Jacob Lapera, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

Gwennetta Wright With Xpert Tax Service LLC

February 1, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio

Gwennetta Wright With Xpert Tax Service LLC

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Gwennetta Wright is a seasoned entrepreneur and celebrated author. An award-winning business woman, Wright’s ability to reflect a passion for service in order to reach success has become a flagship component to her brand as a tax professional, business strategist, realtor and media spokesperson. Known for her ability to project manage multiple and complicated professional endeavors, she utilizes her resources and talents to empower others and provide accurate and sound advice to other businesses. Gwennetta, herself, owns Xpert Tax Service LLC, Pretty Essentials and she is the CEO of Reach 4 Your Dream Inc.

Further, she is also a realtor with Prestige Property Broker and host of her own talk show Gwen’s Business Corner on Fox 54. While work is important, Gwennetta has a vested interest in helping others polish their efforts by acting as a philanthropist and community-based liaison and mentor. Her strong reputation within the business world and involvement within the Georgia community compliment her tireless passion for service.

She has helped lay the foundation for a variety of small businesses, as well as dedicating her time and attention to various issues for at-risk youth. Her professional ambition and accomplishments are embedded alongside her religious views, which help others discover not only how the Lord’s lessons in life can turn into one’s biggest blessings, but also how serving others helps both community and businesses grow.

Connect with Gwennetta on LinkedIn, and Xpert Tax Service on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Taxes
Business
Media
Faith

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker1: [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 thank our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Gwennetta Wright with Xpert Tax Service. Welcome.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:00:45] How are you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am doing well. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to, especially this time of year. It’s so important. Tell us a little bit about expert tax service. How are you serving folks?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:00:54] So it’s for a test or. Thank you first for having me on. It’s Express Service is a tax preparation company where we help individuals and small business owners that are single member LLCs and sole proprietors save money when filing their tax.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:11] Now, what’s your back story? Have you always been involved in this line of work?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:01:15] I’ve been doing it for a long time now. I’ve actually been doing it for 19 years this year and business for the last 17. So I’ve been doing it for quite some time now.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] Now, what is it about kind of this this line of work serving the business community when it comes to taxes that is so important to you? Why did you get involved in this line of work with taxes?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:01:41] This is very important for me because I think as even individuals, but especially small business owners, we take the lack of what taxes and how it affects our lives very likely. As a business owner, it’s very important for you to know, like your bottom line when you’re operating your business and how your taxes up that that. So for me it’s just important that I get out the education not just preparing taxes for people, but making sure they’re educated about their specific tax situation so that they’re not faced with getting leaves on their homes on so much to the IRS and then not knowing what to do.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:24] Now, have you always specialized in helping business people?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:02:28] Yes, I have. I have a passion for business people because I’m a business owner myself, and when I first started in business, I didn’t have anyone to really educate me really on business or on my taxes. You see so many like celebrities, influencers going to jail or facing tax issues because the lack of education. So for me, it’s very important for small business owners to understand their taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:55] Now we’re in January, the end of January. Is there something that I should be doing right now that can help me with my taxes?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:03:03] Well, as a anybody, like an individual or small business, you should be gathering your documents. I say make a list of everything that you have going on last year that could affect you tax wise and make sure that before you go, try to file your taxes, that you have all your tax documents so that way you don’t have any issues later on because you love something. I’ll also for like my small business owners, definitely start crunching your numbers. If you have not kept up with your bookkeeping as far as what you have coming in each month and what you had going out each month, start gathering those numbers so that you are taking advantage of all the deductions that you can take as as a business owner and as an individual.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:49] Now, is it too late for me right now to make any moves or do I still have time to do certain things?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:03:56] It’s really kind of too late for the 2022 tax season, but it’s never too late to be preparing for next year. So one thing is for like individuals that have just start, you know, check your withholdings. What I’m seeing a lot of in tax season has just started is with a lot of individuals not paying no money in taxes. And what that is causing is for a lot of people to end up only when they possibly then want to or they might they might want it more money in their check. But they’re not just getting more money in their check. It’s causing them to. Oh, so start checking your withholdings so that you are prepared for the next upcoming tax season and you’re not faced with that issue.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:44] Now, How do you help the the people that you know how so many people nowadays they have a bunch of side hustles and they might have money coming in from all different places. You know, maybe they have an Etsy shop or maybe, you know, some people pay them through Venmo. How do you keep track of all that stuff?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:05:02] So well, a lot of those vendors like Etsy and Venmo, of course, you can write reports for them at the at the beginning of the year monthly to see what their transactions are as far as what you brought in. So again, it goes back to when I said like making a list because we do have a lot of people that. They sell products and they sell on different platforms. So keep in mind all the places you sold something or you did business somewhere and then go into each one, run a report from January 1st, 20, 22 to December 31st, 2022, and get your total for each one of those platforms.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:46] Now, is there something that you when you were working with your clients that you see all the time where you’re like, Man, if they would have done this one thing, this could have saved them so much, either money or time. Is there anything that you see over and over from folks that if they would just make a couple little changes, it would make their life so much easier?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:06:06] The funniest thing is pay your taxes. That will make your life so much easier. The worst part of it is, of course, nobody wants to pay taxes. We don’t want to give our money to the government. I mean, that’s who wants to do that, right? But if you go ahead and pay it, then you save yourself time and and heartache and anxiety at the beginning of the year when you’re scared now that you got to face a tax bill. And that’s for, again, individuals and small business owners, because ill employees, if you’re an employee and you’re allowing them to go ahead and take what they’re going to take out during the year, then you’re not worrying about whether you’re going to face a tax bill at the beginning of the year. And now you’ve got to own the risk. And same thing for small business owners and small business owners. We a lot of educated to know that you are responsible for your own tax bill. In order for you to take care of that, you have to pay your taxes quarterly. So go ahead and put some money into to your taxes. Nobody wants to do it. But guess what? The government is going to get their money regardless if you pay it now or later. So save yourself some heartache and just go ahead and let them get it now.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:20] Now, was there anything because of COVID? Is there was there opportunities for folks that they could take advantage this year or not?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:07:31] Now, that’s the sad part about this year. So the sad part about this year is the fact that the last two years we have had so many. Credits that have benefited both individuals and small business due to COVID. And unfortunately, in 2020, to this up, this tax is a lot of those credits have went away and people are seeing way smaller refunds than they have seen in the past two years. So that’s why it’s going to be important for you now to be looking at ways that you possibly could, you know, help increase your future taxes, because this year, unexpectedly, people are not going to be used to how they reduced all the different credits that they have been getting due to COVID for the last two years. So refunds are actually smaller than they have been in the last two years. But, you know, it is what it is.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:33] Right? I mean, it couldn’t go on forever. Right?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:08:36] Right. It can go on forever. And the boat has stopped. But, you know, so now you have to be careful.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:44] So if somebody wants to work with you, is it like can they just show up at your door with a box full of receipts and documents and then you you just fix everything for them? Or is it something where if you want to work with you and your team, that they you know, it requires regular check ins and keeping you up to date, maybe sharing their QuickBooks or whatever service they’re using with you so you can kind of help them along the line.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:09:13] So for me, I do take walk ins, but if you come with a shoe box and you want us to go through your documents, you know that’s going to be additional fee because it’s really your responsibility to keep up with your bookkeeping and have someone to do your bookkeeping during the year. But we will assist if you have not been able to do that. We do take walk ins, we prefer appointments and we also have virtual services. So it doesn’t matter where you’re living, you can submit your information to us via our website at W WW expert tax services dot com and it’s spelled with Asperger’s spelled with the X and you know the only thing that we require is making sure that you have your documents and all the information that you’re going to need for us to prepare your taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:02] So if, if somebody needed help with bookkeeping and keeping track of that, you have a service that can help them with that along the way. So that way it makes their taxes pretty easy at the end of the year.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:10:13] No, we don’t actually do bookkeeping at my particular company, but we do have some partners that we can refer them to that can assist them in their bookkeeping for the year. But if you have not kept up with your books for the years, then we’re able to assist you to try to get your numbers together for you for this particular tax season. By you either share again your QuickBooks sign in or your bank statements will go in and we’ll reconstruct and pluck your numbers for you so that you can have the most accurate tax return possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:48] Now, it’s important for business owners to be more proactive, right? Like the you shouldn’t be just showing up with a big pile of papers and then hope to make a move. If you if you have a partner with your tax service, you should be able to have them help you decide, Hey, maybe you should buy this, or maybe you should start an account over here. This is a better way to spend this money, right? Like you want to be their partner.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:11:13] All right? So we want to make sure that there they are in order. And we do consult you and do sessions with you as far as helping you to do it, if you need to do it yourself. I actually offer a money planner for small business owners that can help them keep up with their income and expenses monthly, yearly and daily. So I do offer that and then we do assist in helping them get someone to help them and making sure that they are keeping up with the information. We just don’t do ongoing bookkeeping specifically at my company.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:54] Right. But you. But it makes everybody’s life easier if they have that organized.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:11:59] Correct. It definitely will.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:01] And it probably saves you money in the long run because you don’t have to have somebody just going through all that paperwork. Right. So you’re doing a little bit each month. It’s a lot easier than doing a big pile once a year.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:12:13] Yes. And that’s that’s what I’m an advocate for, making sure that people definitely keep up with their their books monthly instead of waiting till the beginning of the year.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] So now what’s your favorite part of the job?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:12:27] That at one more time.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:28] What’s your favorite part of the job?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:12:31] Oh, my favorite part of the job is educating people and making sure that they understand, again, their taxes. I understand their business, understand their bottom line, and to put them in a position to win in their business. I also love when I have the opportunity to introduce different things to my clients and that can help them in saving money when it’s time to come to their taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:00] So now, is there a story you can share of you working with a client that you help them get to a new level?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:13:09] Well, I can share a story with you in reference to clients who maybe, you know, had a small business and they had issues with the IRS and they was audited. And I was able to successfully, successfully make sure they walk away with not on the IRS anything and being able to make sure that there was they was able to represent their business and their finances to the IRS where they walked away with $0 owing them. And my go ahead.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:43] And that’s that’s why it’s important to partner with an expert like yourself. Right. Because you can’t just go to QuickBooks or, you know, TurboTax and get this kind of help. You need a professional.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:13:58] Exactly. And that’s the that’s the thing you said. Or then, you know, it’s very important for you to understand the tax laws. The computer can do anything. You can patent anything on a computer. But is you putting the correct information based off the law? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t understand that, because when the IRS comes knocking at your door, you can’t say, oh, what? Turbotax told me that I supposed to get the credit because you’re actually responsible for what’s on your documents. So it’s very important for you to hire a tax professional so that you understand what the laws are and what you are entitled to when it comes to filing your taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:40] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team one more time, that website.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:14:48] They can go to w w w x expert tax services with the s on the n dot com and experts start with the x and not an e. You also can follow us on social media. I do a tax talk weekly because like I said, I love educating people about their tax situation. So I do a tax talk weekly during tax season on my Facebook expert chat service.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:13] Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:15:19] Thank you so much. And I appreciate you having me. I appreciate you having me. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:24] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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David Pettit With LIME Fresh Mexican Grill

January 30, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

South Florida Business Radio

David Pettit With LIME Fresh Mexican Grill

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A natural entrepreneur, David Pettit owns and operates five LIME Fresh Mexican Grill locations across South Florida. Over the past 17 years, he has supported the brand’s evolution through franchise development and construction and by focusing on human resources and accounting.

Throughout his career, Pettit has encouraged internal professional development among his teams and prioritized giving back to the community through the LIME Chips In initiative. Prior to his role as a restauranteur, Petit opened a financial services firm in 2002. Pettit graduated from the University of Georgia in 1997 with a degree in finance.

Follow LIME Fresh Mexican Grill on Facebook.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

LIME over the last 15 years
Pembroke Gardens
LIME’s company culture

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [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 David Pettit and he is with Lime Fresh Mexican Grill. Welcome, David.

David Pettit: [00:00:35] Thank you. I’m glad to be here. I appreciate you having me on your show.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:38] Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Lime. I know you’ve been in the market for a while, but here are things are growing.

David Pettit: [00:00:48] Yeah, it’s been a great ride. I mean, we’re in the process right now of celebrating our 15 year anniversary at our Pembroke Pines location, which is the first was the first franchise location in the brand. To take listeners back a little bit to the history of line. It started in 2004, the South Beach location on Alton Road, which is a corporate store. My business partner and I, Nick Burrows, had an opportunity to partner in a corporate store with the original founder back in 2005, which was in North Miami Beach. And then subsequently we had a desire to franchise. And so I come from a financial services background. I own a financial services company here locally in South Florida. Nick actually is a CPA and comes from an accounting background, but who knew what we had the desire to get in the restaurant business. And so we approached the owner, John Kunkel, and we were partners with and said we’d love to franchise. And so back in 2007, in December, we opened the first Lime Fresh Mexican grill location in Broward County. But it also happened to be the first franchise location in the brand’s history. And so from there, the brand has grown. We’ve been involved in both owning and operating off and on nine different locations. Currently, we own five. There’s an additional eight locations in Dade County owned by another franchisee, and there’s one location open in Orlando and a second one on the way. So the brand is healthy, the brand is growing, and over the last 15 years we’ve got a lot of successes and we look forward to celebrating that actually here on February the fourth at our Pines location, which should be a great event.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:36] Now let’s talk about just going from a business owner, and you weren’t in the restaurant business, so you were something was attractive to you. What kind of caught your eye on on the first lime that you were like, Hey, you know what? This is something I want to get involved in because I’m sure in your life you’ve been to lots of restaurants and you didn’t have those conversations with the folks in any of the other ones.

David Pettit: [00:02:58] Yeah. So you’ve got a little bit of an interesting perspective with Lyme. I actually got to know the owner through the financial services practice. I was always into having food that was of great quality but at a good price with good service. And so those are kind of the three things that led me to see, Hey, lime looks attractive. And then from a business perspective, from the time the doors open, they were extremely busy. So you put that combination together as an entrepreneur with a good product, with a good business. It certainly peaks your interest. And so we kind of like I set out an opportunity to invest from a financial standpoint in the second ever location in North Miami back in 2005, and that gave us some insight into the successes that Lime look like was having, but also looked like they were going to have. And so we then kind of went head first, opening the plan, the Pembroke Pines location, and then subsequently a few years later opening in Plantation and then kind of going north from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] So and initially, were you thinking at all times, okay, this is going to be a franchise, so I’m going to build systems and documentation in order to replicate and to have somebody else be able to run this, you know, out in the wild without our help. Like, what was your thinking always kind of to scale or was it something that just organically grew when you were seeing the demand of those initial locations?

David Pettit: [00:04:33] Yeah, I think there are always a vision to try to scale it, but at the same time we always wanted to do it properly. So certainly the systems were put in place from the very beginning because if you want to run a restaurant successfully, you’ve got to have those systems in place. And so they were in place. And as we continued to grow and went from one or two units where you kind of can micromanage as an owner and make sure that all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted to now going to managing seven, eight, nine locations, you’re now in a position where you’ve got to make sure that you have systems in place that can be replicated. So when a guest goes from store A to store B to stored C, it has the same feel as it did from the original unit all the way back to 2004.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:25] Now, do you have any advice for other business owners that are thinking about scaling to help them scale the corporate culture, the company culture, so that it does feel the same, so that people are are kind of the customer experience feels the same wherever they go.

David Pettit: [00:05:42] And I think that’s a great question, and I think it’s something where we’ve had a lot of successes. Certainly there’s been a learning curve as well. I think the main thing that we’ve done that’s been really important is to use a baseball analogy. We’ve kind of built ourself like a triple A, a, a, a single a team and then kind of work those employees up to the majors. We have a lot of homegrown talent. And so we’ve taken a lot of our early employees. We’ve kind of identified the best of that group, move them into a shift leader role, kind of went ahead and identified the best for that group, then moved them into a management position and then from that group identified our general managers. And so I think one of the proudest things as an owner that Nick and I take away from this entire experience over the last 15 plus years is the fact that we’ve been able to take some of these hourly employees, move them through this system. And today, all all of our general managers at the five locations that we own and operate, all were once hourly employees. And a number of them have been with us from now more than ten years. In fact, the general manager that’s in our Pine store was an hourly employee who moved up through the system. And now, 14 years later, she’s the general manager.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:04] Now, does that same strategy help you get franchisees, new franchisees, or is it something that franchisee coming into a line has to understand? Okay, if you want to scale the way the owners have scaled, you have to be patient and grow your own.

