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Reinventing Work: Transforming Fear into Fuel for Career Success

October 27, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Reinventing Work: Transforming Fear into Fuel for Career Success
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Cheron Denise Freeman, a career strategist and work rules reinventor. Sharon shares insights from her background in corporate HR and coaching, focusing on helping professionals navigate career transitions, layoffs, and career pivots. She discusses her “30 Days 30 Stories” experiment, which explores reinventing work rules through daily storytelling. Sharon emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, strategic job searching, and experimenting with new approaches to work. She also highlights the value of coaching in overcoming limiting beliefs and achieving career growth.

Cheron Freeman is an ICF PCC Credentialed Coach with fifteen years of experience helping professionals reinvent their careers and thrive in the workforce. With a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources and Sociology and hands-on experience in recruitment and HR business partnering across corporate, start-up, and private organizations, she brings an interdisciplinary lens to the intersection of work, society, and technology.

She has coached more than 500 professionals worldwide, specializing in career pivots, confidence building, and skill translation, turning education into measurable workforce outcomes. She also creates scalable resources such as the OH SHIFT Career Newsletter and the 30 Days / 30 Stories Work Rules Reinvention Experiment, sparking conversations about reimagining work in today’s tech-driven world.

At the heart of her work is a simple belief: education is transformation and when mindset, technology, and human connection align, extraordinary results follow.

Connect with Cheron on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Career transitions and their various forms (layoffs, internal moves, full career changes).
  • Strategies for approaching job searches proactively after layoffs.
  • The importance of self-reflection and clarity on career goals.
  • The concept of “choosing yourself” in the context of career decisions.
  • Exploring alternative career paths, including freelancing and entrepreneurship.
  • The impact of emotional and mental aspects during career transitions.
  • The “30 Days 30 Stories” storytelling experiment and its insights.
  • The distinction between hypervigilance and true high performance in the workplace.
  • The significance of experimenting and reflecting in personal and professional growth.
  • The role of coaching in helping individuals confront limiting beliefs and achieve career goals.

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 Career Strategists and Work Rules Reinventor with the Organization, Cheron Denise Freeman, welcome.

Speaker3: Thank you. Welcome, Lee. I’m excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn about your practice. Tell us about being a career strategist and work rules reinventor. How did this come about?

Speaker3: Yes. So I have been, I like to say, in the people business for the last 15 years. I started my career in corporate human resources, partnering with executives at various different companies. And then about ten years ago, I ago. I got into professional coaching and my niche. When I went to coaching school, I went to Ipek. For those of you that are coaches that are listening, shout out to you. And my niche was transitions. I love helping people navigate transitions because you get the opportunity to not only help them see the future, but also bring their past right past experiences and skills to the present to be able to navigate and compound upon what they want to do in the future. So that’s kind of what led me to become a career strategist. And the work rules inventor is the experimenter part of myself. I have a newsletter called Old Shift Newsletter, and I have been running an experiment. It was called 30 days, 30 stories. It was storytelling experiment where I was going back to all these rules that I was taught when I first entered my corporate career about work and how to approach work and how to reinvent some of those rules, especially in 2025, in a technology driven work world. I found that a lot of those rules were just not applicable. So I was doing a spin on how can we reinvent the way we approach work in our day to day lives so that we have more fulfilling careers and fulfilling transitions, navigating the unknown as well.

Lee Kantor: All right. So we’re going to get into all of that. But let’s start with the transitions. Is the transition. Um, should I stay at my company or should I be an entrepreneur? Or is the transition, should I stay at my company and and try to get a promotion? Like what is kind of the scope of the word transition in, you know, in a career?

Speaker3: Great question. So it can be especially in 25,, 2025. It could be a layoff. So we call that like a forced transition. It could be transition company to company. It could be an internal transition within your company. So I want to go from this department I want to go from it to to supply chain. Right. Or it can be as well career to career. So I’ve spent some time where I used to coach software engineers into a new career. So let’s say they used to be a teacher. Now they wanted to become a software engineer. Then I helped transition them into that new career as well. So that’s what it encompassed.

Lee Kantor: So now when a person, let’s kind of give some advice to the listener. So if you are transitioning and you were saying, okay, you know what, I just got laid off. Um, I’m not going to kind of complain about it. I’m going to make some moves. Right? I got to be proactive and I have to take action here. What are some of the do’s and don’ts for the people that are just recently laid off?

Speaker3: Okay, so the first thing that I say and I actually just did a workshop on this, but you really need to get clear on what it is you want. I call this a method of choosing yourself because so often when we are laid off, we have so many emotions, right? But we don’t really know what we want to do next. We don’t even know what we liked about our previous job, but we didn’t like about our previous job. So I say, after you’ve had like maybe a week or two to clear the emotions because I do think you need time for that. It’s actually sit down and say, okay, what did you like about your previous role? What did you not like about your previous role? Right. What do you want to do next? Does that still exist in the labor market? Because right now we have a lot of changes going on. So sometimes people are doing work what they were previously doing at their company. The opportunities just don’t really necessarily exist in the labor market. A lot of them for it right now. Um, and what what do you value? What’s important to you? Right. Where are you at in your stage of life? Your cycle of life? Do you need to work remote? Do you enjoy working on a team? Do you? Is there a certain salary that you need? I recommend that you get clear on all of those things, and you actually do that work prior to just applying to jobs, because if you apply to jobs and you approach applying to jobs just from the survival instinct of I just need money, I just need anything, you run into the most roadblocks and you also run into burnout very quickly. So that would be my advice.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that’s great advice because I think that’s kind of most people’s knee jerk move is to I’m just going to start applying. And you know, I was this. So I’ll keep I’ll just keep applying for that, the same thing. And then it’s like it becomes one of these groundhog days where you get frustrated. No one’s hiring this. Like you got to kind of think bigger picture and you got to really align it with what you really want out of your career. Right? Like you can’t just approach this as like, I’m just going to take the next thing that comes about because you’re going to be in the same situation, you know, in, in just a few months.

Speaker3: Absolutely, absolutely. But I have compassion as well, because, you know, I work with professionals, a lot of professionals. We’ve worked in corporate America, and corporate America tells you that you’re not good enough unless you’re performing. And so a lot of times that like applying to ten jobs a day, you know, sending 20 messages, like all these different things. People do it because it makes them feel like they are performing something. But in reality, alignment and performance don’t have anything to do with each other. They don’t go together. I would say they’re going through a massive breakup right now. So yes. Right.

Lee Kantor: And you got to get the strategy right. Because if you’re just applying and you might get one of these things and, and it might not be a great fit for you, it just might check a couple of the boxes. But if it isn’t checking kind of the main boxes, then you’re, it’s you’re just going to be frustrated in six months.

Speaker3: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And I’ve been there before. I’ve done it. And there’s nothing like you get into a whole brand new job, a professional role, and six months later you’re like, oh my gosh, what have I done? Um, but, uh, yeah. So you, you have to be able to get out of that survival lens for at least a week, right? A week or two to really ground yourself and feel okay with being enough to ask yourself those questions. A lot of times we don’t want to ask ourselves those questions as professionals because deep down inside we don’t think we are enough. We don’t think we’re enough. We don’t think we deserve to have our needs met. So we go into performance and and the job searching and looping.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with your clients, like you made the transition at some point from working in a corporate to I’m an entrepreneur and I’m betting on myself. Yes. Do some of your clients kind of have that same aha moment that, hey, maybe I’d be better served if I just went the entrepreneurial route rather than just get back on this, um, you know, hamster wheel again.

Speaker3: Yes. I mean, I work, I work with a lot of coaches, I work with a lot of leaders, and sometimes they might not be full blown entrepreneurship, but maybe it’s freelancing. Maybe it’s it’s fractal work. Um, like there’s so many different ways that you can support yourself nowadays that is in between, you know, a traditional, traditional 9 to 5, uh, as well as like full blown entrepreneurship and setting up business systems, um, contract work. So, yes, I do work with a lot of people that definitely do that in between. Or they say, hey, this is what I’m going to do overall, especially if they know that they need to make a full career pivot, meaning going from one career to another career. Right? Like if I’m going from a public school teacher to now, I want to become a business analyst, right? That’s that’s a jump. That means that there’s typically some income or some different ways that you have to generate income in the, in between, right, in order to make that full transition or transformation.

Lee Kantor: Now, ideally, are your clients coming to you before they make the transition or shortly after they’ve been transitioned? Maybe, you know, outside of their control?

Speaker3: I would say both, but I would say the one thing that that people come to me, typically they’re at they’re in some form of transition, meaning they’re at the point where they’ve tried a lot of different things, they’ve tried what they’re used to doing, and it’s no longer working. That’s when they tend to come to me.

Lee Kantor: Right. So they’ve tried some things. So the transition might be kind of emotional or mental where they’re like something’s got to change. It hasn’t changed yet. But in my mind it kind of has the beginnings of change. So I want to talk to somebody that can maybe help guide me to a next step, maybe proactively, rather than when it’s outside of my control.

Speaker3: Yes. Yeah. Once they get to me, it’s typically totally like the mental emotional part of the change because we live in the information age now, right where you can get information anywhere. So yeah, they’re not typically coming to me for more information. They’re coming to me for guidance and insight on how to navigate themselves through the change so they can get to the other side.

Lee Kantor: Now, at the top of the show, you mentioned the we talked about this work rules Reinventor and I am a big fan of doing experiments. Can you share a little bit about what led you to doing this 30 day experiment, and kind of the results from doing the experiment now, and also our experiments now? Part of just what you’re going to do kind of on a regular semi-regular basis moving forward.

Speaker3: Yeah. So what led me to this is, um, I just had a dream one night and I was like, oh, I should do an experiment where I’m telling stories from my career and and how I’m reinventing myself. Because working in human resources, working in the people business, I have just had a lot of eclectic experiences, and I had a lot of wisdom that I felt like I really wanted to share with other people. Also, it was a way for me as well to kind of take my experiences, take my pain, and turn them into a platform and something to share. So it started with back in 2021, I had a program that I was running called relaunch, and it was for professionals 30 and up that felt stagnant in their career. And part of the module that I worked with clients on for that program, we did an activity called Career Hauntings, where I had them write down like over the last like 5 to 10 years, right. What’s that one thing that had happened in their professional career that they, like were just stuck on or they always remembered, right? Maybe it was a low performance rating one year. Maybe it was a conflict that they had with a boss one year. And so what I did was I threw my newsletter every day.

Speaker3: Right. I would present a topic that I was reflecting on. So one of the big ones I talked about was hypervigilance versus high performance. And what I realized with working with hundreds of clients through transitions and myself, is that a lot of times our approach professionals at work, especially in corporations, we tend to think we’re performing when we are not, when we are really doing is being hyper vigilant. So what this looks like is you go into a meeting, right? Let’s say it’s ten people in the meeting and you are focusing on and paying attention to what Johnny is saying to Sam. You’re thinking Sam is cutting off. Johnny, you, uh, are not listening because you’re thinking about how Johnny is overstepping his boundaries on your project, and now you’re going to have to, you know, rebut whatever Johnny is saying so that you can feel like you still are good and you’re a good performer and no one is trying to f you over. Okay. These are conversations I used to have all the time when I worked in human resources and throughout my career, and people would feel like they were really performing while doing that. And what I realized is that is not performing. That is just a it’s a trauma response.

Speaker3: It’s just you analyzing the room to see who is a threat. And because you are good at that or you’ve gotten good at that, people will professionals will say they are problem solvers because they have the ability to do that when that is not really solving a problem, nor is that actually high performance. And so, you know, I talked a lot about and I experimented with myself on an everyday basis. Right. How do you move through that every day when you’re at work? How do you catch yourself when you are stepping into hypervigilance? Right. When you are projecting yourself onto a colleague, when you are just feeling nervous or maybe insecure about a presentation that you have coming up, or a conversation that you’re having with your boss and not equating it to, you know, woe is me, or, you know, they have it out for me. And I think it’s a really, really big thing. And I found for my audience that a lot of people struggle with this on an everyday basis, but they just don’t talk about it. It’s not talked about. And so it’s really hidden behind. I’m a high performer. I’m performing what I think is expected of me when really they’re just hiding behind fear.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that your insights are spot on, and the way that they came about is very interesting to me. Um, when you were doing the experiment, I know the, the results and what you learned are, are great and important. I think there’s also, uh, a nugget of importance for other people to think about is just the concept of doing a 30 day experiment on something. Um, when you. I know this came to you kind of in a dream, the idea of it. But when you were kind of creating what that 30 day experiment was going to be and how you were going to execute it, can you talk a little bit about that? Because I think running 30 day experiments is a great mindset shift for a lot of people, and it’s healthy to be doing this on a regular basis to kind of test ideas that you think Um, might be beneficial down the road, but you don’t want to commit to it full time. So by doing an experiment, it allows you it gives you kind of guardrails and allows you to safely try something new. Um, because it might really be beneficial. And if it doesn’t, you just move on and do another experiment. But can you talk a little bit about kind of how you structured this experiment? And, um, you know, because a 30 day commitment to anything is not easy. That’s not nothing.

Speaker3: Yeah. I mean, I think it goes back to what you mentioned earlier about being an entrepreneur or the creativity embedding on yourself. And what I found is the only way that I could really set some foundation right now to bet on myself was to do something over extended period of time. And so the structure, the system that I used for this experiment was LinkedIn, right? That platform and was my newsletter. So I used my newsletter as the structure and the system to be able to put that out on an everyday basis. And because it’s one of my natural talents, uh, in terms of the format of the experiment, I would tell a story, I would tell a story every day, and I still am on, like what may have occurred that day. How, how how were things showing up for me? And then at the end of that story, I would say, hey, here’s today’s experiment, right? This is what I was doing. So that, say the hypothesis was moving through fear, right? The question was, can you move through fear and still show up? You know, here were the results, right? This this story is my results. And then I would pose a question back to my audience to be like, hey, this is a question that you should ask yourself about this topic as you move through the next day. So that was my system. Overall, I picked a platform. I used my newsletter and then also I use creative storytelling and literally kind of the, you know, the science method at the end to really structure these stories and structure the experiment. I also should say that I am an experimenter. I love to experiment. I firmly believe that you have to be in the day to day. You have to be in the process. And I learned that a lot as well. From working at a startup company and working with startups is what I love. It’s about the process and the everyday. It is not just about the outcome all the time. And so that also is the reason why I was able to navigate through that.

Lee Kantor: Now why did you make it public? A lot of people do kind of these experiments, but they do it privately so no one sees. Hey, you know, that didn’t work out. Like, why was it important for you to publicly share kind of the good, the bad, the ugly of this? Because you’re going when you say this publicly, I’m going to do this. Then there’s an expectation that you’re really going to do this, or else you’re kind of breaking a promise and no one wants to be that person. So talk about the making it public component of this, because that’s what a lot of people or most people don’t really have the they’re not willing to be that vulnerable and share that intimately with the public.

Speaker3: Yeah. I mean, I think for me that was very important because at a certain point, if you if you’re going to share, if you’re going to sell your ideas, if you’re going to be a thought leader, you have to you have to get out of your ego. You have to get out of whatever emotional tie you have to being safe and not being willing to be vulnerable. And so for me, really, this experiment and really creating shift newsletter was my way of actually doing that and getting comfortable with Expressing an expression through writing. I love writing, I love expressing, I’m very creative and so holding myself to the fire, right? Building that momentum on an everyday basis. To me, if there’s anybody that’s listening that’s struggling with that, I will recommend you do something like that because it builds some momentum for you, it builds the confidence for you. And if you’re ever going to become bigger than just yourself, right? Or share something with the world that’s bigger than yourself, you have to be able to create that momentum for yourself. You have to begin to think that you have bigger impact and something to say that’s more than just for you. But I do do a lot of it for myself as well. So there is a balance, I do both.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the background with tech firms and startups. Can you talk about your ideal client profile? Are they somebody coming from tech or do you have other niches, niches? Or are you kind of um, industry agnostic?

Speaker3: Yes, I would say, you know, on the, on the people side. Right. People strategists, because I also have my human resource background. I really, really, really enjoy working with startup tech companies and helping their leaders, um, align their people to their systems, to their technology systems. I love that technology systems and products like that is my that’s my intersection between work society. Right. And and technology. So I really, really enjoy that. On the career side, my, uh, biggest client and who I work with the most is just professionals. What do I mean by professionals? Meaning that you have either went to school, right, some form of school, you have degrees, and you have actually put hours and experience into mastering a craft. And I say it that way. And I even talked about in my experiment because I think that’s very, very important. There are a lot of professionals I’ve noticed that have just gotten caught up in a job, and so they’re no longer actually investing in their craft to the point that now a lot of younger, especially Gen Z workforce, they don’t even believe in mastering a craft anymore. It’s all about just what’s the next best thing or just getting a job. And I feel like that’s a lost art profession in the field of study is still incredibly important to me, and building that and taking the time to do so and having patience, I don’t believe in that quick fix, you know, what can I do? Who can I get around? Uh, what can I say to be seen in this light so that I can just move through without having to do the work right? I think it takes investment, sacrifice and a level of mastery and time put in. So I work with professionals, mostly 25. I would say to 45. That’s really my age range.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you deliver this coaching and training? Is it one on one? Do you do group? Do you do workshops? Do you do kind of lunch and learns like how are you delivering all of this to your clients?

Speaker3: So I do one on one. I also do workshops. Absolutely. I do group coaching. I also contracted out to companies as well to to deliver this type of content.

Lee Kantor: And is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates the impact you can make on somebody, maybe somebody that you work with, don’t name who they were, but maybe name the challenge they had before they got to you, and then how you were able to help them get to a new level.

Speaker3: Yeah, absolutely. So I had a client. This was this was during Covid that enrolled in my relaunch program. And they had been in their career for over 15 years, they worked in a niche industry and they had climbed themselves up to a manager role, and they were in a corporate manager role, and they really wanted to be director of their department, and they had just had a new VP that was hired over their area, and they were trying to figure out how to get out of this manager role and into a executive director role. And they had went to their VP and was like, hey, I’m interested, I’m interested in being an executive director, right. And their executive director had shared with them to a degree that they were looking for somebody who really thought strategically, thought strategically, and was innovative and that they really felt like this person, like they were a good worker, but they weren’t really strategic and innovative. And so this was crushing for this client of mine Mind because they have put all this time, all this effort right into their career, into these roles, and now they’re being told that they just are a good worker, but not necessarily, you know, the best to become a executive director. So we ended up doing some work together.

Speaker3: They went through my program, and what we found was underneath this and why it cut so much was that they had this belief, right, this work belief that had been instilled with them from family, that if you work hard, that’s all you need to do. Just work hard. If you work hard, everything will pan out. And essentially, this was the first time they had to confront that belief that, oh, that’s not necessarily really real, right? They have been working hard. And this person is like, no, we don’t need work hard. We need innovation and creativity. Um, so they were able to shift that mindset through our work, follow back up, and they ended up landing the director role. So that is a client success story that I always love to talk about and just shows the power of what it’s like when you actually confront some of those beliefs that you think, uh, and they did. They had gotten this person to a certain point in their career. Right. But when you you get to confront them when you’re feeling stagnant and move that energy into more of what you want and start to think bigger picture and outside of the box to really get what you want.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, the impact is real. I am such a proponent of coaching, and I think that coaches do amazing work, and I wish more people would invest in them. I wish more companies would invest in them on their people. I think the benefit is tremendous. The upside is so much higher than any of the risk of taking that action.

Speaker3: Yes.

Lee Kantor: Now, Sharon, if somebody wants to learn more and maybe connect with you, or read your blog or or just, uh, hire you. What is the website? What is the best way to connect?

Speaker3: So the best way to connect with me is on LinkedIn. You can find my page. It’s under my name. Um, Sharon Freeman I’m also on Instagram and TikTok under at Denise. C h e r o n. Denise. And so those are the best ways to actually connect with me. Reach out if you have questions or if you want to book me.

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

Speaker3: Thank you so much, Lee. It was a pleasure to be here.

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

Tagged With: Cheron Freeman

Avoiding Financial Surprises: The Importance of Proactive Planning and Communication in Wealth Management

October 22, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Avoiding Financial Surprises: The Importance of Proactive Planning and Communication in Wealth Management
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Craig Robson, founding principal of Regent Peak Wealth Advisors. Robson discusses his transition from engineering to wealth management, his 25-year career at Merrill Lynch, and the founding of Regent Peak to better serve clients with complex financial needs. The conversation covers Regent Peak’s holistic, collaborative approach to serving business owners, executives, generational wealth families, and high net worth individuals, emphasizing proactive planning, technology integration, and coordination with other professionals to deliver comprehensive, client-centered financial advice.

Craig Robson is the founder of Regent Peak Wealth Advisors. At Regent Peak, he serves as Managing Director and sets the firm’s overall vision and strategy. The creation of Regent Peak Wealth Advisors, an independent advisory firm, is a direct result of his desire to provide all relationships with objective advice free from the conflicts of interest that might come from large institutions.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Lehigh University in 1991. For the next 3 years Craig provided consulting services on behalf of Accenture Consulting, primarily within their manufacturing and information technology divisions, to both publicly traded and privately held corporations.

An unexpected opportunity to employ his practice management experiences within the financial services industry arose and in 1994 Craig embarked on creating a unique wealth advisory offering within Merrill Lynch. He has been recognized for his investment acuity and was recognized by Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list in 2024 and 2025.

He holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., the Certified Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®) designation and he is a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® professional. He holds all the relevant general securities registrations and insurance licenses.

Craig and his wife Angelia have two children, Nicholas and Lucas, and they live in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys playing ice hockey, swimming, hiking, volunteering for animal rescue groups, food drive initiatives in his local community with church, and coaching youth sports.

Connect with Craig on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Wealth management strategies for diverse client categories
  • Services tailored for privately owned business owners and corporate executives
  • Support for multifamily generational wealth families and high net worth individuals
  • The importance of a consultative and holistic approach in financial advisory
  • Collaboration with other professionals, such as CPAs and estate attorneys
  • The role of technology and AI in enhancing client understanding and engagement
  • Proactive financial planning and tax strategy discussions
  • Addressing complex financial needs during life transitions, such as divorce
  • Continuous growth and learning for both clients and advisors
  • The evolving landscape of the wealth management industry and client-centric practices

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have the founding principal and managing director at Regent Peak Wealth Advisors, Craig Robson. Welcome.

Craig Robson: Hey, Lee. Great to be with you. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, for folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about Regent Peak Wealth Advisors? How are you serving folks?

