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Scott Matthews With Verusen

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Scott Matthews With Verusen
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Scott Matthews, Chief Executive Officer of Verusen.

As CEO, Scott leads day-to-day operations alongside Founder Paul Noble. Scott brings 16 years of leadership experience to Verusen.

Previously, Scott was CEO of MRP, the Philadelphia, PA-based global provider of predictive customer acquisition software and services. Before joining MRP, Scott was CEO of CrowdTwist Inc. for four years. Scott successfully negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts with Fortune 500 accounts while repositioning the go-to-market strategy for CrowdTwist’s customer loyalty SaaS solution. During Scott’s tenure, the company rapidly scaled sales achieving 728% overall revenue growth, delivered strong business performance, and was acquired by Oracle in a multimillion-dollar deal in 2019. Earlier, Scott held senior-level roles in technology, sales, and SaaS companies.

Verusen is a leading Supply Chain Materials Intelligence provider focused on helping global manufacturers streamline their supply and materials management strategy. Verusen utilizes advanced data science and artificial intelligence to harmonize disparate material data across multiple enterprise systems to provide complex supply chains with material truth for supply and inventory planning and procurement intelligence. This helps organizations reduce risk, optimize working capital, and ensure production uptime to meet customer needs. The result is a foundation organizations can trust to fuel digital transformation and support supply chain maturity initiatives. Headquartered in Atlanta, Verusen has been named one of Georgia’s Top 10 Innovative Technology Companies.

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • What makes Atlanta an ideal place for businesses in 2023
  • Why did he join Verusen
  • His plan to grow Verusen’s business
  • Where is the future of supply chain headed
  • How can Verusen help its customers in good economic times or challenging ones

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Scott Mathews with Verusen. Welcome, Scott. Thanks, Lee. For those who don’t know, tell us a little bit about Verizon, how you serving folks.

Scott Matthews: [00:00:49] Yeah, So what we are is we’re a supply chain company that helps large companies operate their businesses and manufacturing facilities with less inventory and not increased business risk. And we do it through artificial intelligence and processing data in lots of different systems. So that’s what our company does.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:11] So how recently there were all these issues in the supply chain? There’s probably still issues. How does Verusen kind of help in that manner?

Scott Matthews: [00:01:21] Yeah. So how we help is inventory is stored in hundreds of locations for large local companies, often named different things with different part numbers and different descriptions. And it’s hard for a company to get a handle on where inventory is, when is it needed, how do you plan for it, and how do you run it with the least amount of capital to make sure that your business operates 100% of the time? And with COVID and the complications of a supply chain, it became harder for companies to have visibility into their indirect materials, which most companies, large companies have hundreds of millions of dollars of inventory. So Verusen helps companies to have that visibility and to operate their companies with less inventory on hand without compromising a company’s uptime or delivery schedules for the goods and services that they make.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:22] So did this kind of crisis that we went through make it that much more easy for you to communicate? The value is that when everything became clear of what you’re bringing to the table?

Scott Matthews: [00:02:32] Yeah, it definitely amplified, you know, what the need was there before COVID, but it became even more of a requirement because lead times to buy products and services went through the roof for because companies were shut down. They didn’t manufacture enough, you know, ships were stuck in shipping lanes. And so the need went up. But, you know, it started well before COVID as as a need to minimize the investment in inventory and working capital to make companies efficient.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:05] So can you talk about how Atlanta is important to this story and why this is the place for Verizon and other supply chain organizations to be based and to be working in?

Scott Matthews: [00:03:19] Sure. So Atlanta is an awesome location for, you know, 50, 60% of where goods and services are made down in the southeast. And we’ve drafted from technology that’s resident in the Atlanta area. Georgia Tech has been a great feeding ground for us. We’re partners with Georgia Tech and we’ve hired lots of technologists that help us to write the artificial intelligence routines, the machine learning routines, the natural language processing routines that help us to understand the incongruencies of data and to make sense for customers. 65% of our employees are in the Atlanta metro area. It’s a it’s a great place for high tech and innovation, and I have no plans on changing that investment thesis. As far as being based in Atlanta, um, most of our customers are in the Southeast because that’s where manufacturing is most prevalent in the United States. So and we’re, we’re, we’re the backbone is in Atlanta and the future is in Atlanta for our company because the drafting zone for people that are innovative and are able to work at high tech companies like Verizon are plentiful, you know, in the Atlanta area.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:38] Now because of Georgia’s, I guess, unique, um, economic diversity, having a port, having a, you know, a well-established international airport, having those kind of university resources that you described, do you find that Georgia is becoming a hub for supply chain and a great place for others like yourself to be based and to tap into that infrastructure that’s here. And it’s very business friendly and it has so many resources that touch all aspects of supply chain and logistics.

Scott Matthews: [00:05:14] Sure. You know, we’re inextricably linked in the supply chain, and there are many companies that are synergistic to Verizon partners. That Verizon has in the supply chain that are based in the southeast. And it seems to be the right place at the right time with the right geographic location and the the the ample grounds to find employees with the talent that we need. So it’s very synergistic. You know, you don’t see these types of companies in the Northeast. You don’t see them out west. It really is. The southeast is where, you know, supply chain is headquartered for lots of innovation in America and how we grow internationally, you know, outside of this area.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:59] And do you find it by having kind of being a hub for supply chain and organizations like yourselves and others that it creates a cluster or some density where there is so much talent and people can go from one, you know, maybe a start up in supply chain and find another opportunity pretty quickly because there’s so many people doing work in that industry.

Scott Matthews: [00:06:25] Sure. So that’s that’s one way and a correct way to look at it. The other side is, you know, we’ve drafted employees from really large manufacturers in the supply chain in the Atlanta metro area that we’re looking to expand their abilities versus working for a $20 billion company. You know, let’s actually take a look at an innovative startup that’s disrupting something that’s been going on for a long time. So I would say half of our employees have come from really large, huge companies that these employees want a different paradigm to look at and how they look at their career versus, you know, working at a high tech innovation company versus, you know, Georgia Pacific or something, you know, that’s in our area. So we’ve drafted from that background because, you know, having subject matter expertise is important. Having conversational knowledge is important, having industry knowledge is important to apply the technology that we’re developing. So it’s actually bilaterally important on on that.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:32] So what’s your backstory? Have you always been involved in supply chain and logistics?

Scott Matthews: [00:07:38] Um, no, I haven’t. Um, my background is, is helping innovative companies reach scale. So I’ve been a participant of a number of startups that have reached some level of scale. And, you know, this is the right time to apply my talents to the co-founder of of Verizon, Paul Noble. Paul is not leaving the company, even though I’m a new CEO to Verizon. Paul is the visionary. Paul is the product backbone of the company. And Paul and I, together with my business expertise, my go to market expertise, coupled with Paul’s background, as is the partnership that I’ve struck with Paul and the investors in Verizon mean we’re a B round company. So that means that we’ve raised venture capital and we’re looking to grow exponentially over the next 3 to 5 years.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:35] So what does your roadmap look like? What what do you kind of foresee in the coming year or two?

Scott Matthews: [00:08:43] Um, so the roadmap is to actually expand the feature set to address a wider swath of problems so customers could use a service like Verizon to disintermediate manual process, to disintermediate manual decisioning, to disintermediate, you know, redundancies of inventory both on the shop floor or the plant floor, the inventory, the warehouses. And then where we’re going is actually deep integration to the suppliers of those goods and services to the manufacturers that we’re representing. So you’re going to find us to virally grow into the suppliers, the distribution up channels of the supply chain to provide an end to end solution for both suppliers, manufacturers and the consumers of those goods and services. So we have a very rich roadmap that we’ll be looking at over the next 3 to 5 years.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:44] So who is your ideal partner or customer?

Scott Matthews: [00:09:49] So it’s Georgia Pacific is, you know, one of our larger customers, the Southern company, you know, right in the Atlanta area. Right. Our huge customers and users of our technology, we’re blessed to have very large consumer packaged goods companies, names that are in the top three that you would recognize. Sometimes they don’t let us talk about their names. They’re protective of that. But it’s three of the top five consumer brands that you might see on a grocery store aisle when you shop down there. They’re using our product to make more efficient decisions in the manufacturing process and lower their cost of goods sold as they look at their supply chains. So traditionally, we sell to a very large customer set that has hundreds of millions of dollars of inventory, and they’re looking for ways to manage that inventory more effectively is the ideal customer that we have. Every one of our customers is global. In some cases we might start in another country, but you know, the headquarters is normally in the US that we’ve done business with so far.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:02] So what is that kind of pain that they’re experiencing where they should at least be inquiring?

Scott Matthews: [00:11:09] So probably $1 billion company is the, you know, the minimum amount of revenue that we could sell into that would realize the value and have the ability to execute on the software that we would provide to them. And if you look at verticals, it’s really any vertical that that makes a durable, hard good that has multiple manufacturing or plants. There are thousands of customers that are in our, um, I’ll call it the ideal customer profile that, you know, if properly represented and they have a desire to solve the problem that we solve should be a customer of Verizon and it spans many different verticals that we would sell into.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:57] And then when they’re working with you, is there a story you can share? You don’t have to name the name, but of, you know, once working with you that you were able to save them some money or save them some time or make them more efficient.

Scott Matthews: [00:12:09] One of the top three consumer brands that you would recognize, they don’t let us use your name, you know, has actually decreased inventory by $8 million a year by using our our software and not increasing any business risk because any plant manager can say, oh, I’m going to reduce inventory by X percent, but gosh, what if a line goes down? What if something breaks or something they can’t get in the supply chain? That’s that’s a bad decision to put your business at risk. So we help companies balance risk with the optimal inventory mix, but that’s one customer that just implemented us. Um, and the food and beverage industry in our area.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:51] So now, what was it about this company that said, you know what, I’ve got to find a way to be part of this team? You know, what was it for you that made you take this leap?

Scott Matthews: [00:13:05] Sure. So it’s an outstanding total available market, right? If you look at who we could sell to in in an extreme. You know, it’s thousands of companies that have this problem of optimizing inventory across a myriad of locations because the problem is inventory is not labeled the same thing. It’s not part number, the same thing. It’s bought through different sources. It’s bought on POS, it’s bought through bill of materials. So I’ll say it’s a very inconsistent inventory management problem. And then we help harmonize that dissimilar information in a way that a customer can make really efficient decisions about. I have this part in ten different locations. You know, the min max levels are this We can run this company with far less inventory and we help them to make that decision and to have far less inventory to continue the operations at 100% uptime. And that was an exciting opportunity because we’re doing it through modern technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and we’re applying those modern disruptive technologies to a problem that, you know, almost every company has for inventory management. So it’s actually a really, really exciting opportunity that we have.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:38] So you were excited about the market, but you were also excited about the solution?

Scott Matthews: [00:14:44] Well, yeah, because if the product is there and now I need to find who the customers are, my background is helping customers on go to market. It’s trying to figure out who are the ideal customers, what are the personas that we should apply our technology to, and how do those companies make decisions and how do they act on solving a problem? That’s actually my background and how I’m able to be a great partner with Paul because, you know, we’re pushing the accelerator down and we’re a very small company. You know, we’re a venture backed company that has raised tens of millions of dollars to, you know, start this company. But, you know, the outcome could be really, really exciting in years to come is why I chose to to work here.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:35] So what do you need more of? How can we help you.

Scott Matthews: [00:15:40] Find more qualified prospects who have this problem? And this is a way to do it, communicating through, you know, your program. But ultimately it’s awareness, right? For companies like ours that we don’t have multi-million dollar advertising budgets, we don’t have multi-million dollar marketing budgets. You know, we’re doing it through, you know, traditional methods of calling people and having conversations and, you know, telling stories about why we’re successful to other customers. And that’s, you know, more of what I try to do to to find the right customer at the right time that has the pain that they want to solve. So that’s actually, you know, my most important task is to figure out that top of funnel work about who we can sell to and who has the best product market fit to to use our products and services.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:29] And then part of the challenge is that you’re some of your largest customers don’t want you to tell anybody that you’re doing you’re helping them.

Scott Matthews: [00:16:39] It’s it’s a balance and they want to keep that proprietary. Right. Right. Why do I want to share that with my competitors? But ultimately, you know, it’s how high tech operates. You know, you know, they are customers and I’m a vendor, but you need to move to some level of partnership and mutual benefit. So, you know, because it’s not our company isn’t the kind of thing you hire for a month and then walk away from. It’s a multi-year process to reduce inventory and working capital to run your business more efficiently. And unless you have partnerships with companies with mutual trust, relationships fizzle and you won’t be successful. So there are some customers that let us use their names, like the ones I’ve already named, and there are some customers that, you know, it’s the shroud of secrecy because it’s their secret sauce about how they’ll innovate and how they’ll compete against their competitors.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:35] Right. And look, a partnership is great, but and being a best kept secret, you know, could damage the partnership over time because you need the resources to keep innovating and making what you’re doing special over. Time.

Scott Matthews: [00:17:52] Yeah, it’s a balance, right? And you know, we have case studies that I can publicly talk about their on our website. I’ve named the customers that allow us to talk about the mutual success that we have. Um, and you know, it’s how high tech operates. Half your customers will let you talk about it and half won’t. And you respect that because I’m not going to violate the trust at a strategic level on things like that. But, you know, maybe they’ll speak at a conference, maybe they’ll do a private reference for us, something like that, because, you know, they ultimately are vested in my success because if I’m not successful, they won’t be successful with us. So there is, um, there is an opportunity for marketing and publicity and how we’ll ultimately help each other at a corporate level.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:40] Well, congratulations on all the success and momentum. If somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the website or the best way to get ahold of you?

Scott Matthews: [00:18:51] It’s verizon.com ver us. Com And you know, we’re right on sixth street on in Tech Square in midtown Atlanta is the headquarters of the company.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:04] All right, Scott, Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Scott Matthews: [00:19:09] Lee Thank you for the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:10] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Lori A. Manns With Quality Media Consultant Group

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Lori A. Manns With Quality Media Consultant Group
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In this podcast episode, Lee Kanter interviews Lori Manns, President of Quality Media Consultant Group. They discuss the evolution of marketing with new technology, the importance of analyzing the right metrics, and how to build brand equity and reputation.

Lori shares how her firm tailors its services to meet the needs and goals of each client, and shares a success story of a financial consultant who was able to secure clients at three times the rate they were charging before. She also invites listeners to attend the upcoming Trailblazer Business Summit.

Dr. Lori A. Manns, President of Quality Media Consultant Group, is an award-winning, trailblazing entrepreneur and has been the owner of a successful business consulting firm for the past nearly 14 years.

As a sought-after speaker, media personality, and business coach, she is considered an expert content creator and thought leader in the marketing and sales industries.

Her work has been featured on Forbes.com and other national platforms. Across her social media channels and private network, she has amassed an audience of over 40K people. Her goal is to help purpose-driven, female entrepreneurs grow their incomes and reach their first or next six or seven figures.

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

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Thriving not just surviving in entrepreneurship through economic crisis
  • What does it take to survive in business during a recession or difficult times
  • What are some of the latest trends
  • Some issues entrepreneurs must avoid in order to succeed
  • How do you help entrepreneurs grow their businesses
  • Upcoming events

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Lori Manns with Quality Media Consultant Group. Welcome, Laurie.

Lori Manns: [00:00:44] Hi, Lee Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] I’m so excited to get caught up and learn what you got going on. For those who don’t know, tell us a little bit about Quality Media Consulting Group. How are you serving folks?

Lori Manns: [00:00:55] Well, Quality Media Consultant Group is a business consultancy firm specializing in advertising, marketing and sales solutions for optimal business growth. And essentially what that means is we help our clients to grow and scale their businesses to the next level of success, whatever that means for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So do you have a sweet spot in terms of the people you serve? Is there a size of the organization or an industry niche?

Lori Manns: [00:01:22] Yeah, we have two sides of our business. One is we work with corporate clients on their advertising and marketing strategies to put their brilliant messages out there to the universe and attract their target audience. And for corporations, we do marketing plans and media buying. And for small business owners and entrepreneurs, we are servicing those people who are service based business owners primarily. And we also primarily work with purpose driven women who are coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers and influencers.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:04] Now how have you seen marketing evolve with all the new technology? And now there’s AI, There’s all kinds of stuff that are tools available for businesses and entrepreneurs. How have you seen kind of the evolution of that in your work?

Lori Manns: [00:02:21] Well, digital technology is influencing business more and more as time passes, because one of the things for sure, artificial intelligence is here to stay. Chatgpt is here to stay. And it’s only going to grow and evolve. And one of the best things I tell my clients is to learn the new trends. Learn what is. Happening and get to know what you need to know and how you can use it, leverage it and optimize it for your business, but more importantly, learn the things not to do. So I have seen digital technology evolve in my 14 years of business. Digital marketing has also evolved because during the time that I’ve been in business, I have seen social media platforms come and go. I’ve also seen. Marketing strategies come and go in terms of the trends. But I do believe that artificial intelligence and primarily chatgpt is one of those things that you can absolutely leverage and use it the right way to grow your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:41] Now, what do you tell the business folks out there that are now experiencing this kind of economic chaos that’s occurring and has been occurring for a little bit now? And couple that with all these new technologies that are available. How do you know when it’s time to really kind of take a leap into some new technologies instead of maybe shoring up some of the foundational marketing resources that you’ve been using in the past? Because, you know, there always seems to be a new crisis and there always seems to be a new technology. And it’s just really getting harder and harder to, you know, stay on top of everything.

Lori Manns: [00:04:22] Well, the first thing I say is to analyze what you’re currently doing and how it’s working. And so if you’re using a methodology, a strategy or a game plan to grow your business and it’s working, continue to do that. If you are using something that is not working, then it’s time for you to consider some other options. And so because of the fact that we are in an economic downturn, a lot of people did not plan for this, even when it was forecast by economists and even when it was forecast by talking heads. A lot of people failed to act in business and they failed to pivot. And so it doesn’t necessarily mean that when we’re in an economic downturn that you have to stop everything that you’re doing. But it just means that you need to analyze what’s working well and what’s not working so well so that you can figure out how to fill in the gaps. And so, for example, if you are a business owner and you’re not getting the leads that you want, you’re not getting the sales that you want, then it’s time to look at how are you putting messages out there, How are you, you know, deciphering what your marketing strategies are. And perhaps you do need to take a look at some new innovative ways to reach your target audience and doing so on social media and or using something like artificial intelligence or augmented reality or chatgpt may be a strategy that you just want to look at.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:09] So now you mentioned leads. That’s a maybe a symptom of things that aren’t going as well as you’d like. Are there any other kind of metrics that matter for, you know, entrepreneurs and corporations?