David Pettit: [00:07:23] Yeah, well, I mean, certainly you want to bring the culture. So, I mean, obviously you’re trying to impart your knowledge to any of the units, whether they’re corporately owned or franchise. We we have meetings all together, corporate and franchisees, on a fairly regular basis. We actually do a bi weekly call. So I think one of the things we try to do within our organization is on a quarterly basis, we try to go ahead and get our staff, our owners, our HR department and our catering folks all in a room with the people that we identify that could be promoted soon. And so it allows them to hear, to kind of hear from the horse’s mouth, like, here’s what we expect. And so we want to again, go back to delivering a great product at a great price with great service. And we feel like if we do that consistently, it builds sales. And certainly it’s built the growth of lime over the last 15 plus years. And so I think one of the other things that’s really important as we grow is to continue to see our menu evolve. And so there’s a pretty big emphasis right now on that to kind of take all the things that are great about lime and obviously continue to use those. But then also we’re always looking to add things that are better where we can improve and bring new flavors and new tastes and to our guests that they might be excited about.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:51] Now, as you expand throughout Florida and eventually, I’m sure to other parts of the country, are you enabling some of your franchisees to maybe experiment or make suggestions to corporate so that you can kind of use what’s happening in their region or area to help grow your menu?

David Pettit: [00:09:10] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s always there’s always feedback and there’s always innovation. I mean, a lot of our best suggestions have come from guests and from our staff. You know, you have staff who have been with you a long time and they want to experiment and say, Hey, what do you think of this? And what do you think of that? So we’re able to take a menu item where usually a lot of times able to run it as an LTO or a limited time offer so that we can get a temperature for how our guests feel about it. And then if it’s something that they really like, then we’ll move it on to our menu on a permanent basis. And so certainly as you grow, you want to take more and more of those suggestions into account. And the more people feel involved, the more employees feel involved in any organization, I think the more buy in you get, the better culture that you develop.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:59] Now, how does Lime immerse itself in the communities that you serve?

David Pettit: [00:10:05] Yeah, that’s always been a really big part of the brand. I mean, going back 15 years for our Pembroke Pines store. One thing that Nick and I really wanted to focus on is how we could give back to our community and really be involved. And so we really focused on three things. I would say we focused on sports teams, local sports teams for youth. We focused on schools and we focused on non-profits that were some things that we were excited to support. And so through that, when someone went out into the community, their kid, they’d go to their child’s school and they’d say, Oh, well, I’m sponsoring here. And then they would go to their youth sports team and their name would be on their jerseys, and then they would go to their local nonprofit and they’d be like, Oh, I’m here as well. And so even if they’ve never tried us it, then they were like, Hey, you know what? Let’s get these guys and try. They’re doing a lot of good things in the community. And so that really drives a lot of what we believe and what we’re trying to accomplish is trying to give back to those around us. And we’ve been very blessed and fortunate with the business that we have. And we’ve had that opportunity over the last 15 years. And there are schools and there’s youth sports leagues and nonprofits that literally for the entire 15 years we’ve been plugged in with and we keep adding more locations. And I encourage listeners, if you want us to be involved with any of those type of entities, you can reach out to us through our website and we’re happy to do family nights. We do those on a regular basis. Well, we’ll give back part of the sales to that organization, and then we’ll also do outreach sponsorships with other locations and organizations. But that’s certainly been a big part of what life has done over the last 15 plus years now.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:54] Are you doing anything to celebrate the 15 years at the Pembroke Gardens location? It’s like a big event.

David Pettit: [00:12:03] Yes, we’re doing a couple of things. For the 15 days leading up for the 15 years, we’re actually offering three legacy menu items to our guests at $6, which was the original kind of menu price. And so we would encourage our guests to come out and give some of those a try. But in addition to that, and I think just as important, all day on Saturday, February 4th, we’re going to be having a big celebration, a street party at our Pembroke Pines location. Well, music, love, stuff for your kids. And a lot of that information is out on Instagram or Facebook and our website. But it’s going to be pretty much you come out from 12 in the morning and 1:00, 2:00 all the way through ten or 11:00 at night. We’re going to have things going on, celebrating everything that the is accomplished, celebrating everything that this store has meant to the brand. Like I say, we have a number of employees that have been with us for more than ten years, and we have a few that have been with us almost since inception. So to celebrate their successes and what they’ve accomplished is something we look forward to, to do. And I know that we’ve impacted a lot of people over the last 15 years. We’ve had thousands and thousands of guests come through our store, and so we would invite them to come out and celebrate with us and have a great time.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:22] Now, are the wins in this business as rewarding, more rewarding, a different kind of rewarding for you than it is in the financial service business?

David Pettit: [00:13:32] Yeah, I would say completely different. I mean, I think in this particular business you’re trying to deliver that great food. That leaves an impression and people’s mouth and minds with every bite and you’re really trying to deliver great service. And so there is some overlap, but I think it is quite different. And I think the successes in the restaurant business, like I say, are small. Kind of one guess at a time. But at the same time, you have an opportunity not only to impact your guests, but I think a lot of fulfillment comes for us from impacting our employees. Again, trying to create a great culture, trying to take care of them, trying to make sure that not only their pay but their bonus structures are extremely competitive with some of the larger companies out there taking care of our families with turkeys and gift cards at Thanksgiving and bonuses at Christmas. And so I think our employees have come to expect that. But I also think at the other time, it’s something that we really enjoy doing for them to reward them for all the hard work throughout the year.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:43] So if somebody wants to find a Lyme location near them, what is the website? And if they want to attend this event, I’m sure it’s on there, but the website.

David Pettit: [00:14:52] So it’s going to just be W.W. line fresh Mexican grill dot com. You’re also going to hit us up on Facebook or Instagram. But yeah, on the website you can actually find information about being hired. You can check out all the locations, You can come in to any of our locations at any time. We’re always looking for great new talent. It’s definitely one of the biggest challenges in this industry is just finding good talent and then obviously keeping that talent, developing that talent. I think, like I said, we’ve done a good job of it. A lot of our all of our general managers and a lot of our managers have kind of worked up through our system. And so there is a lot of opportunity for those who would like to be employed here, and they can certainly check all those locations out on our website.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:35] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success and thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

David Pettit: [00:15:44] Yeah, no, thank you so much for having us. And yeah, we look forward to everyone continuing to come into our locations and join a great meal at a great price. And we look forward to celebrating the 15th anniversary on February 4th at our Pembroke Pines location.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:59] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on South Florida Business Radio.

Mandy Aran With Insight Food Group

January 30, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

South Florida Business Radio

Mandy Aran With Insight Food Group

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Mandy Aran is the CEO of Insight Food Group.

He is sought out as an industry expert in the food & beverage category. With more than 40 years of experience, he has spent his career building, executing and creating brands for a host of companies, including The Coca-Cola Company, ARAMARK and Naturipe Farms. He has developed long-term professional relationships and leverages these connections.

At Insight Food Group, Mandy brings together all facets of the food & beverage industry. From the color on the package to the quantity in the carton, his obsession with product perfection drives success for his clients.

Connect with Mandy on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Challenges
Marketing skills
Best use of skill set and where to start
Transactional world versus reality

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio now. Here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [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 Mandy Aran and he is with Insight Food Group. Welcome, Andy.

Mandy Aran: [00:00:34] Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me on the show.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] Well, I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Insight Food Group, how you serve in folks.

Mandy Aran: [00:00:41] Well, Lee, it’s funny that you use all your life experiences to bring together a vision and an idea. Inside Food Group was started just a few months ago, and really it’s kind of taken off for me with business consulting and with product representation. We’re single proprietor here, but what I bring to the table for my customers is that quote unquote insight into the food business. I’ve been involved for over 40 years in the business, and I have experience, as I like to say, from the lunchroom to the boardroom. So I’ve been there, I’ve sat there, I’ve talked to people, I’ve listened to people. And the company is based on providing that concierge white glove service to those handful of customers that developing.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:34] So now, in your background, had you previously worked for large enterprise level companies or startups or like what’s your background?

Mandy Aran: [00:01:42] My background really started in the food business with a wonderful gentleman that was really a mentor to me. Dick Berberian was his name. He’s since passed. But, you know, Dick was an old school, hard core gentleman that taught me the foundations of the food business. From there, I moved on to national account representation for apparel companies. And then from there, I moved on to servicing the food and beverage industry, working for Coca-Cola, North America here in South Florida, and then through Atlanta, the Atlanta office. I’ve always been involved in national accounts. I’ve had national exposure. And what I bring to the table for those customers is that ability to channel down all that big company thoughts and put it in a capsule or in a shell so that companies today can take advantage of my experiences and my expertise in the food and beverage industry to bring their products to market, to give them guidance on strategic activities, what they need to be thinking about not only today, tomorrow, but a year from now and three years from now, and really lay a good foundation for them to succeed. I gain no more pleasure in this world than having my customers succeed because it makes your planning and your representation of them whole. You’re giving them an idea. You’re giving them a concept, something to think about in their packaging. They execute it and then it’s successful. There’s no more glorious times for us than when that occurs.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:23] Now, in your mind, in today’s world with what you’re doing today, are you are you targeting as clients these enterprise level mega companies like a Coca-Cola, or could it be a smaller scale business that’s just getting started? Like in your mind, do you have a vision of who that ideal client fit is for you?

Mandy Aran: [00:03:45] It’s funny you mention that. Lee Right now, I just finished a consulting project for a very nice food company out of Spain that wanted to bring or is bringing their products into Florida. So I help this medium sized company with a strategic plan for how to launch their products with who the customer base is, who the distributor base is. I gave them my recommendations on packaging and product and design and so on and so forth, and that’s just one example. Lee I come from humble beginnings. My parents came from Cuba in 1962, and there was ten of us living in a one bedroom apartment. So when those kinds of things happen, you kind of get humbled. And when I look back at those times right now, I am a startup. I am focusing on those medium range companies that have an idea of what to do, but need that little extra advice or strategic planning to get their products not only launched in a certain area, but make sure that all the packaging is correct and all the designing is correct and it meets all the necessary regulatory excuse me, regulatory items that come up having to do with foreign product. But one of the things that I am passionate about and I’m in the. Says the planning is to develop a workshop for smaller startup companies that can come to someone like me that’s got that experience at the big boy level, let’s say, and I can channel that down to them and talk to them about the key items that they need to be thinking about startup companies today.

Mandy Aran: [00:05:35] You know, they can start anywhere. They can start in your garage and your basement in your living room, and they’re so focused on the product and making sure that the product is correct that they forget the sales side of it. Okay, your product is beautiful. You’re going to sell it to who’s going to distribute it for you. How much money have you set aside for marketing? What’s your your plan on on advertising? What are you going to have to offer these customers to really make your product shine besides the quality of your product? So in the near future, I will be hosting these workshops where I’m also bringing in another party into it, a company called Red Sky Communications, so that that way we cover two ends of the fence forum. We cover the business and the sales side and then give them some advice and some affordable pricing on how do we put this all together and how do we bundle it so that when you go to market, you’ve got your best foot forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:40] Now, these companies that you aspire to work with, are they international companies that are looking to come to America? Are they American companies that are looking to go international? A combination.

Mandy Aran: [00:06:52] It’s a combo platter. Li Mostly it’s the international companies that want to come into the US on one front that be that would be my consulting side of the business. I also represent brands out in the trade to place their product in supermarkets, whether they’re big box stores, convenience retail or your typical club store. It all depends on the functionality of the product, the packaging and whatever the vision of those customers are.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:24] Now, there are so many folks out there that especially with the advent of the Food Network that are dabbling in food and beverage on aisle, let’s call it a a festival level or a farmer’s market level right there. You can’t not go to a farmer’s market and see some independent person with a dream that’s selling something. Do you have any advice for that person at that kind of micro level on some do’s and don’ts if they aspire to get to the level you’re talking about?

Mandy Aran: [00:07:57] The most important thing is to develop a business plan. What do you envision the company doing? What are your key attributes that give you strength? What are the attributes that make your product? Or service better than the other guy. The one thing that the food market is is flooded. There’s thousands of companies coming in. How are you going to make your company different? Is it going to be packaging? Is it going to be flavoring those farmers markets companies? When you start like in these workshops that I just discussed? That could be your next Amazon, that could be your next potato chip company. It could be anything. If you follow the passion of those folks and the dedication and you give them sound, solid business advice. Help them think strategically. Those could be the next company that are just blowing product out of the stores and you help them get there.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:04] Now, in your work, can you explain to the listener what an engagement would look like? Say there is somebody listening now that maybe is in another country and they have a brand there that’s doing pretty good and they have dreams of coming to the US. What are some of the things you would ask them? What are some of the things they would need in order to work with you in order to have their best chance of success?

Mandy Aran: [00:09:31] Lee First of all, especially in today’s world, there has to be some sort of governmental certification as to quality and food safety. It’s critical. Any. Operator that you go to, whether it’s a distributor or if you’re going directly into a retail chain, there has to be certain standards that have to be met. And in certain cases, you’re better off exceeding those standards than having the bare minimum. So they have to think about quality and food safety, number one. Number two is being able to present your product to the FDA and your ideas of what the packaging looks like, the ingredients. There’s certain things that need to be on that packaging. So you need to button that up and make sure that your packaging is in line. And then it’s it’s the brutal reality of do I, Mandy Aran and inside food group think that you have a chance. The one thing that I’ve done in my consulting projects has been I’m not here to tell you whether your product is going to sell or not, but these are the requirements that you need in order to do it, number one. And then I’ll give you the brutal reality of whether I think you have a chance or not. Now, I don’t do that arbitrarily. I don’t take that lightheartedly, but there’s got to be a rhyme and a reason to the product. And. How you present your story on that product to your supplier or to your soon to be customer. There’s got to be a story to it. People love stories. You and I live on stories and being able to portray that message and communicate whatever that company is looking for in their message and in their branding, because packaging and branding all kind of worlds into one pie. And those items are critical for them to know.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:40] Now, when you’re working with somebody, is there a kind of especially from another country, is there do they have to be at a certain level of maturity, like a minimum sales, annual sales that you’re looking before you take them on or or will you talk to them? You know, if they’ve met that minimum requirement that you said that they have some governmental approval or that they have this food safety part buttoned up.

Mandy Aran: [00:12:07] There’s a reality of all of this in the food business, and it’s really no different than any other business, right? You’re not going to get a second chance to make a first impression. Now, envision you going through this whole FDA approval. You get your product approved, you package it, you send it over to the US. And you start the distribution of your product into a client, into a retail chain, into a distributor. And then you run out of product. So it’s not only that initial order that you have to think about and project, but it’s also that follow up to your business. You’ve got to put some boots on the ground, you’ve got to market your product, you have to get people excited about your product. So part of what this whole inside food group does is it’s a collaboration between the supplier and the end customer to create a joint forecast of, okay, where do we think we’re going to be with this? How many stores do you have? How much space are we going to garner? And then you automatically place that first order. You put a 50% back up order immediately following right after that. But you need to have product stateside so that your supply chain doesn’t disrupt. You go into any supermarket today and it’s. It’s tough to see sometimes. How can you not have eggs, for example? How can you be out of blueberries, for example? It’s because that supply chain has to take into consideration time of travel, intermodal travel as far as getting your product from the ports to the distribution center.

Mandy Aran: [00:13:53] There’s a whole network of things that have to happen in the background so that you keep that supply chain full. But that really starts when you engage with the customer and you build a joint forecast of where you think this product is going to go. How much sales are we going to have? And then you got to hit the streets. You’ve got to go out. You’ve got to support your product. You have to create your your ad calendars and your planning so that you are in a position to win. And the rest is really up to the customer. If they don’t enjoy the product, if they don’t. Like the packaging, they’re not going to buy it. And then you’re going to be having a separate discussion after that. But it’s all in keeping that pipeline of product full so that when it does take off because the retailers are putting trust in you, that you’re giving them a salable product. They like it. They, they, they feel that you will have the sufficient shelf movement in the rings that the register with the product. So it’s a matter of putting all those years of experience into a into a little bundle and making sure that you’re covered at every step of the transaction. And then. Sell.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:09] Now, is your work primarily the strategic thinking part of this to help them understand what they’re getting themselves into? Or is some of your work also transcend into the boots on the ground to help them actually get their stuff in the country, in a store, get them some distribution or partners that can help them, you know, actually sell an item here in America.

Mandy Aran: [00:15:34] Lee, part of the service of the company. You know, the company is based on three really beacons of of of productivity. Right. Beacon number one is the brokerage business. So I will buy and sell items, whether it’s fruit, vegetables. And those companies have a need for that product for their manufacturing. So the same process I just described of making sure you have enough product in the pipeline applies to their. The second facet of the company is Brand brand ambassador. So I do represent companies out in the trade. There’s a local Kombucha company here in South Florida called Radiate Miami that I am working with in that startup company role that they have, and I’m helping them with product placement, helping them with how to think strategically, and then obviously selling the product to retailers and putting it on the shelf. And the third part of the company is obviously the business consulting piece, which is is really a soup to nuts part of the business as far as where are we today, where do you want to be? What do we need to do to get there?