Craig Robson: Yeah, I’d love to. So. So, Lee, we think of Regent Peak as a registered independent advisory firm that intentionally serves wealth creators. And we kind of think of them in four buckets or categories. The first would be private label business owners such as myself. The second would be corporate executives or C-suite executives, as we like to kind of think of them, that could be a CEO or a CFO of a publicly traded company. The third kind of wealth creator bucket would be multifamily generational wealth. So you’ve got a matriarch and a patriarch of done just a fantastic job of growing their wealth, working really hard throughout the years. And now they’re looking for an advisory firm to help them just start to shift assets towards future generations. There’s lots of education around that to make sure that they do it successfully. And then fourth, and finally, I would say high net worth, even ultra high net worth divorcees. Unfortunately, people do get divorced in this country and we will serve one of those individuals even through the mediation process if needed, but equally, if not more important in helping them kind of create a life plan post-divorce. So and really just a commonality amongst those wealth creators is that they’re looking for an advisory firm to really kind of coordinate their financial affairs so they could focus on the things that they tell us they really love to do, like their own careers, their families, and their hobbies and interests.

Lee Kantor: Now, when they come to you, are they already established wealth creators or are they aspiring wealth creators? So are they on the way up or are they already there?

Craig Robson: I would say they’re usually already on the way there. That said, we certainly have onboarded relationships that are like future wealth creators or up and come wealth creators. You calmly, you’re kind of making an educated forecast, and if you think that they would be a good fit for our practice, because the more complex the situation, the better we feel we can serve those relationships. So that’s how I answer that.

Lee Kantor: Now are they when they get to you, have they already had a wealth advisor and then they’re transitioning to you, or is this somebody that maybe was a do it yourselfer that is transitioning to you or somebody who just, you know, maybe they just dumped all their money in their 41K at their work and then now they need more advice.

Craig Robson: Yeah, I would say the majority of the relationships we on board are either ones that have really the majority of their assets are in the four walls of their business, and so they need somebody to help them with kind of pre exit or pre liquidity planning. So we’re working with them maybe 3 to 5 years before they sell their business and then have that monetization event. So they truly never worked with anybody prior to that because we were doing that very important consultative and foundational work. The second, I think, is when you think of these C-suite executives, it’s it’s really when they get pretty high up in the org chart, if you want to use that visual where they’ve got lots of equity compensation that starts to really dwarf their overall net worth, and they need an advisory firm to help them in terms of thinking about what the concentrated position, how to think about the taxes when they’re diversifying or unwinding those positions, making sure they stay within their shareholder requirements. So long story short, I’d say most of the relationships that we on board have not had an advisor before. We certainly meet folks that do and ah, maybe not. Um, don’t feel like they’re getting the services or they’ve outgrown that relationship, but I’d say the majority are ones that, uh, first time interviewing a wealth advisory firm.

Lee Kantor: So when they’re if they haven’t had a wealth advisor before and they have one or they’re considering you, um, what are kind of some of the points of differentiation that you’re, um, talking to them about when they’re making this decision? Because this is, you know, obviously, this is probably one of the biggest decisions they’re going to make for the remainder of their lives.

Craig Robson: Yeah, we would agree. Um, and I think that’s a great point, is that if if individuals understand that, um, this is really serious and this is really important, they’ve got to get this decision right. You know, I like to say, look, you could put the order. You could put the priority order. But I would say once health, family, finances and faith are the big four and you could stack them whichever way you want, but you got to get those four right, in my personal view. Uh, and so these individuals come to us and they are really looking for a couple important things. One, that somebody has the competency and skills that can help them not only navigate the financial kind of picture today, but continue to grow with them. Most of these individuals look entrepreneurs. It’s in their blood. They’re going to continue to be entrepreneurs until a much later in their life, if that makes sense. So they’re not going to stop after one business exit. Um, so they’re looking for firms that have the skills and the competencies to help them. That could be in terms of tax optimization, that could be collaboration with the state attorneys to making sure that we talked about the multifamily generational wealth, making sure that everything’s in place so that if and when they choose to shift assets, God forbid, they pass away prematurely, that there’s a plan that one can execute on and be proud of.

Craig Robson: Uh, I think another kind of point of differentiation is a lot of these individuals are familiar with, you know, maybe the public equity markets, but they’re really excited about is the private investments. So, uh, one of the things that I think we do different than a lot of other independent firms is we certainly diligence a lot of private equity, a lot of venture capital. And we think that’s an important kind of sleeve within one’s overall allocation. So there’s definitely some things that they hear from us. They may not be hearing from others. I think digital assets could be another, uh, unique kind of conversation. So, so points of differentiation in terms of planning, in terms of, um, you know, collaboration with other professionals and in terms of making sure that we’re getting to know kind of next gen. And so there’s that kind of like continuation of wealth growth and continuation of having success at that wealth is maintained. I. I think that’s what individuals are looking for when they interview us.

Lee Kantor: Now, in your specific as the leader of the organization, had you always been an independent wealth advisor or did you work for larger firms and then decided to go the entrepreneurial route yourself?

Craig Robson: Uh, leave the latter. So yeah, I’d love to maybe share with you for a few minutes kind of my background. So, um, you know, I’m a graduate of an engineering degree. I actually call myself an engineer. Um, and, uh, I was hired by Accenture Consulting back in 92. Sounds right. Uh, that gives you an idea of how old I am. Um, in Atlanta. Um, you know, they thought the city of Atlanta might get the Olympics. So you had a lot of consulting firms hiring engineers and really staffing up for for the big event that did occur, of course. Um, but that was kind of brought me to Atlanta. So I’ve always loved consultative and consulting kind of work. And so I did that for three years. Uh, after three years, I transitioned into the wealth management industry and started with Merrill Lynch, and I built a very successful practice at Merrill Lynch for 25 years. And on my 25th anniversary, literally that day, I handed in my resignation letter and lifted myself and my team members and our the majority of our practice north of 90% to start reaching peak wealth advisors, because again, things were getting when I say different, our clients needs were becoming more complex. Our clients were getting larger in terms of size and in terms of, um, you know, points of differentiation and just things that they were interested in, in getting advice and help from. And we were very limited and very conflicted in that a previous situation. So we felt a continued to help our clients on a go forward basis. We had to be our own independent firm where we could remove that conflict and do some of the things I just referenced before that either we couldn’t do or very limited in doing in more of a bank or wirehouse type of structure. I’ll just stop there and see if that makes sense.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re talking about the lane you’re in for your clients, Is it solely wealth advising or are you kind of have recommendations when it comes to other needs they might have, whether it’s insurance or if it’s some other tax? Where do you kind of where do you play in that spectrum?

Craig Robson: Yeah. Um, so, uh, I’m insurance licensed. I’m not a CPA. Um, so the way we describe this to our clients is they should think of us as the quarterback or the individual. That’s who we’re going to coordinate everything. Uh, and then we will certainly weave in other industry experts where appropriate and where needed to help us in terms of executing on their plan. So we want to look at everything comprehensively. So that includes, you know, not only, uh, one’s tax situation, but as you referenced, not only their insurance needs, but their property and casualty needs. So we’re going to look at everything from from life, from health, from, you know, homeowners auto. We want to take a look at all that and making sure that what they have today is best of class. Uh, and in the future, we’ll continue to monitor those things. If the landscape is always changing. So I like to say, look, the the portfolio side of the house is certainly very important. Um, we love that work, but that’s just a piece. You know, we really kind of think of it as we have like a ten point plan when we’re talking to new relationships. There’s ten kind of verticals that we focus on. Um, so it’s much more than wealth management. And that can include things like executive compensation analysis. We have a lot of corporate executives I mentioned in there. The reality is most of these executives, they understand their base salary and they understand their cash bonus. But things like restricted stock units or rsu’s, as we call them, these are forms of equity compensation, um, performance share units, um, incentive stock options, um deferred compensation.

Craig Robson: There’s lots of different components of their overall total compensation plan, which they’re less familiar with. And they really need somebody to help not only educate them but really help them try to manage through those. And what’s really evolved from that, that I have no problem telling you I would have never imagined 20 years ago is, look, our executives are really sharp individuals. They’re in high demand and they’re getting recruited all the times. And, you know, our advice is, look, that’s, you know, Mr. or Mrs. Client, that’s your job. If you’d like to make a move, keep us obviously in the loop, happy to help you any way I can. And we’re we’re helping them is like when they get offers from other companies comparing and contrasting what they’re giving up for what they’re getting. For example, the company they’re with now may have a pension, and the company they may choose to go to does not have a pension. How do we make them whole? How do we fill that gap? Right. Companies not going to create a pension just for one executive if they don’t have it already. Right. So it’s that analysis, that gap analysis I like to say, which is really foundational to what we do. Um, so there’s many different things we do besides just wealth management. And we love sharing that from a differentiation perspective.

Lee Kantor: Now, how does that kind of work in a practical sense? You mentioned that you would like to be the quarterback of this team of trusted advisors that they have as their kind of board of directors. But how does that kind of work, like let’s say specifically tax? If you have a person, maybe one of your clients is retired and then they’re making some decision about a, um, a Roth conversion, and they have their, you know, kind of issues that they’re having for their income they’d like to be, um, having and then this a wrong move here could affect, you know, their tax bracket. So how do you play with the CPA in order to, you know, maximize, uh, the opportunity, but without kind of hurting, uh, you know, maybe, uh, the amount of money that they’d be giving away in taxes. So how how would you play with that CPA if you’re the quarterback, are you in contact with the CPA or is that something that you make a recommendation and then the client goes to the CPA?

Craig Robson: Yeah. Um, so typically that scenario, what I’ve learned over the past 31 years, Lee and this isn’t every single time, but this is most of the times our firm is the one that’s leading on those type of conversations. So let’s take Ross conversions. Right. So I’m a big advocate of of Roth conversion planning. That doesn’t mean everybody should do it. There’s a lot of work, as you said, to make sure that you’re not putting a client in a significantly higher tax bracket. Or if you are, everybody knows it going in and you’ve made the educated decision on why that you believe. That’s a good move, right? Um, so there’s lots of preplanning work that goes into that. And, you know, the beauty of artificial intelligence within our industry, there’s so many different pieces of software that we’ve diligence and now added to our practice allows us to very quickly but thoroughly. Right. Leverage someone’s situation, use their their tax income situation, use their retirement accounts, run kind of what if scenarios. And then we present that to our client. And it’s usually like we’re the one that’s leading on this this recommendation or this opportunity, and then we’ll bring the CPA in, because if the client says, hey, I get it, but I don’t want to do it, I’m not going to waste the CPA’s time and have my client charge by the hour for that service. But most of the times the clients say, yeah, this really makes sense or I’m glad I learned more about it. Maybe next year, maybe we decide that there’ll be a lower bracket because they’re retiring, if that makes sense. So the quick answer is that we usually, I would say eight out of ten times leading on those conversations. We do all the pre-work, all the planning, and then we loop the CPN to make he or she signs off. I want them to sign off on it, or at least I want them to be involved. So the client, you know, basically has two sets of professionals that don’t work at the same firm, you know, providing them advice.

Lee Kantor: So you’re making a recommendation, the client. But are you in communication with the CPA? Is it you are you kind of authorized to have that conversation say, hey, this is what they look like this year, and this is, um, you know, So then you two are communicating and the client with your their blessing is kind of out of the loop. Or you just making a recommendation and the client is then communicating with the CPA.

Craig Robson: Um, almost every time we’re making the recommendation with the client first. And if the client says, I think this is something I’d like to entertain, I said, let’s bring your CPA in because he or she may have some pieces of your compensation or your tax picture that we didn’t model that we’re not aware of or you forgot. Guess what? Sometimes clients forget. Um, so, um, hopefully I’m answering your question. Um, we we always want the CPA to basically sign off on the recommendations before we hit the proverbial send button, if that makes sense. Um, sometimes the CPA will be invited to join earlier on in the pre-planning. Most of the times the clients say, Craig, why don’t why doesn’t your team do the analysis? Let’s look at the analysis together. And if I’m interested in proceeding, we’ll then bring the CPA, CPI on so they can sign off on it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. The reason I’m asking is that a lot of firms, they have different relationships with the other trusted advisors, and I just want the listener to understand where you stand when it comes to these types of communications. Because as somebody who maybe has accumulated wealth, you know, some people are comfortable delegating, some people want, you know, their hands on every single thing that’s happening. So I just wanted people to understand your position when it came to the types of communication and interaction with the other folks involved, because, like you said, the more complex, uh, you know, the more questions, the more times that clarity and communication is critical. And I just wanted to know how your firm, uh, wants to deal with those types of situations. Um, now, how.

Craig Robson: Can I add two points to.

Lee Kantor: That? Yeah. Go ahead. Good.

Craig Robson: Yeah. So I think part of this is collaboration, which we’re big advocates of, like, you know, when we onboard a new relationship, the one of the first things I will do is with their permission, of course, is provide me, you know, your CPA’s name and your attorney’s name, and I’m going to call and introduce myself to them. Like that happens within week one. Right. Assuming they have a CPA and they have a state attorney, you wouldn’t believe how many high net worth individuals I meet do not even have wills and trusts. So that’s one of the first things we want to get them. Introductions to attorneys, right? Um, most of the individuals we work with have CPAs because they’re, again, high income, high net worth individuals. So we want to make that that outreach to let them know that we have a mutual client. And we’re looking forward to advising them together. Um, the second point is just to be to be very clear in my history, and this isn’t every single time, but I would say most of the times, you know, we typically find is that most CPA firms are so busy and maybe don’t have the right capacity or resource strategy. That’s just kind of one person’s view. They don’t have enough time to really have these proactive planning conversations. That’s what I hear time and time again. So we’re kind of filling that void. I’m not saying we’re the only firm that does that. I just can only speak from our experience. So we’re filling that gap or that void and doing that proactive planning, such as a Roth conversion analysis. That’s that’s a that’s a taxable event. I’m literally recommending client pay more taxes. It’s rare that I’m ever excited about or recommend making that recommendation. So we want the CPA to sign off on that. I want another set of eyes or ears on that call. Typically the CPA, to make sure that there’s no surprises come next April 15th when you’re filing your tax return. So it’s very important that we get them involved. But the majority of the time they’re coming in the back end to sign off on it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I agree 100%. I think that the wealth advisors, at least in my having interviewed probably 10,000 people in a lot of wealth advisors and a lot of CPAs, the wealth advisors are very much trying to build a relationship and trying to kind of watch the back of the client. And the CPAs are usually more hands off and don’t want the level of customer support and service that the CPA does. I think wealth advisors do a hundred times better job. At least from their spirit and their intention, they want to have more conversations. They want to do more. And the CPAs are more transactional.

Craig Robson: The generalization I would agree with that statement completely.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And I think that that’s one of the big disservices that especially high net worth people have to deal with that, that kind of that’s to me a disconnect and an opportunity for CPA firm. If they would just take, you know, maybe follow the playbook of a wealth advisor a little bit more, um, or create partnerships where their communication level is a lot stronger. Um, because I agree with you that it’s usually, you know, there’s some reason why they can’t be more responsive or proactive.

Craig Robson: Yeah. It’s again, I come back to resource strategy, I don’t think. And yes. And this in no way a criticism the CPA industry because lots of fantastic CPAs have got great relationships with many of them. So I say this as a generalization. I think they haven’t figured out the resource strategy, and their business feels very lumpy or cyclical, like four times a year with quarterly, you know, quarterly payments, quarterly estimates, obviously, April 15th being the big date, October 15th, we just came past. So they kind of have this cyclicality to their business. And if you know, if they were to ask me, I would certainly recommend they do things differently and find a way, like you said, to have more proactive conversations with their clients. I think they gain a lot more business. And for the younger folks, younger professionals, I tell them, I think CPA industry is a fantastic one to go into because it’s very top heavy from a from an age demographics perspective. And you know, they’re doing it. I will say this, they’re doing a really good job of trying to change the culture in CPA, in the CPA industry, in terms of working ridiculous hours during tax season, right, and terms to try to make it more than, like I said, just a behind your computer kind of running, you know, software analysis all day. Being in front of clients. But they’ve got a lot of work to do there. But if you’re somebody who’s young and doesn’t know what career choice to go into, I think the CPA industry is one that could be really, um, transformed over the next couple of decades.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think that with the technology evolving as quickly as it is, you better move into a more relationship driven world instead of a transactional world, especially on things that can be automated. Um, and I mean, that goes with wealth management as well. I mean, I think your strategy of leaning into community relationships, focusing on big things like mission, legacy, those are things that are human to human interactions. And you better find the right humans to partner with. Otherwise, the especially young people are just going to, uh, move to some automated, impersonal thing. If it’s just transactional, they’d rather not deal with the human.

Craig Robson: Yeah. If we think about technology and I mentioned artificial intelligence a little earlier in our conversation. So we’ve leveraged and diligence many different pieces of AI software within our industry that have been additive to our practice. So if I pick on on, you know, taxes for a moment. So we found a piece of software that allows us to take, you know, one’s 100 page tax return document and summarize it in five pages. Right. And what the aha moment for me was, uh, this was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, a random question at dinner. My wife and I, for one a few times were alone eating dinner without our kids, and she just said to me, and maybe it was even around taxes. And I remember she said, hey, Craig, how much money do we make? I looked at her like, well, honey, you signed the tax returns every year. She’s like, well, I don’t ever read them. And right then I was like, huh? Of course she doesn’t, right? Why does she do it? It’s too many pages. It’s it’s almost Greek or nobody has the attention span to go through. All that information, all those numbers. So I said to her, I said, well, you know, what would what how would you or what would incentivize you to read him? She said, well, somebody gave me an executive summary.

Craig Robson: I should have known that my wife went to University of Georgia grad school from accounting. Right. So she’s if anybody can kind of speak to the, uh, the kind of the challenges that would be her. She said somebody would just give me an executive summary, like the key takeaways from that 100 page document. That would be easy to read. I was like, that’s what we need to do. So we found a piece of software that takes not just tax returns, estate plans, homeowners insurance policies, property casualty like auto insurance, boat insurance. And it just it provides this very simple yet informative document that says, here’s the you know, here are the things that you need to know about your your most recent tax return. This here’s a visual org chart of your estate plan. God forbid if something happens to you. Here’s how your assets flow. Here are the trustees, the executors. You can. People want that. Like people want that information, but they’re going to get bogged down If you try to go through a 50 page document, then you’re going to lose them.

Craig Robson: Right. So, um, you know, I think that’s where AI is, is really just, um, rapidly evolving. And the firms that will leverage that will be in an advantageous situation because, yeah, we’re very proactive with these different pieces of information. So we talked about this a little earlier. I’m not an estate attorney. And I told my clients and prospects right away that said I know enough to be dangerous and share with me your estate plan documents. We’ll come back to you with an executive summary, and I can look from there and see if it’s time to bring in your attorney, assuming you still meet with them. Another good example of the state attorneys don’t speak to their clients unless it’s a, you know, getting their first wills and trust created or God forbid, something’s happened. Divorce, death rights. Bankruptcy. Something. Right. Crazy. Uh. Or unique, I should say, um, that they don’t really have a relationship with them. So this provides us that intermediary opportunity to step in as that quarterback and say, let’s take a look at all these and see again if there’s things that need to be refreshed, amended or completely changed.

Lee Kantor: And I think that by focusing that empathetically on the needs of the clients, and you’ve had enough clients and enough history and enough industry knowledge to know, okay, these are the the big drivers that we have to get. Right. And while we’re an expert in this part and you and if you are the quarterback, like you say in the and kind of managing the other relationships or at least kind of educating your client on what’s what in each of those other areas, and you can summarize and give them kind of the, the, um, you know, Reader’s Digest version of the, the nuts and bolts of it, rather than being overwhelmed or not even understanding and just nodding their head about it, you’re serving your client better. That helps you, um, you know, help them get the outcome that they desire. Um, so kudos to you for doing that. And I think it’s much needed and I wish more advisers would take that type of empathetic kind of point of view, and that’s really customer service. You know, you are serving the customer in ways that they don’t really they don’t know what they don’t know. But you do know what where some of the kind of landmines could be.

Craig Robson: Yeah. Thank you. You know, I, I mentioned my wife like she’s a I better say this and it’s the truth. She’s very intelligent. Right. But again she’s not going to read 100 page document. I can’t tell you how many clients of mine. We’ve got CEOs of publicly traded companies. I’m not going to name them on this radio broadcast. Right. Um, but but very successful people. We’ve got very successful business owners. These are sharp individuals. What they’ll say to me is, hey, Craig, we didn’t hire your firm. We could have bought the S&P 500 ourselves. That’s not why we hired you, right? We’ve hired you for all those other very important foundational work. We acknowledge portfolio construction is important. We import, we acknowledge that we want our assets to continue to grow responsibly, right this wealth creation. But we don’t want to pay a lot of taxes, right? Um, we acknowledge that we’re very interested in other type of asset classes. I referenced digital, like the Bitcoin and Ethereum of the world, the venture capital, the private equity, the private real estate. We acknowledge there’s more than just public equities, right. Um, and they would say, like if, you know, we’re too busy doing the things we do, we don’t have time to keep up with with the latest and greatest where the industry is shifting and changing. So that’s not just on portfolio construction, but again, that goes into estate taxes, that goes into succession planning, that goes into tax planning.

Craig Robson: So there’s so many facets that goes into again, we do a lot of work with our clients in terms of I just had this conversation with an executive. He just retires as CEO position. And now he wants to to join two boards. He wants to be on two boards. And so we’ve had a lot of experience of helping our clients kind of, in essence, build out their resume. The resume is really good, by the way, but they have to put themselves in the right position to be considered for board. And they do that. Do they need to go to maybe MIT? Mit’s got a fantastic program in terms of preparing one to be on a board. Right. Do they have to be networking differently than they were previously as the CEO to put themselves in the right community, where people know that they’re open for being on a board seat? And, you know, you and I both know once you get one opportunity, then it just kind of it’s like a domino effect that builds on itself. So there’s so many things that clients come to us because we we told them very proactively, these are the things that we can do for you, that I think the wealth management kind of industry hopefully is changing in terms of being more than just a portfolio manager. That was my point.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, and it’s interesting because those executives used kind of a, uh, informal board, if you will, or a board of trusted advisors to get to the position they’re in. You know, they had people that were watching their back that were, you know, mentoring them and supporting them and, and, um, and giving them the tools and the access to what they needed to do to kind of continue up the corporate ladder to get to the position they’re in. And you’re just doing the same thing in another area that they’re not. That’s important to them, but isn’t their expertise.

Craig Robson: You nailed it right. And I think the you know, I like to say, you know, if you’re not growing, you’re slowing, right? If you’re not continuing to grow and do things different, you’re just going to slow down. And maybe that’s what you want. But, you know, I learned a long time ago, you’re in my business. At least your clients are a reflection of yourself. And so I like folks that are, you know, entrepreneurs that, uh, C-suite executives, folks, folks that kind of want to continue to grow, uh, and those folks that really enjoy working with because, like I said, it just presents more unique situations, more complex kind of needs. Excuse me. So, um, that’s really fun for me. And so, you know, I’m growing with them. We kind of get to feed off each other, if that makes sense. I’m learning from them and they’re learning from me and my team.