Lori Manns: [00:06:21] Yeah. The number one metric that matters is revenue. If your revenue is down, if your revenue is not where you want it to be, sales are not coming in. That’s a good indication that you need to make a shift or a pivot. Then of course, you have to look at, you know, the leads and the cost per lead that you’re spending to get the leads. You have to look at those kinds of things. But more importantly, you also have to look at what are your top selling products and services and what are your worst selling products and services. These are also metrics that can help you determine if it’s time to pivot or shift.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:05] Now, do you find that some folks just aren’t aware of that kind of data, that they’re capturing all kinds of data, but maybe they’re not prioritizing what truly is important. For example, some folks, you know, maybe they’re on social media and they’re focusing on, look, we’re getting a lot new, you know, followers or or maybe they’re paying attention to some areas that seemingly is going well. But like you said, if it’s not translating to bottom line green dollar ROI, maybe that’s a distraction and not really a priority in your marketing.

Lori Manns: [00:07:44] Exactly. And I think you’re right on target, Lee, because a lot of people, when they implement a social media marketing strategy, just because social media is so big right now, they think that if they get more followers, that that translates into it’s working. Well, what really translates into whether or not your marketing is working, whether it’s on social media or whether it’s traditional media or any form of marketing is if it is converting. And so if you are converting those prospects into clients and or customers, then that is a signal that it’s working. If you’re not, then that’s a signal that it’s not working. And so, yes, followers on social media is important. Yes, engagement is important, but the most important thing is are your efforts producing a return on investment and is it moving the needle when it comes to sales and revenue for your business?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:53] Now, is that part of your challenge as a marketing consultant is to really educate your client into focusing in on the things that truly matter and that just because historically you’ve been using one measure of success. If you’re not measuring the right thing, you know, you’re kind of just kind of going through the motions of business. You’re not really optimizing your business. Is that part of what you’re one of your challenges is to really understand and explain to your clients, hey, you know what, I know it looks like because you were using a metric, like you said, of followers, our followers are down, but your, you know, your revenue was up. And isn’t revenue what you want more of, not followers Like is that do you spend some time explaining people, hey, this is the stuff you’ve got to really be focusing in on, not this other thing that that might look great to the world, but it may not be really helping your bottom line.

Lori Manns: [00:09:54] You’re absolutely right. Because here’s the thing. In business, you have to measure so many things in order to have a profitable business and a profitable business model. Now, there’s also things that you can measure that are going to influence whether or not you do get that bump in sales and revenue. And for example, one of the things that you can measure to lead to that road of revenue success is what is your brand known for? Do you have brand equity? That means is your brand. Is your company respected and revered in your industry? And if when you speak, people listen, That is a good indication that when you put out marketing messages and when you put out offers, that you’re going to get a response. So of course, before we get to trying to sell anyone who’s following us, we have to build the reputation that makes them know that we are the leader in that industry. We are the expert and the authority, and we actually have a good handle on what we speak of in order to bring about some good results for the people that we say we can help.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] But but also times for especially people who aren’t working with an expert like yourself, some of the easiest things that can be measured aren’t really worth measuring. Like it might be easy to see. I keep coming back to it, but followers, it might be easy to see, Oh, the followers are going up. So you know, we’re doing good, so stop thinking about it. But if you go a couple layers deeper like you described, you might be seeing a different result. That is a little trickier to measure, but really is more impactful.

Lori Manns: [00:11:48] Absolutely. And I can totally relate to what you’re saying because, yes, people will measure what I call vanity metrics and the vanity we call them.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:00] We call them cosmetics.

Lori Manns: [00:12:03] Exactly. And that simply means you’re spending too much time focusing on perceived. Opinions and engagement when it comes to social media. Because if you have a public. Company page on any social media platform, you could get followers that are only curious. They’re not necessarily interested buyers or ready to buy customers. They could just simply be curious or they saw somebody else like your page or engage with your page. And so therefore they liked it too. But they’re not really interested. They’re not really engaged. So when you measure the vanity of, Oh, I’ve got 100 likes or I’ve got 500 likes or a thousand, oh, this person went viral. Okay, well, what did that viral post do for them? And if they went pseudo viral, what did it do for them in terms of helping them to produce a bigger impact, helping them to produce a bigger income and helping them to produce more influence. If it helped them in all of those areas, then great. But if it was just something that was trendy for the moment, then it was so fleeting and it was so based on vanity that it just doesn’t matter.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:27] And sometimes when you go viral, it might be for a negative reason. It could be because you got some some attention for something controversial or isn’t going to really serve you in the long run.

Lori Manns: [00:13:39] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:41] So now what does it look like when a company works with you? What does that first few conversations look like and how do you kind of onboard them and get them going?

Lori Manns: [00:13:52] Well, the first couple of conversations are what I like to call a business needs analysis. That’s when we just take a look at the business or the person themselves and we look at what are your top needs and what is it that you are facing in terms of your challenges that you need help with the most? And when we identify what your biggest needs are, your biggest challenges, we come up with a strategy to help you to overcome those challenges and meet those needs in a way that’s going to produce in the area of more income, more brand visibility, more clients and conversions and greater impact in your industry. So it starts off with just an analysis. Where are you now and where do you ultimately want to be?

Lee Kantor: [00:14:45] So now I know when you go to market, you do through a variety of ways. Can you talk about some of the ways that you serve your clients? Number one, like I know you do consulting, but there’s also other aspects to your business.

Lori Manns: [00:15:02] Yes. So we decide based on the needs and the goals. Do you need to have a. Brand overview and a brand strategy session, or do you already have that and you now need to market your company or yourself, and if you already have the marketing in place, then we decide, okay, is it time for you to do media and advertising to really get that? Momentum built in your business. And then, of course, we look at what’s the sales plan, how are we going to convert those prospects once they start to come after we have. Put out those messages. Once we get them into our funnel and once we get them into our system, how are we then going to convert them into paying clients? And so that is all about creating a process for welcoming prospects into your business, taking them through the sales cycle, making sure that whatever you offer, be it a product or a service, is something that they actually need, something that solves a problem or meets a need so that when they have engaged and they have bought that thing, they are happy and satisfied and they become your biggest brand ambassador. And that simply means that they are your unpaid sales force because when happy customers become. Referral partners is simply that they tell everyone they know that I bought X, Y, Z from this company or I hired X, Y, Z person and they did a great job. And, you know, happy people tell other happy people and unhappy people also tell unhappy people. So that’s that’s basically the basis of the work that we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:06] Now, is there a success story you can share? You don’t have to name the name of the company, but explain maybe the problem they came to you with and how you helped them get past that and get to a new level.

Lori Manns: [00:17:16] Yes. I had a VIP client that was a financial. Consultant and had created an app and was struggling to really connect with people who were interested in paying for the financial consulting and services they were offering. And after working with myself and my company, we were able to not only look at some of the holes in the marketing and advertising strategy, but also to look at the programs that were being offered and analyze them in a way that made them more valuable to the end user. We raised the price and changed the entire marketing strategy, and they were able to secure a handful of clients at three times the rate that they were charging before and therefore made a significant amount of money in a very short amount of time. And we’re talking, you know, when it comes to financial consulting and coaches, you can run into all types of levels of experience, but this person really had a high level of experience. And so they were able to reach five figures, high five figures in just a couple of months where they had not previously done that before with just a handful of clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:44] So if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you or somebody on your team, is there a website or are there any events you got upcoming?

Lori Manns: [00:18:52] Yes, there’s both an upcoming event and a website. So I am actually celebrating 14 years in business this month, which is April and. At that event where I’m going to be celebrating my business anniversary. It’s called the Trailblazer Business Summit, taking place Saturday, April the 22nd. And you can go to quality media consultants.com on the events page and check it out. There’s going to be ten speakers talking in TED talk style, but with more strategy and meat on the bones than you would get on a TED talk. But it’s going to be amazing. They’re going to be talking about all kinds of business topics, and one of them is something that we covered today, and that is how to use artificial intelligence and chatgpt as well as social media to grow your business when the times are changing. And you need to be abreast of what’s going on in the digital world. So we’re going to have three professionals talking about that, as well as finance scaling your company automation, video technology and branding and so much more. It’ll be an amazing event. It’s virtual. You can join from anywhere. Saturday, April the 22nd, the Trailblazer Business Summit. And once again you can go to WW dot quality media consultants.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:28] Well Laurie thank you so much for sharing your story today you’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Lori Manns: [00:20:33] Thank you so much Lee it’s always a pleasure to talk to you and it’s a great opportunity. I appreciate.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:39] It. 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

Jason Rubottom With Cloverly

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Jason Rubottom With Cloverly
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In this episode of Atlanta Business Radio, Lee Kanter chats with Jason Rubottom from Cloverly, a climate tech company in Atlanta. They talk about carbon credits, which are a way to fight climate change by removing or avoiding CO2 from the atmosphere to make up for emissions elsewhere.

Jason explains how Cloverly fits into the carbon credit marketplace and how it helps with climate action. They also discuss how carbon credits play a role in achieving net-zero goals and how companies pay for them to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Jason stresses the importance of companies taking steps towards sustainability goals, even if it’s not perfect. 

** Correction: While Jason is discussing carbon credit and how 80% needs to come from decarbonization, and that it would still require 20% of the solution to come from carbon removal, the correct number is about 10 billion tons of CO2 per year, not 1 billion. **

Jason Rubottom is the CEO of Cloverly, a technology-powered climate action platform for carbon removals that enables companies in financial services, logistics, e-commerce, and more to build sustainable solutions for their customers.

Before Cloverly, he was an Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) with Engage Ventures and a consultant and advisor to various startups. He was previously the CEO of Ally Commerce, an e-commerce software company recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in America for several years in a row. Before Ally Commerce, he was the General Manager for two of eBay’s emerging businesses.

Before that, he spent seven years as a generalist in management consulting for companies such as Microsoft and Expedia – first at Accenture, a global management consulting firm, and later at Revel Consulting, a technology consulting firm. He obtained his MBA at the Kellogg School of Management and his BBA at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU).

Connect with Jason on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • About Cloverly’s technology
  • Climate Tech is an incredibly dynamic field, how Jason and the Cloverly team are evolving to keep pace
  • Where Cloverly sees the climate change conversation headed in 2023

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jason Rubottom with Cloverly. Welcome, Jason. Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Cloverly how you serving folks.

Jason Rubottom: [00:00:48] Yeah, Cloverly is a venture backed climate tech company in Atlanta. We’re basically a platform for climate action that allows any company or consumer to take climate action through carbon removal.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] For people who aren’t familiar with this concept, can you share a little bit about this carbon credit marketplace? Like, what does it mean? How does it work?

Jason Rubottom: [00:01:14] Yeah, sure. So a carbon credit sometimes used synonymously with carbon removal or carbon offset. It’s basically a mechanism to fight climate change. And essentially a carbon credit is the removal or avoidance of CO2 from the atmosphere in order to compensate for emissions somewhere else. So basically they’re typically for example, there would be a company like a Fortune 500 and they have sustainability goals and they’re trying to address that through different means, one of which is decarbonization, renewable energy, fleet, electrification. Et cetera. But even with all of that, they still will have a significant amount of unavoidable emissions that still have to be addressed, or else we won’t come anywhere near the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement for climate change. And so in that case, the corporate would effectively be willing to pay another party to remove or sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. So there are different ways to do that. Different parties that would do that for them. And one example is tree planting trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Another example could be there are lots of human engineered solutions such as direct air capture, and in that case, there’s literally a machine sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere and storing it underground permanently. And so that’s what a carbon credit is. And the reason that’s important is if you look at the what’s needed to solve climate change, look ahead to the year 2050, in a net zero world that we have to get to, about 80% of that has to come from decarbonization. Examples that I mentioned a minute ago. However, that still requires 20% of the solution to come from carbon removal. That’s about a billion tons of CO2 per year. So it’s a massive amount. And so we have to scale to that from a market today where it’s a lot less than that. But that’s a very critical role in the fight against climate change. And that’s how Cloverly fits in, is we’re a platform that facilitates that climate action through carbon credits.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:23] So now let me see if I understand this. There’s on one side of the ledger are people that are creating a lot of carbon, right? There’s a lot of CO2 being emitted in a variety of ways in a lot of organizations. And then on the other side of the ledger are people that are doing things to remove carbon dioxide. And so obviously, we wouldn’t be having this problem if there were more people on the side of the ledger removing carbon dioxide. And that’s just not the case right now.

Jason Rubottom: [00:03:56] Yeah, that’s that’s correct. We there there are so many emissions and so many unavoidable emissions today. Much of this is unfortunately, that we’re past the point where we can just start to reduce our emissions through decarbonization. There’s already too much CO2 in the atmosphere, so it has to be removed. But also you look at decarbonization, things like renewable energy and fleet electrification that will take several decades to get there. And so even again, in a net zero world year 20, 50, 20% of that still will require carbon removal because even then we’ll still have some unavoidable emissions. And so that’s kind of how this all fits together.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:40] So now on the side of the ledger that the people that are emitting a lot of CO2, they have to pay a fine or a fee to these people to encourage them to remove more. Is that where the fee is going?

Jason Rubottom: [00:04:58] Yeah, the buyer, let’s say it’s a corporate and it could also be the corporate customers who could even be consumers and they could empower the consumers to take action. For example, in e-commerce, letting the consumer opt in to make their shipment carbon neutral might only cost them $0.02, for example. But that kind of starts with the corporate and the corporate will have a net zero goal. For example, there’s an exponential growth in the number of companies out there with net zero goals, and for almost all of them, they can’t reach net zero without carbon credits as a part of that. And so they will effectively buy a carbon credit, which is effectively paying someone called a project developer like a tree planter, to go in and implement that project that removes the CO2 and there’s a lot of science behind it and things like the type of tree and the soil composition and there’s a whole science to it. And they get that verified by an independent third party that those claims are accurate about the CO2 removal. Et cetera. And then the corporate who paid them for that effectively gets a claim that they almost like proof verification that they contributed to this amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere. And that is that is a part of their overall net zero goal. Another illustration of that would be in many countries, especially in Europe, there’s actually a carbon tax. And so companies are literally taxed on their carbon emissions and so that encourages them to decarbonize and just avoid emissions in general. However, again, they still have lots of unavoidable emissions and so it is often more cost effective for them to buy carbon credits. In other words, pay a project developer a carbon credits, pay them to remove that carbon out of the atmosphere for them rather than paying the carbon tax itself.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:01] But I’m still confused now. The one I understand people are emitting too much CO2 and say in my organization I’m emitting a million CO2 units and I say, You know what? I want them all to be kind of zeroed out in this ledger. If I say I’m going to pay whatever I got to pay. And to get on the other side of the ledger, is that money actually removing that a million units of CO2 or is it just going to these people that at some future time, a million my a million units will be removed?

Jason Rubottom: [00:07:40] It’s going to projects where the CO2 has actually been removed. So an example would be with direct air capture. This machine sucks CO2 out of the air and then stores it underground permanently or for at least a thousand years. And then a third party independent party comes and verifies that that has happened and that the claims are accurate and specifically the amount of CO2 that has been removed. It’s not until that point it’s officially verified that then the corporate can buy that from them. So yes, at that point it has already been done and it’s verified that the claims are accurate, that it’s going to be stored away for the amount of time that it’s claimed.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:26] But if everybody that’s emitting too much says I’m going to pay today, is there enough resources to remove all of the CO2 that’s being emitted today?

Jason Rubottom: [00:08:40] No, not even close. Frankly, we have a we have a a really significant challenge across the board for for climate change. There’s there is no silver bullet, unfortunately, whether it’s you look at these other levers we have like renewable energy and electrification of fleets and eliminating waste, etcetera, we need really need all of them. None of them will come even close to solving the whole problem. And so carbon credits is just one piece of that, that solution.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:14] But if if everybody who was emitting too much said, I’m going to pay my carbon credits to get to zero, that wouldn’t it would be impossible.

Jason Rubottom: [00:09:26] In today’s market. Yes. So, for example, today’s market, there’s about $1 billion worth in carbon credits purchased annually. And that is a directional reflection of how much supply is available. It’s a reflection of how much capacity there is in the market. However, based on all the forecasts, this market is expected to be at least 50 billion by the year 2030 and 1 trillion by the year 2050. And so that is the kind of scale that is literally needed for us to reach the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement regarding climate change. But I will say that’s not that unique to carbon credits. That’s the kind of scale that we need to reach across the board. You know, things like fleet electrification or renewable energy. That’s the kind of scale we need across all of climate tech.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:24] Now, is there kind of exponential growth in the side of the ledger that’s removing the CO two? Is there as much effort and startup excitement in on that side to just come up with new innovative ways to remove more and more CO2?

Jason Rubottom: [00:10:43] Yeah, there is. It’s quite exciting, actually. There’s. There’s an incredible amount of investment going into this space to invest into projects that are removing CO2 and many different technologies from direct air capture to biochar and utilizing the ocean and seaweed. Lots of different technologies and governments are providing significant incentives and tax credits and subsidies across many different countries. Even the recent, you know, IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act in the US incorporated some of that for direct air capture. So there is a lot of that actually. Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:24] Now when a carbon carbon credit is purchased, does any of the money go to those startups or those innovators that are actually removing the CO2?

Jason Rubottom: [00:11:36] It does. Yeah. It’s the, the generally they’re called the project developer who’s effectively removing that CO2 and creating the carbon credit, if you will, the carbon offset. And so yes, they are the ones that are getting paid directly on that.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:52] So that’s so every kind of dollar that’s invested in carbon credits is going to someone who’s whose mission is to solve the problem and remove the CO2.

Jason Rubottom: [00:12:06] It would come from them or through an intermediary.

Jason Rubottom: [00:12:11] That’s that’s helping you think about the the buyer side of the market. There are many, many different types of buyers, whether it be based on company size or geography or industry. They’ll have different needs. And even think about buyer size all the way down to mid-market and small and medium sized businesses and even consumers. It’s effectively a really significant and nuanced market. So each of those different markets of buyers will have their own needs. And so there are many ways in which they need to be served. And so there will be different like in other industries, you’d often think of them as like there could be a marketplace or a value added reseller, so there will be many of those helping the project developers serve the end buyer.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:05] And then Clover Lee’s place in this marketplace is kind of to help facilitate and move those carbon credits to the people who need them.

