Business RadioX ®

Jason Marlowe With Market House

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Jason Marlowe With Market House
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Jason Marlowe is a founding partner at Market House, a creative agency specializing in website design, branding, and marketing. He leads the website design team and oversees technical implementation on projects. He is also a professor at Emmanuel University in the Communication Department.

In his free time, he enjoys time with his wife and kids, hiking, woodworking, and leading as a Cubmaster of his local Cub Scout Pack.

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Why outsourcing creative is the best solution for a company/brand
  • A brand new website won’t solve a business problems
  • Why is branding expensive
  • Defining a budget and being clear when working with a marketing agency
  • Why an entire company needs design support – not just the marketing team.

Transcript-iconThis 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: [00:00:24] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jason Marlowe with Market House. Welcome, Jason. Hey, Lee, how are you? I am doing well. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about market House. How you serving folks?

Jason Marlowe: [00:00:51] Well, we are a creative agency. We’re based here in the metro Atlanta area. We are, uh, we’ve been around for ten years, but we are kind of like a new generation of marketing and design agencies. We’re completely remote. I work out of the Grayson and Lawrenceville area. My partner’s up in the Gainesville and coming area, and we have a team that spreads from Monroe and Gainesville up to Chattanooga. So we’re kind of spread out all over the place. But we serve the people of metro Atlanta and Georgia and beyond.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] Now, you used the word design agency. Can you explain what that means?

Jason Marlowe: [00:01:29] Yes. Uh, so we serve clients who are in need of branding, whether they’re coming for the first time to develop their company right out of the gate. They’ve got a name and a passion and a plan, and we help them create an actual physical look and feel to the brand. We develop a story around it. And or if you have company that is ready to be rebranded, they’ve been around for a while and something’s changed or they just need a fresh look. We’ll step in to help them redevelop the brand, but we also serve clients who need ongoing support. So you’re talking about, uh, where we outsource design and we do it all in house. So we have a team of designers with, uh, print media and digital media, web design, copywriting, kind of the whole sphere there to help and serve, uh, businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:24] Now, if you’re an existing company, what’s kind of a symptom that maybe your brand does need a refresh? Because I think a lot of times, you know, people have a brand they decide on early on, and then it is what it is, and they kind of stop thinking about it. But are there some signals that you should be paying attention to when it comes to branding that you should say, hey, maybe we do need a refresh?

Jason Marlowe: [00:02:49] Yeah. Uh, you know, I think that for a lot of folks, when people are, um, really not connecting with the brand because let’s, let’s take one step back. Brand. One of the things that people don’t really get is that brand is more than just like a logo. A lot of people are like, oh, well, you know, can you do my brand? And they just expect some basic logo package. But really, brand is a whole voice, right? The whole presence of your business. And, uh, when people just aren’t connecting with your company and your business, maybe it’s time to really reconsider that voice that you’re using when you’re speaking with customers. Maybe your audience and your customer base has changed. Maybe they’ve gotten older, maybe they’ve gotten younger. Maybe they have different interests. Maybe it’s time to reposition yourself, uh, just because you’re not connecting, uh, the way that you used to. Right. Maybe your audience and is dropping off. Maybe your sales are going down, and that’s something symptomatic of something larger. Right? So, uh, those are usually some of the bigger signals that we see people coming in with.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:58] And I think that, uh, branding, along with corporate culture are one of those things that they’re going to happen whether you do something about them or not. So you might as well be proactive when it comes to them.

Jason Marlowe: [00:04:10] Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Um, you know, being a part of your corporate culture is one of the kind of the key things with your brand. Um, and unfortunately, a lot of folks, especially during a rebrand, it’s you got to sit down and really, like, explain to them what’s going on. Uh, because like I said, it’s more than just creating a new design. Sometimes it’s like, hey, listen, we’re changing our messaging, right? We’re not the company we were when we started 25, 30 years ago. We’ve changed. We’ve got our eyes set on something new. We might offer the same product, but we’re going to go about it a completely different way. And so it’s really important for all the stakeholders in the company to really get behind the messaging. And that’s one of the things that we help with consulting, you know, you know, after the brand has been developed, is really just trying to, you know, make sure that on all levels, not just customer facing, but on internally, uh, internal acceptance of your brand is vital, paramount.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:09] Now, um, are there some things you can do to ensure that, um, you know, everybody’s on message and that it is authentically yours and it is congruent with your values because as. Especially if you have a team and like even in your case, where you have a team that people are all over the place, uh, and not physically together, sometimes each individual will kind of have a different understanding of the brand, and they may not be communicating it. Um, you know, all from the same, uh, song page.

Jason Marlowe: [00:05:42] You know, uh, I think one of the things that you could share that we develop and other agencies develop is to start with is your brand guide, because inside of that, once you’ve been rebranded and once things have been updated, uh, there’s, there’s stuff more than just the visual aspects and the logo and the colors, but there’s voice, right? Like, how should we be talking with customers? What does our brand sound like? Uh, how are we engaging with customers? All of that should be part of your brand guide. And then, uh, you know, beyond that, it’s it’s having open discussions with the company. Um, and it is, uh, you know, making sure that people understand where you’re going. And that comes from the top down, you know. So it might be the design team along with, you know, your C-suite that’s overseeing the brand. But it’s really the the top of the company really explaining what’s up, what’s going on now.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:39] Have you ever had to have maybe kind of a difficult conversation with a client when it comes to this where like, they could think, hey, we’re Nordstrom. But you look at them and you’re like, know your target. Um, you know there’s some incongruity in what you’re saying and what you aspire to be and your behavior.

Jason Marlowe: [00:06:56] Oh yeah. Um, I think one of the biggest things is a lot of companies want to start the branding process by stripping all of the brand, uh, assets and ideas away to some really basic point. So, for example, um, you know, you have a company that comes in and they’re like, you know what? Nike’s got this brand recognition, right? Like you just see that swoosh and people just know it’s it’s sports. It’s running. It’s it’s everything. It’s you know it’s perseverance. It’s you know trying it’s trying your best when it comes to, you know being an athlete. It’s it’s all of these different aspects. But you gotta you gotta get there. So like I had a client who was like, you know, I really like this branding of X, y, z, but I prefer how they leave all of their name. They leave their name off of it. And I was like, well, you probably should leave your name on it because you’re not at that level yet. And I like to preface it with yet because, you know, you have no idea how high a business is going to fly. And, uh, but the big thing is you got to take your steps. And so a brand can be distilled eventually down to something very simple as a swoosh. But before you get there, you need to have it needs to live with Nike first, you know. So you got to you got to have you got to be around for a minute. You got to really push your brand. You got to promote yourself. You got to market. You got a campaign before you have that kind of household recognition, which is what a lot of people really they go in wanting. And it’s kind of like a baby step thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:40] And it’s one of those things that, um, it takes time and and it takes time and money, like, you can’t, you know, like you can’t call yourself Google without spending money. Like it costs money to call yourself a made up name without explaining what that means, right?

Jason Marlowe: [00:08:58] Yes. Branding. Branding is expensive. Um, branding is expensive because it’s a process so far beyond just making a logo. Um, if you want a logo and you don’t want to put any kind of thought behind it, you just say, hey, I want a logo, and it looks like the widget that I sell. Okay, great. Go to go to fiber there. Fiber. There are marketplaces for that, right? $0.99. They’re they’re places where you can go and do that. But if you want to think about your target audience, if you want to do competitor research, if you wanted to develop an actual brand around what you’re creating, you got to do the work. And that’s not, you know, unfortunately, that’s not cheap. And, you know, we’re not talking about breaking the bank, but, you know, you have to put some money down to to get to where you’re going. And it’s kind of like, um. My mama said this my entire life. She’s an entrepreneur. Um, and she always has told me the way it starts is the way it goes. And that’s literally a phrase I think about probably once a week, because it’s all about doing it right out of the gate, and then you set yourself up for success in the future. And unfortunately, a lot of people try and skip the steps when they’re starting a business. They’re bootstrapping, and there’s things you can cut corners on. But. Developing the voice and the face of your business is not something that I would cut the corners on, you know what I mean, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:10:21] Because it’s foundational. Everything is going to build on that. So if you screw that up, you’re going to have a problem.

Jason Marlowe: [00:10:27] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:28] Now who is the ideal client for you? Are you working with large enterprise organizations? Do you work in certain industries? Is there kind of an ideal customer profile for your firm?

Jason Marlowe: [00:10:39] Uh, yeah. So, you know, we used to go after everybody, right? You know, big companies, little companies, medium sized. But, you know, after a while, we’re kind of settling into the lane that we really enjoy. Um, I love working with, uh, nonprofits and, um, you know, companies that are on a bigger mission, uh, you know, uh, those, uh, companies, like religious organizations, we work with several of those throughout the state. Um, and, um, you know, medium sized businesses, small and medium sized businesses are kind of our, our forte. You know, I’m not going after some huge company. Um, it’s a Nike earlier. That’s not my that’s not my audience. I don’t think I could fly with them, but, uh, I think for small and medium sized businesses who understand the need for solid design and marketing and the power that, uh, it can have to elevate your business and to grow and to create the life that you want. Uh, I think for those companies, that’s where we, uh, that’s where we really fly.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:51] Are you sometimes there first kind of agency that they hire that they’ve kind of tried things on their own, and now they’ve kind of graduated to the level where they need outside eyes on their work.

Jason Marlowe: [00:12:02] Actually. Yes. Um, that’s a that’s a that’s a great question. Um, you seem like you’ve been doing this for more than a minute. Uh, you know, but, uh, yes, that’s that’s actually, that’s actually nail on the head. Um, a lot of folks try and do it themselves, um, because they’re looking to, you know, save money. Oh, they don’t want to have to hire somebody, or they just want to be able to do it themselves. And they realize, you know what? You know what? I can’t do it myself. Um, sometimes it’s more of a case of, um, they have the skill set to do it. And so they just think that they can take on something else, but they know that their time is better spent growing the business, and our time is better spent helping them, you know, have the tools to do that.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:48] Is there a story you can share of maybe a client that you work with? You don’t have to name their name, but maybe share the problem that they had and how you helped them get to a new level.

Jason Marlowe: [00:12:57] Yeah. For sure. Um, we’ve got a great client we work with now. Uh, they were very they have they have ton of child companies and, uh, individual divisions, but they were all incredibly insulated. Right. So this hand didn’t know what this hand was doing and vice versa. And they were creating a lot of marketing materials and content and websites that were very disjointed. Nothing looked like anything else. And it was just a very muddy brand. It was a great brand, but all of their materials and outreach were very muddy, and one of the things that we’ve helped them do over the last I think two years at this point is start to develop cohesion across all of those. So, you know, we’ve been tackling it one website at a time, one booklet at a time. Uh, one social media post at a time is really just going like, what is the brand? How should we communicate, making sure that we’re always using, you know, always referencing the brand guide. Everything is on point and consistent and helping them create consistency is one of the big things that I can hang my hat on, that we’ve worked for them for over the years now.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:16] Is there a piece of advice you can give, uh, kind of a smaller firm when it comes to their brand or their design or even their marketing, something actionable that they can do today that would make a difference tomorrow.

Jason Marlowe: [00:14:29] Uh, a couple things. One thing is make sure that you set a budget. I talk to every, every, every business I work with. I feel like at one point or another, uh, never has a a defined budget, even if it’s just something. And I understand going into it. A lot of people are like, well, I don’t know how much it costs. Um, but it should never be this kind of song and dance between the business and the agency, the agency, like ourselves and others, we’re better suited to do the best by you, to do right by you, to be good custodians of your budget. If we know what we’re working with. Um, and it’s just it wastes time. It’s very frustrating process trying to suss out, you know, what’s your spend like, um, that is a, um, that’s one of the big ones is, uh, you know, actually sitting down and looking at your budget and to see what you can spend. Uh, I would also say that, um, sitting down and looking at your brain guide, if you have one or kind of creating like, okay, this is our logo, these are our colors. This is these are our fonts. Just go super, super basic and say this is what we should be doing. And then looking at the materials that you’re putting out, go over to sales and say, let me see your one sheets write sales. Send me all of your one sheets that you’re sending out. Hey air, what kind of stuff are we posting online? Uh, you know, looking over at maybe your customer service team or your account manager, like, hey, what are you mailing out to customers? And, you know, talk to somebody else, like, hey, send me your email signature. Right? So step back, take a look at what you should be doing, and then have everybody send to you what you’re actually doing and really go is what we’re doing matching what we should be doing. And I will tell you that there will be incongruity there 99 times out of 100.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:24] Now somebody wants to learn more about your agency or have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. What’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Jason Marlowe: [00:16:34] Yeah. Uh, we are online at MKT Dot House. Yes that is.house.com. It’s mkt dot house. Uh and you can find us on there. We have all of our services detailed out. You can live chat with us. You can give us a call. Um, we are available that way you can shoot me an email at Jason at MKT House. Uh, any way that you can get in touch with us, we’ll be happy to connect with you, talk, and give you a free consult and see how we can help you grow.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:03] Well, Jason, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Jason Marlowe: [00:17:08] Yeah. Thank you. Lee, thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:10] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Charlett Albert With The Rebel Movement

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South Florida Business Radio
South Florida Business Radio
Charlett Albert With The Rebel Movement
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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Charlett Albert is the founder of the HIGH IMPACT METHOD, a revolutionary program designed to empower female entrepreneurs to achieve consistent sales and business growth. With a unique blend of high converting sales strategies and feminine embodiment practices, she has made a name for herself as a highly sought-after sales & feminine leadership mentor and keynote speaker.

Drawing on her corporate background as a successful sales trainer for over 10 years, she has honed her expertise in helping online business owners maximize their revenue potential. Not only has she scaled her own businesses to six figures, but she has also guided a diverse clientele of over 100 female entrepreneurs to achieve their financial goals.

In 2023 she co-founded the Rebel Movement together with 3 other business mentors Gráinne O’Malley, Hayley Barnes and Tierra Womack to empower women from around the globe to build a business their way using a unique blend of business strategy, alignment and energetics.

Connect with Charlett on LinkedIn and follow her on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About the Rebel Movement
  • Key strategies that the Rebel Movement advocates for creating a business that feels authentic and fulfilling for women entrepreneurs
  • How does the Rebel Movement support women in developing a personalized action plan for their businesses
  • What sets the Rebel Movement apart from other business coaching programs or communities focused on women entrepreneurs
  • How important is it for women to prioritize their own well-being and energy in order to succeed in business
  • How can women interested in joining the Rebel Movement get involved and start creating their own rebel energy in their businesses

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:01] 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: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here, another episode of South Florida Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Charlett Albert, sales coach and feminine leadership mentor and co-founder of the Rebel Movement. Welcome.

Charlett Albert: [00:00:28] Thank you, Lee, for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. First of all, tell us about the rebel movement. How you serving folks?

Charlett Albert: [00:00:37] So the rebel movement was created by me and three other business mentors, and we’ve been working with entrepreneurs for the past decade, almost. And we’ve noticed a common theme among entrepreneurs is that many entrepreneurs were always feeling overwhelmed and overcomplicated business, and they didn’t know where to focus on on simplifying their business. And they would often buy into business blueprints that are sold all over the internet, which often created in a resulted in creating businesses that didn’t feel good. Maybe they made some money, maybe they didn’t make money, but they often found themselves in a place of like, why did I start this business in the first place? Often we choose to build our own business because yes, we want to make money, but also we want to impact people. And most of all, we want to feel free. We want to create a business and a life that feels like freedom. So we came together and we’re like, we want to create something that’s different. We want to create something for that established entrepreneur that feels slightly overwhelmed and wants to simplify their business and really align their business goal with the lifestyle that they want to live. So we’ve come together with different expertise and resources to really support that entrepreneur on that journey.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] Now, do you find that a lot of folks like you mentioned, they they might go into a business and think, okay, if I make money, then I can all my dreams are going to come true. But if it’s really not aligned, if your business isn’t aligned with your values and your why, then it’s not as fulfilling. Like you might be making some money, but your life, you know you could be miserable still.