Lee Kantor: So 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?

Craig Robson: Yep. So, uh, you can find us on our website, wealth.com. Um, we’re obviously on all the social media, media channels. Um, we provide a lot of content out there in terms of LinkedIn. We do interviews such as this podcast. So it’s very easy to find us. Um, but we are open for business, as I like to say. So if you’re a wealth creator like we talked about at the top of this call, uh, and you fit in one of those kind of primary four buckets or categories. Um, we love to have a conversation to see how we can help you and your families.

Lee Kantor: And that’s a Regent Peak wealth.com.

Craig Robson: You got it.

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

Craig Robson: Thank you. Lee.

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

Tagged With: Craig Robson, Regent Peak Wealth Advisors

Inside the Pinnacle Atlanta Innovation Accelerator: Empowering Fintech Startups with Mentorship and Investment

October 22, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Inside the Pinnacle Atlanta Innovation Accelerator: Empowering Fintech Startups with Mentorship and Investment
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Keena Pierre, Managing Director at Gener8tor, about their new fintech accelerator in Atlanta, launched in partnership with Pinnacle Financial Partners. Keena discusses the program’s structure, selection process, and the five startups in the current cohort, each receiving $100,000 and intensive mentorship. The conversation highlights the accelerator’s focus on early-stage fintech companies, the benefits of Gener8tor’s global network, and plans for future cohorts, culminating in a showcase event for investors and partners. The episode underscores Atlanta’s growing role in fintech innovation.

Keena Pierre is the Managing Director of the Pinnacle Atlanta Innovation Accelerator. She brings deep experience in early-stage venture, startup operations, and program design. A champion of inclusive innovation, she has spent her career helping founders access capital, mentorship, and scalable growth.

A nurse turned investor, she brings care and intentionality to finding and nurturing the best and brightest startups in overlooked markets.

Connect with Keena on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Insights into the mentorship and support provided to startups during the program.
  • Plans for future cohorts and the long-term vision for the accelerator in Atlanta.
  • Announcement of the upcoming showcase and demo day for the current cohort.
  • Emphasis on the benefits of the Generator network and global connections for participating startups.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Keena Pierre, who is the managing director with gener8tor. Welcome.

Keena Pierre: Hi. Thank you. Thank you, Lee, for having me.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to be talking to you today and explaining what this great program is. First, tell us about generator as a whole and then tell us what you’re doing here in Atlanta.

Keena Pierre: Yes. Awesome. So generators a VC firm that works in partnership with other strategic partners and other investors. We invest by way of the accelerator model and generator is located. We have locations and accelerators all throughout the United States as well as globally. We just activated a new global accelerator in Japan. So we’re kind of all over. And what’s exciting is that we get to be right here in Atlanta. Atlanta has been my stomping ground for about 15 years, and we’re here now partnered with the Pinnacle Financial Partners with the launch of the Fintech accelerator. That is the first of its kind that’s backed by a bank in the state of Georgia. So, so exciting.

Lee Kantor: And you’re talking about the pinnacle of Atlanta Innovation Accelerator. You’re right. I guess you’re in the middle of this cohort, one where you’ve selected five firms.

Keena Pierre: Yes. So five startup companies have been selected. We are now three weeks in program. And interesting enough, this is Tech Week this week in Atlanta. So we literally just wrapped up the our last event which was at Venture Atlanta. And we’ll be doing the next two days at Avent South. So we’ll be there. And um, yeah, we’re we’re out and about and all in program.

Lee Kantor: And then talk about what it takes to get into the accelerator. I’m sure there were five that made it, but there was probably lots who tried.

Keena Pierre: Yes. So, um, we had near almost a hundred applicants to apply for this accelerator. And that just goes to show just how exciting and just the type of talent that we have here in Atlanta. It was very difficult. You know, one of our criterias was for sure that you had to be located in Atlanta and the Atlanta metro area. Um, was this that’s where the business Nexus focus was? Um, additionally, we’re looking for, uh, companies that are, of course, fintech companies, all fintech companies and fintech adjacent, and also companies that were solving some really interesting, uh, they had some really interesting solutions and innovative solutions to everyday problems. Um, so it was a very difficult job, um, selecting our five, but um, getting them here now that we have our five, um, it’s a really, really solid, solid, um, cohort and really excited about what they’re about to do.

Lee Kantor: And what stage do they have to be. I know this is an accelerator, but can they come to you with an idea on a napkin? Do they have to have, um, a team already in place? Do they have to have a customer in place? Like, kind of. What are the criteria, Area, uh, to make it into the accelerator.

Keena Pierre: Sure, sure. Um, with this being an investment accelerator. Now, generator also has, um, they have accelerator programs that are focused on companies that are super early stage that are at that idea stage. That’s our G beta and G alpha programs. Um, however, this program is an investment program, so they receive $100,000 investment. These are companies that are, um, that are early stage companies that do have traction, that already have, um, users. And, and they’re operating currently. So these are early stage companies. However, they are actually operating today.

Lee Kantor: And then so what made these five stand out. Can you share maybe just share a little bit about uh, each one of them?

Keena Pierre: Absolutely. I’ll run down the line. Um, so we have the, the blended app. That’s one of our apps where, um, this is an app that’s designed for divorced parents or co-parents, that’s allowing a platform of payments to allow parents to talk to one another, even if they may not be talking to one another. Um, but allow them to do transactions using the app for the family. So these are it’s a the the app is called blended, but it’s for those families that are um, that are trying to continue moving forward in the midst of divorce and separation. Um, awesome, awesome solution to that problem. Then we have the bills. I app bills I is an app that’s for your service based businesses. Really. Um, primarily was birthed out of the the, um, attorney industry. And it allows your service based companies to take those phone calls on your way to the airport, and it has a button on your screen where you can, um, take that phone call and press the button and, uh, actually track your billing. And they’re now adding a payment component to it where you can also take payments as well, uh, making that process seamless. Then we have the, uh, app. Uh, Pagava is an app that’s primarily for, uh, US based immigrant bit small business owners. Um, that has a language component. So you can communicate with your, um, the merchants can communicate with their customers in their own native language and accept payments from all different platforms, whether that be Zelle, Cash App, um, all of the different platforms in 1 in 1 space.

Keena Pierre: Um, we also have um, um, another one of our apps is um, is the Gwala app. Now, Gwala is a also similar payments processing space. They accept payments from all different platforms, all in one space, but they’re focused on this influencer micro seller market that a lot of folks are have, uh, really overlooked and maybe haven’t really paid attention to. But these are your noteworthy, uh, social, um, social media entrepreneurs. And so they focus on that huge market that is pretty overlooked and allowing them to have their, um, to have data where they can go in and, and get bank accounts and be able to operate just as other small businesses do. Um, so we have those apps. We have luxe AI, which is a, um, luxury concierge app that has an AI component that builds on your loyalty points. So we have those loyalty points that we’re not using. Um, you’re trying to figure out where to spend them, and it creates, um, a AI component or companion that tells you, hey, go to this restaurant, you actually have some points here, and you can use it for your meal or and there, um, now, um, merging that and tapping into that travel industry. So these are some amazing, um, dynamic startup companies, but they’re also really dynamic founders. So, uh, it’s it’s it’s a really awesome experience just being able to work with them.

Lee Kantor: And you’re working right now, uh, mainly out of the pier center, is that right?

Keena Pierre: Yes. We’re working out of the pier Center. Um, it’s located right next door to the gathering spot, actually, which is, um, 384 North Yards in Atlanta. And, um, so we’re there and we’re also taking them to to other places as well. Um, they’ll be doing some of their, um, their, uh, we have mentor swarms on Wednesdays and lunch and learns on Wednesdays. Some of them will be hosted by some of our other partners. Uh, we’ll be doing some things with Atlanta, um, the, uh, Tech Square. Uh, we’ll also be doing some events at Tarkenton. So we’ll be going to different spots and just really, um, plugging them into the entire ecosystem. Uh, so excited about that.

Lee Kantor: So when they come into an accelerator and they already have a business that is at least having some clients, and they’ve gotten kind of a little bit of traction, what is kind of happening? Um, like, how are you mentoring and teaching them? How do you decide, like, is there a curriculum for the full 12 weeks, like week one through 12 that we already know kind of what we’re going to do and you’re going to cover kind of, I guess, all the the holistic systems and all the methodologies needed to have a successful kind of get them to the next round.

Keena Pierre: Uh, yes. So, yes, generator does have a framework, but also the framework. It is customized to the cohort. So I take that framework and I build out um for what works for this specific cohort. So now we’re in the fintech space. So who needs to be key players that come in for instance for mentor swarms on Wednesdays. Who are the mentors for this particular time frame, um, or for this particular mentor swarm. So we just had one recently that was all pinnacle focused. So these were all Pinnacle partners, um, people that were in the pinnacle ecosystem and it focused all on payments processing. So the goal is to walk them over the 12 weeks, um, through every aspect of their startup company, to move the needle from 0 to 12 weeks, they should have greater traction. They should be better prepared for, um, to raise if they want to raise additional capital. Um, so they’ll be in a position they should have either secured a partnership or in conversations around securing, um, ultimate, um, awesome. Uh, for strategic partners. So the goal is to get them to that point. What I do, I work with them biweekly. I do one hour a strategy sessions with them. They’re doing that with me. Um, I, I have recently, uh, brought in an executive in residence that’s all focused on sales. Uh, have worked with major companies doing sales on a global level. Um, and that’s William Gilchrist, uh, with the company Kunzig. And so these are these are things that kind of, you know, as I’m bringing in my expertise in addition to the generator, uh, framework, um, we’re leading and my goal is to lead them from 0 to 12 weeks into a great position. Um, that would allow them to, you know, be, um, start up companies that are ripe for acquisitions, mergers and, um, more investments.

Lee Kantor: Now, when they got into the accelerator was there they’re obviously you’re giving them a lot of attention, education, mentorship, connecting things like that. It was there cash involved also? Like, were you buying a percentage of the company?

Keena Pierre: Oh, yeah. So the, um, the investment is, um, $100,000 in each of the companies. Um, and there is a 7.5%, um, equity. So that’s, that’s how it, uh, that’s that’s ultimately what the deal is for each of the companies.

Lee Kantor: And so they get the cash and then, uh, they give up a little equity, but then they get this kind of mentorship for 12, like, this seems like jam packed weeks. This is not for the faint of heart.

Keena Pierre: No it’s not. They have to be ready. And I think one of the selection if when looking at the selection criteria, we were looking for companies that were also ready to go. These are companies that, um, would do well, that we feel like the accelerator model would work very well with them, with or for them. And so yeah, it’s a very high touch. Um, concierge setup for the next for the for 12 weeks.

Lee Kantor: But it sounds like it’s kind of a boot camp, too. Like this is you’re coming to play?

Keena Pierre: No, we’re coming to play. Um, it’s a boot camp in a sense. But, I mean, I think if you talk to them, which you will have the opportunity to talk to startups, they are having a blast doing it. Um, they in just the last three weeks, they have had, um, I mean, some conversations and, and potential partnerships and, um, things that have actually moved them just in, in the, in the last three weeks. So, um, they’re really excited. They’re motivated. Uh, we plugged them into some awesome channels already. Um, got them in front of all the right folks already, and, um, and we’re just going to keep riding off of the momentum and keep doing what we do. Um, you know, with the generator model and, and I’m just going to keep pouring into them from so they can get from 0 to 12 and, and take off.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, you’re in the midst of this cohort. Is there going to be a cohort after this one?

Keena Pierre: Well, that’s what we’re hoping for. Um, currently, this cohort is a one year, uh, time frame, so I’m, I’m on for the for the next year. But the goal is definitely to continue past this point. I think, um, we’ve this is a strong proof. And there’ll be a strong proof after the 12 weeks that fintech startups in Atlanta is is in this accelerator. That’s all. Fintech focus is definitely the way to go. And um, with Atlanta being transaction Ali, over 70% of all US based payments, I, um, I don’t know if you know, actually our process here in Atlanta. So it’s a it’s really a right time for it. So my hopes is that we just continue this, uh, for years to come.

Lee Kantor: And then so what is going to be kind of an outcome at the end or towards the end that you’re going to be high fiving everybody, like what’s what’s kind of the the prize that you keep your eye on.

Keena Pierre: Yeah. So my eye is on our showcase and our demo day. So our final showcase and demo day will be in January. Uh, Because the cohort finishes up around December, we’re going to give everybody a holiday time myself, some holiday time, um, and then come back really, really strong in January for the Showcase and Demo day. So we’ll be able to high five for that. We don’t have a date set just yet, but it will be a huge event. Um, and it’s going to be, um, definitely one to be present. What, you definitely want to be present in the space.

Lee Kantor: And then so at that event, though, you’re hoping to have a bunch of investors, people there that they can kind of showcase what they’re doing and why you should, uh, get involved with them.

Keena Pierre: Yes. A very curated room of all the key players, um, key investors, key strategic partners, all of our current partners, the entire, um, Pinnacle Financial Group, uh, generator, as well as Tarkenton. So this will be a room, um, of of all the folks, some of the folks that they’ve been working with, but people who are ripe and ready to connect and plug in.

Lee Kantor: Now, is this one of the benefits of working in an accelerator that’s run by generator is that you have access to kind of now really a global network and a global alumni kind of group.

Keena Pierre: Yes, absolutely. Um, one thing I’d say about the accelerator model is that it’s it’s very few opportunities for startup companies to get in a, in a short 12 week time frame. The amount of touch points that they’ll have with investors, um, I mean, these are warm introductions. Um, these are not cold calls. Um, the amount of touch points they’ll have with other mentors and partners. Also, warm introductions is very rare. And so it’s the beauty of being a part of it. Um, and the beauty of being able to plug not just the generator. Um, so the generator network is, is obviously global, but you also have the targeted network, which is also global. And then I also get to plug in my own network. So it’s been an awesome opportunity to pull all these things together to give them some great value.

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

Keena Pierre: Yeah. So, I mean, I definitely know that just opportunities like this where we can, um, tell people about what we’re doing here, um, how these companies are really touching, you know, the different communities that they’re, um, that they’re providing solutions for, um, more opportunities for the companies themselves, for the startup companies to talk to their audience would be amazing. So we would love that. Just more interviews, um, with our company so you guys can really get to know what they’re about and the solutions that they have.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your work, what is the website? What is the best way to connect with you or somebody on the team?

Keena Pierre: Oh, yes. So, um, so I’m the managing director. You can connect directly with me. Kena Pierre, you can find me on LinkedIn. I think I’m the only kena Pierre. And so I’ll spell my name. It’s k e a and Pierre is p I e r r e. You can find me on LinkedIn. Uh, I also have my email address, which is Canapea generator and that’s g e r the number 8tor.com. You can reach me there.

Lee Kantor: And then that would be the website also for generator if they want to learn more about that.

Keena Pierre: Sure they could go to generator comm and that’s g e r the number 8to.com. And you can find out about all of the other accelerators that we have around the United States and globally.

Lee Kantor: And then can they get to the Atlanta one through there as well.

Keena Pierre: Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: All right. Well congratulations on all the success. You’re doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Keena Pierre: Thank you. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Lee. And thanks for having me.

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

Tagged With: Gener8tor, Keena Pierre

Founders, Funding, and Future: The Rise of the Rest’s Impact on Local Startups

October 22, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Founders, Funding, and Future: The Rise of the Rest's Impact on Local Startups
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kanter interviews David Hall, Managing Partner of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund. Hall discusses the fund’s mission to invest in early-stage startups outside traditional tech hubs, highlighting Atlanta’s growing tech ecosystem and the importance of founder-market-geography fit. The conversation explores how local entrepreneurs, corporate support, and increasing diversity are fueling Atlanta’s innovation. Hall shares success stories and urges greater community involvement to sustain growth. The episode underscores Atlanta’s emergence as a vibrant startup hub and the critical role of strategic investment and mentorship in building inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems.

David Hall is a Managing Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and is responsible for investment sourcing, execution, and oversight of the Fund’s portfolio companies.

He began his career with Revolution in 2006, has served as an investor on the Revolution Growth and Revolution Ventures teams, and helped launch Rise of the Rest in 2014. David works closely with and serves as a board member or observer for several Rise of the Rest portfolio companies, including FreightWaves, Hermeus, Pryon, Rheaply, SparkCharge, Speakeasy, and Understory. David also serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association.

Prior to Revolution, he was the Director of Planning and Development at The Washington Post Company. There, he managed corporate M&A and investments and launched new print and digital publications. Earlier in his career, he held positions at Akamai Technologies, Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

He received a B.A. in economics from Morehouse College and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Connect with David on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Overview of Revolution’s Rise of the Rest fund and its mission to support early-stage startups outside traditional venture capital hubs.
  • Discussion of the funding gap faced by startups in non-coastal cities and the importance of catalytic capital.
  • The role of mentorship and community engagement in nurturing local startup ecosystems.
  • Evolution of startup funding trends, including the impact of artificial intelligence on company formation and growth.
  • Key components necessary for building a successful startup ecosystem, including strong universities, local leadership, and a vibrant corporate sector.
  • Vision for Atlanta’s future as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, emphasizing community involvement and engagement.

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we wouldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the show, we have Managing Partner of Revolutions Rise of the Rest Funds, David Hall, Welcome.

David Hall: Hi, Lee. Thanks for having me. Great to be here with you. Excited to have this conversation.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about your work Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Funds?

David Hall: Absolutely. Rise of the Rest is a venture capital firm. We’re based in Washington, D.C. we’re a little unique from most venture capital funds, and that our fund only invests in companies that are located outside of San Francisco, in the Bay area, New York City and Boston. Acknowledging that those three ecosystems are pretty self-contained for venture capital, but lots of markets and lots of big, big ecosystems. Cities like Atlanta, like Chicago, like Dallas, like Phoenix, have tons of incredible entrepreneurs and great thinkers, but have a dearth of early stage venture capital. And so we set out to change that through some of the work that we’ve been doing over the last decade and beyond at rise of the rest, to really bridge some of those funding gaps for Entrepreneurs and startups in those rising cities to help compete against the lion’s share of venture capital that goes to to those three markets.

Lee Kantor: Now you’re using the phrase venture capital, are you? When you say early stage venture capital, is that to you a synonym for angel investing?

David Hall: It’s a great question. We we fall sort of right immediately following. The world of venture capital encompasses angel investing all the way into late stage sort of pre-IPO financing. Our sweet spot of venture capital is early stage. We are a seed fund, a seed stage fund, and we typically invest after the angels, but before sort of the larger big venture capital funds come in and take the company public. We are truly what we like to be called as catalytic capital. That helps these companies go from their seed stage into their their growth stages of investing. So we want to come in after the founder has sort of launched the company after the proverbial napkin stage where angel investors come in. But once there’s a company that’s been formed, the founders have left their old jobs and they’re fully dedicated to this enterprise, and they’re really looking to, to to raise capital, to scale the business idea and continue to validate product market fit and the opportunities that they have to serve their customers.

Lee Kantor: So you’re helping them with that kind of escape velocity.

David Hall: That’s exactly right. We we like to help them sort of tease out product market fit. We like to work with them on go to market strategies. How do they connect with their customers and begin to generate those first couple of sales, which we typically see in most of our our portfolio companies. Those initial sales or deal are done by the founders themselves like they are founder led sales and a big, uh, a big, um, testament of our capital is leaning into getting beyond just founder led sales. How can they recruit more salespeople, uh, to come in and help, you know, really scale the business by by making sure that, you know, all of the revenue is not generated by just one person, for example.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re coming in and especially, I mean, rise of the rest, I’m assuming means that’s the rest of the country, not those three markets that you described. Um, are you kind of are there boots on the ground in these markets where you’re actually helping them and mentoring them and helping them make connections? Or is this just you’re giving them money?

David Hall: Uh, so so let me go back because I think, I think it’s helpful to talk a little bit about more of our origin. And when we started, our founder, um, is the the gentleman who was the co-founder of AOL America Online. And he started Revolution Rise of the rest after he exited the AOL Time Warner merger, post the AOL Time Warner merger, and really started to go around the country, having done some work with the Obama administration on jobs and competitiveness. And one of the things that that he saw, we saw when we were going around to a lot of these communities, is there needs to be more of a rallying cry for entrepreneurship. How do you build the next generation of fortune 1000 companies and make sure that that that those companies have a lot of geographic diversification, right. We’ve always known that talent has been evenly dispersed. But but the opportunity to build that next great company for the last generation or two has really been concentrated into some of those traditional tech hubs like San Francisco, like New York City, like Boston. And so what we started back in 2012 were these these tours which we called rise of the rest bus tours. We would go to cities and we would spend a day there convening with local leadership. We would convene with the big corporations. We would convene with the universities and really present to these folks, often for the first time, that, hey guys, there’s a startup culture in your city. It’s nascent and small and but growing quickly. And wouldn’t it be great for you to capture some of this lightning in a bottle and help support and nurture these startups as they continue to scale and rise so that they don’t pick up and, you know, you know, get get involved with the Silicon Valley venture capitalists and relocate all of that IP, all of that talent away from a great city like Atlanta and just pocket it into the Bay area, which is kind of the norm, which has been the norm, um, which was the norm at the time.

David Hall: And what we saw when we did this is there was this, you know, a big set of aha moments because we and others who were doing this at the time were really saying, we’ve got to help bring keep some of this talent here. We’ve got to help keep some of this magic here. And so we, we, we started doing that. And then the thing that we saw when we were doing it, we went to it came to Atlanta back in 2015 when we were first there on as a part of our rise of the rest tour, we met at the Buckhead location of Atlanta Tech Village. Um, and we’re really, like, engaged with the community there. And what we’ve seen over time is that these city leaders, these corporations, these these tech folks in the city really got it back then. And they started to invest time, energy resources into building out an ecosystem that could sustain and support high growth startups. And so it’s been a real journey for us, which I’m happy to, I’m sure we’ll talk more about. But it really did start with this idea that there’s got to be a better way of connecting these early stage companies to the capital flows, and the additional resources that really young startups, specifically tech enabled, sort of venture backed startups, which is a little bit different than some of the mainstream businesses, these tech startups, connecting them to the right resources so that those businesses can scale and become big.

Lee Kantor: So, like you said, you’ve been doing this from 2015. How have you seen kind of the evolution? Because I don’t remember the exact timeline, but there was a period where every startup wanted venture funding, and then it shifted to every startup wanted to be bootstrapped. Um, where are we now in the evolution of that?