Jason Rubottom: [00:13:15] Yeah, that’s correct. So you think about the the carbon credit market and it has it’s very early immature market and it has some pretty significant challenges that have to be overcome in order for it to scale and really make the the impact that is needed and expected. It’s a highly opaque and fragmented market near impossible for someone to just go identify what projects are out there for me to contribute to. What are the details? What’s the true impact of it? How much does it cost? How much can I trust this? And it’s almost like e-commerce in 1990 where it didn’t really exist and it needed a lot of digital infrastructure to be built for it to scale. And so these are the problems that cloverleaf solving as, as a marketplace we’re bringing, we’re making it digital connecting buyers and sellers, using software to connect them and surface data so that buyers can access everything available and provide transparency to them about all the project information so they know what the most meaningful projects are and and the prices and build trust allow them to take action. And also to do this very easily. Because today a buyer historically would it would feel like searching for a needle in a haystack if they were searching for carbon credits. And so those are the things that we’re solving for as a marketplace.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:47] And so the way it would work, a company on either side of the ledger just goes to cloverly. And if they are looking to buy the credits, then they say, okay, I have. Or is there a tool that lets me know first how many credits I need? Is there any type of way to kind of guesstimate or get a good idea of how many, how much carbon I’m emitting? Because it may not be obvious to the eye. You may not have like a manufacturing plant that smokes bellowing outside you like you mentioned e-commerce companies like they you know, it could an e-commerce company in today’s world could be somebody sitting in their basement you know selling stuff on eBay. But but the shipping, I guess, would create the emissions that needed to be offset.

Jason Rubottom: [00:15:36] Yeah, that’s a great point. And yeah, so I’ll break it down by supply and then demand the two sides of a marketplace.

Jason Rubottom: [00:15:44] On the supply side. We this, this.

Jason Rubottom: [00:15:47] Side of the marketplace is fairly typical in the sense that we allow suppliers, these project developers, to list their projects and all the project information right there for the buyers to evaluate, etcetera, and to be able to purchase. And the other thing we do that’s perhaps atypical for a marketplace is we provide this layer of quality curation because not all projects have the same level of impact per se. So there’s this, there’s this issue of quality and trust. So we brought in in-house.

Jason Rubottom: [00:16:23] Climate science.

Jason Rubottom: [00:16:23] Expertise and evaluated the quality of of these projects about 7500 globally. And we effectively provide quality curation and we’re providing less than 10% of the projects globally because we vet and select the ones that are of highest quality. But that’s the supply side, mostly typical for a marketplace. The demand side is where it gets nuanced, but there are two main ways in which a customer on the on the demand side of the marketplace could could utilize Cloverly one is a direct purchase where a head of sustainability or a head of ESG for a corporate can come directly to cloverly and purchase a portfolio of carbon credits, high quality, diversified across different geographies or technologies. Et cetera. And then the second product is any company can utilize Cloverly software to embed climate action into their product. So that could be an e-commerce company building cloverly into their checkout and enabling carbon neutral shipping and checkout. It could be in travel such as carbon neutral flights, it could be other forms of shipping like B2B shipping. It could be lots of financial products such as credit cards, allowing.

Jason Rubottom: [00:17:49] The credit card holders, whether it’s.

Jason Rubottom: [00:17:51] Consumers or even businesses, to estimate their carbon footprint from their credit card transactions and then allow them to take action, contribute to carbon removal. And yes, to your point, we provide calculations for for those. But we also a lot of this is it’s enablement and making this accessible for for companies depending on their situation. So many companies to your point have have a different third party calculate their entire footprint whether that’s a consultant or a software company which is called carbon accounting software. And then whoever does that for them, whoever does the carbon accounting for them, would then partner with Cloverly for them to offset some of their unavoidable emissions. And in that case, they can actually bring our technology, integrate us into their application so that their customer, some company can see their carbon footprint and have all this advice on how they can decarbonize, reduce their emissions. And then also right there is a page where they can purchase offsets. So it’s sort of a seamless experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:59] Now, what is kind of the ballpark like what is a carbon credit cost and how like like you mentioned how you calculate it, But like is it a huge number for all these companies Like like is there a way to give us an idea of of how much money we’re talking about when it comes to offsetting carbon credits for a different types of industries?

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:22] Yeah. Yeah. So a carbon.

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:24] Credit is.

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:25] Sold in units of.

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:28] One metric ton.

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:30] And so they’re sold in terms of a price per metric ton. That’s the price per credit. And there’s a wide range anywhere from roughly $5 per metric ton to $1,000 per metric ton. The reason there’s such a wide range is.

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:49] There are actually a few different reasons.

Jason Rubottom: [00:19:50] The biggest is that. The in the range of 50 to $1000 per metric ton is the human engineered solutions that are early stage, such as the direct air capture, and they play a really significant role in the solution long term. But they’re new now and they haven’t scaled yet. And so just like.

Jason Rubottom: [00:20:14] Anything, they.

Jason Rubottom: [00:20:15] Lack those economies of scale and they haven’t brought the cost curve down. But these are choosing to invest at least some of their money into those types of carbon credits. One, because they still are they’re of the highest quality because they’re definitely, unequivocally removing the carbon from the atmosphere, there’s no question there. But also they’re permanent rather than only removing the carbon for 50 years, for example. So they’re of the highest quality. That’s one reason many corporates would still buy that. But the second reason is that they want to.

Jason Rubottom: [00:20:50] Support.

Jason Rubottom: [00:20:51] These emerging technologies. Now because when, let’s say, think about roughly the year 2030.

Jason Rubottom: [00:20:58] Which is when a lot of these corporates.

Jason Rubottom: [00:21:00] Net zero commitments begin to come into play, they they will not be even close to decarbonize yet. And so they’re going to have a heavy dependance on carbon removal and therefore we need to start scaling that now and then that scale will help bring down that price to something that’s more viable. So that’s why you see such a wide range of costs of carbon credits and why many companies still invest in the more expensive ones.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:28] But is it a ton? A lot? Like, what is that like?

Jason Rubottom: [00:21:35] Yeah, for for perspective, the.

Jason Rubottom: [00:21:38] Average American average American’s own.

Jason Rubottom: [00:21:44] Individual carbon footprint is about 15 tons per year.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:49] So like a little over a ton a month.

Jason Rubottom: [00:21:53] Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:55] And so if individuals want to do this, can they do this? Can they buy their ton a month from you?

Jason Rubottom: [00:22:04] Yeah, they could buy it. Not directly from Clovelly, but from.

Jason Rubottom: [00:22:08] Clovelly partners, for example.

Jason Rubottom: [00:22:11] Their credit card. We’re already live in a bit of a soft launch that’s not being publicly promoted yet, but.

Jason Rubottom: [00:22:20] We’re.

Jason Rubottom: [00:22:21] Already live through a product offering that’s available to 24 million card members in the US and that will become much more visible over time at the very recent launch. But you will see, we will all see in the next couple of years this will become almost ubiquitous. All of us will be able to see our own carbon footprints through our credit card transactions. So that’s a common one. And then those other examples I mentioned, like e-commerce and flights, we’re going to see a significant number of options for that as consumers all around us on a day to day basis. And in those cases, that’s the second product of the two that I mentioned for Cloverleaf’s demand side of its marketplace, where we provide that software that allows the company to offer that to their customers and they basically build that into their product or their customer experience.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:12] So what do you need more of right now? How can we help? Do you need you know, you’ve got to fill both sides of the marketplace, obviously.

Jason Rubottom: [00:23:22] Yeah, I think.

Jason Rubottom: [00:23:25] The biggest thing is companies taking action now. It doesn’t have to be everything. It’s progress over over perfection and start trying something. Whether it be providing an offering to your customers and or start contributing to carbon removal toward your own sustainability goals and have a plan. Again, progress over perfection and start thinking about multiyear commitments because we do have to start now. I think that’s the biggest thing as a company that’s growing in a market.

Jason Rubottom: [00:24:03] That has to.

Jason Rubottom: [00:24:04] Scale really fast. Naturally, our our biggest constraint is just hiring a large number of really, really talented people as quickly as possible, which is frankly going quite well. But if there’s any folks out there who are passionate about climate making a difference, then we are hiring, hiring a lot. And feel free to check that out@cloverlay.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:29] So with cloverleaf.com, that’s the best way to get ahold of you or somebody on your team if somebody wants to learn more. Yeah. Well, Jason, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Jason Rubottom: [00:24:44] Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:46] 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

Hunter Ewing With High Ground Company

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Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Hunter Ewing With High Ground Company
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In this episode, Lee Kanter chats with Hunter Ewing from High Ground Company, an insurance advisory firm. They get into the nitty-gritty of life insurance and how it’s not just a boring expense. They talk about how it can actually be an asset and give some examples of when it’s a total no-brainer to have it, like in business succession planning and estate tax planning for rich folks.

Hunter stresses the importance of bringing up life insurance in financial planning talks with advisors and consultants. They also touch on the tricky topic of business succession planning and how to figure out how much a business is worth for insurance purposes. Hunter even spills the tea on how much life insurance costs and how the industry is always changing.

In 2019, Hunter Ewing and ​​Bo Wilkins co-founded High Ground Company. High Ground Company is an Atlanta-based boutique wealth consultancy that uses creative insurance strategies and planning to achieve meaningful success for you and your family.

Taking a broader view of wealth to spot new paths to success, High Ground safeguards personal assets, protects against family liability risk, supports legacy planning and enhances the value of closely held businesses. With more than 52 years of combined experience, High Ground Company delivers concierge service that yields expert results.

Connect with Hunter on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • High Ground’s Business Offerings: Life Insurance, Private Lines (Property & Causality) and Business Succession Planning
  • Legacy Building for Businesses & HNW Families
  • Industry trends, such as the rise of caretaking for the mid-generation

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 Atlanta Business Radio, we have Hunter Ewing with High Ground Company. Welcome, Hunter.

Hunter Ewing: [00:00:43] Thank you, Lee. It’s great to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, it’s great reconnecting with you. For the folks who don’t know, can you tell us a little bit about high ground, how you serving folks?

Hunter Ewing: [00:00:52] Well, thanks, Lee. We are an insurance advisory firm. Lee We have a particular niche in using life insurance products to help folks, in many cases with tax planning, with business planning, sometimes philanthropic planning. So these are more sort of tactical strategic uses of life insurance planning, many times driven off of those things, as well as just the tax benefits of life insurance. So we look a lot like a consulting firm, I guess, is what I would say.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] So can you share some maybe some misconceptions about life insurance that folks aren’t aware of?

Hunter Ewing: [00:01:30] Well, that’s a I appreciate the question. That’s a that’s a great question. I think I think one of the biggest misconceptions about life insurance is that it is a cost. And let me differentiate that. I think of life insurance as an asset. And the reason I think of it that way is because like anything that you put money into and you know something is going to come out of it in the future, you can sort of say, All right, what’s the investment return or the internal rate of return on doing that? And that looks a lot like an asset. So if I put money into a real estate, whatever, something’s going to happen in the future where there’s going to be a return and that’s an asset. So I think a big misconception is just that it’s a cost or an expense. When I think of it more as an asset.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:14] Is it because by using having the word insurance as part of the name, that people look at it that way, that this is, you know, in case everything goes bad, something will be there. Hopefully they don’t they don’t kind of look at it as an investment.

Hunter Ewing: [00:02:29] Yeah, I think that’s absolutely right. Lee, I think also in all candor, you know, our our industry has not done itself any favors in some ways in the sense that, you know, many people have purchased life insurance products that have not been adequately serviced over time and they haven’t provided the the the outcome that was originally intended. You know, that’s an issue. I think also candidly, I think just kind of the nature of the beast, it’s difficult sometimes for folks to discuss and think about their own mortality. That can be an issue. But, you know, I think one thing I would just say is if you sort of strip away the word and the name life insurance and you sort of look at it on an economic basis, you look at it and go, man, that’s a very efficient financial product. And the right set of circumstances can really can really be helpful for whatever someone is trying to accomplish. Doesn’t fit every need, but it certainly can be very useful in the right situation.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:24] But if you’re planning, you know, if you’re working with a financial advisor or a wealth consultant, it should be part of the conversation, right? This isn’t something that you just immediately just take off the table.

Hunter Ewing: [00:03:37] I would think so. And candidly, that’s really a lot of our business is referred to us from other financial advisors, many of them in the wealth management asset management world. Lots of our business comes from attorneys that specialize in tax planning CPAs. But yeah, absolutely. You know, we see we see some of the wealth management firms really appreciate the role of life insurance in a client’s overall financial planning.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:08] Now, can you share like a hypothetical example of where this is like a no brainer that people should be at least considering it? Like, what is a scenario where this would be kind of a kind of no brainer move?

Hunter Ewing: [00:04:24] That is a great, great question. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet. I think two things come to mind, Lee. If you and I own a business together and it’s a very valuable business and something happens to me, my ownership in the business is going to go to Lisa, my wife. You got to have the means to cash to be able to buy Lisa’s interest out after I’m gone. So in this example, what a life insurance policy will do for each of us is it would give you the cash tax free that you would then use to buy life. Lisa’s interest in the business. And so from a business succession, what’s called buy, sell planning, I think life insurance is a no brainer. The other the other thing that comes to mind is if I’m a very, very high net worth family or individual and I have am subject to a potential estate tax in the future on transitioning my wealth to the next generation In my family, I can purchase a life insurance policy. Essentially what I’m doing in that case, Lee, is I’m buying cash in the future at a big discount. So just to pick a number, if I’ve got to if I face a $10 million tax bill in the future or my family does, I can buy $10 million of tax free capital by way of a life insurance policy for a lot less than $10 million. And so to me, that’s a no brainer.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:59] So now you’re talking about high net worth, folks. Is this something that like what’s a number that of net worth that you should consider at least having conversations about this? If somebody has $100,000, is net worth, is this something worth having a conversation on or is it, like you said, it’s got to be 10 million and above?

Hunter Ewing: [00:06:20] Well, there’s certainly let me let me answer the question this way. There are certainly great uses of life insurance, regardless of what someone’s someone’s wealth is. It happens that our our business is more focused on the high net worth market space, but but you know, for example, I don’t consider myself mega high net worth at all. And we’ve used my wife and I are using life insurance as a way to create some capital for our three kids and grandkids at some point in time by way of kind of a legacy creation strategy. So when we go, there’s a certain amount of money that’s going to go into a trust and sort of create some inheritance for our children and grandchildren someday. So, you know, I think it the the rules apply. Again, I would say to simplify it, if someone says I want to create some capital when I go for some reason, I want to create some cash tax free when I go for whatever the reason is, I think insurance is at least should be considered and taking a close look at.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:27] So now you mentioned that a lot of your work is done through referrals from people, I guess, who aren’t specialized in this niche as as you are. How do you kind of bubble up those opportunities for these folks? Is it just a hole in their offering that they don’t do this and they’re looking for an export, or is it something that you’ve established yourself as kind of a thought leader in this space?

Hunter Ewing: [00:07:52] Uh, wish I could call myself a thought leader. That’s. But the answer is that it’s taken. It takes a lot of time to develop trusted relationships with other advisors. There’s lots that goes into that, like personal chemistry, trust, confidence. But we’ve spent a lot of time over the years developing relationships that are trusted. These folks that we and it goes the other direction, too. We have a client, for example, who who maybe says, you know, gosh, I’m I would really like to have a new accounting advisor, a CPA that could be, you know, provide X, Y or Z. You know, we we have a great network of folks that we could refer based upon whatever they’re trying to accomplish. And it goes the same way. So we have spent a lot of time over the years developing relationships. We spend a lot of time regularly keeping our close relationships, educated on opportunities for insurance planning so that when there working with a client and the client says something that may trigger a thought where the advisor might say, you know, maybe that’s something we need to consider, let’s call high ground and at least do some analysis and figure out if it’s a good fit. Is there a problem that you have that the client has that maybe insurance can can help solve? So that’s our approach.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:17] Now, you mentioned one of the uses of insurance or life insurance is through this kind of succession planning for businesses. Is this something that I mean, you mentioned early, early that individuals don’t like to talk about their own mortality, but in business people, it’s probably even worse because they have their own mortality plus the mortality of their organization. So is that kind of even more difficult to even open these conversations with business owners?

Hunter Ewing: [00:09:47] Yeah, I think I think I don’t know if it’s more difficult, but it’s equally difficult. Um, and, you know, look, my partner, Beau Wilkins, and I own high ground company. Um, we’re, you know, just like all business owners. Busy, busy, busy every day with, you know, running and growing your business. And sometimes it’s just hard to sort of pull back and say, whoa, I need to take some time to really sort of think about this particular issue. And you sort of look at it and go, well, maybe it’s not, you know, going to create revenue today. It’s it’s a longer term sort of thought process. And I think that’s the thing that makes it difficult is just the fact that business, you know, business owners are busy people. They’ve got a lot of things that are happening every day, fires that pop up. And so, you know, allocating the time and energy and to think about these kind of things is just it’s just not easy.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:46] So what would it look like if you have like you and your partner, what does that conversation look like and how do you begin to even calculate what is the appropriate policy that the partners should have?

Hunter Ewing: [00:11:03] Well, that’s a great question. Let’s think about it this way. In a situation where perhaps maybe an attorney has introduced us to his or her client and they’ve already discussed the importance of sort of business succession planning, then the issue is already on the table. And the the prospective client, the business owner is, you know, sort of of a mindset that they want to sort of focus on it and discuss it, you know, in a situation like that. Lee We would we would have a meeting with the client and those advisors to really so that we could understand firsthand what their concerns are and what what they were trying to accomplish. On the other hand, if it’s sort of a more traditional sort of organic situation where maybe we just meet someone and and that previous conversation has not happened, you know, we would we would take the approach again of from really the ground up to learn about them, learn about their family, learn about their business, learn about what’s important to them, what are their concerns, and go about it in a more traditional manner. Did that answer your question?

Lee Kantor: [00:12:13] I’m just trying to get I’m trying to look at it through the lens of a listener that has a business and they have a partner and maybe they’re getting older. It’s like you said, they were busy. This didn’t even occur to them that the tax ramifications and the logistics of, okay, what am I going to do? One of us, you know, you know, is not here anymore. You know, now I’ve got to deal with their spouse. I got like it’s all these unintended consequences that occur, you know, once that domino falls. So so like, say they wrangle their partner and they say, okay, Hunter, what what do we do? Like, do I get an appraisal for the company so I know the value, Like, how am I going to logistically, you know, get this policy so that I can take this worry off my plate?

