Business RadioX ®

David Winkler With Docufree

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
David Winkler With Docufree
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David Winkler serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Docufree Corporation an Inc. 5000 company and the creator of the award-winning cloud-based document management and workflow automation software-as-services application platform.

As CPO, he is responsible for leading Docufree’s product and platform roadmap including; product vision, innovation, development, product marketing and go-to-market alliances. His passion is leading key platform development, product management and marketing leaders to ensure that these key roles are being performed efficiently and are aligned with the organization’s vision and strategy.

Prior to this role, he served as the Vice President for Global Healthcare Solutions for Ricoh Corporation where he led the multi-national strategic vision for bringing information management and digital services to Healthcare organizations in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific markets. He has extensive leadership experience across diverse sales & marketing roles and technology areas, with companies ranging from startups to the Fortune 100.

Prior to Ricoh, he served in various leadership positions for Mobius, Microsoft, Oracle, Cadence and Electronic Data Systems. These ranged from Director Systems Engineering, GM Strategic Marketing, Director Consulting Services, to leading Global Product Management, Product Strategy and Alliances.

David holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the Seidman School of Business, Grand Valley University in Michigan. He resides in Dallas, TX and has extensive experience working abroad.

Connect with David on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Challenges of traditional mailrooms
  • Key capabilities of an Enterprise Digital Mailroom
  • The role of AI
  • Benefits of an Enterprise Digital Mailroom
  • Real-world examples of an Enterprise Digital Mailroom at work: Ryder Use Case

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, Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have David Winkler with Docufree. Welcome.

David Winkler: Hi, Lee. Glad to be with you. Thank you. Well, I’m.

Lee Kantor: Excited to learn what you’re up to. For those who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Docufree?

David Winkler: Absolutely. Free is based in Alpharetta, and we’ve been in business here now for 25 plus years. Employ approximately 500, give or take a few employees in the Alpharetta area, heavily involved with digitization of paper based documents, as well as processing electronic documents for a number of, you know, a number of corporations, over 1600 corporations across the United States. So mainly focused here on US business. A lot of business in the Atlanta area, of course, you know the entire East coast of the US.

Lee Kantor: And one of the areas you kind of focus in on is kind of the corporate mailroom. Can you share a little bit about, you know, the importance of transforming that corporate mailroom? Because a lot of people probably take it for granted and don’t put much thought into that part of the business.

David Winkler: Very, very true. So most folks, I’m sure, are very familiar with the challenges of just working with paper based information and the challenges that it presents the lack of efficiency for your employees, partners, trading partners, let alone the the implications it poses for information security and privacy and compliance. And as we all know, we still receive a lot of documents and paper based information via the mail stream, whether it’s coming through the US Postal Service mail stream, or whether it’s coming via via couriers, whether it’s UPS, Fedex, etc.. Um, and, you know, we’ve been trying to deal with and corporations are still struggling with, um, removing or reducing paper based information from their business processes, uh, for, for quite some time now. So the mail room is where a lot of that paper enters, whether it’s an invoice from a customer, uh, whether it’s a piece of legal Correspondence related to your business or or whether it’s insurance related, etc.. As we all know, business is run based on documents or the backbone of business, so a lot of volume still comes in through a mailroom. If you’re a larger enterprise, you most likely have a centralized mail type functions and perhaps even some distributed offices, right, that are also handling mail. So as we move, you know, businesses from a document centric and how they deal to a more data centric world, the importance of digitizing that mail stream and getting the information from those documents extracted and injected into the right line of business system that you use and support is really, really important. So the mail room is a very important function to your company.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you give us an idea of the scope of the opportunity here? Like what percentage of invoices or checks or physical invoices? Physical checks are actually mailed back and forth or communicated that way rather than digitally.

David Winkler: Still, surprisingly, even in this day and age, a surprising number of documents still come in physically through the mail, especially if you’re a highly regulated business, right? Um, if you have to do regulatory mandatory mailings as part of your business offering, you’re going to be most likely sending a version of that through through email or electronically. But you’re also going to be required to send through the mail, whether it’s even a simple postcard or whether it’s, you know, a traditional number ten envelope with, you know, with the contents in there, um, various studies on this, but it’s still anywhere from, uh, from looking at a process like AP invoicing as an example. You’ve still got north of 50% of those are coming in through the mail stream physically, right?

Lee Kantor: I mean, I’m sure the listeners, especially the younger ones, are, you know, they’re really shocked by that number because most of their transactions are digital.

David Winkler: Yeah, it’s surprising. Right? Um, especially when you when you look at it, a lot of people are, you know, familiar with accessing, you know, through mobile devices, whether it’s your phone, your cell phone, or whether it’s a, you know, a tablet or even a, you know, a laptop computer, you’re doing a lot of things, you know, electronically, obviously. Right. You can go on to a furniture store online and, and buy something, you know, etcetera. Um, but you look at the supply chain that supports that purchase, right? Uh, there’s probably 2 or 3 businesses in the supply chain that are either mailing some type of document or they’re printing it out physically. You’d be surprised. Uh, multifunction Multi-function printing devices, let alone standalone devices. Copies of what you thought you did are entirely, 100% electronically are still being printed out. Um, and I don’t know if you’ve, you know, had the opportunity to buy a big ticket item, but let’s just let’s just talk about buying a home or buying an automobile. You go into a dealership, uh, you may think you’re sitting there filling everything out online with some dealers are very advanced. The reality is, again, that information is getting printed at somewhere along in that transaction has to be captured and data elements fed into ancillary subsystems along the line. Um, so don’t be fooled by the fact that you think you’re doing it 100% online, that the entire supply chain is online because it’s not.

Lee Kantor: Now for you, when you’re working with your clients, is there a size where it becomes, um, the mailroom becomes an issue where it’s like, you know, this wasn’t a big deal when we were this size. But now that we’re this new size, this is becoming now a problem where it was just something that we were, I guess, tolerating.

David Winkler: Um, you know, we’re we have clients in, you know, from small to mid-sized clients. Um, you know, employee wise, we’ve got, uh, running our digital mail service, less than 50 employees, uh, all the way up to very large organizations. Fortune 500, right, with, you know, thousands and tens of thousands of employees. So there’s not a sweet spot, right? So that has developed that says, okay, you know, you got to be a large organization to benefit from this. You know, we’re seeing in the legal industry, for example, law firms, um, that are adopting this technology. And, um, they are, you know, they’re not very large from an employee size Perspective, but they’re dealing with information and workers in particular in. Their office that are distributed. Right. They’re highly distributed. And the information is distributed. They’re getting information physically through the mail, but they’re also getting it electronically, you know, feeds from court systems, as an example, from multiple jurisdictions, counties and states that all has to be pulled together and integrated into their case management application and fed in there. Um, so, you know, legal is an industry that, you know, we’re seeing a lot of traction in that doesn’t have a big employee base. Um, you look at, uh, transportation industry, you know, we have a fortune 500 client in the transportation space as an example, and they literally shut down their corporate mail room and reallocated those employees to other areas throughout their facility department. And now they rely 100% on our free digital mail platform, and we’re distributing their mail now digitally. Even that came in through the Postal service. They now look at their mail totally online. Right. So we’ve, you know, essentially made their information as mobile as their workforce is. Um, so there’s not one size that’s in particular. This technology scales very nicely to small to mid-size to very large environments.

Lee Kantor: So what happens when, like you mentioned that some of these industries are, you know, 50% are still dealing with paper. How does it work when all of a sudden now you’re working with one of the players in those industries and they’re not dealing with paper? Can they still play nicely with the ones that are?

David Winkler: Yeah, that’s what’s really, really nice about, um, what the advances in technology have given us, especially with artificial intelligence as well, um, is you now have the ability to seamlessly integrate your physical information with your electronic information and marry that up so that you can now present a unified view of the information. And you can leverage technology such as workflow to route and distribute, that have different constituents take action on the mail that you wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do. Um, you know, I suppose in contrast with mail streams and mail of, of the olden days, still a lot of companies are doing this, but you might be a company that delivers pouch mail to distributed offices, and you might, uh, do interoffice mail. Now, if you remember the old envelopes, right? With interoffice mail and routing, you route a piece of correspondence to somebody, stick it in their office envelope, and you can, you know, track who they route it to, and you want them to take action on certain things. You can now do all that electronically, right. And all you need is an internet connection, which is the beautiful thing. And so it makes it really, really nice. Um, I think a lot of organizations that again, uh, you know, thought of digital mail in the past as, oh, it’s, you know, you just turn paper documents, you know, scan them, OCR them and store them. But the reality is, is digital mail of today, in the modern era, uh, completely unifies that information to where you can now take action on it. And from a workflow and your task and queue management over mail, uh, accountability tracking features, um, you know, insert critical or transactional mail into a line of business system and have total chain of custody right from the moment of receipt. Um, those are things that the technology platform enables you to do in this modern era.

Lee Kantor: And it sounds like, like mail isn’t doesn’t have to be this physical Old thing. It’s really communication is at the heart of this, and you’re trying to give as many people this transparent communication as quickly as possible.

David Winkler: Great point. Um, it is all about communications and the information exists in so many different file formats and structures and places. Um, and, you know, most would think of the past, right? As you know, you’re, you’re physically mailing it. Um, but now you can, you can literally capture all this information. Um, you can leverage technology to extrapolate key information, only certain elements or fields or even such things as we’re leveraging artificial intelligence, right, to redact certain information that came in from that mail stream. Let’s say it’s a release of information request from a healthcare perspective, and you need to redact the personally identifiable information on that physical document, as well as the PDF document that came in through a fax gateway. You can do that with digital mail, and you can now secure it. So only those with the authorization credentials to view it can view it. Um, you know, it’s it’s just incredible what the technology allows you to do and how you can intelligently deliver mail like you’ve never been able to do in the mail room of the past.

Lee Kantor: Now, from the people who are still doing it kind of the old way, what are some of the things that they’re dealing with and just tolerating that they don’t have to tolerate, if maybe they were aware of this type of a service?

David Winkler: Well, we hear it quite often. Um, some of the, you know, the pain that organizations still have, right, is, um, critical documents get lost in the mail. Right? We’re all familiar with that phrase. Well, the check’s in the mail, right? Um, checks get lost in the mail, and when checks get lost in the mail. Right? That’s that’s revenue, right? It’s money. Uh, so digitizing that information, right. And capturing, uh, not only who it’s coming from and the amount and the, the micro line and all the information about that, but then making sure that that transaction gets deposited where it needs to go. You eliminate that risk or that pain when you have a digital mail platform. So again, critical documents, um, getting delayed or getting lost or left unsecured from a compliance standpoint, those are some of the biggest pain points that we hear from customers. Um, who, you know, are not sure or not familiar with digital mail per se, but how digital mail might be able to help them or benefit their business. Um, driving costs out and increasing accountability for the mail stream.

David Winkler: Um, when you look at your organization and how the world works nowadays, it is it is a new world of work out there. And legacy inbound mail processes just struggle keeping up with today’s mobile workforce. You have people still, even though I know we’re post Covid pandemic per se, even though COVID’s not gone, but a lot of people have returned to work, but they still have flexible work arrangements or they’re truly, you know, mobile workers, right? They’re traveling for business, etcetera. Um, digital mail is ideal for that problem. Um, and how do you get that information, whether you’re in an office for two out of five days a week and you’re working from home or hoteling the rest of the time. That’s something that we’re hearing as well, right? Is if you’re frustrated with not only lost misplaced mail, you don’t have any level of tracking or accountability. No audit trail to your mail, and you have a distributed workforce that you need to deal with. Um, these are all things that we hear from companies that are ideal for a digital mail platform.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I would imagine. I mean, when you talk about it, it becomes obvious that this improves the speed to communication, which in turn improves the speed to action which everybody is for. Like no one wants us to be slower and take more time to do stuff that we can be doing faster. And this to me is a no brainer when it comes to, you know, the speed to take to make a decision because you have the information in the hands of the people who need it in the form that they need it as quickly as possible.

David Winkler: Precisely. And if you think about, you know, from a customer engagement standpoint, right. Um, customers are critical to businesses and how you engage them, how you fulfill them, the speed, as you pointed out, that you can do that, you know, servicing them, growing your revenue, you know, reducing your exposure of risk. And, um, you know, the handling and distribution of individual pieces of mail, you know, letters, orders, contracts, POS, you know, etc. many times represent a very weak link between you and the customer in that whole chain, right. So as significant time delays to look stuff up the handle paper, paper management costs, you know, they’re all barriers to cycle time and speed. So the more you can collaborate. Make decisions faster, more precise. Eliminate the manual and duplication and physical logistics. The happier your customer is going to be. You know, back to your point. It’s all about speed, throughput, accuracy, and it’s all about reducing that weakest link between you and servicing your customer.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates this? Maybe share? You obviously don’t name the company, but share the challenge they had. And when they engaged with Takfiri, how they were able to get to a new level.

David Winkler: Absolutely. We have a very large personal injury. I think it’s the largest personal injury law firm in the country. Um, depending on a given week. Right. But, um, they, they dealt with, uh, numerous challenges of physical mail, not only the, the, the archives and things taking up precious real estate and space that they needed to expand to support, you know, additional attorneys, etc. but they were dealing with a high number of distributed. Offices I think 60 plus downstream locations from their headquarters. Um, they also dealt with multiple paralegals. Um, and, you know, turnover and that process as well. And so they were they were getting stuff lost, you know, literally in the mail. They were spending a significant amount of money in overnighting things between their offices or, you know, Fedex type expenses. Et cetera. And um, and they also had the issue of, you know, dealing with, um, criminal court systems between multiple counties and, and other, you know, differing states. So physical mail stream was an issue, but their, their electronic mail that came in via they would get stuff sent via emails with file attachments. Um, they would get stuff sent in via facsimile. Um, so this different information coming from multiple disparate sources. Um, and they, they really struggled with that. Right. And their costs were just difficult to control. And so they they engaged us to help digitize that. You know, we focused on the process first, followed by the technology enablement.

David Winkler: Um, and that really helped them get a really good handle on the baseline, on what it was costing them to process the mail. And then once we said, hey, here’s how we could intervene in this process and lean it out, so to speak, and make some tweaks to it. Here’s how we can, you know, centralize the capture of the mail. Um, the people that you had, you know, before they were doing their own scanning, but then having people manually key in information from, you know, at the index level and other systems, we showed them how we can automate that, how we can extrapolate that feed those ancillary systems directly, you can essentially eliminate that task, that step in the workflow and, you know, apply the automation intelligently, right. As you lean this process out. Um, so they’ve you know, they tell us today, they don’t know how they could operate without us. Right. Essentially. Now, fortunately for them, they were a client of ours, you know, about a year and a half before Covid hit. And when Covid hit, they immediately went into immediate, you know, send people home, right. Et cetera. Um, they tell us they don’t know how they could have done it right without this platform. Um, so they’ve seen clearly the benefits they continue to, you know, acquire and grow in their business and, and, um, very, very happy with, with, with the result. So we’ve got other clients that, um, you know, similar scenario where they’ve just been dealing and struggling with, the amount of paper based information and how they integrate it with the electronic information.