Charlett Albert: [00:02:30] Yes, that’s exactly what we’ve experienced. Like, the thing is, people think, okay, the moment I make $5,000 a month and have a full time income, or $10,000 a month, or $20,000 a month or whatever is possible in the online space, which is really, you know, captivating. It’s really inspiring to see what is possible. But guess what you have to do the next day? Like you hit that milestone, you hit those 5000, $10,000 a month, but the next day, what you have to do to maintain this is the process, the action steps that actually got you to that goal. And if you don’t like those action steps, the things that you have to do every single day to be successful, you won’t be happy. It’s not going to be sustainable and your business will collapse. Like you’re not going to find that motivation in the long haul to hit that income goal over and over. So a lot of people find themselves like leaving a corporate job or leaving some kind of a profession that they didn’t love, start their own business, hit certain milestones, and being so miserable that they end up going back to a 9 to 5. And we like I think I’m not cut out for this, but the truth is you are cut out for this. If you. I truly believe this. If you have this, why, if you have this big mission to do something to help people to serve, you are absolutely capable of doing it. You just have to find a business structure, a simple system that aligns with who you are at the core. And you cannot find that by buying some random business blueprint, but really aligning with your own internal strategy, which we are teaching inside of the rebel movement.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:12] Is there some advice you can give, or maybe some low hanging fruit for the listener that can get them on the right track? Is there some things they can do today that’s actionable, that maybe can get them going in the right way?

Charlett Albert: [00:04:28] Yes, absolutely. So this is the process that we’re taking our new members to actually. So first of all, you want to set one goal, not three, not nine, not 1015, whatever. Pick one business goal for the next three months. What’s something that feels a little bit stretchy but also feels like, you know, I think I can do it if I just put in the action, right. One goal, it could be hitting a certain income goal, having a certain amount of clients, having X amount of people on your email list, whatever it is, just pick one. Don’t pick so many different things and then break it down in simple, actionable steps that you can do every single day and find those. Action steps that really feel good to you. But because you do not have to have all these things in place, you don’t have to be on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok everywhere. You don’t have to do, you know, podcasts or radio interviews or be in magazine if that’s just not your thing. Like pick the action steps that will get you to that goal, but find a path of least resistance. A path that really lights your soul on fire, where every single day you get up and be like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe I actually get to do this. And listen to yourself like, where’s resistance in my every single day? And how can I, you know, find a better way that works for me to hit this one goal and. Yeah. This is this is really, I think, the main thing that we want to focus on for newer, newer people.

Charlett Albert: [00:06:02] And if you are already established in your business, look at how can you simplify things, how can you delegate tasks? What is really your zone of genius? What are you really good at in your business and what’s not your strength? And instead of trying to be good in everything, where can you eliminate things of your business? How can you take some weight off your shoulders? Because we don’t have to do it all in order to be successful, like so many of us. Like. I can speak to myself. I’ve built two six figure businesses, literally just with a stripe link, a social media account on Facebook, and a zoom account. That’s it. I didn’t have a website. I still don’t have one, really. I there’s so many things you don’t need that people tell you you need to have. You have to be on all these social media accounts and all of that. It’s it’s BS. You don’t need all of it. How can you simplify your business? So it feels light and it feels good to you. So those are kind of the things that we focus on. Another thing is what can you delegate? Can you hire a virtual assistant or some kind of an assistant who can help you with certain tasks that you feel like they have to be done and you don’t want to do them? So those are some of the things that I recommend for people who are in a place of like, okay, I want to make some small adjustments to my business today.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:17] Now, do you find that a lot of people who are especially new entrepreneurs, you know, they might have worked at a job that they were kind of being frustrated with or they weren’t satisfied there. So they say, okay, I’m going to do this on my own. And they realize quickly, you know, when you’re doing it on your by yourself, it can be lonely that without kind of the support and community around you, it’s difficult to really get the achievement you’re looking for. How important is a community for an entrepreneur in order to get to those levels that you described?

Charlett Albert: [00:07:53] I think it’s invaluable. Like, it’s so important to be in the group of people who truly understand you, because people who often who are employed somewhere, people who are working 9 to 5 family members, friends often who might not be entrepreneurs, they’re in a very different mindset. And they’re they care about you and they want to watch out for you, but they might not have the best advice for you. They sometimes tell you, you know, it’s better to stay safe. You know, do the things you know, go to school, get a job like pay into your 41K and like do all these things to be safe. So being in a space where people where there are people who are like. Understand where you are. They understand the obstacles that come with being an entrepreneur was it’s not as simple as just like, oh, I create an offer and I make a couple of social media posts and or talk about it, and I’m going to make money. There are so many nuances to business, from simple things of, you know, how I manage my money? How am I now going to save for taxes? To how am I going to show up online? How do I create content? How do I sell in a way that it actually converts? There’s so many conversations and then also the emotional load to it, right. Because a business is often it feels very personal because it’s our creation, it’s our dream that we want to bring into this world, and we take things very personal.

Charlett Albert: [00:09:20] So there’s a lot of emotional weight to it. Sometimes we feel maybe we’re not good enough. Maybe I’m not cut out for this. Like all of these beliefs, these thoughts that come up of being an entrepreneur is, uh, very challenging at times. So having people who’ve been through this, having a community who’s taking who’s going through the same kind of thoughts, beliefs, steps is going to feel very soothing. It’s going to feel like, wow, like she did it. He did it. Now I can do it too. And I have these people that I can ask for advice for support and like not them telling me what to do, but more like this is where I’m at right now. How would you manage this situation? How would you manage this conversation that I’m having with someone? Or how would you manage this, this feeling that I’m having right now? I don’t feel good enough, or I feel like I don’t know if I can keep going. I’m not making the amount of money that I’m making this, all these things coming up. So being in community, being in mentorship for people who walk the the path before I think is, um, very, very valuable.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:29] Now, how does the rebel movement, uh, work for a woman that might be interested in exploring this? Is this something that is a one on one coaching? Is it kind of a group thing? Is it learning kind of asynchronously just on my own? Like how do how does it work if somebody wants to plug in?

Charlett Albert: [00:10:48] Beautiful. It’s a combination of all of what you said. So it’s a membership for $44 a month and you join. You can the first thing you want to do is you start with a quiz. We want to hear where you are at in your business. And we’re going to find out, okay, where can we support you most? Do you have a business structure already? Do you know how to write content? You know how to sell or do you need support with that? Do you want to work on on simple systems so you have a business that’s more scalable. But we also going to look into how you’re feeling with your emotional health, with obstacles and time management and goal setting and all of that. So you take this quiz so we know how to support your best. Based on that, you’re going to be provided with that resource that’s going to benefit you most every month. There’s a theme inside the membership, and always one of the four of us is hosting the membership, and the modules build on each other, and you always have access to all the modules as long as you’re part of the membership. So every single month there’s a theme where you get an in-depth training on something that will help you on your entrepreneurial journey. Sometimes it’s passive income, sometimes it’s sales strategy, sometimes it’s content, sometimes it’s nervous system regulation, goal setting, all these kind of things that are important to become a successful entrepreneur. And then every month you have the opportunity to go on a call with all of the ladies inside the robber movement and a mentor to network, because we believe so much in leveraging your network, leveraging the connections that you have.

Charlett Albert: [00:12:33] The most beautiful connections have happened in this space, from opportunities to get on podcasts to being a guest speaker. It’s someone else’s program. Like there’s a lot of opportunities that just come by leveraging that network, and you have the opportunity to ask any kind of business questions to that mentor. I just had a conversation with one of our members, and she told me that she loves these life coaching moments because things happen in business all the time. And she’s actually in the process of hosting her second retreat, and she’s promoting it right now on social media, and she wanted to get some feedback of how to overcome objections that people have of like, what if it’s too expensive? What if they don’t know if this is the next move to it? And we were able to coach you through this in this moment. So she got the clarity on one call and now knows exactly how to market that retreat. So it will sell out by summer when she’s hosting it. So whatever you’re going through in your business, you have these opportunities to get life coaching moments every single month to move your business forward. So you’re not sitting on a question forever, but you can talk through it and move forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:46] Now, is this, um, for folks, uh, primarily in South Florida, or is this something that’s, uh, kind of a worldwide online virtual experience, or is it in person?

Charlett Albert: [00:13:58] It is an online virtual experience, and we have members from all around the world. Actually, we founders are from around the world. So we have Tiarra who’s from the United States. I’m actually from Germany. I do live in South Florida now. But, um, Grania, who’s part of the membership, she’s in Ireland. Hailey is from the UK. So we have created a global movement from people from all around the world. So it’s hosted online, it’s virtually, and we connect through zoom every single month.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:30] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Charlett Albert: [00:14:34] We are actually hosting right now, a Be Seen festival, which is a virtual event for trailblazing entrepreneurs who really want to be seen and and find a visibility strategy that really works for them. Again, cutting out any kind of roadmaps but giving you opportunities that really align with who you are. It’s a free experience for the next three days. Actually, it started today. So for anyone who would love to plug in and learn some amazing visibility strategies, so your business gets seen, gets heard, and you get paid for what you get to do. I would love to invite you to the Be Seen festival.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:17] And then if somebody wants to learn more about the rebel movement or, um, learn more about what you’re up to, is there a place to go to do that? Is it mostly, um, through social media or is there a website?

Charlett Albert: [00:15:30] There is a website which goes through living business Project.com slash the rebel movement. Um, we also have a social media handle, and you can also reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook at Charlotte Albert.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:49] Well, congratulations on all the success. Charlotte, you’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Charlett Albert: [00:15:55] Thank you so much. Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:57] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.

David C. Williams With FlexAgent

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
David C. Williams With FlexAgent
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David C. Williams, AT&T – Inventor of FlexAgent.

He’s an award-winning inventor, tech entrepreneur, and author, is celebrated for his innovations and leadership in technology. With humble roots in Dallas, Texas, David’s journey from a challenging upbringing to a tech luminary is chronicled in his best-selling book “Business Model.”

His accolades include the 2023 D CEO Corporate Innovator, multiple Stevie Awards, and the Distinguished Engineer of the Year 2023-2024 Golden Torch Awards by the National Society of Black Engineers. A champion for diversity and mentorship, he extends his impact through educational initiatives like the Solar Robot Workshops and the Robot Dream Court Competitions, in partnership with Nancy Lieberman, fostering coding skills through play.

Beyond his professional realm, he is a family man, fitness enthusiast, and motorcycle aficionado dedicated to volunteerism.

Connect with David on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The Intersection of Technology and Diversity
  • His unique experiences and cultural background that influenced his approach to technology and leadership
  • Hyper-Automation and the Future of Work
  • About FlexAgent

Transcript-iconThis 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 High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here, another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have David C Williams, tech entrepreneur, inventor and author with AT&T. He is also the inventor of Flex agent. Welcome, David.

David C Williams: [00:00:31] Hey, how’s it going? Lee, great to be here with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Let’s start a little bit about talking about Flex Agent. I know that that’s something an initiative within AT&T that you were intimately involved in. So share a little bit about that.

David C Williams: [00:00:45] Yeah, sure. So flex agent is customer service reinvented. You know there’s nothing wrong with customer service. We all need it. We all run into issues where we have to talk to someone to get some support and help. But the difference is with flex, it works off a gig economy model. And so similar to Uber and other services like that, folks get paid by the task and by doing so, it drives a ton of efficiency and so it helps to save expenses for my firm. It helps to make sure that the folks that are taking the calls are actually earning a wage, and typically much higher than the average customer service wage, and also that the customer there’s parameters, just like in any other gig economy model, where the customer is made sure that they’re taken care of and they get the great service that they deserve.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] So like most marketplaces, it’s two sided. So how does it work? Like, I have a kid, he does remote work for a lot of companies. How would he kind of plug into flex agent?

David C Williams: [00:01:39] Oh yeah. So it would probably just go to flex agent Comm sign up. It’s a very simple registration process. Uh, it walks you through just a number of quick pre-hire questions. I think you usually do that with just voice. Put in your information so that you can sign up for your payments and instant payments and things like that. There’s a national background check that goes through. Training is all self-paced. You do it at your own leisure. Once you finish all that, there’s an onboarding process that happens in the background to get all your credentials together, and then we set you up so that you use your phone and your home computer, and you’re able to take calls working from home and provide customer service help for customers that may have, you know, questions about their bill or their phones and working and things like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:26] So it’s like you said, it’s like Uber. So I can say, okay, I want to work today from 2 to 4. I just kind of log in and, and set myself up. And then exactly as the calls come in, I deal with them. And then if I’m if I have something to do at 415, I just turn off and then I go about my day.

David C Williams: [00:02:44] That’s right. We just asked you to take about 20 calls a week as the requirement. Right now it may change over time, but yep. Uh, people get to make their own schedules. That’s the beauty of it. And so we want folks that are engaged when they want to be engaged, so that they can provide the best service to the customer.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:00] Now, is the service am I talking on the phone or am I just typing in a chat or can be a combination? No.

David C Williams: [00:03:07] Yeah, you would be talking on the phone. There’s a the system that they use is uh is that flex agents use is one browser. And so it’s a pretty simple system. But they are talking on the phone to a customer.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:18] And then how did you come up with this. What was kind of the pain point you were trying to solve?

David C Williams: [00:03:23] Well, you know, um, I’ve worked in operations and the service industry and technology for decades, and so I’ve seen a lot of the issues and problems of leaders trying to solve for. And I just realized that, you know, over time that that particular business model, I believe, is outdated and that a new business model could be used to leverage, um, and drive efficiency. And so that’s what started it. Um, the pandemic hit. And, you know, that kind of sent everybody home. And there was an opportunity to do a little toe in the water testing with it, and things looked promising. And so we just went for it. And it’s been a wildly successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:02] And then, uh, is this kind of only is AT&T the only customer for this? Because I would think this can work in and you know, for pretty much anyone.

David C Williams: [00:04:11] Yeah, it possibly. But right now AT&T is the only customer. That is correct.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:15] And then uh, your background has been very varied. Do you mind sharing a little bit about your back story?

David C Williams: [00:04:23] Sure. Um, yeah. Um, I don’t know where to start, but I would tell you, I’m a Dallas native. Um, and, um, I come from a very, uh, underserved neighborhood, maybe the poorest corner of the city, South Dallas. And, um, I lost my father very young. Um, however, you know, I believe that innovation is born out of necessity. Um, I kept that creative mind as I entered telecom, and, uh, I always felt like, um, you know, there are. Ways to drive efficiency to go, you know, proactively go find something broken and and try to fix it. And so that’s kind of been a mantra I’ve had. I went through a lot of different roles and technology and network and uh, chief of staff and customer experience. And I landed in technology just because, um, you know, I have a passion for automating things and really trying to find a better way to, to do the same things. And it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve been able to drive a culture in my organization. That culture trumps strategy. And so we work like a family and we have a lot of fun, and we go after really big problems, and we’ve been pretty successful solving them.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:29] Now, I know that diversity is important to you and your work. Can you, um, share some of your thoughts on that intersection between technology and diversity?

David C Williams: [00:05:41] Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I believe that, um. Having a diverse perspective gives you a chance to see things that you normally wouldn’t have. A lot of the folks in my organization, um, are people of color, or they don’t have a traditional technology background. Um, also, um, you know, about half the team is female. Uh, all of these are not necessarily common attributes of a technology team. We’re not a homogenous team. That gives us a perspective that that gives us a perspective where we can, um, put an idea on the table a, an issue, a problem on the table, and everyone’s voice is heard. And so you’d be surprised sometimes where, you know, the PhDs are engineers are sitting with folks that, um, are, you know, not as quote unquote technical, but the collaborations come together and they can see that really one and one is 11. You just got to get close enough together. And so that diversity of thought has proven to be very successful for us. It helps us to drive exponential results. We typically drive two, three, 4,000% ROI and, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars of impact every year. And so it’s working. The proof is definitely in the pudding.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:51] Now. Um, for some people, diversity is starting to become kind of controversial. Can you share some of your thoughts on why it’s important, um, to not neglect diversity and, and to make this part of the conversation in the business world today.

David C Williams: [00:07:08] Yeah, I think the important thing is just that, you know, I understand there is an argument that, you know, you don’t want to necessarily, um, um, disenfranchize or over incentivize others just based on a specific attribute. But I would say that the key for me is to just remember that we’re all individuals. And although I may be a black man and you’re a white man, there are many things about us that make us unique. And you’re not like every man or every white man, and I’m not the same. And so I think if we’re open enough to allow people to have that type of freedom where we can view that, then we can start to appreciate the specific talents of each individual. On my team, I ask that, folks. I say, look, if you want to come to work and bring your whole self, um, you’re automatically approved for vacation. Stay at home, because the problems that we are working on are too big for Clark Kent. We need your super self, we need Superman and Wonder Woman. And so we ask everyone to come to work and bring their super self in. And we even call ourselves by those super names. There’s a burn rubber river. There’s a Obi wan Kenobi. I’m optimistic Prime. And so we take those. It’s fun, but we take those things serious. And it helps the culture that we have. And by doing that, we drive diversity without having to have a diversity label to it all. It’s really about bringing the best out of us all.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:28] Now, do you find the folks that are kind of reluctant to embrace this are maybe there is some sort of a subconscious bias in that, that they’re not seeing the need to do this, and they are in their minds believing that, yes, I’m only looking at the individual, but they’re not noticing maybe that if they look at the team or they look at, you know, kind of all the photos of the leaders on the wall, that they might all look the same. And they they just think that they are doing what you’re saying, but they’re just happened to land on this, you know, kind of group that looks the same.

