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Robert Daniel With ATDC

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RobertRobert Daniel received his Bachelor of Science in Management at Georgia Institute of Technology and is an MBA candidate at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech for the class of 2022.

He is a seasoned executive in financial services, management consulting, hedge funds, payment operations, wealth management, and fintech.

He’s current focus is on expanding the startup ecosystem in the Metro Atlanta area through his advisory and mentorship with the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and Atlanta Technology Development Center (ATDC).

Connect with Robert on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Benefits of mentorship in the startup ecosystem
  • A Catalyst/Coach do
  • Avenues for startup help in the ATL

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly 120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software Web three, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Lee Kantor here another episode of Startup Showdown podcast, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Robert Daniel and he is the fintech catalyst with the ATDC. Welcome, Robert.

Robert Daniel: [00:01:02] Hey, Lee, great to be here today.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] Well, I’m excited to catch up with you. For those who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about the brief history of ATDC and why it’s such an important part of the Atlanta startup and tech area and the state of Georgia Tech infrastructure here?

Robert Daniel: [00:01:20] Yeah, that’d be great. ATDC has been around for about 40 years. We started in 1980. We are focused on building the startup community here in Georgia. So most of them are most, if not all of our companies that come through ATDC or Georgia based. Some have exposure and reach that happens outside of the state. But we want to focus on how can we create economic growth? And it’s anywhere from, hey, hey, I have a business idea. And they might join our first of our three memberships, which would be educate. Then we have accelerate and signature, which is what I usually focus on is a fintech catalyst. And those are companies that really have product market fit. They’re looking for their first first customers or partners and all the way up to usually Series A and that’s at the end of the signature and hopefully they will graduate from there. We have about a 95% success rate for graduation for our signature companies, so we’re pretty proud of that.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:18] And ATDC though has a place for everybody at every stage from like you said at the from the napkin stage all the way up through funding and exiting.

Robert Daniel: [00:02:30] Correct. That’s a lot of a lot of startup founders come to us when they first have an idea and they say, we don’t know how to get started, you know, these first time founders and they’re looking for ways and opportunities to build their skill sets around entrepreneurship. We have a lot of kind of educational platforms or programs that we offer anything from customer discovery, how to get funded and how to manage your manage. Starting up a company, all the back end components that go into that. It’s a choose your own adventure model where you get to log on, create an account and then just start learning. So this is a fantastic way to really start your entrepreneurial journey, entrepreneurial journey through the cycle and really get a good understanding of what it takes.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:15] Now, when they get to you as the fintech catalyst, like you said, they’re already kind of more mature and they’ve got some more traction. Can you share a little bit about what your day to day as a catalyst? You’re kind of a coach, right? A catalyst slash coach.

Robert Daniel: [00:03:30] A catalyst would be a good coach. Yeah. I feel like my day feels like an entrepreneurial journey in and of itself. I could be talking to. My day usually starts off with some sort of podcast. I’m trying to get a good temperature gauge of what’s going on within the Atlanta ecosystem, looking at bringing on new companies always. So trying to find the next fintechs. Since I’m focused on fintechs, we’ve got other catalysts that are doing supply chain. They’re doing robotics, they’re doing we’re looking at cybersecurity. We’re looking at, you know, any really solid tech that’s coming through through the pipeline. So I focus on fintechs. Some people reach out to me and say, Hey, I have this great idea. We’d love to chat and see how there’s an opportunity to work together, have office hours that we can we can make that happen. Other parts of the day are looking at how I can work and develop good habits with some of our some of our existing members on our and our fintech portfolio. And then sometimes it’s just reaching out to other community builders and finding ways we can work together and continue to build the ecosystem and that that might be other just startup ecosystems or it might be part of the fintech community. So working with some of those bigger banks and payment operators within the community so that when there’s an opportunity to present one of my companies, it’s much easier. And even working with some of those who might be investing, so whether it’s angel investors or venture capitalists, always trying to keep a pipeline open and say, here’s what we’re working on. And Community Bankers of Association and FinTech Atlanta have been a couple of a couple of the groups that we’re looking at to to really develop deeper relationships to to help the fintechs in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:27] Now, the fintech scene in Atlanta is pretty collaborative. There’s a lot of enterprise activity out there, but there’s also a lot of space for these entrepreneurial fintech. Companies to partner with these enterprises. They’re kind of open to that, which might not be the case in every community. But can you talk about how some of those relationships get made and and how Etsy kind of helps facilitate some of that?

Robert Daniel: [00:05:55] Yeah, that’s that’s a great question. There’s there’s lots of ways to get involved in the fintech space in Atlanta. Atlanta is truly a leader and transaction alley. We always hear that 70% of the payments come through Atlanta, but we’re much, much deeper than just the payments and transaction a town. I think there’s much more opportunity to look at some of the other things coming through, especially as we dig deeper into Defi and other opportunities there. But we have an incredible support system from the amount of organizations that are out there. Fintech Atlanta Tag and their fintech society are two that come to mind that are usually powerhouses with that. So digging deeper into into their network. The CBA CBA all have opportunities to to partner and develop those relationships. I mean, you have NCR right down the street from Georgia Tech and Deluxe, not too far up the highway as well. So we have a number of people who are really, really interested in seeing the fintech space and the transaction and payment space and Atlanta thrive. And it’s pretty easy to tap into them and just have conversations and see where we are, where their needs are, and where our fintechs that are just starting up solving different problems can fit into that kind of puzzle piece.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:26] So what’s your backstory? How did you get into this line of work?

Robert Daniel: [00:07:30] Yeah, I didn’t really anticipate getting into this from the from the front end of my career. I went up to New York and I’ve been up there for the past 15 years. The pandemic brought me back. I was up in New York doing everything from hedge funds all the way to managing roundtables with financial service execs. So that’s where my payments industry background really thrived for the past six years. So we were looking at fintechs, auto finance fraud, anything from credit cards to bank, and really learning the best practices of what what these executives were doing at their respective shops. So being able to translate that into something down here was important for me. The pandemic kind of got me off the road every two weeks and got me thinking what my purpose could be. Purpose is very important for for from my perspective, and I think it’s very important for a lot of entrepreneurs. And so I wanted to focus on Atlanta, grow up here, love it. And now we’re seeing a lot more companies staying here instead of getting pulled out to Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley. So we have an opportunity to cultivate this ecosystem, and that’s what I wanted to do. I had 20 some odd years of experience to be able to pour back into into the knowledge bucket of other startups, whether that’s business development and sales or team leadership or operations. I just wanted to be able to give back and be that mentor, advisor and investor in the community here, really at the seed stage level. So that’s what I started looking at as the pandemic hit. You know, sometimes there’s there’s things that kind of shape your career. It’s kind of funny because I graduated college in 2001 when we saw the dotcom bubble dry up, and that’s why I didn’t necessarily gravitate towards startups then and move towards hedge funds. But this is the next phase of my kind of my career trajectory. And I think this is going to be it because this is there’s so much to do over the next few decades here, and it’s going to be a fascinating ride.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:42] So what excites you the most about working with these kind of earlier stage companies?

Robert Daniel: [00:09:50] Yeah, I think that’s a that’s a fantastic question because one of the one of the phrases I hate most in life is we’ve always done it like this. That’s kind of when I when I hear that, I think organizations, that’s where they go to die. So entrepreneurs always think of what can we do different? How can we solve this problem? And look at really early stage companies. That’s when they’re taking a problem and really trying to figure that out most of the time because it irks them and they just want to want to deal with it and then hand that off to somebody else, or maybe they want to stay with it for the long time. So having an opportunity to be a part of that journey and be a part of the journey with some specific community builders who are focused definitively on the community as well, is fantastic. And having conversations about early strategy, early ways to to help and give back and that just. Into the DNA because the DNA of the strategic DNA gets really formulated with the founders and can live with the company for its entire existence. So being part of that early on is just an amazing experience and it’s a fun, fun thing to see. Now humbling and able to help with it, if you think about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:15] Yeah, I mean, it requires a level of humbleness, humility and vulnerability in order to to do it right, I think. Now, can you give some advice for maybe people that were on the or are on the same track that you used to be on where you were, you know, in this kind of big business world and you weren’t kind of I mean, you were I’m sure you were aware of the startup community, but you weren’t as immersed as you are today. Any advice for them to maybe kind of open up some time for those folks, whether it be mentorship in the startup community or I mean, they don’t have to do what you do and pull the ripcord and just jump right in. But, you know, just to open themselves up to to getting more involved with the startup ecosystem in terms of mentorship or at least paying more attention to it personally.

Robert Daniel: [00:12:10] Yeah. That’s that’s something I’ve been thinking about. Leading a panel next week. And that’s that’s one of the questions. It’s how do you how do you kind of get involved in stage one? Just raise your hand. There’s a lot of opportunities now around the country. In Georgia itself, you have at D.C. ATV Russell Center, there’s ways to get involved and give back tech stars. Everybody needs mentors right now. Start ups, showdown. That’s how I got drawn into Startup Showdown. I was talking to Dan Driscoll at a fintech Atlanta event and he goes, Hey, you know, you’re talking about trying to get involved. You’re looking to raise your hand start up showdown needs mentors, get involved in sign up and help just shape their pitches. So getting more involved is just a matter of looking for those opportunities. There’s plenty of them around. Startups need, need a few things. They definitely need access to capital. They need access to kind of the knowledge that a lot of these seasoned executives have not from a standpoint that you can coach them on their strategy. But there’s a lot of tactical components that go into starting up a company that people who have had experience can help with everything from sales.

Robert Daniel: [00:13:31] What’s your sales strategy? How have you cold called people? Do you know the great right times of day or how should I form my company? These are things that seasoned execs can help with. You’re probably not going to get in there and say, okay, your strategy on your strategy of your company is incorrect because they’ve done the customer discovery and they should know intimately the problem. So I don’t usually touch those things, but there’s other ways for people to get involved in and whether it’s through AC DC, we have entrepreneurs night and people gather there every third Thursday ATV, they have mentor days where people come in and just sit there and have that open opportunity. I was at Capital Factory last month and they have the opportunity for mentors to come in. So mentors are needed. So you all out there who want to find a great way to get involved and give back to some amazing companies, go search it out. It’s it’s a it’s a Google search away and just get involved.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:36] Yeah. And I think it it by coming from the perspective, like you said, of this seasoned veteran in the industry and you come back and see the energy and the creativity and the problems that these startup founders are trying to solve. It might connect dots for you and it could lead you to some opportunity that you could never have anticipated in your office. You know, I think it’s a really symbiotic relationship.

Robert Daniel: [00:15:07] I agree. You never know where the opportunities are. And I think that’s the beauty of startups because even a startup that that formulates from a business idea, it might pivot along the way. Anybody who gets involved with startups, you might start as a as a trusted mentor advisor and you might pivot into a startup and possibly be a co founder from there, or you might just be an investor, or you might just want to do this as as a side hustle to be able to help and give back. And that’s that’s it.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:37] Yeah. I think there’s it’s definitely a worthwhile pursuit and the impact that these mentors give to the startup founders and startups, it’s real. I mean, the impact can be dramatic. Like one sentence from a mentor can really open the mind of a founder and shift their business. I mean, stuff that that a veteran, seasoned person in the industry kind of takes for granted. You know, the founder is hungry for that.

Robert Daniel: [00:16:10] I completely agree. I was sitting down with a company the other day and was asking. They were looking at a double sided marketplace and I said, Well, what are you doing on this side of the marketplace? They’ve been so focused on one side, and they they hadn’t really formulated the other side as much. And you said you just gave me this amazing jewel, this idea. And I was like, Well, I’m not trying to change your strategy. You have to go back and test this. It’s all part of the testing phase. I’m not there to as I said, I’m not there to affect strategy, but I’m there to kind of uncover opportunities because some people can get very myopic and focus on one specific area. But as a coach, you’re there to look at everything holistically and look at the entire business model and the business. So it’s part of that operational structure as well and how that fits together. So that’s what I’m I’m there to help uncover. And everybody in life, I feel like needs a good wolfpack around them, whether that’s a coach and mentor or whether that’s a trusted friend. Keith Frost had your own personal board of trustees. I think that’s a such an important thing to have people who will continue to challenge you to kind of get outside your own mind and your own kind of ideas that you think are correct and keep pushing you. So that’s that’s what I feel like I can help do and other mentors can help do. They can be that part of that wolfpack of that that founder.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:39] Now, you mentioned Startup Showdown and panoramic for the startup founder that’s going through a startup showdown or any type of competition like that. Is there any advice you would give them in order to get the most out of that activity? Like what could they be doing either before they get started or as they’re in it, to really wring out the most value? Because, you know, obviously there’s the winners are few, but the participants are many. So for for the many people that maybe don’t win, but how do they get the most out of the experience?

Robert Daniel: [00:18:16] I think one of the first stops is, is the mentors going through and being able to mentor and mentoring from a perspective of the pitches was it was incredible. I would say before you go in there, have a few pitch, pitch run thrus with different coaches, different mentors. You’ve got to have a good pitch and you’ve got to get to the point of the problem first. Why is your problem important and why is it a personal issue for you? So telling that story is is very important and getting it right is not necessarily easy, especially for a five minute pitch. But a five minute pitch is just about what you’re going to have out in the world. People are not going to say, okay, I’ve got 15 minutes to listen to your problem and how you’re fixing it. Sometimes it’s only 30 seconds, so you have to have various different pitches and various different ways of telling your story, whether that’s 30 seconds, whether that’s 5 minutes, whether that’s 15 minutes. So get a good coach. Get an advisor to help you with that. It could be your Wolfpack. Talk to some other co founders and see what’s worked for them. Get a good deck because that’s important, kind of that visual aspect as well. But really understanding your product market fit is what’s key. You see various different stages coming to panoramic ventures and even coming to coming to DC to kind of talk to us about what they want to do or what they want to solve. So I think that’s kind of the challenge is how do you pair that up? So you might lose, but you might have an amazing idea. That doesn’t mean that you did it once and you should stop. You should continue down your path. And then at some point in time, it’s going to be the right time and that’s when it’s going to be click and investable, because at the end of the day, this isn’t investable. They’re looking for investable companies. So you might be early and that’s fine. You’ll eventually get there, hopefully.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:22] And Robert, if somebody wants to connect with you or learn more about DC and the beauty of DC, it’s whatever stage you’re at, there’s a place for you there. Can you share the coordinates? Best way to connect with you and ATC.

Robert Daniel: [00:20:36] Yeah. Atc dot org is our website. Feel free to go there. I’m on there. You can click through there and find me, but you can also connect on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active on there are Daniel and I’m there and available. Love to talk to anybody who’s looking to start a business and how how you can go from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:58] Yeah. And you’re the fintech catalyst at ATC, but there’s a place for pretty much anybody in tech. There’s a there’s a home for you there.

Robert Daniel: [00:21:06] Right? There’s anything that that’s tech we’ve got we’ve got a wide spectrum of different companies. And, you know, I focus on on fintech for AC DC, but I also look at other, other industries. I’m also a also working with a space company. I always wanted to be an astronaut as a kid until I found out that I didn’t have 2020 vision. But my friend was storing up space elements, so I was able to be an advisory board member there. So I look at a lot of different industries and some of the same things that we can help across the board, like pitch practice is is pretty agnostic to industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:44] Well, Robert, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Robert Daniel: [00:21:49] Well, thank you for your time. And thank you for thank you to panoramic for the opportunity as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:54] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:22:00] As always, thanks for joining us. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe to the Startup Showdown podcast. So you get the latest episode as it drops wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more and apply to our next startup Showdown Pitch Competition Visit Showdown DOT VC. That’s Showdown VC. All right, that’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.