David Winkler: And we’ve got, like I say, companies as small as five employees on this platform. Um, and then we also have a very large transportation, uh, distribution company, a fortune 500 company that, um, literally shut down its corporate mailroom, uh, and is now gone entirely on a digital platform. And they absolutely love it. Um, they love it, especially to they’ve got they’re using it in the human resource area in HR. Uh, they’re using it in their accounts payable function. Um, so many, many different examples, which is really the nice, uh, nice thing about, uh, digital mail is the use cases, um, across industries are, you know, very common, you know, banking, financial services, using for account statements and account agreements, credit appraisals. We see health care organizations using it for insurance, application insurance, card, patient records, you know, paying your invoices, everything from prescriptions, etcetera. Uh, we’re seeing in the travel and hospitality, you know, invoices, itineraries, reservation confirmations, um, manufacturing. Really key. Right. Bill of materials, component catalogs, inventories, um, shipping tags, supplier lists, you name it. Right. The use cases are very, very broad. Um, so it’s very applicable across multiple industry segments. Um, because mail is one of those kind of those horizontal aspects that, you know, every business has to deal with it.

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

David Winkler: Go to.com. Uh, Docu fr e com. Uh, our website, um, has all the information you need. You can, you can look at case studies on this. You can look at, you know, uh, information briefings, sheets, uh, very easy to, you know, click and contact somebody. And we’ll have one of our professional consulting executives, um, talk to you. We’d love to have a conversation with you. Um, we’ve even done webinars. I think there’s a recorded webinar out there on that, but I would direct them to our website is probably the best place to go. A wealth of information out there on this offering and what it’s capable of.

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

David Winkler: Thank you. Lee. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today.

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

Joshua Silver With Rainforest

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Joshua Silver With Rainforest
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Joshua Silver is the founder and CEO of Rainforest, a Payments-as-a-service company which helps software platforms monetize payments and create robust financial experiences without needing to take on the burden of risk and compliance.

Prior to starting Rainforest, he co-founded Patientco, a venture backed healthcare payments company which provides a comprehensive patient payments platform to health systems.

For more than a decade, he was instrumental in scaling the company from idea-stage to maturity. He lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Aurora, and their two young children. Outside of work, Joshua is an avid international traveler and has been to almost 40 countries.

Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How payments and embedded finance can drive revenue and enterprise value for SaaS companies
  • Best practices for SaaS companies adding embedded payments / embedded finance
  • Things to consider when choosing an embedded payments provider
  • How to make support/service a differentiator
  • How to scale high-touch support/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 here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio we have Joshua Silver with Rainforest. Welcome.

Joshua Silver: Hey, thanks for having me.

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

Joshua Silver: So rainforest is a payments as a service company. And what that means is that we help software companies add payment products and other financial services into their platform. And taking a step back, if we look at historically, small business owners had to get software from software companies, and they went and got banking services and other financial services from banks. And right now there’s a big trend going on where software companies are not only providing them the software, but also providing them the payment services and other financial products, and we are really the infrastructure provider for all of those services and to those software companies.

Lee Kantor: So for folks who aren’t using rainforest, are they just not offering payments or because they have to get paid in some manner?

Joshua Silver: Well, what we’ve seen historically is that most small businesses are using disjointed processes. They might be ringing up the customer, or they may be creating the invoice or the bill in a piece of software, and then they have a completely separate, disjointed payment system that they might have gotten from their bank, or they might have gotten from some other company. Really, what we’re doing is helping advance the cause of bringing these two together and creating a unified experience. The analogy I like to use is think about in the days before Uber or Lyft, you had to go through some booking process to get a taxi. You know whether that was hailing one on the street, if you lived in the city or calling one ahead of time, and then at the end you had a fumble with the payment process, whether that was cash, a few of them took credit cards. Now, with Uber and Lyft, it’s really simple. You have one application where you can book your ride, you can see all of your historical rides, and most importantly, at the end of the ride, you can just pay. And we enable lots of other software companies to offer those similar experiences to both consumers and businesses that remove that friction.

Lee Kantor: So how many SaaS companies are there?

Joshua Silver: Well, the analysts estimate that there’s over 10,000 SaaS companies in the United States alone, and the vast majority of them have some type of payments angle or payments need. Because most days, you know, most, most of the times, these days software companies have some type of financial component. And so our market is literally thousands and thousands of software companies, ranging from startups here, maybe in Atlanta, Tech Village or Atdc in the Atlanta area to grow and scaled companies that might already be processing billions of dollars of payments.

Lee Kantor: Now, can they be B2B, B2C? Does it matter?

Joshua Silver: So we service both markets. We process a lot of payments, for example, in the healthcare space. And so these are patients that are paying healthcare bills through some platform where we’re powering those payments. And we also do B2B. It could be any type of commercial field service provider. Or it could be anyone that’s doing B2B invoicing that needs to get those payments processed. So we do both B2B and B2C equally well, and we’ve invested a lot in our technology stack to be able to offer both credit card processing and bank rails like ACH natively in one platform. That’s one thing we actually do very differently than than a lot of our competitors.

Lee Kantor: So for the SaaS company, do they not have to have like another provider, like you’re just taking over that element and you’re just making it seamless for their consumer? Or do they still have to have relationships with like stripe or some of these other payment places?

Joshua Silver: So the great part about rainforests is it’s completely turnkey. The software company comes and signs up with us and does an integration into us, and we bring all the technology, all the banking relationships, all the money movement, the Reconciliation. And most critically, we also handle all of the risk compliance, fraud, all of the nitty gritty payment tasks that most software companies aren’t very familiar with because they’re typically in the business of building software, not running payments businesses. We bring and so to answer your question directly, we bring all of that to the table. They just use us. And they would fully, you know, if they had been using someone like stripe before, they would replace them. And if they’d been using a disjointed process previous to us, we would be able to help them streamline that with with just one vendor being us.

Lee Kantor: And then what happens with like issues with payment like, oh, their credit card, you know, changed or something happened and they’re, you know, that stopped billing them after a period of time that is your problem. Or you just have software that solves that problem for the customer.

Joshua Silver: So we do a lot of work to improve what’s called the authorization rates. That basically means that the percentage of transactions that get approved and go through, we do things like work with the card networks to automatically update those card numbers before they expire. We have, you know, information available at the time of the transaction for them to recollect new information, new card numbers if needed. So we it’s a fully technical solution. There’s no, you know, kind of human capital component of it, you know, calling people or trying to do collections. But we through a variety of electronic and automated means, help the software companies make sure that they get as many approvals as possible.

Lee Kantor: Now, for the SaaS company that you’re serving, is this something that’s saving them money? It’s saving them time. Like what is what what is it alleviating for the SaaS company?

Joshua Silver: So it’s actually providing them a really important new revenue stream. If you think about a software business, maybe in the mid-market, maybe they were doing $10 million a year in recurring revenue just through their their software business. By adding payments in many verticals, you can actually double the size of your business, so the amount of money that they can make from payments could take their business from 10 million a year to 20 million a year. And so it’s not saving them time or saving them costs. It’s actually generating a completely new revenue stream from them, because every time a payment gets processed, they make the software company makes a portion of that.

Lee Kantor: And then right now, they’re not making that because the payment company is making that.

Joshua Silver: Correct. Exactly. And so if you think about historically, banks and the other payment companies were the ones benefiting from those payments, and yet the customers are from the software company. And so our core belief is that if the software company is bringing the prospects and bringing the merchants to the table, they really should be the ones benefiting most from that relationship.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a minimum amount of revenue that has to be coming through every month to make this make sense? Or is it? Pretty much everybody would benefit from using rainforest.

Joshua Silver: Rainforests primarily serves the middle market, which means that we would like customers to be platforms, to be processing at least 25 to $50 million a year in processing volume all the way up through several billion dollars. So it’s not often that we work with startups that are just taking their very first payment. There’s a lot of other companies like stripe, that have kind of done a great job with, uh, self-service onboarding and just getting going. But what we find is once you start to get some scale, your needs expand, and that’s where rainforest can come in and really help from an adoption perspective and help those platforms grow as they go from 50 million to 100 million to 3 to 500 million and beyond.

Lee Kantor: So that’s one of these situations where you might have started with one service provider, but you just outgrow it and you don’t realize it until somebody lets you know there’s a better answer out there.

Joshua Silver: Exactly. And we have received a lot of customer inbound interest because of high rates of dissatisfaction today across the payments industry. Historically, the payment processing industry has largely competed on price. It can be a very commoditized service. And with that, service has gone completely out the window. There really is no service to speak of in many of these payment companies. And quite frankly, software companies are fed up with it and ready to work with a provider that’s going to provide great service. And that’s one of the cornerstones of rainforest, is providing fantastic service to our customers.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs that want to kind of lean into this, um, support and service as a point of differentiation? Like, what are some do’s and don’ts when it comes to, um, kind of leaning into that methodology and that way of, you know, that becomes your true north.

Joshua Silver: Well, I think it’s important for software companies to really figure out what’s what’s most important to them. And what we’ve seen is that the revenue they can derive from this the increased customer stickiness, the lower churn, better data, all of these things really contribute towards helping them have a really good positive experience.

Lee Kantor: But again, this is a situation where they started with one service provider and they probably thought it was a set it and forget it. And then they don’t have to think about it again. And then you’re coming into play and saying, hey you probably set this and forgot about it, but there’s a much better way of doing this. And we provide this kind of white glove service and support that you didn’t even know you needed or wanted until we came along. Like, is that a challenge for you to kind of communicate that, or are these people just hungry because they’re fed up with their previous provider?

Joshua Silver: No, in general, we have a lot of what we call hand-raisers people who raise their hand and say, I’m ready to make a change. I’m ready for new service. I’m fed up with the status quo. Um, they are typically not happy with the lack of transparent billing. They may be unhappy with the level of service that the, uh, payments provider is offering to their end customer, which reflects poorly on them. There oftentimes are a lot of technical integration issues. And so all of these are reasons why our clients come over to rain forest and kind of walk away from their other payments providers. They’re just really not happy. And so that’s the good news about our company. And I think why we’ve seen such tremendous growth in the last couple of years is because it’s a not only a huge market, but again, the levels of dissatisfaction are really high with the incumbents. And we come along, we’re able to provide great product and service, great commercials and economics and great customer care. And you kind of put those three things together and it’s a winning combination.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a story? Don’t name the name of the company, but maybe a company that was struggling before they connected with rainforest, and how you were able to help them improve their situation?

Joshua Silver: Absolutely. We’ve got we’ve got many of those stories. I’ll share one in particular that’s in the in the healthcare space. And so this was a platform for patient billing. And so the customers of this patient billing platform are hospitals and doctors offices and dentists and other physician groups. And they were previously working with what I’d call some of the legacy payment companies, the names you’d hear typically around Atlanta and Georgia, the Phi servers of the world, the FIS, the L’avons and Pcss, those types of companies And they just weren’t getting any service. And they had many times large hospitals that wanted to move the processing volume over to, to this software platform. But we’re having real challenges with getting the accounts approved because they have to go through certain underwriting processes and certain onboarding processes. And it was a real friction point. And even once they were able to get those merchants onboarded, even still at that point, they weren’t getting the level of reporting that they needed to be able to balance the books and reconcile payments. Enter and rainforest. We’ve completely digitized the onboarding experience. We can get those accounts live in a matter of minutes or in a matter of hours. And on top of that, we have solved all their reconciliation challenges. And so now they are able to go to their client base and say, not only is it easy to get started, the pricing is great, the service is great, but also all of the data really matches now.

Lee Kantor: So how difficult is it if I raise my hand and say, okay, Joshua, I’m in. Um, let’s switch me over. How does that onboarding and that transition take place?

Joshua Silver: We’ve done a tremendous amount of work to make the developer experience and integration really quick and easy, as compared to a lot of our competitors. We have clients who routinely sign a contract with us and go live in less than two weeks. That means they’re doing a full integration and launching a full white label payments product for their end customers in less than two business weeks. And that that we think is phenomenal and we’re very proud of that.

Lee Kantor: And then so what’s next for you all?

Joshua Silver: Well, we’ve had a tremendous amount of growth the last couple of years. We’re obviously going to continue that trend. We’ve expanded our sales and marketing and channel Teams. We are continuing down the path of some different partnerships that will help us scale distribution in a non-linear way. We’ve also done a ton of investments in the product itself, and we are very transparent about all of our product releases. And so I’d encourage everyone to check out our website at rainforest. Com. If you click on the product section you can see all the new releases we have. We’ve done things with 3D secure which helps prevent fraud. We’ve done things with Card Account Updater. We’ve done lots of other integrations with the card networks to really improve those authorization rates. And so we’re pretty excited about those recent launches.

Lee Kantor: So where is typically your point of entry. Is it through? Um, people just, you know, just looking to make some cost savings improvements or is this something that, you know, the techy people are saying, hey, check this out. There’s a better way to do what we’re doing. Like, where do you typically enter a company.

Joshua Silver: It can be one of two ways, as you mentioned. Sometimes it’s related to the technology teams saying, we really want a better solution. We need an easier integration. We need better support. On top of that, it can also be driven from the top as a strategic initiative. We see many private equity firms, for example, come and buy a software company, and one of the first three things they do in their playbook is to look at the payment strategy. They know after years of doing this, that payments has the opportunity to double the take rates for these software platforms to improve profitability and decrease churn, etc.. And so they are oftentimes coming and looking for better financial arrangements or better transparency in contracts, or even more ownership of the merchants that they brought to the table. And those are all areas where we kind of help right out of the box.

Lee Kantor: So is that an area where you’re focusing your marketing on private equity and VCs.

Joshua Silver: We do see a lot of our prospects are PE or VC backed. We also have some that have bootstrapped over many years and have built a very large book of business and are looking for a new home for it. So it kind of comes in all shapes and sizes, but we definitely have good alignment with private equity backed software platforms.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team one more time, the website.

Joshua Silver: Yeah, definitely reach out to us. It’s rainforest pay. Com that’s rainforest pay.

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

Joshua Silver: Thanks for having me. Appreciate the time.

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

Yori Galel With Opus Virtual Offices

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South Florida Business Radio
South Florida Business Radio
Yori Galel With Opus Virtual Offices
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Yori Galel is an accomplished entrepreneur who developed an exceptional product that provides small businesses with a platform to compete with their larger counterparts without incurring expensive overhead.

The virtual office concept existed prior to the creation of Opus Virtual Offices, but he wanted to create an affordable and complete office presence that includes live answering, a corporate address, and a local business phone number for less than $100 without any hidden fees.

This unique idea created the foundation of a product that has been used by over 50000 businesses worldwide. Yori’s mission has always been to provide smaller companies and startups with an outlet to compete with major businesses and have the ultimate office solution.

Connect with Yori on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What a virtual office is
  • How a virtual office can help streamline a business and reduce overhead costs
  • What industries can benefit from a virtual office
  • How a virtual office can provide privacy for your home-based business
  • Professionalism on a budget (i.e. phone number, physical corporate address, virtual receptionist, mail handling)

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of South Florida Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Yori Galel with Opus Virtual Offices. Welcome.

Yori Galel: Good morning. How are you?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Opus virtual offices. How are you serving folks?

Yori Galel: Sure. So opus virtual offices, we provide a complete corporate presence without the overhead, so for only $99 a month, our services include professional phone answering where we answer the phones live under the company name, a corporate address where we receive mail and packages, transfer the calls anywhere the client is. The program also includes phone and fax number local. It includes voicemails that converts to email faxes that converts to email. Some locations even have digital mail notifications, and many have conference rooms for meetings. So basically, it’s really the ultimate office solution because you don’t need the expense of a traditional office, and you can operate your business without a full conventional, traditional office.

Lee Kantor: Now, what type of individuals, businesses, entrepreneurs would kind of be the right fit for a virtual office as opposed to maybe a co-working space or, you know, a permanent office, like where what’s kind of that Venn diagram of where virtual office makes sense?