David C Williams: [00:09:10] Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. It’s it’s a it’s a slippery slope and it’s very easy to just gravitate to our own. I mean, it’s super easy, you know, for guys to go talk to guys and women to talk to women. And, and before you know it, it’s guys promoting guys. And we’re not looking at promoting women. And so in these unconscious biases biases happen. Um, one thing that comes to mind for me is this. And this is a business example, but you could use it in any flavor. There was a hotel once. I was at a conference. The very nice hotel might have been a, I don’t know, a $5,060 million building. I mean, it was just absolutely gorgeous hotel. And in the hotel that all the showers had this specific type of shower head. And for a specific demographic of women, it did not work well at the conference. That topic hit the stage now. Wow. They made a huge investment. But by not necessarily taking in enough diverse perspectives, they made a small faux pas that wound up being a really big black eye for their facility. Wouldn’t it have been nice to maybe consult several types of women to get a perspective on this before going to production and rolling it out? Right? And so that’s just one example of where folks had great intentions. But by not having a diverse perspective, they didn’t get the best solution, the best reaction. That is the same in every aspect of life. We may think we have it covered, we may think we know it all. But if you get a few more perspectives from people that don’t look or talk like you come from where you come from, you may see something that you didn’t see before.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:52] And it doesn’t always have to be negative. There could be huge opportunity out there just by talking to a broader group of people that you might be missing, you could have the exact right product and service for this group, but you’re just not framing it, right? Or you’re not even asking them if they want to participate.

David C Williams: [00:11:10] Absolutely, absolutely. You know, um, here’s an example. Um, in America, cancer is a very big topic, right? Um, and I’ve definitely lost people in my family from cancer. In other countries, cancer is not as prevalent. What are those other countries doing that maybe we’re not doing in America? There are a lot of things that we can learn from others. It just takes a moment to just go look outside and say, and again, talk to the folks that don’t look like you come from where you come from. You learn things that you just didn’t know. And it’s it’s really a cheat code. Um, I believe one and one is 11. If you put two great people together and they have some conversations, they can go further, faster.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:51] Now talk, talk a little bit about Hyperautomation. I’ve never heard that phrase before. Can you talk about that and how you got involved with that?

David C Williams: [00:12:00] Yeah, absolutely. And so Hyperautomation, I like to define it in two different ways. One, it is a culmination of technologies that typically work very well together, like machine learning, robotics, process automation is a big part of it. Um, AI, ML, things like that. Um, another way I define hyperautomation is it’s the least expensive way to solve business problems with software. And so we work in very short development cycles. We typically carry a very high ROI because we spend just a little bit of resources and drive a very big impact. It’s typically how most hyperautomation programs work. And so instead of, you know, spending a lot of heavy IT resources to go solve a problem, we may solve something in the back, a process we may engineer and optimize and then provide that to the business. And so it doesn’t have to take as heavy resources to produce that solution.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:56] Now is hyperautomation something that a small business or a solopreneur can take advantage of? Or is this something that only kind of these mega companies and these enterprise level organizations have access to?

David C Williams: [00:13:10] No. Um, actually, I think about hyperautomation in at a, at a entrepreneurial level, it might look like bots, it might look like some web tools that you can use, Zapier and MongoDB, things like that, where folks can, let’s say if you’re running a dry cleaner business, um, and you may need some automated spreadsheet accounting stuff, you may need some process optimization so that the clothes register in the budget and the the supply chain of ordering materials is, is is, uh, visible. You may want to connect a few of those things together. You can use some hyper automation tools to do so.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:49] So now if you were an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, how would you kind of go about learning about this where you can take advantage of it? Is there something, uh, is there some sort of training out there or is there some is this something that, you know, you just got to kind of tinker with?

David C Williams: [00:14:05] Yeah, it’s a bit of both. And so, um, one of the huge platforms is Microsoft. They have a Power Apps and Power Automate platform. It’s it has 500 connectors into the Microsoft suite of everything that they do. And so they have some very cool, uh, cloud flows where you, even if you’re not super technical, with just a little bit of training, you can connect a few different things together and see the lights come on. And so, um, that would be the first place that I would start. You know, also the University of YouTube does pretty well.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] Yeah. I think a lot of folks, um, really do a great job on YouTube explaining a lot of complicated things in a very efficient manner, and it is a great tool for education. Do you find that in your work? Um, that that’s the case as well. Even at an enterprise level, you can kind of lean on YouTube for some intelligence.

David C Williams: [00:15:02] Yeah. Um, there is a huge community, especially if you, uh, so getting into hyper automation to collection of technologies, the place to probably start, um, is bots or robotics, process automation. Um, there are absolutely tools out there, YouTube videos, things like that. There’s UiPath, there’s a lot of different, uh, great resources. I will tell you, when I think from a enterprise perspective, things that we’ve been able to do and in a solopreneur could do the same. But like, um, typically when you work with software development, there’s this long list of requirements and it’s an arduous process. It takes a long time. And so we thinking in a hyper automation type of methodology, instead of writing all that stuff out, we may just capture it on video. Right. And that just truncates this. It simplifies the process. It makes it a lot more fun. Uh, it moves a lot faster. And so we can move things through the development cycle a lot quicker.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:00] Is there any bot that you would say is a good starting point for somebody?

David C Williams: [00:16:06] Um, typically where people start is can they create a bot to do something with an Excel sheet? That’s usually where most people start, right? And um, if so, then they will say, okay, I’ll go from a web sheet to a website, uh, website and a web and a, and a excel sheet. Can I put these two together? And so it just starts to build more logic from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:35] Now, um, one of your mottos is legacy over entourage. Um, when it comes to, uh, I guess, inspiring and growing the next generation of leaders. Can you talk a little bit about that?

David C Williams: [00:16:50] Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, in my career, I’ve worked in telecom for a couple decades, and I’ve only had two professional goals. One is to, um, impact society at large, hints, um, the patents and all that kind of stuff and to mentor. And so when I think about mentoring, there’s, um, probably a few flavors of mentoring. There’s crisis management when someone really is, you know, in a situation, there’s, um, you know, helping folks to kind of find their way. And then there’s when you have folks that are hitting it, firing on all cylinders, right? They’re doing everything right, and they just need some help to get over the fence or get to the next level. And when I find those situations, you know, and I asked my own mentees to hold me accountable. But if a mentor has been mentoring someone for a long period of time, six months or more, um, we should either be. Giving constructive feedback on how they can improve things, or opening up the Rolodex, the contact list to say, how can I help you? And who can I help you with, right? Who can I connect you with? If that’s not happening, then you know, we’re really not building a legacy. We’re building an entourage. And I think sometimes, um, unconsciously or consciously, those things happen. And we have to be very mindful that we’re not, uh, that we’re empowering the youth to not only do well, but to do as well as we are or beyond. Right. I think that’s very important to make sure that we continue to strive for that, to see the next generation or the next wave of leaders go further and faster than we have.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:29] Now, is there any, um, kind of a system of mentoring that you’ve learned over the years that’s effective? Like, how important is it, you know, to set clear goals or to have regular check ins or, um, like, how do you create that accountability while combining it with the support that a person needs, a mentee needs.

David C Williams: [00:18:51] Yeah, well, I think you have to be very intentional. And so, you know, there’s probably a couple things I would say is every mentoring session I have with, um, in a group setting or one on one, I try to remember to say to the person, hey, look, if there’s ever a time that we’re having these sessions and it’s not valuable to you, I want you to speak up and say something to me. Right. And I try to say that frequently so that it is not a tough conversation the day they want to have it. And I share with them, look, you should feel this way with me and any other mentor, right? I’m not here to waste my time or yours either. The second thing is that, um, I believe that yes, you do have to set some clear expectations in the beginning. And with that, I try to just really break the ice. Let’s not have corporate speak. Let’s talk like family for a moment. Right. What is it that you really want out of this relationship? Be very direct so that we’re clear on the goals, and then we can figure out how to get there.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:52] So, um, what’s next for you?

David C Williams: [00:19:57] Well, um, it’s been a heck of a ride thus far. I’m just coming off a pretty, uh, big, uh, weekend. I just, uh, picked up the Distinguished Engineer of the year award, um, at the Nsbe conference in Atlanta. Um, next for me is going to be pushing flex. Um, I think it’s a great program for everyone involved, customers, the company and, and, um, call takers. And, um, that’s probably the the next big thing in my immediate future is pushing flex and watching it, uh, become something amazing in our society.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:28] So if somebody wants to learn more about flex, uh, what is the way to do that?

David C Williams: [00:20:34] Sure. Just go to Flex Agent Comm.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:36] Good stuff. Well, David, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

David C Williams: [00:20:42] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:43] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you on the next time on High Velocity Radio.

Kaleb Ufton With eCommerce Wizards

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High Velocity Radio
High Velocity Radio
Kaleb Ufton With eCommerce Wizards
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Kaleb Ufton, Co-founder at eCommerce Wizards.

He’s a bleached blond surfer, father and wizard. His purpose is to bring play and fun into life. What does this mean? From a young age, he’s been deeply curious about the world around me. From building a computer from spare parts at age 10 to telekinesis.

This curiosity led him down a path of magic, math, programming, magic, becoming a father, marketing, conversion rate optimization and magic again. You might sense a theme here.

In August of 22, he committed to use his gifts to serve the world. In Feb 2023, eCommerce Wizards was created. Since then they have created a process for Shopify eCommerce store owners to grow their business with certainty. They combine data, systems, rituals and the esoteric to achieve results such as 24%, 64% and even 100% lifts revenue in just 30 days.

Connect with Kaleb on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How to get certainty around growth in eCommerce
  • Why having fun is so important to growth
  • Rapid growth using the only 3 levers: Cost per acquisition, average order value and lifetime value, the role of faith or belief in eCommerce
  • Conversion rate optimization
  • Business optimization