David Hall: Well, that’s that’s that’s a that’s a complicated question because of a little technology called AI. But but the general evolution of this has been there’s a small category of tech enabled startups that that require scaling capital to be able to hire the engineers and the talent and the salespeople, um, well ahead of their ability to generate enough revenue to pay for it like a traditional business would. Right. Traditional business. This. You invest some of your personal capital. You buy a restaurant or a bakery or a, you know, a small business, and you generate and you grow off of the, the, the sales and cash that that business generates. For some of the high growth businesses, the tradition has been go out and raise capital from outside investors, typically venture capital. And and you’re able to basically fund the losses of those businesses over time in hopes that you’ll be able to, you know, catch up and start to have accelerated hyper growth with the revenue and the scaling of the business. Um, where we sit today, you know, traditional venture capital companies that have built, you know, Uber and Facebook all went out and raised traditional venture capital.

David Hall: You’re right at in identifying, you know, there have been a periods of time in this industry where, you know, we’re investors in the market, wanted to see founders bootstrapped. And I think now we’re we’re solidly in a in an era where we’re seeing company formation happen so quickly because of, you know, first cloud computing and now AI that you’re seeing, you know, companies get started back again in people’s garages, you know, their proverbial garages and scale quickly through through the the ability to connect with AI resources that don’t necessarily need you don’t need 15 engineers anymore. You need a really smart couple of engineers that can do a lot more with AI resources. And so I think that we’re back to this place of having the need for early stage capital come in and invest in in these founders with great ideas, big ideas. But those founders are now able to attach that into and with faster growing businesses, because AI eliminates the need to have, you know, a, you know, a stable of of of coders, of engineers building the product.

Lee Kantor: Now, having traveled around the country and seeing startup scenes all over the place. If you were to build a startup scene from scratch, what are some of the must have elements?

David Hall: It’s a great question and I love I love the idea to sort of to pull out a whiteboard and build a startup ecosystem from scratch. I think the first thing that you need is you need a good, um. A university system usually is one of the best things that that can plant and start, um, these entrepreneurial ecosystems, the Bay area, having had Stanford and Berkeley and some of those universities, is really the prototype for how do you how do you take the injection of talent as well as, um, um, like a risk taking in, in science. Right in, in, in engineering to try to build things and then harness that and then have it sort of have it be extracted from that university and sort of commercialized in the private markets. You’ve seen that that that momentum builder happens a lot. And we see it as one of the first underpinnings of of building entrepreneurial ecosystems in places like Detroit, based with, with, with uh, the, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, uh, obviously Austin and UT is a big sort of university backed ecosystem. The second thing that we see that that I think is really helpful is having local leadership acknowledge the need and the desire for having a new generation of startups kind of get born or be born in the backyard of the ecosystem, in the backyard of the city. Um, the the, the the push and the help and the pull from local leaders does a really good job of mobilizing resources and helping these young companies kind of have the nursery that they need to survive and be successful. The third thing that’s helpful is having an active corporate sector. The more and the larger the corporations that are able to help us, you know, benefit these companies.

David Hall: And they do it in a couple of ways. The first and the easiest way is that they patronize these companies as customers. They become early customers of these startups that become really strong validators of their business model, of their, their, their the, the, the actual business that they’re offering. The software that they’re providing helps these big corporations do more, better, faster, cheaper, um, quicker. And that really helps validate the startup. And then the final thing that I would say is a local ecosystem, which would include everything from local media partners, which are incredibly important to help write the narratives of of these entrepreneurs and the story and the, the, the, the businesses that they’re trying to build, the industries that they’re trying to disrupt and improve, Um, are really helpful in making sure that these, um, businesses continue to scale, continue to recruit. Um, um, and so I think that there’s, you know, it’s a it’s a, it’s an ecosystem that works really well together when all of these pieces are aligned and all of these people, uh, all of these different nodes of the ecosystem have a consistent rallying cry to support startups, be welcoming to outsiders, um, create the, the, the work life opportunity that a lot of the young, mostly young people who are starting startups and working at startups really enjoy. So making sure that the community is welcoming and exciting, um, those all of those elements work well together to bring to bring, you know, a startup ecosystem to life. And if I had to do it all over again, if I had to sort of if I had my magic wand, those would be some of the elements that I’d bring to bear to create the perfect startup ecosystem.

Lee Kantor: Now, how is having a path for a wide variety of, um, startup founders? Is that a nice to have or a must have? Like, is it okay if we’re just focusing in on maybe a certain group of people that are going to a certain university or coming from a certain, um, kind of socioeconomic place in order to take the risk necessary to be a startup founder, or is it a must have to have a path for, you know, pretty much everybody to get involved in the community?

David Hall: I think the latter, I think it’s a must have to have the broadest, deepest opportunity set out of which the best successes can come, right. I think I think, you know, history teaches us when, when, when we, you know, open up our, our, our business opportunities To a diverse set of entrepreneurs who bring their own lived experiences and their own backgrounds, and their own challenges that they’ve overcome to bear. You see really good startup opportunities happen, and there are two, two places to go with this. The first is just on the startup on the origination of startups. It works really well when you pair a young, precocious founder with a, you know, a been there, done that executive who’s had who’s seen a couple of business cycles and you pair those two people together and you’re able to see they’re able to learn from each other. One can learn sort of the ways of, of, of, of traditional business. The other can help innovate and find pockets of, of disruption in the existing industry that need to to, you know, that that can be done better with technology. I think the second thing that really helps that is um, being able to, um, engage the, the, the, the, the talent and capital sector with the United front.

David Hall: Right. And I think that having a diverse pool of both founders and experiences can drive conversations with investors that are local, as well as investors that need to come into the market. Um, and I think that having multiple shots on goal, if you were for success only benefits a city and its ecosystem to have if you’re if you’re a kid that’s graduating and thinking about moving to Atlanta to work in startup with startups, in early stage startups, having 2 or 3 or four options to go to if one of those startups fails is actually a big reason to choose to relocate for a job in a specific city, in an industry, right? You want to be able to say, if startup A fails, there’s startup B, C, and D that I can go work at. And so the ability to attract and retain high performing talent really is benefited by having a deep bench of innovation, like a true innovation economy and ecosystem of alive and well and flourishing to bring that talent to the community.

Lee Kantor: Right. But it’s a chicken and egg thing. I mean, that’s what made Silicon Valley so attractive. If you went there and failed, there’d be five other places you can land without having to relocate. Where in some markets, especially when they’re starting out, you don’t have that luxury. There’s a handful of stars, and then if they don’t work, uh, then you’re in trouble. Then you might be forced to move. But I think one of the benefits of Atlanta. And then you would know this better than I would. Um, it’s just the diversity of, um, kind of clusters of business in the economy. So, like, we have a bunch of people working in little areas so that if you lose a job or the company goes away, there’s going to be a place for you in probably 15 to 20 different Industries where a lot of markets don’t have that.

David Hall: I couldn’t agree more. I mean, I think that there are so many really great and positive attributes about the Atlanta ecosystem, and one of the best is the depth and breadth of the opportunities for, you know, for professional advancement, irrespective of industry. In a in a city like Atlanta, you’ve got a deep, great bench of fortune 100, fortune 1000 companies that are there. You’ve got to really easily accessible transportation, local transportation system and international transportation system running through the city that make getting, getting places really easy. And I think that the you know, those those are those are ingredients that are really big accelerants to being able to drive innovation and access to that innovation, um, into fruition. And I look, I think you’re right. I think it is. It’s the chicken. And the egg issue is often. You know, when we were talking earlier about sort of the key ingredients to making that that ecosystem flywheel work. I think that when you look to universities like that’s a there’s a, you know, I went to Morehouse, so I’m a, I’m a Atlanta, Atlanta, uh, like success story and that there are 10,000, you know, thousands of kids a year come to Atlanta to go to one of the wonderful Atlanta universities. And it’s the job of the the business community. It’s the job of the ecosystem to keep those students. Now, residents of Atlanta there and engaged and then fully employed. And I think that you can do that through a lot of the sectors. I mean, Atlanta obviously has one of the best corporate sectors available with, you know, legendary names and brands that are that that are headquartered there. But there’s also this really burgeoning and interesting tech sector that’s, that’s, that’s thriving in Atlanta. And I think that that’s one of the, the, the big calling cards for the next generation of companies that can be born and thrive in in in the city.

Lee Kantor: Right. And I think a key component and it’s not to be discounted is the folks like a David coming that and you mentioned Tech Village earlier. He reinvested. He had an exit and reinvested. And the more founders that you have, you know, demonstrating and role modeling, reinvesting in the community, in the ecosystem, then that’s going to accelerate the growth of the ecosystem.

David Hall: Yeah, I think that the, the there are so many examples of of entrepreneurs who’ve built really good businesses, and those businesses have gone on to sometimes become great businesses and, and generate lots of personal and community wealth for, you know, the early employees who took big risks at the time to work with, you know, folks like a Steve Case in Washington, DC, in the DC area with with AOL or people like Dan Gilbert in the Detroit area. Uh, Kevin Plank in Baltimore. The stories go on and on of these folks who were very successful. But then came, you know, reinvested. And the other folks that they brought with them reinvested in the community to make, you know, to help create this, this glide. Um, glide path for other entrepreneurs to follow suit. And you’re starting to see the benefits of that again, really start to take hold. I think Dave, Dave Cummins is a great example. And if you think of the companies that were founded out of Atlanta Tech Village or had some association with Atlanta Tech Village, and just think about, you know, the I call them like the grandchildren of of of Dave’s original vision. You know, there have been dozens of companies that were founded there that all are you know, many of them are staying local and continuing to grow and scale and become part of that foundation layer of of, uh, you know, a thriving tech ecosystem.

Lee Kantor: So when revolution comes to a market and invests in the startups and the market is that the intention is to keep the business in the market in order to grow and thrive and become a, you know, an important part of the ecosystem.

David Hall: That’s that’s our intention and that’s our goal. So we don’t, you know, we don’t enforce it. If a if a company has a better opportunity to go someplace else, that’s we’re investors and we have to kind of abide by that. But our intention and our hope and our expectation is that it’s a perfect match of the, the, the founder and the team falling in love with the city and the city falling in love with, with, with the company and and there being a mutual embrace. We have this this phrase that we use around our place called founder. There’s a common phrase in venture capital that’s called founder Market Fit. How does the founder work within the industry that they’ve chosen the markets that they’re serving and have a really good fit? We had a third word to that. That construct called founder Market Geography Fit. And how does it help? How does it help benefit a founder to be in the geography, um, and the market that they’re serving? How does that overlap really be self reinforcing and make it a more important and stickier fit? Um, um, in, in, in building their business, a great example from our portfolio is one of our companies, Hermes, which is building hypersonic, um, aircraft. And it’s based in Atlanta. And, you know, you guys know a lot about putting airplanes in the sky in the city of Atlanta.

David Hall: And it’s been a great story to pull, you know, technology from Georgia Tech know how out of some of the airline and aircraft servicing companies that are based in Atlanta to then learn how to and actually manufacture a plane that’s going to be able to fly at Mach five speeds at some point. And like that’s a that’s a great example of why the founder and market was was perfect fit. But then the geography also really helped inform and give unique advantages to what that company is going to be able to achieve, because they’re they’re coming to a city that that is a global transportation hub, that know how that ingenuity, that experience, that you know, the the access to, to, to, to the, the, the, the, the people that have been building planes for 100 years, building airplanes, flying planes for 100 years is based in Atlanta. And now that those resources are accessible to this really small startup, relative to some of the big transportation names that are that are headquartered in Atlanta, this tiny company now can pick up the phone and call some of those people and get the insight. If not, hire them or even have them invest in in building out the next future of of hypersonic flight.

Lee Kantor: So you’ve been working in and around the community for ten years here. Um, what have you taken from it? How are we doing when you kind of benchmark us against some of the other markets that you’re in?

David Hall: Yeah. I’ll give you a couple of anecdotes that I think are really exciting. When we first came to Atlanta in 2015, and we’re building out sort of the people that we we thought we needed to see and meet at the, you know, we call the meeting, we said, hey, we’d love to have everybody come together and we came together. And to be frankly, at the at the time, it was a room of all white guys and we were like, surely in Atlanta we can we can find a couple of women and a couple of people of color to help, you know, talk about what the future is of of technology and innovation in, in Atlanta. One of the things that I’m really excited about for the city is when we came back and were there a couple of weeks ago, and we did the same call for attendance, the room was probably half female. There was some. There were lots of people of color in the room, lots of African American people in the room, and that was all organic. We didn’t have to ask to, you know, to have more, have a broader table. The the ecosystem has evolved such that those people have now come into leadership positions around the Atlanta tech ecosystem. And I think that that’s one of the, you know, we talked about making sure that we have the broadest array of of minds and thinking and lived experience around the table. It it was really great to see that happen organically and not have to be orchestrated, frankly, like it had to be orchestrated back in 2015.

Lee Kantor: So what are some of the success stories you can share that are coming out of here?

David Hall: Yeah, I think one of the first is when we were when we were in Atlanta for our rise of the rest pitch competition in 2015. There was a young woman, her name Jewell. Jewell Burke at the time, Jewell Burks at the time, won the pitch competition with a company called Park Pitch that was basically using an app to, you know, you take a picture of a part on your phone and using visual search, was able to identify that part. She won that competition and went on to build the business that ultimately was sold to Amazon. And again, to just do the fast forward with somebody like Jewell. Jewell is now, ten years later, a venture capitalist herself, has gone through the wringer as an entrepreneur, has worked for Google and, you know, many big companies, Amazon and is now on the other side, allocating capital back into the startup, you know, the startup ecosystem that helped launch her career. I think that that’s one of the best personal narratives of personal narratives of success, and how that Atlanta ecosystem was able to support, support her and her her co-founder as they built part pick and now kind of has come full circle, really indicating like the ability to pay it forward and make it successful. Another one of our portfolio companies is a warehouse management company called stored that was started by a guy called Sean Henry, really young entrepreneur. And, you know, he was the business has been able to act actively and intuitively navigate some of the worst supply chain and logistics challenges that our country has faced over the last couple of years by using technology and embedding, you know, the next generation of technology in warehouses that are often when you think about a warehouse, you see people walking around with clipboards and they’re able to put this, you know, they’re able to digitize, um, supply chain inventories so that when a big, big brand is looking for, you know, 300 TVs, instead of having to, you know, pilfer through a bunch of clipboards, they’re able to just key it in and they know where those TVs are and can get them from the warehouse to the store shelves where they’re where they’re, you know, going to be able to be likely sold.

David Hall: And so we’re really excited about the business of stored. The third company that I’ve mentioned is a company called vision, uh, started by a guy called Kyle Henderson. These guys, the shorthand for vision is it’s, um. Tracking numbers for shipping containers. So these big containers that sort of get loaded up in, in Asia and float across the Pacific Ocean, land in the port of LA, and then have to get either trucked or trained across the country to get to store shelves. Knowing where those those containers are, you know, are they is it in the Panama Canal? Is it held up someplace, is a really big business and really important for being able to get product from from manufacturer, from being finished to store shelves and being able to have that intelligence that can track that product where it is in the world is a really hard and complicated task that these guys have figured out. These are some of the bright stars that we see in the Atlanta ecosystem and keep us really excited about the future.

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

David Hall: Well, we need more support. I mean, if, you know, if, if, if you are a corporation in Atlanta, if you run a corporation in Atlanta. You know, I think one of the biggest ways and I mentioned this earlier, you know, how are you thinking about innovation in your business? Where are you investing your capital into the next generation of startups? If you are an investor and you want to you want to put some money to work instead of, you know, you know, lean into making that, taking that risk and investing in a startup, it can, you know, it can be a really great experience for for investors to to partner with early stage entrepreneurs and give them the benefit of your experience. If you’re an employee and you’re kind of, you know, you know, that you can do something better than the way that your company has done it. Now is a great time to peel off and build that, that, that solution that you know your company needs. And instead of sort of being an employee, you could be the boss and you can run that company and build that innovation. And all of that can likely be done within the confines of the city of Atlanta. So I guess the quick answer is like, get involved.

David Hall: There are lots of ways to get involved in the in the in the technology space, in the in the startup world. And there’s lots of need for experienced um, been there, done that. Executives. Um, there’s lots of need for for mentorship to help, you know, ease the the exit from a corporate employee to being a startup founder. There’s always additional need for capital. If you if you want to invest, if you have capital to invest, there are lots of funds in the Atlanta area that are looking for additional investors to invest in those funds so that the funds can then invest in companies. There’s lots of ways to get involved. And I think the biggest answer that we need for for cities like Atlanta or other cities, and that we think are part of the next generation of rising markets, is to get involved, get off of the sidelines and be part of the next generation of great company building that that will be the next, you know, the next great the next great. Names on buildings across the Atlanta skyline are right now being built in somebody’s garage or in somebody’s accelerator or somebody’s dorm room. Make sure that those businesses stay in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to connect with you or Revolution, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

David Hall: Best way to connect with us is our website. You can find me on X at three, the number three and look forward to connecting with with you guys on on social or um, through through our website.

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

David Hall: Thanks a lot, Lee. Really excited.

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

Tagged With: David Hall, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Fund

Your Voice Matters: Speaking Soulfully and Leading with Purpose

October 22, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Your Voice Matters: Speaking Soulfully and Leading with Purpose
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Lauri Smith — speaker, author, and Soulful Speaking Coach — who helps wild-hearted leaders and loving rebels find their authentic voice and speak from the untamed pulse of their purpose. As the author of Your Voice Matters and creator of The Vocal Presence Path®, Lauri shares how soulful speaking can awaken authenticity, inspire change, and transform leadership into a force for good. With her blend of fierce compassion and intuitive insight, she invites us to reclaim our primal power and rise into true, soul-led presence.

Lauri Smith is a speaker, author, and Soulful Speaking Coach who helps wild-hearted leaders and loving rebels speak from the untamed, radiant pulse of their purpose so they can ignite meaningful change.

She’s the author of Your Voice Matters: A Guide to Speaking Soulfully When it Counts, creator of The Vocal Presence Path®, and host of the Soulful Speaking Podcast.

She treats speaking as a sacred practice that reclaims the primal power of voice and calls us home to our true selves. Known for her fierce compassion and intuitive depth, she’s on a mission to help leaders unmask their radiance and rise into authentic, soul-led leadership.

Connect with Lauri on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Visionary leadership must-haves
  • Speaking as a spiritual practice

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 the CEO and the Soulful Speaking Coach with Voice Matters, Laurie Smith. Welcome.

Lauri Smith: Thank you so much, Lee. It’s great to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with a soulful speaking coach. So tell us about your practice.

Lauri Smith: I would love to. I feel like most speakers have received training that is very outdated. Leaders and speakers. That’s coming from a one way, one size fits all mold. And you know what they say about the definition of insanity. If you keep repeating the same actions, you’re doomed to get the same results. Speakers and leaders who really want to change the world need to be not speaking from that cookie cutter place. So soulful speaking is something that is untamed, radiant. Everybody embracing and resonating with their own vibrance and their own charisma. With 8 billion people on the planet, there are 8 billion possible flavors of charisma. And one size fits all just isn’t going to get us where we want to go next.

Lee Kantor: So how do you go about helping your clients and speakers or aspiring speakers kind of break out of the mold and, and have that authentic voice that you’re talking about?

Lauri Smith: First, shining a light on the sneaky and insidious places that they may still be thinking that there’s a way that they should speak, or a kind of leader that they think they need to copy. So really shining a light on what are the limiting beliefs and what are the habits that may be stopping them from being their full selves? And sometimes those habits create what I call a speaker alter ego mask, where the real you is not the one that gets up on stage. It’s not the you that you are with your closest friends. It’s it’s using personality traits that you’ve been rewarded for in your life, and then only using those so that they sort of harden into. I’m going to lead with my intelligence because there’s a voice inside that’s telling me that I’m actually not smart enough for this, and it becomes like carpal tunnel in your wrist where the range of the human gets limited and only poured into that mask. So I help them figure out what mask might kind of be controlling them, what the limiting beliefs are, and release them and then open up their body, their breath, and their energy to play their instrument, which is them the way it was really designed to be played, the way we all came in as babies and marry that to a sense of purpose or an intention that they have now as an adult that they did not have as a small child.

Lee Kantor: So how do you help them actually kind of discern between a persona that they might be using as a mask and their authentic true self? Are there some activities or exercises you do to uncover them?

Lauri Smith: I might do some values work with them. If I hear the word should come out of their mouth, I’m going to point that out. Or if I hear it kind of underneath the words. And a lot of times it’s envisioning the change that they want to see in the world and mining the values from that and then asking them, are you embodying the change that you wish to see in the world right now? And most of the time, their answer, once they start to really feel it and look at themselves is, no, I’m not, I’m I’m doing some weird thing of what I think I need to be. And once they become aware of it, once they shine the light on it with exercises and reflections back, um, especially if I’ve been chatting with them and then they get up on a stage or turn on a green camera light and they seem different. We can have a conversation about that, and once they’re aware, they start to choose to let it go and be more and more and more themselves. Another thing that I often do with them is to help them remember to set the intention for what they want to create. Whereas a lot of speakers are unconsciously focusing on what they want to avoid, and then they end up creating more of what they want to avoid. So when a speaker sets an intention to create more curiosity in an audience, or to invite a sense of opening in an audience, and then they start being in conversation with the audience and looking for movement from wherever they started, to that hope or possibility or curiosity or opening, they become more themselves because their attention is on what they want to create, rather than what they’ve been told to avoid for their whole lives.

Lee Kantor: So it sounds like a good portion of your of the activities being done is to kind of identify the mask and then slowly remove the mask so we can get into their authenticity. Authenticity is there. After doing this for a minute, have you kind of come to the conclusion that maybe there’s some common masks that are out there that, you know, humans tend to have these X number of masks, and then once you identify them, then you can kind of move them off of that.

Lauri Smith: Yeah. There are there are five that I created a quiz around that specifically show up when speaking. There’s one that I call a porcelain doll, which is sort of a quiet, um, trying to create. The piece actually will not speak very much quiet, smiling, very still energy. And, um, in the attempt to keep the peace, they might avoid actually doing things the way they really want to do them, or even speaking up when they want to. The heady hipster is the one that’s focused on leading with the mind, attempting to prove things to people intellectually. The peppy pleaser is a smiling perky tends to happen on women more than men. The the bad speaking advice out there of you need to smile more when you speak can create that over time, where someone is just smiling and peppy for every single moment of their talking, and there is no range there because they feel like they need to earn the attention of the audience. The Jivin Jokester is a speaker who feels like they need to be entertaining the audience at all times, and if there’s ever a moment of stillness, they tend to be uncomfortable with it. They don’t trust it. They don’t understand that the silences may be powerful and actually make the laughs louder. And then the final one is the deranged mannequin. It’s the one where everyone hates the name. It’s a lot of effort and passion that gets channeled into too much effort, too much work. Even physically, in the body and in the face. It’s like every single muscle is doing something that’s actually doing nothing. And that’s that’s the one that I test the highest for in my own quiz when I’m off. I tend to have a little to a lot of deranged mannequin going on, and then people can sort of have combinations. I’ve shown up in a version of Deranged mannequin meeting Heady Hipster, so I’m intellectually trying to prove something to myself through proving it to you with a lot of effort as I’m speaking.