Yori Galel: So it makes sense for a lot of markets, actually, that’s probably our biggest challenge is to introduce it. Say that 97% of people that can use it don’t even know it exists. But we cater to from the small to the medium sized companies. So small company, let’s start with potentially Joe Painter that needs somebody to answer his phones while he’s on a ladder, painting a wall, or needs a package to be received. Needs doesn’t want to use his home address, but wants to have a full corporate presence on that end. We take it to the next level. If somebody wants to expand into a certain market and doesn’t want to have the overhead until he’s confirmed that it’s actually a good market. So potentially go. I mean, we’re all 50 states in Canada. We have about 650 locations. So the footprint permits people to test markets that traditionally they would have to pay quite a bit of rent for. We have international companies that come in and want the presence in the US will have attorneys that potentially are let’s use Florida, Florida barred and maybe have an office in Miami, but could expand into Orlando and could explain into Tampa, could explain to Naples, could have a full nice footprint throughout the state without creating, you know, tremendous overhead. So it caters to a lot of different markets.

Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea? Where did you kind of see the opportunity? What was was there something for you that was happening that you’re like, hey, this this might work instead of what’s out there?

Yori Galel: Well, we we operated it. We owned commercial real estate and we operate it. You were mentioning earlier co-working. We had co-working, executive suite type space, and people found that they were traveling. They were spending a lot more time outside the office and really didn’t need a full time office. What they needed is a full time presence. Um, having somebody assist them by answering their phones, receiving their mails, giving them an opportunity to have places to meet. So have the conference rooms, but after that, didn’t need to spend the money. One, but also didn’t need the actual office independent of the cost. So able to be anywhere in the world and still have an office in a certain market to develop a presence is, uh, something that as technology grew, I mean, we own a lot of our software and be able to create a seamless transition from a full time office into a virtual office.

Lee Kantor: So, um, so say I’m a like you described, I’m a painter in a local market, and I notice that while I’m painting, I can’t answer the phone. Obviously, when I work with opus now as an opus person saying, hey, this is when they answer the phone. This is, you know, Joe Painter, and then they just take a message. Or can they answer questions like what is kind of the scope of their, um, service?

Yori Galel: So we we have a variety of ways of addressing it. When, uh, give you the first part is, uh, you are a painter, you’re out there painting. If you do not have opus as your backup. Um, and I need my house painted, I will call and go straight to voicemail. I will call the next painter, or I’ll call the next plumber, or I’ll call the next electrician. I’ll call the next party planner. I mean, they’re just, uh, we’ll, uh, reach out to the next person because nobody actually answered the phone. So starting with, we will personalize, customize the way we answer the calls. The screen will give us quite a bit of information. When the call comes in, the screen becomes very customized and personalized to the client. So if the client cares to share some additional information as we’re running certain specials, or we are specializing in residential painting but do not do commercial either way, all that will come up. So the receptionist doesn’t just come out as a robot, but actually is, uh, very personalized and feels like it’s the personal secretary of that painter. Uh, when we transfer the calls, we transfer the calls to the painter. If he happens to be available and he answers, the system will ask him if he wants to accept or reject the call. So he knows it’s an office call. He sees the caller ID coming through of the caller. If he is unavailable, it can revert back to the receptionist who can take a message. But traditionally we’ll go into a voicemail that then converts to email. And the beauty of that for me is, um, not only do you get your message and you get to listen to it, but it comes in an email format which you can forward to someone else. So potentially you have multiple partners in a CPA firm. Everybody works from home, and you just want to share this client’s message. To get me taken care of. All you have to do is forward the email. So there’s a lot of advantages to it from a technology standpoint as well.

Lee Kantor: So then, um, so then the person answering the phone can answer some questions. They’re not going to be able to sell somebody something that’s not their role. Their role is just to capture this information and transfer it to the appropriate person.

Yori Galel: That’s correct. I mean, we don’t want them to go too far out because, uh, uh, providing the wrong information will kind of one shatter the image. And it’s a lot easier for our staff to when they reach a point where they’re unable to answer, we’ve trained them to go, I’m just the receptionist. Let me transfer you to somebody who can help you as opposed to saying the wrong thing.

Lee Kantor: And then for the person, you mentioned that coworking space a little bit. So if I do need an office, you know, once a month, once a quarter, I have access to an office or obviously that’s an additional fee, but there is a place for me to go if I need a office or a conference room.

Yori Galel: That’s correct. So you have access to you conference rooms within the specific office where you’ve, uh, acquired a virtual office. And in addition to that, you also have access to, let’s say, the top 15 cities in the country where if you may have an office in with us, a virtual office in Miami, but you can still use the Atlanta or New York or LA or Chicago office to have a meeting as well. So it expands your market a little bit. That’s not available in every single location. So if you were to go to Kenosha, Wisconsin, uh, you may not have the full service that you would have in New York City But for the key markets, even if you have a virtual office with us in a specific location, you can expand and go and have a meeting in a different market because you happen to be in that area. So then it’s for a nominal fee.

Lee Kantor: So my membership gives me access to other offices if I need it on a kind of a day by day basis.

Yori Galel: That’s correct.

Yori Galel: Not all 650, because some of them are not as equipped with it or do not have enough space to accommodate your entire client base. But the larger markets, being the top 15 cities in the country or largest, busiest cities certainly provide that. So by being a client in one location, you have access to others as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it difficult for you in these all the local markets that you serve to just kind of educate the marketplace of, hey, you don’t have to just use your cell phone as your office? There’s you know, this is a super affordable way to have a presence in the market and have a professional answering the phone for you that this is going to be a great benefit. I would imagine, like some of the painters aren’t really going to appreciate that unless they’re kind of educated about it.

Yori Galel: Right? I mean, our biggest challenge, I mean, yes, I mean, you mentioned painters. I mean, a lot of professionals. That’s probably our key market. A lot of attorneys, a lot of CPAs, insurance, um, you know, entrepreneurs of all kinds, um, use mainly the virtual office. But like you said, many of them do not know. And it is our biggest challenge, uh, going in through associations, uh, if it’s the American Bar Association or if it’s, uh, you know, SBA for being a small business association or, uh, a whole variety of markets just to promote and let people know that you can compete with larger companies. I mean, you’re talking about if you were to use a personal injury firm as an example or a larger firm offices throughout the country, and now you’re a smaller firm and a little more difficult. And if somebody gets injured in Orlando and you have an office in Miami, uh, you’re certainly not calling the attorney in Miami if you’re based in Orlando. Now that virtual office, for a few hundred dollars a month, you can have four or 5 or 6 offices, um, throughout the country, throughout the state. And you can really attract a certain market and still give them the service they deserve and the attention they deserve. So it gives you a lot of opportunities. So it makes us feel really good because we’re helping a lot of businesses as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there an advantage like maybe from a search engine standpoint, like am I going to have presence on your website locally in those markets so that my address comes up, as you know, that local Orlando address or the local Miami address so that I’m going to be found like in Google, my business locally there or things like that.

Yori Galel: You will.

Yori Galel: I mean, you actually getting a physical address with us in a physical presence. So it’s not like you’re going to be under the opus virtual offices umbrella. You’re going to be under the actual your own, your own company at that address with your own specific suite number. And you can certainly use it for search engines. You can certainly use it as a physical presence and you can let your clients know as well. Maybe they need to drop something off. Um, so there is actually, you know, presents. Well, so I dropped the keys at your office, so I dropped the contract at your office. Uh, there’s always somebody there, which is also nice. So, uh, you know, some people travel, some people will start working from the beach. I mean, you can do it from just about anywhere and still have the backup, knowing that you have staff that we manage on your behalf for a nominal fee, of course.

Lee Kantor: And then if if I’m not in that Orlando office, do you mail me whatever it is or are you obviously on anything digital or you can, um, I guess, scan and then send me the mail. Like, is that how that works?

Yori Galel: So, um, as far as mail comes in, uh, we set it up. We can certainly forward you the mail. Uh, we can scan the mail for you. Uh, we have in many of our locations now have what we call digital mail notification, where we basically take a photo of the envelope, uh, send it to you, and then you can give us instructions via the app or via an email and let us know. Uh, no. Destroy this. Please open and scan for me. I’ll pick it up later. If you’re local or, you know, include it in my weekly mail forwarding. Any of it is all available to you. So we find that a lot with international clients. You may be in the UK and you have an office with us in Chicago, and a piece of mail comes in that you need it. Uh, forwarding it is going to take way too long. So you have the option to ask us to just can you just open and scan it for me so I can see what this is all about? And certainly we can do that for you.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you started this, when did you kind of get the the feeling like, hey, this is really going to be a good service because I wouldn’t imagine you didn’t flip a switch and all of a sudden you had hundreds of these things. You probably started and then it expanded over time. Can you share kind of that aha moment for you where you’re like, hey, this is going to be something that’ll be scalable.

Yori Galel: Uh, well, it started locally in Florida and then expanded slowly. But as we originally were, partnering with certain locations in certain markets and utilizing their space found the need for it. But the biggest moment was Covid. Um, you know, as much as, uh, people were either furloughed or let go and needed to do something. So everybody decided to start their dream job, right? An opportunity for $99 to explore, an option to maybe start a business they always wanted to start. And prior to Covid, people were not. I mean, our client base did not really share with their clients that they were in a virtual office. It wasn’t so accepted to work from a virtual office. Uh, maybe didn’t make the company so legitimate. So none of our centers actually said virtual office, and it actually only had suite numbers on it. So if you stop by, brought a client and you can create your own illusion any way you wanted to, uh, Covid made, uh, working from home acceptable, of course, that people had no choice and post Covid it became a trend. So a lot of people are working from home now. And um, that helped create quite a bit of opportunity for people to now expand into a virtual office and not have to pay crazy rents, um, either for the short or long term, depending on their business. And, um, so I’m not exactly sure if there was a aha moment where we just said, ah, this is really going to benefit. We always knew we would benefit with just, uh, the volume of people that are actually coming in now is, um, grown quite a bit just because of people accepting the fact that you can work from anywhere and still provide a good service.

Lee Kantor: And that $99 a month price point is that’s much lower than other your competitors, I would imagine, in local markets.

Yori Galel: Right. So so we are probably the most competitive for the all inclusive. We make it up in volume. But the idea behind that is we want to treat people the way we want to be treated. And what that really means is to run an all inclusive, not have any limits on the number of calls, not leaving limits on number of mail, not any limits on number of voicemails, really, uh, create a number and not nickel and dime our clients. Um, and we also even go further than that. We don’t do the 12 month agreement. We do a short term agreement. So we do a three months and thereafter it’s month to month. And the way we feel is, uh, if it’s right for you, you’ll stay. And if you need to leave, just tell your friends how great we are. And that’s much more important to us than obligating you and sticking you to a contract where maybe your business plan has changed. Maybe you’ve absorbed by a different company. Uh, there are so many different reasons why you may need to leave us. And, uh, we don’t want to obligate you to that. We prefer we have clients that have returned after, you know, for multiple types of businesses. We have clients that are with us for over ten years and it’s fine too.

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

Yori Galel: There is a website. Opus. Virtual offices. Com or opus. Vo com. Um, certainly. I mean, the website is pretty informative. A lot of videos, a lot of information on there. Certainly follow us on social media as well. But uh, and then from there our team can jump in and, uh, explain. The enthusiasm is pretty contagious here. So everybody feels pretty strongly about the product.

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

Yori Galel: No, no, thanks for sharing it with your listeners. I think a lot of them could benefit. And thank you for your time.

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

Bradley Hamner With BlueprintOS

by

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Bradley Hamner With BlueprintOS
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Bradley Hamner is a Business Growth Coach. certified Value Builder, creator of The Rainmaker to Architect Assessment, and host of the Above The Business Podcast. Each week, he shows other entrepreneurs & business owners how to install the systems, processes, and routines their business needs to grow and scale. The ultimate outcome? Business owners have a successful business that creates the freedom and flexibility they desired from the start.

He started his first business in 2009 with no customers, no leads and very little cash but he did have a desire to win and succeed. After being successful early in his career in sales, he believed that his ability to be the Rainmaker for the business would be enough to grow and scale. That however, proved not to be the case.

From 2009 – 2014 after seemingly working around the clock. With young children at home, endless rescheduled appointments and tee-offs, and hitting an invisible barrier to personal and business growth, he knew something had to change.

After a stress-related health scare at the age of 34, this change finally happened. Bradley began to build himself first as a leader, and then he focused on re-structuring his business. He learned how to “architect” the business to work for him, not the other way around. This led him to designing the ultimate operating system for business owners – BlueprintOS. This framework has empowered business owners to move successfully from rainmaker to architect in their business.

Connect with Bradley on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • From rainmaker to architect of your business
  • Working on, in & above the business
  • Leading yourself first
  • Mindset, skillset & toolset of a visionary entrepreneur
  • Models, frameworks & tangible concepts that saved my business (and him)
  • Structure, process & routine and why they push against it
  • How to create winning playbooks & where to put them
  • BlueprintOS: the operating system your business needs to grow & scale without you

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 Bradley Hamner and he is with Blueprint OS. Welcome.

Bradley Hamner: Lee. Thanks for the opportunity to be with you.

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

Bradley Hamner: So we help business owners and entrepreneurs go from being the rainmaker of their business to where everything is dependent upon them, to help them to become the architect of their business. And we can get into the five milestones of what that specifically means to become the architect of your business. Obviously, that’s been my own journey. I was the rainmaker. I became the architect of my business, and that’s what we help entrepreneurs to be able to do today.

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

Bradley Hamner: My dad is a farmer, a small business owner himself still to this day, and I picked up from my dad. Really, I caught it. I wasn’t taught it, per se, from my dad. Um, just the value of hard work. And so I brought that in. I had a couple of corporate jobs, um, out of school from Auburn University and then ventured into entrepreneurship in 2010. And I brought in sales skills and the value of what it means to actually work hard that I picked up from my dad. And that’s exactly what I needed initially to get lift in the business. I think a lot of your listeners can understand that. I mean, you just it’s just embedded in who I am to be able to work hard. And it worked up until the point that it didn’t. In 2015, I burned out and thought I was having some heart issues. I wasn’t having heart issues, I was just having panic attacks. But I didn’t recognize that at the time and knew I needed to make a change. And it wasn’t really until a few months later, I was in Toronto, actually at a program called Strategic Coach. And there’s a book now out about this exercise that we were doing called Ten-x is Easier Than two X. And the guy that I met was a financial advisor.

Bradley Hamner: And so I guess I had it in my mind that he was probably doing half 1 million to $750,000 in top line revenue. And so when we do this exercise, he said, well, last year I did 40 million top line and made 5 million personally. And I was like, wait, what? That’s not what I expected. And he said something I’d heard for years, which was, you know, look at systems and processes and you’ve got to have a good team. And I said something smart back to him, uh, to the, to the tune of like, I’ve heard that so many times before and nobody ever shows me what that actually is. And so he said, I’ll show you at lunch. And he did. And that that changed everything. And so I finally went back and for the first time, instead of hearing a good idea about actually building that, I started to do it. And so ultimately, instead of everything being dependent upon me, I became the architect of my business. Of course, I didn’t realize that that’s what I was doing at the time. Um, and so turned the business around. And that business has been growing and profitable, um, ever since. And that’s what we share with other business owners to be able to do today.

Lee Kantor: So what were you doing prior to what you’re doing now?

Bradley Hamner: I was doing everything. I was doing everything in the business. I mean, everything was really dependent upon me. The business was really hand-crank, I think.

Lee Kantor: But what was the what was the business?