 

Olga Camargo With SHENIX

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Firmspace-sponsor-bannerOlga CamargoOlga Camargo has over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. In 2006, Olga authored a graduate thesis, which focuses on the imperative need for financial institutions to provide culturally-relevant financial services to better engage today’s culturally diverse society. She has based her financial practice and new fintech project, SHENIX, on her research and community needs.

She is the Founder and CEO for FARO Associates LLC (Latina/woman-owned/Minority Business Enterprise), providing consulting services to government, corporations, and small businesses. Olga was selected by Chicago’s 1871 Chicago’s Technology and IHCC’s LatinX Incubator and is currently developing SHENIX, a fintech app that will help Latinas close the wealth gap across the U.S.

She is also Co-Head of FARO Advisory (a division of TOROSO Investments) and provides investment advisory and retirement plan advisory (virtual) services to clients that include high net worth individuals, business owners, public and private corporations, public sector entities, and not-for-profit entities and foundations.

She served as the 2021 Chair for FORBES Business Council’s Financial Services Industry Group. Negocios Now named Olga among Chicago’s Most Influential 50 Latinos. Crain’s Chicago Business named Olga among “Chicago’s Most Powerful Latinos” in 2019. She is an Aspen Ideas Festival Ricardo Salinas Scholar and has been named by Diversity MBA Magazine to its Top 100 Under 50 Executive Leader and Top 100 Women of Influence national lists.

The University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Business Administration inducted Olga into its Alumni Leadership Academy for raising the standing and stature of the college. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs selected Olga for its 2010 Emerging Leaders Program, a highly competitive cohort of Chicago’s up-and coming professionals, leaders who continue to raise the bar for Chicago as a leading global city.

She is a Commissioner on the Board of the Public Building Commission Chaired by Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She is the National Board Chair for the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (100k members). Olga serves on the IL State Treasurer’s Hispanic Advisory Council, IL Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation Economic Development Committee, and the Northeastern Illinois University Foundation Board.

She earned both Bachelor of Science in Business and Master of Arts in Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Connect with Olga on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About SHENIX and Latina Equal Pay Day

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:03] Broadcasting live from the business radio studio in Chicago, Illinois. It’s time for Chicago Business Radio, brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm Space.com. Now, here’s your host.

Max Kantor: [00:00:21] Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kanter. And before we get started, today’s show is sponsored by Firm Space. Thanks to firm space, because without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. And we’ve got a great one for you today. On today’s show, we have the founder and CEO of SHENIX. I’m excited to talk to her. So please welcome to the show, Olga Camargo. Welcome to the show, Olga.

Olga Camargo: [00:00:47] Thank you so much for having me today. I’m so excited to be here and just have a great conversation with you.

Max Kantor: [00:00:52] Totally. Let’s jump right in. Tell me a little bit about yourself and what is Shenix?

Olga Camargo: [00:00:58] Sure, a little bit about myself. A Chicagoan raised in Little Village and grew up in a family business with my mom and my dad, also helping out with the business, one younger sister. And she’s she’s actually a PhD, really happy about her family’s excited about that. I think in our family we’ve always been about like other families trying to get to that next level and trying to work hard to get there. Right. But also understanding that there are challenges that perhaps just because of our backgrounds, we’re not equipped to effectively handle. So I went to school here in Chicago, University of Illinois, have my degrees, bachelor’s and and master’s degrees from University of Illinois at Chicago. And also, just again, I think that’s where it starts going back to how we’re trying to move ahead, get ahead in life. And she actually came about because of those unique personal struggles, really more more around trying to make good financial decisions to get our families ahead. I certainly saw that growing up. My mom actually struggled with that when I was working with her at the bridal shop in Little Village and her trying to get her head around that and 14 year old me trying to help her translate best I could clearly not equipped to do that. So things sometimes just didn’t get resolved and things you can move ahead with making certain decisions because you just didn’t have all the information that you needed to make that decision. And that’s what she mixed is all about. It’s about helping you make that decision, an important decision for your family.

Max Kantor: [00:02:47] So is she, Nick, specifically for people who are entrepreneurs, have their own business, or is it for anybody?

Olga Camargo: [00:02:54] It’s really for anybody, because honestly, a lot of the information that we shared through Phenix is a lot of we’re bringing in experts, people that have walked sort of like in those in those shoes that I’ve been talking about, like those those those shoes with my experience and how they figured it out. And again, a lot of these are obviously professionally qualified individuals. Obviously, they came to be have that story and also stories of inspiration and how they were able to really get that information to to to be able to prime themselves, to buy at home time themselves, to be able to set themselves up, to start saving for retirement, saving for an emergency fund, saving like it’s like sort of like sharing those stories and then also letting you know where some of those resources are for everyone so that it’s not just part of like not you having to go out and just read. And just at the end of the day, it’s like, okay, I got that. I still have questions. These are individuals that through Phenix, we’re going to be having a couple of recorded sessions, sort of like building up this library, especially as we hear back from people like what else? What here’s here’s stuff that I need to know about. So we’ll bring in those experts so they can start explaining to people their stories, because sometimes it’s about like, oh, these people never had that problem. Know people that already have figured it out, had that problem. And here’s how we’re going to share that story so that everybody can basically get to that, get to be able to make that financial decision. That’s important to them.

Max Kantor: [00:04:30] Totally. And I mean, you’ve like you you shared you’ve been in the business, the finance world for so long and you have so much experience. And it sounds like with Phenix, you can take all that experience, all those lessons learned, both good and bad, and now you can help others who have not cross the bridge you’ve already gone over.

Olga Camargo: [00:04:50] Yeah. And also sometimes when people do cross that wrong bridge, right, Just just they know people have been there. People have been there. Crossed the wrong bridge. But you know what? It’s okay. We we can help out each other with sharing these stories and how we did it to get ahead and sometimes just recognize, Look, I made a bad choice. It’s okay to move forward, right? That’s what this is all about. So what we have through Phenix, Phenix is basically a Web based app at this point. We’ll eventually put it on the mobile, but for now, we don’t have to wait to put it on the mobile to get this information out. We have had lots of great responses from people that want to partner up with us, organizations that want to be part of this platform and deliver this information to really anyone. We we are just, you know, we are focused on helping Latinas. Why? Because Latinas right now are the ones with the widest pay wealth gap in the United States. And we figure if we start talking and focusing to to address these needs first, everybody that is going to be included. Because currently what I see out there is sometimes platforms that fintech platforms or apps that are out there, they are not really focused on really helping people that have that are basically struggling the most. They start up a couple of notches up and then they completely overlook that population that we really also need to be helping. So we figured, well then let’s go down and let’s make sure that we have everybody is able to climb up the ladder, right? Let’s put the ladder in a place where everybody can climb up. And so but again, I think that it’s going to be inclusive of everyone because we are trying to get trying to trying to focus on this group that needs it the most for sure.

Max Kantor: [00:06:53] And I think that’s what makes your, you know, your app so unique is, yeah, you could create just a general finance app that, you know, to help people grow their wealth. Like you could just do a blanket statement, say, you know, Q&A. So but like you’ve created this very niche community and it I, I feel like you’ve created a very safe community for people to come and learn from each other.

Olga Camargo: [00:07:18] Absolutely. And that’s what it is. I mean, it takes a village, really, to be able to help our community right across the nation. And it’s not going to be up to just one entity to be able to do that. It’s going to require multiple entities to come together, to come to Phenix, partner up and be able to say, Hey, this is what I can help out with. We are obviously we are being selective as to who we’re including because they need to be able to really have that sort of trajectory of being in the space, really understanding, also having empathy, and also making sure that again, people feel that they are in a safe space and that they will be able to take conversations, maybe not take conversations offline and be able to continue working with individuals. So again, it’s about being inspired. It’s about understanding that, look, you’re not in this alone, not trust me, when making financial decisions. A lot of people, the majority of people need help. I say like 90 some percent need help.

Max Kantor: [00:08:31] Now December 8th. I didn’t know this was Latina. Equal Pay Day. So can you talk about this day, what this day means to you and what this day means to Phenix?

Olga Camargo: [00:08:42] Sure. So Latina Equal Pay Day was just about a couple of weeks ago. And I actually we myself and my co founders, Patricia Mota and Carlos Avila, also, again, founders of Phenix as well. We were actually out in New York City and we talked about the importance of addressing this this issue. So Latina Equal Pay Day basically says December 8th. So if you think about the pay gap, the disparities, Latinas right now have to work 23 months, close to two years now, because I work December 8th, close to 24 months to be able to make the same amount of money that a non Latino white men makes. Wow. So imagine working 100% of the time. Would you like to get 50% of that pay right now? No one does. No one wants that. But that is in effect happening and that is, again, the widest pay gap that this group is facing. Right. So this is this is the group that is facing that white is the widest gap. So we need to make sure that as we move forward, she is is she an expert in all this? Everybody has to play a role here because everybody does get affected. But she nix’s role in all of this is to be able to help Latinas obviously find that opportunity, make sure the resources that they are getting their fair pay. And it all depends, obviously, where you are in the nation and and where you live, zip codes and whatnot. But you should be getting 100% pay that is due to you.

Olga Camargo: [00:10:31] Right, compared to all of your other peers, as no matter who they are, you have to have equal pay. And then once you have equal pay, you have to also understand that you have this position. But if it is in your desire to continue growing within within that role, within that company organization, whatever it is that you are also equipped to have the conversation right, that we have competition that goes along with that so that you can sit down and discuss with your supervisor, with your manager, Hey, I’m here. But what I want to continue growing. Where do you think I can be in a year or here’s what I want to be in a year, right? And so that they can they can, they can progress. And once they’re progressing, also, it’s about, hey, now let’s talk about how you’re going to be saving for that house that you want to buy, how you’re going to be saving for. And maybe it’s education, right, for yourself or for your family, a loved one. Maybe it’s about saving for retirement and the list goes on and on. Or it could even be, of course, opening up your own business. That’s what we’re trying to make sure that everybody is going through a process and that they have the information that they need, that they already understand how they’re supposed to be negotiating and then also how they’re supposed to be also talking and discussing about their career growth and setting them on that pathway to be able to build that financial legacy.

Max Kantor: [00:11:55] So what are some future plans for Phenix?

Olga Camargo: [00:11:59] So next year? So again, we are Web based right now. Next year, future plans. We are going to be taking a lot of our conversations stream some of those on LinkedIn. We are also going to be our website is going to also have an extra just developing our library with experts from around Chicago, around the nation to again start helping our community. So people, if they’re up at 2:00 in the morning and they want to like, look out, learn about something, they can go to Phenix and hear a couple of videos or read some some articles about how to empower themselves financially and also obviously taking the app onto the mobile next year.

Max Kantor: [00:12:50] Now, Olga, a question I always ask my guests. It’s my favorite question of every show for you. What is the most rewarding part of what you do with Phenix?

Olga Camargo: [00:13:03] You know, it’s always been I’ve been in this industry for a while over 20 years. Being in the financial industry as a financial advisor, I am an investment fiduciary, which if people know what that is, that’s that’s basically who you want to be working with no matter where you are in the country. You know, make sure you ask that question. My. We are basically legally bound to do what is in the best interests of our clients. But if I want to be able to take what I have learned in this specific space of doing what is in the best interest of individuals and taking it and applying that to how we’re going to be delivering information to people throughout within Phenix. And for me, the most rewarding is just to really see people flourish. I want them to be able to feel that they are living their life the way they want to live their life. And I don’t. No one likes to see people struggle. I certainly don’t. And if I can do something at this point to be able to help out, I will. She right now is self funded by myself and my two co-founders because we believe so much in this mission. We are in the process of becoming a social enterprise at this point, and we would welcome anyone that wants to join us as a partner to contact us.

Max Kantor: [00:14:33] So for anyone who wants to learn more about Phenix, where can they find you guys?

Olga Camargo: [00:14:38] Sure, it would be Phenix s h e and I got AP.

Max Kantor: [00:14:45] Awesome. Well, Olga, thank you so much for being a guest today on Chicago Business Radio. You guys are doing great work with Phenix and we just appreciate everything you’re doing for the community.

Olga Camargo: [00:14:55] Thank you so much. And thank you for having me.

Max Kantor: [00:14:58] Thank you to listening for another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’ve been your host, Max Kanter, and we’ll see you next time.

Intro: [00:15:07] This episode of Chicago Business Radio has been brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm Space.com.

Dan Fisher With Bottle Rocket Media

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Firmspace-sponsor-bannerDan FisherAs a Principal and a Director at Bottle Rocket Media, Dan Fisher is excited to be able to combine his years of experience as an Editor, Producer, Director, and Photographer to create content across many platforms.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn and follow Bottle Rocket Media on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Business lessons learned over the last 10 years
  • Smart risks as a business owner
  • About Bottle Rocket Media Rocket Sauce
  • Favorite shoots over the years and why
  • The importance of video in current times

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:03] Broadcasting live from the business radio studio in Chicago, Illinois. It’s time for Chicago Business Radio, brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm Space.com. Now, here’s your host.

Max Kantor: [00:00:21] Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kanter. And before we get started, as always, today’s show is sponsored by firm Space. And thanks to firm space, because without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. And we’ve got a good one for you today. On today’s show, we have the principal and director of Bottle Rocket Media. So please welcome to the show, Dan Fisher. Welcome to the show, Dan.

Dan Fisher: [00:00:45] Thanks for having me.

Max Kantor: [00:00:46] Me. Let’s jump right in. Tell me a little bit about bottle Rocket media.

Dan Fisher: [00:00:52] Well, Bottle Rocket Media is a company that my partner, Brett Sager and I, we started 11 years ago. We’re a video production company that work in the advertising and marketing space and internal communications, which is basically to say we do everything but feature films.

Max Kantor: [00:01:11] Gotcha. How did you guys get into that industry?

Dan Fisher: [00:01:14] So I’ve been in this business forever prior to prior to starting this business. Brett and I, we both met, we were working on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and when the show ended, we were looking for what’s next, and we decided to take matters into our own hands and just start this company to bring broadcast quality work to the private sector.

Max Kantor: [00:01:36] And what year was Bottle Rocket Media founded?

Dan Fisher: [00:01:40] 2011.

Max Kantor: [00:01:41] Wow. Okay. So you guys are like ten years old. So over these ten years, like, what are some lessons that you’ve learned? Because I’m sure along the way things have gone smoothly, Things have gone poorly, you know, what have you learned over this decade plus of experience you now have?

Dan Fisher: [00:01:56] Yeah. You know what? What’s interesting is that for me, this is a this is my second or third iteration of my career. And so starting a business later in life has sort of given me perspective that I might not have had otherwise. Whereas colleagues and friends of mine who start a business younger, you know, they just grinded it out from the very beginning because they learned kind of, you know, learned on the streets for us. You know, we had a little bit of perspective and we knew from the beginning we wanted to create create a community where where the work life balance was good, where the work was quality. And the clients that we work with were of a certain standard. I’d say for me, there’s a few things that come to mind. One is be honest, no matter how uncomfortable it might be, is important these days. I learned through through a couple of relationships that when when you’re not honest up front, it’s just kind of festers and then things become challenging later on. I’ve I’d say another one that comes to mind is there’s no substitute for just doing the work. It’s hard work to to start and run a business. And there’s only so much that you can farm out and have other people do. And, and to really understand what’s what’s going on under the hood, you got to get your hands dirty and take risks, which is a common trope that people say all the time. But it’s true. You have to you have to push yourself to take risks in order to in order for the company to grow, in order for business to move forward.