Hunter Ewing: [00:13:01] Yeah, that’s a great that’s a great question. So I think that’s right. I mean, we would certainly in that kind of case, we need to we need to assign an accurate value for it. So we work with accounting firms and valuation firms that would do that, that very that very thing. I will tell you that at least sometimes we’re involved in a project right now and these two fellows own a very successful business. And as simple as it sounds, we said to them, Look, hey, Bob, what is the you know, if you were going to sell to to Jeff today, what is the minimum value you would take for that? And they sort of sat back and, you know, sort of looked at each other and laughed and made a couple of jokes. But they finally came back and said, you know what? In all seriousness, if I were out of here, if I were just going to sell it and retire today, I would take no less than blank. And and so we talked about that more and really sort of drilled down on that. But at the end of the day, that’s the amount of protection that we’re we’re working off of.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:58] So it doesn’t really the a third party appraiser that’s nice to have. But the bottom bottom line is this is a negotiation between two partners, right? So the the value is in the eye of the beholder from that standpoint.

Hunter Ewing: [00:14:15] Yeah, that’s right. I think that’s exactly right. Um. But no doubt about it. Yeah, they and the other thing I would add to that is, you know, we certainly see situations I would we have clients that will ensure some of the risk that they have in some cases, not all of it. We certainly have clients that will ensure all of that value, but in some situations they also have other strategies that they incorporate with insurance, such as an installment type arrangement. Maybe. Lee you and I again own a business and it’s worth a lot of money. We might fund 50% of that potential buyout cost with insurance. And then we might say, okay, the rest is is sort of paid out over time or a lot of times we’ll get a question about, okay, well, my business is worth X today, but certainly we hope it’s going to be worth more in the future. What you know, what insurance value should we work off of? And we can certainly say, all right, you know, let’s let’s insure the value today. We can even buy forward a little bit and increase the value based upon anticipated growth. But in a lot of cases, Lee, they might say, all right, the value is X today and anything over that amount, we’re going to, you know, handle by way of some kind of installment payout or loan arrangement, something like that. So, you know, it’s all the above.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:33] Now, if somebody’s like, say, they say, okay, our business is worth $1 million and I want to get $1 million of life insurance in case one one of us goes, What is the like, how much is $1 million worth of life insurance or is there a flat amount of money? Or is that thing depend on several variables.

Hunter Ewing: [00:15:54] Another great question. So it will depend upon the person’s age and their health and the type of product that they purchase. So there are different types of insurance products. Oftentimes people will use term life insurance, which is a great product for a short term need. Sometimes they’ll use a permanent life insurance product for kind of an indefinite need. So one of the really important things we try to understand and is where are they on that? Are they do they intend to maybe sell the business in the in the short term or in the future? We would in that case, we probably would recommend they buy term life insurance. On the other hand, like the fellas that I mentioned earlier, they’re saying, you know, this is this is no, we’re going to be here for the long haul and we want this protection to never go away. Well, in that case, we’re recommending permanent insurance. So all the things that you’re asking will be driven off of their age, their health, and the amount of insurance and obviously the type of insurance.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:54] So what would be kind of a range for $1 million like for a term and for permanent?

Hunter Ewing: [00:17:00] You know, I would say for term insurance, my sense would be call it 1000 or $1500 for every million, assuming someone is I’m 58 years old, $1 million of term insurance for someone in good health is probably $1,500 for every million dollars. And that would last about 20 years. Obviously, it’s kind of a good estimate if it’s a permanent insurance policy. The outlay might be 7 to 8 times that amount, but it’ll never go away. So that’s kind of the distinction. You’re buying a longer period of coverage and that just takes a higher amortized outlay.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:45] And that’s an annual fee. You’re paying that every year to maintain the insurance.

Hunter Ewing: [00:17:50] That’s right. And then they can be really, really customized. So today’s products are so much better than they used to be and they allow us to design the the policy so that, again, I’m going to pick on you and me. You know, we might say, look, you know, boy, we’re really doing well right now and we expect our business to be really, really strong for the next five years. We want to we want to knock this thing out and fund it over the next five years. And we don’t want to have to pay for it after that. You know, we could sort of design the the contributions to the policy to really to to pay it off or pay pay pay it up in five years. And so they’re very, very customizable this day in time.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:36] And that’s why you kind of need an expert. Right. This isn’t something if you were trying to Google this and try to figure it out on your own, you know you’re going to miss some stuff. You got to work with folks that are doing this every day.

Hunter Ewing: [00:18:49] Um, thank you. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, it sounds self-serving, but there’s a lot to it. And, um, it makes me think about. Here’s an analogy. You know, you can buy a a will or a trust or some sort of legal document off legal zoom, but you sort of get what you pay for and you really ought to have a good attorney. I know it’s sometimes it’s expensive, but those folks are invaluable and a good accountant, they are invaluable and a good wealth management person. You know, instead of trying to do it yourself, they’re going to be invaluable. So, you know, we think of ourselves, I guess, in that same same vein, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:19:29] It’s one of those things you don’t know what you don’t know. And these people are kind of going over this every day. They’re paying attention to the trends and the little nuances of this stuff that you might miss because you have a real job. You know, you have another job that’s not this and this is their job.

Hunter Ewing: [00:19:46] Yeah. And the one thing that comes to mind is you said that is it’s so important to have a good team. And I think that’s one of the things that we enjoy about our work is we get to work with other advisors and really put our heads together with them and, you know, figure out the right approach for the client together, get the attorney’s perspective, get the accountant’s perspective, get everybody’s thoughts on the table. 99 times out of 100, that creates the best, best outcome.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:15] Now, are there is this an industry that changes a lot or are there new things coming, new offerings coming like every day and you got to be on top of this? Or is it something that, you know, this thing is what it’s been?

Hunter Ewing: [00:20:27] Yeah, man, that is a you’ve got some great questions today. It changes all the time. And there there are a handful of things that change. The products change a lot. One of the things that was really, um, was really helpful, I think, about COVID was the fact that it really forced insurance companies. Insurance companies, for probably a good reason, have gotten a bad rap on their on their technology and on their implementation systems and what have you. And man, COVID really, really forced them to get in the game from a technology standpoint. And so a good example would be, you know, when someone buys insurance historically, they have to go. They have to have an examiner come see them and get a blood sample and urine sample and this stuff to to, you know, prove they’re in good health. Today’s world, that still happens in some cases, but more and more frequently now, technology is coming into play where some of that underwriting can be done without those kinds of things. So and we know the companies that do that and we know the companies that are easy to work with and and that changes all the time. Um, products change. It’s a very, very competitive market. Insurance companies are always trying to out develop each other on the product development side. Um, they’re constantly coming out with new products or tweaks to existing products. And yeah, a big part of our job is to stay on top of all that stuff and know what’s happening in the market so we can bring the best potential solution to our clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:02] Well, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to get ahold of you?

Hunter Ewing: [00:22:09] It is W-w-w dot High Ground company.com W-w-w dot high ground company.com. And we are here in Atlanta right over by Powers Ferry in 285. But our business is all over the country and we would be happy to help take a phone call or arrange an appointment to learn more, see what we could see if we could help.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:34] Well, Hunter, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Hunter Ewing: [00:22:40] Thank you. Lee. It’s been it’s been fun. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:42] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Cheryl Dodge With Time4Learning

by

South Florida Business Radio
South Florida Business Radio
Cheryl Dodge With Time4Learning
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DTLLogo-Blue-Bannerv2Cheryl Dodge comes to Time4Learning with a diverse background in business management, product development, and instructional design, primarily in the education technology sector. She began her career as a classroom teacher, having taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. A chance opportunity to teach mathematics to Marine Corps and Navy personnel via a distance learning program sparked her interest in education technology. Throughout her edtech career, she has expressed her passion for the learner by building innovative PK-12 products and creating transformative learning experiences.

Most recently, she was the chief product officer at Edmentum, leading product strategy and portfolio development. Prior roles include chief business officer at Pivot Learning, where she led business development and strategy for scaling and growing the organization, and vice president, technical product management at CTB/McGraw-Hill, where she provided strategic direction and leadership for large-scale assessment solutions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Saint Mary’s College of California and a master of arts degree in curriculum and instruction, having graduated from Chapman University with honors.

She also holds a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and a Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development certificate. She is active in her community, having started a recreational youth soccer program, and most recently, started and serves on the board of a nonprofit that aims to preserve natural spaces.

Connect with Cheryl on LinkedIn and follow Time4Learning on Facebook and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Her background in the edtech industry
  • Some changes she noticed in K-12 education
  • What does the future hold for K-12 education and edtech innovations
  • Why is Time4Learning becoming the “school of choice” for many families in the U.S.

This 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.

[00:00:08] 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. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Cheryl Dodge with Time4Learning. Welcome, Cheryl.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:00:33] Hi there. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:34] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about time for learning. How are you serving folks?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:00:40] Sure. So Time for Learning is an organization that started in South Florida actually almost 20 years ago. And we are a home education organization, which means we offer software and services to families who are educating their children at home. So predominantly that means families who are homeschooling their children and this is pre-K to 12 in all 50 states as well as internationally.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] So what was the genesis of the idea? How did this get started?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:01:08] Yeah, our founder, John Edelson, years ago had spent time in the Silicon Valley, sort of in that that crew of people who were making lots of changes in the way that we use technology, particularly in gaming. And when he came out of an experience where he’d worked on building some games just for fun, he had this thought that he wanted to do something that was a little more value to society, something that would perhaps help others. So he took what he knew about the gaming industry and he came up with this idea of creating a curriculum, a program that was going to be served up online. This was in the early 2000 before people were really doing this, too. And it would give family access to a full curriculum so that they could educate their children at home. But he would do it in a way that the experience would be engaging, similar to some of the game design principles of those early years in the early 2000.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:05] And then that started locally and then just grew from there.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:02:08] It did. It started off with just a pre-K program, and then as the team built the program up, they added on additional grade levels until they got to all the way to 12th grade. So now we serve pre-K through 12th grade and it took a few years to do that, but it’s definitely been a program that has added value to families lives because of the flexibility it offers them, as well as the anytime, anywhere learning experience. So it’s become particularly during the pandemic, it was a great resource for families who were looking for an alternative experience for ensuring their kids had learning in the home when they couldn’t be in their brick and mortar.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:48] So how did the pandemic affect your company? Did that accelerate growth?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:02:54] Oh yeah, it absolutely accelerated growth. And the interesting thing is that years past, a lot of families thought that homeschooling wasn’t for them. That was perhaps more of a thing that only certain kinds of families could do, and they really didn’t have an awareness of how it could be so applicable to their particular family interests. And how their family values. And so through the pandemic, not only did our program grow exponentially, but I think parents awareness, they became much more savvy. They began to understand what they could do differently and that they actually had agency over their kids learning. So now that we’re coming, you know, we’ve come out of the pandemic, families are still homeschooling. In fact, while we’ve seen some settling, if you will, what we would call sort of recalibration, we’re seeing a lot of families who before the pandemic would never have considered themselves as a homeschooling family, are sticking with it because they love what it offers their children and what offers their family.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:52] For the person that has a child and is maybe considering homeschooling. Can you explain maybe some of the tradeoffs, some of the pros and cons of homeschooling versus traditional?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:04:02] Yeah. So I think there’s some misconceptions about homeschooling that I would love to disseminate because I think those can oftentimes make families think that homeschooling isn’t for them. So sort of on the face value, of course, homeschooling means you’re at home, you’re not in a brick and mortar setting. And so the first challenge that parents are very curious about and concerned about is socialization. The one thing that we always talk about with homeschooling is because it can be anytime, anywhere. Socialization is happening all the time. So through homeschooling groups, through homeschooling pods and meetups, sports arts, other types of activities, neighborhood friends. So the homeschooling families we serve, they really don’t complain about socialization being a problem. And in fact they find richer relationships because they create space and time for their children to have really rewarding connections. I think the biggest difference between traditional brick and mortar and homeschooling is in a traditional school. You have a classroom teacher or a set of teachers, depending on your student’s grade level, and that teacher is responsible for delivering the curriculum to your child and the learning experience. When you’re at home, you’re the teacher of record. And so. It’s your responsibility to do that. But with our program, one of the cool things is because we’re a structured homeschooling program, all the instruction is built into the courses.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:05:21] So for families who may be another potential barrier might have been fear or, gosh, I don’t know if I can teach chemistry, we can help them alleviate those very easily because the curriculum itself is fantastic and really supportive of the parents. I think the last thing about homeschooling that’s different from the traditional brick and mortar setting is that homeschooling is incredibly flexible and very efficient. So most of our families really only sit in front of a computer maybe 2 to 3 hours a day and their kids complete, if not the same amount of curriculum that their peer would in a brick and mortar setting, they oftentimes complete more. And the reason for that is that there’s efficiency in what they’re learning. There’s the ability for them to focus, and then that allows them time to do all kinds of other things. So, you know, they work on a farm. If they’ve got homeschooling groups that they go to, if their family takes them to museums and local areas of interest, if they have sports, they can play, It really creates a lot of flexibility for them to explore their passions and interests in ways that sometimes in a brick and mortar setting, they don’t really have the time to do that during the learning day.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:25] Now, if the family has more than one child at a different levels, like, say, first grade and seventh grade, is it possible to utilize time for learning to teach both of them and so that each of the children can learn at, you know, separately but together?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:06:42] Absolutely. We have different models that we suggest to families. The first one is if your family is capable of doing it and able, you get them each their own individual laptop so that they can be working at the same time. If that’s not possible, if the family’s finances don’t allow for that, you just stagger who’s on the laptop, at which time and when one student is doing their time for learning curriculum, another student could be doing their 20 minutes of reading. They could be working on an offline project. They could be doing chores around the house. They could be working on a passion or an interest activity. And so because the homeschooling structure is so flexible, it’s really not a problem for families. And the curriculum we offer is graded curriculum, grade level curriculum. And so families have no problem if they have multiple children having all of their kids use the curriculum. Each kid gets their their own access to their grade level content. And so parents, it’s very easy for them to track what their kids are doing, no matter what grade level they’re in and how many children they have.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:43] And then the experience would be accredited so they would be getting the same types of credit they would be if they went to a traditional brick and mortar school.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:07:53] There is a great question. So homeschooling is not an accredited school. So when a parent takes on homeschooling, they become the teacher of record. It is legal in all 50 states to homeschool, but that’s different than an accredited school. An accredited school is where a and it can be a virtual school. It can be a brick and mortar where kids go face to face. It could be a hybrid situation. In an accredited school, there’s a certain type of certification that comes from different governing bodies that basically looks at the overall program and deems it appropriate for that particular grade level. But the United States doesn’t require that for families. So homeschooling allows families to do their learning at home or anywhere they want to be on the road, have the same level of rigor that you would if you were in a brick and mortar classroom. In terms of the how challenging the content is for kids, but then the flexibility sort of sort of live their lives, That main difference is if families want an accredited solution, then that would be in a virtual school or a brick and mortar school, which could be private or public.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:57] So what if so if they’re part of time for learning, at some point, do they have to take a test or how do they get a high school degree and how do they get into colleges and all that stuff?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:09:08] Questions. So there’s a few different pieces to this. So every curriculum has curriculum based assessments, so it’s basically we remember those as, you know, those quizzes and tests you have to take. And there’s different ways because the program is sort of a interactive dynamic program. There’s different ways that we assess kids where it feels fun and exciting to them, and they would have to say, that doesn’t even feel like an assessment maybe that we remember back when we were in school. So that’s one way we know how kids are doing, and that information goes to parents in the form of reports so parents can look and see how their child is doing. They can have kids repeat lessons or chapters within the courses that they’re taking. It’s really up to the parent in terms of graduating. Every state has different requirements, so it’s up to the parents to make sure that the courses that they’re using from time for learning align to what the graduation requirements are in their state. And then the parent keeps a student portfolio and they are required by each state to show some level of evidence of learning.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:10:06] And when they do that, then the state basically says, okay, mom or dad, whoever’s been the primary parent in the. Teacher record. Show us what your child has completed. And so we just offer some templates for families to use. And so the parents actually responsible for recording all of their courses, both the courses that they use within Typekit learning and anything they’ve done offline, for example. So maybe they’ve taken a music class somewhere else or a dance class in a studio. Those can all count towards their graduation requirements. And then those transcripts are used to be sent to colleges of interest that children are looking to apply to and as well as to file with their respective school district or their state for making sure that they’re complying with any state regulations. It’s pretty easy for parents in most states. There are a few states that are a little more challenging in terms of the documentation, but it’s also very well received by colleges these days. So kids who go through homeschooling and they decide to go on to college generally do very, very well in college scenarios.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:06] So you have children that have gone through the whole K through 12, maybe not all one person, the whole 12, 13 years, but you’ve had people graduate and get into college and, you know, live successful lives.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:11:20] Absolutely. In fact, we have some of the students who used to be time for learning. Students actually work for us. Now, some of them have gone straight to career. Some have gone to college for the last few years. We’ve offered a graduation celebration. So we have an opportunity to celebrate all of the kid’s accomplishments. So we do a graduation celebration for our high school students, our middle school, our kids who are moving up into the middle school and then our kindergartners. So a great opportunity for parents to celebrate those developmental milestones. But those high schoolers absolutely go off and do amazing things in college and career and pretty much there’s no limitation on them. It’s really what they’ve done at home in terms of their interests and passions that help them decide what their options are.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:06] Moving beyond that now, is there a time for learning community amongst the people who are on the platform in each locality so they can get together and maybe, you know, go to that museum together or do things like that?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:12:20] Yeah. So we do have Facebook Families group of over 50,000 members, and that is a families group where families seek out other families in their locale. So someone might say, Hey, I live in New Jersey, does anyone else live here? Are you interested in doing some kind of meetup? So they have an opportunity to interact that way. They also use that space for doing activities together or finding connections. So the location is not a barrier to their community that they create amongst each other. And oftentimes because it is online, they’re able to make connections with families, you know, in other states that they otherwise may not have had access to were they just looking for local families. So they use it for both. They use it for creating local meetups as well as creating online meetups for children, whether it be from an activity they want to do for fun or just help they might need on a particular subject or extracurricular types of activities they want to engage in.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:19] Now, is the curriculum secular or is there a religious component to it?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:13:24] The curriculum is secular and the families who use our program are both secular and faith based families, and they modify it based on their their family values and their family needs. But yes, it’s a secular program, so it’s based on standards, so state standards, it’s aligned to the top standards across the country. And so they’re very much in alignment with any particular state. In fact, one of the questions you asked before about, you know, how do students do with testing? There’s a lot of states require kids to take their state test at the end of the year. So homeschooling kids generally do quite well, if not better, than their peers in the brick and mortar setting.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:07] So what do you if you looked in your crystal ball, what do you see for the future of EdTech and companies like Time for Learning?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:14:15] Well, I, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about AI, but actually love to talk a little bit about the future of the student first and then I’ll wrap it up with AI. It’s interesting because I think we really have to think about how kids are different today from how they’ve been in years past. So I’ll tell you a quick little story. It’s really cute. Years ago, I was helping my son’s. Classmates. They were volunteering at a field day event and the kids responsibility was to provide these little envelopes to their classmates so their classmates could get their tickets to go and do these these field day activities. And I was watching the kids as the student would come up and give their last name, try to find the envelope with the child’s last name in it. And it occurred to me as I was watching them that, you know, for example, a kid would come up with the last name Moreno, and the kids who were volunteering would go and start with the A, and they’d work their way through the envelopes till they got to the M, And they did this over and over. It didn’t matter what the letter was. They always started from the A and I realized, wow, that generation, those are zoomers, right? Or Gen Z kids are different. They are not linear thinkers, right? They’ve been raised with, you know, using search terms and looking for patterns and relationships to find things on the Internet.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:15:27] And that generation is definitely a different kind of kid. And then you look beyond them. You look at the generation Alpha, the next generation after them. Those kids are even more different because all they know is working in immersive virtual worlds like Roblox and Fortnite and Minecraft. So they’ve been using those types of programs as their primary medium for exploration and online socialization and creation and gameplay. So when I think about the kids of today, I think about how we’ve shifted from this like really linear thinking model to that more network based model of our Generation Z kids. And to this new one, I would call it more like a canvas, whereas no beginning and end. Why this matters is that in EdTech we’re seeing a lot of innovation happening and because of AI, we’re going to see it happen pretty rapidly. I think what’s going to happen is that we’re going to move to a place where learning becomes really dynamic. It’s going to be based in these immersive worlds and that no two learning experiences will be the same. So we don’t know how fast this will go, but I definitely think that with the onset of AI and all the tools that are available to us now, it’ll be in short order that will be creating really different personalized learning experiences for kids that we can’t even possibly imagine today.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:42] Now I’m glad you mentioned AI, because a lot of people have expressed a fear of AI, especially in terms of education when it comes to writing essays for for an assignment or something along those lines. What’s your take on that from, you know, is that a fear that’s reasonable or is it something that or is this just another tool for people to use to be more productive, faster?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:17:09] I think there’s always a fear when a new tool comes out about how kids are going to apply it. You know, back in the day it was with the calculator and then it was the, you know, word processors and then computers. So every generation that has new technology always comes about with a place and a concern of, gosh, is this thing going to be okay for us? Is this going to be something that our students can use in a productive and safe way? I think I there’s a lot of components to it that we have to be really thoughtful of in terms of the safety and security of kids. But I think as a productivity and a creativity tool, I think sky’s the limit and it’s a wonderful opportunity. I really think it’s up to us as educators to really think about how we can apply it in ways that are going back to what I said about kids that really match where they are and what kind of thinkers they are today. So that sort of canvas ideas, how can we use AI to be more supportive of them and use it as a tool and not be afraid of of how it’s just changing the way kids learn and how we need to.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:11] Teach, right? Like, like you said, like when calculators came out, people were like, Oh, they’ll never be able to add or, you know, the Internet came out and it’s like, Oh, you can’t use Wikipedia as a resource. Like whatever the new technology is. They thought that that was the checkmate, and it’s always eventually just turns into a tool.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:18:32] Absolutely. And one hopefully that think that we can all be proud of because it will allow us to think about learning even differently than we can consider today. And and as a proponent and a very passionate person about the learning experience for kids, I think we just have a wonderful opportunity in front of us. You know, whether you’re homeschooling, if you’re in a traditional brick and mortar, there are so many opportunities to apply AI that will really make learning dynamic for kids. It’s pretty exciting.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:00] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:19:04] Why do we need more of think What we need more of is the school choice and that we are providing access for kids to the types of learning environments and learning tools and curriculum and content that best meets their needs. So I just think is it from a community standpoint, it’s great when we can be supportive of the programs and opportunities that are out there that support families and making decisions about how they want to educate their children.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:34] So if there’s a parent out there listening, what are some of the maybe symptoms that are happening in their child’s life that might be a clue that, hey, maybe we should check out Time for Learning? What are some signals that maybe that what time for learning has is a better fit than what they have today? Yeah.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:19:53] I think we want to look at it from several different lenses. So the first lens would of course would be academic. Is a child thriving with their academics? Are they engaged with their work at school or are they excited to learn? And, you know, of course all kids have some level of, oh, I’ve got to do homework or school is hard. But if you’re seeing your child’s grades drop, if you’re seeing them not engaging with the learning experience, that might be one indicator that the learning in the environment they’re in isn’t working for them. The second piece is their social emotional learning. How are they doing? You know, obviously, coming out of a pandemic, we’re seeing a lot of mental health issues. So is your kid hanging out in the room by themselves a lot more than maybe your average teenager? Are they despondent? Are they expressing feelings of hopelessness? Are they having challenges with bullies at school? Are they not able to keep up with the pace of the curriculum and the classroom? There’s so many reasons why parents might think about using a home school curriculum and moving to time for learning.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:20:53] But I think it’s really about what do you want your child’s learning experience to be like? And the wonderful thing that we can offer is that the parent gets to shape that. So our curriculum really provides that flexibility and support for parents so parents are successful and that the learning experience can be completely tailored to the specific areas of need and interest of each kid. So my recommendation would be would be for families to do a little research on time for learning, come to our website, look up other programs out there, you know, look up what the requirements are in their state for home schooling laws and start asking around and certainly can call us. We have a wonderful support team that literally coaches parents every single day. People call in and ask, you know, what is the difference between accredited and not accredited? Or how do I know if this is right for me? And we have a lot of home schooling parents who work for our organization, so they are truly experts and give great advice to families and helping them make those decisions.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:48] Now, is this a decision that you have to kind of be all in or can you dip your toe in the water? Is there a way to test this in a smaller scale or do you have to have your kid leave school?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:21:58] Sure. So families can try it over the summer if they want to. You can be 100% fully enrolled in your brick and mortar classroom and still be using time for learning, because time for learning is the curriculum that families use. Because we’re not that school for kids, there’s absolutely no barriers for parents using it right now. In fact, we actually have some families who use what we call a double dose, which is they go to their brick and mortar classroom and then in the afternoons, they use time for learning to shore up some of their learning gaps or some of their learning challenges. And they might just choose maybe two of the subjects, maybe the language arts and the math courses to help support what’s happening in the brick and mortar. So that’s a great way to test to see if it’s good for your kid. Doing it over the summer as a sort of supplemental is another wonderful way. And parents can always come in and out of their brick and mortar classroom. They really do have to check there with their school district and with their state requirements are because if they do decide to come to time for learning and they do, that parent becomes that teacher of record. The parent is responsible for making sure that they’re adhering to certain regulations within their state, in their school district.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:08] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website?