Bradley Hamner: It was an insurance agency.

Lee Kantor: So you you were an insurance person. So you were, you know, the face of the insurance agent. You were meeting with people. You’re trying to sell people. If they have a problem, you’re trying to fix the problem. You’re it. You’re kind of the, you know, wearing all the hats.

Bradley Hamner: I was wearing all the hats. Air traffic control emails would come in to me. I would respond to them. Sure. I had a team, but at the end of the day, the business had grown, had outgrown me. And that’s why I say that it was successful and it worked up until the point that it didn’t. And so as the business was growing, I just expanded my time. And so it went from five days to six days to seven days to, you know, effectively around the clock, you know, rushing home to eat dinner, immediately, flipping open the laptop to be able to respond to emails, waking up early the next morning to try to be able to do the exact same thing. And, you know, a few months, even prior to me having those panic attacks for the first time, I was in Disney and I was responding to customer emails, and I was running a team meeting from Disney. Uh, the Disney Yacht Club even have a picture of that. I had two laptops up because that’s that’s what I thought I needed to be doing. And, you know, I kind of wore that as a badge of honor as well is that, you know, this is just what what it takes. This is what I’m supposed to be doing. Well, you know, I burned out and it was just too much. And so I needed to make a change. But it wasn’t immediately. It wasn’t immediately evident to me what I needed to do to make the change until I made my way to Toronto.

Lee Kantor: So you go and you talk to this person who obviously is walking the walk. Um, and he shares with you a way to build processes and kind of let go of some of the things that you had taken ownership within your organization.

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. I want to be clear. He actually what he did do is he actually at lunch shared with me, I don’t know, it was maybe 5 or 6 documents that he had built. And he said, Bradley, I got my business out of my head. And there’s a few things, Lee that stood out to me about that time. I think it was also just kind of where I was. You know, I thought about leaving entrepreneurship and going back into the corporate world. I’d even explored what that would possibly look like. So I really was considering leaving entrepreneurship because I was so frustrated with kind of where things were. But I remember specifically the the documents that he shared with me, just how well organized they were, how beautiful they were, how easy to understand they were, how well structured they were. And he said, look, this is what it looks like. And there was something about that in that moment for me. Maybe it was also that I had in my head what I thought he was doing, revenue, etcetera. Um, and then for him to say, you know, we were doing 40 million. It just it was such a, such a day for me. I don’t really remember anything else about that day except for that. And so it was really on the plane ride home that I said, okay, I got I got to start to, to do this. I’ve actually got to start to put pen to paper. And I mean, specifically what it means is, you know, actually go to a Google document and write down, okay, what do we actually do? How do we onboard customers? How do we onboard a team member? I didn’t have I didn’t have anything documented.

Bradley Hamner: I’d been in business successful successfully for, you know, five and a half years up to that point, we didn’t have a document for our sales process. What was our marketing strategy? How we onboarded customers, how we handled in that business at the time, how we handled claims nothing was documented, nothing how we ran appointments, and we were just winging it. And ultimately it was all in my head. And, you know, I know business owners can relate to this. You, you know, you you train. I mean, I certainly would train my team members, but I was training them different every single time. I didn’t I didn’t go off of a document and say, okay, now let’s next time I forgot to do this. And so next time we’ll do this for the next for the next person that we bring on board. We didn’t do any of that. It was just it was just day to day, day to day, day to day. We were not building any assets into the business. And so what was happening is, you know, you bring on a team member and they get up to speed. And it took them longer to get up to speed than it should have. Um, but eventually they do. And then guess what happens? They leave. And then what happens then? You got to do it all again, because all that intellectual property walked out the door and I just was getting tired of it. And so there was something about just seeing that documentation, the way he laid it out that I finally said, okay, I’m actually going to do this instead of hearing it, I’m going to do it.

Lee Kantor: So then did you just take his five pillars and just say, okay, these are now my five pillars, and I’m just going to kind of work through each one of them and build out processes and systems for each pillar.

Bradley Hamner: No, not at all. He didn’t he didn’t share with me five pillars. I mean, he just that’s why I said he shared with me roughly like five or 6 or 7. I don’t actually know how many documents. He didn’t have any principles. He didn’t have any. He just was pulling up word documents and kind of showing them to me and like, look here, this is how we onboard customers. This is how this is our sales process. This is this. And he was just flipping through them, you know, and I was like, oh, okay. That’s actually what it looks like. I’ll give you an analogy. Like I play golf in college and played at UGA for two years, University of North Alabama. And then I transferred to Auburn, and I lived with a couple of guys on the team, and there was a, um, Lee Williams, who was a two time Walker Cup, um, golfer at Auburn University. He ended up playing on the PGA tour for a period of time, and I played with some really good players over the years, even in just junior tournaments and amateur tournaments, and Lee was on such a different stratosphere in terms of quality of player.

Bradley Hamner: He was an All-American, I think, even a multi-time All-American. And but the thing that I would notice about Lee was the amount of time he practiced and whenever it would be on a Saturday before a college football game at Auburn, which is obviously a big deal, he was on the range, you know, uh, hitting balls. And then he would go work out, then he would come to the game, and then Sunday morning he would go work out. Then he would go to church, and then he’d go back out and hit balls again. And it was like this idea of like, oh that’s what it actually takes. I mean, you hear stories you know about Steph Curry Kobe Bryant LeBron and and their incredible work ethic. I think there was something about that moment for me that nobody had ever seen for the five years prior to that. People had talked about that. You need to have systems and processes, but nobody ever showed me what it looks like. And he did. And that was a forever changed moment for me because the bar was raised just like it was whenever I was watching Lee Williams become an All American in golf.

Lee Kantor: So it wasn’t necessarily what was on the paper. It was the fact that there was paper and there was a playbook and there was detail. That was really the epiphany moment for you that says, okay, this is what I have to do in order to raise my game. I have to get this kind of granular and this precise when it comes to messaging and mission and training and all the different aspects of running a business.

Bradley Hamner: Yeah, 100%. There was nothing. I don’t recall even a specific thing on any of the pages, but I remember how beautifully documented that they were and how easy they were as he was like, look, this is this is how we do this, and this is how we do this, and this is how we do this. And I don’t remember anything that was on the document, but I remember saying like, oh, that’s actually what it takes. I mean, his sales, his sales process document was, you know, 25 pages. And I was like, oh, okay, that’s what it takes. Whereas before I was, I thought it was like a, you know, maybe a page or page and a half type thing. And he was like, no, this is everything that we do of how we sell it. These are the scripts. This is the process. This is the visual aspect of it. I was like, wow, okay, that that makes more sense to me about how you actually get a company from him being an individual, um, you know, financial advisor to 40 million and and look, I’ve, I’ve never set the goal of getting a company to 40 million. I think that’s, you know, beside the point. But that actually shared with me. That’s what it takes. That’s what it takes. If you actually want to want to scale a company.

Lee Kantor: So then let’s talk a little bit about your, um, blueprint operating system. What are the tenets of that. Yeah.

Bradley Hamner: So there’s really five milestones that it means to become the architect. And so both when you become the architect of your business, it is first and foremost an identity shift. You start to see yourself differently. See, that was the journey that I went on. Yes. I ended up sitting in front of my computer and actually typing out what our process was like, what our marketing process was like, how we got leads, etc. yes, I did that. But the bigger thing was first how I saw myself instead of seeing myself as the doer of all the things, or the person who’s all knowing of all of it. My job was to be the architect, to first design it, build it, and then install it in the business. So that’s the first thing is it’s an identity shift. You see yourself differently and you start to see things in the business differently. Some of our members, they start to consider and they’ll even have the vernacular to them, themselves and the team of how can we go about architecting this? Okay, what if we were going to build it? What would it look like? And so that’s the first thing. But the five milestones are this. And I’ll go over them kind of super high level quickly and then leave. You want to ask me about any of the five. We can certainly do that. So number one you got a business doing over $1 million top line revenue. 91% of small businesses never cross a million and top line. And so for a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners, it is a huge goal of theirs. It’s aspirational to get their business to a million or more in annual revenue. Number two, it’s not enough to just be over a million.

Bradley Hamner: But you want the thing to be growing and profitable. And so as a bootstrapped entrepreneur, we have to balance both growth and profitability. If you take on outside investment, Um, then it’s different. They look at they look at growth beyond anything else because the reality is they can they can fuel that business with with more cash as long as it’s growing. But for a bootstrapped entrepreneur, they need it to be both growing and profitable. And we call that the rule of 40. So number one, you got a business doing over a million. Number two, it’s growing and profitable. Number three, if you’re doing that and burning yourself out, what good is it worth? So we encourage our entrepreneurs to take 12 weeks off in a year so you can rest and recharge and actually be better in the 40 weeks during the year than if you’re trying to work around the clock. Number four, you have an executive assistant or E to help you buy back your time so that you can focus on the things that actually accelerate the growth in the business and do more of the things that you love and less of the things that you don’t and probably aren’t good at. And then number five, you actually have upgraded your operating system. You’ve actually installed an OS, what we call blueprint OS. So the business is not running on you. It’s actually running on something independent of you. So there’s five again. Ah, got a business doing over a million. It’s growing profitable. You’re taking off adequate time. You’ve got an E to help buy back your time. And you actually the business is running in an operating system outside of you.

Lee Kantor: Now in your. Are you do you still have the insurance business or are you now just doing the blueprint OS.

Bradley Hamner: Yeah, I do have I do have it. It’s actually one of the five companies that that I still own to this day inside of a portfolio.

Lee Kantor: So um, and for the blueprint OS, who is that ideal um, member for you?

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. Great question. Half a million in revenue to 3 million in top line 2 to 2010 members. And someone who really wants to grow and wants to grow can look like a lot of different things. A lot of business owners will say things like, you know, I just want to grow I want a thriving business. Some of them. It’s growing top line. Some of them it’s become more profitable. Some of them is being able to take more time home, uh, take more money, uh, home themselves. And some of it is, uh, to be able to spend more time with their family and doing things that things that they love. So if you’re doing, you know, half 1 million to 3 million. Top line, I really know that space. We really know that space really, really well. 2 to 20 team members and and you know, Aspirationally really want to grow.

Lee Kantor: And then um, are they in any type of industry or are they anywhere in the world, like how do you deliver the learning.

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. So first of all, we’re agnostic to the to the industries. And that’s by design. So certainly we have people that are in uh, the insurance agency space. But we think and maybe it was my experience in other programs I’ve been a part of that has been really helpful to that. I think industry specific programs are great. Um, but getting around other people who can hear a concept and thinking about it differently in a different industry than you. I think is incredibly valuable. So we’re not niche down into a specific industry. And then secondly, we are together 38 out of 52 weeks in a year, 36 of those weeks are on zoom. Um, so we do 30, uh, what we call implementation sessions weekly on Tuesdays. And then we do some spotlight events where we bring in guest speakers. We just had Dan Martell speak at our event a couple of weeks ago. Um, and he he was fantastic. So we do some quarterly events for our members, and then we get together twice, twice a year in person in the spring and in the fall. We’re actually going to, uh, Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, uh, coming up in about eight weeks. We’ve been to Destin, Kiawah Island, Scottsdale, um, things like that. So yeah, we’d love to be able to get together at least twice a year with our members.

Lee Kantor: So when somebody begins like, what does that look like? Is there some one on one coaching or training or is there you just give them information and Go read up here. Here’s your pre homework before we get started. And then you just start going to the the zoom calls.

Bradley Hamner: No we we we onboard people pretty intentionally. We don’t just throw them into there’s so much content in our learning management system that if we just opened up all of our content. Um, I know business owners at that level. They’re they’re hungry, ready to grow. And so there’s a balance that you have with giving them enough content but also not giving them too much. So we we think we have a really first class experience in the way we onboard people so we can take them through a really small, uh, small group cohort on a monthly basis. All the new members that, that, that come on board, they all go together in a, in a small group cohort and we take them through a four step growth track. And then once they’ve gone through that, then we get them access to our weekly, uh, our weekly implementation sessions, and then they start to unlock more of the online content that we have as they’ve completed some of the other ones. So it’s a both a combination. And we think the combination of it works the best. It is absolutely not just a digital course, the digital course component. A lot of people want access to our playbooks. I mean, the way that we have our operating system set up is that they just want access to our playbook templates. And so, um, they obviously have access to that at all, all, all the time. And then we just go through all the playbooks throughout the year. And so it’s a combination of our community being live on Tuesdays as well as online content.

Lee Kantor: And is there any type of support outside of those weekly calls like if they have a question or something comes up, or do you rely kind of on your cohort in the other community members for help or its combination?

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. So in addition to me, we have a couple other associate coaches that are blueprint OS certified coaches. We obviously have our community, so our community lives in the same place that our content lives. And so we’re, you know, people are active in there on a weekly basis asking questions. Somebody just asked a question earlier today, as a matter of fact, about kind of the recruiting system. They wanted to get some feedback on their, um, system that they have for recruiting. So I’ll chime in there and give them feedback. Our coaches are available. They have some open call time. Some like office hours, so to speak, and then and then sometimes people connect with me. Our members connect with me one on one. Uh, via voxer.

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

Bradley Hamner: You know, I my job here is just to be able to get the message out of going from being the rainmaker to becoming the architect of your business. I mean, if people get nothing more out of this, my hope is, is that they start to see, you know, the movement that we’re on is to help more people become the architect of their business. And if they start? First, start with that identity shift to me. Then that’s that’s my mission is to. Help more people to become instead of having a business that’s suffocating and. You know, just solely reliant upon them. I think at the end of the day. Business owners got into this for some level of freedom and flexibility. And my. My belief, my, our, our kind of core belief is to be able to get that that you started your business for freedom, flexibility, income, potential is I think you need to become the architect.

Lee Kantor: And then is there a way for listeners to kind of sample this before kind of going all in? Is there some resources or anything you have that a person can kind of get an idea of, you know, the look and feel before they commit?

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. For sure. Um, you know, you understand, you hear somebody on a, on a podcast and for the first time and it’s like, yeah, I kind of conceptually get that. But you know, where where do I start? So we’ve put together a starter kit. We call it the Rainmaker Architect Starter Kit. So they can go and check that out. Go to blueprint os.com/assets, blueprint os com forward slash assets. And then they can opt in and get access to our starter kit, which is actually on the same platform as the rest of our content and our community. And so yeah, they can go and check that out. And I’ve got a bunch of different downloads inside that mini course, as well as a little over an hour of content from me walking people through that.

Lee Kantor: And you have a podcast too?

Bradley Hamner: I do, yeah. Um, so I have a podcast we’ve had for, gosh, about four and a half years. It’s called Above the Business. We think that sessions like this, um, are whenever people are able to get above the business. We love what Gerber has done, where he’s shared with us in the book E-myth about don’t just work in it, work on it. I agree, I think there’s a third dimension as well and that’s to be able to get above the business. And so that’s the name of my podcast is above the business.

Lee Kantor: And then what kind of content can people find there.

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. So I do interviews like this on Mondays. And those are 30 to 45 minute interviews with, gosh, we’ve had some incredible guests that have been able to come on. General Stanley McChrystal has come on. Cameron Herold has been on the podcast we just recorded, obviously, with Dan Martell has been on there. So we’ve got about 250 or so interviews, maybe 300 actually at this point. And then on Fridays, I drop a 5 to 15 minute solo episode with kind of a mindset, a skill or a tool, um, that people can take away.

Lee Kantor: And can you share for our listeners, maybe a story of somebody who’s gone through the program and maybe you don’t have to name what their business is or who they are, but just the challenge they were facing when they came into the program and how you helped them get to a new level.