Max Kantor: [00:03:36] So what does a client have to think for them to go, You know what? I could use bottle rocket media right now. What’s going through their mind?

Dan Fisher: [00:03:45] Well, today, today it’s easy. It’s an easy sell because video is ubiquitous. Everybody needs it everywhere all the time. You kind of can’t get away from it. So I would say that if you have if you have any sort of communications that you want to get out there to more than a handful of people. Video is what my clients are using. I have, like I said, I have internal clients on the larger side that need to communicate with thousands of employees at once. There’s no better way to do that than with video. I have product based clients that need to show off their products to millions of customers. Potentially. There’s no better way than that. There’s no better way to do that than with video. And I have educational clients that are trying to teach people how to. Well, it depends depends a lesson about how to teach people. And there’s no there’s no better way than than video. I mean, personally, I’m a fan of of reading in the written word, but I acknowledge that in order to communicate with with large groups of people. Communicate your message. Communicate who you are. There’s no better way to do that than with video. So kind of anybody that’s in business or marketing that wants to communicate wants to do something with video.

Max Kantor: [00:05:12] So what does a client need when they come to you? Can they come to you with just a concept for a video? Can they come to you with absolutely nothing and you’ll help them build it out? What do they need?

Dan Fisher: [00:05:23] Yeah. So basically. Basically a client can come to us with anything they need with. I’m sorry. Basically, a client can come to us with a fully baked idea or or just a notion that they need a video. We we pride ourselves in being able to step into the process at any at any part of the at any part of it. So. So we have a lot of agency clients and of course, advertising agencies and marketing agencies often typically come with the idea already baked and ready to go. And we have a lot of client direct clients that know they need a video, they want they have a message, but they don’t have the ability to translate that into a creative idea. So at Bottle Rocket Media, we are writers, directors, editors, producers, motion designers, and so we have all these creative people at our disposal, and we build a team to fit the client’s needs.

Max Kantor: [00:06:27] Now, you’ve been doing it for so long. You’ve gone through so many experiences. Do you have a favorite shoot over the years, one that sticks out to you for being maybe unique or fun?

Dan Fisher: [00:06:40] Yes, and not really. There’s just so many. Let me think what comes to mind. So we we we’ve done a lot of work over the years with American Girl. I really enjoy I really enjoy working with them because I like the organization. But also Kid Energy on set is a lot of fun. We did a shoot a handful of years ago that was maybe a dozen kids on a stage dancing with a choreographer. That was a lot of fun for me. The energy was just incredible. The kids were having so much fun. The client was was was really enjoying the results. So that was one. But then we’re in the middle of a project now. We’re working on a series of videos for a client that revolve around conflict resolution. So it’s the almost the opposite. It’s docu style, it’s super serious and educational, it’s super engaging material. And that will definitely be one of my favorite one of my favorite shoots, because the conversations that were had were just enlightening for sure.

Max Kantor: [00:07:55] And I can imagine, you know, doing that wide range of content at Bottle Rocket Media, it just keeps you on your toes. You know, you’re learning every day dealing with different subject matters and how to make it look its absolute best.

Dan Fisher: [00:08:10] Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things that Brett and I did really well was we’ve assembled a talented team of people that have overlapping skills but also individual talents. And so I have, you know, in the design space, if I have a great three D person, I have a great two D person in the in the directing space. I’m I’m a documentary person. But, but Brett and and other other people we work with Mark are might do more scripted work so we’re able to sort of stay stay versatile because people bring different different skills and different talents to the party and we find a way to engage those as opposed to putting our content in a certain box and only doing that thing.

Max Kantor: [00:09:01] Now, I was on your website to learn more about you guys and what you do, and I saw this phrase the bottle Rocket Media rocket sauce. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Dan Fisher: [00:09:15] Yeah, I mean. To me, the the rocket source is something that’s individual to each of the team members, which is what makes it kind of like a secret sauce, I think. You know, Dave, our lead editor, would would look at it very differently than than I might on any given day. For me, the sauce is transparency, both with my clients and with my team members. Authenticity. And mostly, I think it’s this desire to listen and learn from others.

Max Kantor: [00:09:58] Hmm. That’s awesome. I mean, I was reading it and I was like, This is such a fun phrase. And I think it after hearing you explain it, I think it perfectly describes what you guys are going for. And I love how you keep going back to the team, because at the end of the day, especially with what you’re doing with film shoots, the team is so critical and it sounds like you put together the perfect one.

Dan Fisher: [00:10:19] Yeah, I love my team. You know, our philosophy, Bret’s and my philosophy has always been, let’s find smart, talented, creative people. Put them in a room together and get out of their way. And it took us a while to do it since the company started with him and I and a camera. So it took us a while to hit our stride, to get our vision. But now that we’re there, I mean, we work with you know, there’s just under 15 of us at Bottle Rocket Media and probably another ten regular freelancers that are that are with us every week. And then when when we have crews, our crews sizes could be anywhere from three people, a small documentary project to 20 people and above. If it’s more of a commercial shoot. And, you know, it’s just really important to find what what makes people passionate and let them thrive in that space and everybody wins. The creative is better, the content is better, the experience is better. And it’s really how we how we approach every project.

Max Kantor: [00:11:30] Now, this next question is a question I ask every guest that comes on Chicago Business Radio, and you’ve touched on it a little, and I kind of have a feeling of what you’re going to say, but I still want to know for you, Dan, what is the most rewarding part of what you do at Bottle Rocket Media?

Dan Fisher: [00:11:50] Thank you for asking that. It is the impossible question, and I have what I think is a reasonable answer. The. I started this company to make videos and support my family, of course. And so the most rewarding part was the creative process going through, going through an idea with a client, figuring out what it’s going to look like. Maybe it’s a shoot, maybe it’s an edit only project. Maybe it’s all graphics and watching it come to fruition and seeing the joy on their faces when when it looks, feels and communicates what they want. I still love that. Of course. That’s what we do every day. That’s our product. That’s our service. But I think things have shifted for me personally in the last couple of years. The pandemic has, of course, given us a lot of time to think and rethink and overthink how we do business and the way we do business. And I think for me, the shift has come in the area of building the team where it’s no longer about making the video. For me, it’s about assembling a great team that makes the video. I really enjoy working with other people and so I think for me, the greatest joy I have is when my team is thriving.

Max Kantor: [00:13:18] I love that. And Dan, if people want to learn more about Bottle Rocket media or maybe we have someone listening that wants to utilize what you guys do and, you know, pay for your services as a video company, how can they learn more about you guys?

Dan Fisher: [00:13:35] Well, probably the best place to go is Bottle Rocket Media, dot net. That’s our website. And we’re all over social like everybody else. So on Instagram, we are Bottle Rocket three, one two. On Facebook, I think it’s just bottle Rocket media. And we’re on LinkedIn, of course, and I’m all over the place in all those places as well. So but certainly if you want if you want to get the full experience, the website is the best place to go. We have we have a great team that. We have a great sales team that on boards and takes care of everybody and makes sure that the process is seamless.

Max Kantor: [00:14:18] Awesome. Well, Dan, thank you so much for being on Chicago Business Radio. It was great talking to you. And you guys are really doing some really great work, so we appreciate all that you’re doing.

Dan Fisher: [00:14:27] Hey, thanks. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me.

Max Kantor: [00:14:29] And thank you to listening for another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kanter, and we’ll see you next time.

Intro: [00:14:38] This episode of Chicago Business Radio has been brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm Space.com.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy With Kennedy Effect

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PatriciaTaylorKennedyPatricia Taylor Kennedy, CEO at Kennedy Effect

Patricia simplifies the complexities of self-help. Knowing what the Game of Life template could be (your destination goals and the steps to get there), she bridges the gaps to show you what might be missing. That way, you can connect the dots and create the strategy you need for success in the Game of Life! Her passion is empowering others to learn their mission, and what they aspire to be in their lives, and then make plans accordingly.

Patricia want to help people find their life’s purpose and help them create goals to ensure they reach their vision As an Experienced Women in Leadership coach for Fortune 150 companies, she has used her expertise to empower clients to fulfill their life and career goals. Her mentorship programs deliver results. Many of the participants of her program earn promotions within one year of completion—a high achievement.

Patricia has been humbled to learn that her coaching for sales teams resulted in record-breaking performance outcomes. “When I’m not working, you can find me kicking my kids’ butts at board games, hiking, or taking long walks with my family.” Pat loves painting, listening to murder mystery podcasts while getting in her steps, curling up in a blanket with a good book, and solving an escape room puzzle with friends.

Connect with Patricia on LinkedIn and follow Kennedy Effect on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Women are less likely to apply for roles than men
  • Women get on the first “rung” on the career ladder
  • Concept of Tasks vs. opportunities
  • The top three habits that best serve women in the workplace
  • The Game of Life! A Woman’s Game Plan for Success

