kantor: Right. That’s not a red flag to you. That’s just part of the business.

Hugo Gonzalez: Exactly, exactly. So my job is to understand what would be red flags to a lender and like and navigate that. I’m basically just aligning lender expectations and requirements with borrower circumstances. And my understanding of what they do helps me navigate all that.

Lee Kantor: And you can cherry pick the right lender for the right situation. You don’t have one way to do something. There’s lots of ways to do this. If you have the right lender and you have access to more than one.

Hugo Gonzalez: Exactly. So if there’s ever a moment where it’s a gray area, right, like the example I gave, it was per the guidelines, and I knew it would work wherever I took it. But sometimes there’s a gray area in the guidelines and I can get on the phone, call a representative from the lender, tell them the them the situation. They could tell me. Yes, they could tell me. No. And now I know who all my yeses are. And then I can choose. And I could go from there. And I’m not stuck. Whereas, you know, if you go to a direct lender and their specific lender doesn’t do it, then that’s just the end of it.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a niche? Is there an area that you would feel like, okay, this is my sweet spot. I want to get more clients like this.

Hugo Gonzalez: To be honest, I would say no because I have so much fun figuring out every situation that I wouldn’t say I have a niche, but where I seem to be falling into is the the um, the niche where I need to get creative. Right? The the income is there, the credit is there, or sometimes not. Right. But there needs to be a creative way to pick up the credit. Um, that’s where I shine. So if somebody feels like they might not get what they need out of, um, the easy like, you find it on Google or you go walk into a bank. If that might not be for you, then talk to me and I can get creative, and I can find the right loan and the right circumstance to make it work.

Lee Kantor: So if they’ve been kind of having having some friction with one of these mega banks, maybe it’s worth giving you a call to see if there’s, uh, other options that maybe this mega bank isn’t. It’s may not be the right fit for them, but you can possibly find them. The right the right lender.

Hugo Gonzalez: Yeah, 100%. And I’d also say that, um, sometimes you don’t want to find out the hard way either, because everything that a mega bank can do, I could do it too, right? That’s not to say that I can’t do the, the, the straightforward stuff either. Right? But sometimes people will go to these larger banks and then find out the hard way in the middle of Escrow that it won’t work and it might be too late to fix things at that point. Whereas maybe you could call me on the weekend. You could call me at 1 a.m., you could text me at any time, and I’m responsive and I you’re going to know right away what where the loan is at and what we need to do to make it work.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the website? What is the coordinates to connect?

Hugo Gonzalez: Uh, so the best way to connect with me is, uh, to go to equity smart loans.com. And, uh, my, my contact info is on that website. Otherwise, I don’t know if, uh, Lee, I don’t know if I’m allowed to give my number, but I, I am somebody who is totally okay with giving that out.

Hugo Gonzalez: Well, it’s it’s.

Hugo Gonzalez: 100% the best.

Hugo Gonzalez: Way to contact me.

Lee Kantor: Um, or can they find you on LinkedIn? Is there ways to, uh, find you or just go to Equity Smart loans.com and look for Hugo Gonzalez and then.

Hugo Gonzalez: Uh, honestly.

Hugo Gonzalez: Another fun way. So this is this is me going back to my content creator roots. I don’t mind people messaging me on Instagram. I post, uh, loan officer content there. Uh, I’ve had several future clients reach out to me through Instagram. I think it’s a great space for loan officers and realtors to share information. Um, so my Instagram is at huggs 86 and I kept it to my content creator days because I don’t feel there should be a difference between my personal page and my professional page, because I keep it professional throughout no matter what.

Lee Kantor: So good stuff. Well you go. Congratulations on all the success. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Hugo Gonzalez: Thank you so much Leah I appreciate it.

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

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