Cheryl Dodge: [00:23:14] We are at a time for learning.com and the four is the number so super easy to find us. You can go to navigate to our support. You can chat with us, you can call us, you can email, We’re happy to take your call or your chat or your email and help you out.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:31] Well, Cheryl, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Cheryl Dodge: [00:23:36] Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:39] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on South Florida Business Radio.

Michelle Songy With Press Hook

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Michelle Songy With Press Hook
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Michelle Songy is a serial tech entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Press Hook, a media relations platform that connects brands, media, publicists and journalists. As a PR industry change maker, she was recently named on PRWeek’s Dashboard 25 list of the most influential people in communications technology, representing the enterprises that are shaping your tech stack. She has more than a decade of experience developing, managing and marketing businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

After relocating to London in 2014 for a finance management position with Coca-Cola, she founded her first company, Cake Technologies. It became the United Kingdom’s largest mobile payment platform for restaurants and was sold to American Express just three years later, in 2017.

In 2020, she founded her second entrepreneurial endeavor and passion project, Press Hook, a tech-enabled media relations platform specializing in promoting brands, especially small businesses. The Press Hook platform offers the first two-sided marketplace that intelligently connects brands seeking publicity with journalists seeking content. With Press Hook lifestyle and consumer brands can easily and affordably get the media coverage they deserve with unprecedented speed, volume and reach.

She is a graduate of the University of Georgia, in the Terry School of Business with a degree in Management Information Systems.

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How small businesses can gain media exposure
  • How to spend time/marketing budget in a downturn
  • ROI of doing PR. How long does it usually take to see results
  • Options for getting PR for your business
  • How does PR and affiliates work
  • Earned media, versus owned, versus paid media

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Michelle Songy with Press Hook. Welcome, Michelle.

Michelle Songy: [00:00:43] Hi there. Thank you for having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Press Hook. How are you serving folks?

Michelle Songy: [00:00:50] Sure. So Press Hook is a media relations network that directly connects brands and journalists to create newsworthy stories.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:58] So what’s your backstory? How did you get into this line of work?

Michelle Songy: [00:01:02] I actually created a mobile payment app company before I was based in London, and while we were in the matter of selling that, we actually sold it to American Express. I was trying to figure out on my own how to do PR on my own. We didn’t have an agency anymore, but I had no experience and I figured it was. And then I found out it was very time consuming, expensive, and I just really didn’t have the network built out. And the more I learned, I tried to figure out and hack ways and figuring out if there’s any solutions out there to help me generate and connect with journalists and get media coverage for my business. And I just didn’t see anything out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:39] So what did you end up doing?

Michelle Songy: [00:01:41] So after our business was acquired and this was in about 20 early 2020, I had actually just taken a trip to Indonesia. I went somewhere really far away, remote, and I read about it in Culture Trip and I got there and the guy said, How, you know, how did you end up here? And I said, Well, I’ve been I read about this three years ago on Culture Trip, and I always wanted to come here. And he said, Well, that’s how we get, you know, a crazy most of our business just comes from that one article. We have no idea how to recreate that and get more earned media coverage. And so while I was there, kind of connected, if we could build something essentially similar, like a marketplace like Airbnb, we could connect more small businesses and people around the world to top journalists that are writing stories.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:25] So when you’re coming up with the concept, okay, I have journalists who need stories and I have businesses that want their story told. How did you come up with a marketplace that made sense financially for each side of the market?

Michelle Songy: [00:02:38] Yeah. So building a marketplace, we started off being pretty bootstrapped. We had two sides of it. So one side was the businesses and the brands, and the other side was the media. So and we also started building this in February of 2020. So you could imagine what was about to happen a month into us developing the platform. But we really actually started just adding brands and their profiles and trying to figure out how journalists and what they would need and how they would connect to them and how they would use the platform to search for products or brands or experts for their stories. So we let the platform. It was free for about six months and then we started charging after. And then so it was a SaaS subscription where brands could pay a monthly platform, but it’s always been free for media.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:22] So the journalist puts, I guess, their contact information out or what stories they’re looking for and they get.

Michelle Songy: [00:03:28] Yeah, they search it just like Google. So they put in a key term they’re looking for. So they’re looking for sustainability or if they’re looking for AI based businesses or an expert they can speak to, they put in that key term. And now we actually do use a lot of AI throughout the experience. So they can put in a full source request for something specifically they’re looking for and it will generate and provide them recommendations of products or brands or people, experts to speak to for their stories.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:57] Now, has the platform changed in the evolution of journalists now where so many of them, for example, will be journalists, but they’ll have their whole business on a substack or a newsletter or blog is that journalists, who is also their own product, who needs sponsors to keep their lights on, as well as stories to keep their audience happy.

Michelle Songy: [00:04:25] Yep. So you’ve nailed it. So a lot of freelance journalists especially have become their own media empire. Say they have they can run podcasts. They have substacks. Of course. They have their social media channels, and then they can freelance across a number of different publications in. And that is really how they’re starting to learn how to monetize themselves is through these substacks So they could be paid or free newsletters that they run, they can do sponsorships, they come on our platform and are looking for guests potentially for their next podcast, and they’re really looking for new innovative businesses and people to speak to that can help develop their stories for them or with them.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:06] So are they using the platform primarily as a way to just get guests or are they using the platform as a way to get sponsors or both?

Michelle Songy: [00:05:14] Not yet sponsors. We’re 100% right now earned media, so we don’t have influencers and we don’t have paid opportunities yet on the platform. Everything has been earned so far.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:25] So the only so the brands that are paying, they’re paying something and they know that they’re going to get an earned media story in exchange for whatever they’re paying you to be part of the platform.

Michelle Songy: [00:05:38] Exactly, Yes. So we have a lot of small businesses and startups. That’s actually how we started, was primarily targeting them because we were a new and cost efficient way of them doing PR without having to hire an agency that is usually really expensive for them, especially in their early years, or them just not knowing how to do it themselves. So we started off really generating a lot of interest around the small businesses and startups we were supporting. However, you know, a couple years later we do have a lot bigger brands on the platform. We have over 70 PR agencies that have added their clients to it because, you know, with the speed of content, how quickly it’s being written and all the changes that have happened in the media industry, it’s hard to keep up. It’s hard to it’s impossible to know what any person, any internal journalist or freelancer could be writing at any given moment. So it now is a much bigger platform that we provide services not just to small businesses, but larger companies and their agencies as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:42] Now, do you mind explaining to the listener who is that small business owner that maybe have dabbled in advertising or pay per click or something like that, but hasn’t really taken the plunge to PR because PR is a different animal. It’s not. A lot of times you’re paying and hoping that you get coverage somewhere, but there’s no guarantees in. Pr Can you explain how it works for somebody who’s never done it before and also how your platform helps them kind of maybe be more efficient and effective?

Michelle Songy: [00:07:14] Sure. So the way to go about it is a small business. And I agree it can be expensive or time consuming to do, but we built it. As you know, you first create a press kit and that really shows a journalist who your brand is and what it’s about. What’s who’s part of it, you know, who are the founders, their background, what are the products or services you’re offering? So we also have a template that helps brands create a press kit on the site. The next is you need to find what what media and what journalists and publications are are target for your audience. Like what are your consumers reading? We also just developed a tool. It’s also a. Based where when a business signs up, it automatically recommends them a list of media that are relevant to their business. And why? Because a lot of times businesses had a hard time saying, you know what? Publications or what writers are really the target and having to do a lot of that homework and then also having to figure out what’s you how do we get in touch with them, how do we email them, how do we pitch them? So we’ve also built a suite of new tools and features for them as well. We have an AI driven pitch generator. We have a press release generator where they can put in some inputs and it comes out with a press release for them and then helps them to figure out who exactly they should be pitching to. So, you know, whether they’re doing it on their own or with press or somehow different, you still have to always develop and know like, who is your. Who’s your target media publications? Who are the people you should be building relationships with? Who would want to talk? Tell your story or tell your new news. So it’s really a form of figuring out what content, what is newsworthy and who is it newsworthy for.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:57] And then any surprises when you decided I mean, this is a different venture than you did previously. I guess it has some of the same bones, but is this market different than the market you encountered in your first startup?

Michelle Songy: [00:09:11] Completely different. I was in the mobile payment industry before and I started it right after the whole Uber launch and people were moving more and thinking about different mobile payment applications. I obviously had some a lot of big, bigger players with deeper pockets around me and we were, you know, a small woman owned, you know, company living abroad in London doing this. And I had actually moved I was working with Coca-Cola in Atlanta. They had moved me to London for my job. And I actually then after that decided to start this company, that mobile payment company, on my own over there. But I was in a really crowded industry. There was a lot of competition, but PR and media, media, tech industry just really caught my eye because it was an open space. There was not really lacked technology. It lacked efficiency across the board. There’s been a few of the same players that kind of re rebuild themselves as in new forms of companies. But there was always two different platforms. There was platforms built for journalists or platforms built for PR professionals, but there was no two sided marketplace that connected both sides.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:24] So what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Michelle Songy: [00:10:29] We’re always looking for new businesses, new innovative brands, new services, new features, new products out there, and seeing what people are building and helping them get exposure for that. So I welcome anyone to come on to our site. It’s press hook.com fill out. You know, you can sign up, you can learn more about it, you can book a strategy session, you can book a demo just to learn more. And we just like to help also give people, you know, the resources and the knowledge that that that they need, whether they’re doing it themselves or they start deciding to use a resource like us. But we’re constantly looking for new content, new ideas, new experts, new thought leaders to speak to. So we welcome all sorts of people like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:13] So walk me through what it’s like. Say hypothetically, I’m a maybe a franchise and I’d like more press for all of my people around the country. How would I go about the franchise or how would I go about, you know, squeezing the most juice out of press hook?

Michelle Songy: [00:11:31] Sure. So let’s say I’m just thinking of franchise, I don’t know, a Dairy Queen or something, but you could come on to the site. You would create a press kit, which is a profile of your business and putting in that important key information that journalist needs to know about it and overview, you know, your links to your socials, links to your sites and image gallery. So all of your PR assets, we really get in place first. And once that’s set, then we can read the data and the content and your profile and help make suggestions. So let’s say you want to put out a new press release for a new store launch or a new product launch, we could help you generate a pitch or a press release and then also help you figure out who is the most relevant and targeted media outlets that you should be reaching out to. So we really help in every step of that way of getting you, helping you find, locate, pitch and get and get even feedback on on the pitches that you’re doing. So it really gets you in front of the right journalists at the right time and in reverse. Just by you having that profile on the site, media can immediately come to you. They can discover you when they’re looking for certain content or people or people within the industry of the franchise you’re in. Or maybe they’re looking for someone really that’s an expert and someone that can talk about the food and beverage industry and how they’re affected by SVB or I or any new topic coming out in, in in the media. So it really allows two ways. One way you can push news out to the media and the other way you can receive press inquiries live as they are.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:09] But is it the is it similar in that PR there’s no guarantee. Like you pay for something and you’re hoping that there’s coverage. We’re advertising, you pay for something and you’re going to get, you know, whatever that ad is going to run wherever you paid for it.