Transcript-iconThis 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 High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here, another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Caleb with E-commerce Wizards. Welcome, Caleb.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:00:26] Hi. Thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Me. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about E-commerce wizards. How are you serving folks?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:00:34] Yeah, so Mark is my business partner. Uh, we met through a what you could call a chance encounter, although I don’t really believe in that. And we’ve combined our skill sets to sort of form this beautiful mixing pot, if you will, where we’re serving Shopify store owners, and we’re helping them break through their barriers, achieve revenue that they, in some cases, have previously achieved, but they didn’t really understand how. And then it disappeared or, uh, things happened in the business and it’s dropped back significantly and we’re helping them get back there. Or for some of our members, they have never achieved, uh, their revenue targets. And we help them break through those plateaus.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:17] So what is kind of the the mindset of a new person to e-commerce or Shopify? Do they think that if you build it, they will come and that’s all you have to do is kind of build out an e-commerce store and then all of a sudden business comes your way. Is that how they think?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:01:34] I mean, it depends who they listen to. There definitely is, uh, mentality out there that if you build it, they will come. Uh, but traffic’s traffic’s an important part of the puzzle, and a lot of people don’t understand how to get traffic or where to get quality traffic, or how to turn low quality traffic into high quality traffic. So there’s quite a few different components to it. We tend to deal primarily with businesses that have been established for maybe 2 to 3 years. They have a proven product at this point. They’ve already gone through some of those initial hurdles, but we do get a lot of people who are just starting out as well, sort of come through our front end and they have, you know, fairly similar questions. How do I get started? How do I find traffic, what product should I use? And a lot of times it can be actually quite challenging to answer that because if you’re starting any business, the question I tend to ask is is why? Why are you starting it? Um, why do you care about it? Why do you care about the solution? Why do you care about providing this for other people as a solution? And then another really important question to ask is, are you solving a problem that’s big enough for people to pay for it? And unfortunately, sometimes the answer to that is no.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:52] Now, um, like, what’s your typical customer? Are they selling like an item or are they selling a service like something invisible, or are they selling something that’s, you know, like one of my best friends sells tea online?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:03:07] Yeah, yeah. So I mean, tea is a great example. Um, at this point, all of our members are doing physical products. I don’t believe any of them are dropshipping, per se. They all have a product that they’ve sourced or they create, uh, you know, source from a manufacturer locally. We have a, uh, somewhat well known, uh, woman who runs a clothing store who creates her own designs, for example, and she gets a manufacturer to create them for her. But the manufacturer also creates other designs which she stocks and sells online.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:44] So let me help my friend out here. Let’s use him as an example. He’s selling tea, uh, in the manner you described. You know, he came up with a formula, got somebody to make it for him. So he’s got these packets of tea that he’s selling. He’s right now primarily using Amazon. Uh, but he aspires to one day do Shopify. So what are some of the things, some actionable things he could be doing right now to sell more tea?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:04:12] Yeah. So that’s actually a really common example. We’ve had quite a few people come through who have Amazon and they want to move. Uh, well, I wouldn’t say they want to move away, but they want to diversify. Um, and the main reason for that is to do with owning your customer database and wanting some independence. So one of the Amazon does let you do. An element or a few elements of testing you can through their platform. You can test out different things, and testing is probably one of the biggest ways to increase your revenue over time is just consistent testing, documenting what you’re doing, uh, researching who your customers actually are. Uh, and we’ll tell people who don’t have Amazon stores go look at similar products on Amazon, read the reviews. Because reviews are so useful. They’ll tell you what people are looking for. They’ll tell you their pain points. They’ll tell you what they like. What they wish the product had is it’s a gold mine of information. So for your friend, I would say take the time while you’re getting set up on Shopify and you’re learning how to get traffic to your Shopify, getting email sequences in place, all that kind of stuff take take time as well to really get to know your customer. Because Amazon has the customers, they bring them to you. When you leave any marketplace, you got to find the customer, which means you got to be able to speak their language. You got to know their pain points, their dreams, their hopes, uh, all that kind of stuff so that you can actually communicate to them in a way that is emotionally engaging and makes them want to click your link, go to your site, and hopefully your site convinces them to trust you enough to purchase.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] So what are some of the strategies to get more traffic going to your site?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:06:11] We tend to focus primarily on paid ads through Meta or Google, simply because those are platforms Mark and myself have mastered to some degree. I won’t say that we’re the world’s best in it, but Mark’s run over 80 million in ad spend in Google ads and meta, and I’ve managed millions in ad spend myself and done some pretty interesting things with it. So we’ve got enough experience and enough industries to be able to help people with those platforms. Both of us have done SEO and ranked on the front page of Google for SEO as well. So you can either go pay for traffic with money, or you can generate traffic with time, which is the organic method. And if you happen to have an existing email list, then that’s traffic you already own. So you can use that to generate sales as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:08] So is that kind of at the heart of a strategy if you’re in e-commerce that you want to at some point own a list, whether it’s a texting list or an email list, that you can reach out to these people on your own schedule, rather than pay to reach people and hope they get their.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:07:28] I would say yes, absolutely. I mean, any business that whether you’re in e-commerce or not, if you let’s say you have an email database of 50,000 people and maybe say 10,000 people have opted into SMS, the cost for you to reach those people compared the cost for you to find those people online through paid media. It just doesn’t compare for 50,000 people. You might be paying something like, let’s say on the high end, $1,000 a month to to maintain that email database. You can send an email out to them every few days. You can send an SMS out to them for cents, uh, if you try. And and these are people, ideally, who have already bought from you or are thinking about buying from you. So a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done. If you’ve got a special a sale, a cross promotion, a new product line, whatever it is, you can go to them for pennies. Uh, but if you try and do that any other way, there’s a massive time component or you’re going to pay for it, but you’ve already paid to get these people on your list.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:42] So now, um, if you were just starting out or you’re, you have a, you know, an emerging brand that’s starting to get traction, um, do you so you just what are the levers? You’re kind of, um, kind of pulling in order to keep this growth going? Is it just just more paid ads, like you just keep, you know, as long as the math is going your way, you just keep funneling money into the paid ads. Like, are you, uh, experimenting in other platforms? Like, how are you, um, growing a brand?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:09:16] Yeah. Great question. Uh, we’re about to launch. Uh, Mark and I are about to launch our own e-commerce store. Mark’s founded a few seven and eight figure ones, and I’ve scaled a couple to seven figures as well. So we’re launching one together as part of sort of like a follow along. And we’re taking exactly what we teach and implementing it in there to show everyone like, this is how you do it. And we look at three levers. We look at cost for acquisition, which could be, yes, more paid ads. Absolutely. Uh, it could be SEO, it could be doing joint ventures as well. Uh, we also look the other two levers that we look at are what’s your average order value? And then the third one is your lifetime value. If those are the three metrics, if you will, that you look at, generally speaking, you’ve got control over each of those. And the more you test around how you can improve those. So for CPA cost per acquisition, you want that one to go down for you or for the other two, you want them to go up. So the the higher the lifetime value, first of all, the more you can spend to acquire a customer, which means you can be more competitive in your marketing, you can be more aggressive in your marketing, and the higher the average order value that has a flow on effect for the lifetime value. But it also helps recoup cash flow in the short tum. So they interplay. But those are really the only three that. Determined growth at the end of the day, in our opinion.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:56] Now, when you’re coaching or consulting with people, how do you help them with the pricing? Like pricing to me, uh. It’s a tricky subject and a lot of people they want to go, in my opinion, too low, too quickly. Um, how do you kind of, um, or is it just strictly experimentation that you’re just look, we’re going to put a number out there and we’re going to see what we get, and then we’re going to try to beat that number. And then and where we land is where we land.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:11:28] Pricing is an interesting one. Uh, we tend to try and let the market decide that. Um, the lady I mentioned earlier that has the clothing. When she came on board, one of the first things I said to her was, you need to up your pricing. And she said, I haven’t haven’t changed my pricing, uh, in 3 or 4 years. And I said, great. Now’s a good time to add at least another 20%. And the only reason I was so aggressive in doing that was she’s selling. Clothing to a market that is willing to pay a lot more than what she was charging, and her margins were so slim it was choking her business. I still think she could charge a lot more than what she currently does, but there really isn’t any need to and it acts as a competitive advantage. She might make more margin and that’s great, but we’ve also got her from doing $17,000 a month in struggling. So she’s she’s already done something like 36 grand this month. So price is important. But it kind of comes down to how well you know, the audience and how much you’re willing to.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:12:37] When you test price, you absolutely run the risk of alienating customers. Uh, and so you’ve got to test it in a sensible way. You’ve got to approach it in a very logical sort of scientific manner where you’re going to say, okay, this audience, for example, is going to see this set of pricing, and this other audience is going to see this other set and or you split test it between them, which can be quite tricky to do on Shopify. So generally, it’s not something we suggest people test a whole heap. But if we see in the market, oh, you’re severely underpriced or the value. Maybe the value proposition is really good, but the price doesn’t match it right? Gucci doesn’t try and justify their pricing. Louis Vuitton doesn’t try and justify their pricing. They let their branding dictate. No, this is premium and you’re going to pay through the nose for it. But if you go to Walmart and you see a t shirt that’s like $15 next to one, that’s $2, well, yeah, it’s not the same.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:40] Right? But that’s part of your, um, the brand that you’re trying to build, right? Like, like you said, you can buy a t shirt for a dollar, you can buy a t shirt for $100. I mean, they’re just t shirts, you know, it’s just, you know, one, one label is going to be different than the other. And then the perceived value is going to be different in the eyes of that consumer. But when it comes to pricing, is it do you recommend having kind of a range of, of different things that cost different prices so that you can hit that person, maybe at a lower price, but also have some premium thing in there just to test the limits of what, um, you know, the consumer is willing to spend.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:14:22] Let’s use your, uh, your friend with the tea shop as an example. So, um, I’ve worked with the tea brand before, and one of the things I said was, okay, like, well, first of all, what’s your average order value? And the average order value was something like $28. Okay, that’s fairly low. Uh, what’s about 1.2 products for this guy? It was about 1.2 products per order on average. And his cost to get a sale was, say, $12. So he’s almost paying half just to get the sale. And then you have your cost of goods and all that kind of stuff. So then I was like, okay, what if we. What if we put a sample pack together for $50 or $49 for him? It’s still within that impulse purchase range, but it’s basically double. And so we tested that out and it went quite well. Okay, cool. Now what if we did say a monthly box or a seasonal box. And we started playing with how we position the product to increase the perceived value to match a higher price. And one of the ways I did this, um, many years ago, I decided to.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:15:33] Uh, this was a company that I was directly sort of like running and helping with manufacturing with. I decided to just put a product up that cost $999. The average product on the site was maybe $150. I decided to put it up, run like $5 a day with ads to it, and we got a sale within like three days. And that immediately validated my my theory that people, a certain set of people were willing to to spend a lot more, um, with Renee, the clothing lady, because she makes her own designs. She’s actually won some awards, uh, for wearable art. And I’m pressing her to get some updated photography for those, because I think there’s room for her to have a boutique side that’s, you know, more like couture, where people are paying 3 or $4000 for, for an item of clothing or more. But that’s not the same market that’s going to be spending $60 on a dress that she sells. So I think it’s something that you need to test. And the way you test it is by looking at the value for the audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:46] Right, but understanding also that they’re right, but understanding also that within that universe of an audience, there’s going to be likely, I would think, somebody that can afford to spend an insane amount of money for something way more than you think generally.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:17:06] Yeah, generally there is. Absolutely. I mean, it it depends who you’re targeting. You know, if you’re if you’re going after people who barely have disposable income, then, you know, maybe not, but with some, some quick tweaks, you could probably target an audience that have, you know, a few hundred to a few thousand dollars of disposable income a month, at which point, yeah, you can start charging $500 for a product and not bat an eyelid, and people will buy it because the value is there.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:37] Right. Or or they want to be the guy that bought the thing. Like, I mean, I’ve interviewed a bunch of the other side of it. Yeah, I’ve interviewed a bunch of people over the years, local restaurateurs or people who had even carts like this one guy was selling, um, popsicles in a cart. And I’m like, you should have $100 popsicle. Like, I don’t care if anybody buys it. You’re going to be known as the guy that has $100 popsicle. Like, that’s like the.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:18:03] Thousand dollar haircut.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:04] Right? Like somebody’s going to buy that. And as a goof to be the guy, hey, look, I’m a big spender. I bought this like, somebody out there is going to do it. Um, and even if they don’t, it’s going to improve your brand. Like you’re going to be seen differently. Your positioning in the mind of a people will be different.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:18:26] It changes the perception. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:29] So now when you’re working with, uh, clients, like how much are you getting into? Are you getting into kind of this psychology and you’re getting into kind of brand positioning, or is it more just like, this is the nuts and bolts on how to get, uh, you know, a product online and draw traffic to it.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:18:48] I personally quite enjoy getting into the psychology and the sort of, you could call it spiritual or esoteric side of things, where it’s a lot more touchy feely. We tend not to. We do deal with tactics a lot, you know, nuts and bolts. But most of the time, if we notice that we’re dealing with tactics on a regular basis with a particular, um, client or member or however you want to phrase who we’re working with, it’s a symptom of a higher order problem, if you will. If there’s a particular tactic that works and it stopped working, oftentimes it’s not the tactic. There’s something else behind it that it has changed. And maybe you weren’t aware of it or it’s not obvious. And that’s where the experience helps. That’s where we’ve been able to step back and go, okay, well, you know, how well do we actually know our audience? Do we have customer avatars? Do we know what really drives them? Do we know if this person is a mom of a child versus a mom of four children? Because there is a fundamental difference. Having three kids myself, one child is an experienced two children is a different experience. Three is a completely different experience. Um, I can’t imagine what five is like. So the more you know about your your customers and the more you understand them, I think it’s a massive advantage in business. So I tend to encourage everyone, uh, not not just the people who work with us to really spend the time because a lot of businesses don’t. If you spend the time to get to know your customers really well, it’s such a competitive advantage.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:35] And then so what is an engagement with your company look like? Is this kind of a group experience or are you working one on one with the people that are work that, um, come to you?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:20:47] Yeah, we have front end products. So, um, Mark and I put together, uh, 70 something experiments that over the however many thousands of experiments I’ve run, these are sort of the top ones that tend to increase conversion rates. So you can kind of if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can kind of blindly test those. And if you do nothing else, you’ll see a significant increase over time just by following a test measure process with that. That’s sort of like the easiest way for people to get started. And then we have some other products, but the main thing we do is as a mastermind, and we work with an intimate group of people who are looking to become seven eight figure e-commerce store owners. And inside that, we do have a boutique side where we sort of do the done for you. Side of things, but we’re talking about maybe three clients at a time. Like it’s really exclusive because Mark and I started this to have fun and we’re both run agencies. We don’t want to keep doing the agency thing. If it’s something we’re interested in and we enjoy it, then we’ll take it on. But it really we enjoy helping on the ground, you know, boots in the trenches, ecom store owners that are just sick of struggling or sick of being on a plateau and they actually want to hit revenue, that’s going to be life changing.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:11] Now. So how much is it to be part of this cohort?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:22:17] Depends on how you want to go about it. If you want to join the membership outright, you’re looking for a year. It’s ten grand. Um, otherwise we have a sort of like monthly option, which is considerably less. And that’s what most people take ends up being about 1300 a month. It pays for itself more often than not within the first month. Um, you know, depending on where you’re at in business, if you’re doing 50 K a month, we had we actually had a Pakistani guy join us who was doing 50 to 70 grand a month, and then within 60 days he was doing 140. Um, on one call, we were we’ve done goal setting and everything, and he’d set his goal to 200. And then three weeks later, I think it was we checked in with him and I asked him, what what was your goal? And he said, oh, 250. And I called him out because I knew he had said 200 and said, yep, I’ve already hit that. So the.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:18] Goal moved.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:23:19] We kind of we yeah, we we try and, um. Focus on how do we actually move the needle for you and make it so that it’s a no brainer for you to either stay with us or go to the next level? That’s our business model. So. Transparent. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:37] So but you’re looking for people who are already making ten, 20 grand a month right now so that their thing is kind of proven and they just need it, you know, maybe some escape velocity to get to the next level.

Kaleb Ufton: [00:23:50] Yeah, there’s different plateaus that you run into. So typically reaching 10-K is its own challenge. Um, that’s where you’ll see a lot of people that get stuck with dropshipping or they’ll, they’ll have an idea and they’ll struggle to get to about 10-K. The 10 to 30 K mark is sort of this, this no man’s land where you’re, you’re having to wear 70 different hats and do 17 things at once, and you don’t quite have the revenue to outsource, but you desperately need to outsource some things. And it’s this really sort of difficult place. We certainly can help those people. It’s just it’s going to be a lot more uncomfortable for them. Once you reach that sort of 20 K mark, you’ve kind of got the capital to be able to invest in systems and people and to you’re not necessarily in survival the whole time. You’ve got the capacity to be a bit more creative and start having fun again. And then. From, from there to about 70 grand a month. It’s it’s really just about you as a business owner working out. How do I not be the bottleneck? And then from 70 onwards, it’s it’s largely around leverage and. Offloading whatever you can in the most optimized way possible so that you’re in your genius zone, and everyone else in the business is in their genius zone, and things are working efficiently. But there’s always some problem that if you unlock it, it’s going to lead to two, three, 400% growth in the business. There’s always something.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:28] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or your team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to get Ahold of you?

Kaleb Ufton: [00:25:36] Yeah. E-commerce Wizards Club club is the main site. You can find me on either LinkedIn or Facebook. Uh, Caleb with a k Hufton you a uniform? Foxtrot. Tango. Oscar. November ufton. Uh, and we just chat. We just chat with people. That’s the easiest thing to do is just have a quick conversation, figure out where you’re at. Um, we do challenges as well. So we do like a seven day revenue challenge. We run that, um, last month and a lot of people will hear that and they’ll go, there’s no way you can do that. Yeah, sure. Um, one of the people who haven’t worked with us before joined the free challenge. Had a 43% increase in revenue during the, um, as a result of the challenge. And then another woman who is in the mastermind, uh, one of she set up another experiment during the challenge just to take part and be part of the community. And she had a 212% increase. So it’s not impossible. It’s just a different way of thinking. It’s a different way of approaching it. And I would encourage anyone that’s interested, you know, reach out to myself or go to the website and drop a drop us a message and honestly join a challenge, get get the experience of what it’s like and then make an informed decision.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:02] Good stuff, man. Well, thank you so much for sharing your, uh, knowledge here today. We really appreciate that. And, uh, one more time, the website, ecommerce, Wizards Dot club. Uh, Caleb Upton, thank you so much. Thank you. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Leigh Burns With The Fox Theatre

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

Most recently, Leigh was named as Director of Community Partnerships for Fox Gives, an enhanced community partnerships program dedicated to preservation efforts and support for theaters throughout the Southeast.

In this new role, she will focus on the overall success of Fox Theatre’s Multiyear Grant Program and sustaining and leveraging partnerships for Fox Gives. She will also oversee staff of the All-Access Pass Program and will extend bilingual education goals for Fox in a Box Program.

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

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

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

Connect with Leigh on LinkedIn.

May is National Preservation Month and what a better time than to celebrate the historic place-savers who pour their time, energy, resources (and sometimes a great deal of sweat and tears) into protecting the historic places that hold our dearest memories and history! This May the Fox Theatre’s philanthropic arm, Fox Gives, will be celebrating National Preservation Month in a big way as they were recently presented with the prestigious Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation inaugural Mark C. McDonald Award, a testament to their 15+ years of relentless preservation efforts!

While the Fox Theatre is widely known for housing iconic Broadway productions and music legends, many are still unaware of its profound preservation efforts, provided by its Fox Gives’ enhanced community partnerships program. Having nearly avoided demolition itself in the late 70s, the Theatre knows all too well the importance of preservation and has worked tirelessly to prevent that fate for other historic theatres throughout the Southeast, investing a staggering $3.2M to date! Not only is the Fox Theatre celebrating its recent award, but the nonprofit also commemorated the launch of its enhanced community partnerships program in March by awarding its first Multiyear Grantee Hart County Community Theatre with a transformative $500k donation.

Fox Gives Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Mark C. McDonald award

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • The main goal of Fox Gives, and how will it give back to the community
  • The main pillars of the Fox Gives program, and how this differs from the former program, the Fox Theatre Institute
  • Parts of the Fox Gives program that will stay the same
  • How they chose their first Fox Gives grantee
  • Leigh’s new role as the Director of the Community Partnerships for Fox Gives

Transcript-iconThis 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Leigh Burns, Director of Community Partnership Fox Gives with the Fox Theater. Welcome, Leigh.

Leigh Burns: [00:00:46] Thank you for having me. Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] I am so excited to number one be talking to another Lee, which like we discussed pre show short list. But most importantly to be learning about the Fox Gibbs program. Uh, you know from the Fox Theater. Can you share a little bit about that.

Leigh Burns: [00:01:03] Sure. Um, the Fox Theater for about the 15:15 years has been working with communities all over our state here in Atlanta and further out to really kind of bolster and encourage historic theaters, both through ongoing rehabilitation but also through operations and performances. We recently were rebranded and relaunched as Fox Gibbs. We were the previously known as the Fox Theater Institute.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] So now how does that work? Like most theaters are just kind of struggling to exist, but Fox Theater obviously has been around for a long, long time. Have you’ve gotten to a point of stability where now you can not only just thrive and survive locally, but you can reach out and support the other theaters around Georgia?

Leigh Burns: [00:01:52] Right. We’re very fortunate here in Midtown to have such a thriving, economically successful theater. And what we found over the past 15 years is that there are theaters across our state that don’t always have the resources that we do. First of all, probably more than half of the theaters that we work with are volunteer operated. Um, they’re not operated by staff. So we’ve been able to really focus on sharing over $3.2 million in grants with them that cover everything from planning for expansion of their building to ongoing restoration projects. We’re just very grateful that we have the ability to pay it forward. Many here in Atlanta remember the Save the Fox campaign of the 70s, and our mission to preserve and share really is born out of that, that place of revitalizing ourselves and then watching Midtown revitalize.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:46] Now as kind of the director of community partnerships, what is kind of a day look like for you or just theaters just constantly coming up to you and saying, hey, Lee, we need some help. Hey, we need some help, or is it you kind of going out and saying, okay, we can help this theater or that theater?

Leigh Burns: [00:03:03] Well, I think in the beginning we were definitely putting ourselves out more to to go and meet with theaters and find those. But with the growth of Fox, Gibbs and our presence in the state being known a little more, they typically reach out to us. I received lots of emails. We do initial consultations with theaters, and we work with them not only with strategic planning, you know, in their operations, but they’re building, but they’re consistently reaching out. And we also have education programs. So I oversee not just our preservation grants and our operations, but we have two other programs, our box and a box education program. And then we also have our Georgia Presenters Consortium, which is assisting theaters with booking with operations. So every day is different and always exciting, and meeting partners and building those relationships is really, I think, encouraged me to continue to do this every day.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:06] Now, with some of your work teaching the theater owners or helping them build community partnerships themselves, the way the Fox has done locally here in Atlanta?