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] 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 on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Pat Kennedy with the Kennedy Effect. Welcome.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:00:44] Thank you so much, Lee. I’m so excited to be here today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about the Kennedy effect. How you serving folks?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:00:52] Yeah. So basically, I help women with their careers, and a lot of times women get stuck and we all do, right? Everybody does. And but I specialize in helping women who are stuck in their careers, maybe stuck in life to help them move forward so that they get the jobs that they want, the salary they deserve and things like that. And I also wrote a book, The Game of Life A Woman’s Game Plan for Success.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] So what’s your Back story? How did you get involved in this line of work so well.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:01:29] I have been in the corporate world most of my career, and my two daughters are grown up now and not much has changed. Women still get $0.82 on the same dollar that men earn. And so I want to start to change that. But how it came about over time, I’ve been doing mentorship programs, coaching programs for women. I coach women in leadership and things like that. So it’s all culminated into my private practice and in this book that I’ve written.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:03] So who is your ideal client? Is it the person in the corporate world that wants to move up the ladder? Is a person that’s starting an entrepreneurial adventure? Who who do you serve the most?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:02:15] Well, I can serve both. And I think the ideal client is somebody who is stuck in their career. And so it can go either way. It could be where they’re stuck in a career and maybe they have tried to look for something at the same job that, you know, the same company that they’re in, but they don’t know exactly what to do. Nothing they’ve tried has worked. I help them to move forward and to think about how to make that next move. And if it’s somebody who’s looking already for another job, I help them get clear on what they want to do. I help with salary negotiation and all the things you would think about in terms of what a person needs to have in their arsenal in order to get the best offer that they can get. And then there’s times when I do work with women who during the process realize that, wait a minute, I want to start a company, Here’s what I really want to do. So I help them to think about all of the different ramifications of what that entails and help them navigate that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:25] So let’s take this one at a time. Let’s look at the woman that is in a corporate role or has joined a corporation, a large company, and is maybe frustrated at the speed in which her career is progressing. What are some mistakes you see women making that maybe be there might be holding them back?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:03:48] That is such a great question. Thank you for asking that. And I hope I hope there’s a lot of women listening to your show that this can help. What happens is women are were socialized differently than men. Men are socialized differently than women. And all of that sometimes prevents us from communicating effectively. And so maybe we don’t speak up or maybe we take on things that really don’t help further our career. So let me give you an example. A lot of times women take on tasks instead of opportunities that could drive them forward. So an example of that might be, Oh, we want to do this kind of training. Can you set that up for us? They’ve done studies on this. There’s research to back me up. Men. If it doesn’t serve their careers, they won’t raise their hand. But women always raise their hand, and there are several studies that support that statement. So I’m helping to teach women to think about looking at what they’re being asked to do. Are they focused on more task oriented things, or are these truly opportunities that can lead to the promotions, to the salary increase, to furthering their career more quickly? So that’s one one sort of example, I think. And then the confidence as well is important. Women, a lot of women don’t have the same, you know, the necessary confidence and communication. Skills in some cases. And so there’s help that I provide in that arena as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:30] Now, over the years, I’ve gotten to interview a lot of women leaders and mentors of women. And one of the things that I learned from doing having these conversations that I wasn’t aware of, that it was just I mean, maybe it’s just a male bias of me not seeing what was in front of me. But I was told that when an opportunity arises, a man is more likely to apply for it. Even though they may not have all of the credentials, they will think, Oh, I could do that. So then they’ll apply where the woman is looking for exact matches. So if they they’ll self select out of an opportunity. If they are not a perfect fit and they know they could do every element of the job. Are you seeing that as well?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:06:17] Yes, there’s a lot of research on it. You know, we all I don’t know if you’re familiar with LinkedIn, right. Everybody should be. Linkedin is our business kind of social media. And a lot of times, well, what they’ve done, LinkedIn actually did a survey as well because they they have all the data because there was a survey that was done where they found this to be true, that men will apply if they only meet 60% of the job criteria, whereas women have to have 100% of the criteria, they’ve got to have the exact experience. So this is what they think themselves. This is not necessarily what the employer is thinking and they women won’t apply. And so LinkedIn did their own survey and they found the same thing is still happening. And so what I try to do is to help build confidence in women that were lacking. I’m tired of waiting for the world to change, and we’re not going to catch up unless we ask for it ourselves. So my goal is to help change this paradigm in women and help us to get to equality. I mean, I want to just that’s all we’re looking for, right? But yeah, so that is unfortunate. And so I hope that a lot of women are listening today, are hearing this and stop to reflect and realize that they don’t need to have but 60% of the job criteria before they apply.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:44] Right. Because the person that’s putting out the application, that’s just their wish list. It’s not mandatory. This is what they would like. So it’s silly to self select out before you even have a chance to have conversation with the person making the decision.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:08:02] Exactly. And I think that when you say it’s silly from your perspective, it’s silly. But what women go through in a lot of our life experiences shape how we look at the world and we look at the world through a different lens, and it happens through our social conditioning and all the things, right? So when when women are looking at these jobs, they’re they’re thinking, Oh, they’re not going to hire me. I have to have all of this criteria because maybe they’ve been told that in the past for whatever reason. But this is we’re in 2022. This doesn’t count anymore. Just go and apply. It’s really important. So there’s mindset work that needs to shift. And that’s why having a coach is so important to help make those leaps and think of things that they hadn’t thought about before and to build point them out and help build confidence in women.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:01] So you think that it’s confidence that is at the heart of this or lack of confidence that is holding women back?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:09:09] Mistaken beliefs and lack of confidence. We believe that we have to have 100% of everything before we even get considered. So that is a mistaken belief. And how did we get there? Well, we you know, from the ages of zero and to seven, we’re told, don’t get dirty, you know, go out and play, but keep your dress clean and don’t mess up your hair and whatever. And boys and I’m just generalizing here. I realize that a lot of families are different, but this pervasiveness of how women have to behave is shaped when we’re between the ages of zero and seven and it shows up in things like this example of when we tried to go and apply for jobs and we self select ourselves out, we don’t even try because we feel like it’s stacked against us. So remove the mistake and beliefs so that you feel more confident and you go for those jobs. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but it is very simple concept.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:10] Now, something else I learned when it comes to negotiating for a salary or for a job opportunity, this woman recruiter was telling us that if she offers a guy a job, he will almost always push back and ask for something additional 10%, some more time off, some just there will be an ask of some sort where a lot of times when the woman is presented with the job opportunity, if she’s interested, she says, Yes, thank you. And then that goes from there. Are you finding that as well, that women are less likely to negotiate?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:10:55] Yes, there’s a lot of statistics on that, unfortunately, as well, and that’s part of the confidence boosting. So it’s really important to understand and know what your value is and know that you have the right to negotiate, that you have the right to ask for more, you know, and not not being really wild with your offer or what you’re countering with, but being realistic, but always asking for something more. Don’t take the first offer. So again, we’re we’re sort of conditioned to to really just, oh, be grateful and thank you and all of those kind of polite things. But in the real world, it’s important to stand up for yourself and ask for more. And here’s another thing that happens to women. So let’s say you didn’t negotiate for an extra, let’s say 10,000, because it’s easier for me to do the math on when you when you lose out and leave money on the table. In a situation like that, $10,000 when you’re early in your career, at the end of your career, if you save that same 10,000, you would have 500,000 in your 401 K. And I know I can do a lot with that 500,000. So women do not leave money on the table. Men too, don’t do that. But it does happen to women more often than men. And it is conditioning and it’s training and it’s also boosting self confidence to believe you’re worth asking for that extra those extra funds.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:31] Now, do you think that some of this is also that guys tend to talk with each other and kind of learn best practices and tips from other guys that have been there and done that where women just because there’s less numbers of them and these positions, they don’t have that network to learn these little tricks of the trade. And that’s where a coach is so important and helpful to accelerate their career.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:12:58] Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, that is such a great point. There is a lot of research about that companies are trying to change now. So let me talk about the way it is. There are there are a lot it’s a lot easier for men to have those conversations. A father has the conversation with his son. Here’s what you need to know. And for daughters, for some reason, they don’t always get that kind of information. And then you’re right. When we go into the corporate environment, men do talk about that and they learn from their mentors and their buddies and women. If they’re not if there aren’t mentors that are women or even men, they’re hesitant to go to those men to get mentorship. And, you know, there we talk about the olden days when when there weren’t as many women. There’s a lot more women now, but they still don’t have these skills. So how do we help them to ramp up? Having a coach is really important, a career coach. And then that’s why I started all the mentorship programs that I started in all the places. Is where I’ve done it and do coaching for women in leadership to help them remember how, you know, these are the things you need to know. But companies are starting to pay attention. There’s a lot of press about it. We’re talking about it on the radio today, which I’m so grateful for. And there are, you know, a lot of changes that companies are taking to make sure that there is equal access mentorship. So that’s a great point.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] Now, are you finding that the the business of today sees coaching as kind of part of the benefits package, whereas maybe five, ten, 20 years ago that was something only for either the highest leadership team to bring the most value out for them, or it was kind of to help that person that’s having problems kind of get over a hurdle where now it’s more democratized, where more and more people may be lower on the totem pole or able to benefit from coaching.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:15:15] Oh, absolutely. Companies have been investing in coaching in their senior leadership teams for for a while now. And if you want to rise to a higher level just in your personal life, just for your mental wellbeing, even, it’s always it’s always going to bring you great rewards To have someone in your corner and a coach is a great way to go and the coaches help people to see what they haven’t maybe seen before, but also hold their clients accountable. Hey, you know, we’re going to we’re going to work on this that you said you wanted to work on this particular thing and, you know, X, Y, Z, and it’s just like a trainer. Like if you have a sports coach, right? Everyone knows and it’s logical. You wouldn’t expect an elite athlete to not have a coach. The same could be said for your job. When you have someone in your corner who helps you, who knows the ropes and understands how to move you forward because they understand human psychology, then you’re going to excel and do it much quicker than you would do it on your own. If you ever even found that information on your own.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:30] If you were going to give advice to a woman in the corporate workplace, are there any things you would recommend? Are there any habits you would recommend them kind of leaning into in order to accelerate up that ladder?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:16:46] There is so much that I would like to say to do that. But I think the main point that I you know, the main thing today that I’d like to say is to remember all of the amazing things that you’ve done. So what happens for men and women, for all of us humans, we focus on the negative and women do this really well, unfortunately. So. Right. I call it a swank bank, right? Your book of awesome. But every day start to journal about all the things that you did and that you did well and it helps you to have more confidence. It seems like a simple thing and it’s, you know, but when you’re feeling a little self doubt or whatever, you can go back to your book of awesome to your swank bank and really remember what you have accomplished because our brains are wired to remember the negative things. And so we have to really overcome that and remember the very positive things. And that’s one way to do that, to boost confidence. Also identify if you’re taking on an opportunity or you’re taking on a task and try to negotiate with your boss, hey, I’ll take on this task. If you say that I get that next amazing project or something like that, because and learn how to say no. So I guess I came up with three things I could go on all day about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:07] Yeah, I’ll tell you, that Swank Bank is a great idea, that that makes it kind of simple to accumulate those nuggets of gold that you helped in and that you’ve helped others. And then you put it in one place. And then when it’s time for your annual review, you just pull that folder out and you have dozens of examples rather than you going through your calendar trying to remember back what that was, you know, eight months ago that you thought you worked on to help somebody achieve something. Exactly. If you could do it every time that somebody, you know, wrote a note thanking you or you accomplish something and you have stats to back it up and you just drop it into a folder and you just kind of just leave it in there and forget about it. When it’s time to do those reviews, they’re all be there and you’ll overwhelm them with success stories that’ll help you get that raise.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:19:04] Absolutely. That’s a great point. And that can be used to further beef up your résumé. And when you’re going for interviews and all kinds of things, as well as confidence. So that’s a great point.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:17] Lee Now, let’s talk about your book a little bit. For those who are interested in the book, what would they glean from getting him?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:19:28] Yeah, so it talks about it’s it’s called The Game of Life A Woman’s Game Plan for Success. And it’s really to help women understand where we are, you know, so not just talk about $0.82 on the dollar. Oh, my gosh, isn’t that horrible? But wait, here’s what’s really happening. This is the landscape you’re in and here’s why we got here. So I talk a little bit about the social conditioning and all the different examples, and then I talk about finding your purpose. And when you find your purpose, it helps to make everything clear and then go make up your own rules of the game, right? And then go find mentors and coaches and people to help support you and go out and and have great success.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:13] So it’s very not only is it there’s a high concept behind it, but it’s very tactical and practical and gives them actionable items to do.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:20:21] Absolutely. And there’s a lot of things on my website too, so that when they click, they get the book, there’s links that they can go to to download worksheets and that sort of thing. So it really is tactical as well as, like you said, very. It just helps to know the landscape you’re in because a lot of women are like, Oh, I’m not discriminated against. Well, not overtly. Always, you know, and maybe not, maybe you haven’t. I find that hard to believe. But there are small nuances, right? And learning to to recognize them. And here’s what you do. And it’s not to point fingers or blame. It’s just if we can work on ourselves, we can make the world more equitable.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:04] So if somebody wants to learn more, get a hold of the book, get a hold of you. What’s the website?

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:21:09] It’s Kennedy effect dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:12] And that’s Kennedy y f e FT.com.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:21:17] That’s it. And they can also buy the book on Amazon or any of the booksellers out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:23] Good stuff. Well, Pat, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Patricia Taylor Kennedy: [00:21:29] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate this opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:31] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Anthony Gantt With At Ease Rentals

by

at ease rentalAnthony GanttAnthony Gantt, a 22+ year Marine Major, founder & CEO at At Ease Rentals, Distinguished Combat Veteran w/ Bronze Star Medal with Valor from Fallujah Iraqi.

Degreed Electrical Engineer with experience in leading diverse teams in accomplishing assigned tasks and missions. Since 2004 he has led the nation’s best. Today, he is fixing a huge problem to help does still serving.

Federal and DoD travel regulations prohibit vacation rental sites( Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) for federal travel; at ease qualifies short-term rental inventory to enable per diem travelers to stay in accommodation types beyond hotels.

Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn and follow At Ease Rentals on Facebook and Twitter.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome back to the Startup Showdown podcast, where we discuss pitching, funding and scaling startups. Join us as we interview winners, mentors and judges of the monthly $120,000 pitch competition powered by Panoramic Ventures. We also discuss the latest updates in software Web three, health care, tech, fintech and more. Now sit tight as we interview this week’s guest and their journey through entrepreneurship.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Lee Kantor. Here are another episode of Startup Showdown, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get into it, it’s important to recognize our sponsor Panoramic Ventures. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Startup Showdown, we have Anthony Gantt with At Ease. Welcome, Anthony.

Anthony Gantt: [00:00:58] Hey, thank you, Lee, for having me on your show.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about At Ease. How are you serving folks?

Anthony Gantt: [00:01:05] Well, that’s a great question. The way we’re serving folks are bringing them transparency, safety and compliance in the vacation rental space. What I mean by that is you have government travelers who are looking for the typical B and B style property whenever they’re traveling for work and have it, whatever situations it may be. The regulations don’t allow them to use the sites that offer B and BS. So we are providing that solution to them.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:31] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did you kind of figure out this was a problem that was important enough to be solved?

Anthony Gantt: [00:01:39] I lost 1200 dollars myself. How that happened? I served in the Marine Corps for 22 years, recently retired this past March, and back in 2018, I used one of those sites to get a home off of for temporary use and wasn’t reimbursed. And it kind of took me down a rabbit hole to find, why can’t I do this? How do I get my money back and build the solution?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:02] Now, is it a situation where they don’t want to reimburse, you know, Airbnbs and those kind of things? Or is it something that it’s just there’s a lot of paperwork and regulations to figure out how to exactly do it in a way that’s easy.

Anthony Gantt: [00:02:15] It’s a combination of all of that the regulations, the paperwork and the reimbursement, because they don’t go through the paperwork process to get their properties certified. So we are here to make it extremely easy for those individuals that have those properties and want to list them and kind of open it to an untapped of travelers so that they can capture this opportunity. And then the military folks and the government travelers can stay wherever they want, regardless of the situation.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] And this is a situation that happens quite a bit, right? Like military people change bases. They’re always kind of on the move. So this is something that happens a lot. And to open it up to other resources, then I guess the traditional places they stayed, it helps both sides of the equation here, right?

Anthony Gantt: [00:03:01] Absolutely. And it’s not just your military. It’s those government contractors who are traveling under a specific contract. So think your big guys, Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, and then think about the other departments, State, Treasury and so on and so on. And then if you come down to the state level and the local municipalities, they have similar travel restrictions. So we’re trying to open open this up to all government public servants.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:25] So now having a military background and was this your first startup or were you involved in startups before?

Anthony Gantt: [00:03:33] So it depends on what we call the startup, because I’ve done a couple of little things here that generated side revenue, I guess they call them a side hustle. But in terms of forming an actual company to go into actual business, this is the first of many.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:50] So what has the experience been like for you?

Anthony Gantt: [00:03:53] It’s been exciting, really. A lot of ups and downs, uncertainty, the unknown of the unknown. And for me, a combat veteran, the uncertainty of entrepreneurship is the closest I’ve been able to experience since being deployed overseas and in some really tough situations. So having that familiarity with like keeping calm has been cool. But just to see how things aren’t that different regardless of what you’re doing or where you are in the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:25] And what about the kind of starting something from nothing? You know, you don’t have a manual playbook. You’re kind of going with your gut. You’re going with maybe some advisors. Has that been a challenge?

Anthony Gantt: [00:04:38] Yes, it has. Like you said, you’re starting from nothing. So you don’t know if the stuff you mix together is going to come out and be this spectacular cake or it’s going to be something that everybody throws away. So far, we’ve been lucky when people dip their hand in the batter that we’re making their beer and saying, Oh, this stays good, keep on going. But it is a very interesting experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:58] Now, when did you start getting clues and you know that the batter was going to taste good, that you were on to something? Did you have some early wins or did you like what kind of feedback did you get that was saying that you were on the right track?

Anthony Gantt: [00:05:11] 2020 we launched and then everybody was kind of like, Hey, you can’t stay here. Hotels were closed down because of the situation of 2020, and for us we were fortunate. I was fortunate to still be active duty and was telling a couple of my buddies about at ease and they were telling their buddies and folks were moving from the East Coast to the West Coast and said, Hey, Anthony, do you. Have any properties in California near base X, Y and Z. I say, actually we do. They used it, they stayed in it, they got reimbursed. And I was like, Oh man, this is a business.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:47] So those were the kind of the the beta testers for you.

Anthony Gantt: [00:05:50] Yeah, they would have beta testing, but at the same token they thought we were in a long established. So that was funny. Like why haven’t I heard of at I’m like because it just started.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:01] Yeah, but it looked the part. I mean, you pulled it off. Congratulations. That’s hard to do.

Anthony Gantt: [00:06:06] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:07] Now, this is a two sided marketplace, though, right? You have to get people to rent, but you also need places to rent.

Anthony Gantt: [00:06:15] That’s correct. That is correct. So we do that?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:19] Yeah. How do you do that?

Anthony Gantt: [00:06:20] We focused on the inventory. It’s almost like the Yellow Pages. It’s a good thing that I’m over my forties, so I remember what that is. It’s no purpose of using the yellow pages out of white pages if there aren’t companies in them for you to dial up and call. So I took that thought process and it’s like, Hey, let’s build the inventory. So when people come to it, they can have a place to choose from. We did it through conferences. We did it through both virtually and in person, and then just going on different podcasts that center around the vacation rental, corporate housing and alternative accommodation spaces.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:57] So you were going there to kind of build up your inventory inventory, right?

Anthony Gantt: [00:07:02] That’s correct. And once we got the inventory to a happy place, I started nudging my fellow service members that were still in uniform and some of the veterans who recently got out or retired. And it was like, Hey, I need you guys to start spreading the word and like your networks via Facebook, Instagram and other channels that we use as veterans until I got to like a happy place. And we’re still doing that today.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:25] Now, the folks that have the homes that these people are renting, is it are they putting it on a variety of sites, you know, like kind of the bigger players? Or is this something that they just kind of lock in with you because of the mission and what they’re trying? You know, like there’s a bigger Y associated a lot of times with the people that are renting from, you know, through at ease.

Anthony Gantt: [00:07:47] The ones we have are putting their their properties on multiple sites. We decided to focus on the professional manager who may have 1050, a couple of hundred properties that they manage for others. And that allowed us to kind of do some really cool stuff where we were able to integrate with their property management systems, which are the brains of their operations, which kind of makes it easier for us to kind of bring an inventory, bring in the photos and kind of sync up the calendars to prevent double bookings. But to your point, Lee, we’ve had some people say, I just want to market to the military. And I was like, all right, but I don’t want you to blame me when your area is not, like as productive as you thought it would be. So we’re still learning a lot and having a lot of fun as we go on and do this.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:35] Now, what is can you explain kind of the benefits for a person with a property to throw it into the ads mix like is there you’re getting, I guess, a higher quality person that’s renting that’s more reliable?

Anthony Gantt: [00:08:51] Of course. Of course. Absolutely better person, higher quality of renter there. They’re not going to kind of go back and say, hey, I need you to refund me. That happens a lot on other channels. In addition to that, if we look at it from a business standpoint, the B and B solutions right now cater to your traveler who is coming for leisure purpose. Well, if you are worried about the recession or another outbreak like what we’re talking about today, monkeypox, that kind of concerns you as an operator in the space. What we’re saying is, hey, during the pandemic, we saw an increase of military activity. We saw an increase of federal employees looking for places to travel and stay during all of that time frame. And we just need more inventory. So it kind of allows you to start saying, okay, I don’t have to be dependent on leisure travel. Now, I can get this government travel or corporate travel, whatever you want to call it, and kind of hold me over between that period or through my off periods where I can continue to generate revenue all year long versus just during the summer. If I’m a beach house or during the winter when I’m up in the middle of nowhere because we have a lot of bases in the.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:01] Middle of nowhere now, is there do I have to discount this or is this something that I’m going to be getting market rates for?