Michelle Songy: [00:13:25] Well, same with this. Like with advertising, you are paying for impressions that doesn’t always lead and generate to sales. So it’s the same here. We’re not charging for the impressions and the you know, we’re charging you a flat monthly fee to exposure to quality media to be at the right place right time. You know, sometimes if a product isn’t ready yet and there’s other reasons it might not get picked up yet. But, you know, sometimes these things take take some time. You know, it’s it’s like sales. You keep doing it and seeing what works. And I think it’s really about finding your your niche and your really your relevant journalists and a relevant publication for your news and understanding who that is. But we believe that the more you work on it, it definitely can happen no matter what. But you’re right that it’s it’s not something that you can guarantee, but there is a structure and a process to it.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:18] Now, is there any kind of success story you can share that maybe somebody put themselves out there, got on the platform and then was able to get the coverage that they had hoped for?

Michelle Songy: [00:14:27] Yes. So a few we have some media or we had one brand that since started they started using press hook. They said that sales boosted 30% in the first six months. They received 49 press hits and 37 product sample requests in the first year, leading to more than 1 billion impressions in top tier media.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:52] Now, does it work better for B2C or B2B or does it really matter?

Michelle Songy: [00:14:58] So we actually started at B2C. We started with really like CPG and DTC Ecom based brands. However, we have been expanding and we’re adding now standalone experts. So it could be like a dentist or doctor lawyer. Et cetera. Or interior designer. And we are now, you know, expanding into B2B.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:18] And also.

Michelle Songy: [00:15:20] Hospitality.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:21] Okay. So that’s the niches. Like, is there niches specifically that you have a sweet spot where there’s been a lot of activity around?

Michelle Songy: [00:15:29] Definitely B2C. I think there’s just more opportunities. There’s a lot of lifestyle publications. There’s the growth of e-comm that has really boomed lately. A lot of media publications have an e-commerce section where they’re reviewing products. There’s a big pull of, you know, the affiliate commissions that they’re getting in those sections. So that is definitely been one of the the spaces that gets probably the most traction I’ve seen.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:58] Now, a couple of times you use the phrase digital or use the phrase press kit. I think that’s what you called it. Can you explain kind of some of the must haves and things you’d rather not see in a press kit?

Michelle Songy: [00:16:12] Sure. So you definitely need that about section. They call it a boilerplate in the PR industry. So really that quick, you know, 3 to 4 sentence that explains your company. A founding story is really important. People want to learn, just like you asked me, like, why did you start this? What is the reason? What is the impact? So that really makes the connection between a journalist and the media and the brand. So we really think the founding story is impactful. Another thing is just listing any of your websites, social handles, of course, so they can quickly find and locate some of your social channels quickly. Also listing your media friendly people, too. So it could be a founder. It could be an executive. It could be someone, an expert who can talk on behalf of your brand. So really listing out people that are important assets in your company to shout out. Another is we list actually the core products or services or features of a company. And next, sometimes people list if it’s a CPG company, they might list what retailers or affiliates they’re on, where they’re sold. And then last but not least, is very important these days is your assets. So it’s your branding, it’s your logo. It might be product shots, it might be lifestyle images they can use. So, you know, images are very important these days, from a digital publication to a print publication to newsletter to them sharing it on their social. So really making sure they have easy access to high resolution and various types of images and assets as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:45] And you mentioned you work with agencies. Can you talk about how that works? Like if you’re a PR agency, you might have, you know, 20, 50 or 100 clients. Is this something you just dump all your clients into?

Michelle Songy: [00:17:56] Yes. So an agency can create one account and within that they can list multiple different profiles for their clients. So each client will have their own press kit located in one account, but they can assign a different press contact for each. So whoever is in charge of managing that client’s media relations will be the one interacting and messaging the media on the site back and forth and editing the profile, uploading press releases. We even have a really cool dashboard. You can see who’s viewed your profile more analytics on on the back end right there. And I think that agencies just find that it’s it’s very it’s efficient and helps them keep track of, you know, incoming media requests, maybe product samples they’ve sent out. And in the same way in the journalist side, it really is a very structured inbox for them. So they can put in they can put in one story idea they’re working on and see all the pitches and save products or people to that story. So I think on both sides, we’re really just trying to make a more efficient organized structure for how everybody does their jobs these days.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:06] So is that an area that you’re focusing in on just building more relationships with agencies, or is it better for you to go directly to the brands?

Michelle Songy: [00:19:15] You know, we’re really open for either. I think it depends what what stage a brand is in. There’s some that there’s some brands that it’s a founder that is on our platform and they’re they’re managing on on their own until they grow and they might hire a CMO. And then after that it might be the marketing manager who oversees this profile, and then they might grow even bigger and hire an agency or they decide they want to, you know, create an internal communications and PR team, so then they’ll come back that way. So we really do have all sorts of roles on the platform right now from anything from the founder, CEO down to marketing executives level marketing roles.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:54] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on the momentum and the success thus far.

Michelle Songy: [00:20:00] Thank you so much. I’m glad to be here. And I love move back to Atlanta a year ago and I’m excited to build up the company here.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:06] So if somebody wants to connect with you or somebody on your team, what’s the website again?

Michelle Songy: [00:20:11] Sure, it’s pressbook.com. That’s p r e s s h o o k.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:19] Well, Michelle, thank you so much again for sharing your story, doing such important work. And we appreciate you.

Michelle Songy: [00:20:25] Thank you. Thanks. Good talking to you and hope to see some of you guys soon.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:29] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Dustin Dubois With JWR Construction And David Schopp With Sharpe Project Developments

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Innovation Radio
Innovation Radio
Dustin Dubois With JWR Construction And David Schopp With Sharpe Project Developments
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Dustin DuBois, President at JWR Construction Services

JWR Construction was the General Contractor. Sharpe Projects was the Owner’s Representative. P2 Interiors was the designer. These three organizations collaborated to build the physical facility which is the Levan Center of Innovation.

Their hard work and dedication to the vision resulted in the “World’s First Theme Park for Entrepreneurs.” The discussion on what it takes to build such an inspiring space, in the midst of the pandemic, will be around the challenges, opportunities, and strategies it took for it to happen.

Connect with Dustin on LinkedIn.

Here’s the YouTube playlist for NSU Center of Innovation Project Updates.

David Schopp, Principal at Sharpe Project Developments

Founded in 1990, Sharpe Project Developments is a full-service Owner Representative based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Their mission from day one has been to Protect Your Investment as your fiduciary agent and deliver your project on time and under budget.

Connect with David on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] You’re listening to Innovation Radio, where we interview entrepreneurs focused on innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. Innovation Radio is brought to you by the world’s first theme park for entrepreneurs, the Levant Center of Innovation, the only innovation center in the nation to support the founder’s journey from birth of an idea through successful exit or global expansion. Now here’s your host, Lee Kantor.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:37] Lee Kantor here another episode of Innovation Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, the Levine Center of Innovation. Without their generous support, we wouldn’t be able to share these important stories. Today on Innovation radio, we have Dustin Dubios and David Schopp. Dustin is with J.w.r. Construction and David is with Sharp Projects. And they were the team, part of the team behind the actual creation and building of the Levine Innovation Center. Welcome, gentlemen.

Dustin Dubios: [00:01:11] Thank you.

David Schopp: [00:01:12] Thank you. Nice to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:14] Now, David, in your role, can you share a little bit about how this project got started and how you were brought into it?

David Schopp: [00:01:21] Sure. Absolutely. So, you know, this this was a vision of Alan Levine’s, hence the name of the facility. We had worked with Alan’s groups in prior years, and he was he was familiar with our ability to run projects and keep them on time and on budget and felt that it would be good to have a independent party kind of overseeing the projects, program design and construction. So we’re owners reps slash project managers, so that’s really what we do. So the project was conceived to be this innovation center that I think we’re all aware of. We just had a nice introduction from John Wensveen, but we’re we’re typically engaged to help get a project tracked, scheduled, budgeted properly and then assemble that team, which is what we did. And we assembled a real good one on this project. And I’d like to say that the project came in on time and on budget. So it was, it was. And thanks to Dustin obviously on the construction side. So we’re a big success for everyone.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:24] Which is a pretty amazing as it started during the pandemic. Right.

David Schopp: [00:02:29] Go ahead, Dustin.

Dustin Dubios: [00:02:30] Oh, yeah, absolutely. Right in the middle of the pandemic. It certainly didn’t didn’t make the project any any easier, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:37] So it added a degree of difficulty. But when you’re starting a project like that, how did you start kind of with, you know, on the whiteboard and planning out, you know, okay, I want it to have these elements and I want it to have a certain look and feel. So it kind of, you know, kind of screams innovation as soon as somebody walks in the doors.

David Schopp: [00:02:57] So I’ll take that. I mean, we we had a tiered group of designers. I think what what was important is to Pontedera was part of our team. And he was brought in by Alan Levine as well to kind of create a vision and a flow. And it was real important to create, to harness technology, but also a flowing type of facility that that wanted you to peer around every corner, so to speak. And when I say corner, that’s really a misnomer because there’s a lot of soft edges in this building. It’s very curvilinear. But the important thing was to take advantage of the 16 foot high deck and try and, you know, concrete floors and make it feel as though it truly was an innovation center, something that was was built around the structure itself. And so and we accomplished that. I mean, there have been I’ve seen meetings where they’re riding tricycles around the space, you know, so it’s it’s to get people’s their juices flowing and that space accomplish that.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:55] And then to encourage collaboration because that’s kind of the heart of innovation, right? You have to be able to work together and pull teams together and grab somebody and have a meeting or grab three people and have a meeting. It has to be able to flex to whatever kind of where the creativity takes you.

David Schopp: [00:04:13] Yes. And there’s there’s great spaces within the space. There’s there’s cafes and there’s little carve outs and there’s there’s soundproof rooms if need be. And the space really become a hub for other businesses in this marketplace to want to use the space and bring their people there and show off what’s happening in Broward County and how the space is is benefiting the community. And there’s there’s events back to back all the time in this space. And it’s really being recognized across the region as as the center, the center for innovation in this marketplace.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:51] So what were some of the I mean, the pandemic obviously was a challenge, but was it difficult to get everybody kind of on the same page thematically?

David Schopp: [00:05:03] All from a standpoint of program or standpoint of the construction.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:05] Well, the construction well, first you had the programing that you had to say, okay, these are going to be the core tenants and these are the areas that we’re going to we want to focus in on and be, you know, kind of best in class. And then you had to build something that accommodated those.

Dustin Dubios: [00:05:21] So I’ll take it. Dave. I mean, I think. You know, you had you had multiple challenges in the project. In a lot of them related ultimately to the pandemic. Right. It’s a unique space. Right. Which. Which required unique finishes. Unique teams that could put these different finishes and different, you know, building material types into the space. And certainly, you know, having having a global pandemic at that time didn’t make it any easier to source, you know, those those special materials so that that challenge you had and then just, you know, getting getting staff out to the job site. Um, you know, it was at a time where, you know, one person contracted COVID and if you had been anywhere near him, you were required to isolate for I think it was two weeks at the time, right? So you were constantly dealing with losing people and crews on the job site. I mean, it’s 60,000 square foot space, so people were able to spread out. But, you know, at some point you’re working on top of each other. So it was it was definitely a challenge on that side of it. And you had to be able to to adapt and make changes on the fly. And that’s really where having, you know, people like sharp development in there. And David to help facilitate those changes and make the decisions in a timely manner so that we didn’t stop production on the project.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:57] So it was kind of living into how entrepreneurs handle things, right? It’s you got to keep moving. You got to make things happen and you got to just find a way.

Dustin Dubios: [00:07:09] Yeah, there’s there’s there’s no, there’s no just throwing your hands up and, and going, well we’re just going to sit here and wait. Right. There may be temporary things that you put in, you know, for the time being that you’d have to come back when materials come in. But yeah, you have to be able to adapt. And that’s just the construction business in general. I think you always have to be be able to adapt and overcome for sure.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:32] Now, when you started out on this project, I’m sure everybody was super excited because this is kind of a new and different initiative probably for each of you. When did you start feeling like, Hey, this thing is really this is going to be something special?

Dustin Dubios: [00:07:51] From my perspective, it was the first time I heard about it. I’m not sure about you, but I’m on the ambassador’s board for NSU. We’ve been working on campus for 20 years and the first time I heard about it, it was, um. It was exciting for me. I’m kind of a serial entrepreneur myself, and so I wanted to make sure everybody I came in contact knew that I wanted to be the guy to build that project. So.

David Schopp: [00:08:15] Yeah. And we look.

David Schopp: [00:08:18] It was the same thing for us. I mean, we got on, you heard about it like a little bit before us, but, but we once I knew of the project and understood that Alan Levine was behind it and how exciting it was going to be, and I’ll be honest, you when you sit and talk to a guy like John Wensveen and you get his energy and you know what? That that he’s going to be leading the charge we were all in and seeing some of the initial renderings and what the space was going to look like and how it was going to function. It’s a one of a kind. And we built I’ve been in this business for almost 40 years and we’ve done a lot of great interior spaces, but this is one to showcase for sure because it’s you can duplicate it, but I don’t think you get the same effect that this one has.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:03] So when you were kind of building it, how did you keep like instead of it seems like there was so much creativity at the beginning and so much vision, How do you kind of rein some of that in to the realities of, okay, this is what we have to deal with, this is the space, this is what can what we can and can’t do. Like, was that a difficult challenge of kind of reining in all that can be?

Dustin Dubios: [00:09:28] It’s the challenge. Yes, right. There’s there’s there’s putting a beautiful building on paper. Right. And then there’s like you said, there’s the reality of can we physically do this? Um, you know, our, our, our framing crew invested in new technology that helped them lay the project out. Like David had mentioned, there’s there’s radiused walls all over the space, right? So they had had they not invested in this equipment, it would have been next to impossible to get everything right. Um. But having regular on site meetings with the folks as the project was being built was the only way that we could work through, you know, kind of the I didn’t I didn’t I didn’t anticipate that coming up sort of stuff. Right. Right. And there was and there was quite a bit of that and not so much on the side of, you know, maybe things that weren’t thought out in the design process, but stuff that popped up because we were building this into an existing space, right. Which which had its own unique issues long before anybody got involved in that.

David Schopp: [00:10:33] So and, you know, one of the things you hit a really good point there, Dustin, and that is that, you know, weekly meetings are critical and documenting things. And even it is a daily pulse on the job, too, and you have to keep the job flowing. So it’s important that the architect, the contractor and the owner are constantly in communication so that so that the all the information is flowing and keeping people moving so they don’t have a down and and, you know, back to the issue of, you know, is it what we thought it would be? Very much so. And again, one of the things we’re usually tasked with is let’s get it budgeted, let’s get it, let’s get it scheduled. And we had a budget to hold. We knew what our vision was and we put exactly what was on that paper, on those renderings is exactly we put in the space. Dustin I don’t believe we compromised on anything. It looks like the initial renderings did and probably better.

Dustin Dubios: [00:11:25] Yeah. No, I mean, I think really the biggest challenge we had on that project was was Air systems. And again, it was an existing thing and working, working around that system that we couldn’t, we couldn’t change. So.

David Schopp: [00:11:41] Right, right. 100%. And it was an existing occupied library that we had to work on a fifth floor with badging and at COVID times and, you know, escalations and all those things, not just COVID, but we were dealing with, hey, the price of copper is going up. And no, I didn’t hear that. Sorry, you’ve got the wrong number. And but we figured out a way to get through it. Right. And we we did. And, you know, the trade partners worked with us and we figured out a way to still keep this thing on budget. So total success.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:10] Now, you mentioned that the success of the project currently and that people are coming from all over the country, all over the world to kind of take a look at this and kind of dream big dreams for themselves that maybe we can make an innovation center where we are. Are you do you have any advice for folks who are at the beginning stages of building out their own innovation centers? What are some kind of key do’s and don’ts from what you learned through this project? It sounds like communication is an important one.

David Schopp: [00:12:43] Communications are important. I believe that like any project, you have to have a fully defined program up front. Otherwise the project will get away from you. We call it scope creep, and the vision is important. You can’t you can’t design the vision as you go. You need a vision. You need a program. And you put pencil to paper, put your pencils down and move forward. So, Dustin, go ahead.

Dustin Dubios: [00:13:09] No, I mean, it’s everything, right? I try and explain to my clients on every project that, you know, it’s like sharpening the ax before you start swinging on the tree, right? You got to take the time upfront to think through everything you possibly can because by the time we start building, it’s, it’s it’s far too late to make changes efficiently because you’ve got such specialized material and products going in there that you have to and especially in today’s market, you have to purchase equipment, you know, long, long or far ahead of when you need it on the project.

David Schopp: [00:13:48] So we didn’t have this problem then, but right now, Crestron Controls are 70 weeks out. Our project was at 70 weeks long. I think our project was 40 weeks, whatever it was. So there’s things that are problematic right now in the marketplace that it’s it’s identifying what it is you need. Like you’re saying, Justin ahead of time. And one of the things that this and every space has technology but this space correct me if I’m wrong, Dustin was uniquely just full of technology on every corner. And so if you’re not if you’re not incorporating that into the design and having that information up front, it’ll slow a job down. And we had a good partner with NSU and our collective teams to make sure that that, that that happened.

Dustin Dubios: [00:14:37] Yeah, I would say also, you know in in that planning phase, making sure you know who the users are going to be, at least everybody you can possibly figure on and getting their involvement and their input into those spaces because there was definitely some changes that had to be made as the end users came in and said, Well, you know, we need to adjust this here or there. And it wasn’t anything substantial. But, you know, getting their involvement during the construction process or sooner is super helpful as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:06] So now for the folks who haven’t been over there, can you share some of your favorite parts of the center?

Dustin Dubios: [00:15:16] I’ll tell you for for for me it’s the. And forgive me. I don’t know the name of it anymore. I forgot. But there’s there’s temporary walls that that kind of accordion up into the ceiling. They drop down to make different meeting spaces. So they’re complicated to begin with, but they’re also soundproof. So it was a very difficult detail, and that one required a lot of collaboration between the design team, the construction and the and the supplier of the product. I don’t remember where it came from. It was out of the country.

David Schopp: [00:15:50] Yeah, Skyfall was the product. Skyfall.