Leigh Burns: [00:04:18] Absolutely. One of the things that we work on is leveraging partnerships locally. So when we invest, say, $100,000 in a new roof on their building, what we look for are other organizations locally that might join us in supporting those efforts, but also letting people know what we’re doing and letting them know the importance of why the fox is in their community and trying to make an effort there, and why the arts are so important to every community in Georgia.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:49] Now, um, is there any advice or tips that you can share with our listeners who, you know, building a community partnership program around a theater that has some allure, just kind of the history and things like that. But is there any advice you can give for any other business that maybe is transferable that how to, you know, get your whole community to support your effort is have you got anything you can share in that regard? Because I think that pertains to pretty much every business.

Leigh Burns: [00:05:19] Yes, absolutely. I think when you work in business, going back to the stories in your own organization, um, looking at the staff that you work with your own people and recognizing how important the arts are to their family and to their children’s education and making those investments, I think meeting people and putting yourself out there not only to financially support them, but to maybe have volunteer days where you work with them at their theater, where you give them advice on marketing. Um, there’s so many theaters around our state that need assistance in growing strategic planning and marketing support, and so many businesses want to reach out and do this. So I think there’s endless opportunities there.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] But at the heart of it, you have to get to kind of the why and the story behind the story where you’re emotionally kind of connecting rather than the transactional, oh, you’re coming here for a show. Thanks. Bye. You know, you’re trying to really integrate them into the why of the business.

Leigh Burns: [00:06:22] Absolutely. I think you need to make connections. Maybe they have a summer camp for children and, you know, you could sponsor certain components of that. Um, maybe there’s opportunities for people to really reach out and offer support in certain areas that they excel with in their own business. Yeah. I think when we look at partnerships in the past, a lot of times we see typical partnerships like banks with investment or, you know, those types of industries. But there’s so many other opportunities for small businesses to engage with partnerships at local theaters.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:59] And I guess, like you’re saying that historically, you know, the sponsor was happy with a plaque on the wall or a name of, you know, their brand associated with the thing, but now it’s people are getting more creative and, um, leveraging the theater and the work that’s being done there differently than maybe in the past.

Leigh Burns: [00:07:21] I think if you look, um, at the old look at investing in, in sponsorships and partnerships, it was a lot. The plaque on the wall in the restaurant, you’d walk in and and see people being sponsored by baseball teams, you know, businesses. Now, I believe that, you know, with technology and with the expansion of what these theaters can do behind the scenes to build audience development, there’s so many new opportunities there that we would have never even imagined. The possibilities are endless for those creatives to really get in there and kind of see what kind of impact they can make.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:59] Now, you mentioned the importance of having a theater in a town or a city. Can you talk about, um, is there any data to support that? Like, it sounds and feels like it’s the right thing to do, and especially for the character and of the the town or the city? Uh, is there a kind of data to support the importance of, um, leaning into the arts for community?

Leigh Burns: [00:08:22] There is data. Um, we have two partners that we work with here in the state quite a bit. The Georgia Council for the Arts and the Georgia main Street program. And, you know, when you look at towns that are really viable, when you see a theater, you see restaurants that are open before and after the theaters open. You see Friday night downtown opportunities that might include an engagement from the town theater company in the square. There’s endless ways that we can quantify how this creates a ripple effect. And if you look at the fox here, we’re really the main proponent of that. We look at the businesses around us that that help us and in turn, we help them. I think that one of the things we have to start thinking about as a whole is what preservation looks like, not just for the landmarks in in the town, like the courthouse, the theater, the schools, but the buildings around those that are sustained because of these key landmark buildings and their success.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:24] Is there a story you can share where some of the work you did in a in a locale that has made a difference and moved them to a new level?

Leigh Burns: [00:09:32] Sure. Um, there’s a small town outside of Athens, Georgia, um, called Winterville. We began working with Winterville in 2017. They had an auditorium, uh, built in the 50s, and it had been dormant for many years. And this is a very small city where people usually go into Athens to see live music, or they go to Greensboro around them. But they really wanted to reengage this auditorium and reopen it. Um, they started looking for public private partnerships. They started trying all kinds of opportunities to raise awareness. They raised a lot of funds. And at the same time, the state was developing a bike trail from Athens to Union Point, and they knew it was a good time for them. So now when you look at that community, there’s more of a cohesiveness in what their programing looks like for their city. While there may not be direct restaurants opening yet, there is a re-engagement of people coming there and seeking out these things versus going outside of the city. And so we do think that there’ll be continued growth there around opening restaurants. Um, and we’ve already seen a tremendous success. They’ve joined our group, Georgia presenters, and they present all types of music, theater, dance that in the past they would not have had. So we’re that’s just one small example. Um, but there’s many across Georgia. If you look at Augusta and the success the Miller Theater has had, um, that was a massive rehabilitation of a dormant theater and restaurants, re-engagement of downtown. So there’s so many about about these stories on our website. You can you can look at the map of all the theaters and see some of the impact.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:25] But the theaters don’t have to have kind of that, um, the bones of maybe that the fox had. It can be a smaller, um, auditorium like, uh. Place that, um, you know, still, you can build a theater program around. It doesn’t have to look like the Fox Theater for you to help them, right?

Leigh Burns: [00:11:46] Not at all. You know, these are not many foxes. These are theaters that can also be in auditoriums and old school buildings. Um, we’ve seen churches that have been repurposed as art centers. Um, these don’t have to be traditional theaters. It can be a place where this development can grow for the arts and take on many forms. We don’t really want them to be miniature foxes. We want to celebrate their their own identity and their own town and all of those wonderful things that come with it.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:17] Now, um, you mentioned the, uh, I guess previously this was called the the Fox Theater Institute, and now it’s Fox Give. Was that just a name change or has other parts of that changed as well?

Leigh Burns: [00:12:32] No. We’ve also launched two new programs.

Leigh Burns: [00:12:36] Um, Fox gives really is at the heart of our mission, which is to preserve and share the Fox Theater. And when we looked at we had we went through strategic planning and we looked at a lot of ways that we thought expansion would be most impactful. So we began two new programs. We have an all access Pass program, which is a high school program where we bring students here to the Fox to see shows on our stage, and then have a have a presentation with them from someone in the field who works behind the scenes in presenting. Um, that can be someone who works in tech design and costumes. We want to mentor with them the arts, vocations. You know, the film industry in Georgia obviously has been a huge success and performing arts, so we want to prepare the next generation to really dream of these opportunities. Maybe not always acting and dancing, um, on the stage, but there’s so many other great opportunities. So that was our All access program. And then we also decided to expand our grant program. And we have a multi year grant. Um, when we relaunched into Fox Gibbs, we announced a half $1 million investment into Hart County Community Theater in Hartwell. And they will now receive the largest investment for any single theater that we’ve ever awarded.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:57] Now, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Leigh Burns: [00:14:00] We awareness is so important. Um, we would absolutely love for more businesses to be engaged in, in smaller communities across our state, to really take on the role of leveraging some of our own work. Uh, it’s just really exciting to see we have a leveraging partner through Southface Institute. We’re growing our sustainability and that impact, but we’re always looking for individuals and organizations that can assist theaters in some of the behind the scenes operations. Um, and we would absolutely love for people to visit our website and become more engaged with some of our partner theaters.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:39] And, um, what is the website and what is the best way to connect with you or somebody on the team?

Leigh Burns: [00:14:45] It’s, um, Fox Theater. Org and you can look there at Fox Gibbs and see all of the theaters that were networked with around the state. You can always reach out to me directly, and I’d love to hear from others how they would like to be engaged.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:01] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the momentum and the impact is real and we really appreciate the work that you’re doing.

Leigh Burns: [00:15:10] Thank you so much, Lee. I appreciate this opportunity to really expand our, our imprint and and further our mission out into the state. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:20] You got it. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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George Sudarkoff with George Sudarkoff, LLC

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Bay Area Business Radio
Bay Area Business Radio
George Sudarkoff with George Sudarkoff, LLC
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Leah-Davis-Ambassador-logo1George Sudarkoff, Executive Coach at George Sudarkoff, LLC.

He specializes in guiding gifted leaders with ADHD. With a background in Systems Engineering and Psychology, he leverages over three decades in engineering and entrepreneurship for his coaching, established in 2019. Diagnosed with ADHD later in life, George empathizes deeply with his clients’ challenges.

He resides in Campbell, California, with his wife, Adi, their two children, and their Labradoodle Rosie.

Connect with George on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Harnessing ADHD as an Entrepreneur

Transcript-iconThis transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

 

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:06] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in the Bay area, it’s time for Bay Area business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Bay Area Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have George Sudarkoff, who is an Executive Coach for Leaders with ADHD. Welcome, George.

George Sudarkoff: [00:00:32] Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your practice. How are you serving folks?

George Sudarkoff: [00:00:38] Well, as you said, I’m an executive coach and I spent a good 30 years in tech myself. I went from an individual contributor all the way to CTO of my own company, and that switch from individual contributor to a leader and executive was a pretty rocky one for me, and I. I struggled and, uh, when I left my W2 job in 2019 to start a company, I also discovered that I have ADHD myself and kind of losing that structure and support once again, I struggled again, and people have been telling me for literal decades that I should teach or coach. So I decided to try. And the rest is history. I work with founders and executives with ADHD and help them to transform their ADHD from a liability into an asset.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:32] So what are some maybe clues that you might be suffering with ADHD?

George Sudarkoff: [00:01:38] Well, the trifecta of symptoms is distractibility, impulsivity and hyperfocus. Obviously, if you want to get a officially diagnosed, there’s a DSM five manual. It’s a manual that psychologists psychiatrists use to diagnose. But this trifecta is is a pretty good clue that maybe you should look into it if you keep getting distracted, if you can’t focus on on a task, and at the same time you get hyper focused on something that maybe you shouldn’t be doing at that time. Those are pretty good clues.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:14] Now, how do you define either the focus part or the distracted part? Like is it something that happens once or like, are you distracted for hours at a time? Like how? Like there has to be kind of a spectrum to this, I would imagine.

George Sudarkoff: [00:02:30] Oh yeah. There’s a there’s a big spectrum. You know, there’s a classic story of you’re trying to focus on something and oh, squirrel! And you go in a completely separate direction. And you might have also heard some people like the way they tell stories. They jump from tangent to tangent to tangent. That is another way ADHD and Distractibility sometimes manifests. Doctor Hallowell, who’s a world authority on ADHD. He wrote the book ADHD 2.0, compares ADHD to a Ferrari with a bicycle brakes. So you have this powerful engine, you can go fast, but you constantly seem to lose control and drive off the road. So that’s that’s the experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:19] So how do you help your clients? Kind of like you said, uh, make this from a take it from a liability into a strength. How do you kind of, uh, harness this so that you can leverage it to your benefit?

George Sudarkoff: [00:03:33] Yeah, I love to look at it from the ability point of view. I really don’t like calling ADHD a disability, because if you go back to this metaphor of having a Ferrari with bicycle brakes, you already have the most powerful, the fastest one of the kind car. And maybe you’ve seen those videos. People getting in. Somebody else’s supercar and wrecking it within seconds. We don’t call it the car’s fault. We. Instead, we think maybe the person should have taken the car to the track and learned how to to control it. I see ADHD very much the same way. Adhd is a is a big bag of gifts. Uh, they’re, uh, difficult maybe to unpack sometimes. But if you look at this trifecta of symptoms that I mentioned earlier. Distractibility impulsivity. Hyperfocus. Every single one of them has a brighter side. Distractibility, for example, is a curiosity on the other end of the spectrum. Impulsivity is creativity. You can’t be creative on command. You can’t schedule a 12. I’m going to come up with a brilliant new idea. It just does not work that way. And hyperfocus on the on the positive end of the spectrum is just boundless energy. Being able to dedicate inhuman amounts of focus and dedication to to a particular topic.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:08] So now in your work are people, um, like, what’s kind of the impetus of of calling you like, there’s something happened that they’re like, look, I got to get a handle on this, or are they, uh, not happy? Like, what is kind of the the reason where they’re like, I need a coach to help me kind of navigate this.

George Sudarkoff: [00:05:31] Yeah, yeah. Well, often happens with ADHD folks when we grow up, we hear. And there’s a very common phrase that you have so much potential, but you’re wasting it. If only you could focus. If only you can apply yourself. I’m the guy to call when when you’re tired of being that fuckup who constantly seems to. And go through the all out, followed by burnout cycle.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:01] So the person that maybe isn’t living up to their potential, or they’re frustrated that maybe they’re at a plateau in their career or their life may be that the ADHD is kind of the culprit or is lingering around this, that you need a coach to kind of help you navigate this.

George Sudarkoff: [00:06:20] Yeah. And I work with founders and executives, and we address leadership issues as well. But, uh, a lot of the leadership issues when you have ADHD have a particular flavor. If a lot of my clients, um, profoundly gifted, so they, they can read a book, they can take a course and they can figure out how to address a problem. It’s not the lack of knowledge. It’s it’s this other thing that the executive function, being able to take that knowledge and turn it into something. Um, in the real world and do it consistently. And that’s just, uh, one month you’re you’re all out, and then you burned out for the next six months.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:07] So what does, um. What does it look like when someone begins an engagement with you? What are what is, uh, kind of. Can you walk me through what the beginning of a relationship looks like?

George Sudarkoff: [00:07:19] Yeah, yeah, we would spend the first few sessions just to get to know the the particulars of this person’s ADHD. The presentation, because there’s a as you mentioned at the beginning, there’s a big spectrum of how it, um, presents in life. So we will we will try to understand. Exactly the exact flavor that this person has and how it gets in the way, how it, um, prevents them from achieving their goals. And over time, I don’t like to follow a, you know, a specific program because, um, every person is unique, every person, every challenge that they have is, is unique and different. Um, so I like for the relationship for the coaching relationship. So. Um, to grow organically. And, uh, we will address the, the issues that they might face in that moment. Um, and the ADHD itself is going to be the, the bigger theme that we’re trying to tackle. And ultimately I, I want them to learn to manage the. This Ferrari, that they have learned to drive it completely on their own, so they don’t need me.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:44] Can you share a story? Maybe don’t name the name, obviously, but maybe the reason somebody came to you and then how you helped them get to a new level and maybe manage this so they can kind of control the Ferrari and get kind of the best outcome from having a Ferrari.

George Sudarkoff: [00:09:00] Yeah, yeah, a very typical scenario. And I have a particular person in mind who is still my client. Um, is they, uh, a profoundly gifted? They’re very gifted. They have lots of fantastic ideas. They start a company, um, with a co-founder, um, and they find themselves in a situation where, um, the way they. Operate. The way they approach work creates a lot of friction and a lot of, um. Conflict with the co-founder because they cannot be consistent. They cannot be relied on. Um, and so that becomes the, the first focus for our work. And we figure out exactly, um, where. There may be some additional support is needed. And at the same time, um. Maybe a re design re engineer and renegotiate the responsibilities that the two co-founders have in their company.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:13] So then you help them kind of, um, maybe re maybe just adjust the way that they each deal with themselves and maybe with the projects on hand and maybe align their skills and strengths accordingly. Yeah.

George Sudarkoff: [00:10:29] Yeah, we all have strengths. And if we approach work with strengths in mind, um, it’s a lot easier to be productive and happy at the same time, right? Because a lot of us with ADHD, we learn to use anxiety as our coping strategy. And even if you master. Using anxiety as your motivation. Um, in at the end of the day, it leads to burnout and you become unhappy with the work. And, um, it does not lead to a lasting, productive relationship.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:05] So is this something that, um, you’re cured of, or is this something you manage, or is there something that how does it work? Like what’s the long terme kind of, uh, prognosis when you are diagnosed with ADHD?

George Sudarkoff: [00:11:20] Well, ADHD. Um, it is called, um. Um, a disability by by the medical establishment. I don’t see it as a disability, but it is just, uh, my point of view. Um, there’s medication that you can take that, um, can help you using the same metaphor of Ferrari with bicycle brakes. Maybe can strengthen your brakes and medication. Um, could be a really important part of of the of this process. Um, but ultimately, it never goes away. It’s it’s genetic. Um, some even believe there’s a, um, evolutionary advantage. Um, as a matter of fact, if you have ADHD, you’re 32% more likely to become an entrepreneur and to start a company. At the same time, you’re 27% more likely to end up in jail. Um, so it does come. There’s benefits and, um, and they’re costs. So. I think ultimately it’s about learning to to manage what you have. But you are never cured now.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:33] Now, um, is there any advice you can give to somebody who’s listening that maybe is seeing themselves in this conversation? Is there some low hanging fruit that an individual, uh, can be doing, or some actions they can be taking today to, um, either assess or improve their situation?