Anthony Gantt: [00:10:09] We ask them to discount it. You know, we say freedom isn’t free, but it is. So we say if you are compelled to give a discount, please do. So. It makes it easier for us to market that property to the traveler. If they don’t and they put it at market rate, we say, okay, cool, because we know that there are different pay grades within the government rank structures. So folks may look at this as an offset opportunity. What I. That is, if your property’s 105 at night, the government’s only give you 100. Some folks are not concerned about coming out of pocket. It’s $25 a night to kind of stay downtown somewhere that makes sense for them. So they do both right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:50] And then when you get on the site, do you kind of educate them saying, hey, these are the the if you hit this number, you’re you know, that what you just said is the ramification of that. But if you stay under this number or you’re at that number, that’s going to be easier for them to get reimbursed. So then it’ll be an easier decision.

Anthony Gantt: [00:11:08] We absolutely do. Everything that we’ve been doing for the last few years has been around educating the space to tell them how they can maximize the opportunity to get more government travelers in their properties.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:19] So now that, you know, as you’re solving the inventory problem, just what about the evangelizing the offering problem to the folks that have been typically, I guess they use hotels? Is that their normal play when they.

Anthony Gantt: [00:11:33] That is correct they use hotels. So the evangelistic like getting those started and kind of getting ambassadors and champions has been relatively easier for us to into properties because we’re talking to people who have gone through the same issues that I have. So it resonates with them. So if you look at what USAA did in the insurance space where it’s like, hey, we understand the problems that you’re having when you move from base to base with insurance. And then now today that are huge, they’re this huge business that not only offers insurance for US members, but also banking services. So we look at that model and say if we speak the language that we know to the people we know, it’ll generate more activity. And it has it’s just we’ve been telling people to hold on, wait a minute, let us get more inventory in the spaces you’re asking for so that we can ramp things up. So the users has been a lot easier than the providers now.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:27] When you were building the team, are you a technologist or did you have to find the technologist? Because this seems like, you know, this is a little bit of a tricky technology problem.

Anthony Gantt: [00:12:37] I’m fortunate to have an electrical engineering degree from the Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida, where I studied a few classes in computer engineering. And initially I took my own experience and limited knowledge to build the first application. And then once it got beyond my comfort zone, I started outsourcing it. And until we got to a position where I can start hiring people internally to kind of take it to the next level now.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:07] So how are you doing from that standpoint? I’m building the team.

Anthony Gantt: [00:13:11] We’re doing great. There are channels that exist and that kind of give me the opportunity to talk to veterans who are developers, military spouses, folks who are military dependent. So kids that grew up in the military that have a strong background in software engineering as well as marketing and sales and all of these different things. So we’ve been fortunate to go into those spaces, say, Hey, this is what we’re doing, we’re hiring, who’s interested in coming to join our team and we’ve been getting a lot of engagement from that.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:43] Now how did you hear about Startup Showdown and Panoramic?

Anthony Gantt: [00:13:49] There was an article that came out early 2021 that talked about the companies in Atlanta that raised millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, and panoramic was one of them. So I looked at the the folks on the panoramic team and one of the guys that is on my team that I hired, he went to Morehouse, which is a school in Atlanta. And I was like, Hey, do you know this guy that went to Morehouse? He’s like, Yeah, that’s my classmate. I definitely know him. And I was like, All right, I want to get in touch with college. So we tried to figure that out, so. Using my military abilities to kind of find people. I found his address and wrote a letter to his house. It was like, Hey, Paul, I want to talk to you. He still hasn’t answered my letter, but that’s how I found out about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] He’s kind of a busy guy.

Anthony Gantt: [00:14:41] He’s a little bit busy, but I was like, Hey, answering my mail.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:46] So. So you went through the start up showdown. What? What are some of the things you got out of it? Did you enjoy the process?

Anthony Gantt: [00:14:53] I enjoyed the process. I got to talk with Paul and ask the questions that I was asking inside of my letter, which was really beneficial and really helpful. And then during the actual event, so many people came from that opportunity that were like, Hey, we saw you doing this pitch competition. We want to learn more about the company. We want to talk to you. From an investor standpoint, also to potential customers and users and partnerships.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:23] Good stuff. That’s you can’t ask for more.

Anthony Gantt: [00:15:26] Exactly. So it was a win regardless of the situation. As long as I was participating, it was almost like Shark Tank.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] Now. Now, any advice for maybe other people coming out of the military if they want to pursue a start up? You know, it’s not for everybody, but it is for somebody. Any advice you could share that would help ease their road?

Anthony Gantt: [00:15:50] Yeah. Don’t stray away from the veteran community. I know a lot of vets, they get out and they kind of try to go find themselves. But what’s been beneficial to me is I leaned in heavily on other vets, especially with what I’m doing. And there are a lot of lot of experience and well-educated service members and spouses who are now like just doing the civilian world and can help people who have gone to some of the top schools in the country that I’ve been able to lean on and kind of share a war story with them to where they are coming in and giving me some pro bono support. So I say do it. And then if we just look at it from World War Two to today, when folks came out of the military in World War Two, they were more inclined to start businesses. Almost around 50% of all service members. But today that’s under 5%. So we got to get back to those service members starting businesses in their local community, because what they bring to the table is honor, courage and integrity, commitment and then ferocity to continue to work and persevere through the hardships of starting a business. And that’s what I don’t think most veterans realize is like, you got the grit and I’ll go do it.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:58] Yeah, that that’s shocking to me that it was 50% and now it’s 5%.

Anthony Gantt: [00:17:04] Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:05] It’s crazy that I mean, what do you make of that? Are they are they just getting regular jobs? I mean, that that’s.

Anthony Gantt: [00:17:13] When you look at it, you got the big players in the space that get government contracts that want to keep those government contracts. So when service members are getting out, they’re like, I got a person who already has a security clearance or a top secret clearance or some kind of clearance that I can just hire into my program to continue to work on the same airplane, the same tank, or whatever it may be that they use as an actual member. And I’ll just offer them a little bit more or a lot more than what they made in the military. So it’s a real easy transition. I was even tempted myself, was like, Do I go and work for one of the big, you know, companies that have these billion dollar government contracts and just live the easy life? Or do I actually get out here and start something new?

Lee Kantor: [00:17:52] Well, you chose grinding, so congratulations on that. That is definitely the harder, harder path. And best of luck.

Anthony Gantt: [00:18:01] Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:02] Now, if somebody wants to learn more, whether they have the inventory or they, they need a place to stay. As the website active in live.

Anthony Gantt: [00:18:10] Is active in live. The URL is picks at easy pieces, stands for Permanent Change, a station which is specific to government travelers. But Papa Charlie Sierra at ease. Alpha Tango. Echo. Alpha, Sierra. Echo. That’s the military.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:27] Well, Anthony, congratulations on the momentum and the success thus far. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Anthony Gantt: [00:18:34] Thank you. I appreciate this time. And thanks for letting me talk to your audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:38] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Startup Showdown.

Intro: [00:18:44] As always, thanks for joining us. And don’t forget to follow and subscribe to the Startup Showdown podcast. So you get the latest episode as it drops wherever you listen to podcasts to learn more and apply to our next startup Showdown Pitch Competition Visit Showdown VC. That’s Showdown Dot VC. All right. That’s all for this week. Goodbye for now.

Melanie Spring With Confidancia

by

DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Melanie SpringMelanie Spring, Chief Visionary of Confidancia

She has over 20 years of experience helping others build their personal and professional brands, giving them the tools to show up and show off. Melanie is a dynamic international keynote speaker, leadership development expert, and speaker trainer who works with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and CEOs of household brand names and Fortune 500 companies.

Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn and follow her on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Ways to create a team of storytellers
  • Cultivate happiness in life while living in a culture of business hustle
  • Craft a speech
  • Learning to speak in authentic voice, no matter what the situation is
  • Funniest thing that’s ever happened to her while giving a public speech

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor. Diaz Trade Law, Your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Melanie Spring with Confidancia here. Welcome, Melanie.

Melanie Spring: Hi. Thanks for having me.

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

Melanie Spring: Well, we work with brilliant rebels to help them start their rebellion.

Lee Kantor: So you’re talking like political. Are you talking about in just life in general, what type of rebels are you looking for?

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So we’re working with people who are kind of sick of the status quo. They’ve been working their whole lives towards something and they’re not really sure what that is. So we work with people who want to focus on their purpose and the reason they’re really here, not just to get through their 9 to 5 or get to retirement.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding that post-pandemic? There’s kind of a lot more soul searching and a lot more people coming to that realization that life is more than just this cubicle that I’m working in?

Melanie Spring: Absolutely. I mean, we all had to work from home, so it became that. And then they started realizing, Wait a second, what am I really doing with my life? Sitting in a car, commuting to work every day or sitting in an office for the sake of sitting in an office, or even now sitting on zoom in their extra bedroom or in the back corner of their own bedroom, wondering what are they really doing this for?

Lee Kantor: So when they have that kind of itch, what are some of the symptoms in their life that are kind of encouraging them to maybe explore a different path than the one they currently are in?

Melanie Spring: Well, typically it’s that they find that they’re lacking a an excitement about the day or even as they’re moving through their workday, they’re wondering, what am I really doing this for? Is there is there an actual purpose behind this or might just checking boxes in order to make someone else money? And so a lot of people are finding more and more that the money isn’t as important to them. Sure, they want to pay their bills. They want to make sure their mortgage is covered and that their kids go to school and there’s food on the table. But that’s kind of an ancillary effect. It’s not necessarily the main reason why they do what they do anymore. So they’re on the search for what will actually make me feel like I’m making a difference or creating an impact.

Lee Kantor: So say a person feels that way. They feel that rebellion brewing. How do they kind of define what it is that they should be doing instead? Like, how do they find that path they should be maybe pursuing?

Melanie Spring: Well, a lot of times we tend to look to other people for that. We ask other people like, What do you think I should do? Or What do you think I’m good at? And most of the time the answers are in inside of us. I actually said this to one of my recent brilliant rebels. She was laughing because she’s like, I was really hoping that coming to your retreat and working with you, that you would finally stop saying that the answers are inside of me. And now I just know the answers are actually inside of me. So thanks a lot.

Lee Kantor: But is it as simple as, you know, you’ve heard things like follow your bliss, You know, what are the things you like to do when you were a kid? Things like that, to help at least open your mind to what it could be. But like, what do you tell the person that’s like, my favorite thing to do or the thing that I wish I could be doing all the time is playing video games or watching Netflix?

Melanie Spring: Well, I would look at what what are they feeling at that point? So, yes, 100%. Sometimes we can look at what would what would it what did we do as kids that we really loved or what brought us joy when we were younger or what are we just innately good at? But I find that purpose, I can’t remember the name of it. I think it’s a good guy, but it’s the Japanese name for the four areas of your life. If you look at the things you love to do, the things you’re just good at doing, the things the world needs from you, and then the things that you can make money doing at the center of all of that is your purpose. But it sounds like, Oh, well, I just fill in these four categories and there it is. And that’s not necessarily true. Sometimes we have to look at the deeper reasoning behind the joy that we’re finding in certain things. Some people are really good at sitting and watching Netflix, so maybe their job in life is to be an auditor for them to see what is showing up and what can they be doing to help Netflix be a better company or if they’re better at video games. There are people who make a lot of money playing video games on YouTube and having other people watch them. So those are totally legitimate things to do, but not for everybody.

Lee Kantor: So when people kind of find their purposes that when they come to you or they coming to you to help find the purpose, like where do you fit into all this?

Melanie Spring: Sometimes some people come to me and they’re really happy in their job. They’re CEOs of companies and they’re like, You know, I really like my job. It’s it’s fine. But I feel like there’s something a little bit deeper. So can we get a little clearer on my purpose and other people come with I have the business, I know what it is that I need to be doing, but I feel like I’m missing something. And the missing of something is the what’s the what’s the real reason for doing this underneath? Or is it the how? Sometimes it’s I have the what and the why. I know I’m a great copywriter and I know that this feels really good for me, that this this why behind it is to support other people in having great copy in their company. But the how is the but now I’m just trading dollars for hours. So how do I do it in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m exhausted all the time? Maybe look at retreats or workshops or scalable programs, but they’re not just doing dollars for hours anymore. So sometimes it’s more about the how instead of just the the what or the why.

Lee Kantor: So wherever they are on their journey, by working with you can help them get to a new level.

Melanie Spring: I mean, if they’re the right person, I can’t help everybody with that. Not everyone’s ready for that. Next, next up, leveling. But yes, if someone comes to me, they typically if they’re not offended by me asking really deep questions, then they’re usually going to want to go deeper.

Lee Kantor: And then so what does that engagement look like? Can you share a story of maybe somebody you work with? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe how they came to you and how they left you?

Melanie Spring: Oh, absolutely. So I had a woman who she had been a drug addict when she was younger. She was in I mean, she was a fighter like a ring. She was in like the the metal street fighting kind of stuff. When she was 16, she had lived a really, really hard life. And later in life, she came to me because she had gone through all of this training to be a better person, but it had all been people who were yelling at her. And so she had thought that growth came from pain. And she had perfectly good reason to believe that, because her whole life had shown her that growth comes from pain. And so she came to me and we spent some time together. I did a thing I called an immersive experience for her, and she came to Florida and we sat at a house together for three days and we were working on a talk that she really wanted to give an inspirational talk. And I kept hearing her saying things like that. Other people had said the church had said or that other coaches had said to her. She kept just saying them as if they were almost hers. But you could tell that they weren’t, that it was kind of fumbling in her mouth, that she wanted to say something herself, but she felt like she had to say what other people were saying.

Melanie Spring: And by the first night, the end of the first night, she looked at me and she said, I keep waiting for you to start screaming in my face. And it just like, brought me to tears, thinking that that’s how she had always been taught that growth had to happen that way. And so by the end of the very first night of us spending time together, I mean, the whole weekend was incredible. But that one one shift for her to allow herself to have grace for herself just allowed her to open up in a new way. And so by the time she got on a real stage in front of people, she was blooming in ways I’ve never seen a person bloom. She showed up in a short dress and showing her body in a way that she would never do it. And she’s a bodybuilder. It’s not like she doesn’t have the body to do this, but she had been hiding for so long because she was always afraid that growth was hard.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your back story? How did you get into this line of work?

Melanie Spring: That’s a roller coaster story. I’m a what I used to call a recovering brand strategist. So I worked in brand strategy for 20 years and burned myself out on it. I had my own business for eight, and by the end of it, I. I basically ended up going to Bali to find myself, which feels like a very American thing to do. But I burned myself out working 90 hours a week for eight years and just was exhausted and broke up with my boyfriend, burned my business down basically, and said, I just want to do something different. So I became a full time keynote speaker, which I didn’t even know it was a job at the time. And then over time, I started helping other people with getting on stages and building their businesses and doing the things that I had done previously, but helping them in a way that didn’t help them burn it down at the same time. So by the time I built the Brilliant Rebels retreat and the rebel mastermind, it was because of the fact that I had been helping other people not have to burn down their whole lives and burn themselves out or hustle so hard to find the thing that really lit them up, basically saving people from what I did myself.