Bradley Hamner: Three female founders that were just excellent at what they do. They own a behavioral therapy company their very first year 2019. They had a had a dream and had a vision. They all kind of collectively left where they were working at the time. In their first year in business, they did cumulatively $90,000. And they, as they have admitted to, they really knew nothing about business. And over the last several years and working with them of can I helping them go from being the rainmaker to the architect of their business, they’re doing over 100 and 110,000 a month now. They’ve been able to, you know, impact the lives of, you know, just ten times, maybe more than that, and the lives of families around the, the Huntsville area and school, school kids to be able to be more successful and just to see their own success of them transferring from, you know, what, they knew that they were really good at, but then actually being able to build a true scalable business around that has been awesome to work with them and and to see their growth and the impact that they’ve been able to make because they’ve all become the architect of their business.

Lee Kantor: Well, Bradley, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work. Um, we really appreciate you. What? One more time before we wrap the website to learn more or to connect with you.

Bradley Hamner: Yeah. Blueprint os.com/assets. Blueprint os com forward slash assets. They can get access to the Rainmaker Architect starter kit. And yeah, we’d love to connect with people.

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

Shavonne Reed With OPUA Agency

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Shavonne Reed With OPUA Agency
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Shavonne Reed is a marketing and communications expert, a Self-Advocacy and Confidence Coach and a public speaker. She is the CEO & Founder of OPUA Agency, a boutique health marketing communications firm on a mission to educate, mobilize, and empower Gen Z to develop healthy lifestyles.

She is also the founder of Future Health NOW Foundation, Inc, that works to improve health and financial literacy in underprivileged communities by providing programming to increase awareness. She also hosts a bi-weekly podcast titled “Future Health NOW” with special guests in the healthcare sector.

After a successful career as a global marketing executive she pivoted into her purpose to inspire and encourage others through inspirational storytelling that recharges others into action for positive behavioral change, elevates their careers and amplifies their presence to thrive in business and in life. She has been instrumental in designing successful global product launches, employee wellness and engagement programs, and executing million-dollar marketing and advertising budgets.

She studied mass communications at the University of West Georgia, completed post bachelor studies in marketing at Georgia State, and received her MBA from Georgia Southern University. She  is also the author of “Ugly Duckling: What You See Is Not What You Get,” a book that details strategies to show up and stand out and stand for change in your organization and in life.

She is active in her community as the ‘21 Dunwoody Perimeter Chamber Chair. She is a mom of two Zoomers, a puppy son and a devoted wife. She is a native of Atlanta and believes smiles, love, and laughter are the best medicine in life.

Connect with Shavonne on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What work does OPUA Agency do
  • About Future Health NOW Foundation, Inc and the corresponding podcast
  • Her main goals as a speaker and within her work with these organizations
  • Her work with the CDC Foundation and her How Right Now Campaign

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 Shavonne Reed with Opua Agency. Welcome.

Shavonne Reed: Hello. How are you today, Lee?

Lee Kantor: I am very excited to be talking to you. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about your firm? How are you serving folks?

Shavonne Reed: Absolutely. So I’m with Opua agency. It stands for Optimistic People, Unified for awareness. And we’re all about helping people to think about the marginal decade of life and how their future health starts now. So we focus on behavioral change and making sure that everyone is kind of informed about how their behaviors today will affect their future health in the future.

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

Shavonne Reed: Well, I spent more than 20 years in corporate in the healthcare space and always had an affinity for just the healthcare industry. And I pivoted outside of corporate and saw quite a bit of things happen in my personal life. My mom ended up passing away from several diseases that were preventable. And just as the pandemic hit, I noticed that I was not necessarily prioritizing my health as much as I should have been, and then also saw that in my Zoomers. And so I wanted to affect change in the world, and that became my heart’s work and my legacy in the building.

Lee Kantor: So now in your agency, are you working with corporations or are you working with entrepreneurs, like who is the ideal profile for your ideal client?

Shavonne Reed: Yeah, so we love to work with mission driven organizations who are looking to stand up marketing communications that will have a call to action for behavioral change. So think chronic disease prevention and health promotion.

Lee Kantor: So you’re working with the corporations so they can share that information with their employees. Is that what you’re doing.

Shavonne Reed: So we do have an internal communications arm that really focuses on workplace wellness. And we also have an arm that focuses on direct to consumer communications.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk about that. Any initiatives in that area you can speak of.

Shavonne Reed: Oh yeah absolutely. So right now we’re working with the CDC Foundation as a communications partner for the How Right Now campaign, which is an evidence based campaign that is targeting school teachers and school staff in the K-12 school systems. And what it really is all about is helping them to build resiliency and have awareness of their mental well-being. A lot of times they are just really focused on the students and getting the work done. But they’re not necessarily focused on making sure that they take care of themselves. So as part of this campaign, what we’re doing is really pushing them to make their own wellness a part of their daily lesson plans and highlighting ways that they can actually prioritize self-care. How can they make sure that they are, you know, tending to their mental thoughts and things of that nature? So that’s how we are actually helping right now. And so we recently held the Empowered Ed Project Summit, where we were speaking to school teachers and staff and brought in specialized thought leaders and experts who brought amazement and stories of resilience and encouragement just to really hone in on how to leverage the tools of the How Right Now campaign to just drive mental health and well-being.

Lee Kantor: So can you walk us through what it’s like to create a campaign like that for the CDC? So potential corporates out there that are doing work that might be able to hire. You can understand what. So like, did the CDC Foundation come to you with this challenge? Did you start working with them and start brainstorming different initiatives like how did this come about and how did you help them, you know, execute?

Shavonne Reed: So actually, the How Right Now campaign is a long standing, evidence based campaign that was led by an elite researcher by the name of Amelia Burt Garcia at Newark University of Chicago. And it started back in like 19, I mean, 2019, just as the pandemic was hitting. And, uh, so they actually, you know, did all of the background work, did all the research, social listening and surveys to just really understand what, um, the challenges were from a mental health capacity. And initially it was more of a global campaign that had a broader audience. And so in this iteration of the campaign, we’re focused focus solely on school teachers and staff because based on the research, we found that they are the ones who are actually really stressed out, and they’re up against a lot at being asked to do so much more with less. And the idea is to really make sure that we have a variety of channels, that we’re actually reaching the audience to get them kind of, you know, prioritizing this mental thought process of their overall well-being and self-care. So we’re incorporating things such as TikTok, Instagram, videos, going out to do speaking. I actually had the opportunity to go to the Newark Board of Education and facilitate a workshop at their annual women’s conference, and so really just building up the momentum during Mental Health Awareness Month, we actually did a full activation.

Shavonne Reed: And right now for Back to School month, we’re doing a huge activation and incorporating, um, influencers to just really help us to amplify this message and get it out there in all kinds of cool ways, on every level, so that the teachers and school staff know that they are very much appreciated. They’re not in this alone, and we understand just what they’re going through. And it’s really a hard and tough space to be in, because everybody is looking to them to be more than just a teacher. Right. We know they are being looked upon as a confidante, as counselors and so many other hats that they play. And they even played a special role in my life growing up because I had a ton of adverse childhood experiences, and it was the teachers that really poured back into me and helped me to see that I was something and someone that was worthy to, you know, be here and to thrive in life.

Lee Kantor: Now, how did the CDC Foundation ask you for something that’s measurable to say that, okay, this campaign is working. We should do this maybe in more verticals or like, how do you kind of measure the success of a campaign like this?

Shavonne Reed: Yes. So as part of our. Activation campaign periods, what we’re doing is collecting metrics. So that would include things like impressions. How many people are actually seeing and getting exposure to these messages. Also, how many people are actually engaging with our communications on the various platforms and how are they accessing the tools that are available. So we have everything from toolkits to resource lines to guides, resources that can actually help them to bring all of this to life and make it tangible and valuable, so they can know exactly what to do with it. Um, something as simple as meditational practices. So as part of the summit, we actually recorded all of our sessions, and we have those available now online so that folks can actually get the message and, you know, really just indulge because like one in particular was featuring, uh, a thought leader by the name of Keisha Ferguson, and she led us through a ten minute meditation moment. And it was so powerful because when you just be still and you activate in gratitude, you just don’t realize how wildly your thoughts can run all over the place. And this gave us a chance to just really sit in silence and mind our thoughts and listen to the words and the guidance that she was giving to us. And so that’s one of the things that we are, you know, tracking to see how many people are actually watching those videos, how many people are downloading the resources and actually visiting the website so that they can, you know, tend to the mental well-being of themselves and making it a part of their daily practice.

Lee Kantor: Now, how has it been for you as an entrepreneur, kind of making this change from your more kind of corporate past to the entrepreneurial present? Was that a difficult transition?

Shavonne Reed: Well, I will say it wasn’t necessarily a difficult transition because it was something that I really wanted to do deep down inside. Um, but there are some highs and lows that come along with entrepreneurship, especially when you’re on the micro level and when you’re trying to scale your companies. Um, but it’s something that I definitely would encourage anyone to do if they’re really, you know, passionate about something. Finding their, um, their why and following their North star. Because there is nothing, absolutely nothing that compares to it.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you speak a little bit about your work with Future Health Now Foundation?

Shavonne Reed: Yes. So the Future Health Now Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the opioid agency. And what we do is look to give back to the community. And we have like three pillars where we are really focused on workforce development, also health promotion and then women’s empowerment. So as part of those three initiatives, what we’re doing is standing up programs that will help to cultivate the next generation of health communicators, for one and then for two. Helping to promote health, especially in marginalized communities because the statistics are there. I mean, if you think about in Georgia, maternal and infant health is really huge because we have the greatest mortality rates among African American, uh, babies and moms. And so it’s one of those things that’s really critical, that is near and dear to my heart, because I actually had a preemie as well, and she spent nine days in the NICU. And so, as you can imagine, my experience was not as grave as some of those experiences. And so but I empathize with them because I’ve walked in their shoes. And so I really want to just elevate that space and try to do as much as I can, um, to drive awareness, to help, to promote and get more resources for the cause. And then, of course, for women’s empowerment. Every year we’re hosting the International Women’s Day event celebrating women Real Talk with Siobhan Reid. And so we’ve had a great spread of women to come in and share their experiences in corporate spaces and entrepreneurship and show business, you name it. And it has been a really incredible experience just pulling these women together and building camaraderie. So I’m looking forward to just continuing to champion these things as we move forward.

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

Shavonne Reed: Oh my gosh, I’m glad you asked that question. Always need advocates, always need sponsors, always need voices. So we also host the Future Health Now Foundation. And what we do is interview, uh, thought leaders in the space. And there’s so much change with how communications is being done from the old times to the new times. And I remember very vividly how when I was graduating college, it was like, oh, the convergence of media, because it was became the three screens. Right? Um, and then now it’s like the new advent of information design and technology. Right. And so we have like this advent of AI and how it’s just transforming everything. And so with that, it is just incredible to see how the trajectory of things are going and being able to interview these folks and highlight their thought leadership in the world to increase their funding. Like, for instance, um, Adrian is, uh, Adrian, uh, Amarin. She has a platform called Artlist, and she’s really revolutionizing the way that we approach health communications. And it’s just so great to see all the new changes and being able to amplify the messages. And so I would love for folks to go and tune in and listen. Give us a review if you feel like it’s a five star rating and just engage with our content. We are all over social as an agency. And of course you can follow me directly. I am at Siobhan Reid. Um, I am Siobhan Reid on all platforms. And then for the foundation, it’s health harmony and the Future Health Now Foundation.

Lee Kantor: Now, before we wrap, I want to talk a little bit about your book, Ugly Duckling. What you see is not what you get. Can you talk about the thinking of, hey, I’m going to write a book because a lot of folks dream of writing a book, but you actually did it.

Shavonne Reed: Yes. Oh my gosh, this book has been living in me forever. Uh, as I mentioned before, I grew up with a lot of adverse childhood experiences. And as a part of that, one of the results of that was the trauma that caused me to feel like I didn’t have a high self-worth, and I felt like an ugly duckling, which is the title of the book. And for so long I felt isolated, and I thought that I was the only one that had these experiences and going through, you know, growing up and then matriculating into To adulthood and becoming this young woman and finding myself. It was really just a transformative experience. And there have been so many highs and lows, and I’m an overachiever by nature. I think that’s just something that’s deeply embedded and ingrained in my DNA. And as a result of that, there have been so many disappointments. No matter what I have been able to accomplish on my own. And so I really wanted to write about it because there are women who are actually struggling with these things right now, that if they just had this word, you know, and they could see how I was able to emerge and overcome the many obstacles and challenges that I’ve gone through, that it would empower and encourage and inspire them to do more of the things that they have embedded in their hearts and that they want to do now.

Lee Kantor: Any advice for that person that’s out there that’s struggling and is feeling kind of like there’s no hope? Is there anything you can share that can help them. You know, other than maybe getting this book and reading it, you know, kind of help them get back up on their feet and move forward.

Shavonne Reed: Absolutely. So what I like to do is to make sure that I have a way to show gratitude and being in the moment. So understanding where I am, one of the things that I started doing early on, and it came from my grandfather because he just loved to take pictures, was on my worst days when I feel like I’m just like the ugliest or the I just feel the worst, I make sure I take a picture of that moment because when you look back at it, nine times out of ten, you’re going to see something very different than what you saw when you were actually in that moment. And so I love to have those because they help me to have more gratitude as I go on each day, to be able to reflect back and see how I was able to get over those things. Another thing I would like to encourage folks to do is to identify at least 1 or 2 people that you admire that seem like they have it together, that can offer inspiration from afar. Um, a lot of times we get into this comparison game, and so if you step away from that and you realize that you’re in it, you have to be able to know how to have that awareness and separate yourself. But have those 2 or 3 people that you can look to to say, wow, okay, she’s doing the thing that I like to do or I want to do and be able to use that as inspiration. I know I have so many that I look up to, um, right now, but just identifying those individuals that really can, you can hold on to and then also making sure that the circle that you have around you is lifting you up and giving you positivity and being able to identify when there is something that is not for you, and not being afraid to separate yourself from it no matter what it is.

Lee Kantor: Well, Siobhan Reid, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you one more time. The website, and maybe also where they can get the book.

Shavonne Reed: Absolutely. So the website for the agency is Apua Dot agency and you can find the book on Siobhan Read. Com it’s also available on Amazon. And um, yeah, that’s where I am. And you can follow me on social at I am Siobhan Reed and the agency is Apua agency.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well, thank you again for sharing your story.

Shavonne Reed: Thank you for having me. This has been great. All right.

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

Michael Berkhahn With Graham Capital Wealth Management

by

Tampa Business Radio
Tampa Business Radio
Michael Berkhahn With Graham Capital Wealth Management
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Michael Berkhahn, CFP®, Vice President of Graham Capital Wealth Management, is a highly qualified financial advisor with over a decade’s worth of experience in the industry.

He believes that to be a successful advisor, one must not only have strong analytical skills but also be able to build meaningful relationships with clients. Specializing in retirement, tax, and estate planning. he takes great pride in helping ease his clients’ concerns as they work together to achieve their financial goals.

After successfully starting his career at Citigroup’s Institutional Client Group as a project manager, he later moved to Graham Capital Wealth Management in 2016.

His passion for finance led him to obtain a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Florida and a Master of Science in Finance from the University of South Florida. He is also a member of the Financial Planning Association of Tampa Bay.