Dustin Dubios: [00:15:53] That’s it. Right. So and it had to be rushed into very, very tight tolerances. Um. But at the end of the day, everything got put in. It’s functional and it’s and it’s soundproof. It’s an impressive space.

David Schopp: [00:16:08] And but to Lee’s question like like from a visitor perspective, it’s a cool space because you hit one button and all these six walls just kind of come down slowly. They don’t fall on top of you. And then it creates like these, these multiple spaces that can be used for different functions. You know, I think, you know, I think the most unique, the the most, I guess sought after unique space in that facility is a cyber lab. You know, it’s kind of a I don’t it’s ranked some us you know army I don’t know it’s ranked it’s ranked as one of these top grade facilities in the country where it’s completely cyber secure. But there’s a really wonderful room at the end of the building. I call it the Kiva. You know, where you have we built you remember those platforms and they had to be fire rated. And we built these really cool wood platforms where they can gather 100 people in there and they’ve got a video wall up front and they have great functions in there to to for whether it’s a class or whether we’re bringing folks through there and explain to them, you know, how some type of new technology or innovation works. So that’s that’s where I would take them first because it’s very impressive.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:15] Now, was there anything you mentioned some surprises when the end user starts using the space and then, you know, they’re asking for things that would be useful for them? Um, are you finding that the folks that are coming in there and taking part of activities there and using the space, is this are they kind of blown away? I would imagine just walking in their heads explode?

Dustin Dubios: [00:17:43] I’ll tell you, I haven’t I haven’t met anybody that’s been through the space that that hasn’t just gotten super excited. And when they when they want to tell you about it and there’s very few people, frankly, that that haven’t been through the space just to see it. It’s been it’s been quite a showpiece. So and everybody’s extremely impressed with it.

David Schopp: [00:18:07] And, you know, they’re very accommodating, too. I mean, the folks here, John, in particular, if we it’s created what’s really wonderful is I feel we’ve created a great friendship at the center. I mean, we’ve been to events there and they’re very complimentary, complimentary of our assistance and our teaming with them. And so it’s kind of come it’s a great space. I like to get there more often, but if I have an event that I wanted to host, that’s the first place that I would call and ask, Look, I want to host, I want to bring people up there, showcase it and be able to have a great place to have have that function.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:45] So now, Dustin, if somebody wants to connect with you and learn more about construction, can you share a website coordinates?

Dustin Dubios: [00:18:55] Sure. I mean, our website is just w ww.construction.com. Um, if you want to connect with me personally, LinkedIn is always the best way to get in touch with me and David.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:08] The best way to get a hold of you and your team.

David Schopp: [00:19:10] Yeah. So you know it’s we’re the company is sharp project developments. I’m sharp. My partner, I’m sharp. He’s sharp but sharp. Project development. Our website is sharp Project comm proj for short. And we’re also I’m also on LinkedIn, of course, and we’ve been doing this. We’ve been in business since 1990. And all we do is project management, always representation on everything from this. We call this a tenant improvement build out project to ground up. So and I know Dustin’s of the same, so we partner on other projects and we’re looking forward to doing more work with Dustin and his team.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:48] And then I would imagine each of you are starting to get calls from folks around the world maybe about building innovation centers in their neck of the woods. Are you finding that to be the case?

Dustin Dubios: [00:20:03] I haven’t gotten any calls for international yet, but we’re definitely getting calls. And I think, like David alluded to.

Dustin Dubios: [00:20:10] The team at the innovation has been, for lack of a better term, I think big cheerleaders of the entire project.

David Schopp: [00:20:16] Big, big advocates of ours.

David Schopp: [00:20:17] Yes. And that’s what all we want when we finish a project. We just want to know that we can hang it on the wall and use that folks to reference and go look. Yeah, they did a great job. We’d call them again in a heartbeat. And you know, we’ve been told by John and Alan if we do any more work here or modifications, you’re the first folks we’re going to call. So that’s all I really want to hear.

Dustin Dubios: [00:20:39] Yeah. One thing Lee and I forgot to mention, though, if anybody’s interested, we, we, we did monthly updates on the project videos, so if anybody’s interested, you can kind of see the project come come to life on on Dwr’s YouTube channel as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:57] So and, and just the fact to build something like this an innovation center just in its name it really speaks to the the priorities of a university. You know, building out one of these centers is so critical to the brand of the university and what it’s trying to accomplish.

Dustin Dubios: [00:21:21] Absolutely.

David Schopp: [00:21:22] Yeah. It’s it’s it’s.

David Schopp: [00:21:23] It’s been a big boost to the university. I mean, it’s they’re doing so many things. They’re going to be building a cancer center. This NSU has become this real institution and I think this has helped them kind of step it up a notch.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:36] Well, thank you, gentlemen, for being part of the show. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

David Schopp: [00:21:42] Thank you for. Thanks.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:43] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Innovation Radio.

Intro: [00:21:55] This episode of Innovation Radio was brought to you by the world’s first theme park for entrepreneurs, the Levant Center of Innovation, the only innovation center in the nation to support the founder’s journey from birth of an idea through successful exit or global expansion. If you are ready to launch or scale your business, please check out the Levant Center of Innovation by visiting Nova. Edu Forward Slash Innovation.

Adam Helman With IMD Guest House Foundation

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Chicago Business Radio
Chicago Business Radio
Adam Helman With IMD Guest House Foundation
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Firmspace-sponsor-bannerA native Chicagoan, Adam Helman joined the Guest House staff in 2015, and has served in his current position since 2016. This is his first full-time work in the non-profit sector, following a 24-year career in marketing and advertising. The career change resulted from a job transfer by his previous employer, that returned him home to Chicago. He spent the first two years of his professional life as a political speechwriter in Chicago.

He grew up in Kenwood. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. He lives in Wicker Park with his wife Rachel Krause, and enjoys painting, cooking, and travel in his spare time.

Follow Guest House Chicago on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Delivering their mission: the practical and the emotional benefits
  • Guest populations they serve
  • The House Always Wins, on May 11th – their only fundraiser in 2023

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

Max Kantor: [00:00:21] Hey, everybody. And welcome back to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kantor. And before we get started, as always, today’s show is sponsored by Firm Space. Big thanks to firm Space because without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. And we got a really good one for you today. On today’s show, we have the executive director of the Guest House Foundation. So please welcome to the show, Adam Helman. Welcome to the show, Adam.

Adam Helman: [00:00:47] Thanks so much, Max. It’s really great to be here.

Max Kantor: [00:00:49] I’m excited to talk to you about everything you’re doing. So let’s jump right in. Tell me a little bit about the Guest House Foundation.

Adam Helman: [00:00:56] Okay. So the guest house is a registered 500 and 1C3 nonprofit. We provide temporary lodging for medical patients and their families when they need to stay near the hospital for treatment. We’re the only organization in the Chicago area that supports patients of any age receiving any type of treatment. And if you think about what it is that we do for people who have sort of advanced medical conditions, serious conditions like cancer, they need an organ transplant or some kind of hospital treatment. That specialized treatment is located only in a small number of hospitals often, and the hospitals want the patients nearby but want to minimize the time they spend as inpatients. So they really like to support patients as outpatients as much as possible, and we facilitate that.

Max Kantor: [00:01:52] Now, how did the Guest House Foundation come to be and how did you get involved with them?

Adam Helman: [00:01:57] The guest house came to be in 19 in the late 1990s, and it was started by an administrator at Rush University Medical Center, which is one of our hospital partners who is working with pediatric patients. And there was a patient whose family was coming in from Chile and they needed a place to stay. And she was sort of shocked that the hospital didn’t have any facility available for them. So she started just working to make that happen. And she agitated, I guess, agitated. She reached out to people in the hospital. She reached out to some of the other hospitals around us, University of Illinois Hospital and Stroger Hospital of Cook County, and just started moving to kind of get things organized. The organization was founded in 1999 and then started taking care of patients in 2005. I joined the guest house in 2015. It was a midlife career change for me. I had spent most of my professional career working in for profit marketing and advertising, things like that, and I ended up going into this sort of later in life because my wife and I relocated to Chicago, which is home for me. And I decided after a while it was time for a change in direction professionally now that I was sort of back home living in Chicago.

Max Kantor: [00:03:35] Now, Guest House provides so many benefits to all of its guests. Right. But can you talk a little bit about the practical and the emotional benefits? Because there’s so many when you have visitors staying with you guys.

Adam Helman: [00:03:49] Absolutely. So the practical, which is an important part of it, we help about 700 families a year and provide around 12,000 nights of service. And for people who can pay, they pay a small fee for people who can’t pay. We discount the rate for them or they don’t pay anything at all. We never turn anybody away for lack of fees. The practical part of it is that Chicago is a pretty expensive city. And if you’re coming here for. Six weeks, eight weeks longer. We have people who stay with us for a year. Sometimes the thought of. Paying for a hotel is kind of outrageous. It’s just, you know, the average price of a hotel in Chicago is probably about $189 a night, plus 17% tax plus parking. So the cost goes up pretty high. So just being able to stay somewhere that’s affordable is a big, big difference for people and really enables them to be able to stay here. The fact that also there’s no particular limit to how long someone can stay, they can stay for one night. They can stay for as long as they’re in treatment. The only. The only limit on that is their medical team saying they need to be here so they can be near treatment. So from a practical standpoint, we really enable people to receive life saving care that they might not otherwise be able to receive or complete. From an emotional standpoint, and this is something that when I got into this work, I did not understand quite as much or fully appreciate. But. We’ve all sort of, I’m sure in our families have had this feeling where somebody has had a serious medical diagnosis.

Adam Helman: [00:05:44] And that’s a very isolating feeling for the family. All of a sudden they start to feel alone. Oftentimes, patients and families start to feel like they are of a their diagnosis. And, you know, it starts to be, oh, that’s the family with the person who needs the liver transplant or that’s the family of the cancer patient or that’s the family with the child in the neonatal ICU, the NICU. And they stop feeling like they’re people or they’re individuals. And the emotional benefit of what we do is that we really create a sense of community for the people who stay here, which is really, really important. So sort of a sense of being found for them. It’s almost like they’re lost before, before they stay here. There’s sort of an added tension. Somebody says, Oh, you’ve got to come to Chicago. It’s a city you don’t know very well. You might not know anybody here, and you’re going to have to stay for two months. And people, you know, the natural reaction is, oh my God, what am I going to say? How am I going to afford it? How will it possibly work for me? And we can remove. A certain aspect of tension and loneliness that goes along with that because we can help people by giving them a place to stay. And one thing to be sure about, there’s still the ambiguity that goes along with medical care. But there’s that one aspect of care, that one aspect of life, and then the opportunity to interact with other people. That really is a great emotional benefit.

Max Kantor: [00:07:24] So tell me a little bit about the facilities, too, that your guests are staying and what are they like? How are the rooms built? Is it fully furnished? What should someone expect when they come to stay with you?

Adam Helman: [00:07:37] So when people stay with us, we have 47 fully furnished apartments, so either 1 or 2 bedroom apartments. But each one has a separate kind of living room, dining room area. They have a kitchen that’s fully equipped plates, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, everything you would need to cook appliances in the room and private bath. And they also have streaming entertainment on television and free Wi-Fi. So they really are they’re small, but they’re fully self-contained apartments. And that’s important because when people are staying for a long time, they need to have a little space and they also need to be able to cook for themselves. And I was talking earlier about the expense of staying in Chicago. You’ve got you know, if you’re staying in a hotel, you’ve got both the hotel expense and then the daily meal expense as well. So the apartments, we have 47 apartments, all of them fully furnished, ready to stay in. When the guests come here, they’re all in one location. We’re on the campus of the University of Illinois, Chicago, which puts us in the middle of some of our partner hospitals. We also have a partnership with UChicago Medicine in Hyde Park. So we’ll have patients from UChicago Stay here as well. And I can talk about some of our other partners too, and some of our other programs, but the apartments are really just fully furnished and fully set up for people to stay here, which is, you know, very important for them. We also have a community room that’s open during the week, all day, and we’ll have a volunteer program where people will come in and prepare meals once a week like a group meal for for the guests to either eat in the community room or take back to their rooms. And then people will come and do other volunteer activity there as well to help the guests out.

Max Kantor: [00:09:30] Funny that you mentioned volunteering, because I was curious about how you guys staff the guest home or the guest house. So do you have is it only run by volunteers? Do you have some permanent staff that helps out? How does that work?

Adam Helman: [00:09:43] So we have a small permanent staff. We have seven people on the staff right now. And it’s a variety of there’s myself we have a person who works in fundraising, who’s a director of fundraising, and she has somebody who works for her. And we have somebody who runs our volunteerism and programing. And then we have a guest services team who are employed, who actually work with the guests and their referrals and keeping us organized for people to stay here. So it’s a small staff and then we have a lot of people who come and volunteer. We’ll have probably about 400 different people come through and volunteer for us in 2023. We’re building our volunteer program back up. We were as big as 800 before COVID, and slowly that’s coming back and we’re bringing more and more groups of people in. One of the things that renting space from the University of Illinois helps us with is that it makes us efficient. So the university provides the overnight staff, the university provides the maintenance for the building because it’s their building. We rent the space from them. The university provides the security through the campus police.

Max Kantor: [00:11:06] Now talk about your the hospital partners you guys work with and the types of programs that you run to for patients and their families.

Adam Helman: [00:11:15] Right. So we have four core hospital partners, and that’s Rush University Medical Center, Stroger Hospital of Cook County, U. Chicago Medicine and University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, or UI Health, because that’s kind of a mouthful. So those are all of our partners and each one slightly different groups of patients. We’re open to any diagnosis, but from Stroger we’ll get primarily either people who are traumatic injury victims, their families or the families with babies in the NICU. Those are the most common Stroger patients. The most common. Rush patients are cancer patients. Um, and then we also have a program with Rush, and we have a lot of other diagnoses along with them. But cancer is their biggest population. The other big population we have associated with Rush are veterans who are getting treated for PTSD through the Road Home program at Rush, which is a wonderful program that provides two weeks of treatment for groups of up to 18 veterans who come and stay with us while they’re going through that therapy sort of all day, every day. So that’s kind of the rush model. Ui Health, the University of Illinois, they send US transplant patients is their biggest single population. We also have neurology and cardiology and some other hematology patients.

Adam Helman: [00:12:51] But organ transplants is their probably their biggest single population. And then UChicago, our cancer patients and organ transplant patients and cardiology at UChicago, we’ve really started to do more with heart transplant patients. So that’s a small number of patients every year that we work with, but they stay for a very long time. So heart transplant patients and their families. Um, we also, outside of our hospital partners, we also have partnerships with American Cancer Society. So we’re able to support patients from receiving treatment, cancer patients receiving treatment at any Chicago area hospital. Um, and likewise, we have a relationship with the Gift of Hope organ and Tissue Donor network, and that opens us up to support organ transplant patients from any Chicago area hospital and the two hospitals which contribute or send patients to us. The most out of that are, um, Northwestern and Loyola send us both oncology patients and organ transplant patients. And then we’ve also had funding at different times to work with patients from Shirley Ryan Ability Center. We do a little work with Lurie Family Hospital when they have somebody who needs help. So it’s a variety of hospitals and partners and a pretty big network now of places that will send us patients for different reasons.

Max Kantor: [00:14:27] Now later this year in May, you’re you’re having your only fundraiser for 2023. The house always wins. What is that event and how can people get involved with it?

Adam Helman: [00:14:39] Well, that’s really we’re so excited. This is going to be our only fundraiser of 2023. The house always wins. Um is going to be a terrific fundraiser that offers great food. Cocktails, musical entertainment and casino entertainment. So people have the opportunity to enjoy a great fundraiser and also to play casino games. And so we had an event sort of like that in 2019 to celebrate our 20th anniversary. Thought we’d roll that out again and again and again, and it kind of fell by the wayside with COVID. But we’re really excited to bring this event back. So it’s going to be the evening of Thursday, May 11th. Um, the event starts at 630 and goes to 9:30 p.m. Um, and it’s going to be at a terrific facility called the Walden, which is on Walnut Street, a little west of Damon, so not too far from our neighborhood, not too far from United Center for people who are familiar with that in Chicago. But it’s a terrific facility which has a great gourmet kitchen on site. So the food is going to be really good. We have terrific entertainment lined up. And we also will have a VIP reception for people who want to attend that starting at 530. The best way to find out about the event is you can go to our website, which is w-w-w dot guest house chicago.org. Again guest house chicago.org. And on the slider you’ll see the house always wins located right there. It will be, I guarantee, a really, really fun and enjoyable evening.

Max Kantor: [00:16:42] So Adam, what does guest house need more of? Whether it’s volunteers, whether it’s donations, how can our listeners help you guys and support you guys?

Adam Helman: [00:16:52] Well, we you know.

Adam Helman: [00:16:54] I’m glad you’re asking that. Certainly, donations are very helpful. Um, we as as I said, we don’t send patients away for financial reasons. So we really anything that can help us run our programing, be sure to be able to accommodate patients at their time of need is really terrific. So funding is great. Uh, funding for cancer patients, funding for organ transplant patients, funding to help families with sick children, funding to help military veterans struggling with PTSD, and then any other diagnosis. That’s all very, very important. Volunteerism is also really important. As I said, we’re really trying to build up our volunteer program and some of the things that people do. They’ll certainly come in and either bring in a dinner or prepare a dinner. Typically on Thursday nights we have a group coming in tonight that’s going to do a volunteer dinner for our guests. So that’s a volunteer opportunity. There are other volunteer opportunities, such as coming in and baking during the day. We have family groups from an organization called the Honeycomb Project that come in on Saturdays, a couple of days a weekend, and they’ll do cookie baking and they’ll make encouragement cards for the patients. Um, people can also do things like as volunteers, you can either bring in items to make welcome bags and goodie bags for our guests, or you can do those at home or at your place of work and bring those in, or we can arrange to pick them up. There are a lot of of different varieties of things to do. You can find us on Volunteermatch or you can contact our office and that number is (312) 996-1167. And say you’re interested in volunteering and they can connect you with Jan, who runs our volunteering and programing. So almost anything that people are interested in doing and feel like helping out, we can do short of construction. We have to work with the university, but we don’t do remodeling ourselves or let volunteers do that because that’s the university’s end of things. But other than that, we can do just about anything people want.

Max Kantor: [00:19:27] Adam, my final question for you is a question I like to ask every guest that comes on Chicago Business Radio. For you, what is the most rewarding part of what you get to do with Guest House?