Lee Kantor: So you incorporate some of that branding background when you’re helping people position themselves and get ready to take this leap.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, that’s. I finally stopped calling myself a recovering brand strategist and just owned that. I’m actually just that. And I helped people build their celebrity and their industry or their community or their space, even just their industry in general, even if it’s in a small way. Being able to find who they really are, get out there in front of people and show up in a way that they they’ve always wanted to, but they’ve never been able to before.

Lee Kantor: Now, what is the sweet spot of the people you work with? Are they do they fit into a category? Or it could be anybody.

Melanie Spring: Typically they’re entrepreneurs or CEOs. So I like to say that they’re climbing their second mountain. I don’t know if you know the concept of Second Mountain.

Lee Kantor: The like your second act in life, basically.

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So you you used all of your tools learning how to climb up your first mountain. You you got through your career and, you know, like, okay, I did it. I got to the top. Finally, even though I was just pushing and pushing and pushing and it was probably blood, sweat and tears to get there. And now you’re walking down the mountain going, okay, but now what’s next? So a lot of entrepreneurs end up selling their companies, or they leave or they retire, they exit and they’re like, okay, but now what? I have all these tools, but I don’t know what to do now because I already climbed the mountain, so I’m the one to help them use the tools that they have to climb their second mountain and get there in a way that doesn’t feel so hard the next time.

Lee Kantor: So sometimes they’re coming to you with kind of a blank slate, right? They have their history, but they don’t have kind of that roadmap to the second mountain.

Melanie Spring: Exactly. So they have their expertise. They know who they are. They know their stuff. I don’t work with people who aren’t experts in what they do. Typically, they come to me with a whole bunch of stuff and we sit down and dump it all out, put it on the table and see what’s really there, and then pick it all apart, letting go of the things that don’t serve them anymore and then move forward with the things that really like them up.

Lee Kantor: Has there ever been an instance when you laid out all of the stuff on the table or a whiteboard and you’re writing down all the things and then the thing you ended up with kind of surprised your client?

Melanie Spring: Oh, that happens a lot, actually. Yeah. Yeah. When I work with people, I typically like to talk before I even let them sign up to work with me. I want to know that I can see the path forward for them, but I also want to know that they can see the path for themselves as well. But typically, almost every time, once we finally put together the final plan for what’s next, they’re like, Wow, I never thought that this was possible, or This is actually way fun, way more fun than I expected.

Lee Kantor: Now, is that because people kind of put themselves in a box and it takes kind of that outside eyes to see what could be.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, that’s that’s usually the problem. A lot of us are trained that we follow a certain path. Like you go to school, you get married, you buy a house, you have children, you work a job, you retire, and then you die. That’s kind of like you follow this path or you have to do things dollars for hours. In certain industries, like psychotherapy, you get paid for every hour you work. And so if you take a vacation, you don’t have any money coming in. So looking at things a little differently, what if you were to host a group retreat or group calls to be able to have something where you could talk to people every month, but you’re getting paid even if you’re on vacation, you’re not having to get paid dollars for hours. So sometimes we have to break apart. What’s the thing I thought I had to do in order to get to the heart of like, what could I do and what would feel really good for me and not having to do things the way I thought I had to do them. That’s where I come in.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny. A lot of people just their answer of why they do something is just because that’s how it was done before. Like they don’t even have the ability to open their mind to other ways. It’s just fascinating to me just seeing so many people that kind of put themselves in a box and keep themselves there when you know there’s a big world out there with lots of ways to do lots of things.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, well, and I think it’s taking the time to really sit down and think what could happen, what could be possible. And I stopped doing private client work as often because of the fact that I’m only one person and putting people in a group of other people who are like minded but in totally different industries, that gives us the ability to have what Napoleon Hill calls the mastermind like. More than two people are able to create even more than if just two people got together and talked about something. So being able to create this space and create this safety for people to think bigger and to think outside the box and to stop thinking about the fact that it has to be done a certain way. That’s why I call it the Brilliant rebellion.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s funny when you bring people together how much serendipity there is, and then you realize that if I just bring lots of people together, I can create serendipity. Like it’s it’s almost serendipity on demand.

Melanie Spring: Right? But I think it’s also the person who’s hosting it, because I’m sure you’ve probably been to a conference or an event or something where the person hosting is really there for themselves and not for the people who are in the group. They’re there to get not to give necessarily or they’re giving too much and they’re not there at all to give. So it can go both ways and that doesn’t feel very healthy. So making sure that as a leader I’m healthy enough to be able to lead the people that I’m there for, that I’m in that to get. And to give not just to be the one like, Oh, I’m amazing and I’m going to give you all of this amazing knowledge. Or to be like, Oh, you’re just giving me money. That’s what I really want is I’m just there to get the money for this. Being able to make sure that I’m grounded and healed and healthy and willing to keep growing. That’s the other part continual growth to be able to make sure that I can keep up leveling so that my clients can keep doing the same thing. Because if I’m not growing, they’re not growing.

Lee Kantor: Right. And that’s but part of what you’re doing as the leader of this group is you’re curating the group. I mean, that’s part of your role. So you’re choosing people with the right mindset. I would imagine that it’s going to to be facilitated in the way that is most beneficial to everybody.

Melanie Spring: Exactly. I, I see some people who are not necessarily as open as I would like, but I can see the potential, not necessarily in the way that like your mom sees potential in you, that kind of thing. But the idea that that person has the potential to be open and I can see that there are cracks in there. They’re already opening, but they’re not slowly letting down all the armor yet. But I know that what we’re creating for them allows them to do that. And I watched someone this last weekend unzip all of the armor she’s had on for 40 years and go, I’m done. I’m done carrying this, deflecting nature around with me or trying to make a joke about something to not have to feel it anymore. And she just walked out and just unzipped the whole armor and let us see who she really was. And it was spectacular. And it wasn’t because she was ready before she got there, I could see that she was ready to move to the next step.

Lee Kantor: So how do you how people, once they have that kind of aha moment to stay on track and and, you know, humans have a tendency to, you know, two steps forward, one step back. How do you keep them, you know, kind of how do you keep watching their back to make sure they don’t slip back to maybe the old way of thinking?

Melanie Spring: Well. So we have our brilliant Rebels retreat, which is a ten week program. So it’s like six weeks of calls, a retreat itself offline, totally tech free, and then three weeks after. And then I also have a thing called the Rebel Mastermind, which is a five month program after that to take them from where they were at the retreat into full implementation. So they have the group and they have other other people who’ve had a similar experience to them going through this alongside them. So it’s almost like a board of directors. And we have these things called Sprint goals, which are every two weeks we get together for 90 minutes and go through where are you at, what do you need, What questions do you have? Let’s do some brainstorming, which is hilarious because my last rebel mastermind thought I was saying sprinkles the whole time. So now I just call it sprinkles. We’re just going to have sprinkles every two weeks.

Lee Kantor: That sounds better.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, I know. That’s what I think, too.

Lee Kantor: So. So there’s something, you know, wherever they are on their path, there’s a way to plug in and get them and get something out of this. And then do they ever graduate or they become part of the alumni? And it’s it’s they’re always part of the family.

Melanie Spring: Yeah. So I, I actually have a book coming out in January 2024, and with that we’re going to have a conference. So what’s hilarious about the brilliant rebels is each of them speak in some way and I have a feeling there are one going to be some of them will be potentially trainers or coaches on our team or people that I can share with, like, Oh, this person is really good at copywriting or marketing or branding. I can share the other rebels with them if they’re an alumni or they’ll be able to see them speak at the conference as we do that or even be able to just have a connection with them through the group that we’ve been building. So they’re kind of like, Oh, you have the t shirt too. I’m totally in. I can totally help you. So they’ll always have ongoing support.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to learn more about the retreats, about the coaching, about the whole shebang, where do they go?

Melanie Spring: Well, for the brilliant rebels retreat, it’s brilliant. Rebels retreat. We keep it easy. And then confidant SI.com is where you can find out about me and the.

Lee Kantor: Team and that confidence. Cia.

Melanie Spring: Yeah, like confidence and abundance. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: Abundance and confidence.

Melanie Spring: Exactly.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff, Melanie. Well, congratulations on all the success. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Melanie Spring: Thank you so much.

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

Al McRae With Bank of America

by

BofAAl McRaeAs President of Bank of America, Atlanta, Al McRae serves as Bank of America’s leader in the local market, responsible for delivering responsible growth for shareholders, clients and communities. That includes driving business integration and local market share growth by connecting our capabilities across our eight lines of business to people and companies. It also includes deploying Bank of America’s resources to build strong communities. And it includes making our company a great place to work by connecting employees to the broader enterprise, championing our culture of diversity and inclusion, and fostering opportunities for our employees to develop and grow.

In addition, Al currently serves as Managing Director and Diverse Segments Business Development executive for Bank of America’s Private Bank. He has held various positions with Bank of America focusing on the wealth management needs of high-net-worth families in the areas of investment management, estate planning, banking, and credit.

He is responsible for identifying and implementing strategies for the Private Bank to drive responsible growth within the diverse high-net-worth client segment. Key areas of focus include data analysis to cultivate marketplace opportunities, creating business development strategies, developing marketing plans tailored to diverse communities, and establishing partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders.

He’s an active leader in his community, serving on the boards of the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Bankers Association and Georgia State University Foundation. He’s also an active member with the Rotary Club of Atlanta, 100 Black Men of Atlanta and is class of 2023 participant with Leadership Atlanta. Al earned his undergraduate degree in finance from Georgia State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA® ) designation and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®).

Connect with Al on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • History of Neighborhood Builders
  • His background and role at Bank of America
  • Other ways that Bank of America serve Atlanta communities

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by On pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. 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 on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Al McRae with Bank of America. Welcome out.

Al McRae: Thankfully. Happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, we’re here to talk about Bank of America’s kind of initiatives in and around serving the Atlanta communities. How important is it for Bank of America when you are in a locale like Atlanta to really immerse yourself in serving the local communities in a variety of ways?

Al McRae: Well, this is one of those situations where as an organization, our company that has such a significant footprint in a city like Atlanta, we have there’s a business imperative and a moral imperative to say that for our existence, we want to understand that communities that do well in our very it’s in our best interest to make sure that communities do well and we support and address help address some of the challenges that that may exist. Because once again, this is a situation where a rising tide lifts all boats. And for us, we want to be a great corporate citizen and partner in a city like Atlanta that does have some challenges. It’s incumbent upon us to be a participant in the solution.

Lee Kantor: Now, as the leader of the Atlanta market, how do you go about kind of choosing which are the appropriate partners and which is going to give you kind of I don’t want to say the most bang for your buck in terms of anything other than doing the most good for the community? Like because I would imagine there’s a lot of folks out there, a lot of organizations that are doing good, and it must be difficult task for you to choose the right ones to partner with.

Al McRae: Yeah, completely. So to your point, there’s a there are a number of challenges that our communities face, and some of those are not so unique to just Atlanta. It’s across the country. And the way that we go about it is we, as we say, where can we have the most impact? And for us, it’s really trying to bridge that gap that we see. I mean, we recently have some articles that were published in some local periodicals talking about the the income equality gap, the gap between the the most achieving and least achieving in our in our city and also the affordability of housing issue. And so those are some those are just two examples of when we think about our investments, and I use that word very intentionally because this isn’t for us, this isn’t charity, this isn’t a giveaway, this isn’t donation, this is real investment with the expectation that our return is not necessarily a financial one, but one of societal return. We want to put it towards one of those those most pressing issues. And so the understanding that having a community, yes, that’s healthier, but also from an economic perspective can thrive is where we, we we direct those. And I know we’re going to talk a little bit about neighborhood builders. And when we make those selections, it’s definitely in the vein of saying the laser focus around making sure that from an economic or resource and a wealth building perspective, we’re doing our part and helping drive those results for our communities.

Lee Kantor: So let’s start talking about neighborhood builders. For those who aren’t familiar, can you tell us a little bit about, you know, mission of neighborhood builders?

Al McRae: Yes. So this is actually an effort across Bank of America, across all of our our markets, where we are looking to be a participant in helping lift both from a philanthropic I’m sorry, from a financial resource perspective and from technical expertise, those organizations that are doing the great work in our communities. And so Neighborhood Builders is a program that’s been around since 2004 with Bank of America. And so since the inception of this, we have contributed over $300 million across 92 markets, our money to communities, to the to the goals of advancing and addressing some of the most pressing challenges. So for the winners of these particular awards in Atlanta, we have to each of the organizations receives a 200,000 unrestricted grant that they or maybe they use for flexible funding for their organization. And in addition to that, to that financial support, they also receive leadership training. And that’s for two of their usually the executive director and an emerging leader within the organization, because we have a vested interest in ensuring that these partners and the winners of these awards are sustainable. So we not only invest in them, right, with the understanding that they’re going to contribute to solving some of the biggest challenges in our community, but we also want them to be sustainable and want them to grow. We want them to grow in their impact. And the way that we do that is not only, yes, providing them with financial resources that they can leverage, but also that technical expertise and training, which is key. A key component of this and one of the largest philanthropic efforts that any corporation or organization have in our country now.

Lee Kantor: So it sounds like not only are you trying to address the situation today, but you’re also trying to create some continuity for tomorrow as well. So you’re trying to grow maybe the future leaders as well as the current leaders.

Al McRae: That’s and that’s that’s a great that’s a great comment, Leigh, because it’s about sustainability. When we think about sustainability. We understand that there’s going to be an evolution of over time and we want these organizations that we select as these neighborhood builders and neighborhood champions to have an existence, an impact that grows. And that is going to be a key part of the community. So effectively, when we think about the prior awardees, we create this community and this family within that subset to say, Hey, how can we leverage with even within this group, how can they leverage each other so they can continue to grow and expand? So some of the past winners, we’ve been proud to see their influence grow within the community, and it’s because of the support that Bank of America and quite frankly, other Atlanta based corporations provide. And we see them continuously having a larger and larger influence to do the work to provide that positive societal return that I talked about earlier.

Lee Kantor: Now, when did you first have a clue of the impact that your contribution and your efforts were making? Did something kind of speak to you in terms of, Wow, you know, that story is really compelling or Wow, I didn’t realize the impact we were making. Did something Can you share a story maybe where this came alive to you personally? Were you able to see how important this is?

Al McRae: Yeah, I think and it’s probably not just one example, but I can tell you I’ve been in the market president role for just over a year now and having the opportunity to have the proximity to these organizations and seeing how transformational it is for them to receive both a grant of that amount, which is which is spread over two years. But the the size of the grant for these organizations, which a lot of them are relatively smaller, you see the size of that. And then also to the lift that they receive from the training. You know, it’s just in the in the conversations of talking to the folks in leadership. And for some of these nonprofits, you get the sense of the impact and the change that it makes, because to be a winner of one of these awards is not just, you know, and within like Bank of America providing that. But then the word gets out and I’m sure the periodicals and all the all the write ups and it gets the attention of our corporate partners in the market to say, okay, that organization must be doing something well. And then once again, it kind of leads to kind of a snowball effect for them. So when we talk to those folks one on one and we invite them in for their training and we and we make sure we keep in contact with them, they are able to give us testimonials around the impact that they were able to to achieve. Some of the things that they were able to do knew as a result of the funding and the text and technical expertise and all of that for me is something as an individual, I guess, both personal satisfaction and satisfaction for the organization.