Lee Kantor: So when you identify, um, the persona that’s closest to you or the combination that’s closer to you, what do you do next with that information?

Lauri Smith: Um, depending on the mask, it. You know, it’s surprising how easy it is for most of the masks to set the intention for what you want to create in the audience, rather than, for example, the heady hipster is I’ve got a voice in my head that tells me that I’m not good enough, and I need them to see me as smart. So what do I wear? What do I say? How do I say it? When do I gesture? What do I do with my slide presentation? To have them see me as smart versus I want to create curiosity in the room, and I’m going to look at their faces and read their body language, looking and feeling for signs that they are stepping into more curiosity. It’s a little bit like years ago there was this Volkswagen Jetta commercial that I loved, and when I went looking for Volkswagen Jettas, I saw them. If I had been looking for little red Honda fits, I would have seen those. And that does a lot of the work of letting go of the mask, because their attention is not on how they need to be seen. The attention is on what they want to create, and they tend to show up more as their full selves when they do that.

Lauri Smith: The other thing is, is calling them on it. So I have a background in theater and sports and in theater and sports. You go and you practice, and in theater you have a director who’s watching your performance and calling you on your bad habits when they see them. So I watched them speak, and if I feel like there’s a moment where they’re making a joke, and the key thing with the jive and jokester is not to never joke. If you’re funny, you’re funny. It’s part of your gift, but it’s to notice. Were you making the gift, the joke for you in that moment as a speaker, for your own comfort? Or were you making a joke in service of the journey that you’re taking people on? And if you call someone on it, they usually know right away? Yeah, I was uncomfortable with the silence, so I made a joke. Well, the silence was actually incredibly potent and powerful. So know that and allow yourself that moment of silence and then go where you want to go for the journey you’re creating, the ride you’re creating for the audience. From there, rather than thinking that if they’re not laughing, you’re not likable, um, you haven’t earned their attention or something like that.

Lee Kantor: Now, have you, uh, found that over the course of your career and coaching, uh, speaking, that when we’ve shifted to, uh, a lot of online and virtual training and virtual speaking Is the tactics and techniques the same for an online speaking opportunity versus an in the in a room, face to face speaking opportunity or the fundamentals the same. But maybe you have to physically, uh, change how you deliver the speech.

Lauri Smith: Yeah. Some of the fundamentals of this, you know, how do you be authentic? How do you really unleash your your own unique charisma are the same. And yet if someone knows how to fill a 500 seat theater with their energy, they may not know how to do that on zoom, because our our energy tends to follow where our attention is. So as soon as we sit down or stand in front of a device that is 1.5ft away from our faces, for some people, their energy gets really small, like I’m doing right now. Their voice follows, their body language becomes really small. And it’s okay because I have a mic in my face right now. And yet when someone does that, subconsciously the audience becomes less compelled to listen to them because it’s like their body, their breath, their voice and their energy are saying, this is private, this is not for you. Whereas if they’re aware of the whole room that they’re physically sitting in, instead of just kind of zeroing in on this two dimensional device, that’s a foot or a foot and a half away from their face, their body language, their voice and their energy become more inclusive. And that’s one of those things that has people in an audience not just saying, oh, yes, I could hear him, but I couldn’t stop listening or I couldn’t stop watching. If it’s a zoom webinar where they can actually see the speaker. That’s one difference. That is pretty big. Movements are different, just like they are between stage and film. So a movement to connect with an audience on a stage might be walking ten feet over to the left side of the audience, right side of the stage. And when you get on camera, it’s very different. It’s going to become the same impulse to connect, but in a smaller, more camera sized way.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any, um, maybe techniques or strategies you can share with a listener who maybe have had experience on a stage being big and having large movements and gestures, but now they’re being forced to be kind of static. Uh, you know, just maybe their facial expressions, um, in front of a microphone? Is there some things dos and don’ts when it comes to taking somebody who’s big, maybe on a in real life stage and then now has to kind of convert that to still kind of creating that big emotions but with much less physicality.

Lauri Smith: Yeah, I’m a big rule breaker, and what I would love for them to do is to be in the conversation that they’re in. So if I’m in a conversation with someone and they’re 500ft away from me, I’m going to do different things in order to be in that conversation. They might be bigger. They might be actually jumping up and down on a table or something like that. When we get closer together, if I’m actually listening to your half of the conversation, I’m probably not going to move in the same ways, even though I have the same impulses for what I’m communicating. And one of the things that I often kind of a hack is, um, I’m a big talker. I, I cannot talk without my hands. Once in a corporate world, I was telling a story about the showerhead breaking off and water spraying in my face, and I was gesturing all over the place. And this woman said, just out of curiosity, can you sit on your hands and tell that story again? And I couldn’t do it. So sometimes it’s a matter of put your hands underneath the camera line so that you can move and gesture as much as you want to, but they’re down so low that they don’t become distracting.

Lauri Smith: And then when you really want to illustrate a point, you bring them up like the showerhead and you’re gesturing and you are still you and it is helpful if it’s vibrant and alive in the person’s whole body. The other thing that I might do with a speaker who moves around a lot on a stage and feels trapped themselves when they need to do it in front of a video camera, I might have them sit down so that they feel more grounded because they can feel their seat in the chair and it becomes the same amount of vibrant and alive energy, but harnessed by the act of grounding and sitting down. Other folks, if their energy and their voice is getting really small when they’re sitting down on zoom, I might tell them, get a standing desk and stand up for your speeches, because that’s what helps you become harnessed and alive.

Lee Kantor: And do you remember the moment when you started in your career, when you Realized, hey, I have something to add to the conversation when it comes to helping people become better, more dynamic speakers. Do you remember that moment when you were like, oh, I can do this. I can really make a difference in this area?

Lauri Smith: Yeah, there were a couple, and the one that flashed into my head. I was at a coaching community meeting, and someone else was speaking about speaking at this meeting, and he was in a large flat room, and he was talking about just having a conversation with one person at a time in the audience. And he had so much beautiful stuff, and he was helping so many people. And yet the conversation went something like this. He would get very quiet. He would look at somebody in the right part of the audience and say, you don’t think about the audience, you just think about one person at a time, and someone on the other side would go, what? We can’t hear you. And then he would go say the same thing to another part of the. And that happened probably five times. And I was sitting in my chair feeling this huge calling forth energy, and I wanted to stand up and say, but everybody paid the same amount, and you are the leader holding the room. What about actually holding the room when it’s in a group? And he had so much beautiful stuff and it was his event. I did not stand up and shout that I took it as a hey, he’s really helping people with how he’s telling people to truly connect when they’re talking. And the next step is, how do you truly connect with one set of eyes at a time, while you’re also actually almost hugging the rest of the room with your energy so that it’s an intimate conversation that everyone in the space is a part of, and that is part of what great leaders have. It makes people in the room feel more safe to go on the ride that you’re creating, as the person taking them on that ride.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share about working with somebody who may be needed some help in becoming the speaker they’d like to have been? Um, can you share? Don’t maybe name their name, but just share what the challenge was they presented to you and how you were able to help them get to a new level?

Lauri Smith: Yeah, absolutely. I one of my favorite stories was a a corporate client, uh, that included a 360 report. And when I was conducting, it was a, a more introverted, quiet leader in an organization where that’s not the majority and a real superstar in terms of the work getting things done. You know, top 2% of people in the organization. And I was conducting the 360. A potential promotion was on the line. And his boss said, frankly, I don’t think he has it in him. His boss was a very extroverted, loud, talkative, take up all the space in the room kind of leader. And you know when you’re conducting a 360, you don’t really answer back. You’re just recording and taking down the notes and the feedback. And inside I thought, well, frankly, you don’t know what you’re talking about. It, it he did get the promotion. That’s the end of the story. And he learned how to be himself and hold a room. And he transformed into one of those people who might only speak once or twice in a meeting. A dynamic meeting with 50 people, all hashing something out. And when he speaks, people listen to what he has to say. The whole because he knows how to hold the energy of the room and then add his voice in and where he started was quieter.

Lauri Smith: Not holding the room, sometimes trying to do it like his boss, which was not his natural 1 in 8,000,000,000 charisma. And he did get the promotion. And that’s one of my favorite stories because. Presence. Charisma can go in waves throughout time, where a speaker will come along and everybody will think that that’s charisma. So they need to copy that person, when in reality what that person was doing was being themselves. And that’s why it worked for them and that’s why they were such a popular speaker. So when someone is the kind of speaker leader that isn’t the popular one in their organization or in their world, and they find their way to their charisma, and his was so needed in that organization. They needed someone who wasn’t talking for the whole entire meeting. They needed someone who was listening to the conversation and chiming in at just the right moment to share the perspective that might shift everything. And I could see that was who he was probably going to be from the moment we first met. And to have that actually happen and the promotion happened when the boss is saying, frankly, I don’t think he has it in him, made me very happy for him, for the organization and brings me joy now, even thinking about it now.

Lee Kantor: Do you find when you work with organizations that you have to manage the expectations that you’re not going to be cloning whoever the boss thinks is a great speaker, that you’re just going to be bringing out kind of the natural voice of each of these individuals. It’s not you’re not kind of a duplication machine where you’re just taking, you know, this person’s speaker and just, you know, creating, you know, copies of that.

Lauri Smith: Absolutely. And I didn’t think organizations would be as open to it as they have been. And I find a lot of the time, if I’m being brought in, they’re more open to it because the boss has already tried to make him a clone of himself or make her a clone of herself, and they’ve realized this isn’t working. We need an expert here. So they’re more open to the possibility that they are going to be charismatic, but they’re going to have a very different style than you do because they’ve tried and failed, tried and failed, Tried and failed in a lot of circumstances already. So when I mention it, sometimes they even look like the confusion is clearing up. I now see why it wasn’t working. I was trying to make him into me, but I already know he’s not a clone of me.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with somebody, do they kind of at some point come to the realization that, hey, we might have brought Lori in for speaking, but this really transcends into any maybe customer facing, uh, opportunity where it might be our salespeople may need some of this work, or anybody that’s dealing with customers might need some of this work, because speaking doesn’t have to be, you know, in large form. It could be in small form too.

Lauri Smith: Yeah, that has happened a few times. It also happens a lot, even on the executive coaching engagements. They would call it executive presence or leadership presence, that there’s an element of that where sometimes they are more focused on traditional speeches, and sometimes they’re already aware that it’s the communication and the presence of the person in multiple situations. And there have been a few where I’ve been working with the leader of a team, who then decides to bring me in to do some kind of an event or a program with the team.

Lee Kantor: Now, who is your ideal client? Is it that individual that’s looking to kind of uplevel their speaking, or is it an organization that might need kind of training for a group?

Lauri Smith: My ideal clients tend to be unconventional leaders and loving rebels, most of whom have their own mission that they’re on. They might be a solopreneur and, um, there’s some aspect of rebel in them. So whether it’s inside an organization or they’re running their own, there’s a bit of, I don’t want to do it the way everyone else does. I don’t like traditional, I like innovative, and my dream, dream, dream clients would say that they want to feel the vibe in the room shift when they talk. They don’t just want to inform people. They would even say it’s beyond touching people’s hearts. They want to feel an energy at the beginning and feel that through their speaking, the vibe has shifted. There’s a different energy and emotion in the room because of their speaking performance.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about your practice and maybe would like to learn about speaking more soulfully, or maybe get a hold of your book. Your voice matters a guide to speaking soulfully when it counts. What is the website? What is the best way to connect with you?

Lauri Smith: My website is voice hyphen Matters.com and there’s a page for the book. There’s a page for my podcast, and if you love the socials and you scroll to the bottom, you’ll be able to connect with me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. From there.

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

Lauri Smith: Thank you. Thank you very much.

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

Tagged With: Lauri Smith, Soulful Speaking Coach

From Tax Strategy to Wealth Preservation: Mark Kanakaris on Financial Mastery

October 21, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
From Tax Strategy to Wealth Preservation: Mark Kanakaris on Financial Mastery
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor Mark Kanakaris, Founding President of Kanakaris & Associates and Managing Partner of Cherokee Tax Group, shares his expertise in helping individuals, families, and business owners build, protect, and transfer wealth with precision and purpose. With over 20 years of experience in financial planning and tax strategy, Mark discusses how a proactive, client-first approach can transform retirement planning, optimize tax efficiency, and preserve wealth for future generations. As a federally authorized Enrolled Agent, he brings deep insight into complex tax matters and offers practical guidance for navigating today’s ever-changing financial landscape.

Mark Kanakaris is a trusted authority in financial planning and tax strategy with over 20 years of experience helping individuals, families, and business owners build, protect, and transfer wealth. As Founding President of Kanakaris & Associates and Managing Partner of Cherokee Tax Group, he leads with a client-first approach—offering tailored, strategic solutions for retirement planning, wealth management, and complex tax matters.

A licensed Enrolled Agent (EA), Mark is federally authorized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before the IRS. This designation places him among the nation’s top tax professionals, with specialized knowledge in navigating high-stakes tax scenarios and delivering forward-looking financial strategies.

He works extensively with individuals nearing retirement, small business owners seeking tax-efficient structures, and families interested in long-term estate preservation. His dual academic background in Economics and Philosophy (Mercer University) and Accounting (Saint Leo University) reinforces a well-rounded, analytical approach to problem-solving.

He is a go-to expert for insights on tax policy changes, retirement income planning, and strategies for high-net-worth individuals.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Navigating retirement income planning: Key strategies for securing a comfortable future
  • Wealth management for the next generation: Building and protecting family legacies
  • Understanding complex tax scenarios: How to handle IRS audits and tax disputes
  • Estate & trust planning: How to ensure a smooth wealth transfer
  • Tax strategies for business owners: Maximizing deductions and minimizing liabilities

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 the Founding President of Kanakaris and Associates, Mark Kanakaris. Welcome.

Mark Kanakaris: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Uh, for folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about your practice? How are you serving folks?

Mark Kanakaris: Sure. So we are a full service tax, investment and estate planning firm here in Woodstock. Been here for 17 years. So we kind of cover the whole gamut, you know, from what you make is what you keep, you know, get you prepared for retirement and make sure that you have your estate planning documents in order. So there’s no messes later on.

Lee Kantor: So who is your kind of avatar for your ideal client? Are they people that are already at that stage ready to retire, or are they up and comers who maybe haven’t, or who are in the kind of growing their wealth stage?

Mark Kanakaris: Well, we’ve got a mix of everybody. Predominantly. What we’re geared for is for people within the first five years before and after retirement. But we have a lot of folks, um, you know, business owners, because they need a special hand-holding. We’re able to guide them through the tax work because a lot of accountants just don’t give them the tax. Call it insider thinking that they need to have to be proficient with their cash flows, how they handle their taxes, recognizing income, and, uh, how how to set up the right kind of investment plans for retirement plans, whatever it might be for themselves or their employees.

Lee Kantor: So is your firm, um, would it help a retiree eliminate. They wouldn’t need a CPA. They can use you for both the CPA and for wealth management.

Mark Kanakaris: Correct. We do all that for our clients included in our management fees are a one stop shop. We do it all so and we take a proactive approach. We don’t have people say, oh gee, Mark, should I convert? We’re actually telling them how much the Roth convert and why. So one of the biggest things we find with Roth conversions is people try to drag it out. And what they don’t realize is that Irma taxes, well, it’s not really a tax, but the Irma costs and their Medicaid will end up eating them up if they don’t get aggressive with their Roth conversions.

Lee Kantor: So when you’re, uh, helping with both sides of the equation there, it seems more efficient because I know a lot of folks have a difficult time getting their wealth advisor and their CPA kind of on the same page.

Mark Kanakaris: Yeah. We, uh, in our workshops, we talk about the three monkeys, your tax guy, your financial guy and your lawyer and getting them all. Most people just don’t think they need to have them all in the same room once a year saying, what do we need to do for our client? And it’s a big challenge. And and a lot of efficiency is lost there. I mean, a tremendous amount in my opinion, obviously.

Lee Kantor: So now talk Talk to me how you work. So say I’m using your firm for this kind of thing. Are you meeting with me every year? Like, what does it look like when you’re in a relationship with your clients?

Mark Kanakaris: So we meet with our clients usually several times a year. Obviously we’re going to see them twice a year, at least at tax time alone, because we’re going to have to, you know, drop off your return. We go over things. When you pick it up, we’re going to have a meeting. And there’s usually follow on meetings from that because we’ll figure out based off of this year’s taxes what kind of Roth conversions. And then you know, what tax laws change. Maybe more advanced tax strategies like using charitable trusts or Nim cuts or flip cuts to to, you know, offset future taxes. So we’ll usually have sometimes five and six meetings with the client a year just because of the tax work. It’s so heavily involved.

Lee Kantor: And is this fee based or um is it a percentage of the portfolio.

Mark Kanakaris: Yeah, it’s all fee based. Guys are percentage of the portfolio. So we take our percentage as well and we knock it all out. And for most of my clients, I tell them that you’ll save more money in taxes than you’ll ever pay me in fees by a landslide. You can’t even you can’t even compare the two.

Lee Kantor: And that’s, um. So because because you have, uh, the knowledge of the wealth management side as well as the tax side. So then that helps even in the investment side, I would imagine when you’re, uh, kind of helping them build, you know, put their portfolio together.

Mark Kanakaris: Yeah. More than most people realize, especially those. And I see it all the time as people who have non-qualified money, which is money that maybe came out of their bank account they gave to an investment guy, and he just went and put it to work. And every time he makes a trade or has dividends or income, that stuff hits their tax return. Well, one of the biggest things I see is, is all I see people with non-qualified all the time and I’m like, well, where’s your Roth accounts? Because this is money that you could put into a Roth and they’re never doing it. And it just it blows me away that people don’t think to do this. It’s a no brainer to me for somebody who’s got nonqualified money to automatically if they’re working, of course, to be putting money into their Roth. I see it all the time. It really shocks me to see how much that opportunity is mixed. Probably more than most, more than anything else, I would imagine. And then, of course, they’ll invest backwards. They’ll put their trading account in a non-qualified account, so they’re throwing their tax return all over the place because of their gains and losses. Instead of investing that way in their IRAs, where no matter what they do so that money comes out of the IRA, there’s no tax issues.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working with the retired, um, how do you recommend they navigate the spending of the money? I know that’s a challenge for a lot of folks that are retired. They’ve spent their whole life accumulating, and now you get time to spend. And that’s trickier than maybe they anticipated.

Mark Kanakaris: Well, you know, in retirement, every day Saturday. Right. Can be what we do is we? Yeah, we, uh, we have an income chart that we put together, and it’s just it gives us a baseline to work off of, and we’ll take a client. We’ll show them the Social Security and their investments and a nominal rate of return and say, we just make this rate of return. Here’s your budget that you can live on on a day to day basis. And usually we’ll show them a couple of we’ll show them the max amount that they can have. And if that’s more than what they’ll ever need, then we’ll show them what they really need so that they’ll see what their nest egg that they may be leaving as an inheritance. So we can deal with the taxes on the inheritance. But once you have that road to go off of that baseline every year, you could say, you know, just make up some numbers. Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Retiree, you can have 100,000 a year, but we need to make sure that every year our investment accounts worth so much money. If that starts to change to the downside, we have a problem. The other thing we find, too, is a lot of folks who, even if they have that chart later on in life, they’re never going to spend what we tell them to spend, because I call it the rule of 85. I say, look, your knees, my knees, my back, your shoulders, all that they’re going to hurt. And the thought of traveling and doing a bunch of things at 85, when we’re aching all the time doesn’t sound that exciting anymore. So your spending will probably drop from outside activities. So we’ll probably find that we’re saving a little bit more than what we anticipated. Now, of course, if we do better than anticipated, that makes a big difference.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you help folks when it comes to insurance? It seems like you you, uh, have carved that area out as not part of your, uh, services.

Mark Kanakaris: No, we, um, we’re fully licensed in insurance, so life insurance, annuities. If we need, um, for the people who are working disability, uh, we have access to all that stuff, and we do quite a bit of it. It’s, you know, it’s always case by case. Some clients like the guarantees of annuities, the guaranteed payments. Some people, uh, they’ll come in and say, look, there’s no way I’m going to get all this money and pay the taxes. So maybe they’ll buy a big life insurance policy to offset the taxes or to buy their their heirs. The time to pay the taxes on that money over the ten year period that they have to pull the money out and give them just cash to work with. We see that becoming a more popular idea. I’m of the opinion that we’re in the cheapest taxes we’ve seen for a while. Let’s stick with Roth conversions that no longer make sense.

Lee Kantor: So now when you work with your business clients, um, how do you go about helping them kind of maximize their deductions and minimize some of their liabilities?

Mark Kanakaris: So there’s a lot with that. You know, first and foremost, you know, we make sure that their books are in order, you know, enough that if they ever were to get audited that they’re going to be able to stand through an audit. And luckily, audits are not as frequent, I think, as people think they are. Once we know that’s in place, you know, we look at what they’re spending money on, how they’re spending money, if they’re doing really well, you know, we have to see how many what kind of retirement plans, if they have to have a retirement plan for all their employees to keep them, versus if they’re just having one for themselves, where they can dump a lot more money in it. We have a gentleman now with a medical practice, and, uh, most of his employees are all subcontractors to him. So he can set up a set plan, and he could put a ton of money into his retirement account and avoid paying the taxes on it now. Yes, it’s going to be an IRA. It’ll be taxed later on. But right now he’s in such a high tax bracket, he needs every deduction he can get his hands on. And sometimes we look at, hey, what purchases are we making? Maybe we need to, you know, uh, look at bringing in new, uh, new, uh, inventory for next year early, uh, prepay, maybe next year’s advertising sometimes just to get the, to get the expense out so we can keep the taxes down. So we’ll have, we’ll have like, uh, right about now is when we start our Q4 huddles to say, what are we going to do to end out this year and keep our taxes where we want them to be?

Lee Kantor: Now, what about for the retirees that are struggling kind of financially? Maybe they anticipated having more income. Is there any advice for that person? Um, to maybe create additional revenue streams or maybe, uh, having to invest in maybe getting buying a business or something along those lines?