Lee Kantor: [00:16:55] So what do you need more of today? How can we help?

Mandy Aran: [00:17:00] Well, being a startup, you know, there are certain things that, you know, I’m learning by by default, you know, the fact that I have a different pace now and can be more strategic helps me make those customers understand that what I bring to the table is the experience of going through all these processes, making all these mistakes, and that I can offer them that personalized, like I mentioned, white glove concierge service to make them successful. So the best way for them to do that is to contact me through my website Inside Food Group, or I’m also on LinkedIn and, you know, start those conversations. Let me feel and hear the passion that you have so I can tell you how we can turn that into results.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:54] Well, Mandy, congratulations on all the momentum thus far. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Mandy Aran: [00:18:01] Well, I appreciate the time, Lee, and all the best to you and the organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:06] All right and that’s insight food group dot com in c. H. Tf0o. D. G. R. O. U. P. Mandy, thank you again for sharing your story.

Mandy Aran: [00:18:19] You thanks for the time.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:20] All right. This Lee Kantor will sail next time on South Florida Business Radio. He.

Shay Howe With ActiveCampaign

January 30, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio

Shay Howe With ActiveCampaign

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Shay Howe is Chief Marketing Officer at ActiveCampaign, where he leads the marketing, customer activation, partnership, platform strategy, and ActiveCampaign Postmark teams. He has previously held leadership positions across product and design. His product-led growth approach has helped scale the company into a global tech unicorn. Prior to ActiveCampaign, Shay was Vice President of Product at Belly and Yello, where he was responsible for product strategy and design.

He has previously led product teams at multiple high-growth companies, including Groupon. He has held in-residence roles as an advisor with the Techstars, Lightbank, and Prota Venture portfolios. Shay’s passion for building teams extends outside of work. He also serves as a mentor with Techstars and LongJump Ventures.

Follow ActiveCampaign on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

For anyone who would like to attend the ActiveCampaign Atlanta Study Hall, you can find tickets through Eventbrite here, and ActiveCampaign is offering our listeners 50% off for any of their Study Halls. Use the code “LEARN” through Eventbrite. You can also find the rest of their Study Hall events by searching ActiveCampaign on Eventbrite.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

About ActiveCampaign
Live event in Atlanta on February 7, 2023
Events ActiveCampaign hosting this year
ActiveCampaign partners

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

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

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

Shay Howe: [00:00:42] Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. For those who don’t know, tell us a little bit about active campaign. How are you serving folks?

Shay Howe: [00:00:52] Yeah, Active Campaign is the leader in marketing, automation, email marketing and CRM software. We help businesses of all sizes, be it folks from social entrepreneurs to enterprises who are solving very complex challenges, grow by scaling and personalizing their customer experiences, and we largely do so using automation. The idea is that we allow these businesses to accelerate their growth by being able to automate some 1 to 1 experiences that happen across all the different channels, all the different markets by which they speak and get engaged with their customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:23] And now there’s several players in this space that you’re in. What kind of separates you from the others?

Shay Howe: [00:01:31] Yeah, it’s a good question. We do a number of different things, one of which we have built a true platform. And what I mean by that is one of which we don’t focus on a given vertical per se, nor do we focus on a very specific size of business. The thought is we want to build a platform that is approachable, that’s intuitive, one by which anyone can come to active campaign and learn how to use it. But it’s also depth enough in its capabilities and qualities that it services businesses of all types. Right? So it’s not just for small businesses, but it also works for that mid-market to enterprise. Truly, anyone can come in and figure out how to use that to campaign, but also figure out how to get it to address the complex needs that they may have within the organization. And so many other platforms probably go deeper into one very specific vertical or one very specific market of customers per se. We tend to think wider than that and how we could service a much larger range of customers, if you will.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:27] Now, for the folks who are kind of choosing, which is the right automation or service for them, how would you recommend they go about kind of doing that kind of research to land on the best fit?

Shay Howe: [00:02:39] Yeah, it’s a good question. I think every business is going to have different needs, right? And they should think about those needs. They should spend some time writing those down, documenting those and doing the evaluation of different platforms against them. A lot of it may depend on how you go to market, how you reach existing customers, how you engage new customers, how you want to retain them. Does you think about that pretty end to end holistically and evaluate tools against that set? One of the things I would recommend in doing that though, would be also considering and weighing out the idea that every business uses a plethora of tools to operate, right? It’s very rare that you have just one tool you use to run your business. Liam Venture To guess. You have numerous tools you use day to day at work, right? You think about a platform that is able to integrate and connect all of those different tools. And I say that because if you bring automation into that experience, the way to make that automation personalized is by bringing those tools together so that you’re capturing the data from the different odds and ends of it to ensure that you’re able to take use on that to change a customer’s experience based off what might be their behaviors or existing actions, but things you can know about them.

Shay Howe: [00:03:48] And you have to have that data across all those tools to do that. I can give you an example. If you are a sales rep about to reach out to an existing customer because they have a contract renewal, or you think there’s a good way that you could upsell or expand their their account, you probably want to double check inside of your customer support or service system to ensure that that person doesn’t have any open tickets or outstanding issues. Right. And can make and help bring the integration across all of those so that you’re not creating tasks for a sales rep to go reach out to folks who may have those open areas of opportunity or issues per se. What was the opposite that we could be looking at folks visiting your website, they’re visiting your pricing page, they’re visiting very specific categories of your blog, but which you can detect. And that person has a very specific interest in this type of service or offering, but they’re not currently engaged in with us. We should reach out to them and ask them if they have any curiosity. Want to learn more? There is anything we could help them learn or educate on that very specific end. So how do you think about the integrations you have can matter significantly into what type of platform you might choose.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:53] And then how skilled of a technologist do you have to be to implement all those integrations? Is that something that’s pretty intuitive or is it something that you work with your clients to help them integrate? Or so how does that part work?

Shay Howe: [00:05:08] Yeah, good question. I think it’s that can be intimidating, right, to think about. Okay, hold on. I got to build all these integrations then to go out and build out all of these automations, all these emails, that can be a lot of work. That is it’s not the case for that to. We focus a lot on how to keep the platform truly intuitive. So when you set the integrations, largely the way you connect the tools and authenticate across them is no different than logging into them. And we help provide a lot of easy default and settings so that when you’re connecting, you can see which data is getting passed from tool to tool. You can customize that if you wish, but we’re going to be intelligent in what we recommend. As you think about building out automations, we’ll give you what we call recipes, which are largely just recommendations of based off of this trigger. You probably want to take these actions and you could use those directly out of the box, or you could go in to begin to customize those and what might be the messaging or language within an email. We also provide a lot of email templates or landing page templates by which you can jump in and not have to design something from scratch, but start with a strong foundation and grow and build from there. So we certainly do our best to make it as intuitive, as easy to get started as possible. We really want folks to find that kind of value very quickly.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:25] Now, in your work, I guess in your background, you started as a technologist and moved into marketing.

Shay Howe: [00:06:32] Yeah, I’m a weird background, to be honest with you. I started in design, but it was designed in the sense of how to use design to go out and solve a very specific problem. I spent the first six years of my career working in different marketing agencies where designing websites, emails, ads, you name it. I learned a lot about how to drive organic traffic through search engines as well as how to do paid customer acquisition. After that, myself, I went deeper into software as a service or SAS start ups where designing and building the product. And throughout that journey I went from design deeper into what would be the engineering or product management ends and how to actually go out and solve a customer’s problems. But in doing that, also understand where where is there a viable commercial opportunity or market that truly wants that? And come to learn. It’s almost like a field of dreams, right? If you build, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to come. And that’s where I went deeper into marketing, learning about more on how to garner interest and how to go out and acquire customers. But further, how do you actually drive adoption of those folks who are interested and how to retain them as a customer for a long time? That’s led me through different, different roles in design, product engineering and marketing, and a number of number of different companies.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:48] Now, as part of active Campaigns marketing, you’re hosting a live event in Atlanta on February 7th. Can you talk about that and how this kind of building community through face to face live, you know, in real life events comes into play in an organization that prides itself in marketing automation.

Shay Howe: [00:08:10] Yeah, Yeah. You know, we have on February 7th in Atlanta is what we call a study hall. And a study hall is a half day workshop where we have live instruction on learning from in-house experts on email marketing, market automation, customer relations, anything you would think about in terms of how to grow your business. So if you’ve ever wanted to start a business or if you have an Etsy shop or a brick and mortar business or you’re already in the wake of it, or if you’ve used technology to help scale your business in the past and maybe it hasn’t worked well, you should come check it out. You will walk away from a study hall with the principles and best practices that don’t do launching personalized marketing campaigns that help you garner attention and grow sales. The entire idea of a study is that folks walk away with the skills to run an effective sales and marketing team and functions, and we go deep into to all ends of that. The idea of getting together in person is one by which we get hands on. We can ask and answer questions more directly. We can pull up our computers, walk through accounts, those integrations, all the campaigns, automations, etc. will directly help you set those up. We’ll do that together, live in the room. And it’s so fun to sit in one of those rooms because what you’ll see and find is you might have a very specific idea or thought of how you want to set up an automation or something in your business. But someone across the room is going to ask a question, perhaps completely unrelated, but the answer to it is going to unlock a new potential or thought in your own mind of, Hey, that’s an interesting question. I bet I could use that in a unique or different way in my own business. So the energy in those rooms is really dynamic. The buzz across them as folks start to build automations and change the operations of their business is really exciting to see.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:55] Now, are the folks that are in these rooms, are they entrepreneurs? Are they kind of the marketing person in the organization? Is it kind of a solopreneur all the way up to somebody that might be in an enterprise organization? It’s just a hodgepodge.

Shay Howe: [00:10:10] Yeah. Yes, all the above. You will find folks who are social entrepreneurs who run and grow their own business. You’re going to find folks who work in small businesses where there is maybe a team of a dozen folks. You can find folks who come from organizations with 1000 plus employees, and they sit on the marketing team, or maybe they’re in a sales management or operations role. You can find folks from from all different kind of backgrounds and functionalities. And it’s kind of the beauty of it, right, to bring a diverse audience and crowd together like that, to start to share some ideas really starts to unlock the potential or thoughts that you otherwise may not have had, have not had gotten into a room with those folks.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:49] And the way the the day will kind of unfold is there’s kind of learning education, somebody teaching something, and then there’s breakout sessions and places to ask questions and to kind of work together.

Shay Howe: [00:11:01] Yeah. Yeah. So you have an instructor that’s leading a little bit of a lesson per se, but very interactive. It’s not someone standing at a podium just talking for a few hours. There’s questions to the audience. It’s not just a presentation. We’ll actually have the platform. We’ll be walking through building things, live together. We’ll stop. We’ll do breakout groups to work on some of those problems together. We’ll also leave space in the day for folks to just be in their own account, setting up automations, trying to build stuff very hands on. Honestly, I’d say the majority of the session is not actually a lecture per se. It’s more conversational and doing live demonstration, if not sitting with folks individually, going through what they could be doing in the platform.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:47] Now, are these people that are attending, are they your existing customers right now, or is this good for a new person that maybe isn’t familiar, that can educate themselves and get maybe launched in your product? Yeah.

Shay Howe: [00:12:00] That’s both. So we certainly have a lot of existing customers come because they’re always curious to know, Hey, what else could I be doing with Active campaign? What capabilities the platform might not be taking advantage of. We also have plenty of folks who are just either curious about ActiveCampaign or quite honestly, more curious about marketing automation, email marketing, kind of figure out ways of what is the relevant messaging, how to stay topical, really understand what what resonates with customers in today’s landscape of marketing, etc. We dig in all that. So we have folks that aren’t customers with existing customers, and that’s part of the benefit, right? Again, that diversity really provides a richer form, more depth of conversation and understanding how to grow.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:48] Individual businesses and where is this event happening? Because it’s a live event. It’s not a virtual event that’s running live, Right? This is in real life.

Shay Howe: [00:12:58] Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we will be live in Atlanta. We have a venue set aside for we’ll have breakfast, we’ll have lunch together. Yeah, we will be in person through and through.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:11] And then is this the only event that active campaign is hosting or are there other events throughout the year and other locations?

Shay Howe: [00:13:19] Yeah, we’re going to be doing a bunch of study halls this year. As I mentioned, we’re in Atlanta on February 7th. Directly following that, we will head over to Charleston, where will be on February 8th and then later in February will be in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Indianapolis. We’ll head over to Europe and do some events in Dublin, London and Amsterdam. And honestly, we have a whole slate of cities we’ll be visiting throughout the year. So my recommendation would be over to to head over to Eventbrite and search for active campaign. And you’ll be able to find out all the different cities we’re in and what dates will be at them.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:55] Now in the markets that you serve, do you have kind of active campaign offices or active campaign partners that help people?

Shay Howe: [00:14:03] Uh, we in some sense do. Yes. Our team is fairly distributed. We have hubs in Chicago, Indianapolis, Dublin, Sydney, as well as down in Brazil. So we have folks there, but we also have folks just remotely spread out throughout the globe. And then we have a partner network, be it of resellers, referrals or consultants globally as well. A number of those folks, those partners will come to the events to help out, to engage with that local community. Local employees will come as well. Servicing as a bit of a teacher’s assistant, answering questions, walking in the room, helping folks out. So as we host the events, we try and engage the broader ecosystem and community around active campaign as well and make sure it’s the best event for everyone involved, that everyone walks away getting their questions answered. Finding new ways to essentially add automation into their business.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:57] Now, any advice for the business owner out there? And the best way to leverage a marketing automation like you’re a marketing automation company, but yet you’re doing it in real life event. So is there a combination or the right recipe to market in today’s world that combines automation, email in real life events?

Shay Howe: [00:15:20] Yeah, absolutely. I think maybe while as a marketing automation company, we tell folks all the time, Hey, do not over automate. With a sense that if you’re doing things that aren’t personalized, people begin to notice or feels that there’s a there’s a machine or a robot perhaps behind the scenes on that, right? There are certain parts of your business you can automate because they’re mundane or just topical and easy to to offload where automation shines, where you can really begin to personalize it so that folks feel as if they are your only customer regardless if you have one or 1 million customers. I think that’s where the spirit of automation comes into play. You should always be playing with that line of What am I automating versus what am I doing by hand, or layering in that human touch aspect to. I think you’ll be interested to find there’s some things that work really well, automated. There’s some things that that personal touch you can’t beat, right? And that’s something we would recommend folks to to adjust to play around with, iterate on. And for us, the ability to get together with our customers prospects live not only helps us educate them and hear their stories around how to grow their business, but it’s feedback for us and how we can iterate, build, evolve our own product, platform, marketing, you name it. So it’s one of those areas where we automate a lot of the scheduling of the events, the event reminders, the scheduling and marketing around the event, but nothing beats getting in person with those folks live to have those conversations, to hear their feedback, really dig in 1 to 1, if you will.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:03] And so you’re thinking that’s a mistake some people make is to rely too much on automation and and forget about the fact that business ultimately is done kind of human to human at some point.

Shay Howe: [00:17:15] Yeah. I mean, the end of like, we’re all people. You might be selling into a business as a customer, but this is run by people. Right. I think the relationship there is super important. So not losing sight of that, being personable throughout all of that is very important.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:32] Well, Shae, thank you so much for sharing your story today. The website for Active Campaign. If somebody wants to learn more about that and also one more time, the coordinates for the event via Eventbrite.

Shay Howe: [00:17:45] Yeah. So you can find us online at ActiveCampaign. We’re on all the relevant social channels as well. So be it. Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, etc.. And then all the events, all of our study halls are listed on Eventbrite, and you can find the Atlanta event coming up on February 7th. And for anyone who’s interested in attending as well, we have a coupon code. We’re happy to share with them. The code would be learned so l e a r n, and that will give you half off a study hall. And that coupon code works not only for Atlanta, but all the events we have coming up so you can find those all on Eventbrite.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:22] Now, before we wrap, I have one quick question. Do you mind sharing a story, maybe your your favorite success story of somebody leveraging active campaign to take their business or project to a new level?