Lee Kantor: So how are the organizations selected?

Al McRae: So we have to go through a process where it’s an invitation only process where we invite a select number of nonprofits to apply. And it’s a very rigorous process, as you might imagine. But we receive these applications and the way that we review those, we have both an internal team, but then we also invite previous winners in our external community and our partners to come in and give us their views and who they believe might be worthy of receiving our award. And once again, it’s a rigorous process. We have great, robust conversations when we think about this. And and for us, it’s looking at it and saying, what organizations do we want to place our next investment? Who do we want to invest in next that has a level of scale that can be impactful in our community, but then also that has a level of sustainability that as we look at some of the challenges that we focused on in this particular arena, who who are the people that’s going to move the needle and move the Dow and really make a difference and change. And so I’m proud to say that we have great excitement with the external partners that join us in this process, and they’re always happy to do it. And it’s a very rewarding process at the end when we make those announcements and those selections.

Lee Kantor: So who are the latest organizations that were selected?

Al McRae: But we have to. So we have the Automotive Training Center and East Lake Foundation. And so these are two organizations. Once again, all of our applications were impressive and we saw a great need and work. But these two stood out for us for 2022, an award was awarded. We’re awarded our neighborhood builders. The Automotive Training Center is a program that provides technical training for entry level entry level employment and the automotive repair industry. And so you think about them providing students with opportunities and around technical and entrepreneur skills. I don’t know. Lee A lot of your listeners probably have gotten a car repaired in the last 12 to 24 months, and you know how hard it is for us to find capacity and and also the expense of it just because of where we are right now with things like inflation and our supply chains. And so if you think about jobs and places where people can earn a really good living, automotive repair is a great is a great area for for our young people to go into. An automotive training center is an innovative program that not only teaches that but also provides a great learning environment. So they’re going to leverage their funds to build a new facility and also purchase new equipment to train their students. So getting back to that, you know that trying to soften some of the income disparities we see in our city, we can do that by having partners that promote skills, that allow people to go into jobs, that pay above minimum wage.

Al McRae: Eastlake Foundation, I’m sure a lot of your listeners are very familiar with East Lake, the Foundation. We have been a founding partner since the existence of this foundation and also was one of the first corporate members for the East Lake Golf Club. And, you know, the work that East Lake provides is kind of wraparound services. They do a lot for their community and a residence there. But this particular effort that they apply for with around their initiative to provide mixed use, mixed income housing and affordable housing in the East Lake area. So housing continues to be a challenge. Housing affordability continues to be a challenge for a lot of residents of the city of Atlanta. And organizations like East Lake are looking to solve for some of that. And they’re working in partnership with the Atlanta Land Trust to provide 40 units of townhomes for sale. These are not rental units. These will be for sale so that their residents can participate in the appreciation and the wealth building activity that you and I know home ownership affords a lot of folks that are able to own their own home. And so it’s been a great partner of ours for a number of years, and we were very proud and happy to see them as a winner this year for our Neighborhood Builders Award, which will grant them that $200,000 over a two year period and also the leadership training.

Lee Kantor: Now in order, like you mentioned, that this isn’t something you apply for, that you’re selected for, how do organizations get on your radar to even be considered?

Al McRae: So, you know, the good thing is that we have a vast list of partners in the market that we already have relationships with. So we take a look at those folks. And then also we take introductions from individuals that are looking to tell their story, particularly as it pertains to their work around economic mobility and economic opportunity in the market. And so usually when we look at our list of partners and we and we take a select few from there and maybe either we’ve been introduced to some throughout the year that we also want to include in that process.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. So if somebody wants to learn more about this program, what’s the website? What are the ways to connect with you? Somebody on your team?

Al McRae: So it’s very easy to to to look into the process or looking through the website Bank of America, just Google Neighborhood Builders, Bank of America, and it’ll take you to the site where it explains the program. And like I said, this is a national program, so you’ll get all of that explanation on the existence of the program, the the the operations of it. And then it provides contact information which can be leveraged there for for understanding how those organizations actually get more information when it comes to this.

Lee Kantor: Well, our congratulations on all the success. And you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Al McRae: Well, thank you so much for the platform, Lee. And once again, we are happy to be participants and solving for some of Atlanta’s largest challenges and we will continue to do so. I thank you for the time today.

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

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Kirk Brown With HANDY, Inc.

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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Kirk BrownKirk Brown is the CEO of HANDY, Inc., an organization dedicated to the education and betterment of marginalized and at-risk youth in South Florida. Brown has been with HANDY, Inc. since 2018 and is responsible for leading the $4M non-profit organization.

Brown is a transformational leader that navigates diverse business challenges to power revenue gains and strengthens operational performance through inspired solutions, empowering teams and enhancing performance. With over 20 years of experience, he is an accomplished management professional who has worked with a broad range of organizations and individuals, from privately held middle-market companies to government, and nonprofit organizations to community-based committees focused on impacting change.

He has proven ability of working with executives and community leaders to analyze complex statewide issues, to develop sound business strategies and successfully implement large change initiatives.

Connect with Kirk on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Good social leadership
  • Strategic way of leading social superheroes
  • Motivate a diverse team with lived experience in a social work setting

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Kirk Brown with Handy. Welcome, Kirk.

Kirk Brown: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

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

Kirk Brown: I’m Handy is a nonprofit that was established in 1985 to serve foster care, relative care and homeless youth in our community. We are basically here to fill the gaps of services for normalcy for young people. We provide workforce development, youth development, mental health services and educational transitional services to young people who are victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. We serve 1200 young people for year. And basically, we, you know, 9 to 5% of our young people graduate high school, 78% finish a post-secondary experience. But we’re very proud to say 100% of our young people are happy to partner with us in communities of need.

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

Kirk Brown: Well, social work chose me. I was finished college on my way to law school and basically saw homeless youth and decided, you know, in a wonderful lived experience that I may have a solution within me to impart into the world because I grew up in those situations as a youth and, you know, God blesses you with knowledge and wisdom and opportunity and abilities. And I just decided that maybe I have an answer within me that could solve that problem.

Lee Kantor: So is this version of the answer what it was when you first started.

Kirk Brown: This version of the answer? No. It’s morphed. It’s morphed because our clients have more team. The people we serve, the communities that we’re in poverty has always had a dynamic of leaving scars on communities that are long lived and therefore will take a longer period to solve.

Lee Kantor: Are you finding right now is a good climate for some escape velocity to get beyond that kind of spiral that happens, like you mentioned?

Kirk Brown: Yeah, there is. There’s a lot of self-awareness at a macro level within communities to say we cannot continue to do the status quo of the haves and the have nots. We have to reach into our communities, look at our social services sector, and empower social services sector to build stronger, more, you know, enthusiastic and self actualized communities.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you finding that corporations are more open to participating in a way that maybe historically they haven’t been in, that there’s almost a trend towards some sort of I know one organization is called Conscious Capitalism, where it’s trying to elevate capitalism and be more empathetic to not just their shareholders as their constituents or their employees as their constituents, but also the community. As a constituent.

Kirk Brown: I think we all have a shared equity in the conduit called trauma at this time. I think the corporate community and before now individuals were able to drive around a concept of trauma. Right. But the entire world went through what I would say, two and a half years of constant repeated trauma as a result of COVID. And so we saw a social shift before COVID as it relates to corporations becoming more socially involved in the mechanisms of social work to say, yes, we can do a greater job, we can have greater input, we could add our brain trust to improve the lives of people in fractured communities. But I think everyone gets it now. Before, you would have to take maybe 25 minutes to explain and the aftereffects of trauma. I think everyone gets the after effects of trauma now because we’ve all lived a macro level of trauma existing through COVID.

Lee Kantor: Now, what are you have any advice for business owners at all kind of stages of their their kind of life cycle regarding how to exhibit good social leadership? What are some kind of baby steps organizations can be doing to really help alleviate some of that trauma you speak of?

Kirk Brown: I think it starts with three basic, you know, premise and approaches. I think the first is establishing a human connection with the people that work for you and with you, You know, designating collaborations within the workforce. There’s no soloist and getting a task done and really having open. Transparent, empathetic communication patterns with your team. It’s real simple, you know? How are you doing today? Just as a passer by conversation are or how are you doing today and really looking in the person’s face when you say it, Look at their affect. Look at their response. Challenge your management and your executive teams to use their intuition to kind of like really become self aware about the people that they’re leading just from the income point of who you’re lead in. So in social work currently, I would say I know what my staff makes financially because we are the payee. And so taking a macro look at what does that life does or can afford in economic climate of the community that you’re in is very important for you to be able to have the human connection and the human communication strategies with the individual right. What are their challenges based on what they make? What are their challenges based on who they are in the community that they’re in? I’ll give you a basic example. I have 34% Haitian staff at this moment. I know their their homeland is in turmoil at this moment. So to pretend like they’re not coming in to the work environment with those wounds makes makes me a very distant leader. You know, having those conversations, how were you doing today? How is your family as your extended family in Haiti? How are you guys coping? You know, that that, to me shows that you care. And that’s what social leadership is about.

Lee Kantor: So the first community and organization could work in is their own and work within their own people, their own people’s families and the and the people that are most important to them. So that’s the starting point you find.

Kirk Brown: Yeah, that is a starting point. Make your make your employee your first customer.

Lee Kantor: So when you do that, you’re improving the culture of your organization. You’re showing your people you care. You probably you probably have some stats and research that supports that. This level of empathy and care for your own employees leads to more productivity and a better outcome.

Kirk Brown: Yes. The I think the professional workforce term for that is principle based management. And on the principle based management, you find a lot of transformation happens when humility and knowledge is imparted onto the individual. With empathy, it leads to self-actualization. And self-actualization is our highest data point of really someone being productive in a work environment.

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

Kirk Brown: Support. Of course, we’re a nonprofit and we serve young people ages 10 to 25, all along the spectrum of transition from middle to high to postsecondary to placement into employment. And so as a nonprofit and a nonprofit CEO, the first thing I have to ask is please financially support your nonprofits and your community that’s doing the ground level work to correct trauma in your community. And secondly, partnership. We we have found unique ways to partner with our corporate partners, whether it’s a sponsorship or provide employment for our young people or volunteerism for our young people. We’re very big on meeting the corporate partner or the corporate world where they are in their ability to give.

Lee Kantor: Can you share an example of how you work with maybe a large corporate partner?

Kirk Brown: Okay. So for example, Brand Smart approached us and said, how can we help with Christmas and how can we help with our holidays? And we literally tomorrow we are hosting they are having 100 of our young people shop at Bryant Smart at $150. But we have also turned it into a volunteer activity and a money management activity with the brand smart employees that will be shopping with our young people. And because we also have a relationship with the FBI and Broward Sheriff’s Office, we’re including FBI personnel and the sheriff’s office in the shopping experience to build communities. So now we have four different industries in one store serving a life of one youth, breaking down a lot of community barriers.

Lee Kantor: And this is a situation that these companies that you partner with, they don’t have to have an answer of how to do it. You’ll help them or you’ll work together and brainstorm together on how to connect all these different parties together to create a real robust, meaningful sponsorship and something that’ll create a win win win all the way around.

Kirk Brown: Yes, that is our job. We already social interpreters of hope, and so you don’t have to come to us with an answer. You just have to come to us with a desire.

Lee Kantor: And then the size companies, I mean, brand smarts, a large organization. Do you work with small like startups as well, or is it primarily kind of the bigger brands?

Kirk Brown: So we have some no, we have small and medium sized companies that partner with us daily. We have individuals who have their employees here tutoring our young people in the afternoon and Algebra two, we have small, medium, medium sized employers who host a cookout here once every other month to expose our young people to industry. And we expose our young people to eight different industries per year, eight high demand industries. And basically we have everything from roofers to electricians to construction to manufacture and hospitality industries, no matter the size coming in to impart their knowledge of their industry to young people who do not know their industries exist in their backyards.

Lee Kantor: So you’ll work with companies of all sizes. There’s always something to do and some need to be met.

Kirk Brown: Yes, we fit the need to help. Basically, if they come with a desire to help young people see a future, move towards the future and to live their future, then we’re we’re the nonprofit for you. We will figure it out together.

Lee Kantor: Now, do you have a story you can share regarding maybe a child that went through the program or one of your programs that was able to escape?

Kirk Brown: So we have a lot of those stories.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, you don’t have to name their name specifically, but maybe tell their story of how how they got to you and then where they when they left you, where where they went.

Kirk Brown: So we do have a young man that comes to mind, literally came to our program as junior year of high school family. All of his family was incarcerated for the murder of a family member. And he had, you know, the the streets were trying to direct him in the path of his predecessors. Right. Of his family structure. And basically, this young man, we surrounded him with our 67 services, our life coach, and a plan navigated him to Broward College. And what is individual, what is independent plan and his education plan. You started with Broward College, by the way. Broward College makes it significantly affordable for a young person to achieve a college education in Broward County. So he attended Broward College and transitioned to another four year institution, received his degree, and one of our mentors that comes alongside our young people in our community gave him his job offer on his graduation day. And so that young man is currently a junior executive at this firm, which is a large firm that serves the Southeast United States at this time. And he comes back here on a weekly basis to talk to our young people about it’s possible, you know, it’s really possible to achieve the goals that we would consolidate our thoughts and our efforts on.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it’s amazing when you have that laser focus on really helping and serving what what can happen. It’s just it’s probably every day you’re probably just so proud. And to see the impact you’re making from that initial thought, you know, to where it is today, it must be very rewarding for you.

Kirk Brown: It is rewarding because I work with lived experience individuals. 80% of our staff has been the kid or has resided in a family that experience a trauma that we’re seeking to seek and to answer as an agency. And so I talk about lived experience a lot because lived experience separates the vigor and the desire to answer the phone at 1 a.m. in the morning for a homeless kid, if you’ve been a homeless kid or you were in a family with a homeless kid, that phone call, you know what that phone calls I want at 1 a.m. in the morning means. And so 80% of our team here, including myself or our products, have lived experience in the communities that we’re seeking to serve. And so we take it quite seriously.

Lee Kantor: How do you, as a leader, keep the morale and the energy up and not feel overwhelmed by the task at hand?

Kirk Brown: Admire the greatness of why we’re here. Always focus people back on the why and the why. Is is this beautiful? You know, I have a team that, you know, gets upset when we only hit 90% on a success ratio, because to them, that 10% means, you know, there is someone who is suffering. And so it’s easy to match the why and the desire and motivate the team from a place of humility. I think humility is important. And, you know, social leadership, you have to have a level of humility and approachability where your team can come into your office and say, okay, we’re trying this and it’s not working. I think we should do it this way. And you should not be tied to the genius. You know, you should be able to say we’re all the genius because we all have lived experience. And those diamonds that we could impart into a mechanism that at the end of the day can shift the trajectory of a life.

Lee Kantor: Right. But I can see when they’re so immersed in the task at hand, when you you know, that 10% when you said 90% they’re frustrated with because that that 10% that they didn’t achieve is a human being that they know personally. And so it stings that much more.

Kirk Brown: And that is that is that is resilience, right? That is that that resilience of. Okay. But we can get it. We can we have another day to do it again. And so the lived experience people always focus on, we can get over whatever the challenge is. And I also equate social work to other industries when I talk to my team, right? Car companies come out with a new model every year. And so we have to come out with a brand new model every year or we’re not really we’re not really thinking. And so our goal is to think of this as an industry, treated like an industry so that the finished product has a level of transformation and innovation to it that our clients will get excited about it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, right. You have to be adapting and changing as fast as the people around you are.