Mark Kanakaris: Uh, you know, when people are kind of when they didn’t save enough, you’re caught in this. It’s been my theory right now. I would tell that client, you know, the market’s doing good. Let’s grow that money until we can create the income we need. Or can that money be converted to something like, like an annuity for, say, and maybe give them the income they would want? But hopefully you don’t have to use that whole nest egg. I always like to leave some liquidity in case an emergency comes up, but that’s such a case by case basis. Um, you have to take it, you know, person by person. I don’t know if I would tell them to go out and buy a business or start a business, but, you know, some folks will work part time in retirement. Just one. I always think it’s just to keep you busy, but if it helps you from having to use your nest egg for a few more years and let it grow. That usually helps, because I find that the first 5 to 10 years of retirement can have the most impact on a retirement, so I really want to avoid big losses in that that time period to the best of my ability. So that’s why we’re active money managers. So we’ll get out of the market. We don’t like what we’re seeing. Uh, because the mathematics, you can’t beat the math. If you take a big hit early in retirement, you could be permanently hurt for the rest of your retirement.

Lee Kantor: So. So then when you’re wealth advising, so you’re buying individual stocks for individual, um, clients.

Mark Kanakaris: Correct. We have several portfolios based on their risk tolerance and what they’re designed, what they want them to do. And we use stocks and ETFs. Um I don’t we do some mutual fund work. The 401 KS that we manage for some company that we have 41K services for. Obviously they’re all based off of mutual funds. But to be an active money manager we use stocks and ETFs, portfolios that we backtest and do a lot of making sure we’re buying what we think are the best of the best companies out there to, you know, grow our clients money safely. We have a lot of criteria that goes into how we build it. You could have a whole podcast on how we build just one of our portfolios, but there’s a lot of things that we go through to screen it back, test it to make sure that this portfolio has got good chances of being a successful portfolio for the year. And then every year we kind of look at it. Was there any poor performance, any of the companies not, you know, making the grade, so to speak, and then we’ll replace them with something better. And that way we can also keep in tune with the market more.

Lee Kantor: And then how often do you make those changes?

Mark Kanakaris: Usually once a year. Once I buy a stock I’m going to I’m going to hold it or trade it for the year depending on the ebbs and flows. You know, the whole thing is trying to you know, you can’t perfectly time the market, but you have a pretty good idea when the bottom is marketing it out and you have a pretty good idea when it’s topping out. And when we see those big bottoming outs, we start buying in there. And I always kind of say my clients probably think I’ve bought stock a days. They think I’ve lost their mind. And I always say, I’m looking for the day where everybody thinks, from here we’re just going to go to zero, and that’s the day I’m looking to buy. And there, you know, it helps. You know, the money’s always made in the buying. And hopefully that really helps with what helps our clients keep those big returns in their pocket.

Lee Kantor: So, um, are you optimistic in the way the economy is going and the way the market’s going? This is are you bullish or like what? Or you’re kind of a uh, on the fence.

Mark Kanakaris: Long term bullish. Yep. Definitely long term bullish this week. Been kind of choppy but you know still seems to be moving up. But yeah I think long term bullish I think once we get some of the deregulation out of the way I think when interest rates come down and hopefully inflation will come with it. Um yeah, I’m definitely bullish. I think that we’ll probably hit some sort of bump sometime in the next year. Can’t really tell you when because, you know, there’s a lot of concern about the unemployment. And unfortunately, I think that we’re going to need to see higher unemployment to get inflation down. You just can’t have everybody working and spending it, you know, big rates and expect inflation to come down. Um, people aren’t saving like they used to, so they’re spending more. I see a lot of reports on it. There’s a lot of talk about it. So, um, once we kind of get through that or if that can work itself out, which would be the obviously the most ideal route I think will be fine. But I’m bullish, you know, especially over the the current political administration’s outlook on the market. I think it’s going to be a good four years. Well, three more to come.

Lee Kantor: And then you’re okay with the preponderance of, um, the AI stocks kind of pulling more than their share of the weight for the, say, the S&P 500.

Mark Kanakaris: You know, that’s that’s talk every day. And we’re always saying every day that we’re in an AI bubble. And will it bust. I you know I think as long as earnings continue to be there for these AI companies, the AI bubble will continue to grow. Uh, I, I think AI is the future. And at some point as, as you know, as I mean, the big companies are selling to the big companies when you see the big mid companies really embracing AI. I think it’s I think then you’re going to know we’re fully enveloped in a big AI world. Uh, it’s going to be the cost of AI. I think for some companies are going to be expensive. But you know, we’ve been looking into AI and even AI, small AI companies, and they’re selling their services at record rates. And I think those companies would get into AI early and get those people who are using their AI chats or their AI agents. You know, once they lock up that customer, I think as long as they’re pretty happy, they’re going to stay with this company for a while, and you’re going to see these companies have really big, positive revenue for long, long times. They’re always they’re always going to be talking about retention rates.

Lee Kantor: So how are you seeing AI impact the financial world? Well is it affecting your firm?

Mark Kanakaris: Ai. We use AI in our firm. Absolutely. Um, you can use AI a variety of ways. Obviously, we use AI to help update our CRM. We have AI, AI trying to help us predict what the market’s going to do. Uh, there’s a variety. I mean, the big firms, the big box firms, they’re using AI and anything they think they can help them figure out where the market’s going to go before it goes there. That’s that’s one big use. But we also use a lot of you know, we’re using it to automate more things in our office. So we could be more efficient for our clients and not have to hire as much as many, you know, full time employees.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re looking at the lens of an individual, uh, client, are you looking at it? I know your services are both tax and wealth management, but which are you? Are you leaning more one way than the other, or how do they how are you kind of viewing that?

Mark Kanakaris: I kind of think that your income and your wealth drive your taxes, so. Uh, I can’t say they go totally hand in hand because I think the wealth part, your wealth management drives the taxes. So I think that’s the bigger thing that we focus on. But as because we build our portfolios and put our clients in the right portfolios based on the kind of money we have. It makes us not have to be so constantly looking over our shoulder, making sure we did the right thing. As long as we manage our funds right, the taxes tend to take care of themselves. And what I mean is, we have a lot of people with very large non-qualified accounts. We just have to be careful in how we buy and sell those accounts that we don’t create watch sales. And as long as we can avoid that, then the clients keep more of their profits. So we try not to do too much trading in those because we don’t want to, you know, just create them to death and create just what could be a what look like to look on paper like a tax nightmare. But again, you know, the devil’s in the details and you pay for me to be in the details on the tax side. I’m not worried about that.

Mark Kanakaris: We don’t have it covered. We do have it covered. But I think the wealth really the wealth management side kind of drives the taxes. So the wealth drives it. And at the end of the year, the tax kind of cleans it all up. And it helps us sometimes say, what do we need to do different next year. Some of our clients, because maybe they’re bumping income brackets or tax brackets. And we have to, you know, do larger Roth conversions or maybe even, hey, you know, maybe we should take a different approach on some of these investments. The change isn’t an investment. Hasn’t been a big of a deal. Usually what we find is that our IRAs that are growing, we’re you know, we’re trying to always keep them from jumping tax brackets when they go in to start taking their RMDs. So we’re trying to always encourage our clients to do large RMDs for Roth conversions before they retire. Uh, to keep them from jumping those brackets, because with the income chart that we create for our clients, I know roughly when you’re going to wind up in a new tax bracket so I can plan ahead of that. Now, of course, if I have a great year in the market, you know, then maybe I’m right.

Lee Kantor: Then you have to make some adjustments.

Mark Kanakaris: Right? And good problem to have. Obviously good problem to have.

Lee Kantor: Right. Well, I mean and the reverse could happen if you have a bad year then there’s other problems. Um, right.

Mark Kanakaris: But that’s really a bigger issue on a non-qualified really on your IRA account, if that’s what you’re counting on for your retirement income, more so than your taxes. Right. Because if your IRA came down, you’re and you’re taking RMDs because that’s where you’re taking it from. It’s you’ll take less. Um, but yeah.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, you mentioned that, uh, your clients usually are coming to you in a few years before retirement. Are they moving typically from a different firm, or are they maybe they would do it yourselfers that got a little gun shy and realized that this is more complicated than they envisioned at this stage?

Mark Kanakaris: Um, the DIY ers, you know, the do it themselves. Sometimes I think, uh, I don’t see as many of them coming over. I think it’s, it’s I’ll just say it’s just ego. They think they can do a better job. Um, and they’ll do that for a while. And let’s be honest, in a bull market, they think they’re doing a great job, but they’re, you know, listen, rising tide raises all ships. So in a bull market right now, I mean, Elmer Fudd could do a good job in the market, you know, to do an outstanding job, take somebody with some insight, but you could do in the market as a DIY or the people that are getting a retirement. You know, when they start saying, I want to retire in a few years, they like knowing they have a plan in place. They know they like to have their money’s in the right bucket so that they know. And even if I tell them if something happened and God forbid you had, let’s just say you had a health scare and you had to retire early, you know exactly where you’re sitting. You may not like it, but you know where you are and you know it’s not the end of the world.

Lee Kantor: So is something happening with their current advisor when they switch to you, like, are they being ignored? Like, is there some problem that is the trigger that gets them to you?

Mark Kanakaris: Or like we hear a variety of things, but normally we do. I think a lot of people feel that they don’t hear from their advisor. Um, I think that’s a big one. The ones that are working, they don’t have an advisor. So, you know, maybe we met them through a tax office event or a dinner workshop and they’re coming in like, you know, I’m getting ready to retire, and I really haven’t talked to anybody, but maybe we said something that made sense to them. So it’s a it’s a bit of a mix. Um, we do hear a fair amount of people think that their advisor didn’t care. They thought they weren’t, you know, big enough potatoes, so to speak. Um, we hear that some I don’t know if that’s the highest one, but maybe if it is the most common one, it wouldn’t be by much. We hear kind of a variety of things because we see everybody from all walks of life.

Lee Kantor: So what size portfolios are appropriate for your firm?

Mark Kanakaris: You know, I have this don’t close the door on anybody attitude. But the clients that we have the biggest impact on and make the most money and have the most tax effect on tend to have at least $1 million. But it doesn’t mean if you don’t have $1 million, I’m not going to take you. I mean, we took a client today with 29,000. It’s her. It’s her life savings and how important it is. I know what the money’s got to do. And I’ve got a portfolio that’ll do exactly what you want it to do. And I’m. And I think that’s a win win situation.

Lee Kantor: And so you don’t have to have a mega or you don’t have to be a movie star or an athlete to use your firm.

Mark Kanakaris: No, but it’s funny that we seem to draw a lot of wealthier clients because we do. We do have more wealthier clients than we did, say, over a half a million then don’t have a half a million. But we don’t. You know, I don’t discriminate. My practice isn’t for sale. So, um, at this point, I’m at a good place where I’m just here to materially improve upon what people have already started. You know, it’s no longer about me. It’s about what can I do for others. I’ve got all the things I want. I just want to do a good job. And I get a lot of personal gratitude when I call up somebody and say, hey, look how much your account’s grown. And they’re like, oh my gosh, that’s that’s really one of the best things I get out of my job. Or I saw a tap loophole where we could Roth convert a ton of money for pennies on the dollar that they never saw before, like we had a guy two years ago do a $30,000 Roth conversion. It didn’t cost him a penny in taxes. I to me, that’s cool stuff. I love all that. Just I love seeing my clients win, whatever that means to them.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you handle kind of the the adult children of your clients? I know a lot of firms don’t have any plan in place to really get the next generation, like the the wealth advisor ages with the client. Do you have any kind of, uh, succession, uh, strategy for the children of your clients?

Mark Kanakaris: Well, the ones that have clients, the clients that are here, uh, we always invite their children to come in and get their taxes done from us and get to know us just because we are we are their advisor. And a lot of the times they go, I’ve been listening to dad or mom saying, you’ve done a good job. I just changed jobs. I want to give you my 401 K and see what you can do. And we have that happen quite a bit. Um, we had it just happened last month, and that’s how a lot of them seem to come in. Or when people do pass, the errors will go well if the blah blah blah thought you were great, I should probably stay with you and we’ll say, well, great, let’s try it for a year. And if you’re happy in a year, you should stay. And if you’re not, happy New Year, let’s talk about it. So we do try to keep people in that way as well and keep them engaged. But usually the best way to get them started just doing their taxes so they know who we are and they’ll feel comfortable with us and we do a good job with their taxes. When an opportunity comes up, they’re like, hey, let’s talk to Mark. He’s done a good job so far, so I want him to feel comfortable with me and feel that I’ve got good credibility when they when I work with them on their in their investments.

Lee Kantor: So a lot of times the taxes is kind of the first point of entry. And then from there it just evolves.

Mark Kanakaris: Yeah. Usually evolves on its own because everybody knows that we do both. When you walk in you see our tax side, you see our investment side. So there’s there’s no you know, there’s no like hey you guys do this. Wow I didn’t know that. So they can see it. They know about us. And uh you know when they feel comfortable they do it.

Lee Kantor: And 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?

Mark Kanakaris: It’s Ken Harris and Associates comm I know it’s a mouthful, but I think the K. Aws is still working. And, you know, I always tell folks, just click on there and give us a call, set up an appointment, phone calls. Fine. If you just want to talk to me, you don’t want to come to Woodstock. Um, we do what we seem to. As you know, everyone’s doing a lot more virtual appointments than ever before. So we’ve been doing a lot more virtual appointments, and, uh, people get to know us a little bit, and sometimes we do a couple before they come in, but, you know, know who you’re working with.

Lee Kantor: Absolutely.

Mark Kanakaris: Well, I try to tell them, let’s have a couple of chats before we make a decision. Make sure I’m a good fit for you. And you’re a good fit for me.

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

Mark Kanakaris: Thank you.

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

Tagged With: Kanakaris & Associates, Mark Kanakaris

Scaling the Creator Economy: Cam Pritchard on AI-Powered Revenue Growth

October 21, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Scaling the Creator Economy: Cam Pritchard on AI-Powered Revenue Growth
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio, Lee Kantor interviews  Cam Pritchard, CEO and Co-founder of Station, shares how his Chattanooga-based startup is transforming the creator economy with the world’s first AI Revenue Assistant for creators. Cam reveals how Station helps podcasters, YouTubers, and digital entrepreneurs unlock new revenue streams and boost earnings by up to 30%—all while automating the heavy lifting of media sales. From his entrepreneurial roots in New Zealand to building a venture-backed platform backed by investors from Canva, YouTube, Reddit, and Spotify, Cam’s story is a masterclass in innovation, grit, and the future of creator monetization.

Cam Pritchard is the CEO and co-founder of Station, the Chattanooga-based startup behind the first AI Revenue Assistant for creators.

Station helps podcasters, YouTubers, and digital creators instantly unlock new revenue streams—from sponsorships and memberships to merch and newsletters—by encoding the workflows of a full media sales team into AI.

The platform boosts creator earnings by an estimated 20–30% while saving hundreds of dollars in subscription costs each year.

Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Cam has been building companies since college, including New Zealand’s first textbook rental business. He later worked in Toronto’s tech scene and at Thumbtack in San Francisco before turning his focus to the creator economy.

Since founding Station in 2022, he has raised $1.5M from leading VCs and angels from Canva, YouTube, Reddit, and Spotify. Cam now lives in Chattanooga, where he is scaling Station as the “Shopify for creators.”

Connect with Cam on LinkedIn and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • AI under the hood
  • Impact and value
  • Positioning in the market

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 we’re talking to the CEO with Station, Cam Pritchard. Welcome.

Cam Pritchard: Hey, Lee, how’s it going?

Lee Kantor: It is going great. It is so good to be catching up with you. For folks who aren’t aware, can you tell us a little bit about station? How you serving folks?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah. So station is a platform for podcasters and YouTubers to monetize their show. So now I think there’s last year, there’s 185,000 new podcasters and 3 million YouTube channels that are now monetizing. And a lot of these folks don’t really have the support that a traditional media broadcast company would have around, uh, finding advertisers and understanding the business and how all the different ways that you can make money.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I’m sure you know the stats. And maybe you can share some of the stats of how many people attempt podcasting, but quit after just a handful of episodes because the back end is too hard or too complicated, or they’re not making money.

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, there is. There is one saying in the industry, it’s the pod fade, and I think it’s 12 episodes. You make it over 12 episodes, you’re, uh, you’re well on the way. You’re you’ve persisted and you’ve, uh, you’ve passed the first trial.

Lee Kantor: But that’s one of those. I mean, not a high percentage. Don’t make 12.

Cam Pritchard: Uh, very high percentage, I would say maybe 70%. 60% at least. Yeah. I’d need to look at the stats up, but it is it is considerable.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. It’s one of those things where it sounds good and it looks easy, but once you start doing it, there’s there’s some moving parts that maybe you’re not aware of.

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, well, I think like with, with AI, it’s getting easier and easier to create content and edit it, which has been a huge bottleneck to people stopping after some time. And then also there’s platforms like ours which are really set up to help with the monetization side, which, you know, can be a deterrent as well. If you’re if you’re not being able to make money or cover your costs, then you know, it can become more of a cost than an asset that you’re, that you’re you’re building.

Lee Kantor: So let’s walk through the platform and and how you help the creators generate some revenue. So so what are you hosting the content or are they hosting it on a, on a podcast hosting site. And then they’re partnering with you to generate revenue?

Cam Pritchard: Absolutely. So they host on their separate sites and they put put their content out into the world. And we help them figure out how they can make money, uh, through either memberships, uh, newsletter revenue. Um, but most importantly, brand partnerships, which is where the majority of the revenue comes in the industry. And it’s been a huge bottleneck because a lot of creators that are creating this kind of content, they don’t have ad sales or media teams going out to find placements in their show. And so we’ve we’ve generated a really, really intelligent AI that goes and finds all the different brands that are advertising and then suggest the ones that are, that are most likely to spend with your show, given, uh, the category you’re in, you know, their, their expenditure on other similar shows and how often they’re repeat buying and some other, other nuances, which is, uh, I guess like a little bit of our magic behind the system.

Lee Kantor: Now, what size audience do you need to have in order for this to be a good partnership?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, this is a great question, because if you’re if you’re a show and you’re talking to top chief marketing officers and you’re getting an engaged audience and they’re, you know, there’s 200 of them or 300 of them. A lot of brands would pay to be in that room with you. And so that can be a very, very, uh, you know, good, valuable audience that, uh, is, you know, you can you can charge good rates for because, you know, the the CMOs out there could be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars on different software or products. Um, but generally speaking, when it comes to consumers, I think you want at least a couple thousand, um, active listeners every, uh, every time you put an episode out, um, or, uh, or at least 10,000 a month, uh, if you’re on a daily, then, you know, that can be lower, but that certainly helps. But again, huge caveat on what the audience looks like, especially if it’s localized. That’s a different story as well. So, you know, lots of different nuances.

Lee Kantor: So and and the creator doesn’t have to be an expert, right? They just have to go to your site. And then your site has the AI that’s going to determine or help determine, you know, the makeup of the audience, who they are, how much it’s worth, and things like that. Like, I’m not going to be I’m not going to have to figure out all those analytics, right?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, absolutely. It’s going to so what you do is you just connect your show. So you go and you search up your show and then it, it, uh, takes a little bit of thinking time maybe 10s. And then it spits out all the different ways that you can monetize and how much you could make for each of the different, um, avenues you could walk down, uh, whether that’s a membership or, uh, offering, um, merchandise, bonus content, um, creating a newsletter. Um, and, and like, like we said, uh, finding advertisers.

Lee Kantor: So once it makes those recommendations, does the platform also help me spin those things up, or do I have to go now, get another piece of software that’s going to do a newsletter or a membership or something like that.

Cam Pritchard: Great question. I think what’s really groundbreaking about what we’ve done is you can you can literally spin up all of those pieces, even your newsletter. You do not have to write. So it’s going to listen to your last episodes, and it’s going to generate an engaging newsletter based on the way that you talk and your sort of style. And, and then you can you can publish that newsletter, you can post it to your social media, and you can even embed your episodes into that newsletter as well, so people can find your show not just by listening, but through your newsletter as well. So it’s a, it’s a it’s an interesting acquisition strategy there. So that’s like one example. But um, yeah. All built in. And when it comes to brand partnerships we have a program. So we basically showcase the top brands that would be, um, perfect for your show and, and great fits. And this is really important because if a brand is not a good fit for your audience. It’s probably not going to work or convert for the brand, and it’s going to waste everyone’s time long term. So really identifying the right brands is important. And then you can use some some of our specialists to go and represent you and find you brands if you don’t want to do it yourself. So we do the outreach and and take a take a modest commission.

Lee Kantor: Now do you also help with maybe repurposing the content, like because within one show there could be sound bites, there could be, you know, like kind of a highlight reel. Um, do you do things like that as well, or is it just the show in its entirety?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, I think that’s definitely on our roadmap. I think that what we’ve found is there’s so many tools popping up to make that very easy, that a lot of a lot of podcasts and YouTubers already have that service built in. Um, and so it’s really they’re leveraging us for the monetization side.

Lee Kantor: So they’re focusing on monetization of the entire episode or the Newsletter that might also come out of it.

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, absolutely. And we, uh, and and we find advertisers as well. We’re going to be launching an, a program as well, where you can put advertisers into your newsletter directly from us. So you don’t have to source those advertisers as well.

Lee Kantor: And then how are the advertisers, um, kind of embedded into future shows. Is it, um, like, how does that occur?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah. So it’s all host read based, meaning that a host will come in and they will they will read the advertisement out on their show, uh, themselves. So there’s a little bit of back and forth and coordination, uh, that takes place for audio ads or video ads that, um, that we connect, uh, shows and brands on. Um, but if it is, if it is an advertiser inside of a newsletter, uh, it’s a display ad that we’ve sourced from a brand and, um, you know, it’s it’s been matched to you as a good fit.

Lee Kantor: But in the podcast it’s just a the host is going to read some sponsor, um, like a short, uh, few sentences about the sponsor.

Cam Pritchard: Exactly. And, and what’s, what’s interesting is if the host reads it out, it’s, uh, the brand is willing to pay about double, uh, just because the host influence really matters versus, um, you know, your, your typical pre-produced radio or, um, cable TV ad, which is a brand is already, uh, mocked that one up and you’re just putting it into your space.

Lee Kantor: And then also so it’s not a dynamic ad that can change. So that ad’s going to be there forever then.

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, there’s different ways to structure it where, um, some, uh, some networks they can put in, uh, ads temporarily and they can be host read ones. Um, but um, for the most part, for a lot of the shows that we’re representing, it’s, it’s baked in, meaning that it’s going to be there, um, for the episode and the duration of the episode. And that’s valuable for advertisers as well, because if the if the episode blows up, then they’ve built this, like, really cool asset that keeps on giving. Um, obviously for the show, they’re looking to monetize all of the possible real estate that they’ve got. And so dynamic can be a good option for them because they can repurpose that, uh, that evergreen content now.