George Sudarkoff: [00:12:54] Yeah. Yeah, it’s. Well, that’s such a good question. It’s hard to pick just one thing if I, if I wanted to, like, deliver just one idea to your listeners, it would be to. Really try and see the positives in ADHD symptoms and and be more gentle with yourself and um. Forgiving. Maybe there’s a balance we don’t want necessarily to let ourselves off the hook. We’re still responsible for the things that we’re responsible. But finding the way. Um, when we can use our strengths to, to to get to our goals. That’s that’s the ultimate.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:40] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the website? What is the best way to get Ahold of you?

George Sudarkoff: [00:13:50] Uh pseudo.com is my website. Uh, there’s a button to schedule a free consultation with me, and I would be happy to talk to everybody.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:00] And that’s s u d a r k Ofcom. George, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

George Sudarkoff: [00:14:10] Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:11] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Bay Area Business Radio.

Mary Ellen Garrett With Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Mary Ellen Garrett With Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
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Mary Ellen Garrett, Senior Vice President, Wealth Management Advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

Her financial and civic life has been a profile of influence and devotion since she joined Merrill in 1985. Highly regarded in the industry and among a loyal and growing clientele, she has built a reputation for caring deeply and sharing important life lessons with generations of clients and their families.

Her skills and ability to provide outstanding wealth management have been recognized repeatedly. She has been named to:

  • Forbes “Best-In-State Wealth Advisors” List (2018-2022) (Published annually Jan – April. Rankings based on data as of June 30 of prior year.)
  • Forbes “America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors Best in State” List (2022-2024) (Published annually in February. Rankings based on data as of Sept 30 of prior year.)
  • Forbes “Top Women Advisors” List (2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021) (Published annually Feb – April. Rankings based on data as of June 30 –September 30 of prior year.)

She was also recognized by Merrill – from among more than 50,000 employees worldwide – as a recipient of the 2015 Bank of America Corporation’s David Brady Community Service Award. An active listener, she has long facilitated thoughtful discussions with clients and sought to empower their confidence in making informed financial decisions – educating whenever possible and meeting with entire families to explain how each stakeholder can contribute to positive outcomes.

Known for her candor, she often tells clients “yes” to sensible ways of saving, investing and savoring meaningful outcomes – and “no” to excessive spending that may seem extravagant or short sighted. Encouraging families to ask questions and share any circumstance that could have financial implications, she looks to educate, so that clients are able to develop and sustain wise financial habits.

In the Atlanta community, she currently serves as a Trustee & Vice Chair of Emory St. Joseph Hospital Board, as Chair of the Atlanta Catholic Archdiocese – Finance and Advisory Council, and as Trustee of The Parkinson’s Foundation.  She also speaks at seminars on many topics including wealth & estate planning strategies.

Mary Ellen and her husband, Scott, have been married for more than 40 years. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Connect with Mary Ellen on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Teach them while they’re young about saving, spending, and budgeting.
  • Discuss finances with your partner to understand each other’s perspectives
  • Close the gender wealth gap
  • Financially bouncing back post-divorce
  • Diapers, Decisions, and Dollars: Plan for financial stability by creating a financial plan before a career break can help ensure long-term stability.

Transcript-iconThis 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: [00:00:24] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Mary Ellen Garrett with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Welcome.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:00:44] Thank you very much. Happy to be here today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I am so excited to get caught up with you. But for those who don’t know, can you tell us a little bit about Merrill Lynch Wealth Management? How you serving folks?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:00:55] Oh, absolutely. Happy to talk about this. Merrill Lynch Wealth Management is a global partner, but also at the local level. We service our clients individually. We work with many families in the Atlanta area and all over. And in addition, we also do quite a bit of corporate work in that corporate work. Uh, we include 401 K’s in the nonprofit sector. We deal with many nonprofit organizations as well from an investment management standpoint. And just we cover it all.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:34] Uh, we’re here to talk about a recent a report, I guess, that Merrill was involved with regarding women investing for women and women’s finances, I guess specifically in concert with Women’s History Month. So, Mary Ellen, do you mind sharing a little bit about what was learned?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:01:51] Oh, happy to do that. So according to a recent poll, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management discovered that 62% of women have learned about money and financial topics already, and with an additional 21% reporting that they would like to learn. But they haven’t gotten around to it. But these there are so many areas that we talk about with our clients and with people who are interested in the markets. And one of the things we tell them is to teach them all when they’re young. And the younger you can learn about this topic, the better it will be for all of you. So, for example, having discussions about finances with children from a young age helps them grasp the concepts of saving and spending and budgeting. Also understanding how money works. Very important. Also, we talk to individuals about having the investment discussion with your partner, and that would be including items such as up talking about questions about your upbringing, your spending patterns, your work history to understand each other’s perspectives. It really starts with communication and being able to talk about how did your family talk about money, but having that discussion with your spouse, with your partner is so important to get that communication started properly.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:28] Now, why do you think that more people don’t learn about finance and money and growing wealth earlier? Um, you know, we live in a country that’s among the most wealthy and affluent in the planet. And we, you know, we see successful people all the time. You know, at least it looks they look successful to us. Um, but why do you think there’s a disconnect between so many folks who really don’t grasp some of the basics when it comes to growing their wealth?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:04:03] Well, I think that percentage of people who think like that is really going down, because I do think that more and more people are learning about it and are, uh, comfortable with handling things on their own. But I think it really goes back to, um, a question of who took care of things for them and if they weren’t involved with the discussion from a younger age, or they weren’t included in that discussion in their family or in their new family, maybe when they marry, um, it’s just that somebody else has always done always done that for them. Um, but really, statistics tell us that the majority of women at some point in their lives are going to have to take care of the money for themselves, and they may be divorced, they may be widowed, and at some point they need to learn. Um, so when clients come in to us, we really take it upon ourselves to teach that client what it’s all about, teach them to look for certain things and to be able to have that open communication with their advisor. Um, and so I think that these are some of the very important things to have part of this statistic. Um, we have uncovered that 69% of people have of women have created a financial plan where 68% of them actually have a financial advisor. Um, so we love to hear that because those numbers are going up. And it means that people are they are taking charge of their own finances. And we like to see that.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:57] Now, you mentioned kind of addressing some of this as when people are young, how would you recommend a family have kind of a financial discussion when there are children involved? Like how much of kind of the finances should be transparent amongst everybody? Um, while you want to protect everybody from fearing being fearful, but how much should they know about, you know, this is how much money comes in, this is how much money goes out. We save this amount like some of the kind of the basic blocking and tackling of finance, like how would you recommend it, the different stages in life, you know, as a child, maybe as you’re going to college or turning into an adult and, you know, as you kind of progress?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:06:42] Well, every family is different and every child is different too. I’m having three of my own. And, um, having those discussions when they were younger, and it’s the amount of information that you feel they can understand. Um, but giving them chores, giving them tasks, giving them things, um, opportunities to make money. And then what do you do with that money? Um, how do, um, how do Mom and dad, um, take care of things in the home? Um, and then that stretches out to the independence of the, of the younger child to be able to take care of things for themselves when they get a little bit older. Um, and then having those discussions with their own family. I know my husband and I have been married a long time, and the first couple of years are a little awkward. I think that’s true of just about everybody. But the more open you can be about your communication, about what you make, what you save, what you spend, those are everyday questions that should be addressed. And then when you’re getting to the period where you’re working so hard, both of you and, um, you want to have that, uh, discussion between the two of you, and you want to have a plan. Um, the planning part of the business of saving and investing is so important because it’s that plan that’s going to take you to the levels and the goals that you have set out for yourself. You’re so busy working that you want to make sure that plan is in place, that you’re taking advantage of what your, um, what your job has to offer you. Participating in your company’s 401 K, most offer 401 S, most have a match. Um, and to make sure that you’re taking advantage of that and taking advantage of everything that, um, that is to be offered in the working world. Um, so lots of different points there. If you want me to focus in on one or more of those, I’m happy to do so.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:03] Yeah, well, I’d like to get into the, uh, to me, one of the most important tenets when it comes to wealth. Uh, growing wealth is the concept of compounding. And I don’t think that that’s taught well for children at a young age. And when, when you can really benefit from it the most. How do you kind of explain compounding to a young person, and how do you explain it to maybe your clients later on? Because obviously, the sooner you start on any plan, forgetting about really the allocations, but just on the just the habit of of saving and leveraging compounding, how do you have those conversations?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:09:43] Well, you talk about um, almost it’s like a, an investing 101 course is the longer your money, um, sits and is invested according to an appropriate strategy for you, the power of compounding helps to continue to increase the value of your money a lot faster than if it was just sitting in a savings account. Um, but it’s something that you really do have to spend a little bit of time, um, going over that and making sure that you understand that when the light bulb goes off and you’re saving and all of a sudden you get your monthly statement and you see what kind of returns you’re getting from the investment of your, uh, your overall strategy. Younger people will start to understand that if their families teach them at a young age and they review their statements with them, when most usually get it, is when they are out in the working world for the first time and they’re taking money from their paycheck and they’re putting it into the company retirement plans that are offered to them, and they start to see those monthly, um, savings add up. And and it really comes over time. Um, so I think that the importance of starting early, I can’t emphasize that enough. But I’ll also tell you, it’s never too late either. I know some people may be in their mid 40s or mid 30s and say, oh my gosh, it’s too late, I’ve missed it. No you haven’t. Um, I think it’s for every age, just the desire to want to know, um, and the desire to partner with somebody professionally. So you’re checking your work. And I think that that’s a very good point to make for those people who are, um, who are considering working with an advisor for the first time.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:51] Now, is there anything that you use to really kind of drive the point home? Because it compounding is one of those things where it looks like nothing’s happening for a long period of time, and then all of a sudden it’s like, wow, how did this happen? Like it just starts becoming more noticeable and more dramatic. And a lot of people, you know, they. When things are gradually improving, you don’t really see it. But when something shocking happens, it gets your attention. And, um, well, how do you kind of illustrate that to people so that, you know, that light bulb does go off like this is, uh, worth doing? Putting a little bit aside, every month is going to pay off.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:12:36] Well, I think you just hit on the key fact of that is that it it doesn’t happen overnight. It does happen over time. And you do have to be patient. Um, and you have to be disciplined. The discipline of putting monies away, um, whether it’s on your own as an after tax savings or an after tax investment or a pretax savings or pretax investment that you may be able to do with a retirement account, and it is that time and discipline to be able to continue to make, um, in the ups and the downs of the market. Um, you hear so much, uh, buzz about the markets when everything is going great. Oh, gosh, the stock market’s up. I must be making a ton of money. And and it truly is the discipline of having that strategy and being able to continue to make those deposits on a disciplined basis, um, every single time. And it might be monthly. It might be quarterly, but continuing to do it don’t stop when you hear that the markets are down. You have to continually make those deposits because on average an over time, the compounding of your deposits plus interest, plus the returns that you get when the market is appreciating, you will see those funds continue to rise and periodically check in, um, on your strategy to see if you should maybe be saving more, maybe to be a little more aggressive or maybe more conservative with your portfolio strategy. Um, there’s a lot that can be done, and I would encourage your listeners to, um, go and check what they’re doing right now if they are investing with their company. Um, do a check on your accounts, talk to your HR person to make sure that you are taking advantage of everything that’s available to you. And if you’re working with an advisor, um, check with him or with her to be able to make sure that your strategy is appropriate for you. Um, are you, uh, goals based? Uh, do you have some things that you’re saving for and making sure that you are invested appropriately and taking the proper risk that you’re comfortable with?

Lee Kantor: [00:15:22] Something that helped me, uh, early on when I started saving was somebody told me this. And this reframing helped me is when the market’s going down, you’re buying things on sale. Like, if you if if you believe, uh, in kind of an optimistic manner that the economy is going to grow and, and we’re going to keep improving over time. If you believe that, then you’re going to, you know, be invested, stay invested, and, um, just be disciplined in knowing that it’s going to go up and down. It doesn’t go up in a straight line, but it goes up and down. And when it goes down, that’s an opportunity to buy more shares that it over time, hopefully that’s going to benefit you even more. And that’s where the gains really come in.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:16:08] That’s exactly right. And um and again that points back down to the discipline of being able to get used to the routine of investing. Um, I know many people who are in the savings, um, part of their lives. They are making a sacrifice, um, to take some of their paycheck, to put it away. Um, and to be able to create that routine and discipline. It’s just like a routine and discipline of anything that is good for you. Anything that’s worthwhile is is worthwhile to create that discipline and routine of doing so. Um, but it is true, just like you said. And when the markets are down, you want to continue to make those investments, because when they’re down, you’re buying a little bit more. Um, when the markets are up, you might be buying a little bit less. But over time, as the markets continue to provide that return to you. Um, also make sure that your portfolio is diversified, um, that you have a position of stock that is including the areas of, um, investing in the equity markets and that is investing into large cap companies, midcap and smallcap as well as international, and a growth in a value side of each of those areas. Um, when you try to hone in and to just bet on one particular area or a handful of stocks that may work for you for a short period of time. But over time, it’s the discipline of that diversification strategy, um, that you need to be invested into.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:04] Now, isn’t this where having a partnership with a professional like yourself and your team is really important? Because most individual people have their own lives that they’re dealing with, and it’s hard for them to stay on top of all of this stuff that your organization is doing 24 over seven. That’s all you’re thinking about. And, uh, you can, you know, you know, kind of get an idea of my risk tolerance and what is important to me and my objectives. And you can kind of create a customized approach for me to help me achieve whatever outcome I desire, rather than me. Like you said, hearing, you know, somebody say, oh, this company ABC is that’s the one you should be investing in. Look, it’s hot. And then I’m spending money there and it goes up or goes down and then like, I can’t react as nimbly as somebody like you or your team when it comes to, you know, over the long haul, making the right choices, I think.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:19:04] Well, the first thing that someone should do when they are considering investing, whether they are investing at their company or on their own, um, is to find an investment advisor that you can partner with, someone that you’re comfortable with, someone that you communicate, uh, that you can communicate with, ask any questions. I know when someone comes in here for the first time and they say, oh, gosh, you know, I’m I’m embarrassed. I don’t know this or I hate to ask a dumb question. And we try to put our clients and our, our people who are coming in to talk to us for the first time, at ease, because this isn’t something that you do every day, but it is something that we do every day. And, um, creating that plan first is so important. Knowing what someone is saving for. Knowing what their overall financial situation is, and to have someone like us make the proper recommendations for you with your best interest at heart. Um, that’s a partnership. That’s gold. Uh, somebody that you can find and to grow with you over the years. Um, to be able to be a partner for all financial decisions.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:35] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the website? What’s the best way to get Ahold of you or learn more?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:20:44] Oh, the best way to, uh, to get Ahold of us is to, uh, look at our website or go to, um, uh, send us an email, um, or our main number. Um, our. May I give that information? Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:59] Please start with the website because. Okay.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:21:02] Uh, so our website, um, if you’ll bear with me just one moment, I should have this right in front of me. Beverly, do you by any chance.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:11] I have the I have Wfan, MLB.com slash the Garrett group?

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:21:18] Yes, that’s the one. I guess I don’t look at my website as much as I should. Um, and then, uh, our email email directly is m underscore Garrett Garrett at MLB.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:35] And MLB.com is the Merrill Lynch kind of, uh, main website. Yes.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:21:40] Correct. Um, and then our direct number here is 404 2312506.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:48] Well, Mary Ellen, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Mary Ellen Garrett: [00:21:54] Well, thank you very much. I appreciate being asked today. Hope you all have a wonderful afternoon.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:59] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio. Thank you.

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Joe Schab With FinQuery

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Joe Schab With FinQuery
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Joe Schab brings a wealth of experience to FinQuery. He has spent most of his career helping companies transition from startups to full-fledged, high-growth entities.

As COO and President at FinQuery, he is responsible for the alignment and prioritizations of investments and ensuring operational excellence.

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Recent transition from LeaseQuery to FinQuery
  • The new space that FinQuery platform is covering

Transcript-iconThis 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Joe Schab with FinQuery. Welcome.

Joe Schab: [00:00:42] Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] I’m so excited to get caught up. Tell us about Finn Query. I heard you kind of had a brand change.