Shay Howe: [00:18:36] Yeah, it’s a it can be a difficult question to answer. Lee It’s almost like selecting your favorite child in some respect. I can give an example of a customer in Atlanta, actually, there is Apple. Rose Beauty. Apple Rose Beauty offers vegan cruelty free excuse me, cruelty free, organic skin care and organic beauty products that work for sensitive skin. And they have a very interesting and inspiring story of how they’ve adjusted the business and evolved throughout the pandemic and basically using it to campaign. Apple Rose Beauty turned what was mainly an in-person approach into a thriving e-commerce business when the pandemic hit, right where they had to basically remove that face to face interaction when that wasn’t possible. So Kristy Alexander, who is their founder and chief Big Heart, implemented a number of different automations. She went out and created these 1 to 1 experiences that helped grow the company’s online sales by over 300%, which is absolutely wild. And pre-pandemic they are doing about 30% of Apple Beauty’s business from online sales. Most of that, in some respects was coming from live events where they got immediate direct feedback from customers that help them stay connected and to mimic that experience or that in-person experience online. Kristi pivoted and did far deeper conversational marketing within her email marketing. And while email had accumulated or accounted for roughly 12 to 15%, I believe, of Apple, Rose’s video revenue pre-pandemic today is accounting for north of 30%. So they’ve been able to go in and layer an active campaign, find ways to be conversational, personal in their email marketing, do some automations to find the right moments to engage their customers with the correct messaging, and they’re being able to scale to that, right? So a business that’s in many ways evolved and in some sense grown throughout the pandemic despite any challenges in front of that. So it’s very awesome and kind of wonderful to see them deliver a personalized experience at scale. And wonderful to see Christie and her team focus on delivering great products to the customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:42] Now when they’re when they’re working through that is active campaign assisting them in any manner? Or is it just something that they’re figuring out on their own by kind of learning about it as as just kind of stumbling upon what works and doesn’t? Or is there some help by active campaign, whether it’s a library or an academy or a human that helps them kind of wring out the most value from the software?

Shay Howe: [00:21:08] Yeah, they can do in any customer can do either or. Right. We have an entire academy, a learn section, really rich help docs with videos, tutorials and guides where folks, if they want to kind of self service their way to setting up an account and learning how to kind of pivot or evolve their business, they can certainly do so. We also offer just a number of events such as study halls, but also virtual events where we can you can talk to customer success manager or you can jump on the phone with different product experts that will really help understand what’s your use case and how best to set that up or solve for that inactive campaign. So in that same scenario where we have a mix of automation and human touch, we take that exact same approach into the education, into the implementation and enablement of active campaign. So yeah, you can certainly find resources online, but we are also here to help you with the human led experience as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:03] Good stuff. Well, Shay, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Shay Howe: [00:22:08] We thank you so much for the time. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:10] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

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Linda Ruffenach With Execuity

January 26, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

Linda Ruffenach With Execuity

00:00 /

Linda Ruffenach is an entrepreneur committed to helping business owners achieve their maximum potential and protect their legacy. Her 20+ years of C-level experience with a startup enables her to relate to the challenges business owners face every day. As the former CEO of a $100 million international enterprise, she has been through almost every stage a company can experience from fast growth, and rapid decline, to complete transformation.

In 2014, she founded two companies, Execuity Value Advisors and Whisky Chicks. Both companies embrace the idea that knowledge and experience breed confidence. Linda is a skilled facilitator and has developed a systematic approach for accelerating growth, increasing profits, and optimizing the value of a business.

More importantly, she knows how to turn strategy into results and deliver results. She is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor through the Exit Planning Institute where she is a member of the EPI Thought Leadership Council. She was recently featured as a Leading Exit Planning Advisor in the publication Exit Smart Vol. 3. She has appeared as an expert speaker for WBENC, IBBA, Women’s President’s Organization, Goering Center for Family & Private Business, WIFS Women in Insurance and Financial Services and the Exit Planning Institute.

In addition to running multiple businesses, Linda is Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Louisville’s School of Business where she teaches Venture Finance and oversees the MBA Capstone program. She is also the best selling author of the book, “How to be a Bourbon Badass”.

Connect with Linda on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

It is never too early to start planning for an eventual transition
The 5 D’s that can disrupt your business
3 things you can do today to accelerate business value

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 High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Lee Kantor here another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Linda Ruffenach and she is with Execuity. Welcome, Linda.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:00:26] Thank you. I’m excited to be here today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How are you serving folks?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:00:32] So we actually are a firm that focuses on helping small business owners scale, grow and navigate major transitions in their business that could be reinventing themselves, not getting investment into their organization or from any of them. It’s transitioning out of their business.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] So what’s your back story? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:00:54] Well, it’s funny. I spent 20 years at a company that, when I started, was just a mere startup with 15 employees. And over a 19 year period, we grew that from a 15 person operation to over 3000. We had 11 locations in four different countries. And through that journey I ran operations most of the time, was CFO for a short stint and then spent the last few years as CEO. And in that role of CEO, I really discovered what it was like to be lonely at the top, even though I’d been there for so many years and had all my friends and peers surrounded me, it was just a very different role. And when I thought outside help, what I found was individuals that would either follow a cookie cutter approach or ones that wanted to tell me what to do versus advise me on what to do or help me discover the answers myself. So when I left there, I decided I’m going to be the role that I couldn’t find, and that’s kind of how executing got started.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:51] Now, when you started, how did you begin the journey of kind of attracting clients to you? How did you get the word out to let people know, you know, what you did and how you can help?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:02:03] Well, here was my first lesson in the whole deal. I did not do enough networking when I was CEO of the prior company. A lot of my network was within my clients or within the the business that I was in. And after being and it was a customer care marketing business, and I’d been that in for a long time. And anybody that spent a long time in the customer care business knows that it’s a 24 by seven operation. And I was kind of tired. I needed to get away from that. So I really had to start hitting hard and start building my network. A lot of that was here in based in Louisville, Kentucky, but I started to have to build network out beyond there. And over the years I’ve kind of created a bit of a following. And and so I actually do presentations and speaking engagements all over the US now. And that’s kind of how I been able to gain clients today.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:55] And what organizations hire you to speak? What’s your kind of keynote on?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:03:00] Well, I kind of got two messages out there, so the word some of it started out I actually have done some work in the bourbon industry, being from Kentucky. You know, I began a group of women speaking and hosting events related around Bourbon added that I wrote a book called How to Be a Bourbon Badass. And so that introduced me into giving some presentations on that very topic. But given my business background, one of the analogies that I found was a lot of things in the bourbon industry crossed over into the business industry and a lot of really great lessons came out of that. And so that’s that’s also another topic I spend time talking on is a lot on the business side of it. And today I spent a lot of time talking about transition planning and a lot of that is in front of women groups such as Women’s President’s organization, NABA, the National Association of Women Business Owners, WFS the Women’s Financial and Insurance Services. But I also work with family business centers such as the Center up at University of Cincinnati and the one here at U of L. All of it’s around helping business owners and introducing them to the things they can do now and in the future to help increase the value of their business.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:09] Now, you mentioned when you were the CEO of that organization prior to your current adventure that you hadn’t kind of invested the time in the networking as much, you know, in hindsight that you maybe would have made a faster transition? Is that the same for your clients? That they have to really invest some time into like who that person is that’s going to buy their business or attract the people that are the potential buyers? At some point they have to kind of build a bigger network.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:04:42] Well, one of the things that I found a lot of business owners struggling with is who their customer really is and really understanding their persona. And what I mean by persona is who is that buyer? What are the influences that have inside and outside the role that they have within when it comes to making that decision, becoming that decision maker, making the decision to buy from you? Really looking at the wants, needs and fears of those individuals and discovering who those individuals are, and then from there figuring out where did they live, where did they where do they congregate, how do you connect into that and really start focusing your networking in those areas? The other thing is looking at those common connections. Part of my network over the last couple of years, especially since we went through the pandemic, it’s been much easier to reach out to people than before. It’s trying to find people that I do have something in common with. So for instance, I’m a certified exit planning advisor. So one of the things that I did is I reached out to certified Exit Planning Advisors on LinkedIn just to make that connection. I’ve done the same thing with NABA. I’ve also done things with same thing with the bank, which is the Women Certified Women Business Enterprise Organization and making those connections and then not approaching it from a sales perspective, but just approaching it from a relationship standpoint of how do I get to know you and how do you get to know me type thing?

Lee Kantor: [00:06:07] So you didn’t look at all of those folks as competitors. You looked at them as kind of potential partners or referral sources or just people that would be beneficial to kind of a win win in your network and theirs.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:06:21] Exactly. You know, that kind of comes back to my second lesson that I learned is that when I came out, I was kind of insulated from the standpoint of if I was afraid somebody else was going to do what I was going to do or that if I explained it to too many people or got too close to other consultants, that they were going to take my business or they’re going to replicate my ideas. But the one thing I came to conclusion is that I’m the only one that can do what I do, even though there’s others that offer have similar offerings and they maybe don’t exit planning, they may be helping do business coaching and advising. I’m the only one that can do it the way I do it. And and I think that’s one of the places that I had to get to, as well as the fact that there’s more power when you start to support each other. You know, that was a key lesson to learn from the bourbon industry, which is they truly embrace the philosophy of all boats rise where it was such an anomaly to me, to where I discovered that like take a two competing distilleries that are right down the road from each other. If one of them has a breakdown on their equipment, they can actually call down the street and ask the guy down the road if they can borrow something so they can keep their production up. Totally strange to me coming from that competitive business world, but it was all built upon a philosophy of all boats rise. Their mindset is that if I convince one person that they like bourbon, then that’s that’s a customer for me. But then the guy down the street also sees it as a potential customer for them as well. So once embracing that, it really is, you know, people ask, Who is my competition? I don’t know that I have competition per se. It’s about figuring out how do we support each other and I might be the right fit for you, but that other person might be a better fit.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:02] Well, all boats rise. Sounds like a good title for your next book.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:08:08] Well, look, we’ll start working on that one.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:10] I agree wholeheartedly. I think that it might seem counterintuitive to people that collaboration and a generous spirit is beneficial in the long run. But I think that just as a society, that it just better that people perform better. People want to work with people like you. And instead of just saying, you know, I’m out there and I do X, it’s just keep looking for best fit clients and don’t worry about anything else. And there are people where you’re the best fit for and that’s all you should really care about and not worry about every single person as a prospect, because that’s not the reality of the situation. You have best fit clients and the faster you identify them and the faster they identify you, then both of you win.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:09:01] Exactly. And the one thing the other thing that I learned along this journey is the power and saying no, because to your point, not all clients are best for me and I’m not best for all clients. And and I think that’s an important part of any business is recognizing who are the right fits and who are not and saying no, particularly when you’re starting up a business or you’re in that early phase and you’re really trying to grow revenue and you’re trying to pay all your bills, you tend to go towards saying yes to everything. And that’s exactly what I did in the beginning. But what I found is it created a lot of distractions. It created me, created a lot of angst for me. And so I made a conscious decisions a few years ago, which is I’m going to work with those clients that can have the most impact with and that are going to enjoy being with me and I’m going to enjoy being with them. And if I’m not the right fit, then I’m going to introduce them to somebody else at my network who I think is right.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:54] That’s it’s so much healthier, I think, and it’s so much less stress on both parties. You don’t want to ever have a client. You dread their call.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:10:04] We’ve all had a few of those.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:06] But early on it’s hard to really believe that. So but I think in the long run, most people kind of land where you landed on this.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:10:15] I hope so. I hope so. You know, it’s funny is it’s a place where you almost get this place of relief and freedom when you realize you don’t have to take that on and you kind of get away from that place of desperation. And it took me a long time to get there. And I started to just really, through the process, discovered my purpose. Right. Which is that I have been given all kinds of experience and knowledge and gifts that it’s my responsibility to pay it forward. And when I lean into that, I worry less about whether the next is going to come around, the next client’s going to come, the next one that I’m supposed to help and supposed to lead. They’re going to be there and I’m going to have an impact and I do my best to have an impact on their business.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:58] Amen to that. Now let’s talk about what it looks like from an onboarding standpoint. How early do you want to start having conversations with people about a transition? In the past, I’ve talked to people that say, look, the minute you start a business, you should know what that exit is, or at least start planning for that. What should that person that has a business, how should they be thinking about their exit and or this transition? How early?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:11:28] Well, as I tell most business owners, it’s never too early to start. And to your point, that can start when you actually create your business. I will actually do a little workshops for startup companies and work with startup companies and actually teach at one of the local colleges. And one of the things in the concept that I’m trying to drive home is you you want to have an idea where you want to take this thing because you’re going to make a lot of decisions up front that are either going to enable your ability to do that or it’s going to put a roadblock in front of you down the road. And that’s everything from the type of products and services you create to actually how you take on funding or investors or financing and those type of things. When I’m talking to a company that’s been around for a few years and they tell me, Oh, I’m not going to plan on transitioning for at least ten, 15 years. One of the questions I ask them is, what are you going to do if something was to happen to you? And one of the more poignant questions I’ll ask a business owner is, you know, if something had happened to you three months ago and you died suddenly, where would your business be today? And that gives a lot of people pause. And the fact that, you know what? When you look at it that way and it’s not about trying to be negative, but the bottom line is you’re going to leave your business one day no matter what. And it’s either going to be under your conditions or somebody else’s conditions. And I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather do it under my conditions than somebody else’s. And the only way to do that is you have to plan for it.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:56] Now, when you’re having these conversations with people, it sounds like kind of the life insurance conversation that people have. It’s like you don’t want to think about that. Like it’s almost something that, you know, is going to happen. You know, at some point you’re going to not be here anymore, but you don’t want to think about that. Is it? Is it kind of emotionally that same feeling for a business owner where that this is something that they don’t really want to think about because it’s so much their business? A lot of times it’s part of their identity. It’s how they see themselves, how the community sees them, and it’s not something that they’re very easily want to give up, especially before they have to.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:13:36] Well, you know, it’s funny because one of the things is I point out to them what I call the five D’s, there’s death, divorce, disagreement, disability and disaster. And I think in the last couple of years, we’ve seen how that can impact businesses left and right. So that’s one perspective of it and trying to get them to see it from that side of it. But there are those business owners who don’t want to think they put their tunnel vision on, you know, put their blinders on. And the way that I approach them is, you know, some of the techniques that I’ll teach you is how to make your business worth more. And if you’re the number one investor in your business, don’t you want your investment to be worth more? And so whether you’re going to take on or sell this eventually or you’re going to pass it on to your kids, nobody goes into business to go out of business. We go into business because we want to make money. We want to build something. We’re trying to create a legacy for ourselves or for our children or our families or the community, whatever that might be.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:14:31] And if that that feeling of I don’t want to think about what could happen, but then focus on the fact that you’re the biggest investor that can shift your mindset as well, which is for many business owners, they have 70 to 80% of their wealth tied up in their business. But the scary part is over 97% of them have no idea what it’s worth. And when I learned that stat, I was astounded. And then you think about it, that there was another survey done that three out of four business owners regret selling their business one year later. And the reason is, one, they didn’t get the price that they thought they wanted and deserved. And two, they had no plans for what they were going to do afterwards. So the earlier you start to think about these things, the the higher the likelihood you’re going to get out of it what you want. And you also protect the legacy that you want to create for for yourself, your family, community and all of those things.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:24] So when you’re working with somebody as one of the first steps, doing some type of valuation so that you have some number, some baseline that you’re like, okay, this is where we are today. This is where down the road you want to get to one way or another, let’s at least kind of see where we’re at today. It’s like when you go to the doctor, they take your blood pressure so they have something to compare it to. You know, a year from now, five years from now to see how you’re doing.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:15:51] Exactly. And that is one of the places that we’ll start actually do two types of evaluations. One is a purely financial evaluation. It looks at your income statement, your balance sheet, all of those things to come back to. What really is your business worth from a financial standpoint? And there’s a lot of factors that go into that, including what your what type of business you are, what recent multiples have taken place and that. But the second type I do is more of a subjective assessment, which is going through a series of questions to identify where you are in alignment to some of the key value drivers that are out there. It’s built on John Murillo’s Built to Sell method, which is there’s eight key drivers in your business. And when you understand those drivers and understand where you are in alignment with that, then you can start to build strategies that will make your business worth more, but also makes your business stronger and more equipped to handle downturns and recessions and all of those things that none of us plan on and never, never want to think about. But you’re in a much better position had you not thought about it and planned for it.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:00] Now, when you do this evaluation and valuation and does that number for the most part, are they your clients like, Wow, that’s more than I thought, or Wow, that’s less than I thought. Like, where do they typically fall?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:17:15] Um, I will say there’s been a few that have been. Wow. But the majority is. Oh, wow. I didn’t know that’s what it was worth. More like I thought it was worth more because we hear anecdotal stories about others out there selling their business for four or five times the revenue that they generated, or you’re talking to the to the individual down the street. And she sold her business for all this money. And you kind of look and you’re like, well, I think my business is stronger than hers and I run my business far better. If she can do it, then I can do it. But the reality is there are so many factors that go into that. It’s it’s not always a good comparison when somebody says, I sold it for this, you should be able to sell it for that. So there’s a reality check to it. I think the bigger thing that people underestimate is how much they have to sell their business for in order to retire that they don’t realize. That if I sell my business for 5 million, I may only be walking away with 3.2 and we get those numbers in our head and think, Wow, I can live off of 5 million, or I can live off a million and a half. But when you start taking out fees and legal expenses and retention, things that you want to play to your leadership team and all the legal all of those things, go into it, that you’re not walking away with a whole lot. Oh, and by the way, taxes, you have to pay taxes and all of that. And people realizing I need to sell my business for a lot more than I thought it would. I thought I would. And there’s some big steps I have to take to get there. And these aren’t the kind of steps you can make in 18 months. These are the kinds of strategic decisions that take 3 to 5 years to implement.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:58] So is there any advice you can give somebody today? Is there anything actionable today that a person could do to increase their value of their business or they’re some kind of low hanging fruit that you find in a lot of businesses?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:19:12] Well, there’s two two of the biggest factors that impact the value of the business is recurring revenue versus recurring revenue. And let me explain the difference between that. So you’ve got a customer who comes back and buys from you on a regular basis, but there’s no contractual obligation. There’s no monthly quarterly annual fee that they’re paying to you. It’s just project or project, or they may even be paying you an annual amount, but you have to initiate a renewal in the process. That’s recurring business. I’m sorry, I’m going to get mixed up reoccurring that’s reoccurring. Sorry, reoccurring business. What you want is recurring business, which is that predictable revenue that’s coming in every month and that comes from subscriptions. It comes from having longer term agreements. It’s about having auto renewals, it’s about where it’s consistent, predictable revenue. And when an outside investor comes to either look to acquire you or invest in your business, they’re looking for predictable income, that they have high levels of confidence and that are either going to grow or at the very least is going to stay around after you go. And so that recurring revenue model gives them those extra assurances. The second thing is dependency on you as an owner. You know, there’s a lot of business owners that take pride in the fact that the business runs can’t run without me. I know every client by name and every client can pick up the phone and call me, and those clients know they can trust me.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:20:45] Well, if you really want to build a business that’s worth a lot more, yes, they need to trust you. But more than anything, they need to trust your business. They need to trust your team members. They don’t should not need to have the need to pick up the phone and call you, because when they pick up the phone and call you, then that business is dependent upon you. And if something happens to you, then once again, I’m an outside investor. I’m somebody looking to acquire you. What happens if Bob or Jane go away and the business is depend upon it? Well, they bought from Bob, they bought from Jane. Now they’re going to go find somebody else to buy from because it was purely dependent upon you. And that is really a place where a lot of individuals and business owners struggle is how do I peel myself away and how do I let go and how do I trust? And this isn’t even just trust between letting others take place many times. This is the biggest challenge you have in a family owned business, is how do I let the next generation start taking on these relationships when I’ve owned them for so many years?