As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner, Berkhahn is part of an elite group of advisors who have completed the necessary training and requirements to hold the CFP® designation and is a fiduciary committed to complying with its continuing education and ethics standards.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What business owners and taxpayers need to know ahead of the TCJA expiration

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Tampa, Florida. It’s time for Tampa Business Radio. Now, here are your business. Radio X hosts.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Tampa Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Michael Berkhahn with Graham Capital Wealth. Welcome.

Michael Berkhahn: Thank you for having me, Lee.

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

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah. You know, so here, Graham Capital Wealth Management, we are an independent registered investment advisory firm that really focuses on retirement planning. You know, as our clients, you know, fiduciary, we try to make prudent investment decisions on their behalf. I think the one thing that really makes us unique here in the Tampa area is just more of our active management approach. You know what I what I would want listeners to not think of when, when when I say active is that we’re not day traders, but we really, you know, try to, you know, personalize each of our clients portfolios by, you know, you know, individually, individually purchasing stocks or bonds rather than, you know, utilizing, you know, predetermined models or funds just because, you know, there’s added cost to that, you know, handing it off to a third party money manager or, you know, purchasing ETFs and mutual funds. You know, we believe that cost should be, you know, in in our in our client’s pockets versus, you know, paying those additional expense ratios and things like that.

Lee Kantor: Now are your clients typically, you know, coming from corporate background or are they entrepreneurs or are they athletes or are they celebrities? Like, what is that ideal client look like for you guys?

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah, no. For us, I mean, I think we have a pretty wide breadth of clients and we we have, you know, former CEOs of publicly traded pharmaceutical companies as a client. We have, you know, former board members of energy companies, you know, and we have, you know, clients that are just kind of starting out the first Roth IRA. So, you know, I think we have a pretty wide breadth of clients that we’ve been able to, you know, assist with, you know, with their financial plans.

Lee Kantor: So there is there a minimum to get started, a minimum amount of wealth, or is it because a lot of, um, people in your space, they prefer going after wealthier people, but it sounds like you’re you’re kind of casting a wider net.

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah. You know, you know, we really try not to market to saying that we have a minimum. I do think that our investment approach, uh, really, you know, I think it for us, you know, for us to really take our, you know, to utilize our investment approach. I think, you know, I would say probably between 50 to at least $100,000 would really allow us to, you know, really start implementing our investment strategies. But we really do not market a minimum because, you know, if you start working with someone that’s 25 or 30 and you know, they’re just getting out of, you know, just finishing up, you know, their law degree or, you know, becoming a doctor. You know, it’s more about that long term play with them. And, you know, that’s really why I try not to market a minimum with, with as a firm.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’ll tell you that’s pretty refreshing because a lot of wealth management firms, they don’t want to even pay attention to people at that stage because, you know, you know, frankly, there’s not a lot of money in it for the wealth management. But to make that kind of investment in your clients for that period of time is pretty different, I would think.

Michael Berkhahn: No. Yeah. You’re right. I mean, I do think we are unique in that aspect because I see it all the time. Um, you know, there’s a lot of advisors here right here in, uh, in downtown Tampa that, you know, yeah, they have a minimum of 500,000 or $1 million. And I actually found over time that I think it puts off a lot of people, honestly. You know, I have people come to us and say, oh, do you have a minimum? And I’ll say, no. And they’re like, oh, well, I was going to go talk with, with with with so and so. But they told me that they had a 500,000 minimum and I didn’t feel that I had those assets. But then lo and behold, they had, you know, you know, 2 to 3 times that amount of investable assets. So, you know, again, you never know, you know, people’s experience. And again, I think, you know, some people just don’t like, you know, hearing that they have to invest X amount of dollars to be able to, you know, even talk with that person.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think, uh, I really applaud you doing what you’re doing because I find it’s a missed opportunity for a lot of wealth management firms because, uh, a lot of people who have wealth would want, like, their kid who may not have wealth today, um, have access to your expertise, but it’s not even on their radar to, um, to make that kind of connection. And I think it’s a mistake for a lot of these firms. They’re missing out on a generation of people that could be using their services if they would just invest some energy into them, 100%.

Michael Berkhahn: You know, I think it keeps our clients stickier. Uh, you know, from the fact that, unfortunately, the one thing that we know that that happens in life is, is death and taxes, right? Uh, so, um, you know, sadly, you know, I think of it as an opportunity that we can actually build a relationship, um, with their kids. So, you know, if something does when something does happen to the, to the parents that we’ve already built, that, that relationship that, you know, we don’t just see assets leaving, you know, the firm just because, you know, um, you know, their parents um, or passed away sadly.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And I think the stats back that up. I think that the vast majority of people don’t their kids don’t move to the parent’s wealth management advisor. They find their own.

Michael Berkhahn: Correct. Yeah. No. Absolutely. And again, you know, I think, you know, for for us, You know, we are, um, a much younger, you know, uh, registered investment advisory firm. So, again, I think for, for us, it’s, it’s taking that opportunity that, you know, we don’t we’re not sitting here and saying, hey, we have a 5 or 10 year exit plan or our hopes is, you know, this business is going to be, you know, 30, 40 years in the making. And, um, you know, I think we can take that long term, you know, plan, even though. Yes, if someone’s just opening up a 20,000 or $50,000 account, you know, I think it’s it’s the idea that this could be a very good client for us 10 or 15 years down the road. And yes, it’s not it’s not as lucrative as, you know, someone that brings in, you know, millions of dollars of assets right away. But I think you need to also plan for the future as well.

Lee Kantor: So now, um, can you share a little bit about the scope of your services? Is it just, uh, kind of wealth management? Does it, uh, kind of go into taxes? Does it, you know, like, are you the kind of the quarterback, the CFO of somebody’s financial life?

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah. You know, so here at Graham Capital Wealth Management, you know, I think we really try to bring in a number of different services. So, you know, we don’t just, you know, do you know, financial planning or investing for our clients. You know, we have, you know, accountants in-house. We have attorneys that are in-house. So, you know, we can do everything from, you know, planning, investing, you know, uh, their taxes, whether it’s individual or business taxes. Uh, and also, you know, really put together a true estate plan, uh, you know, so really, I think, you know, we can kind of, as you mentioned, you know, be me kind of being facilitating as the quarterback of saying, okay, how do we create a holistic financial plan for this estate and make sure that we’re making, you know, all the right, um, decisions when it comes to the holistic financial plans, whether it’s just individual taxes, business taxes, investing retirement assets, creating that estate plan. And I think that that that is something that a number of our clients really appreciate. You know, that they’re not having to work with a number of different, you know, companies. And having everyone in house really allows me to, you know, specifically with the accountant, it really allows me to work in unison with them so we can reach not only their short and long term financial goals, but really try to make that and to reach those goals in the most tax efficient manner.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that’s better for the client to have that kind of Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic kind of, um, opportunity where everybody’s working together, everybody’s seeing all the data together, and they can work together to come up with the optimal plan rather than have siloed specialists that you’re hoping are going to connect at some point so they can get on the same page.

Michael Berkhahn: No. Yeah. I mean, a couple years back, we didn’t have an accountant in house. And, you know, I would I would meet with, um, you know, our clients, accountants, you know, at at their, at their office or their accountants would come into our office and, you know, we just thought it was it was time for us. I think we got to a size where we said, you know, listen, you know, we have a number of clients that would appreciate us, you know, bringing someone in-house just so that we’re all working in unison. Because I don’t even think the client sometimes even realize how much, you know, the accountant and I throughout the year. It’s not just when, you know, you know, tax season comes around that I can provide them their consolidated 1099 or their 1099 R tax document. It’s really a thoughtful, you know, thought out plan throughout the year saying, hey, uh, for for client so-and-so, how do we um, is this is this, uh, is this going to how is this how is this investment going to affect their overall, you know, uh, you know, tax strategy for, for 2024?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And a lot of times obviously the your client isn’t up to date with all the ever changing rules when it comes to taxes. Like is there any advice you can share when it comes to maybe. Let’s talk about the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Is there anything you can share that people can do today that maybe can save them some time and money tomorrow?

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah. You know, I think, you know, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, you know, for so just kind of even taking a step back for the listeners if they’re not, you know, aware, but the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was initially implemented, you know, going back to 2017. And you know, that is those those that legislation’s actually, you know, set to expire here. Uh, you know, next year at the end of 2025. So, um, you know, and this could, you know, depending on what happens with Congress and, um, and what happens with this upcoming Coming election if, if, if they expire and we do not see, you know, uh, any sort of modification or extension on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, you could you will see, um, you know, tax rates revert back to, you know, uh, 2016 levels. Um, and, you know, I think for, for, for our listeners on this, um, you know, I think I don’t know how much they realize how that could impact, you know, their upcoming tax season when it comes to, you know, 2026 and beyond. Because, you know, just for instance, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, um, uh, when it comes to individuals, is that one, uh, you know, it decreased, you know, the individual tax rates, uh, for, for people and two, uh, it also affected, you know, the standard deduction, um, for, for, for people married and filing single. Uh, and those, those standard deductions are actually going to move lower or back to the previous levels, uh, which, you know, right off the bat is going to impact their, their overall taxes.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And and this is something that if you have this information ahead of time, you can be proactive. But if you’re going to wait and then all of a sudden it’s sprung on you, you might be in for a surprise.

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah. I mean, I think that that’s that unfortunately, I don’t think enough people are keeping as close of an eye on, you know, the Tax cuts and Jobs Act as as they probably should be. Um, you know, especially with this election, I think both of, you know, both of the candidates kind of have different views on, on what their plans would be, you know, with, with, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act sunsetting next year. Um, and you know how how they plan to, you know, change one from, you know, for, for, for not only individuals but also for businesses and how that will, you know, for small businesses, how that would affect them.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share? Don’t name the name, obviously, but maybe explain the challenge that someone had before they started working with you and how you were able to help them either get peace of mind or get to a new level?

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah, I mean, I think for, you know, a story that really always comes back, you know, to me that when people ask that question, um, is, is one that, you know, unfortunately, it was a very sad event that, you know, um, I had recently met with a couple down in our Sarasota office. So we have an office in Tampa and in Sarasota, and I met with a couple and we were just, you know, starting off, you know, building out that relationship. And they were they were both retired. So we were really, you know, trying to develop, you know, their overall retirement plan and, and really trying to position them for the next ten, 15 years to be able to kind of live off of their live off of their assets and continue to maintain, you know, their current life, you know, lifestyle. And then obviously we we move forward with them as a client. And you know, prior to, you know, leaving the meeting, you know, the client had mentioned, oh, yeah, I have to go back into, you know, I’m having back surgery in a week. And it was supposed to be a very minor surgery. But lo and behold, unfortunately, um, the the individual ended up passing away. And, you know, the wife, you know, when, when when we heard the news, you know, just the, you know, the first thing, it’s wanting to be there for that person. Um, even though we, you know, she they barely knew us. We probably met one or once or twice before that, maybe an hour or an hour and a half at each meeting. But, you know, that’s where we have, you know, as, as your fiduciary, you know, is really we need to kind of step up and say, hey, this is what, what changes need to be made.

Michael Berkhahn: Because I go back to Lee talking about, you know, estate planning, you know, we, we, we we had already created a trust for them, right. So, you know, again, I think that’s where we were able to, you know, the the attorney and I were able to sit down with the wife and really, you know, walk her through all the necessary steps. And, you know, by the time we were done meeting with this client after 3 or 4 hours, because it was it was a sad it was a very grieving event. You know, a lot of tears were shed during this meeting, you know, so after 3 or 4 hours, you know, at, you know, when we were, you know, kind of leaving the meeting, you know, she comes up and just kind of hugs us both and just says, you know, I really don’t know. You know, I think the the last thing, um, you know, the last thing, the, the last final decision that my husband made was to move forward with you guys. And if we didn’t make that decision, I really don’t know what I would be doing right now. So, you know, again, I think that’s always a story that that always reminds myself of the importance of, of not just, you know, making clients monies, but just trying to be there for them. Um, and just trying to kind of be a resource when when these sort of events happen.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a piece of advice you could share for someone listening right now? Um, maybe it’s a way, because I don’t want to get obviously into any financial advice, but is there a way that maybe you can tell that the current financial advisor, the the way you’re getting financial advice? Because I would imagine there’s a bunch of people that are doing it themselves. What’s kind of a signal that, hey, maybe it’s time that either you got to switch or maybe have a conversation with, you know, an expert.

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, going back to, you know, what we were just talking about briefly with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. I think it’s, you know, I think a lot of people, you know, do try to, you know, take the onus on themselves to, you know, to make their own investments, you know, their, their own investment decisions. And, you know, frankly, a lot of people, I think, do a very good job, you know, at the investing part. But, you know, from a tax, you know, strategy, um, you know, standpoint, you know, unfortunately, I think that’s where a lot of people, you know, don’t do as good of a job, right. Um, you know, so, for instance, you know, for our high income earners, you know, they’ll say, well, I can’t, I can’t make I can’t make Roth contributions. And that’s true. But there are ways, right? There are ways that, you know, actually, you could still make contributions to a Roth even if you’re above the income threshold. There’s something called the backdoor Roth conversion, where basically you put pretax money or you sorry, you put after tax money into an IRA, and then the very next day you convert that after tax money into a Roth. Uh, and that’s a way for you to get money into a Roth and continue to make contributions every single year, even though you’re above the income, you know, even though you’re above the income threshold. So again, I think there are loopholes in our tax legislation that, um, that I think, you know, could benefit people long term when it comes to their overall financial plan.

Lee Kantor: And then regarding that, it’s it’s that knowing about any changes in, you know, where the tax levels are would be good to know because you may want to make a move sooner than later when it comes to a conversion.

Michael Berkhahn: No. Yeah. I mean, I, uh, especially with this expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the end of, at the end of next year. Um, you know, I think there’s just that big question mark out there is saying, okay, what’s going to happen with with tax rates? I know, you know, you know, a lot with the, you know, corporations, they talk about, you know, uh, possibly increasing that from 21% up to 28%. But, you know, if if individual taxes are going to go up from, you know, 37% up to 39.6% on the on the top tax rate. You know, it might be it might behoove certain individuals of saying, hey, you know, individual tax rates are going to be increasing, uh, in the future. Maybe we take advantage of these low, uh, the historically low tax rates right now and start converting or putting in a Roth conversion, you know, strategy for a multi year strategy to try to mitigate taxes. Because I think the one thing, Lee, you know, uh, whether whether or not taxes go up at the end of next year or five years or ten years from now, you know, we’re we’re at a point with our national debt, you know, sitting right around, you know, $35 trillion. You know, maybe, maybe the next president doesn’t change the tax codes all that much. But I feel pretty strongly that in the next ten years, I mean, we’re going to have to do something with taxes, and most likely it’s going to be increasing them to obviously, you know, start paying down some of our national debt.

Lee Kantor: Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, is there a website? Is there a way to connect?

Michael Berkhahn: Yeah, I think the best way the website that we have is, is Graham Capital Wealth.com. Or you can call one of our local offices our our Tampa or Sarasota office number. You can just call us at (813) 645-1233.

Lee Kantor: And Graham Capital wealth is g r a h a m capital Wealth.com. Michael, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Michael Berkhahn: Thank you. Lee. Thank you for having me on today.

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

Bob Littell With NetWeaving International

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Bob Littell With NetWeaving International
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Bob Littell spent over 50 years of his career in the insurance and financial services industry, serving as head of marketing for two insurance companies; then launching a national insurance brokerage agency and a consulting firm offering advice to high net worth individuals, insurance companies, and a variety of other parties including providing expert witness testimony.