Joe Schab: [00:00:50] Name change we did, we did. So Finn query. We are a B2B SaaS solution that helps companies with their largest areas of non-payroll spend. So the things that they lease, the things that they subscribe to, their software and the contracts that govern those arrangements. We recently changed our name to Finn Query to reflect the finance and technology bent. Previously we were lease Query because we focused solely on lease accounting and lease management, and we expanded our remit to include software, software management and contracts recently. And we felt that the Finn and financial technology better reflected our expanded influence within the office of the CFO and the office of the CIO in technology as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:37] But the kind of the premise is similar, right? You’re enabling your clients to get kind of a holistic view of all of the financial issues that they’re dealing with. That might be complex because they could have a variety of different, like, I guess you started in leasing, but there could be a variety of, you know, software and licenses and all kinds of financial issues that maybe it’s hard to visualize, you know, because they’re so spread out across the organization.

Joe Schab: [00:02:06] That’s right. That’s right. So going back to the beginning, so, you know, our our legacy was in leases. The you know, it doesn’t sound really sexy, but it was really quite interesting. The biggest change in the accounting industry occurred several years ago occurred in 40 years, occurred in the accounting industry when the Government Accounting Standards Board, the Federal Accounting Standards Board, changed and required that every publicly traded company, every privately held company, every government entity changed the way they account for their leases. And they made that requirement more complex. So what they used to be able to do through spreadsheets and Excel spreadsheets and Google Sheets, they really needed to have technology. And so we created that technology, a B2B SaaS solution. And we by far became the largest, most complete provider of that solution. We have over 8000 customers today along the way. So if you think about it, leases are a large, large, light item within a customer’s books and you think about the things that they lease, it’s their office, it’s land, it’s equipment, it’s their fleet. Along the way, as we were acquiring these customers and doing great work for them, they were asking us to do other things for them. And as we were evaluating those other things, we were looking at other big problems to solve for them.

Joe Schab: [00:03:22] And one big area was SaaS subscriptions. So if you think about it, you just think about your own home life. Um, you know, people are subscribing to we live in a subscription economy now, right? You think about Hulu and Netflix and all the things that you subscribe to. Well, companies are no, no different today. Companies will spend anywhere between $5000 to $15,000 per employee on their SaaS solutions. Right? So a 100 person company will will spend probably around $1.5 million on SaaS solutions like their ERP systems, like their CRM systems and the like. And those are those continue to grow. And so our our customers are saying, you know what? Managing those contracts, managing those renewals, managing, you know, whether we’re managing these these solutions in an appropriate and efficient way, we’re becoming really unwieldy. And they were managing them through spreadsheets, just like they were managing their leases through spreadsheets prior to adopting, um, a solution like lease query. And so we looked into this problem. We were facing that problem ourselves. I faced that problem myself as the as the president of the company. We were growing so rapidly that we had our employees say things like, hey Joe, I need 15 more licenses or seats to our sales, to Salesforce, our CRM system.

Joe Schab: [00:04:48] And I’d look into it, and either we did or we didn’t. Um, but, you know, it was really hard to track. And so when I went to go look for solutions, there really wasn’t a solution for it. And so we decided to enter this market. Um, and, you know, we are seeing great success in adoption. Um, we are talking to our current customers, the 8000 customers we have today, as well as net new and helping them solve this really, really big problem. Uh, and so it’s continuing to grow the customers, um, continued to report that they’re acquiring buying new SaaS solutions every single day. And managing those contracts and managing those agreements are really a big problem. One of the things that we’ve, um, uncovered is that about 44% of a customer’s, uh, SaaS solutions go either unutilized or underutilized, meaning they acquire a solution, and then they’ll only use about 40 to 44, 44% of that solution, meaning it only half of their their people are actually using the solution or not using it at all. And so our solution helps them give visibility into what their people are using, how they’re using it, so they can actually get visibility and be more efficient about how they’re spending their dollars.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:06] Now, I would imagine once you kind of decide to get into this space, this is a pretty easy conversation because everybody like you mentioned can relate to it in their own personal life. I mean, and then you look at an organization that has hundreds, thousands, you know, tens, hundreds of thousands of employees. You don’t even know, you know what? You could be paying for licenses for people who don’t even work in your organization anymore. Mhm.

Joe Schab: [00:06:36] That’s exactly right. So we really have two modules in our system today. The first is spend management. And that’s really a tool, an application for the office of the CFO to give visibility into what they’re spending their dollars on. Right. And then we have SaaS operations, which is for the IT team to help with the for exactly what you just outlined to onboard and offboard new employees and exiting employees so that you’re very efficiently in a click of a button. You know, if Joe were to leave the company, Joe’s license is shut off immediately as opposed to finding out, you know, a month later that he’s left. And now that license is still is still alive. And potentially either a it’s a security risk because Joe still has access to it, or B, you’re still paying for that license and you haven’t been able to you haven’t reprovisioned that to somebody else who’s come on board. So, um, it is a very efficient way to manage your systems. Now, to your, to your point about it being an easy conversation. It is, but it’s so new that many, many customers, many companies don’t know they have the problem yet. It’s when you have this, you have the conversation with them that they realize the light bulb goes on like, yes, exactly. That’s exactly what we’re facing. Tell us more. Oh, you have a solution for that. Tell us more about it. So it really is kind of a two pronged type of of conversation. First you have to give them the the light bulb moment and then you tell them about the solution. But it really is so new that customers have to first be told that they have the problem, and then it really illuminates the situation for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:16] Now, have you gotten a feel for like, you deal obviously a lot with the larger enterprises on average, how many licenses does an individual employee have like that? I mean, I’m sure this number is is a very large number, much larger than people think it is.

Joe Schab: [00:08:34] It is much, much larger. As a matter of fact, we had one of our board members. We just gave him a little assignment at. His company. Um, we asked him how many.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:45] I’d ask him to guess first and then tell them.

Joe Schab: [00:08:48] That’s right. We asked him to guess, and he came back and he said I was way off. We had four times the number of applications that I thought we had. And so, you know, the number basically varies from company to company as to how many applications, um, they’ll have per employee. Um, it could be ten, it could be 50. It all depends on the size complexity of of the organization. But it’s growing exponentially every single year. Um, and so the problem isn’t going away.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:19] Right. Because I would imagine this is a situation where people are getting enamored with some software and, and it could be important, super important software. But there’s so many new softwares coming and new things to try that somebody’s like, oh, we should get this for the team. And they buy one maybe for themselves to try. Then they implement it for the team, and then all of a sudden now you have 100 licenses and they’re like, yeah, that. And then no one’s using it and you move on to some other shiny object and you’re still paying for this license in the background because like, nobody’s pruning, they’re just adding.

Joe Schab: [00:09:53] Yeah, that’s exactly right. So what you’re describing is generally called shadow it. So shadow it occurs when um, as a as an organization you’ll have a process generally of procurement. Right. Um, where there’s an organized process where you’re, you’re buying, uh, provisioning software, there’s that general procurement. It’s going through proper channels. Then each individual department will have its own budget, and a person or department might buy a piece of software because their team might need something, or they, as an individual might need something. They put it on their company credit card, or they bill it to corporate to, to finance, um, and they use it for themselves. They use it for their department. And it didn’t go through proper channels. And so you end up to your point. You end up having all these people who’ve gone rogue, and you end up having so many more applications than you thought that you actually had. And that’s the other that’s the other problem that we solve is that we identify the shadow it that organizations have that, you know, CFOs aren’t aware of and IT managers aren’t aware of.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:00] And I would imagine that this also uncovers some redundancy, like you might have several tools doing a similar function that have just been purchased by different people.

Joe Schab: [00:11:11] Then it just then, then what you do is, you know, companies will then just have a conversation internally about, okay, which ones do we want to turn off. Which ones what, why first, firstly why do we have this going on. Second, um, can we streamline this so that we have either, you know, we use just one system or we downgrade to just, just the applications or the seats that we actually need. So it sparks conversation for efficiency’s sake. But that’s exactly how it goes, is that you’ll you’ll identify all these rogue systems. And it sparks conversation about how do we increase and improve our efficiency.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:54] Now, have you gotten to the point where you can, um, share with them, like where you’re getting a feel for, okay, once you implement our, you know, this new, uh, Finn query system, we’re going to save you X amount of like, like it shows a savings, I would imagine immediately because you’re able to kind of visualize, okay, this is it’s obvious here. Now when I look at it in this manner, I can see them all on one page. You know, I got a I can see what the issue is. Whereas these things are kind of like weeds growing, you know, without any, uh, you can’t see them. They’re hidden.

Joe Schab: [00:12:29] Right. Exactly. So that’s that’s exactly the process. So once we’ll have. Uh, we’ve onboarded a customer, and we what we call hydrate, um, the system with their data. Right? So we’ll we’ll hydrate all of their, all of their systems. So now we have complete visibility into all the applications that are being used by that, by that company. And then we, then we send the report back to them to see to show them, here’s what you’re, you’re spending your money on, here’s how many licenses that you’ve bought, here’s what you’re using. And here are your opportunities are for savings. And so we’ll immediately start sharing with them savings opportunities. And there hasn’t been one customer, not one customer where the cost of our software is is more than what we save them. So in essence, our software pays for itself because we identify, um, more savings than what our software costs. So we guarantee we have basically a guaranteed ROI on our application because we immediately show them savings, um, and where they can save and how they can go about savings.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:40] So now is this, um, kind of industry agnostic or does this work better in certain areas or, or enterprise level organizations that have certain issues, or is this pretty much. That’s a.

Joe Schab: [00:13:52] Great question. That’s a great question, Lee. Um, it’s industry agnostic. Um, we have um, we have customers in virtually every industry, high tech, manufacturing, education. So it really is, um, industry agnostic. What we find is people can companies can generally, um, track these, track these things fairly efficiently, up to about 150 employees. Once you get north of 150 employees, then it really becomes unwieldy for you to track these things efficiently on board and off board, efficiently, to be able to forecast, budget and manage efficiently. So the real it’s it’s we are agnostic as it relates to the industry, but we really focus on, um, companies that are 150 employees and larger. And our sweet spot generally is 250 to 5000 employees. That’s really where you can see demonstrable savings and efficiencies.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:56] Now, I noticed you didn’t mention government. I would imagine this would be tremendously valuable to government.

Joe Schab: [00:15:05] Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So when I, when I say organizations, companies, I’m also being inclusive of governments. Um, it’s a different animal to onboard a, a uh, to, to provide, uh, access to all of your systems. So, you know, to be honest with you, we don’t have, um, we don’t have, uh, a government systems yet. We have some nonprofits, but not government entities just yet. Now we have plenty of government entities for lease accounting. Um, but we haven’t gone into the government yet for cost savings. But to your point, um, because the sales cycle is just different, right? The sales, there’s so many more considerations as it relates to the government. But, um, it’s just a matter of time before they understand that there is, um, demonstrable cost savings to be gained here on behalf of, you know, taxpayers for sure.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:55] Right? I mean, this is, to me an obvious area of waste. Uh, I mean, just if everybody just looks at their own home and like you mentioned early with all your subscriptions and just managing those subscriptions more efficiently, I mean, everybody’s paying for something that they’re not using.

Joe Schab: [00:16:12] Yeah. No. Exactly. And I think one of the other areas that we see is valuable in our platform is in addition to the software management, we’ve also released contract management. So, um, what’s in the market today and fairly available. And you’ve probably seen it before with DocuSign and Adobe and Echosign are these workflow systems that are pre signature. Right. So as you’re negotiating redlining and agreement, um, it’s readily available. Um, what’s lacking in the marketplace and it really ties seamlessly with software management and subscriptions. Is post signature a central repository post signature for all your contracts, not just subscriptions, but all of your contracts. So we bring the value of software management to contract management as well. And we basically take the handshake from a contract lifecycle management, um, entity like an ironclad that that uses a DocuSign and Echosign pre signature. And we take the handoff and we’ve layered in, um, renewal notices, alerts, um, to the business. Because usually what ends up happening is when a contract is signed, whether it’s a subscription like what we’re talking about with like your Netflix or, you know, Salesforce, um, or, or your lease. Right. Um, it generally would go into a legal department and it would just sit there right where really the entities that are driving the business are the CFOs or the lines of business and the like, and those are the folks who want to get alerts on, hey, when is my renewal window up? What are the what are the key clauses I need to be aware of? And when do when do I get alerts on when those clauses? There might be some some sort of alert that I need for those clauses.

Joe Schab: [00:18:02] And so we’ve expanded the reach of software management, that sort of active management capability. We’ve expanded it outside the realm of software management into any, any sort of contract. So that to your point, there is no waste. Um, if you’re using our system, there’s no waste that you can experience because you are actively, um, being able to manage any one of your contracts, whether it’s software, whether it’s a lease, whether it’s an insurance firm, our contract or anything like that. So that what we facilitate, Lee, is your active management, forecasting and workflows and accounting of any of your contracts that you’re signing that that signs you up and commits you to a spend for any sort of firm, whether it’s a year or five years? Um, and it allows CFOs and CTOs to be able to really actively manage all of their spend, have complete visibility so that there are no surprises. One of the things that we talk about internally, all all the time at Finn Query is no surprises, no surprises. You don’t want to be surprised with a Netflix bill of of an increase, right? You know, same thing with, you know, any sort of lease terms or any sort of insurance or anything like that, whether it’s software or not, you don’t want to be surprised with any sort of increase in cost or renewal or anything like that. So we believe in no surprises. So complete visibility into all your large areas of spend.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:29] So now let me make sure I understand this, that within the contracts, if there’s terms that say, oh on this thing on this date, this is going to go to this price, your software can kind of understand that and give me a heads up like, hey, don’t forget, you know, June 1st, this thing’s going to cost you 50% more. Like if you don’t make this move like it’s kind of it, it reads the contracts and understands where the, uh, issues might be, uh, based on what it’s seeing in the document. And it’s giving you some sort of a heads up.

Joe Schab: [00:20:04] That’s that’s exactly right. Several years ago, we made a pretty substantial investment in artificial intelligence to read contracts and alert, um, and alert, um, people, whoever you designate, as being the point of contact to make alerts as to whenever those key clauses become, um, uh, come to terms. Right. So, so, yes. Exactly. Right. Um, if there is a renewal window that’s coming up, um, our system will give you an alert that. Okay, it’s it’s now March 7th. Um, you’re 60 days out from your renewal. Your renewal window kicks in in 30 days. Um, and there is a 5% price increase. And so it gives you that alert so that you can now proactively reach out to your vendor and actively negotiate. Eventually, part of our roadmap, Lee, is to give people analysis about whether they’re, uh, overspending, underspending, whether they have a good deal, a fair deal, or whether they’re overpaying, and give them analysis based on the the depth and breadth of the data that we have, we’ll be able to analyze, hey, you’ve got a good. Deal a bad deal. Um. And you need negotiate harder and or. Here are here are three other vendors that you might want to be talking to. So eventually providing them with a market opportunity to not just analyze whether you’ve got a good deal, but here are some other better deals that you might be able to, um, uh, benefit from. So that’s that’s on our roadmap. They’ll be coming soon.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:33] Wow, man. Exciting times for you. Congratulations. Um, thanks.

Joe Schab: [00:21:38] We’re having fun over here.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:39] Now, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team. What’s the coordinates? Website.

Joe Schab: [00:21:47] Go to fin query. Com fin q u e r y.com. Um. Or you can reach out directly to me um at zhokhov at fin query.com. Um and be happy to facilitate any, any type of conversation and uh, be happy to help in any way that we can.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:04] Good stuff. Well, again, congratulations on all the success. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Joe Schab: [00:22:10] Thank you for the time. We enjoyed it.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:11] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter

Peter Provost With Provost Studio

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Peter Provost With Provost Studio
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Peter Provost is the President and Director of Design at PROVOST STUDIO, a purpose-built, cross-disciplinary design firm that creates award-winning broadcast environments, branded spaces and interior architecture for world-class organizations.

Formally trained as an architect, he has more than twenty years of experience helping companies express and activate their brands at varying scales in order to meaningfully communicate their stories, values and identities.

Provost Studio serves clients across industries, including financial, technology, healthcare, sports, retail, education, broadcast news, and media & publishing, with a client list that features Fortune 500 companies like Walmart, Home Depot, Prudential, BlackRock, and Oracle; media partners like Yahoo Sports, Time Inc, Fox, ABC, and LinkedIn; and sports-centric studios including the Carolina Panthers Video Production Facility & Studio, Cleveland Browns Football Club, Detroit Lions Football Club, the Minnesota Vikings Football Club, and the Chicago Bears Football Club.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn and follow Provost Studio on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Overview of virtual production and extended reality (XR)
  • Key advantages of investing in cutting-edge production studios for businesses – elevating their brand through diverse content creation
  • Virtual production shaping the future of work, and the impact it might have on traditional work environments
  • Elaborating  XR becoming a standard tool in brand storytelling and its potential to create immersive experiences for consumers

Transcript-icon

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: [00:00:24] 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, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Atlanta Business Radio, we have Peter Provost with Provost Studio. Welcome.