Adam Helman: [00:19:39] Oh, I’ll tell you exactly what that is. That’s a really easy answer for me. It’s getting to. See and interact with the people who get the benefit of our hard work every day. That’s for me and also for my staff. When I worked in corporate America, I really enjoyed that and that was terrific. I worked for a big company and the people who seemed to benefit from my work there were the stockholders and, you know, good on them. I’m really happy to have supported them and I felt great about that life. But working in a small nonprofit like this, where our offices are right in the middle of where all the guests stay, is just wonderful because we get to see just day by day and interact with every day the people who are getting the benefit of what we do.

Max Kantor: [00:20:32] Adam, you said it a little earlier, but if people want to learn more about volunteering or donating or even attending your event, the house always wins. Where can they find you guys online? Social media. How can they reach out?

Adam Helman: [00:20:46] Yes, The best place to find us is at our website. Again, that’s guest house chicago.org. So you can find us there. We are on social media. We’re on LinkedIn, we’re on Facebook as well. So you can always find us on those sites. And our phone number is three. One, two. 9961167. So those are all ways to find us. If you go to the website, you can cover everything. You can learn about volunteering, you can learn about making a donation, you can learn about attending. The house always wins. You can do everything. So the probably the one stop that gets it all is guest house chicago.org. W-w-w dot guest house chicago.org.

Max Kantor: [00:21:40] Awesome. Well Adam, thank you so much for being a guest today. I mean, you guys are just doing really great work for the Chicago community and and I appreciate you coming on the show today to talk about all that you’re doing.

Adam Helman: [00:21:51] Well, thanks so much, Max. It’s great talking to you. And it’s my pleasure.

Max Kantor: [00:21:55] And thank you for listening to another episode of Chicago Business Radio. I’m your host, Max Kanter, and we’ll see you next time.

Intro: [00:22:04] This episode of Chicago Business Radio has been brought to you by firm space, your private sanctuary for productivity and growth. To learn more, go to firm Space.com.

Rita Garnto With Simple Self Care by Rita

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Charlotte Business Radio
Charlotte Business Radio
Rita Garnto With Simple Self Care by Rita
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Rita Garnto’s unique professional skillset is comprised of 20 years as a Registered Respiratory Therapist, including several years on the Trauma Flight team in Charlotte, NC, and 16 years as a licensed massage therapist. Adding her in-depth personal stress overload challenges, she has earned the title of Simple Self-Care Specialist and Stress-Buster. Her book, “Simple Self-Care Saved Me!”, released in 2018, has an international following.

Her strategy implementation of using simple self-care as her solution for reducing stress is immediately implementable. Through her in-person and virtual keynote presentations, workshops, masterclass group classes, seminars, and Stress Less community, the topics Rita presents are not only relatable and practical, but also motivational, inspirational, and educational.

Connect with Rita on LinkedIn and follow Simple Self Care on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Mistake made in entrepreneurship journey
  • Tools needed
  • People want to know about self care
  • Biggest Influence on her life

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s time for Charlotte Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:17] Lee Kantor here another episode of Charlotte Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Rita Garnto with Simple Self Care by Rita. Welcome.

Rita Garnto: [00:00:29] Hey, thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:30] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your company, how you serving folks.

Rita Garnto: [00:00:35] Well, I am a stress management educator and so my tagline is I teach busy stress people how to go from feeling crappy to happy with simple self care tools. So demystifying what stress is all about and how to bring down your stress level at the moment when you’re stressing so, so simple.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Rita Garnto: [00:01:02] Oh my gosh. So my backstory is probably about 50 years. I was a respiratory therapist for 20 years right out of high school. Part of that was I was flew on the trauma flight team at Carolinas Medical Center. And so I have a solid medical background. And I understand stress because as I was on the flight team, it was very stressful. And I actually started doing stress management lectures back in 1997. And I hate to date myself, but, you know, whatever. And so finally, after 20 years of sort of tired of the sickness and the death and the dying, I became a massage therapist and opened my own massage business and did that for 17 years. So I really was teaching my clients how to do self care. And so I have the Eastern and the wettest Eastern and Western medicine background, and it just seemed a natural progression that I would continue to do stress management and self care education. And then in 2009, my husband and I adopted two toddlers at the same time. One was 18 months and one was almost four. And then six months after that I had an almost near nervous breakdown because I did not deal with stress very well at that time and I needed to find a solution to this to survive like this crazy thing called life. Realizing that stress was not going to go away, I just had to figure out how to handle it. And then in 2018, I wrote a book and I’m now I do self care workshops and I’m a paid speaker. And just my purpose to serve is to help people stress less and live happier.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:37] Now, do you feel that stress is just part of life, that there’s no removing stress or getting rid of stress? It’s just a matter of learning how to manage it?

Rita Garnto: [00:02:48] Absolutely. And I think with the pandemic that really brought it to the forefront and what I tell people is it doesn’t matter what your background is, your story, your age, whether you’re a high schooler, you know, teenager, pre teen, you know, older adults, we all have different stressors in our lives and life is just stressful. And so really it’s not going to go away. And it really is a matter of managing it before we become stress overloaded and burnt out now.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:22] So it’s not it’s kind of a feature. It’s not a bug. Like it’s not something that, oh, that person somehow figured out how to not have stress in their life. It’s just everybody’s life has stress and stressors and it just you just have to figure out tools that work for you on how to manage whatever those stressors are.

Rita Garnto: [00:03:42] Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, some people handle stress better than others. And I think it has to do with mindset. And, of course, you know, eating habits, sleeping habits, all those you know, all those sort of basic foundational habits. But it is yeah, we really you know, whether you’re dealing with cancer, whether you’ve lost your job or you’re just dealing with a snarky teenager at home, I mean, it’s all stress and it’s affecting you and, you know, is affecting your your mental health, your physical health. So, yes, it’s not going away now.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:16] Is there any low hanging fruit that works for most people when it comes to stress? Are there are certain things that someone can do maybe regarding their breath and breathing or just, you know, pausing for a second? Is there a certain things that you find that kind of I don’t want to say universally, because not everybody nothing works for everybody, but some things that work for a lot of people. A lot of the times when it comes to managing a stressful situation.

Rita Garnto: [00:04:42] I think actually, Lee, you’ve you’ve hit the nail on the head that it is about pausing. And so so really what happens is when we start stressing about a situation and our body’s reacting to it, we’re getting anxious. It’s because our brain is triggered the stress response, which is called the fight or flight. And so adrenaline and cortisol have been released into our bodies and it causes changes, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure. And unfortunately, as we’ve evolved as humans, the smallest thing can set us. Off whether we were late for a meeting. And so really taking that moment to pause and being aware that you’re you’re reacting to you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Taking that pause actually will reset your brain and you will actually switch to your other nervous system, which is the resting and digesting part. And research shows it only takes 30 seconds for you to calm your brain and your to start calming your brain and your body and deep breaths are perfect.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:50] Now, why are why is deep breathing and deep breaths? Why is that such a calming thing to be doing? Like what is it about the breath that makes your body kind of relax?

Rita Garnto: [00:06:05] It. It literally the way I the way I explain it and this is not the most medical, but it’s I say it’s letting your brain know that you’re not in danger and you’re not facing a threat. So really what you’re doing is you’re switching. We have two different I’m sorry, I should preface I’m a self-proclaimed science nerd. So we have two nervous systems that are our body will function off of its one or the other, not both. And so by deep breathing, we will actually trigger the calming nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, and that will take over and our heart rate will slow down. Our blood pressure will drop, our breathing rate will drop, and our body functions will turn back a little bit, you know, back to normal. Um, you know, it’s mindfulness. It’s that as that pause is taking a moment just to, to sort of reset and recharge and just. You know, before we act spontaneously and say something we shouldn’t probably shouldn’t say.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:09] Now, does that make sense? Yeah. Does does some of this kind of go back to the fact that there was for most of humanity’s time here, we had to fear for our lives and we had to fight for our our food every day. And it was something that for a long period of time, life and death was really kind of pressing for most people on a day by day basis. And today, for a lot of people, they don’t have those kind of life or death stressors. And now we’re reacting to other stimuli that we might be interpreting as life or death, when in actuality, they obviously aren’t as severe as that.

Rita Garnto: [00:07:53] Correct. That’s that’s a great that’s a great explanation description. And I use that in my presentations. Yeah. So when I, you know, way back at the beginning of time, we’re hardwired with this fight or flight, this stress response. And it was really life when it came to life or death. And, you know, as we have evolved, it has not changed with us. And so now with, you know, stored, you’ve got emotions and memories and stored trauma and different triggers and, you know, all this, the brain makes a very quick decision. It’s like, oh, you know, you don’t have enough resources to handle. You’re late again for work. And oh, my gosh, you might lose your job. And did it, you know, before you know it, you’re all wound up so, you know. Absolutely. So, again, fighting our neurobiology. And we’re hard wired.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:46] And and I guess our body can’t discern that the person cutting us off in traffic may not necessarily be there to kill us.

Rita Garnto: [00:08:56] Correct. So that is that is why I think awareness is so important, that understanding. Okay. I have that stress response within me. That guy just cut me off. I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m going to take some deep breaths. And I love to combine deep breathing with wiggling my toes because that really distracts the brain. So should try that and the listeners take a deep take a few deep breaths and wiggle your toes at the same time.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:23] And then and that kind of resets you and you’re like, okay, I’m not going to die here. Let’s just get back to what I was doing.

Rita Garnto: [00:09:31] Exactly. So and even telling yourself, I’m safe where I am, it’s okay. You know, talking to yourself, repeating a mantra or affirmation, anything where you can just get that, that pause, that gap between running on your primitive life or death response and then your more logical response.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:53] Now the term self care is being used more and more lately, especially, I think a lot of younger people are embracing this idea of self care. But can you educate our listeners of what it means to you and why it’s so important?

Rita Garnto: [00:10:08] So self care is defined as any intentional action you take to take care of your mental, emotional, spiritual or physical health. So that really taking that moment, whether it’s going to the gym exercise is very powerful. Going for a walk, meditating, yoga, all the, you know, getting a massage, all these things really allow, you know, they they activate your parasympathetic nervous system and they allow your body to relax. But what I found, especially when I was a mom at 46 with two toddlers, is that life was really busy because I had a massage business. I created simple self-care and to me that’s any intentional self-care action that you can slide into your day. So I don’t have to change my clothes or my shoes and go to the gym, even though if I had the time and the energy fabulous do all that, that traditional self-care. But when you’re pressed for time and you’re driving down like I 77, which I really dislike, driving down that interstate, you know, and someone cuts you off, well, I can’t pull over and go for a run, but I can I can take a few deep breaths and wiggle my toes and tell myself I’m going to be okay. Does that does that make sense? So it’s when, you know you’re running late or something awful has happened, you know, taking those deep breaths and resetting and doesn’t mean you’re not going to go back into fight or flight, but it just it brings it allows your body just to relax a little bit. Um, and you know, I remember, you know, ages 16, I was journaling, I was running, um, you know, I was sort of self-medicated with self care, not realizing as a teenager what I was doing. So I think self care is so, so, so important, especially now.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:00] And but ultimately the individual has to figure out what is the appropriate self care for them. And and some people sadly self medicate through drugs or alcohol or some things that may not be good to be doing in the long term.

Rita Garnto: [00:12:16] Correct. And you know, I you know, I even I will I will tell people my presentations, you know, if all of a sudden you’re two cups or three cups of coffee have turned into like a pot of coffee or a three pots of coffee, you know, there’s no judgment here, Right? It’s a red flag. It’s that awareness piece that, you know, I’m now needing a lot more coffee or wine or prescription drugs or whatever have you to get through the day and to cope. That needs to be a red flag. And that’s trying to teach people to be more aware and understand that I’m not doing myself any good here. I need to get some help or I need to go for a walk or make an extra effort to to learn meditation or or use one of the apps on the phone and, you know, with calm music and, and, you know, different affirmations and things like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:09] Now, having come from a career where you were in the midst of super high adrenaline, a lot of action and chaos to a day where there’s probably less of that kind of actual life or death things happening. Do you think that that gives you this unique perspective to be able to give people, your clients that kind of perspective where, Hey, I know it seems stressful, but like, here’s what a day in my life used to look like. This is closer to what true stress. You know what real life and death consequences could look like. But what you’re going through may be maybe it feels like that, but it’s not. It’s not anywhere in the kind of stratosphere of what what that is.

Rita Garnto: [00:14:01] You know, I’ve never thought of it that way. And I think because, you know, when I adopted, you know, when we adopted our daughters, like that was very real. I mean, I ended up sitting on the back deck sobbing uncontrollably and and and wondering, you know, if I, you know, I was having suicidal thoughts. So even though that wasn’t a life or death situation, I was so overwhelmed. So, you know, I, I really believe, you know, even though, you know, flying around on helicopters and landing. Yes. Was very stressful. I ended up on antidepressants. A lot of the flight team at that time, we were all on antidepressants because it was so stressful, believe it or not. Um, but but I think it’s so individual. If, if, you know, you have, um, an abscess on your foot, like that’s not really a big deal compared to someone who’s dying of cancer. But if you are a single mom and you have three jobs, we’re on your feet and you can hardly walk. That’s a huge stressor, right? That’s a huge that really affects your life. So it’s you can’t compare apples and oranges. I think everybody is. Um. You know, everybody, like I said, has their story and it’s focusing on what’s going on in your life and accepting it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay for me to ask. Help for help. And yes, my life is stressful, even though some people may roll their eyes at it. Does that make sense? Lee does that.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:33] Well, right. I mean, I just think that as as we evolve as humans, I think because we’re so far removed from true life and death for most people that we’re just not maybe as resilient or not as it’s harder for us to cope with maybe smaller things like smaller things become bigger things because we have more time and we have more kind of affluence.

Rita Garnto: [00:16:03] Yes, I think I think that’s an important factor as well. And then when you think back to our ancestors, when they got into a situation where it was life or death, they would run or fight. So all those byproducts, the adrenaline and cortisol and the extra sugar and the blood and all these things, they exercised right in the form of either fighting or running. So they had that release. They worked off the byproducts of the of that stress response. And then they could reset if they survived.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:40] Right. And remember, what happens today.

Rita Garnto: [00:16:43] You know, you’re driving to work and you’re late and you’re stressing, oh, my God, traffic’s horrible and I’m late. My boss, I’m going to lose my job. And you find, oh, my gosh, I can’t find a parking spot. And you’re screaming and yelling at all the cars. And then you get to your desk, take the elevator. You hardly walk. You don’t do anything. You sit at your desk all day. So there’s that lack of physical activity, that lack of release of of that stress through exercise or activity.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:10] Yeah. And I see it even you see it in children today where when I was a kid, we had pe every day, five days a week. It was outside, it was, you know, you’d sweat. And nowadays there’s less and less of that physical relief for young people to really help them manage the stress that they’re going through.

Rita Garnto: [00:17:31] Absolutely. I have two teenage daughters and one one’s in, uh, she’s a sophomore now. And and hardly active at all. I mean, I remember, you know, we would leave, leave in the morning and come back when the street lights came on. You know, we were outside playing in the neighborhoods. Our parents didn’t know where we were. I mean, and I understand things are different now, but we were outside playing. Our parents would tell us to go outside and we would go outside and kick a soccer ball around or shoot hoops or do something. Um, yeah, I think the lack of lack of activity and, you know, kids nowadays are glued to their phones.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:06] Right. I think that that’s part of the price they pay is that they don’t have those physical reliefs that we had just even, like you said, go out and play. Even if you weren’t physically doing anything, you were walking somewhere to some place. You were your body was moving. Even if you weren’t, if you were just hanging out with your friends, it was usually outside moving. It wasn’t, you know, in front of your phone.

Rita Garnto: [00:18:31] Exactly. Exactly. So life. You know, I read an interesting post on Facebook and I knew this, but reading it is that the world that our parents, you know, taught, you know, we grew up in no longer exists. And that was like, wow, that is so true that you you can’t compare our childhood like my childhood and my daughter’s childhood. Like it’s that doesn’t exist anymore and that it’s sad on some levels. Um, and, you know, like, so how do we help these kids? How do we help, you know, educate and, um, you know, help, help give them the tools so they have tools in their tool belt that, oh, my gosh, I’m sitting here. I don’t know what that math answer is on that question. Well, here, let me instead of getting all nervous, let me take a few deep breaths. Let me wiggle my toes, get my brain back online, and and maybe I’ll have a better chance of getting that question. Right. So it’s it’s it’s learning healthy coping.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:29] Right? It’s like you mentioned earlier when you were young, you were just instinctively doing these kind of things. You were running, you were exercising. You were kind of taking your your brain to relax your brain in ways that you were just figured out on your own. And nowadays, I don’t think that people have they’re definitely not leaning into exercise or movement as part of their solution. So they have to learn things from people like you. Experts have to share kind of that wisdom and pass it along to them about self care, about why it’s so important and how to do it effectively.

Rita Garnto: [00:20:06] Absolutely. And, you know, we made it so hard. I think we just so overthink things, you know, And it’s not that hard. It’s like if if you are sitting behind your computer and you’re getting a headache or you feel like your shoulders are up by your ears, do some shoulder rolls, like just roll your shoulders. Few deep breaths. Reach up, reach out, get up, go get a cup of water. Go. You know, like I just all this information is out there, but I just don’t think that we’re putting one plus two plus two together. Like, just get up and move. Ten seconds. 30 seconds. Right. And it has to be intentional. And I you know, I say it simple, but it’s not easy. But but once, you know, you get used to it. And, you know, one of the first things I started doing with being a mom, I’ve had lower I’ve had lower back surgery. I would stretch while I brush my teeth. Well, that would stretch my hip flexors and allow my back, you know, I’d be in less pain. So, you know, it’s finding those little things. And that’s with my presentations and my workshops. I walk people give them lots of examples and we do things in that workshop and then it’s at the end, it’s like, pick one. That’s all I’m asking. You just pick one thing to start with.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:23] So if somebody wants to connect with you and to learn about the workshops, your book and the the kind of roadmap you’re willing to share with folks to help them kind of improve their self care, What is the website?

Rita Garnto: [00:21:38] The website is simple self care.net.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:44] Good stuff. Well, Rita, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Rita Garnto: [00:21:51] Right. Thank you so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:53] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Charlotte Business Radio.

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