Lee Kantor: [00:21:45] Yeah, the ability to delegate and have systems and processes that work without you, that seems just kind of just they have to you have to have that right. And that’s just almost table stakes and any type of exit.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:22:01] Absolutely. And it’s a hard thing to do if you don’t start on it. It’s not something if you’ve never really planned for that, you’ve not really done much around succession planning and you’ve been just working head down in your business and you’re looking at, you know what, I’m 60 some years old and I’m I’m ready to start pulling back a little bit or I’m getting tired and you’re starting it a couple of years before you want to do it. It takes a long time to get people to break dependance on you and takes a long time for you to let go. And some of the stuff that’s in your head that tribal knowledge is difficult to transfer if you don’t take the time and the effort to work with others to get that or bring people alongside you that you can mentor and grow. Because the other piece that when investors come in and look at your business, they’re looking at your leadership team, you know, there are some that are strategic that they come in and all they’re on is the technology or they’re buying the customer list or all that kind of stuff. But a lot of times when investors come in and looking to acquire you, they’re looking to acquire the talent and the leadership as well. And if you don’t have the right talent and leadership in place, then that’s also going to discount your value. And that talent leadership also needs to have a vested interest in staying because maybe they’re working for you, because they like working for you. And as soon as you sell this thing, they’re out of there. Well, that’s not going to be appealing to an investor who’s wanting to come in, put their money into the business and get their money out in the next few years.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:27] So what’s it look like when a firm is working with you? Is it something that is done at the beginning to put a plan into place? And you say, okay, good luck. Go forth and prosper? Or is it something that you’re working with them throughout all the way through the exit and maybe onto their next adventure? Like, what are your kind of has how does your relationship typically play out with a client?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:23:51] So I do everything to get them ready to put it on market. I’m not a business broker. I will help them find a business broker. I will help them find somebody who or an investment banker who can help put it out there. But that’s not a role that I play. But what I do do is do everything up to that point, which is helping them get ready, helping them put their business together and start to tell their story and figure out how to tell their story in a way that’s going to be the most appealing to the investors. How do you put credentials against the things that you’re saying about your business? Like, my customers are really loyal. Great. How do you quantify that? Where do we get that information that my customers have a lifetime, a very high lifetime value? Well, let’s quantify that. Let’s figure out how we put metrics behind some of these story points that you’re telling and then getting it to where, once again, that it becomes an appealing business to put in front of an investment banker or a business broker who says, Wow, I can sell this thing and I can sell it pretty easy. And then once it’s in their hands, the one thing that I will do is I will stay alongside the business owner if they want me to, to help them through that decision making process. Because selling your business is far more than just getting the right price for it.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:25:03] It’s about finding that right buyer who is going to fit for you and fit for the legacy you’re wanting to create. For some, it’s all about the financial transaction and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. You’ve built this thing to sell it, and so I’m going to sell it for the most that I can sell it for. But there’s others who have had their business for 30 years and their team is their family. And so making those decisions about a sale is very different for them. They when they come to selling it, they want to think about what’s the impact on the team I have, what’s the impact on the community. You know, I had one recent gentleman who we we worked really hard. We worked with the broker. We actually got the price he wanted for his business from the people that he wanted to make the offer. And then when it came down to it, he stepped back and realized he was taking all kinds of revenue and money and taxes out of the side of the community that he lived in. And he changed his mind. He was like, I can’t do this. I can’t do it to my community. And so he chose to stick with it. And now we’re looking at other alternatives for him. But there’s a lot that goes in that decision making way beyond just the money.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:13] Right? And I guess at those points of inflection where it’s becoming real, then you understand the ramifications of what that looks like and how it’s going to impact others. And the sooner you kind of go through at least that process in your head, then the more effectively and efficiently you can make that transition.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:26:33] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:34] So if somebody wants to learn more about your work, your team and how to get on your calendar, is there a website?

Linda Ruffenach: [00:26:42] Yeah, there is. So you can go to execute. It’s x, e, c, u, i, t, or if you want to set up 30 minutes to chat, it’s really easy. You can go to consult Linda dot com and you get direct access into my calendar and set up 30 minutes and I always love chatting with. Any business owner out there. And if I can’t help you, I’m going to point you in a direction to somebody who can.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:06] Good stuff. Well, Linda, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Linda Ruffenach: [00:27:12] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate you having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:14] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.

Crystal Khalil & Dr. Nicole LaBeach With Sister Diamonds and Volition Enterprises

January 26, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio

Crystal Khalil & Dr. Nicole LaBeach With Sister Diamonds and Volition Enterprises

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Dr. Nicole LaBeach, entrepreneur and former host of OWN’s “Put A Ring on It,” and Crystal Khalil, former Porsche C-suite executive and entrepreneur, have joined forces as Co-CEOs of Sister Diamonds and Volition Enterprises to empower individuals in business and relationships.

Through their vast business and entrepreneurship experiences, the duo harnesses the power of collectivism and collaboration to celebrate and advance individuals through many events and opportunities.

Follow Sister Diamonds on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Entrepreneurship
Women in Business
Business Relationships
Minorities in Business
Leadership
Business
Professionalism
Confidence
Public Speaking
Persuasion

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Atlanta Business Radio, we have Crystal Carlisle and Dr. Nicole La Beach with Sister Diamonds and Volition Enterprises. Welcome, ladies.

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:00:47] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:48] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to Tell us about your venture. How are you some folks?

Crystal Khalil: [00:00:54] Well, the doctor, Nicole and I, are focused on helping high achieving women unlock and unbind their unlimited potential in business and relationships. And we do this through our Women Unlimited live platform that we host monthly, where we help women to transition in corporate America, if that’s what they’re looking to do or grow their careers, or if they’re focusing on relationships that matter to them at the home and community or in their workplace.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] So how did you stumble upon this calling? Is this something that you’ve always done in your career? Is this a new thing for you to join forces like this?

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:01:37] Well, we’ve both been in the coaching and development and leadership space for many, many years. Crystal was the first African-American executive for Portia Collins worldwide. I had my own business in the space of leadership development and AI and change management, and before that I was a leader in the corporate arena as well. So when we saw the opportunity to really help women in our BDC space, right, which is Sister Diamond’s, we jumped on it right away because we could see the opportunity to help women flourish in their careers and in business. And we really had worked in the corporate arena from a coaching and development standpoint, helping businesses that really wanted to develop their people. So it was really a good way to extend our expertise, extend our purpose and help people to grow.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:42] Now, were you finding in your work in kind of enterprise level organizations that there was a hunger from women specifically to kind of be all they can be and to really maximize their talents, whether those opportunities are internally or externally?

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:02:59] Absolutely. 100% looking for opportunities to grow, to create allies in their work, to create relationships where they were developing mentors and being mentors to others, seeking opportunities to be sponsored, and rooms where they weren’t, where people could speak to their talents. We could see that women were seeking to be proactive in their development and seeking to create alignment with other people that saw their genius were open to them growing and open to them moving forward to serve others on their teams and serve others in leadership.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:49] Now, it’s one of those things where sometimes in life you need help and sometimes you need a helper. Do you find that folks have the desire to be to go to new levels, but maybe they lack the roadmap or the path or and there’s folks out there that would gladly tell them, but they just don’t know each other. And there’s an opportunity to be this connector that can really help people get to new levels just by building community.

Crystal Khalil: [00:04:18] You know, oftentimes women who’ve achieved a certain level of success really are what we call the brilliant caretakers. They are the ones that are taking care of everybody around them. They are the go to at work. They are the Olivia Pope at home and in the community and in their service efforts and even in their friend circle. They are the one that everybody comes to for support. And they often look around and they don’t know who can help them in their development and in their growth. And what you said was so crucial community, right. Getting into community with others who can do for you what you do for everyone else is critical and your your next level development. And so we focus on building that community, bringing together what we call those brilliant caretakers that just are are the ones that are solving problems for everybody else. And then. Putting them in a community together where you can mastermind and you have other people that can connect you to their connection and that will go the extra mile for you like you do everyone else. It’s a game changer.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:37] Now, earlier you mentioned two words, and I think that people don’t really understand the difference between them. You use the word mentor and you use the word sponsor. Can you explain? While mentorship is nice and it’s great and everybody loves being mentored and being a mentee, but sponsorship is what really gets you to new levels.

Crystal Khalil: [00:05:59] Yes, sponsors. Mentors can show you the way. They’ve been there. They’ve done that. They can show you the way where sponsors speak up for you when you’re not in the room. And that’s a game changer. We don’t always develop sponsors. Sometimes sponsors are watching you. I find that their people are always watching you. People are always looking at how you show up in the world, and sponsors will be those people that will tap you on the shoulder for opportunities that you may not even have known are available, or they’ll speak up for you in a room that you have never stepped foot in. So it is so critical to be aware of sponsors and that people are watching and the connections that you make, how important those are because sponsors are difference makers.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:53] Right? I think that people really don’t appreciate the difference there because a lot of folks that are in corporate especially think, oh, I’ll be a mentor and I’ll share my knowledge and I’ll carve out 30 minutes every once in a while to help this person. And I’m checking a box in my head that I’m helping. But the people that make a difference, like you said, that are the game changers, are the ones that put their own political capital on the line. And they say Mary is a rock star. Hire her for this position, move her up. She deserves more. She can do more.

Crystal Khalil: [00:07:28] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:31] But I just don’t think that there’s I think sponsorship is underutilized. And it happens, like you said, kind of behind the scenes. But it has to be something that we talk about and that that gets as much press as mentorship because everybody talks about being a mentor mentee. Doing mentoring, that sounds good, but it’s putting political capital on the line to move people up is where the differences are made.

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:07:58] Sure, and that’s where leadership comes into play. You know, being a leader in a position where you can help. Clear a path for somebody else to move up, for somebody else to have a special project, for somebody else to be promoted or to have some cross functional team expertise. You recognizing your opportunity to do that for others is very important because often if you are in that leadership position, you are in a room behind closed doors with other leaders who may be putting other people’s names in the forefront and speaking about their capacity and their capabilities. So it’s it’s very important if you are in a leadership role or if you know that you are an influencer who gets the attention of leaders that are in those formal positions, that you really speak up and push forward, those who could really benefit from the opportunity and who, you know, are going to take the opportunity seriously and be able to do things to serve the company brand and to elevate possibility for others.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:21] And that’s where representation is so critical, because if there aren’t people that look different than you, it’s easy to just pick people that look like you to fill that next spot.

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:09:34] You know, it’s one of those things where in a lot of the coaching that we do, the professional and executive coaching on the corporate side, we really try to help leaders take an inventory of what it looks like as it relates to who they’re advocating for, because we know there is such a thing as unconscious bias and everybody has it. Everybody has it. No matter your gender, your race, ethnicity, everybody has unconscious bias, but it is stopping to audit and being able to say, okay. Who are the people that I’ve been helping get ahead and what does that look like as far as diversity of their experience, as far as inclusivity? What what does that look like for me as a leader? And if when I’m looking at what I’ve been doing for the past six months or who I’ve been pushing forward, do I see inclusivity? Do I see a diversity in what I’m positioning and who I’m mentioning and whose names are coming forward? Or does it look pretty homogeneous? Because a lot of times it’s not until you stop and you take that inventory as a leader that you can see, Oh, wow, I’m missing some opportunities here. So then what can I do about it? Are there some diverse players that I can go to and say, Hey, help me to understand what your team talent is looking like these days? Who are some of the shining stars that you’re seeing that I need to be made more aware of who has expertise in these areas that I may not be privy to. It’s when you take that audit that you can then say, Do I like what I’m seeing? Or do I have some areas of improvement that I can maximize to really turn some things around? If people start doing that, you can start to see some real different moves in how things are moving forward.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:43] Yeah, it really kind of shocks me in today’s world that especially with the the challenge people are having with talent, that they don’t even just look at their own website’s leadership page. It doesn’t take, you know, a super consultant to just tell somebody to look at their their company’s leadership page. And if the leadership page doesn’t look like your customers or your employees, maybe you should have some conversations.

Crystal Khalil: [00:12:12] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:14] Now, talk about these monthly events that you’re you’re doing. What happens there and who would be good people to attend?

Crystal Khalil: [00:12:25] Woman Unlimited live is for that brilliant woman who’s high achieving and it’s just looking to grow in her career. Or maybe she’s pivoting and transitioning and she wants to start her own business, or she started a business and wants to grow that business. And she also wants to get in community with other like minded women who can hold her accountable, who can see her for not just what she does in the world, but who she is. Right? These women are the ones that everyone looks to for solutions, and so we bring them into community. Woman Unlimited Live is a four hour mastermind with these amazing women where we show them our three step process that we follow personally to unleash and unbind our unlimited potential to live our yummy life. We call it the yummy life. Yummy stands for your ultimate most meaningful yet, because oftentimes we can be doing a lot of good things, but it’s not the best thing for our purpose and what’s next for us in life. We can be serving in our community and showing up at work and we’re meeting everyone else’s expectations. But when you ask what is your purpose and are you fulfilled, these women take a step back. So Women Unlimited Live is the place to come to unlock that unlimited potential. We show you three steps to unwinding and unleashing that unlimited potential.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:12] So for the folks that are participating or joining those events, what are those 4 hours like? Are they listening to somebody for four, 4 hours or are they actively doing things? Is there is it interactive? Is there a breakout groups like what are those 4 hours look like for an attendee?

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:14:31] It’s very interactive. It’s a lot of fun because you know what we recognize as women when we come together in this space is the value of being heard, the value of having a like minded experience with other women who recognize that there’s more. They are feeling like there’s more, but they’re not really sure how to get to that more, how to move within purpose at this stage of their lives. So it’s interactive where you’re able to hear crystal and mind journey, you’re able to see other women that are in this this space without the mask is what we talk about, because in so many dynamics as women, we have to wear multiple masks to be able to progress, to be able to deal with politics, to be able to move within the expected role. And in this space, there’s a freedom to be able to speak truth to power, to be able to see one another, identify with one another, and really figure out the practices that are going to be necessary to move from where they are when they come into the room to where they desire to go. So it’s a progression that happens over the 4 hours where there’s intimacy, there’s connection, and there’s a recognition. Wow, I am not alone. I can do this.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:08] Is there a story you can share of maybe a woman? You don’t have to name her name, but maybe that her story of what she came to you with and her challenges and how you were able to help her get to a new level.