In 1999, he created the word and concept of NetWeaving and has writing several books on the topic and spoken to hundreds of different organizations and companies here in the U.S. and around the world.

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn and follow him on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The concept of NetWeaving
  • The keys behind setting up and ‘hosting’ NetWeaving meetings

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have an old friend, Bob Littell, with NetWeaving International. Welcome.

Bob Littell: Hey, thanks for having me, Lee. So great to see you again.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to get caught up. Please get us caught up. What’s been going on in your world?

Bob Littell: Well, you know, you you had kind of said, give everybody who may not be familiar with the net weaving concept a little, little background. This is a 25 year old concept. And the reason why I actually came up with it initially, and I’m sure that a number of your listeners can identify with being in a large room. And what you’re sort of expected to do is to have these conversations with a bunch of people and find the perfect prospect for you. That’s the goal of most people who go into a networking event of any kind. Well, frankly, I just felt uncomfortable doing that. And so what I started doing is I would have brief conversations with people, and I try and get around to five, ten, 15 people. But what I try to do is find people, frankly, who I just liked talking to, talking with, and frankly, after having a short conversation and then I’d move on to someone else and almost invariably I’d find somebody who all of a sudden I said, you know what? I just had a conversation with Joe over there, and I think the two of you would really enjoy meeting, and I’d drag him over or her over and introduce the two. And so what I just found that I got my real enjoyment out of being in a networking event by just having good, friendly conversations with people. And if I had a short conversation with someone who was all about, well, let me tell you, enough about you talking about me.

Bob Littell: Why don’t I talk about me for a while and it just got a little overwhelming. So net weaving. Reverses the traditional concept of networking. Instead of asking yourself the questions, can this person help me? Do they know somebody I need? Do they have resources or information that would be helpful to me? Net weaving just flips that around and you train yourself to ask yourself, who do I know who might benefit meeting or getting to know this person? Or secondly, what resources or information do I have? Or someone in what we call my trusted resource network that once again might be useful and might actually help develop and create a trusted relationship with this individual. So that’s kind of the basics, but the action step of net weaving really entailed setting up meetings, usually a one on one first, and then at that one on one meeting, trying to identify someone who they would really like to meet and setting up and hosting that particular meeting. And that’s how some of these what I call ripple effect stories. And we can talk about some of those later, how they took place is that I’d make some introduction and then host a meeting, and then they would turn around and host a meeting for someone else. And it just created this ripple effect of positive energy that ended up being some amazing things. So that’s the short description.

Lee Kantor: And I think a key component of it is really the intent, right? When you go to one of these, um, events where there’s lots of business people, some people historically have gone there with the intent of I have to find that golden ticket person that’s going to buy my stuff. And when you go there with the intent, like you’re describing and you’re like, I’m just here to meet people and connect people, it takes all the pressure off and it just makes it a much more enjoyable event.

Bob Littell: Yeah, I’m very proud to say. In fact, I’m getting ready to have a conference call with a zoom call with him later on this week is my good friend Jeffrey Gitomer, the world famous, uh, speaker and crazy guy. Uh, Jeffrey one time quoted in one of his conferences saying, Bob Littell is the only person who I’ve ever met who totally gets what networking really should be all about.

Lee Kantor: So now I didn’t.

Bob Littell: Have to pay.

Bob Littell: Him.

Lee Kantor: That’s a bonus. Um, so, uh, you’ve been doing it for 25 years. You were kind of in a break for a period, and then you’ve relaunched.

Bob Littell: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you’re, you’re a you’re a perfect classic example of what we’re doing today. The most powerful form of networking. Net weaving. As I said before, you first have someone who you met at one of these meetings and the 1 or 2 people that you want to follow up with, I make notes on the back of their business cards so that when I send them an email, I almost always try and reference some comment that they made. Then I call up and assuming that it’s somebody that I want to set up a one on one hosting meeting, I mean, a one on one meeting that just the two of us. Then when I decided that this is someone I’d like to introduce to someone else, that’s where the real difficulty starts. Because in the old days, almost all the meetings were in person, and the higher up you go in power and influence, the more that you find difficulties in scheduling busy business schedules. Uh, travel. Travel to and from the meeting, setting up and picking the place where you’re going to meet. And frankly, the reason why I sort of got discouraged was how few people were recognizing the power of hosting meetings to make the introduction of two people, because what often would happen is a lot of the connections I was making, frankly, were above my pay grade.

Bob Littell: And when you hosted those kind of meetings, in many cases it allowed me to get invited into a, you know, a whole new network of people who, frankly, I had not been involved with prior to that. And so consequently, when zoom came along and when all of a sudden I realized that I could set up one or 2 or 3 zoom meetings. This this is my second. I’ll have two more zoom meetings this week, because now it’s as easy to set up a meeting or to host a meeting to make an introduction of two different people as it is sending a text or an email. And that’s why I wrote an article that, um, maybe I’ll send or send you a link that you could include in the post, uh, information that sent out a two part article in Sales and Marketing magazine on why net weaving is is exploding in popularity now, and it’s largely because of the ability of zoom and other forms of virtual online face to face communication.

Lee Kantor: Now, when things are done virtually versus in person, are there some kind of tips or or tactics or advice you can share to get the most of the virtual meeting? Because a lot of times in person, obviously there’s the energy of people in a room together. There’s all the subtle cues. And are there some things that you can share that can help somebody have a more effective virtual meeting?

Bob Littell: Yeah, hiring dancing women to be in the background can really be effective.

Lee Kantor: That helps. Okay, wait. I’m writing that down. Wait.

Bob Littell: It is more expensive. It is. What I find is that the virtual meetings do not take that much away from an in-person meeting. If you handle the meeting correctly. Now, what do I mean by that? The first thing is, when you have the one on one conversation with the individual, you’re trying to find out who were the key people that this person would like to meet. And what’s surprising is in many cases, this is not somebody who I know. They tell me someone who they would really love to meet. And in many cases, especially if it’s a high level individual, what I will do is I will ask them to send me their bio, and then I will make a send a that bio along with an email, knowing that my first conversation, if it’s a high level individual, is not going to be with the individual, it’s going to be with his executive assistant. And so I would start out by saying, um, uh, I’m sorry, but what is your oh, Barbara. Um, you hopefully. You remember I sent an email and I copied you on it, uh, about an individual who I think your boss would really enjoy meeting. The two of them have very similar backgrounds, and they’re working on some projects that I think might be of interest to both of them. And so I’m wondering if this is someone who you think, based on the bio, if you would share that with him, would like to meet and I’ll check back with you and see if and almost always then after they look up the bio, if I’ve done my homework correctly, it’s almost always would love to have that meeting be so nice to set it up.

Bob Littell: And then that’s that’s all there is to it. So it’s being creative in the way you set it up, listening. And it’s a puzzle. It’s putting pieces of a puzzle together of what is a meeting and a communication? For example, I’m hosting a second meeting this week and this one is in person. I’m putting together a fellow who’s with one of the senior VP of one of the largest construction companies in Atlanta, um, and putting together with someone who literally helped run six of Ted Turner’s companies back in the in the heyday of when Ted Turner was just doing unbelievable things and buying companies and doing all kinds of stuff. I was amazed that the two of them didn’t know each other, from just the fact that both of them were so high profile in Atlanta, and once again, they both have a high interest in cars. And so the two of them, uh, I can’t wait to be part of the conversation.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that a mistake that people make a lot of times is that they focus in on maybe their exact target, rather than maybe people in and around them. Um, a lot of times I think the phrase is called weak ties. Those are the people that aren’t directly connected, but they’re around your periphery that you can maybe access a little easier, and then you could leverage that.

Bob Littell: Well, two points, two points to be made there. One is I define meetings as either strategic or non-strategic. A strategic meeting is where I already have in my mind how the two people would really enjoy, why they would really enjoy meeting and getting to know each other. A non-strategic meeting are ones where these are just two good people that I’ve just really enjoyed having a conversation with. And frankly, some of those meetings that I’ve set up that I had no idea up front. I just felt the vibes. I felt the body chemistry of the two of them. And some of those meetings had been some of the most fun, and some of the ones that have created amazing things that none of us had any idea prior to having the conversation. The second point, though, I was really influenced by research by a fellow named Mark Granovetter from Stanford. And what he the research that he had done showed that if you imagine a target and three circle with a bull’s eye being in the center, the bullseye represents your primary circle of contacts. Depending on the size of your network, that might be three, four, five, maybe even ten people who you’re dealing with on a daily or at least a weekly basis. The second circle, the secondary one, are people who are coming in and out of that primary circle on a fairly regular basis, maybe every couple of weeks or every month.

Bob Littell: You just kind of reconnecting. Everyone in that third circle is what we would call a weak tie. They are someone who, over your lifetime, your career, you at one time had a good relationship with, but you’ve lost touch and contact. And so I literally make a habit every week. And if if your listeners, if they do nothing else than follow up on this piece of advice, every week I go back through emails, through past correspondence, and I come up with two people, three sometimes, who I haven’t talked with in usually two to 3 to 5, sometimes even ten years. Uh, there’s one individual that I’m now working with that guess what? I may end up being an executive producer on a. Science fiction movie. It’s too long to tell the tale, but he used to, uh, come to one of my book clubs, and he’s now written a science fiction novel called The Cloud, which was, uh, considered the best science fiction book of, of 2023. And so who knows? It’s just it’s just so much fun when you kind of approach net weaving more as a game than as something you have to do.

Lee Kantor: So, um, where what’s kind of on the roadmap?

Bob Littell: Well, I told you why I kind of dropped out of the game for a while. Um, and when I decided to get back in. I said, you know what? This is my legacy. What do I want to leave as the legacy? And I got to thinking, I years ago, I had developed something called the Net Weavers Aptitude Assessment Quiz. And the new website that’s going to be launched within the next week or so, which is Net Weavers Inspire. The first thing that will happen when you go to the website. You will take this free quiz. And first, the quiz has has a series of statements and you grade yourself from 1 to 10 on how applicable that statement is for you currently. The first category is your attitude towards the concept of altruism. Doing something for someone without any expectation of how you’re going to benefit. And so there’s five questions there that or five statements. And you grade yourself from 1 to 10 with ten being boy that’s me I do that all the time. Then the next three categories are the three skill sets of net weaving being a connector of others with their needs, problems, opportunities and mind rather than your own learning how to position yourself as a gratuitous resource for others. No expectation of gain. And the third in line with the first two is building a trusted resource network, made up of people who either you have vetted as being exceptional at what they do, or they come so highly recommended to you that you immediately trust and want to have them in that in that network. So part of what I wanted is I wanted to have a course.

Bob Littell: And so now we’ve developed a course online called the NetWeaver Diplomat. And the great thing about this is we’ve got it on a platform that allows me to translate it into over a hundred different languages. So you come to the you come to the website, you take the free exam if you like what you see based on your score, because your score will either say you’re a natural. Netweaver been doing this all your life. You just never had a word for it. In fact, that’s what Arthur Blank, the testimonial on the cover of my my book The Heart and Ardent Weaving, said. The second category, a little lower score, is Annette Weaver. In the wings you see a few areas that you can improve upon. And then Annette Weaver’s apprentice, meaning you see a lot of areas that you could improve on, but you love the concept and you want to improve. And then I struggled with what do I call that bottom low score. So I finally came up with a politically acceptable that’s a net weaving skeptic. Oh, nobody does anything for someone without thinking of how they’re going to benefit. And there’s two areas of that. One is, though, people who are scoring low because they’re just starting a career, and they really have never thought of all these skill sets and ways. And that, for example, I’ve done a number of programs there at CSU’s executive MBA program, and part of where I really get excited is helping people launch a career with Net weaving in mind. I sure wish I’d realized or been taught these skill sets coming right out of college. I don’t know where I’d be today, but, uh, but I know I would be even more above where I am today.

Bob Littell: So anyways, now those are the first two. You actually do upgrade to take the course and also have access to all 50 of the business book summaries. And I mean these are Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Stephen M.R. Covey, Jeffrey Gitomer. These are some of the best business books out there that I, with author’s permission, I wrote, and those are terrific as what I call follow up and follow through value added ways to add to the emails that you’re sending out, either wanting to set up a meeting and providing information up front, you would ask, what’s a better what’s another way to set up a meeting? That’s a great attachment to send an article that you and a some one of the book summaries that you know, would have interest be of interest to the high level individual you’re trying to to connect with. But the final area that I’m really excited about is I want to leave a legacy of inspiring people to create their own ripple effect. Stories where you make a connection, you make an introduction, you host a meeting, and then those people, when they try and turn the table and say, Bob, this is great, but how can we help you? You simply ask them to pay it forward and do the same thing for someone else or someone else. And it creates that ripple effect. And I want to create a whole library of stories by category of people who have done that and the amazing things that end up happening. So that’s that’s kind of the goal is to create that platform and get people involved.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you, um, how do you kind of explain this concept to a lot of the young folks who are not? I guess I don’t know if the word comfortable is the accurate word, but they don’t do a lot of in-person conversations. They don’t do a lot of even zoom conversations now. They prefer more of the impersonal texting. And, you know, not almost not in real life interactions. So how do you kind of help them either see the value or open their minds to, uh, to this concept?

Bob Littell: Well, actually, it’s a great question because, frankly, I’ve created a new word called a catalyst connector. And in some cases, I hate to say it, but the new generation of young leaders in many cases are not comfortable with net weaving. And so I another one of my goals is to create an army. And I’ve already got a number of people that are willing to fall into that role of actually calling up with the young people and showing them by doing it, how to make those kind of connections. And frankly, it’s a little bit the same with highly technical financial service people like CPAs and attorneys. And, you know, the jokes about an actuary, you know, an outgoing actuary because he’s looking at the other person’s shoes rather than his own. Um, and yet I’ve had some success stories with very highly analytical people by not just telling them how to do it, but actually showing. And that to a little, a little extent is what we’re going to be doing with this new Project Atlanta Way 2.0, where we’re going to be using net weaving as a way to create leader to to to inspire leaders within the city of Atlanta to work on major projects together and collaborate and and connect with each other in ways that they might even be uncomfortable doing. But we’re going to make them.

Lee Kantor: It’s so interesting because every person in business knows that referrals are kind of the key, and if you have a system for referrals, you’re going to be in great shape. And then this just kind of aligns perfectly with that type of thinking.

Bob Littell: Yeah. And you know, we’ve only got a few minutes. So let me end with or at least cover one thing that I think is so important because a referral is a risk on the part of the person making it, you, you know that you’re not going to go to a networking event and have somebody immediately say, oh, my best client is so-and-so. Let me make an introduction. You have to build trust. So I had had quite a few people at the not quite a few, but a number of people who would come up to me at one of my talks and said, Bob, I heard you speak a while back. And I had to be real honest with you. I’ve been doing a lot of your net weaving and I’m not seeing little, if anything, come back. And so finally, I really developed a a way to determine what the problem is. First, I’d ask them, tell me how you’re doing it and all. And a lot of times what would come out is they’re still net weaving, networking. They’re implying after they help someone. Well, you know, it sure would be nice if you happened to come across someone who needs my services. I’d love to have you refer me. You can’t mix the two. Net and knit weaving is not an attack on traditional networking. You have to do both to be successful, but you can’t mix the two. The second reason I discovered was the world is made up of givers and takers, and when you knit we for a taker, they will take and take and take. And you can do it till the sun doesn’t shine and nothing will come back around because they just have.