Peter Provost: [00:00:44] Hey. Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Appreciate it. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How you serving folks?

Peter Provost: [00:00:51] Good question. Uh, so we’re a design firm based here and headquartered in Atlanta, and we design and build video broadcast studios for companies, corporations, professional sports teams, you name it, commercial broadcast. Basically anything that’s that is on camera, seen through a lens. That’s what we design.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work? It seems very niche insanity.

Peter Provost: [00:01:20] That is really what it is. No. My background, I’m trained as an architect and worked for a very long time in architecture, also worked in the experiential marketing world, working alongside brands and figuring out, you know, a company’s needs and goals and wants and how that all kind of translates into, you know, things like retail spaces and, you know, customer experience centers. And the company that I worked for actually was was also doing video production and broadcast studio set design. And I kind of got pulled into one of those projects. And, you know, as it, as it, as it were, you know, today we’ve got this practice, which is kind of a hybrid between interior architecture and broadcast studio set design.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:13] So now, how has broadcast studios set design evolved over the years like it first started out? I would imagine, as you know, this is where the networks or network television, you know, they all had something that looks kind of similar. And then now as media is evolving and now brands have media platforms and everybody is in the media business nowadays, it seems like now your business has expanded to their worlds as well.

Peter Provost: [00:02:41] Yeah, it’s pretty exciting. I mean, like what what I like to say is, you know, um, brands have kind of become broadcasters in a way. And, uh, a lot of that, uh, has to do with the maturity and development of the technology over the past ten years or 20 years, really, uh, although it does accelerate every 5 or 10 years. Um, but like as an example, when I first started in the kind of broadcast world, um, my, my background is, is in broadcast news. And so, uh, one of my first projects while I was in New York was kind of designing both the interior workplace as well as the production studios for CNN when they moved, um, all of their studios throughout the city, uh, into Time Warner Center and, um, you know, back in the day, uh, you know, the thing, like, you know, internet and how, uh, you know, how content is moved from point A to point B, uh, was really, uh, not internet based, um, cameras. We didn’t have the, the iPhones that we have today. But fast forward to today, really, that the proliferation of technology has really made it a lot easier to create, um, you know, valuable, um, branded content for, you know, not the commercial broadcast station or not the commercial broadcast, uh, clients that that I grew up on.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] So what are some of the kind of do’s and don’ts when an organization is building out a studio for their whether it’s their media property, for their brand or for their network, is there some things that they all maybe some commonality between all of them? And is there a way to distinguish one from another, or is it because some of them, I feel like in my head at least, maybe this isn’t true in reality, if I examined it closely that you can kind of cut and paste any kind of studio with any brand and you wouldn’t notice much difference.

Peter Provost: [00:04:42] Yeah, that’s the challenge. That’s that’s the design challenge, right? Lee? I mean that that the what you’re pointing out is, is correct. Um, in that if you go from one studio to the next, there really isn’t anything inherently, um, embedded, um, within that space relative to what the brand look and feel is, what the content is that they’re talking about. And so we kind of help bridge that, you know, bridge that gap. Um, but I think, uh, it doesn’t actually have to be all that complicated just by starting with, with good lighting. Right, starting with, uh, you know, a. That’s well lit. Starting with, you know, camera or quite frankly, your iPhone. Um, and and just getting the, the lighting, the space and the the the the video capture. Right. Um, I mean, these aren’t I mean, we’ve all seen. Right? The, the zoom calls where it’s the up, the up the nose cam or the, you know, down on the head cam. Um, these are all super easy fixes that when we start to look at what a brand’s video footprint looks like, that that’s kind of the low lying fruit, right? The second the second piece is how do we start to, um, raise the overall video production level of the of the content and the look and feel to match the brand? Right. So if it’s a fortune 500, we really want them to, to look and feel, um, like, like their brand, um, and have them walking and talking in video just as they are some of the other communication channels.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:28] Now, how do you in a world where, um, it seems with CGI, I can have the appearance that I’m broadcasting on the moon. Like, how do you kind of improve that production value or at least create signals that I am a higher level production or, you know, virtually? Is it possible, you know, to do this physically versus virtually? Like I recently interviewed a woman who built, um, one of the sets for the Super Bowl, like in the fountains of the Bellagio.

Peter Provost: [00:07:02] Yeah, yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:03] Yeah, sure. So that obviously when you do that, you’re you’re signaling and your brand is and positioning yourself in a certain way and you’re saying a certain thing just by the fact you’ve taken the time and effort and money to build that out, as opposed to somebody else who can click a button, and all of a sudden it looks like they’re in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Peter Provost: [00:07:25] Right. Well, I think you bring up a good point, right? So when we’re talking about, um, talking about a space that you create video content in that, that could be both, you know, a physical thing, right? Where right now I’m in my space in my office. And this, this is a space that could be, you know, on camera. But then there’s also this thing called virtual production, um, which, you know, without overcomplicating it, uh, you know, every night we look at the, we look turn on the news and we watch the weather, the weather guy or girl, um, presenting their standing in front of a green screen. Right. So all of that content that happens in the green screen, in addition to them being on camera, which is this physical and virtual thing, is, is kind of called virtual production. And so we while we, uh, you know, design and build physical environments for companies, we also do, you know, virtual production and virtual environments, um, for, for companies, which, um, it’s kind of over the years, uh, evolved into now no longer a necessarily a green screen, but it’s but it’s LED technology and really video display technology, um, that, that that content happens um, uh within.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:46] So now, what kind of conversations are you having with your clients to, you know, kind of discern what outcome they desire and how best to leverage your skills and your, um, superpowers to help them achieve whatever it is that objective is.

Peter Provost: [00:09:02] I think the biggest. Uh, I think the thing that I can most say definitely, is that we don’t try to shoehorn, uh, a solution one way or the other. We really try to meet the client where they are relative to creating content. Um, you know, some some companies are already creating content, um, virtually. Right. So they already have a green screen and they’ve already established, um, a workflow for that kind of content. And so with a, with a client like that, um, I mean, to be honest, the design process and the creative process is the same. It’s just how it gets output to, um, you know, to the audience is is what is different. Um, I think that sometimes there’s a misconception that if it’s virtual, it’s, it’s it is more flexible. But at the same time, you still have to have someone producing and designing that content for, for you. Um, it’s it’s not, you know, it’s not something as easy as, you know, downloading a stock image. Well, it could be, I guess. Um, it’s not as as easy as, as finding a stock image that makes sense. Um, but we’re we’re really able to kind of help our clients, you know, in any mode of, uh, of production that they need. Does that make sense?

Lee Kantor: [00:10:29] Well, I mean, your background as an architect and you’re the lens, I would imagine, at least at one point in your career was through the lens of an architect. How does how do you kind of, you know, take the steps into this virtual world with virtual production and, you know, this, this kind of new reality we’re in, whether it’s augmented or or actual reality, um, how, you know, how are you helping them? How like, what exactly is the work to be done for that client who wants everything virtual and, and doesn’t care about a desk and all the stuff that you used to physically build for these people. And now they’re saying, look, just put an image behind me that makes it look like, you know, we’re a classy outfit. So that’s what I want today.

Peter Provost: [00:11:17] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, I think the first is our, our approach to design is, is is spatial. Right. That’s very much how, um, I was trained as a designer and kind of our approach to environments where, um, you know, when somebody says background, they think of it immediately as just kind of a flat thing, a flat plane behind the head. But in actuality, at least the way that we approach things, it’s it’s more 360 degrees. Right? So we’re really designing and building whether it’s physical or virtual, um, you know, 360 degree environments that you can turn and point the camera wherever you need to, um, and get a sense of place for that, for that client. Um.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:06] Yeah. So now this is kind of a mental shift, right? For your clients.

Peter Provost: [00:12:14] Uh, I don’t know. Sometimes I think the biggest, the biggest mental shift is getting kind of, um, an understanding that their current level of video production, in terms of what it looks like and feels like relative to the brand. Um, and then also, is that environment helping them, um, uh, get their message across? Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the scenery, it’s not about the lighting, it’s not about the AV. It’s really about the content and the messaging. Right. And so I think the first the first mental shift is kind of okay, do we is what we’re doing makes sense relative to those two things I just mentioned. And then um, and then the question then becomes, well, what about flexibility? Right. How do we, um, how do we create a level of flexibility in the studio, whether it’s physical or virtual, that allows us to do a bunch of different things, right. So as an example, well, let’s say we want to do, um, I don’t know, let’s say it’s a quarterly earnings report from the CFO or the C-suite. Um, and then it’s it’s basically a, you know, uh, stand up at a monitor that has some data and, uh, you know, a space that, that kind of, um, that they can present in at the same time, you want to be able to use that same space for a fireside chat, um, relative to, let’s say it’s, uh, I don’t know, it could be a training, a corporate training, um, corporate training meeting, an event that same space again needs to be able to accommodate those multiple use cases.

Peter Provost: [00:13:57] Um, but I think it also goes more beyond just the, um, you know. Pushing out content. But, you know, we have clients that are using XR. There’s um, uh, software company, um, that we’ve done, uh, we’ve done a project for that is actually using the studio to connect, uh, and train, uh, technicians across the world, across the globe. And they’re doing it in real time. Right. Um, so that’s kind of in the software world. I mean, we’re we just finished a studio for, uh, very large teaching, um, a teaching hospital where they’re using the studio, both physical and virtual, um, to create content for patient, um, pre-op and post-op care as well as doctor education. Um, there’s just a lot of different uses and reasons that that clients are kind of engaging video. Um, so really kind of to get them excited about the potential is kind of probably the second thing, uh, aside from understanding them, understanding or having this, uh, kind of self-awareness about what they’re doing and then getting them excited about how video content can help them.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:17] Now, are your clients typically are you building their first studio for them, or is this something that they’ve had something in there just it’s not working anymore. And now they’re kind of, uh, refreshing what they got.

Peter Provost: [00:15:31] Yeah, yeah, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Um, some, um, like some of the sports teams that we’ve worked with over the years, they, um, you know, let’s say they’re working in a smaller space and it’s a podcast studio, and they’re kind of going to leverage the next couple fiscal years to, um, to build an actual large scale or larger scale production space. Um, getting, getting them to, um, or helping them, uh, create sort of a flexible space that can help them grow in the future has been a huge, uh, a huge, not huge challenge, but a huge reward. But a client like that, they’ve already been doing video production, but in the new space, there’s just more opportunities and more flexibility to take, take advantage of. So I think, um, regardless of where the clients are, a lot of kind of I won’t say education or hand-holding, but just showing them the potential of what the medium can do is, is definitely part of it. Um, you know, we’ve got studios that are 10,000ft² and then we’re doing, you know, several studios, small studios, um, almost a, I want to say a broom closet, but it’s small where a c suite individual can sit down and attend a virtual meeting, but also, you know, do their podcast. Uh, these aren’t large studios. These aren’t big spaces, but they’re super critical for, um, you know, the executive team and their communication to, uh, to both, uh, the organization at large, but also relative to their audience and customers and clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:13] Now, how much of your time is spent educating your clients in this, um. Kind of getting the most out of this digital, uh, digital storytelling that’s so popular nowadays. You know, with the advent of so many streaming services, there are so many documentaries and there’s so much content out there that is showing, um, you know, a space in an interesting way and, and telling the stories of that organization in an interesting way. Um, I would think that this is kind of where an area where you can really shine by saying, look, if you invest some money and resources in this kind of, um, studio environment that’s flexible to whatever needs you have, then you’re going to be able to really tell a lot more stories, a lot more effectively and efficiently than if you were just kind of trying to wing this, you know, in the in your existing office space to the best of your ability.

Peter Provost: [00:18:13] Yeah. Um, well, I think it really comes down to talking to the client about this as an emerging communication channel, right? I mean, I would say it’s not emerging anymore. I mean, when YouTube came out, everybody was like, oh, no, it’s just, you know, again, I’ve got five kids, four kids, and, uh, all of them are on YouTube. And, you know, 4 or 5 years ago it was like, oh, well, that’s just kind of a tool for recreational purpose. But now at the end of the day, you know, these these clients have have YouTube channels that are becoming bona fide means of communication to their audience. And so I think it really becomes weighing the weighing how they’re communicating currently and how video as a communication channel can, can help amplify that. It’s not really in place of. But, you know, there’s just certain things that video does better than other things. And, um, and being able to have a very specific question or a conversation with them about what that means to them and their business is kind of where the rubber hits the road. Right. Um, and I would say nine out of the ten clients that we have, it’s a top down initiative, right? So we don’t really have to, um, educate or justify the communication channel, meaning video as the best way to, um, communicate that, that content. But really, um, differentiating how we do it versus somebody else does it. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:52] Um, now what’s an example of, of some of the, the coolest ways you’ve seen people leverage this and maybe, maybe some of the, the, the places where you’ve really shined and taken somebody’s game up a level or two.

Peter Provost: [00:20:08] Uh, I can’t use names. Right?

Lee Kantor: [00:20:10] Just maybe just share the problem or the challenge they were having and how you helped them solve it.

Peter Provost: [00:20:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think what’s what’s kind of, um, refreshing. And I do this with our clients, too. Um, we often do kind of like a before and after kind of thing, right? Where we go in and and assess their studio, take photos and, and this isn’t as a, as a way of, you know, we’re not design shaming anybody. But when you start to look at kind of the before and after of where clients have been versus where they where they are, once we finish with them, it’s it’s it’s pretty it’s pretty astonishing. But it’s also deeply rewarding. Um. I think some of the coolest stuff that we’re doing. I mean, I really feel like, uh, the, the stuff that’s happening in health care right now and how you start to leverage and how, um, whether it’s doctors, whether it’s hospitals, whether it’s, um, you know, health care organizations are leveraging video to actually help people. Right? Um, that’s extremely rewarding. Um, when I look at the potential of XR and creating immersive environments around health care, um, whether it’s content, whether it’s operating techniques, I mean, you can literally, you know, be immersed in, uh. A tutorial of what to do or what not to do when you come home from, you know, open heart surgery. Um, or I mean, quite frankly, the techniques that a doctor uses relative to that kind of a procedure are all much more, um, accessible visually. Uh, and quite frankly, the data, um, that, that otherwise, um, you know, whether it would be.

Peter Provost: [00:22:03] Uh.

Peter Provost: [00:22:04] Could be video. Well, it could be film. Uh, I mean, there could be other modes of exploring that, but, um, the fact that that technology can support the, the, the, the content is is pretty astonishing.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:19] So what’s next, uh, for your organization? I know you have offices around the country. Um, and now you’re here in Atlanta. Like, have you always been here in Atlanta? Did it start here or. It started somewhere else? And you just came here?

Peter Provost: [00:22:33] Yeah. Well, it it started actually in, uh, in Raleigh. Um, we’ve been there for about 20 years now and, uh, originally from Pennsylvania, uh, northeast, um, went to school, undergrad in the South and then went to grad school in the north and ended up raising a family in, um, in, in Raleigh. And, uh, I think one of the things that has excited me for a while about, um, Atlanta and Georgia, Georgia in particular, is, is the amount of creative, um, capital that’s here around virtual production. And when you look at virtual production in film and broadcast television, that’s I mean, that’s happening like gangbusters here in Atlanta, um, and in Georgia. But what what interests us about it is and we’ve already started doing this is building a virtual production team, but for corporate and, um, broadcast, uh, commercial broadcast clients. Right. And so the question then is, or the challenge is, how do we use these tools that are already here for film, um, to, to address the needs of the corporate and the professional sports and the health care and, you know, um, it goes on and on and on those kinds of clients, which is super exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:56] Well, there’s quite a few of them here in all those categories, this pretty diverse economy here.

Peter Provost: [00:24:02] Yeah, it certainly is. And we’re we’re super excited to be here and super excited to to kind of venture on this new, uh, uh, you know, this new medium and see what it has in store for our clients. So.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:19] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the website? What’s the coordinates?

Peter Provost: [00:24:26] Uh, yeah. It’s, uh, Provo Provost Dash studio com. So you can head on over to provo-studio.com and check us out.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:37] Well, Peter, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Peter Provost: [00:24:43] Thanks, Lee, I appreciate it. Thanks for your time.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:45] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

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