Crystal Khalil: [00:16:22] We have one woman who came to us at a point in her career where she was feeling like she needed some growth. She felt stagnant and stuck in her in her career. And after working with us, we uncovered her purpose was to create her own business, to help others. She was a social worker, a social worker in schools. And what she’d always really wanted to do was start programs to help social workers, to reach children in a different way in schools. And a lot of schools were pulling pulling out their funding for social work and programs. So she wanted to consult with school systems and school districts on the social working field and work with social workers. And so after working with us for some time, she actually retired from her position and started her business. And now she’s actively walking in her purpose and making a difference in the lives of children in her community as well as social workers. But she just needed that extra oomph and push to know that she could do it, to be in community with other like minded women, to have that coaching and accountability to help her make strategic moves during that transition so that she could leave and retire in a position where she was financially stable. But she was also able to make her employer, her sponsor, and they were able to help her to build out that business as well and be a reference for her in building out that business.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:05] So what do you need more of? How can we help? Do you need more attendees? You need more corporate sponsorship and clients. How can we help you?

Crystal Khalil: [00:18:13] So for women that are that are listening, we invite you to join us at Women Unlimited Live Woman unlimited live dot com the up for the upcoming one and then if you if your organization is in need of executive coaching D-I and training in training leadership and training that goes beyond just checking the box. Please visit us at volition enterprises dot com volition enterprises dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:46] Well thank you both so much for sharing your story today, doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Dr Nicole LaBeach: [00:18:52] Thank you, Lee. We appreciate you.

Crystal Khalil: [00:18:54] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:55] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Anders Lillevik With Focal Point

January 26, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

Atlanta Business Radio

Anders Lillevik With Focal Point

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Anders Lillevik is the CEO and Founder of Focal Point – a company providing an end-to-end enterprise procurement orchestration platform. For more than 20 years as a Chief Procurement Officer, Anders has helped organizations such as Fannie Mae, QBE Insurance, and Webster Bank optimize their procurement operations. In these roles, he has managed teams of 120+, including $8bn annual spend and $5m annual procurement software expenditures.

As an industry veteran, Anders had a vision for procurement departments to shift from pure cost centers to strategic contributors to the top and bottom lines.

In 2020, he set this vision in motion and founded Focal Point to address the unmet need for a complete solution that connects the tools for every aspect of procurement orchestration across siloed data and processes. Focal Point empowers Chief Procurement Officers to move up the digital maturity curve across the entire procurement process.

Connect with Anders on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Inspiration to go from a CPO at large financial services institutions to founding Focal Point
Enterprise procurement faring today
Focal Point’s objective

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on the Atlanta Business Radio, we have Anders Lillevik with Focal Point. Welcome.

Anders Lillevik: [00:00:43] Welcome. Thanks for having me, Ali.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] So excited to learn what you’re up to. Can you update us a little bit about focal point? How are you serving folks?

Anders Lillevik: [00:00:50] Yeah, so focal point is A B to B SAS solution in the procurement space. What that means is we are facilitating the processes that are currently under served in the procurement space, specifically as it pertains to how selection processes and supplier management activities are done. And we’re basically our biggest competitor at the moment are Excel and Email, which is an exciting space for us to get into.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:16] So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Anders Lillevik: [00:01:19] Well, I have been in procurement for 25 years. The last 20 or so I was leading large global and complex procurement organizations and I have implemented a slew of systems in my time. And the challenging part for me, like I said earlier, was that regardless of how much money I spent on procurement technology, my team and I were working predominantly in Excel and email to to facilitate things like collaborate, collect data, consolidate data and so on. And I had this epiphany that there’s a lot of good technology out there, but there’s a connective tissue that is missing, and that’s why I decided to build focal point, really to help bridge that gap.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:02] So were you the technologist who put the software together or did you partner with other folks?

Anders Lillevik: [00:02:07] No, no. So the origin story there is I created a wireframe and a PowerPoint deck, and I walk that around to a bunch of people in procurement, and we got our first two customers before we actually started developing the product. I’ve got two large global brands said, Yeah, we have this problem too, and if you build this, we sure would love to try it with that. I went to my wife, we just got married actually, and I said, Hey, I’ve got this crazy idea. I want to leave the corporate world and start my own company. So I guess you can say she was my first investor. So we bootstrapped the company on a higher set of Ukrainian developers to build a first prototype. Went live at the in December of 2020. So I’m not a technologist and I don’t pretend to be one either.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:51] So when you were making that transition, was it something that you had always wanted to be an entrepreneur and this was just the opportunity Was there or was this kind of a big, you know, map out the pros and cons of this decision and play out different scenarios? Was this really a hard choice for you or was this something like a calling that you were like, I got I’m the right person to do this.

Anders Lillevik: [00:03:12] It’s a it’s a mix of a few of those things. Like I never set out to be an entrepreneur. To me, it was always scary and always sort of, you know, I got my MBA, I, I was on the path of, you know, I was a senior vice president at a very large global organization. So for me, it certainly wasn’t a financial calling for me. It was a real problem that I think the industry needs to be solved. And I kind of sat down and looked at it and said, look, I’m not of a certain age now. I’ve been I’ve had a long career and if I don’t do this now, I will never do it. And, you know, having having done this for a very long time, I really felt that I was the right person to to solve the problems And certainly with the validation of having customers pre development was was also a good sort of benchmark for me to say, yeah, I got something here. And it wasn’t really until I went live with two national global brands where I realized like, holy smokes, now I have to build a company around this because it’s literally just me and a bunch of folks in the Ukraine on contract. And that’s when things started sort of really ramping up.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:22] Was that the point where you’re like, okay, this is real now? Like, this is I have to really start, you know, having systems and processes like I’m really running a business now. And this isn’t just like this clever idea that’s solving a problem. This is like now a complex business.

Anders Lillevik: [00:04:38] Yeah, absolutely. And that’s when I realized, like, I have to get some, some money to sort of fund the operation because the two first customers, when they sign up pre product, they’re not willing to pay a lot of money for this. Right. So in in 2021, it was kind of a pivotal year to to start dipping my toe into the venture capital arena, getting some some VC funding, hiring a CTO, bringing a team on site and not on site, but in the company. So when you have to stand up against things like security reviews and process mappings and so on, that it’s not just a bunch of outsource folks is literally we have a team we can, we can show them the team, we can show them our processes. So yeah, that’s when things really started getting real and it’s. It’s been a journey ever since.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:24] Now, has that part been as rewarding? Like to me having an idea and seeing it kind of bubble to life, that’s exciting. You know, a lot of the administrative side and operational side is the stuff that’s super important that makes, you know, the trains run on time, but that’s not as, you know, romanticized maybe as that aha moment and then making something come to life.

Anders Lillevik: [00:05:49] Well, having having been on the other side of of of buying technology, I knew this was a necessary evil so to speak. Right. So you don’t get into a Fortune 500 company and processing their data without having all these things buttoned up fairly tight. So I knew that all along that if I’m going to play in that arena, this is something that we needed to do. And it’s it’s kind of when all the trains come in, right? When you’re able to get in front of the customer, sell them on the value proposition, get them to see the vision. And then going through the security review, the legal review, the insurance review and all the other stuff they make you do. And when they finally go live, that’s that’s the thing that really makes me excited about it. Like one more customer. A couple of hundred people in procurement and in the organization using our solution. That’s really cool to me. And it’s all of it. Not just the epiphany moment where it’s like, Oh, someone should go fix this.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:48] So now you’re finding the joy in the actual kind of keeping everything, all those plates spinning at the same time. Now that’s the the rewarding part for you, knowing that you have a solution that is getting traction, that is providing value, and it’s just now a matter of just kind of scaling.

Anders Lillevik: [00:07:05] Yeah, Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s, it’s never ending, right? Because what you realize is that your requirements are different for different industries. So, for example, we have a very large hotel brand that’s using our solution. And their complexity is very different than a pharmaceutical company that we’re just onboarded. And you kind of I never run out of things to do on the operational side that’s going to help us become stronger and be able to grow faster and scale faster. So I kind of lean into it. I think a lot of startups fight the the need to to build a robust operation and kind of deal with that as as they scale Eileen right into it and say, look, it’s better that we deal with these things upfront than try to kick the can down the road and deal with it two years from now. I’d rather fix it now then then when things go wrong. And I think that’s going to serve us well in this industry.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:59] So when you started, you focused on financial and then now have expanded to other verticals.

Anders Lillevik: [00:08:05] So it’s interesting. So our first two customers, one was a very large recruitment recruiting company based in Austin, Texas, and the second one was a gaming company in California. And now we have hotel chains, we have pharma companies, we have insurance companies. So it’s a bit of everything. But all of our customers have in common is that they are large and complex and they have legacy systems that are disconnected and and we bring that to the table and help them structure their their processes, structure how they work with their customers and become that connective tissue. So I wouldn’t say that we are specifically connected to verticals. We we deal with large, complex organizations and regardless of the vertical they’re in.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:54] So how quickly do they notice that things have improved?

Anders Lillevik: [00:09:00] Yeah, it’s an interesting question. A lot of these large companies are very resistant to change, right, because some of these folks have been in the company for 20 plus years and they love their Excel spreadsheets, for example. And some customers like are the recruiting company that I keep referencing. They went live globally and to end in two weeks and they saw they saw the benefits immediately. Some of the larger companies that are are on ramping in, say, 6 to 9 months. That’s when things are really coming to the forefront, when you can actually see everything in one spot. Hence the name of the company focal point. You can manage everything in one spot and that’s when things become real for them. So it really depends on your risk appetite and how much you’re willing to bite off.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:46] Now, how does the you know, I know you’re solving a problem with software. How is the change management part of this solved with the humans?

Anders Lillevik: [00:09:58] Yeah. Showing them how the new how the new thing can work in in the new environment is really, really helpful. So the software itself is fairly easy to use. It’s you get notifications, you get told what to do and how to do it, and it’s just a matter of following the prompts. It’s kind of like paint by numbers, right? So we demystify some complex processes by making them more accessible and user friendly for even non procurement practitioners. So the change management is kind of twofold. Like number one, you show them how to do it. Number two, you’re always available if and when they need help. And I think that helps a lot as well because we have a chat bot, for example, or a phone phone number, they can call and we’re always very responsive to make sure that if there is a need we can address it head on and very early so that it takes away the fear factor of trying something new.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:50] So they’re able to kind of ease into it. And then knowing that there’s always someone kind of watching their back.

Anders Lillevik: [00:10:58] Correct 100%. So again, back to our original question of having infrastructure, right? So our helpdesk can see which screens customers are on and sort of pick it up from there today. Or you should click here, click there, and it becomes easy to to to shepherd people through the process.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] So now when you’re selling this in, is this like you’re selling it into the C suite and they’re deploying it, or is it somebody that’s kind of the boots on the ground that’s kind of dealing with this day to day that’s like kind of pushing this from the bottom up and saying, hey, we need a better solution and here’s one.

Anders Lillevik: [00:11:33] It’s a mix. So I would say that the process owners are the folks that typically bring us in to say, Alright, there’s a better way of doing this process, whatever that process is, whether that is managing suppliers or managing projects in procurement or managing supplier risk or whatever. Right. And they will say, Well, we’re doing this manually today. This is something that we can use to create visibility and workflow and visibility to to the process, and they can bring us into the C-suite or the organization’s procurement office or head of procurement can bring us in and realize like I can manage my entire department with more visibility, more transparency and better customer service if I just implement something that can manage that. This process beginning from from beginning to end. Sorry.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:19] Now is there you know, people don’t like change and this sounds like something new. And like you said, some people’s identity are built on how good they know Excel. And that’s, you know, part of their brand is I’m the person to go to, you know, if you got a problem. Is that a difficult change to manage when it comes to, you know, just having a better mousetrap here that solves things better? But do you the emotional connection that people have to legacy systems and the fear of, you know, I don’t want to be the one that’s pulling the trigger on this, this thing explodes?

Anders Lillevik: [00:12:55] Yeah, it’s an interesting question because some of these larger organizations have those folks right, that I’m the gatekeeper of this particular information and making it visible to other folks is not necessarily a good thing for me. Those are not typically the people that are going to lead the change. But once the rest of the organization comes down the system and realize that there’s benefits to it, it’s hard to resist. Right. And I think ultimately it comes down to the leadership of the organizations we’re selling into. We need strong leaders to be able to, like you said, deal with the change management process and push the organization along. And if there’s not an impetus for change at the top, you know, this is probably not the solution for folks, right. If they want to if you want to keep doing the same thing over and over again, but this is not your type of solution.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:42] Now, do you think that you again, it seems like you were just at the right person at the right time for this type of solution, having kind of lived through all of this and knowing where all the landmines are, it helps you kind of communicate the value proposition more effectively and efficiently with more kind of street cred than maybe some technologists who develop the software know.

Anders Lillevik: [00:14:03] Absolutely right. And you find as I’m as I’m starting to navigate the startup community and also the procurement startup community, there’s a lot of technologists that have developed a thing that solves a problem, a very specific problem, and they leverage the heck out of it and they start scaling it. And that’s kind of the the anti focal point solution. They essentially they’re building a point solution that does one thing and does it really well, and it’s disconnected from the rest of the systems that are in the organization. We we bring this together end to end and we’re looking at things more holistically rather than just a point solution. And this is probably why I took we have 30 engineers working on the solution and it’s been quite a while now and we’re very development focused and product focused. So yeah, I believe you’re right. It’s the right person solving the right problem at the right time and also the advent of and the normalization of using APIs to push and pull data is necessary for us to do what we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:10] Now with the recent supply chain issues and logistics issues, does your solution have made things better or more efficient or made things more obvious, like where the problems were? Like, How would your solution impact any of that stuff or would it?

Anders Lillevik: [00:15:27] It would, but it necessitates you from actually doing the work, right? So we can say, let’s call it aluminum. Let’s say a category of spend is aluminum, and your organization is critically dependent on the supply of aluminum using using focal point. You can drill down to say, how many aluminum providers do I have and where in the world are they? And am I am I covered? Like if, for example, if you have two providers that are both in the same geographical location. Then you potentially could have risk there. So what we do helps organizations map out where they have problems or where the potential problems could be. And if they have, if the, God forbid, something happens, you can very quickly respond to and say, all right, I only had one provider. They went down, how can I find another one? So but it necessitates you from doing the work you actually actually have to do the work or else is not. That’s no good, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:16:22] Right. But it it kind of gives you a view of things maybe more holistically and where you can see where there might be a potential problem down the road a lot more efficiently than a huge spreadsheet.

Anders Lillevik: [00:16:35] Exactly right. Exactly right.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:37] Now, are there any kind of trends in procurement that we should be keeping our eyes on in 2023 that you you all are well positioned to leverage.

Anders Lillevik: [00:16:49] Right? So, I mean, procurement is a is a is a discipline that continues to evolve, right? So 20 years ago, it was all about saving money and trying to negotiate the best deals possible. Ten years ago it became save money while reducing supply risk. Make sure that they have a secure environment, make sure that they can handle your data properly. And now I would like to say a procurement is also trying to save the world. So it’s not just the best price with less risk, but also with the least amount of carbon footprint, least amount of waste and energy usage and so on. So so now procurement is really getting into the ESG space, getting into the supplier diversity space. So you have to make sure that a certain percentage of your spend goes to diverse suppliers and that that continues to reflect the environment that you’re in. So focal point can can now start measuring and tracking supplier diversity as well as supplier ESG initiative. So, for example, if you’re looking for a ways to reduce your carbon footprint, we can benchmark your current footprint and come up with solutions for how you can reduce that carbon footprint either through supplier innovation or through switching to closer supplier, for example.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:12] Now, as you grow, are you finding that you’re kind of developing a marketplace of suppliers that focal point will have knowledge about?

Anders Lillevik: [00:18:24] Absolutely. So we because we are connecting to so many different, you know, different supply chain partners. So we connect with the large organizations like SAP or Oracle, but also the smaller startups that provide data services, for example. And we’re becoming, like I said, the focal point for all these things where the processes kind of come together. And it’s it’s kind of intimidating about all of the data connections and APIs that we have to build and maintain. But it’s it’s really exciting stuff.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:56] But it becomes a situation where you’re solving a problem for an individual company, but you’re also have the opportunity to build a marketplace for all people within that industry at some point.

Anders Lillevik: [00:19:08] Correct? I mean, obviously downstream we’re looking at crowdsourcing a lot of these different data sources and figuring out what are the best suppliers in a specific field, in a specific region, for example. And I think that’s going to become even more valuable than than what we imagine it is today.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:27] So what do you need more of? How can we help? Do you need I would imagine talent is near the near the top of your list, but also customers, maybe customers in certain industries. I know you said your industry agnostic, but there’s probably some places that are more available than others.