Bob Littell: They’re missing the reciprocity gene. The third one is the most interesting though. And it’s a weakness that we all have, especially if it’s a high level connection. So you introduced me to Arthur Blank. And guess what? I take ownership of that new relationship. And unless you follow up a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month. Hey, Bob, whatever happened to that connection introduction that I made with you? And oh, my gosh, Ashley, I forgot you were the one that introduced me to him. Gosh, I really am sorry I never got back. He introduced me to so and so and we’re now. We’re best friends. So we forget the girl that brought us to the dance. And it’s a I see that happen a lot. But frankly, Lee, there’s one other category and it’s the hardest one. It’s where you’re having this conversation with someone, and deep down inside you’re saying to yourself, I’m not really sure I would feel comfortable introducing this person to someone else. They didn’t come across to you. Maybe it was their dress, maybe it was vibes, whatever. But frankly. Once again, a referral is a risk on the part of the person making it. And if they don’t have confidence, what’s the solution They have to become more. They have to change their image. For some people it may not be possible, but I make suggestions of taking different workshops on creativity, how to how to how to make yourself not just acceptable, but the wow factor. So somebody would say, wow, no one has ever done that for me before.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more, connect with the community. What is the coordinates? What is the website?

Bob Littell: The website is is you can we’re going to get there where you can get there one of three different ways. You can either go to net weaving, dot com, Net weaving international.com or the new Net Weavers Inspire, which will be launched within the next week or so. And once again, we hope that, uh, those who love this concept will spread the word and become ambassadors of the concept because not only is it good for your business, but, you know, research has shown that there’s such a thing as endorphins in the brain when you help someone, that just gives you that satisfaction feeling and that makes that energizes you, makes you better at everything you do. It’s a great way to build your business, but it’s actually a great way just to live your life.

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

Bob Littell: Well, thank you again for having me. And let’s stay in close touch. And remember, I want to have you involved in this Atlanta way 2.0 as well. So we’ll talk to you about that later. But thanks again for having me.

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

Jeffrey Gray With AgeTech Atlanta

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Jeffrey Gray With AgeTech Atlanta
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Jeffrey Gray serves as the Founder of AgeTech Atlanta, The Memory Kit, and Forever Home. He is a Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist (CAPS) and advocate for Alzheimer’s care and prevention.

Age Tech Atlanta is a close knit community of Atlanta-based innovators that are committed to changing the definition and experience of aging. Their group is comprised of startup founders, industry mavericks, educators, researchers and influencers in the fields of age tech, elder care, and longevity.

Connect with Jeffrey on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • AgeTech Atlanta history
  • Partnership with AtlantaTech Village, the 4th largest tech space in the US
  • Atlanta as a significant city and an innovation hub to develop age-related technologies
  • Market for Agetech related solutions
  • The greatest challenges facing AgeTech entrepreneurs

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jeff Gray with Age Tech Atlanta. Welcome.

Jeff Gray: Hey, thanks. It’s great to be here.

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

Jeff Gray: So age Tech Atlanta is a community of innovators and educators and influencers and others, all who are trying to redefine the experience of aging through technology. And we have built this community into the largest of its kind in North America. So Atlanta is home to some of the greatest entrepreneurs and innovators in the in the space of age tech.

Lee Kantor: So what is your background? What led you to be involved in this community?

Jeff Gray: Well, I moved to Atlanta for 25 years ago or about 25 years ago as a part of my the sale of my first business, which was in an entire different technology sector. But after I lost my mom to Alzheimer’s in 2015, I started on a journey of innovation, founded an early company called the memory Kit. But I got interested in trying to solve problems around Aging care course, the Alzheimer’s and Dementia diseases. And that was in 2015. And that led me to over time, create a large network and found H tech Atlanta as a way for folks to get together and network, learn and grow.

Lee Kantor: Was H Tech Atlanta part of like a larger organization or did you start this just from, hey, I think there’s a space here that we should bring some smart people around and see what we can do.

Jeff Gray: Yeah, more the latter. You know, I’ve been I’ve had my home base business wise at the Atlanta Tech Village since 2016, and I had a lot of folks who asked me over the years, hey, Jeff, why don’t you start a little net or not even start a group? But why don’t you throw a networking event? Because I was introducing people over the years, making cross connections, helping other people meet folks that could, you know, help them, you know, increase their knowledge or get some traction in their business. So we did that three years ago, started it with a networking group and a margarita bar, by the way. And from there grew this organization organically by meeting every other month since we started.

Lee Kantor: And then what are you kind of defining the parameters of agetec as like what are the components, like you mentioned, Alzheimer’s. I can understand kind of medical components to this group, but does it involve like, you know, active lifestyle for retirees or like are there, you know, other components or is it kind of just focused on health?

Jeff Gray: No, it’s more towards the latter. So we have you know, we have startups and large ventures that are focused both that are focused on things like, you know, health care, senior living, senior care, home health, those kind of things that your mind would naturally go to. Also, some of the diseases that we commonly associate with aging, like Alzheimer’s, dementia, to some extent Parkinson’s, but we see the whole age tech ecosystem as a lot bigger We think that there’s room for innovation in travel and tourism, finance and banking, retail, um, uh, home improvement. Um, so there’s lots of areas where there’s innovation for aging populations. Remember, you know, they there’s a commonly, uh, bandied about statistic, but it’s even though we hear it often, it’s still worth noting that, you know, today, um, and every day, some 10,000 people turn 65 in the US, um, uh, people over 55, actually, Boomer, Gen X and boomers own 71% of all single family occupied houses in the US. It’s $0.50 on every dollar spent in America of our GDP is by an older adult. So it’s a huge sector of the economy. And yet there’s definitely, uh, innovation in those areas you mentioned. But as you alluded to, it’s a much bigger tent, if you will, than just care.

Lee Kantor: So what are you trying to do with age tech Atlanta? Are you looking for more members of the group, or are you looking for more organizations that are touching this space to, you know, just learn about like what? What’s kind of the goal?

Jeff Gray: Yeah. Well, the mission is actually to build Atlanta into the center of excellence and innovation for tech. And while we’re at it, we’re also trying to make Atlanta the best place for older adults and their loved ones to call home. But we’re always looking to engage entrepreneurs, educators and researchers as well as larger ventures. Um, healthcare systems, healthcare providers. Did you know digital health innovators? Um, we meet our I would say foundationally, we built ourselves on a meeting every other month where we always have three presenters that show their new technology or new innovations in the space, so we’re always looking to invite more people to come. And you know, those events themselves offer incredible opportunities for people to meet one another in a casual setting, but in a learning setting as well. So that’s one of the main ways we help, is by putting people together every other month, every year, um, where they can meet each other, connect, find opportunities to do business, maybe to engage in pilots, to do research together, those kinds of activities.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding the folks that are playing in this space? Are they themselves kind of the seniors, or are there young people that are also getting involved?

Jeff Gray: Yeah. You know, uh, well, first of all, I would say that the majority of the age tech ventures that we see are, you know, the overwhelming majority, like 90% of them are story led. And I mean that what I mean by that is something happened in that person’s life, um, that gave them that aha moment, or they went through a difficult journey and they, they went about the business of trying to tackle problems that they had. I would say that the majority of founders are not over 55, I would say. I we’ve never really tracked that, but it’s a pretty mixed group. Um, we have a couple of founders in their 70s. Hey, I’m 62, but it is a it is a young crowd. Um, I’m always fascinated and encouraged by the interest really young founders in their in their 20s and early 30s. Uh, the interest and passion they have for this space.

Lee Kantor: So, um, share a little bit you mentioned a little bit about what happens at one of these events. Um, I know margaritas are involved sometimes. Um, and you mentioned some, some speakers, but, like. So, um, is it at Tech Village? Is that where they’re usually located or they’re around town.

Jeff Gray: Mostly at the Tech Village, but we have um, we are events are sometimes hosted off site. We publish them at Tech Atlanta on our events page. Um, but yeah, I would say, you know, we have a great partnership with the Atlanta Tech Village that I can tell you a little bit more about, but most of them are here. Um, again, we publish them and we send them out to our whole mailing list, uh, as soon as we have another date. We’ve also, uh, at the atdc is hosted a couple, and we’ve had an event or two at a partner site. Um, so we mix it up a little, but most of them are here at the Tech Village.

Lee Kantor: And then how many companies are involved with the group right now?

Jeff Gray: Well, you know, our mailing list is about a thousand of those. We’ve got a couple of hundred companies at various stages. The core group of innovator companies is closer to 70. Um, but in addition to the, to the, you know, the tech startups themselves, um, you know, we’re working with, you know, the we’re, you know, interacting with Georgia State and Emory and Georgia Tech, right. Obvious folks who are innovating some and their students. Uh, other incubator and accelerator program. So the the ecosystem is not just the startups. And we also have, you know, it’s it’s startups and upstarts at all different sizes and stages. So it’s not just the scrappy startup with an idea on the back of an envelope. We’ve got some fairly large ventures that have got some serious traction in the industry. Companies like AQ, shield, Welcome Home Software, uh, that are fairly well known, that are at, you know, they’re operating at large scale and now giving back and supporting the ecosystem.

Lee Kantor: Now as part of the community is you mentioned incubators. Is that part of kind of the roadmap where you’re trying to incubate some of these ideas as well? Or is it just to be a community for people in the space to, you know, kind of mix and mingle and learn from each other.

Jeff Gray: Well, we over the years, we’ve had about 125 or 1 on ones that have led to about 450 introductions to capital, community content, um, partners. Um, so we are active, uh, you know, sounding boards and mentors on an ongoing basis. We don’t operate as a formal incubator or an accelerator because there’s a lot of those both in Atlanta and beyond. Um, but we have an open door. All of our contact information, information is easy to find, either on our website or LinkedIn. We’re always here for our founders to help them solve a problem or if they need an introduction. We do host, um, pitch competitions and other signature events, um, where we’ll, you know, we’ll do specific programing or content or an event for the industry itself. So last two years in a row, we’ve produced the tech Challenge Innovation Showcase Pitch competition in partnership with the American Society on Aging. So it’s an example of, um, of some of the things that we’ll do that go beyond the meet ups.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned some news with Tech Village. You want to share that?

Jeff Gray: Yeah, I’d love to. So, um, as of a few months ago, we kind of expanded on our partnership with ETV, has been supporting of us of what we’re doing from day one. Uh, they expanded that support. Um, have provided us some larger office space. The key part of the partnership that’s really exciting. Um, is that we now have two scholarships to offer tech startups who can work in in our office for six months to a year at a time. And this is great for for founders who are, um, either kind of early on and need some need some space, maybe save some money, or maybe they just want to benefit from the environment over here at the Tech Village, which I’m sure you’ve been over here. There’s really no place like it. Um, you know, if you if you want to meet some people that can maybe help your business grow, spend an hour in the community center or a couple of hours just working down there. People come up and introduce you. They want to know what you’re doing, what you’re working on, and how they can help. Um, so we’ve got two founders, one, uh, a guy named Bryce Folsom, who’s the founder of a company called E-life, which is a wristband that connects to a mobile app, which at the top of it would allow first responders to have all of the medical information about a person wearing the band, even if they couldn’t communicate themselves. Um, and a company founded by Melody Roberts called Live Labs, which is a female incontinence product that’s, um, going through its development and FDA approval process. So we have two entrepreneurs now in residence with us as they’re building their companies, um, fully supported by us and the networks that we provide them.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding that, um, maybe across the country or even internationally, there’s more and more, uh, you know, technology startups that are playing in this space or at least exploring this space, is this kind of a growth area.

Jeff Gray: It really is. So, um, I’m sure a lot of your listeners and you have heard of AARP, um, which is a huge organization. They, um, have a they have a program called the Tech Collaborative. So they’ve been fostering innovation in the space. They’ve really validated it. Um, and um, all of that programing is, is virtual. And then we are actually mentoring new communities, helping communities grow, um, using our playbook and what we’ve learned in other cities around the country right now. So we’re working with, with groups of of innovators in LA, Denver, Chicago, New York, Washington DC and Toronto. So, um, yes, we’ve found our found that not only are we able to reach out throughout the southeast. Um, but over the last two years, after about after our first year, we started receiving lots of outreach from folks saying, hey, can you help us, um, grow similar communities in our areas? So we’re going to do six of those all under the Atlanta umbrella. So yeah, we’re we’re growing beyond the borders. Uh, well, we grew we outgrew the strict borders of metro Atlanta in terms of the companies we interacted with early on and then through the southeast. And then, you know, really into North America as well.

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

Jeff Gray: Um, gosh, I just love first of all, we’re so appreciative just to, you know, have your airwaves and let people hear about us. You know, we’re really interested in meeting anyone that’s even interested in technology, that it can improve aging at any level. So it could be we welcome individuals who want to come to our meetups. They can go to our website. There’s you don’t need credentials of any kind to attend a meet up. We love to talk with investors, um, social workers, caseworkers, um, from Triple A’s, um, folks with the state Department of Aging. Again, we always welcome investors who are interested in learning more about the space and and entrepreneurs at any stage. And maybe someone out there here’s the here’s us on the show and has just an idea they can reach out to us through the website or to me on LinkedIn. We’d be happy to talk to them and give them some feedback. Uh, even at those just nascent stages when they they’ve just got that spark. Um, and I would say, you know, just the other day I met with someone who said, I don’t know what it is, but I know I want to help this community through technology. Can you give me some ideas of some, some places or some needs that you think are unfulfilled? So we’re always here to help. We are just really interested in meeting anybody who shares our interest and passion, no matter what they do.

Lee Kantor: And then folks in other markets that might want to start their own community. You’re up for those conversations as well.

Jeff Gray: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. For today, we would probably plug them into one of the super regional communities. But yeah, we’d love to hear from anybody who’s outside of of the greater Atlanta or southeastern region, um, that’s interested in supporting the growth of this really, uh, thriving and exciting ecosystem, um, called age tech.

Lee Kantor: And then the coordinates one more time is age tech Atlanta. Com age tech atlanta.com.com.

Jeff Gray: Yeah that’s us.

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

Jeff Gray: Oh no I appreciate you. Thanks for the opportunity to share some of what we’re doing.

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

Anne Shoemaker With Anne Shoemaker, LLC

by

GWBC Radio
GWBC Radio
Anne Shoemaker With Anne Shoemaker, LLC
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Anne Shoemaker,  Founder of Anne Shoemaker, LLC.

She is a career advisor, strategist, and coach for executive and aspiring executive women. She applies her 20+ years of experience as an executive and leader in corporate, non-profit, privately held, and early-stage startup businesses towards supporting and elevating women into positions of power and influence in their careers and communities.

Prior to founding a WBENC-Certified WBE (Women Business Enterprise), earning her coaching accreditation, and navigating a career change, Anne earned a business degree from Wake Forest University and a graduate degree in e-commerce from Lulea University of Technology in Sweden.

A lifelong learner, she has earned professional development certifications from globally recognized institutions such as The Banff Center, the International Coaching Federation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Co-Active Training Institute. Through 1:1 and small group coaching, advisory services related to building one’s career marketing portfolio and network, and workshops, Anne helps women unlock their potential so they can reach new levels of impact and fulfillment.

Her portfolio of coaching clients is 100% dedicated to women who are CxOs, legislators, founders of venture-backed and bootstrapped companies, and professionals such as attorneys, accountants, and physicians who are considering steering their career in a new direction – and want a co-pilot to help them navigate.

Connect with Anne on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Why should organizations invest in the advancement of women in their workforce
  • Investments into what kinds of programs or activities tend to pay off in this regard
  • What distinguishes a coach from a mentor or a therapist
  • What is it about coaching that makes it so transformative

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

 

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