Kirk Brown: Yeah. And you have to have the courage to fail.

Lee Kantor: Right? Fail fast and move forward. Just keep. I don’t even look at it as failing. It’s learning.

Kirk Brown: Yep. Who said that? Who said we’re going to fail first? What’s that? Jobs.

Lee Kantor: Fail forward fast, I think is in the startup community. That’s what they’re always trying to do.

Kirk Brown: Fail forward fast. Yes. And so it takes a lot of courage to do it. But that’s why you hire courageous people.

Lee Kantor: Right? But you need to be led by somebody who really can motivate them and inspire them, which it seems like you’re doing a great job at.

Kirk Brown: So thank you.

Lee Kantor: Now, for the folks out there that want to connect with Handy, and I know you’re in search of those local social superheroes, whether they’re volunteers, whether they’re companies, whether they’re enterprise level companies. What’s the website? What’s the coordinates to connect with you to either volunteer, financially support or do anything to help you achieve your goals?

Kirk Brown: Ww dot handy inc dot org. H a, n d. Y and c dot org.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff, van. Is there a social like? Are you in social media as well? I know that’s the website.

Kirk Brown: Where we are on all social media. We’re on Facebook or on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram. We’re on all the social media platforms. And once you get to our website, it should lead you to all our social media handles.

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

Kirk Brown: Thank you. And Lee, if I could impart to your listening audience, it is not for you to figure out exactly what you want to do to help another human being. That’s why we exist. We can figure it out together, right?

Lee Kantor: You just have to have the desire to help. And then Kirk and his team will. We’ll take it from there. Good stuff. Well, thank you again, Kirk. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.

Peter Angood With American Association for Physician Leadership

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AAPLDr. Peter AngoodDr. Angood, MD, FRCS (C), FACS, MCCM, FAAPL(Hon), has provided senior executive leadership for all sizes and types of healthcare organizations. Since 2011, he has been a chief executive officer and president of the American Association for Physician Leadership; the only professional organization solely focused on leadership education and management training for the physician workforce. The organization has members in more than 45 countries.

Previously, he was the first chief patient safety officer and a vice president for The Joint Commission where he oversaw the National Patient Safety Goals and other enterprise-wide, international patient safety initiatives. He also completed a two-year engagement with the National Quality Forum and National Priorities Partnership as Senior Advisor for Patient Safety before assuming the role of Chief Medical Officer with the Patient Safety Organization of GE Healthcare.

During these engagements, he continued intermittent work with the World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety initiative after helping lead the early development of the WHO Collaborating Center for Patient Safety Solutions.

Earlier in his career, after initially practicing with hospitals of the McGill University system, he was subsequently recruited to surgery faculty and hospital administrative positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his formal academic career as a Full Professor of Surgery, Anesthesia, and Emergency Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada), the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Critical Care Medicine, which also recognized him as a Master of Critical Care Medicine.

He has a history of active involvement with numerous professional organizations and served as president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. His research interests have addressed leading-edge problems; he has authored nearly 200 publications and is a well-recognized international speaker on the host of issues related to physician leadership. He is also a Fellow of the Explorers Club in New York City.

He received his medical degree from the University of Manitoba in Canada and completed his general surgery training at McGill University in Montreal and fellowship training in trauma surgery and critical care medicine at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida.

Follow American Association for Physician Leadership on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Peter Angood with the American Association for Physician Leadership. Welcome, Peter.

Dr. Peter Angood: Welcome as well. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you.

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

Dr. Peter Angood: Sure. Well, we’re in health care, obviously. American Association for Physician Leadership is almost 50 years old. And what we predominantly focus upon is basically professional development, leadership, education management, training for the physician workforce and for a large number of the places where physicians work, whether it’s in private practice settings or inside of hospitals and health delivery systems.

Lee Kantor: Now, what was the genesis of the idea? What started the association?

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah. Many, many years ago, there was a recognition that physicians really don’t have any skill set in a formal development way as it relates to management or leadership. And so the originating CEO of the organization really focused in on mid-career physicians who wanted to do administrative roles inside of hospitals. And so they had a focus on physician executives for the first good number of years with the association’s development.

Lee Kantor: So now it’s something that was lacking, like in medical school or in their own kind of as they were kind of growing their career. This was information and skills that weren’t kind of talked about, or they just were assumed that the physician had them.

Dr. Peter Angood: It’s interesting, You know, to this day, there still is a paucity in the medical schools and the specialty training environments for leadership, education management, skill set development, all those sorts of things. So it’s a it’s a vacuum for physicians. Now to your question as well, though, the medical profession is viewed very positively by general society. Physicians are often viewed as leaders just by the nature of being a physician and in the medical profession. So historically, there’s been this presumption that physicians just know how to lead and how to manage things, and that’s an erroneous presumption.

Lee Kantor: Right? So they’re placed in a position of authority and respect, and then people just assume that they know what they’re doing. And so without an organization like yours to kind of give them the skills, I mean, that could be kind of dangerous in some ways.

Dr. Peter Angood: Well, not dangerous in the clinical care sense, right?

Lee Kantor: Not in that case. But just to assume that a person has those skills just because they have the credential is not optimal for anybody, I don’t think.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah. You know, it’s like pick any professional sport as an analogy. Just because you’re a good professional athlete doesn’t mean you know how to coach the team or run the professional team’s business enterprise. Right? You can be a great player, but not necessarily a good leader or a good businessperson. Same in medicine.

Lee Kantor: So when you were getting involved with the organization, was that something that you were hungry for more information and you you recognize that gap as well?

Dr. Peter Angood: You know, it’s interesting. I, I am a physician. I trained as a surgeon, practice for many, many years. And then I found myself thinking more about systems development and creating larger scale change. Before this job, I was very fortunate to be able to participate in a couple of high profile national and international organizations. But what I recognized in that was there is a gap between those influential organizations that sort of determine the trends in health care and a gap to the front line of care. So I was interested in working in that gap zone, if you will, and this particular organization does exactly that. We are an influence group and a thought leader inside of organized health care, and we stayed very much tuned in to what’s going on in the industry. And we create some influence, but we also directly influence physicians and the organizations where they work on the front line. So it’s a very gratifying type of role for me, and it’s a very pivotal and important organization for the industry because we really serve as that bridge for physicians to acquire those management and leadership skills.

Lee Kantor: Now is the learning that’s taking place. Is this part of their like continuing education learning, or is this kind of voluntary for that physician to say, you know what, I’m going to raise my hand and I want to get better at this?

Dr. Peter Angood: It’s a little bit of both. It’s a little bit of both. You know, physicians, like most professions, have continuing education requirements to maintain licensure. And there’s a certain number of hours per year that are required. And so oftentimes the physicians who are interested in leadership and management skills will look for our organization’s programs and products to get some of that continuing education at the same time as developing a new skill set. The other side of it is that some organizations, whether it’s a private practice or it’s a hospital or a delivery system, will sponsor their physicians into our programs as part of the needs of the organization to better develop physician leadership and management skills overall.

Lee Kantor: Now, was the pandemic that level of disruption, was that something that brought this need for leadership that much more obvious and it was more urgent to solve?

Dr. Peter Angood: Know, that’s a great question. And I think there was an increasing recognition inside the industry before the pandemic that physician leadership really creates positive change in the industry. And it’s a debatable survey. But if you look at, for example, US News and World Reports annual rankings of medical systems, they always have an honor roll the top 18 or 20 systems in the country. The vast majority of those places are led by physicians. Similarly, when physicians are in CEO roles, oftentimes those those systems will perform 25 to 30% better on a variety of quality metrics. So there was recognition that physician leadership and key role is important for organizational performance. What the pandemic helped everyone to better appreciate was that as the pandemic came into play, as the public health, as the clinical delivery systems and as a governmental agencies all looked, holy smokes, how are we going to manage this pandemic? What did they do? They looked towards physician leadership at the highest level of government, all the way down into a whole variety of medical practice settings hospitals, hospital delivery systems. Overall, a lot of the emergency response teams inside those delivery systems were led by physicians. Obviously, coupled up with a variety of other clinical disciplines and non clinical administrators as well. But more often than not, the physicians were the leads.

Lee Kantor: Now, when it comes to your education, did any of that change because of the pandemic?

Dr. Peter Angood: I think what we did as an association, we’ve got a wide array of information resources, a wide array of educational topics, all of its competency based. What we recognize is that we needed to expand the range of topics in order to help different individuals and different organizations get through the pandemic. And these are translatable skills and knowledge into other development areas of the industry. But the other thing that occurred for us, the pandemic was good for us in a sense, is it really helped us refine better how to deliver all of our offerings in an online virtual setting and to get really good at it. And the satisfaction scores that we get on our feedback tools is very high. For all that remote online learning strategies and the consumption of our information resources.

Lee Kantor: Now part of your association is kind of connecting physicians, I guess, together so they can learn from each other and mentoring the next generation of leaders. How has that changed in this virtual world? Has that expanded? Because now you can make connections everywhere rather than kind of face to face.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah, No, that’s a great question. And part of what we’ve done as an association has been to take on the challenge of building out our own technical infrastructure to help support this learning and networking. Yes, we could have gone to a variety of learning management systems and account management systems and a variety of other off the shelf things. But we chose to go with a custom built system and with the specific intent that our participants would not only be able to more simply and easily consume the education, consume the information, but they would able to be able to network amongst their peers, both within their organizations, but also outside of their organizations and all around the country. And, you know, we’re an international organization. We’ve got members in 45 to 50 different countries at any one time. So that online networking and learning has really been facilitated as we leverage that online delivery platform.

Lee Kantor: Can you share a story because you were talking so much about the individual physician. Is there a story that comes to mind where you’ve seen somebody take kind of the next step in their maybe not necessarily the career, but just maybe in their worldview of how to be a better physician leader?

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah. Let me let me do it this way. You know, because physicians don’t have that leadership and management skill training through their early stages of not only their medical education, but even their careers, oftentimes in hospitals or health systems. What occurs is you’re a wonderful doc staff like you, patients like you, your outcomes are good. Hey, congratulations. You’re a chief medical officer for us, and we want you to go take these courses with APL. Well, that freshly appointed CMO is kind of got that deer in the headlights look like. Holy smokes. Now what am I going to do in this job? So they quickly scramble to take on a variety of our courses and information. We do have this curriculum strategy where we’ll take them all the way through to a credential called the Certified Physician Executive. That’s about 170 hours of coursework. But the pivotal piece in there is a three and one half day capstone weekend, which really drives home how do they refine and own their own leadership style. It’s a it’s a capstone where they have to do a project. But to a person, as they finish out that capstone, it’s a transformative three and a half days for them. They feel confident, they feel enlightened, They feel like they can really take on any challenges. And many of those participants then go on, let’s say it’s the CMO role. They will go on to become chief operating officers, they will become CEOs, or they may even shift into other sectors of the industry and develop up leadership roles excuse me, inside of the financial services sector or inside of a device company. So so the benefits of this type of an approach is, as I say, really transformative for these individuals. And ultimately the organizations where they work benefit as well. And that’s a repeatable story. It just happens all the time.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, it must be so rewarding to see that kind of transformation.

Dr. Peter Angood: Oh, absolutely. You know, and I’ve been with this organization ten years, and every time I go and hang out at our capstone events and watch these 65, 70 different people get transformed over the weekend, it’s just so enriching. And it really gives us pride as an organization, gives me personal pride, and our staff love it, you know, and we get lifelong learners and lifelong alumni because of that experience.

Lee Kantor: Now, is there any advice you can give other association leaders when it comes to working in an industry that is just evolving so rapidly and has changed dramatically, I’m sure, in your lifetime, how do you kind of stay ahead or at least up with kind of what’s happening? Because your industry is just and it seems like almost constantly in a chaotic place?

Dr. Peter Angood: You know, it’s been said by many who are not even in health care, but many of us inside of health care as an industry, health care is arguably the most complex industry that there is up there. It’s complex because of the rapidly changing information related to clinical delivery, but it’s also exceedingly complex in terms of how that clinical decision making is delivered. And then the financial structures, the insurance structures, the organizational structures that help to support all of that and support the processes of delivery. And if any of your listeners think of their own personal experiences, they’ll reflect that not all the time. Is it a perfect experience when they go to see their doctor or go to their local hospital? And so we are continually trying to make those changes. So for us as an association, yeah, we have to be paying attention to what’s going on at the policy world, need to know what’s going on in the financial side of it and the payment side of it. We need to pay attention to what’s going on in terms of leadership and management practices and how are those are evolving. And we need to keep an eye on the clinical delivery side of things as well. We’re not obviously in this day and age, we’re paying attention to workforce wellness, we’re paying attention to work life balance. And really, how is it that people are individually evolving in their professions, but how are they collectively as individual professions? I meant to say disciplines inside the profession. Are they evolving? So there’s a lot of moving parts in there. There’s a lot of moving parts. And so the onus on us as an association, on me, as an individual is to really stay up to that as well. Then overlay that on a rapidly evolving association industry world, right? We’re all busily trying to figure out digital delivery. We’re all trying to figure out membership satisfaction, We’re all trying to figure out how do we grow our community and engage our community and how do we collaborate and partner. So it’s just fascinating, but very enjoyable.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, I mean, if you like that three dimensional chess, you’ll you’ll you’re in the right spot because there is a lot of moving parts and to layer even more complexity in your situation. You’re dealing with a global membership. So every country has different kind of needs and ways of doing business, so it makes it even that much more complex.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yes, absolutely. So as a leader or a manager in the association, you’re got to be recognized. So you’ve got to be comfortable with a certain degree of ambiguity at times. So you’re kind of reading the tea leaves or is everything going. A lot of uncertainty at times. But then you really got to be able to figure out how best to set the priorities of the association and then how to implement on those priorities so that you’re satisfying what your constituency wants. And the trick I’m sure many of your other participants and listeners recognize in the association world, it’s that balance, right, of listening to your members and doing what they want, but also taking your members to where they need to be as an association. And that’s that’s the trickier part. How do you participate in predicting the future and then being on the leading edge of doing all of that?

Lee Kantor: Right. And I find that the associations that are thriving are kind of the role models for the the people that are most important to them. They have to have a true north that everybody kind of believes in the why behind things.

Dr. Peter Angood: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And for us, there’s two true north, actually. And one is at the end of the day, altruistically, we’re really trying to help create positive change in health care. And we’re privileged that we have the platform of physician leadership. The second, though, is because society looks at the medical professional profession and trusts it with high levels of respect. As you say, we consider at some level all physicians are leaders. And so how do we help those physicians embrace their responsibility of leadership?

Lee Kantor: Right. Well, it’s a big, big challenge. And congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to connect with you, learn more about your association or maybe just kind of pick your brain. When it comes to leading an association, what is the website? What is the coordinates to get a hold of you or somebody on your team?

Dr. Peter Angood: Sure. Happy to have any further interaction with your listeners. And our website is physician leaders. All one word dot org so w w w physician leaders dot org. And then my email address I’m happy to speak with people is first initial last name. So pang0d. Physician leaders dot org.

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

Dr. Peter Angood: Thank you. It’s a pleasure talking with you. And it’s a great broadcast that you got going here. I look forward to listening further on as I now know more about you guys. Thank you.

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

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