Anders Lillevik: [00:19:45] Yeah, large services organizations are prime or prime leaves for us always looking for more customers to deploy technology to. We love helping people save money and reduce risk while making better customer service and the organization talents. We’ve been very lucky. We found really good talent here in Atlanta. We have a team of 12 people here now, plus our development staff offshore. So we’ve been very lucky, but we’re continuing to grow and we’re probably going to be racing an around later on this year. So a lot of things happening.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:25] So if somebody wants to learn more, maybe get on your calendar or maybe somebody on your teams, is there a website.

Anders Lillevik: [00:20:31] Yeah, get focal point dot com.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:33] And that’s get focal point dot com.

Anders Lillevik: [00:20:38] You got it.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:39] Well thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Anders Lillevik: [00:20:44] Thank you, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:45] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.

Dan Maddux With American Payroll Association

January 25, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

Association Leadership Radio

Dan Maddux With American Payroll Association

00:00 /

Dan Maddux is Executive Director of the American Payroll Association (APA), the leading payroll authority in the United States. His APA career began in 1982 as the first employee hired by the fledgling association. Over the next ten years, he would hold every job in the association, ultimately becoming Executive Director in 1992.

Through classroom and online education, print and electronic publications, certification programs, a network of over 100 local affiliated chapters, and advocacy with government agencies, the American Payroll Association serves a community of over 48,000. APA membership also includes representatives of large, medium, and small payroll service providers who are responsible for processing payroll for an additional 2 million U.S. employers. APA has represented these constituents on Capitol Hill and with federal, state, and local government agencies for more than 30 years.

In 2015, APA launched the Global Payroll Management Institute (GPMI), with the mission of forging a community by providing th education, skills, and resources necessary for global payroll professionals to become successful leaders and strategic partners within their organizations. As GPMI’s President, Dan has led the organization’s growth to a worldwide community of global payroll professionals with over 12,000 subscribers in 117 countries. Each year, more than 9,700 global payroll professionals attend GPMI education. Currently, GPMI has established four chapters in three countries. GPMI is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

The APA is headquartered in San Antonio, TX, with additional facilities in Las Vegas, NV and Washington, D.C. APA owns all its properties, which house the association’s operations, including a host of commercial tenants, and an acclaimed Event and Training.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

About the American Payroll Association
Products and services they offer
Payroll industry looks like in the future
Projects or initiatives they’re looking forward to in 2023
Some advice for other leaders doing work in Associations

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:00] We’re broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:20] Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Dan Maddux with the American Payroll Association. Welcome, Dan.

Dan Maddux: [00:00:32] Hi, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Hey, So excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about American Payroll Association. How are you serving, folks?

Dan Maddux: [00:00:39] Thank you, Lee. The American Payroll Association was founded in 1982. We’re a professional organization that is comprised of individuals that are responsible for payroll management. We also attract professionals from HR and other payroll related corporate financial responsibilities. The APA represents payroll professionals across the US and increasingly from across the globe that have US payroll responsibilities. Annually, we conduct training programs, conferences, seminars and an annual convention and expo through a myriad of in-person and virtual deliveries. We reach about 75,000 individuals with some type of education experience annually.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] How has the payroll industry kind of evolved over the years in that I’m sure at one point it was all kind of corporations doing payroll for their employees, and now we’re living in a world where there are so many subcontractors, there are so many, you know, kind of software as a service solutions for payroll. How have you seen the industry evolve?

Dan Maddux: [00:01:47] The industry has evolved in many ways, I guess to a great extent, because we’re a professional organization and we serve the individuals and their professional journey. We’ve seen the industry involved and the fact that products and services are constantly evolving and changing. So that is something that that professionals in the industry need to keep up with. Often those products are for payroll and HR, so they’re working with their partners in HR. Whenever a company is going through any kind of change. I would say more and more payroll are brought to the table and helping to make that decision. Historically, before that, you know, decades ago. Payroll often found out about the changes and it wasn’t necessarily something that they were part of, but certainly they were part of the implementation. These days, I would say that they definitely have a seat at the table and helping to make those decisions. And they’re, of course, part of the implementation. And that’s where I’d say that the industry has grown considerably in the fact that they do have a leadership seat at the table and more and more, which we always try to expose to our members, is that you have payroll professionals or people that have even risen to being at the C-suite level.

Dan Maddux: [00:03:02] And often when you will meet, let’s say, payroll vice presidents or officers in a corporation, they begin to think that they’re the only ones. And in some cases, that’s why, let’s say over the years they have become less engaged with our association, because they really do truly think that they’re the only one that exists in the industry. And you bring them to the table and you ask them to share their story and then they come to realize that there are actually a lot more people in their position in the industry, which shows you that the industry is evolving and it’s changing and their positions have become more strategic. They still are going to have the regulatory and compliance aspects that payroll is responsible for, but they have become more strategic players. And I think that the great thing about that, not only for those people that are in the C-suite positions and payroll, but for the general people in the industry, is that for them they thought that there was this ceiling and that for them to move further in their career, they had to lead payroll. And now it allows them to redefine their career objectives. And the fact that they really can truly go further in their profession.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:16] Now, how do you kind of share the information with your folks? Do you do it through chapters? Do you have national conferences? Do you have online learning? Like how do people interact with the knowledge that you are willing to share?

Dan Maddux: [00:04:30] We do have 125 affiliated chapters, but I would say the way we communicate more with our members, though, certainly through the host of publications that we have, we have eight attorneys on staff that research and write, but we also have what we consider a customer or membership publications. We have several of those, predominantly as an organization beyond the work that we do in D.C. with government agencies. Most of what we do is communicate it through education, so we have education to take them throughout their entire journey. So through what would be foundations, which of course companies utilize us for to train people as they’re coming into the profession, but also through. Their career all the way up to management. So we we train over 75,000 people a year through the myriad of education that we provide. That historically, of course, there was a lot of in-person learning as what we did we. Years ago, prior to the pandemic, we began to move quite a bit of what we did virtually. And I would say that in the years of the pandemic, you know, two years plus, we moved so much of what we did for the myriad of training programs that we provide know 1 to 3, up to five day learning programs. We moved to virtual formats. We even moved our annual convention for a couple of years to a virtual format. And when we were now, while we had a virtual delivery for over ten years for our annual convention, it did challenge us to pivot, to move everything that we did to a virtual format for those two years, even the delivery of our certification exams. And while I’m not saying I’m looking forward to another pandemic, I would tell you that we made the pandemic a really great learning experience and we had to do a lot of soft and hard pivots.

Dan Maddux: [00:06:32] But we figured if we’re going to have to move everything that we do to virtual deliveries, which we are very skilled at doing, but also a annual convention and an expo, we’re going to be the best because I saw so many organizations that were deciding not to do much in 20 and deescalated what they would normally do in 21 as well. And now today they’re still catching up. And we had really no downtime. While we may have had some slight delays because we had to pivot to new deliveries, I would tell you that our virtual convention in 2018 was it was very exciting. And then when we knew we had to do it for 21, we could even make it more exciting. And what I loved coming back to an in-person convention in 22 was that I met people that were members or customers for years. They knew about our convention called Peril Congress, but they had never really considered attending. But they decided to attend it because it was offered virtually. And they said if they can make it this exciting, virtually, I’ve got to attend in person. So what I thought was great about that is that we knew that what we were providing during the pandemic was substantial. But when you are speaking to customers face to face that are telling you that what you delivered during the pandemic was so inviting and exciting that it that it was essentially the marketing tool that made them come to their first in-person convention. To me, that was very powerful.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:04] Now, did that trickle down to the chapter level as well? Did the folks locally, were they able to kind of make the best of a bad situation in their local markets?

Dan Maddux: [00:08:17] Every chapter is different, of course, than their affiliated chapters. But what we did do is we offered them Zoom licenses and having their national organization be so apt at at providing we embraced virtual many years ago. So even by the fact that we had more than one office, we were originally located in New York City, moved the headquarters to San Antonio. We’ve always had multiple offices, Washington, DC, so we would use video conferencing from the Donna video conferencing. So we always embraced technology. So we’ve been utilizing Zoom for a number of years. What we did is we worked out a Zoom license for our chapters so that they could facilitate their chapter meetings through Zoom, and that was very well received by our chapters because there was really no other way for them to conduct their meetings in a professional way. And I would tell you that quite a few of our chapters have maintained their zoom license. And now, even though some are back to some in-person delivery, some of their meetings, just like just like everything else in life is a hybrid, some some of their meetings are still conducted virtually.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:37] And did you find that as the pandemic waned, people were hungry for this kind of face to face and getting back to interacting in person?

Dan Maddux: [00:09:48] I think what people are hungry for and what their employers will support or what they have the bearing to do are two different things. So what? So people may want to go back to in-person and certainly we want to get back to in-person. But what we’re finding and I think that that other groups will will share this with you as well, is that what we’re finding is that virtual is still a more popular option. Now that is probably more popular because there are so many people working remotely or in a hybrid situation. Also, employers had the cost savings of virtual deliveries. So now when you’re looking at in-person deliveries, particularly when there is travel, hotel and incidentals and they’re comparing those costs, certainly some employers are going to look at saying, yes, an in-person delivery of a convention people are going to get more out of. But when it comes to a training program, do you necessarily need to have those additional costs? So we are we have less than person deliveries because we try to gear them towards the market need. And what we’ve found is that we have an increased need for virtual deliveries. So coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing we’ve amped up more virtual deliveries, but we we still do have the in-person component and we’ll continue to adjust those by market need. But I would tell you that in introducing one new class that we have that’s foundation of payroll analytics that was introduced in 22, while there is a need for people to attend it in person and there’s a value to that. We have three times as many people that would like to attend it virtually.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:35] Now, since you kind of had the head start of embracing virtual, you know, pre-pandemic, that obviously had a running start when the pandemic happened and you were that much more adept at and skilled at executing that. Or is there any tips you can share on how to create engagement virtually? Is it just is education and training kind of the easiest path to create the education, or were you able to do it also in these kind of just maybe informal, you know, monthly meetings or things like that?

Dan Maddux: [00:12:08] I think there’s many different ways to communicate. But in in in education, I think that sometimes sometimes in a learning experience when when it’s being delivered, which we have, of course, acknowledged and embraced many years ago, I would say well over 15 years ago. Is that education? Well, I actually say even longer than that because of our learning centers, that education has to be more participatory, that people get more out of the educational experiences if it’s not just a one way delivery. You can have plenty of one way deliveries when it comes to an instructor providing or a speaker providing information that that is webinars or a more rigorous delivery. But when you’re looking at 6 hours or 12 hours or 18 hours of education, if it doesn’t have some level of participation and it’s not more participatory and you don’t have ways for them not only to to interact with the instructor but also interact with each other, that it is difficult to keep that engagement of people. Now, by today’s standards, of course, everybody is experiencing this. You will have people that want the online education and however it’s being delivered, but they have a difficult time fully engaging.

Dan Maddux: [00:13:32] They won’t necessarily turn on their camera. They still want to chat their questions rather than to ask their questions. But what we find, because we have been nurturing this more participatory way of educating for decades, is that we do have a it’s it’s how you’ve seasoned your audience. So more than half of the people that attend our virtual experiences when it is 6 hours, 12 hours, 18 hours, that a good portion of the class, more than half, they are on camera and they are raising their hand and they are asking questions in the virtual environment, which does make it a much more inviting experience for them or a more well-rounded experience. But you still are going to have those people that I believe have gotten into a rut by what their companies have allowed or in any other type of educational experience that they’ve had because of the other type of education that they may be required to achieve through their employer that have turned it into a one way communication and don’t necessarily see that it is to their benefit for it to be more participatory and for them to fully engage.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:49] Now, when it comes to payroll, in the macro sense, are there any trends or anything in the industry that we should be on the lookout for coming forward that.

Dan Maddux: [00:15:03] So I’d say that from that framework that employers and this is really worldwide, but particularly in first world countries that during the. Pandemic. We had this aspect of allowing people to work remotely, and in some aspects we didn’t always know where they were working from. In places like the UK, what was a predominant factor was people going to Spain to work. And in the US we were very lenient as well. But in the US of course we have, we have federal laws, but we also have various state laws and local jurisdictions. And during the pandemic there was a certain leniency. But you will have, let’s say, some well-known companies, and I’m not going to say who they are, but that will have been on the news and saying we don’t care where our employees work. But it’s like, do you really not care where they work? Because wherever they’re working from that you as an employer are going to have have a responsibility And you probably have seen it in the news. It was reported well over six months ago that we know that there are over 1.6 million Americans working in Mexico, predominantly in Mexico City. And there that’s a big issue because it’s not only do employers need to be aware of the fact that where their employees are working, but also at some juncture, those jurisdictions, you know, Mexico is going to say we’re going to need a piece of that taxation pie, and that’s going to happen. That’s going to be a global issue and an issue for employers in the US because they’re going to need to take hold of and take responsibility for where their employees are working. And that’s something that’s been a bit laxed throughout the pandemic, but is going to be a significant issue moving forward. So there are employers that do embrace allowing people to work from wherever, but they’re also doing all of the backend things that are necessary in order to make that possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:18] So they have to kind of ramp up some infrastructure for themselves to handle that complexity of their employees being in different states, different countries because of the taxation rules wherever that employee individually is located.

Dan Maddux: [00:17:35] They do because when when these companies are inevitably audited, their their employee cell phone records, these employees will have probably signed leases. Let’s say there’s going to be an audit. Even the technology for the employer, they’re going to know whether people have logged in from and all of this is going to factor into audits. So employers are going to need to get in front of that and either have stricter rules about what states, let’s say in the US you can work in or can’t. And if you can work outside the US, they’re going to need to be aware of that and then provide for that because it’s not as simple as saying that somebody can work in Mexico. There are certain corporate structures that have to change and filings that have to change. So I believe there are employers that that have already they they rose to the occasion and will continue to rise to the occasion. But I think the majority of employers, when they understand the complexities of that type of global reporting and even domestic reporting in order to provide for that will retract from allowing their employees to have the leniency of working anywhere they want.

Dan Maddux: [00:18:59] So I do think that that the pandemic certainly changed the way we work. And the fact that there is this well, there is more remote work. There is an expectation that you can be a hybrid worker or a remote worker. And it is how we attract talent now is that we have to think about the fact that talent isn’t necessarily going to be in our back door. We need to to set our sights a bit further and where we we look and attract talent. But we have to take these other considerations into the equation. We just happen to represent the payroll industry, which is highly has has a slew of regulatory and legislative issues that companies have to adhere to. So it is it’s the space that we’re in. So we’re more cognizant of it. But I do think that that’s going to be an issue for any small to medium to large size employer that is going to have to reel in what they allowed for during the pandemic.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:02] Right. So the pandemic kind of forced their hand. It seemed like they were being generous and accommodating. But, you know, once you flip that domino, there’s other ramifications that are occurring that maybe you didn’t realize. Time or didn’t understand kind of how how many things that that affected down the road.

Dan Maddux: [00:20:21] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:22] So now, is there anything through your organization that you’re most looking forward to in 2023 and beyond? Any projects or things you’re working on?

Dan Maddux: [00:20:31] We’re looking forward to that. We I mentioned to you earlier that in 22 we came out with our first. It was called Foundations of Payroll Analytics. It’s 18 hours and we provide in-person delivery and also virtual delivery. And what was great about providing that is that the attendees could naturally see by the the 18 hours of education that there had to be a part two, which we already had in development. But it’s great when the attendees can say I need more. So we have part two in development and we plan on having it in the marketplace before the the end of 23. So that’s exciting. And I believe that even past part two, it’s going to continue. So it’s substantial content. I believe that by the time we finish the series, we’ll have over 50 hours of content just on this one subject matter, which to me is really exciting to procure or create new content. And another exciting project that we’re working on is that we will soon launch our online community and we like to think of the fact that yes, we have members, but we also have subscribers. We have customers. I think any association has to begin to look at what are your total engagements, because people that may hold your certifications aren’t necessarily your members, but they do think of themselves as part of your community. So when we look at our total engagements, we in 22 had over 191,000 engagements. So if somebody has your certification and they’re in another country, they still think of being in inside your circle. They still think of being part of your community.