Lee Kantor: So it sounds like you’re helping with the advertising component and generating revenue through advertising, and you’re helping with the content, uh, a little bit with the distribution of repurposing it into a newsletter. Are you helping with the distribution of the sharing of it and making it kind of go viral or get more eyes on it or ears?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, we yeah, we we don’t do that just yet. It’s been really around just making sure that we can match you with really, really strong advertisers. Um, because that’s, uh, that’s a huge facet. And most there is a lot of hosting platforms are now that are really helping with the social side of it as well. So we’re kind of we’re kind of looking to partner with the hosting platforms. Uh, they can they help with that first part of the, uh, the process and then uh, and then we do the, we do the monetization piece.

Lee Kantor: And the only thing you really need is kind of the RSS feed.

Cam Pritchard: That’s right. The RSS feed, the, uh, the YouTube link. And then everything is generated. We style everything up for you. We give you a link in bio so you can put a link on your socials and you can put in, uh, your show and all your different assets. So really try and make it. So we’re showcasing the show in the best possible way.

Lee Kantor: Okay. So then you are helping then from that side. So I don’t need like a link tree.

Cam Pritchard: Exactly. Yeah. You can replace you can replace your link tree. In fact, we, we eliminate about $400 worth of tools that, uh, a lot of shows are using. And, uh, and our entry price, uh, for our newsletter and basic functionality is $9 a month.

Lee Kantor: Oh, so everybody can afford that? Just.

Cam Pritchard: That’s the idea. Yeah, exactly.

Lee Kantor: And and doing that is going to get me at least seen by potential advertisers that I’m not they’re not looking at my thing now anyway.

Cam Pritchard: Right. Exactly. And you you want to know, right. You want to know. Okay. What what advertisers could be really interested in your show that you’re not getting to. Because that’s really hard to figure out.

Lee Kantor: Right. Yeah. As an individual, like if you have a podcast somewhere, I mean, I don’t even know how you would begin trying to figure that that would take you so much time to identify and then reach out and the back and forth, it’s this seems so much more efficient.

Cam Pritchard: Oh, it’s it’s crazy. And our, uh, founding AI engineer, Sogut, he, uh, he basically spent months in a room synthesizing all the data and building quite a sophisticated AI to find these signals and the right brands for a show. And so, yeah, it’s, uh, it’s hard to do it by yourself. I can, uh, I can definitely attest to that. After going through the whole process and, and making, uh, making recommendations for it.

Lee Kantor: So, uh, you recently, uh, raised some money. You want to talk a little bit about that because you got some, some pretty impressive folks have, uh, invested in this concept.

Cam Pritchard: Yeah. So we we raised 1.5 million, uh, which was a pre-seed round. So really, you know, getting getting us, uh, to the next level and, uh, some incredible investors that are just super experienced in the media space from Canva, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitch, um, uh, thumbtack, a bunch of, uh, bunch of really great operators. So it gives us a huge advantage and that confidence as well to, um, you know, that know, we’re really touching on a big problem. And we actually just brought on someone from one of the top, uh, advertising agencies as, as well, uh, as an investor. And so, you know, she’s very excited about the, uh, the potential here and how we can help solve the matching problem for brands and shows. That’s being very evident and very hard to to solve. And and I think this is this is why podcasters and YouTubers make 60% less than other creators, because it’s just really hard to get to advertisers and know what to do. If you’re a sort of a smaller shop and you know the infrastructure is not really there for it.

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

Cam Pritchard: Uh, so I think, um, word of mouth is massive for us right now. I mean, we’re offering a solution at $9 a month. So if you know anyone that is, uh, is starting a podcast or has a podcast, and it’s just really curious to figure out how they can monetize and what this looks like. Often people jump into this journey and they don’t really look ahead at all the different options and understand it. We, uh, we get you there, you know, in 30s and show you, hey, look, these are these are all the potential ways to monetize, but a little bit of growth assistance in there as well. And, uh, and then you can spin up all these assets to make your show look really good and to share it with your friends and start getting more adoption, um, without, you know, the, the heavy cost and going around and setting up all these other tools so that, uh, that would be a massive helping hand.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it $9 per RSS feed? Is that how it works? Like, say that you’re a podcaster and you do three shows. Is it $9 times three?

Cam Pritchard: Yeah, exactly. Per show.

Lee Kantor: It’s per show. All right. And if somebody wants to learn more and connect, is it free to just see how much advertising is potentially there? You have to pay the $9 to kind of figure that out.

Cam Pritchard: Well, so right now, if you if you go on, it’s absolutely free to see what advertisers could be really interested in your show and all the different ways that you can monetize. There’s actually a calculator to show, given that given your show and what it looks like, this is, this is how much you could be making per month. And these are all the things that you can do. So you can get in with that, um, free at this point.

Lee Kantor: And so you just go to the website station dot page.

Cam Pritchard: Station dot page, go check it out. Very simple. It’s really fun as well. Like if you’re if you’re curious and you got a show, you should just you should just have a look and see what’s in there. I mean, we’re we’re building this platform to support people to get a lot more out of their show and build it into a business. Um, but there’s there’s a lot of valuable insights that we’ve generated, um, with AI, uh, to help.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And if you have a show of any size, you can go and check it out. Um, but if you have a show of some size, you should definitely check it out.

Cam Pritchard: Absolutely. And if you’re if you’re really passionate about creating content and you don’t want to go to advertisers all the time, and you know that because that keeps a lot of creators up at night, um, we can help, uh, we, you know, we we work with a bunch of advertisers, and we, uh, we’re really there to support your, uh, your show, to go and find great sponsors that are going to last with you.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Well, cam, congratulations on all the success. I know you’ve been working on this for a minute, and, um, it’s great to see you getting traction and taking this to a new level.

Cam Pritchard: Thank you so much, Lee.

Cam Pritchard: Great to great to chat again and really appreciate you having me on the show.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. Uh, we’ll talk to you next time on High Velocity Radio.

Tagged With: Cam Pritchard, Station

The Power of Reinvention: Jen Jaciw’s Path from Adversity to Achievement

October 21, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
The Power of Reinvention: Jen Jaciw’s Path from Adversity to Achievement
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In this episode of High Velocity Radio with Lee Kantor interviews Jen Jaciw — Career Ownership Coach, Consultant, Connector, and Speaker — shares her powerful journey from surviving adversity to empowering others to design lives they love. With over 25 years of experience in business management and entrepreneurship, Jen helps professionals transition from traditional careers to fulfilling business ownership. Drawing from her own story of resilience and reinvention, she offers authentic insights and actionable strategies for achieving personal freedom, success, and purpose.

Jen Jaciw (sounds like “Jasseff”) of Jaciw Consulting dba The Entrepreneur’s Source is a Career Ownership Coach, Consultant, Connector, and Speaker of  dedicated to helping professionals take control of their futures.

With over 25 years of business management experience spanning Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Entrepreneurship—including owning a successful Silicon Valley transportation company—she empowers individuals to transition from traditional careers to fulfilling business ownership.

As a child of an addict and domestic violence survivor, Jen understands the power of reinvention. She shifted from a victim mindset to a survivor mindset and now uses her experiences to inspire others to break free from limitations and design lives that they love.

Beyond coaching, she’s spent the past 10 years mentoring small business owners, leading networking organizations, and advocating for domestic violence resources. As a speaker, she brings authenticity, insight, and actionable strategies to topics like goal setting, career transitions, branding and marketing, and entrepreneurial success.

She has been in partnership with her husband, Alex, for over 30 years, and when she’s not coaching or consulting, she enjoys traveling and embracing the freedom she’s created in her own life.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The Career Crossroads
  • Employee to Entrepreneur Shift
  • The Power of Coaching & Mentorship

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 the owner of Jaciw Consulting doing business as The Entrepreneur Source, Jen Jaciw. Welcome.

Jennifer Jaciw: Thank you Lee.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m.

Jennifer Jaciw: Happy to be here this morning.

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

Jennifer Jaciw: Well, I do a little bit of everything, but my main focus is career ownership coaching, and that looks a little bit different than regular career coaching. So my specialty is helping those that are interested transition from employee to entrepreneur.

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

Jennifer Jaciw: So I actually am one of my ideal clients. I was somebody that had owned a business previously. My first business was in California. I started that from scratch with my husband, had it for 15 years and sold it, moved to New Mexico where our money would go further and it was a much easier pace here, which is what we were seeking at this stage in our life. Um, but, you know, we made enough in the sale of the first business for one of us to retire, but not both of us. So I started looking for work about a year into moving here, and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. You know, partly because I moved to a state that just is a little bit more, you know, on the poor side versus where I came from, Silicon Valley. So it took me a lot longer to find a job. And I had to switch industries, and I did, and I was successful in the industry, but unfortunately, two of the businesses that I was working for went out of business, and that happens a lot here. So I was faced with two layoffs in two years, and I said, never again. And so I was searching what else I could do as far as starting a business of my own, so that I wouldn’t end up in that space again. And I was connected with a coach that does what I do now. I went through this very experience that I now take others through four years ago, and I found so much value in the experience that I felt this was the right thing for me to do. I had been coaching or mentoring all of my life in some capacity, whether it be my own employees or teammates in leadership positions. And, you know, so it came very naturally to me, and I, I loved the whole experience that I went through. And now, you know, one of my driving forces was really what kind of impact can I make on others? And this was it. So I love the work that I do now.

Lee Kantor: Do you find there’s a lot of folks that, um, you know, maybe at the beginning they’re like, okay, I’m going to work for someone. There’s a sense of security in that. I’ll, you know, if I do a good job, keep my head down, I’ll be able to kind of stick around here, be promoted, and have a very nice life. And then with all of the chaos that we’ve experienced in the economy and then in just in general where people are getting laid off, maybe for the first time in their career or for the first time, you know, that they’ve even ever experienced it. And then all of a sudden now there’s uncertainty. And then now they they don’t look at their career as something that, oh, this is just kind of an autopilot. I have to, um, manage this. Uh, are people kind of seeing and feeling the difference between a career, a job, you know, a career ownership, as you call it, which I think is a great phrase, uh, rather than, I’m just going to get a job.

Jennifer Jaciw: I think more and more people are considering self sufficiency and taking ownership of their careers, because there really isn’t stability right now. You know, we’re about to hit the 1 million layoff mark in just this year. Um, we’re at I think, 985,000 jobs. You know, people have been laid off from their jobs this year, um, through October. So it is a much different job market than it was, you know, especially pre pandemic. You know, pandemic changed a lot of things in the job market. And a lot of uncertainty started to creep in. And it’s gotten more so in the last year. Um but what I have been really trying to focus on with my clients is there’s opportunity and uncertainty. You know, this is the best time to be taking control of what you do and how you do it. You know, a lot of people reprioritize what was important to them during the pandemic. They don’t want to go back to office jobs that they, you know, didn’t like in the first place. Or it could be that they were laid off, you know, in the last year. And they don’t want to just take the first job that gets offered. They really want to, um, put a lot of thought into finding something that aligns with what it is that they’re trying to achieve, whether that be more time with their family, more income, um, additional income streams. You know, I don’t think anybody in this day and age should be relying on one source of income anymore. It’s just not stable, you know, um, and secure as it used to be. Um, so I think that this is a great time for people to be really looking at this as an opportunity to take control, take that control back and make them the driving force for what they want their next chapter to look like.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding that people are comfortable with that mindset shift from employee to entrepreneur. Because that is not that simple. It’s not for the faint of heart to be an entrepreneur.

Jennifer Jaciw: It’s not as simple as making a mind shift. You know, it really takes a lot more than that. And what this coaching experience is all about is providing education and guidance and addressing the fears that come with considering something like this. If you’ve been relying on a paycheck all your life, yes, it’s big and scary to think about not having that, um, or replacing that, you know, um, and, and it’s based on your activity. But if you’re driven to succeed and you have those traits that can be transferred, you know, into doing something on your own, then we’re going to talk a lot about that. I want to do everything that I can to mitigate the risk that people feel, you know, when they are considering something big and scary like this. I mean, I certainly wasn’t ready when my husband said, we’re going to start a business together. For one thing, I thought he was nuts that we could work together in a business, you know, because that’s a whole other level of complexity when you’re trying to figure out how to work with your spouse and keep those relationships separate, you know? Um, but it is something that we figured out, and I’m very proud of that because it was not easy. Uh, but, you know, having, uh, all these different experiences that I can pull from to help my clients, you know, I think makes me really good at what I do because I do speak from, you know, the other side of things.

Jennifer Jaciw: I’ve been an employee. I’ve been an employer, you know, and I have made the the shift to business ownership twice now. The first one was a startup that we created with one town car and, you know, grew to a multi-million dollar company. This one is a franchise, you know, and we’re in a franchise environment. So most of the businesses that I do work with are structured, you know, which makes that risk factor. It does lower the risk factor. It comes with the systems, the proven systems and support. You know, people created a beautiful business and then replicated it over and over and over again. So they know what works and what doesn’t. And to come in to something that you’ve never done before without that system, the systems and the and the support, it will cost you a lot of more money and a lot more time to figure that out on your own. I know, because I did it, you know. So if you can, if I can do what I can to walk them through the different types of proven business models, um, with that additional support that comes with it, it’s a lot easier to, you know, give up employment and, and really look into, um, business ownership in a different way.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share a little bit about what kind of those initial conversations look like. Say, I come to you and I was just laid off, and I’m, you know, I’m a little nervous. I don’t know what you know, maybe I’ve been sending out resumes and not getting any anybody returning my calls or or even acknowledging me, and I don’t know what to do. I’ve saved up some money. Maybe I have some 400 1KI could tap for an investment like you’re describing, but can you describe what it’s like, how you guide somebody who was just laid off through this transition?

Jennifer Jaciw: Yeah. And, you know, again, relying on my own personal experience, I’ve been through that. I’ve been in that spot and it stinks. You know, it’s not a it’s not a happy place to be. You’ve got a lot of pressure, you know, especially if you’re you’ve got a family, you know, people are relying on that income. So, you know, it really is, you know, just um, acknowledging where they’re at, you know, that this is a real thing. I understand the fear and the anxiety that comes with being laid off and trying to keep them up, keep them optimistic and helping them with tools and resources that can help them. You know, we go through an assessment together when we start working together. A behavioral assessment that can really pull. It doesn’t just pull strengths like a lot of them do. It actually digs deeper than that. It talks about their driving forces, what gets them out of bed in the morning, what makes them want to behave in a certain way, what drives them? Um, and there’s a lot of information in that assessment that comes back that can help them through the interview process. So I encourage my clients to actually continue to job seek when they’re going through the program. If they land a job while they’re going through the program, that’s great. They can continue the program. We can adjust the schedule to meet during lunch hour or after hours so that they can continue the path if they are interested in exploring what an additional income stream could look like.

Jennifer Jaciw: I have businesses that don’t require a full time time commitment. You know, if you have a proper manager in place, you could be hands off, you know, and just manage the manager. So there are things that will work with a job or without a job. Um, but really just trying to help them through the, you know, mitigate the stress, the anxiety that and and I don’t want anybody to ever feel like they’re stuck in a box, you know, that somebody placed them in 20 years ago. Because there are always options. And a lot of people have never considered being their own boss or they have and they don’t know where to start. You know, that’s what this experience is all about, is creating a safe space for people to just explore what that could look like and learn. You know, it really is focused on education and guidance so that all of their questions get answered. They know exactly what they’re getting themselves into. I also partner with several funding resources. Um, you know, people like CPAs and payroll companies and anything that they may possibly need to get started on the right foot. You know, I want to be a resource for that so that they can do that and just make it as easy as possible for them to make a confident decision.

Lee Kantor: Now when they’re working with you as the coaching delivered one on one, or do you do group or mastermind, like how do you deliver the coaching?

Jennifer Jaciw: The coaching is one on one. Um, I do occasionally do a workshop here or there, but most of it is the one on one coaching I find that works the best. But what what I do encourage in the very beginning is if there’s a family member, uh, it could be a spouse, it could be a sibling. If there’s anybody in your circle that you may be considering going into business with, I invite them to be part of the conversation as well, whether it be in the beginning or as you get more serious about considering something. I do want to meet those other people that are going to be involved, because it’s just as important for them to get their questions answered and to know that they’re the right fit for this business as well. You know, I don’t want to present a business to someone that doesn’t make sense. You know, it has to align with what it is that they’re trying to achieve, whether that be their values, their goals, whatever it is, you know, it has to make sense. I know when I was going through this journey myself, my husband was working the, um, fishing season in Alaska every year, so he would be gone for three and a half months at a time. And so when I started this journey, he had just left for Alaska, and I was getting more and more serious about opening a business. And he said, just don’t do anything until I get back so that I can talk to your coach and make sure that I get my questions answered and I said absolutely. So when he did get back, the first thing he did is hop on a couple calls with my coach. We did a couple calls together. He did some on his own. He made sure that he was just as confident in the support that I was going to receive going into this business. And and so that, you know, we knew that it was the right thing for both of us. And I think that’s really important.

Lee Kantor: So does it ever occur that after going through the coaching, the right thing to do is not owning your own business, but going and finding a job that that you’ll be more comfortable in that environment?

Jennifer Jaciw: Absolutely. And that’s why we start the conversation with the assessment and with your goals, because not everybody is cut out for business ownership. You know, it takes a lot. You know, you are going to have to make some calculated risks. You’re going to have to be able to make decisions. You know, we will mitigate as much as we can in this process, but there are things that you are going to have to do that are not going to be comfortable. That’s part of business ownership. You know, you have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Um, that’s just part of it. And not everybody is cut out to do that. So we may get to a point in this journey where, you know, we realize that this is just not the right time or it might not be the right. Um, it could be not the right time for financial reasons. It could be not the right time, because maybe there’s not enough business experience in the career to to do something else. So there’s lots of reasons, but we will determine that pretty early on. You know, if this is the right fit and if it is, then, you know, I will do my best to find something that makes sense.

Lee Kantor: Now what through the coaching, is the recommendations always a franchise or can the recommendations be an existing business that maybe is ready to sell or encouraging them to start their own business, whatever that might be?

Jennifer Jaciw: Yeah. There’s lots of paths that they could take as a result of this coaching, uh, experience. So definitely we will talk about all of those things. What would it look like if you were to keep and keep your job or find another job? What would that look like? Would that meet the things that you’re trying to achieve? Uh, the other could be you’ve got your own product or service idea and you want to create your own startup. I have a national, uh, partnership with score. Score is a group, a nonprofit organization where previous business owners or, uh, executive leaders now donate their time back and offer free mentorship. So I partner with those types of folks so that if I do have somebody that comes to me and has this great product or service idea, want to do their own thing, then I will, um, connect them with a score mentor so that they can continue free mentorship in that space that is their, um, specialty is that startup environment. My businesses are either going to be franchises or resales. So it could be somebody that’s retiring, is already generating income, is retiring moving out of state, has the the existing business up for sale. So it’s going to be one of those two that I would offer. But we explore all of those different paths. And really, you know, my I, I start the conversation with all of my clients, you know, during that intro call and just letting them know that I’m not going to push them in any particular direction. I want them my goal as their as their coach and their guide is to find them the right path, you know, whatever that is, and to not feel stuck like there’s no options because there’s always options. And I think that’s really important.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there a story you can share that maybe illustrates how, uh, the impact that this can make with somebody who’s struggling or feeling stuck? Mr..

Jennifer Jaciw: Yeah. Um, I mean, I’ve got a, of course, dozens of stories of clients that I’ve placed into businesses, but one of the ones that I think meant a lot to me is there was a ER doctor that came to me at the tail end of Covid and you know, she has two she had, she has two small sons and couldn’t remember the last time that she was able to go to a school activity or have dinner with them, because she had been in pandemic mode for three years. She missed her family and she said, I just can’t do this anymore. And I totally, you know, it was a very personal thing that she shared that with me because my youngest sister is an ER nurse and she was going through the same thing. You know, she was sleeping in a separate part of the house. She did not see her family for three years. And all of the medical professionals were like that during that time. So she she came to me, she said, I don’t want to give up my career. Obviously she put a lot of time, energy, money, experience, education into it. But she said, I want something more flexible. I want, you know, to pick and choose when I want to go to the hospital and work, you know, with patients.

Jennifer Jaciw: So we found her actually a recruiting agency that only deals with, uh, matching top health professional talent with the people that are looking for it, with hospital systems, with private practices. And it was perfect because she already had the network for it. She already had the connections. Um, she understood the business. She understands the industry implicitly. So it was the perfect thing. She is now able to create her schedule exactly how she wants it. She’s doing the things that she wants to with her kids. She’s having those family dinners, and she’s picking and choosing when she wants to work at the hospital. So it’s been, you know, a win win on all fronts. So that’s just one of the many stories that is somebody that chose to stay in the same industry she was in. I’ve got a ton of other stories where they were in, you know, something completely different. Um, their whole career was in something, and they totally switched into a different industry, but took those transferable skills with them and are now being super successful in something completely new.

Lee Kantor: Now, how do you handle some of the objections that, um, when it comes down, like people, I’m sure at first are like, yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, that sounds good. And then you’re like, well, if you’re interested in this opportunity, it’s going to be like 100 grand. And all of a sudden now they’re nervous now. Um, you know, this is different than getting another job. This is going to require a large investment, um, or a medium sized investment. Um, how do you help them kind of manage that risk and, and explain to them that this isn’t like a lottery ticket. These things are are a lot safer than that. But they’re not perfectly safe. But they’re not. It’s not just pure chance if you’re going to be successful.

Jennifer Jaciw: Right? No, there’s definitely work required. And that is something that we talk a lot about. You know, how much time are you willing to put into this business? Is it something you can work full time? Is it something you’re going to work more on a part time or semi absentee basis? We have different business models for each of those types of clients. So there’s, you know, a lot of clarity that needs to happen before we get to that point. We need to know, you know, what their commitment level is as far as their activity goes. We need to know, you know, what their financial status is. You know, what should should we be looking at something that has a lower, um, investment level versus a higher one? You know, how much lead generation needs to be provided by the the corporation by the business corporate team versus you doing the business development on your own. Some people are much more comfortable doing sales and business development than others. I work with a lot of engineers, you know, that have been laid off in the tech space, and they are not somebody that wants to go out and sell anything. So we look at different types of businesses where that’s not required. So there are, you know, lots of different ways that we’re looking. Always going back to that right fit. Um, but we also part of this experience is once I’m addressing the fears and getting to the point where they are confident in having those conversations with the businesses themselves, that’s part of this experience.

Jennifer Jaciw: So when I do get to the point where I’ve presented some ideas to them, they then have this safe space to have those conversations with the businesses directly. In those conversations, they’re learning about what their financials look like. What is the cost? What are the expenses? Um, what are your low level producers making? What are your top level producers making so that they have a really good idea going into anything, what they could potentially be making? What is the reward if they’re willing to take the risk? So we talk about that a lot. Risk and reward. They also will be connected with other owners you know, or with the owner itself if it is a resale. They’ll be talking with the owner of the existing business. So you know, again it’s just there’s so much that happens in this couple months of time that I have with people that we do everything we can to make it as smooth and seamless as possible so that, you know, if they’re going to take the leap, that they have the tools, resources, support everything that they need to get off on the right start and set up in the right way.

Lee Kantor: Now, um, before we go, can you share a piece of advice? Maybe this is a person had that has never had maybe a sales role before in their career, but like you mentioned, there’s no escaping the work. There is some work that needs to be done. And sales is usually one of the things that you’re going to have to do that at some point. Somebody has to buy something from somebody in the company in order for the company to thrive. Any advice for that new business owner when it comes to marketing?

Jennifer Jaciw: Yeah, and if that is something that we discover in those first couple conversations, then I will definitely keep that in mind as I’m looking at different types of opportunities, because if they’re going to make an investment, it needs to be a strategic investment and it needs to make sense. So if there are people that are more introverted versus extroverted, we will discover that through those first couple conversations. And we can keep that in mind. As I go to the portfolio and I look at the type of business that I’m going to present. You know, there are definitely business models that don’t require as much of that, you know. Um, and, you know, a lot of the businesses that I work with also provide sales coaching as part of the process, as part of the training. If that’s something they’re interested in learning more about. But there are definitely all types of, um, businesses, you know, ones that will rely on the owner to do the sales and marketing and ones that will not. So it’s really finding that the one that makes the most sense.

Lee Kantor: So what does it feel like for this individual right before they call you? What are what are they feeling? What what’s their, um, kind of internal dialog they’re having before they, uh, contact you or somebody on your team?

Jennifer Jaciw: Well, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people are not in a great headspace when they do decide they’re going to engage. I connect with a lot of my clients through LinkedIn, and it’s usually somebody that says they’re open to work, and usually that indicates that they have left a toxic environment either on their own accord or being forced out with a layoff. Um, and in that situation, you know, it’s my job as their coach or guide to, you know, help them get in the right head space for one, because again, interviewing is important. And if that’s something they’re going to continue to do, they have to be in the right head space. So we’re going to address that right away. The other thing is, you know, again I have talked to so many people, I think the percentage is like 75% of people want to be their own boss or have something of their own, but only 5% actually act on it. And so if I can tap into that 5%, that is, you know, willing to learn about what that could look like for themselves, then I can I can be the catalyst for that, you know, And that’s what I love about the work that I do, is finding those people that can see that this is a great opportunity, despite the uncertainty that they feel, you know, at the moment. I think it’s really important.

Jennifer Jaciw: But, you know, I mean, I don’t think that anybody should not have a coach or mentor at this stage in their life. You know, I work with and something else that has changed over the last year. You know, when I first started this business four years ago, it was usually 50 and above executives that had been laid off and couldn’t get an interview because ageism is prevalent everywhere in the job market. But what has changed in the last year is younger and younger clients are coming to me now. I have clients that are 28, 29, 30 and 32 that, um, aren’t, you know, they feel like the job that they’re in or that they’re looking for, they cannot find a business that aligns with their values or what is important to them. Or, you know, again, the growth opportunities. They’re not being given those opportunities. So they’re looking at self sufficiency. What can I do. You know to replace that employment paycheck. So I think there’s you know there’s opportunity for any type of client, you know, that is willing to just learn. And that’s all I’m asking for. People when they do connect with me is just be open, you know, to learning about what this could look like for you. And you can decide if this is for you or not. It’s really their journey, not mine. I’m just here to guide it.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody’s interested in, uh, having a conversation with you, whether to explore career ownership and see if that’s a right fit for them, what is the best way to connect with you or somebody on your team?

Jennifer Jaciw: Yeah, I’d probably direct them to the website so they can learn more about the experience and read some of the testimonials. My website is j j I w dot e. Coach.com.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff.

Jennifer Jaciw: My phone number is (408) 550-5892 and I am a virtual practice. So I have clients across the United States and into Canada.

Lee Kantor: And if they want to connect with you on LinkedIn, just your name?

Jennifer Jaciw: Yep. Jennifer. Yep.

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

Jennifer Jaciw: Thank you. Lee, I appreciate being given the opportunity to share.

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

Tagged With: Jen Jaciw

Igniting Pride and Purpose: How Self-eSTEM is Transforming Girls’ Lives in STEM Fields

October 20, 2025 by Jacob Lapera

Bay Area Business Radio
Bay Area Business Radio
Igniting Pride and Purpose: How Self-eSTEM is Transforming Girls' Lives in STEM Fields
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Leah-Davis-Ambassador-logo1In this episode of Bay Area Business Radio, Lee Kantor interviews Adamaka Ajaelo, Executive Director and Founder of Self-eSTEM, a nonprofit empowering girls and women in STEM. Adamaka shares her personal journey in STEM, inspired by her Nigerian immigrant father, and discusses the organization’s programs that build digital, technical, and leadership skills. She highlights the challenges girls face in maintaining confidence in STEM, the importance of early encouragement, and Self-eSTEM’s new AI consulting initiative for small businesses. Listeners are invited to support and get involved with Self-eSTEM’s mission.

Adamaka Ajaelo is an Oakland native, mathematician, and STEM trailblazer with an unshakeable passion for the social, emotional and economic empowerment of young women of color.

She is the Founding Executive Director of Self-eSTEM, a non-profit organization on the mission to ignite pride, purpose, and possibility among BIPOC girls and women through STEM by providing culturally relevant education, training & mentorship, and a network of support to thrive within the talent pipeline.

Since 2014, Self-eSTEM has unleashed the brilliance & self-esteem of 1,325+ girls through STEM. Celebrating 10 years of impact, she is on a quest to ensure BIPOC women are recognized as top talent and innovation in STEM.

She pivoted out of tech from her role as a Director of Strategic Workforce Planning & Analytics at Visa, and where she provided insights and recommendations influencing global workforce plans and talent development strategies.

She has worked at large companies such as Kaiser Permanente, Cisco Systems, Workday, Meta (Facebook) and Adobe in the areas of Finance, Workforce Planning & Analytics and Business Continuity. She has 17+ years of experience in the areas of Finance, Operations, People Analytics and Workforce Planning for top global companies.

She has managed a budget of $110M+, shaped a $5.0B global tech workforce through talent insights, and is an Angel Investor via Pipeline Investors. Adamaka received her B.A. in Mathematics from Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA and her M.B.A. in Finance and Leadership-Management from Holy Names University in Oakland, CA.

When she is not working, she enjoys attending Warriors basketball games, wine tasting and traveling.

Connect with Adamaka on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Empowerment of girls and women in STEM fields
  • The mission and history of the nonprofit organization Self-eSTEM
  • Overview of the Early STEM Immersion Program for girls aged 7 to 17
  • The need for diversity in innovation and technology
  • Initiatives to address digital and AI literacy gaps in education and small businesses

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Bay Area Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Adamaka Ajaelo and she is the executive Director and founder of Self-eSTEM. Welcome.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here. Lee.

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

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. So Self-eSTEM is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2014 with the mission to ignite pride, purpose and possibility among girls and women by providing digital, technical and leadership skills that strengthens and sustains their Stem identities. The organization was really started throughout my own journey of navigating the Stem pipeline, going from high school into college and really seeing sort of the gaps in the the ecosystem of providing supports for young girls and then often girls from what I call untapped and overlooked communities. And so my background is in strategic workforce planning and analytics. And what I had in my career is really an understanding of where companies are going. What are they looking for in talent? And so with self-esteem, it’s really reverse engineering that that talent pipeline in that funnel to ensure that they have the skill sets not only to to thrive in these Stem fields, but also to thrive in the future of work, in the future of work is basically something that is continuously evolving, but it’s really evolving due to the technology advancements in particular that we’re seeing the AI fields.

Lee Kantor: Now having grown up and lived through this personally. And then did your career involve Stem? Were you involved in a career in Stem?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. So my undergrad, I majored in math. So I actually became a math major by default. As I was going through my my journey, I wanted to become a civil engineer. However, unfortunately, through my experience in college of not having that support and actually having people in roles in positions actually putting up roadblocks, I then became a math major, and then I pivoted into my career in corporate America, and I was doing finance for HR. So that’s using, you know, data analytics and looking at financial data. And then when I think about my role as strategic workforce planning, that’s also using my math background. It’s around data and analytics. But the data that you’re analyzing is not marketing data or information by the computer. It’s human capital data. So analyzing information about employees and about the workforce, that’s really where I built my career of what I call the number side in the analytics and the data storytelling side of HR. And so that’s where I really built my career. Analyzing the workforce plans and labor trends for companies such as. At the time, it was Facebook but now known as meta, Cisco, visa, Adobe and Kaiser Permanente, and as well as workday.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you were going through school, elementary and high school and then college, you were still on a Stem track, right? Like you were you were the exception to the rule that was sticking with Stem. As a woman, as you progressed?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. Correct. And what really kept me grounded was my childhood and upbringing. But that was also something unique. Um, so stem for me has, um, this, uh, personal connection in the sense that, um, my father came to this country from Nigeria as an immigrant to study chemical engineering, and Stem was an everyday part of my, my life. We were doing homeschooling before homeschooling, um, was a thing. And so I was really immersed in the stem, um, fields. And my father really encouraged me to not have any limits or bounds of what I could do and achieve in the Stem fields. So that really grounded me and had, uh, this support system. Although I experienced challenges in navigating my educational and career path, I knew that I had that Stem identity, uh, locked in. But when I think about the ecosystem, I thought, well, how many young girls don’t have that personal connection? And for me, I saw Stem provide this social and economic mobility for my father and my family. Um, him coming from a rural and remote village in Nigeria, coming to the United States to study chemical engineering and working for the oil companies. I saw the connection of the impact that it can have on your life. But I was also curious. I had the Stem curiosity, and so really taking a this solid foundation that I had in my childhood, also integrating some of the things that my father taught me were also incorporating, um, those activities within our programing of actually providing exposure, not just in a traditional classroom setting, but getting outside of the classroom. Seeing Stem and engaging in Stem activities outside of the classroom is also something that really helped me reinforce, um, my Stem identity. And I and I attribute that to my father really providing that grounding, um, and rooted experience early in my childhood.

Lee Kantor: Because he was it was in your household. It was you were doing this like, this wasn’t negotiable. It was just part of how you lived your life. Right? It was just it was part of the fabric of your family.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. You you you are correct. Um, I remember doing math and physics problems in the living room. We had a chalkboard in my house. Um, and then there were certain days I couldn’t go outside and play. It was just a day, you know, to study. My father had the saying, there’s a time to play and there’s a time to study. The time now, unfortunately, is the time to study, or fortunately, it’s the time to study.

Lee Kantor: And then when you grow up in that kind of environment, it isn’t really, um, a discussion whether you’re going to do this or not. Like this is it’s kind of non-negotiable, right? Like you, you’re going to do this and you’re going to follow this path. And, and and it’s going to be hard and difficult and there’s going to be challenges. But this is just how we do things in this family.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Uh, yes. Um, my my father. That is correct. My father said, um, um, I also have a creative, creative side, and I share it with my father that I wanted to be an artist. And then he said, you know, um, do you know when artists make money? Um, when they die? Um, there he was saying basically mathematically and statistically that, you know, going into this career field wouldn’t be necessarily lucrative. Um, and so that’s initially what made me wanted to become sort of a civil engineer, where I can create designs, um, and, you know, using tools such as AutoCAD or create designs from a drafting table, whether I’m designing buildings or are designing some type of apparatus that was leaning into my creativity and my creative side. Um, so yes, Stem was an everyday part of my life. Yes, it was a non-negotiable in my household. But there were also some, some guardrails, um, in what, you know, sort of career paths, um, that, um, will return the best, um, will provide the best impact for, uh, the life that I, uh, style that I’m looking to live or just, you know, wanting to thrive in, in, in my future career.

Lee Kantor: Right. And then now you’re trying to create an ecosystem for young people, young, uh, girls and women in Stem that will afford them those choices. Right?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. Correct. So with self-esteem, um, we are we have two tracks in our program. So we have our early Stem immersion program, which is for young girls age 7 to 17. And with that we’re providing exposure and actually training, um throughout the year, um, on topics such as robotics, AI and coding. Um, and so it’s a journey where the girls are able to come back year over year. Um, when we we kick it off with our intensive one week summer camp, and then we have fall activities, typically in robotics and math. And then in the springtime they’re focusing on digital and AI literacy. So enhancing and developing those skills, um, what sets us apart is that we’re we have this tiered approach, um, an tiered curriculum that builds upon each other, that takes them from curiosity to mastery in a certain, um, subject. Um, in addition to that, our program is multi year, so the girls are able to return year over year from age 7 to 17 until they aged out. And now we also are, um, enhancing our infrastructure for what we call our innovator sustainment program, in which it is a program for alumni thinking about the age group 18 to 24.

Adamaka Ajaelo: And with that program, it’s really focusing on, um, how do you advocate and navigate your own educational and career path? So we’re providing training on intellectual property. If you’re creating something, how do you have ownership of that? How do you advocate for yourself? Um, with, you know, if you’re in college, a higher education advocate for yourself? Um, when you think about even financial aid or just financial literacy, but also too, about networking, one of the key things that we learned and observed is that this next generation and it could be due to the information age, but there’s a gap in in the human connection and networking with people. And so we’re also showing them how do you network, how do you actually build up a community of support to ensure that you’re thriving in your your career path? So those are the two key, um, uh, programs, um, that we have, um, within self esteem. But all of this is really rooted in ensuring that they have the skill sets, the knowledge and the network and the mentoring to thrive in the future of work and whatever career path they choose.

Lee Kantor: And I’m assuming by the fact that you named it self-esteem, you feel that if you’re able to develop these skills in math and science, technology, um, that that’s going to improve your self-esteem.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Correct. Um, there is a study that shows that, um, when we think about girls, um, and we think about their ability to, uh, perform. And again, perform is, uh, subjective. But in this case, thinking about it from an academic standpoint in test scores, um, early on girls have confidence. But as they transition from more of the elementary school and to go to middle school and then middle school to high school, we see that confidence drop. And so what that tells me is that the the narrative that it’s a skills and capability issue is not true. Rather it’s a lack of confidence and it’s a lack of, uh, exposure and encouragement. There was a study that shows that girls um, or actually I would say boys are 2 to 4 times more likely to be encouraged to take more advanced math courses, um, within um, uh, middle school and high school in comparison to their female counterparts. And so with that knowledge and information, we’re really, really trying to cultivate an environment where girls feel safe, they feel seen and they feel heard. Because for me, I had that in my childhood and that really locked in my Stem identity. And this Stem identity is this internal and self-belief that no matter what it’s happening in the external world or no matter the, the messaging or, um, the signals that I’m receiving, I believe that I belong in Stem, and I also believe that I can thrive and create within, um, within the industry.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that, um, when kids are young, it’s so important to really instill, um, that confidence because there was a study. I know we’re talking about Stem today, but this is about the arts. But, um, somebody told me there was a study that said that if you ask a kid, like in kindergarten, if they’re an artist, they’ll say, yeah, I’m an artist. And they draw and they do stuff. But by like second grade, only the people who know how to draw well consider themselves artists. And everybody else kind of is like, nah, like they’ve already kind of given up. And I just think it’s so important that these kind of really, um, young ages to not be a dream killer in any area and, and to be the ones that, you know, telling everybody they can do it and give them a path to do it.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. I really like that, um, example that you provided, uh, with the art. Um, and it applies to any, uh, subject or area. But what I really like with that example is that it’s also, too, is how you see yourself as you’re seeing that early on. Um, and a lot of times people think like, oh, no, people, um, are having this self-awareness. Um, maybe in high school. And I said no, as young as the age of seven. Um, eight and nine. Nine year olds, they’re starting to form these ideologies in, I say, these beliefs, sometimes these beliefs are expansive, and then sometimes these beliefs are, uh, contractive that they have constraints. But the example that you just provided is like, yes. Um, what if you actually invested time? You can still be an artist, you know, um, maybe your art is something different. Maybe it’s abstract art, but they’re starting to say like, hey, I’m not good at this. And then the data shows that this typically occurs in young girls, primarily in what we talk about in the math fields as well as the computer science fields. There’s all other fields, too, underneath the umbrella of Stem, but those are the two fields in which your analogy or your example applies, um, very, uh, concretely with young girls in those two two fields. So completely agree. Providing that encouragement and that exposure and, um, and providing those pathways that will open up more girls saying, hey, I feel that I belong in Stem. And then they start to select different career paths within the Stem, um, industry.

Lee Kantor: And it’s kind of a shame because there’s such consumers of technology. You’d think they’d also want to be involved in the creation of the technology that they consume so much.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Exactly. We actually have that, uh, saying is that, um, when you think about the products that are in the world and I always say that it shouldn’t be, and it’s nothing wrong for Elon Musk to dream for the world. But if we have the same people dreaming for the world, and we don’t have that diversity of thought, meaning that we have people who are active participants and consumers of the products, um, even the digital products, project products or technical products of the world, we need everybody’s input in shaping that, because once you have one group, then innovation doesn’t happen. I’ve worked for so many companies in which they started off as a, you know, a startup, and they had all this growth and they started to plateau. And I said, why? It’s because they started to have group thinking. But innovation by definition, is almost something what we call net new. It doesn’t exist in the marketplace. So if we’re thinking about these different products and we’re thinking about, hey, I’m a company, I stand on innovation, I want to drive innovation. If you don’t have net new thinkers and net new thoughts and net new ideas, then are you truly driving innovation? There’s a misalignment in the gap. And so that’s how I also lean in aligning to your your message that you just mentioned here. Uh, Lee is telling the young girls is that we need to hear your thoughts and ideas. We need your innovation. You have to be active participants in the innovation economy and not just consumers of the products being created.

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

Adamaka Ajaelo: Um, definitely. Um, uh, one of the things that we just had, um, was this past October 4th Saturday, we had our innovator showcase. Um, and this was more than just a fundraiser, but it was a platform for students, um, in our what we call our innovators in our program to showcase the impact of our, um, our, our story. Um, and so one of the things that we are really focusing on, um, with our organization is everybody’s talking about, um, AI and the future of work is that we are really trying to address this, uh, digital and AI literacy gap. So, one, many schools are not built to teach AI skills, leaving many students unprepared for the future of work. And so with our curriculum, we designed a multi-tier curriculum that incorporates all this insights that I’ve gathered from my experience of working at these leading and global tech companies. Um, taking the insights that I’ve gained in workforce planning, data analysis and machine learning for these major Silicon Valley companies. And so what we need help is, um, really people to support us for giving Tuesdays for initiatives. What we’re trying to do is take our curriculum and expose it to all of these students, um, in the school environments and in these after school programs, um, and youth development centers. So we we definitely need support of this Giving Tuesday for people to keep us in mind. Um, the, um, with your help, we’ll be able to equip more students with the AI skills they need to support themselves. But we’re also taking it a step further. We also understand through this AI revolution, um, that small to medium sized business as well as social enterprise need also support of integrating and adopting AI into their businesses.

Adamaka Ajaelo: And so with the training that we’re providing to participants in a program. We actually want to do a multiplier effect where they can actually provide that training to small and medium sized businesses. We understand that these businesses may not have a large budget, but if we think about a cash flow of investing in integrating AI into your company, your business, this is a way where you can do it as a tax deductible item because we are a nonprofit entity, but you’re also helping the young girls, and then you’re also getting something in an investment for your own business. So it’s a multiplier effect of investing in their future but also investing in yours. And so as we think about the year end giving season, giving season and giving Tuesday being on December 2nd, um, and then year end giving of December 31st, making that investment into self esteem as we’re focusing on one, building our AI training internally, but also to how do we actually take our learnings and training to businesses, showing them how they can incorporate tools that are using AI. Can you do AI agents, which is basically automating process and workflows. And so we’re looking to build that curriculum in-house, but then train our innovators to be those AI consultants for small and medium sized businesses. But that is something how people can help us. And this aligns to our three year strategic plan to really grow and and, and and really see ourselves as a sustainable organization. Uh, I’m sorry, not sustainable organization, but as a leader, um, in the Stem and AI fields.

Lee Kantor: Now for this AI initiative, is this something that if a small business has an AI need or is it or could you isn’t using it as much as they’d like? They can go to you and you would help them create an AI strategy, and it would be implemented by some of the girls in your program.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Exactly. Lee, that is, uh, spot on. So exactly. Um, one of the, um, major trends. And we’re even seeing companies, large enterprise companies. So I’ll give an example with Salesforce. So Salesforce one started at the enterprise level. So it was for large companies at the enterprise level was to use a tool. They gradually started to say, okay, let’s have AI for nonprofits. Now we’re seeing other um, uh, software saying, okay, how do we actually take our tools and go down to the individual business level, small to medium sized businesses? Maybe it’s a sole proprietorship. Um, and they need to adopt and use AI. So exactly what you described, this is where we want to step in and say, hey, we can help you with your AI strategy. We can help you, um, uh, adopt and integrate AI tools within your business. And then also too, if there is a custom need, uh, whether it’s a custom chatbot or an AI agent workflow, this is something that we can also provide, uh, some type of solutioning. So think of us as your AI consultant for your business. Um, and our goal is to really not only Mean do internally with their organization, but ensure that other organizations are using these tools as well.

Lee Kantor: And um, if somebody wants to learn more, what is the best way to connect?

Adamaka Ajaelo: Yes. So if anyone is interested in learning more about our organization and ways to connect and support, they can visit our website at WW. Dot and that is s e e e.org. And then they can also email us at info at Self-esteem. Org. And someone on our team will definitely reach out. Um, we’re I just wanted to say that we’re really excited for this AI, um, um, initiative because we know that if businesses are not utilizing and integrating AI into their processes or into their, their workplace, um, there is a huge risk. And I say it’s a risk to, um, not necessarily their business going away, but it’s a risk to new opportunities. It’s a risk to operational efficiency. Um, and then it can also be a risk to long term sustainability, um, and potential, um, opportunity cost of, you know, not capturing, uh, new clienteles in new in new markets. So I’m really excited about this, uh, AI initiative that we, that we have.

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

Adamaka Ajaelo: Thank you.

Lee Kantor: All right.

Adamaka Ajaelo: Thank you.

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

Tagged With: Adamaka Ajaelo, Self-eSTEM

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