Dan Maddux: [00:22:20] So when we launch this community, it is available to anybody worldwide. And it does. It is for our members, for our customers, for our engagements, for those that have our certifications worldwide. So I think that it’s very exciting because not only does it does it connect people from around the world because you could have somebody in Ohio that has an issue with German payrolls and can connect with somebody and ask a question. So it really does meet the need of the fact that many years ago people would think of a multinational company as being a really large company, but now it can really be a company of any size and they can be located anywhere. So it does create a knowledge share within the industry because within this industry, yes, every payroll practice or regulatory and legislative issue around the world is different. But payroll as it is, is is pretty much processed the same way no matter where you are. It’s just pay cycles are different and the laws are different, but there’s a lot of commonality. And we’re looking forward to launching this community because that, yes, there are people within our community in the US that just think US centric, but their world is changing and they may not be in a multinational company today, but you don’t know where their company is going tomorrow or what employer they might be working for next year. And by having this worldwide community, not only will it meet the needs that people have today, but people today don’t realize that it will meet needs that they’ll have in future years.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:12] Right. And it could open up other opportunities. When you have this knowledge, it may not be something that you’re fearful of or you embrace and you lean into and say, hey, oh, there is somebody there I can chat with and just ask them some questions.

Dan Maddux: [00:24:24] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:25] I mean, building relationships worldwide, I mean, there’s no negative to that.

Dan Maddux: [00:24:31] There is. There isn’t. And I that has organically happened over the years. You know, you provide the forum for it, but then it organically happens among people. But I believe that with an online community that that it will happen much faster. And then years from now, in a few short years from now, there are people that would not have seen the value that will see it as being a very valuable tool.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:00] So what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more members? You need more subject matter experts, you need more chapter leads. How can we.

Dan Maddux: [00:25:09] Help? We we are always we have been great over the years of. Cultivating SMS or subject matter experts. I would tell you that and I would recommend to any organization to do this. We certainly put subject matter experts through the test and cultivating their natural well. We improve their their their knowledge base, but we have always had professional speech coaching for decades so that our subject matter experts become the best speakers they can be because they’re really the voice piece for the for all of the hundreds of courses that we teach a year. So we always want more customers, we always want more members, we always want more people to go through our certification programs. So in in the various ways that we serve the community, whether it’s through the American Payroll Association, the Global Payroll Management Institute, we always want more people to come into the fold.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:17] Well, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your wisdom and congratulations on all the success to be able to handle the pandemic as well as you did and to really use it as a launching point for even more robust services and education for your members. Congratulations. That is just amazing achievement and I hope you’re proud and I hope your members appreciate what it took to do that, because that’s a big deal and you did a great job. Thank you for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Dan Maddux: [00:26:49] Thank you so much, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:51] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio

Daniel A. Scola, Jr. With Hoffman & Baron

January 23, 2023 by Jacob Lapera

High Velocity Radio

Daniel A. Scola, Jr. With Hoffman & Baron

00:00 /

Daniel A. Scola, Jr. is the managing partner of Hoffmann & Baron, LLP, and also manages the chemical, pharmaceutical/biochemical, and medical device practice group in the New Jersey office. He has extensive experience in polymers, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. He specializes in building IP portfolios and designing strategies to protect and enhance company value.

Previously, he was Counsel, patents, and trademarks as well as Assistant Corporate Secretary at The Warner-Lambert Co. and Intellectual Property Attorney at Loctite Corporation.

Prior to earning his law degree, Scola was an adhesive and composite materials engineer at the Pratt & Whitney Division of United Technologies.

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

Intellectual property
Importance of intellectual property to any business or entity
Protecting assets for start-up companies
IP to be implemented at the same time funding is received
Venture capitalist to work with an IP law firm

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 High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Lee Kantor here another episode of High Velocity Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Daniel Scola with Hoffman and Baron. Welcome, Dan.

Daniel Scola: [00:00:26] Thanks, Lee. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Hoffman and Baron and how you serve in folks.

Daniel Scola: [00:00:33] Yeah, so we’re an intellectual property law firm, and that means we’re exclusively devoted to procuring, protecting and enforcing protection of ideas, creations and expressions of those ideas into intellectual property.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] Now, in today’s world, intellectual property seems to be an area there’s a lot of gray area in terms of what is my intellectual property, what is kind of the public’s intellectual property, how is it defined, number one? And number two, how can you possibly protect it?

Daniel Scola: [00:01:08] Well, there are very good vehicles for protecting it. And they go back to the constitutional mandate that if you exchange your ideas and teach the public how to do certain things, the government will in return give you a limited monopoly or monopoly for a short period of time. So, for example, there’s different vehicles that protect things like patents, protect inventions, for example, and you get 20 years of protection and then you’ve got the creation of expressions and ideas that go into brands and that’s covered by trademarks. And then you’ve got copyrights, which is protection of things that are reduced to a tangible form like like books, movies, dance steps and so forth and so on. And what actually happens is these rights become property rights just so just like real property, like you can sell real property. It’s an asset. You can, you could license it, you could, you could rent your, your, your land, for example. Same thing goes on with assets that are formed from these intangible ideas. You reduce them to a tangible form and they become property rights that you can license, you can sell, and they’re quite valuable.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:21] Now, the area where for me it gets gray and I was in Chicago the other day with my son and we were walking and there was a truck that was selling like a roofer or something. It was some manual labor vehicle. And on it they had pictures of all kinds of superheroes that are well known. And then my son made a comment about, Wow, how did they do that? And I’m like, something tells me they didn’t ask for permission to do that, that they just did that. And so how like is Marvel going to search these people out to try to tell them to stop doing this? Like it just seems like that in today’s world where there’s so much content just constantly being thrown around, it’s hard to defend your trademarks or your your marks in terms of everywhere that somebody is misusing it.

Daniel Scola: [00:03:16] Well, that’s a very good question, but there also is a very good answer to it. You know, normally what they would what most companies do who have like certainly the famous brands, for example, like the Marvel Comics, you know, all those action figures there, they have a a daily, weekly and a monthly program where they police their their marks and the use of their marks. So they hire people. Sometimes it’s outside law firms like ourselves. And we look to see, you know, on a constant ongoing basis, monitoring basis who is using something that is similar or identical because it’s not just using identical, it’s something that’s confusingly similar to the public. And so what happens then is they’ll get they’ll get a letter saying, you know, you either have to stop doing this or you have to have some discussions with us to allow us to develop maybe a license situation. And, you know, it’s just a way of policing it. So you really do have to to you know, one of the big advantages of having IP is that when you do get a copy copycat, you do have rights to to stop them from doing it. And I know that there’s a lot of content out there, but it’s also a lot easier to find the content these days so you can search and find lots of things it used to be, and they still do it to some extent.

Daniel Scola: [00:04:45] Used to be in the old days before social media became so prevalent, you could hear in a restaurant, for example, you could hear various songs that, you know, well known music being played in the background. Well, all those commercial establishments have licenses to play that music and they play they they they go through a a single source. Usually it’s it’s ASKAP. And they’re responsible for giving royalties to all of the performers and the people who have copyrights in the music. And they pay a limited amount for certain amount of plays that they’re you know, it’s sort of an average. And they go back and it’s a little bit on the honor system, but they do audit audited it. So all those restaurants that are playing commercially available music are paying license fees on those. So you can imagine how many restaurants out there and how many royalties are getting paid just for that, and that’s restaurants. It applies to any commercial situation. And yeah, you’re right. You’ve got to monitor it and police it and then you’ve got to get someone to to write the letter or actually follow up on on something like a lawsuit.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:03] And if you don’t follow up, are you at risk of losing your marks?

Daniel Scola: [00:06:09] Well, you do have some risks if you don’t follow up. So, for example, in the trademark situation, if you allow someone to exist so long, it becomes more difficult to to make the argument that the coexistence is creating an issue for you, even though there’s infringement. I mean, you can still get them off. But it’s always almost like, for example, in patents, the patent area, if you have an invention and you have a patent on it and you know there’s infringement and you don’t follow up on that for a period of time, usually it’s a six year period of time. There’s a doctrine called latches, which means you basically sat on your rights, you didn’t enforce them, and now you can’t enforce them. So, yeah, you have to pay if you’re going to have an asset. It’s very much like if I have a house sitting empty on a lot and I do nothing with it and I just let whoever wants to go live there, you know, I’m sitting on my rights. I have the right to charge them rent, but I’m not not a good thing to do in any field.

Daniel Scola: [00:07:15] And also the IP field is the same way. Can’t do it. So you really should pay attention. Look, it’s an asset. You know, these are valuable, valuable assets. They’re property. They can be licensed, they can be sold. They they increase the value of your company. And and by the way, whenever you’re looking for money for an investment, IP is is right at the forefront. They’ll say, okay, what is your product or what are your services? And then is it protected by IP because IP represents a barrier to the public getting in. So normally you would be you would say, I have IP and here’s here’s what it is. And they would do an evaluation. They say, oh, well, you know, the people shouldn’t be able to get to where you are easily. They have to redesign something and that’s going to cost them money and that’s going to take time. So you’ll be out there for a while first in the market will invest in you. And that’s sort of the thought process.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:17] Now is the recommendation for a, you know, maybe a startup or a new firm, even a professional service or consulting firm to develop some IP that is uniquely theirs. Will that help them in the long run, maybe get more value down the road if and when they sell?

Daniel Scola: [00:08:37] Absolutely. You know, IP always increases the value. Sometimes it’s exponential. I can tell you many examples of situations where startup companies have come to me and to my firm and we’ve worked with them to develop an IP portfolio. So it becomes a thicket of of little think of them as little land masses where people have to figure out how to walk in between these land masses so they don’t step on your IP because they don’t want to infringe. And and nobody wants infringement, right. But you know that you can enforce it if you if someone does. So it’s a real barrier and they have to redesign spend the money and sometimes they just go it’s it’s too expensive, it’s too difficult. I will just take a license from them and I’ll just compete with them. But I’ll I’ll make mine a different name. So I’ll call it a different brand and I’ll work on my brand and just try to develop that as opposed to the product and the patent behind it. But but no, you know, almost all investors look very heavily at the market and how they can prevent others from getting into the market if they invest in this in this particular asset. So if a company has a good portfolio of of IP assets or a dominant position in that technology area in terms of patents and a dominant position in terms of trademark, which is the awareness, the goodwill associated with the name and everybody knows it’s that company that sells that name, you know, then, you know, they really feel much more comfortable and they do a lot of due diligence before they put, you know, hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in in investments.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:32] Now, if somebody is thinking about protecting their IP, when you’re working with an IP attorney, is their job just kind of just kind of going through the process of protecting it and defending it or is a good relationship with an IP attorney, one in which maybe your brainstorming together and you’re saying, you know what the IP attorney maybe is making recommendations of, hey, you should think about protecting this, or if you did this a little differently than that might be protectable. Like, is it is it kind of more of a partnership or is it more of a kind of person that’s executing some tasks?

Daniel Scola: [00:11:10] You’ve you’ve hit on a very important point. It’s actually the latter. It’s a person who is in a partnership with the client and has added value in terms of creativity, where to step, where not to step, how to take an idea which might be somewhat narrow and say, listen, we can develop this into a little broader concept and still not be within the scope of other people’s property. And you know, you do you do searches, you do patent searches, you hire specialized patent search firms, you do an analysis. You say, you know what, there’s a range of competitors or we’re doing something similar, it’s yours is distinguishable, but it’s going to narrow the scope of your protection. Do you still want to go forward with this? Or we can redesign this to actually broaden it out in another aspect which goes away from those competitors? What do you think? It really is a partnership and and a good IP attorney who is thinking ahead also has to add creativity to it to really be. And so what does that mean? It means a lot of times you have to know or learn something about the technology because, I mean, we do everything from complex immunology to, you know, in engineering, industrial engineering, chemistry, I.T. computer business methods is a whole array of technology. So, you know, you have a lot of specialists. So you hire people who have you know, the attorneys have electrical backgrounds or they have I.T. backgrounds, or they might be a biological guy or a chemical guy. And it’s sometimes you get a team and the same thing goes when you’re enforcing it. You know, you have that whole litigation aspect to it, which is more more than just protecting it. It’s defending it. So, yeah, it’s an excellent question. It’s really a partnership.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:05] And when you’re in your firm, when you’re working with clients as your client, maybe the business owner, or sometimes are you working with like private equity firms or venture capitalists who might have a portfolio of clients that it might be more efficient to work with one IP attorney firm in order to help my whole portfolio of clients rather than, you know, one at a time.

Daniel Scola: [00:13:30] Well, you know, it’s it’s the the the portfolio management like with with investors, what we’re looking to do is work with investor groups who need an evaluation of all their IP, because we have we have different departments which can handle that. But the idea is you want a consistent source of, of judgment in the evaluating of the IP. So we we work with we do diligent diligence for investment companies, but we also do a lot of work for eight universities, large companies, small companies, startups. I love startups because and I love the due diligence, which comes when investors are looking to put money into startups because that’s where I feel I can be particularly creative and add value. And and I have a lot of experience judging when something is going to be too close to for comfort and that you need to change something so you don’t get into a situation which is uncomfortable, you know, maybe a litigation or maybe someone saying the product isn’t differential enough. And, you know, but we work with all kinds of and all levels of people, including some individuals and professors and inside guys, the business guys are fun to work with. Sometimes it’s a small company and the top business guy will come and, you know, if they’re a really sharp entrepreneur, it’s a pleasure to work with them because they understand what it means to take prudent risks. They also they also know when they see creativity, they they latch on to it. So it’s it’s really it’s a fun area to practice. And I have to say, and you have to be able to to trust experts. And so this is our expertise. But when we talk to inventors, for example, or marketing people, you know, they’re experts at what they do. So it’s a nice integration of expertise coming together. When you when you work together, like in a partnership like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:42] Now, can you share a story? Don’t name the name, but explain maybe the challenge they had or where the opportunity was. Were you able to add value, maybe make a recommendation that that took their business or their idea to a new level?

Daniel Scola: [00:15:56] Sure. Actually, I won’t name the name, but it’s a it’s a company that was a one person startup and now it’s a public company and it is a leader in its field and it’s in the pharmaceutical area. They came to me with an idea of how to make a particular dosage form for a drug. And the idea was it came from watching the way California pulp manufacturers dried dried fruit. And they said, Gosh, that’s a cool process. I wonder if I can take certain pieces of that and adapt it into a new process and make something that will be useful to deliver drugs, which no one has done before. So in evaluating that, I found that there was an awful it was just a terrible amount of a huge amount of prior art. But in other words, patents and and disclosures in different publications which talked about, you know, this particular delivery system that this this client wanted to make, but they never described how they went about to make it. They would describe what we have a product and here’s what the product is made of X, Y and Z. But the process of getting there was never described. So what I had suggested to them is focus on that process piece, because if you can dominate a process of making it, nobody else has that. And then they all have to go through your patent to do it. And that’s exactly what happened. We got coverage on the particular and it had to do with the uniformity of content. So when you go to make a dosage form, the FDA wants to make sure the public is getting whatever the label says. If it says ten milligrams of a certain drug, you want to make sure that there’s ten milligrams in there with a small variation one way or the other, plus or minus.

Daniel Scola: [00:18:02] But when you’re doing that particular dosage form happened to be a film, like a small film, I mean, years ago. Give you an idea of what a small film is. It’s like a one inch by one inch very thin film you put on your tongue and that’s how you got your dosage form. They were making Listerine pocket parts. If you remember, Listerine used to sell a little thin strip. You could pull out and put it in your mouth. If you saw some years ago. Yeah, well, it was similar to that. Only they had to have uniformity of content. So the drug in each one of those strips had to be the same amount of drug that it’s that they said it was in it and each one of the strips had to have that. Now when you go to make they’re not making individual one by one strips. They’re making hundreds of thousands of yards of film and then cutting it. So how do you make sure that every every one by one inch film cut has the right drug in it, the right amount that you’re saying it does? So that was their invention. So when I saw that, I said, don’t worry about the compositional nature of it. Go and try to get the best coverage we can get. And sure enough, they have several hundred patents on it. They’re a public company. We still represent them. And that’s that’s an idea. I’ll give you another quick one, very quick, if you like, on Super Glue. That’s that was a patent one I just gave you. This will be a trademark example. So you’re familiar with the trademark super glue?

Lee Kantor: [00:19:33] Sure.

Daniel Scola: [00:19:34] Yeah. Most people, they know Super Glue. Well, when I was a fledgling attorney with, you know, I had maybe a couple of months experience, I was on the ground floor when the guy who came up with the name Super Glue came in to me and of course I was assigned to him. So he came in and he was a big marketing guy and he was he was herald to be this this real marketing genius. So I was a little intimidated by the guy at the time because I was just brand new and he was asking me all these questions. But the one question that he asked me was, What do you think of the name Super Glue as a trademark? And I knew this much. I said, I think it’s great from a marketing perspective, but I don’t think it’s protectable. And he said, Why not? He said, I said, Well, you know, to be protectable, it has to be something that doesn’t it can’t be generic, right? Because no one can own the rights to a generic name like glue. Glue is a generic name, and it has to be something that’s fanciful that doesn’t describe the product. That’s what most people get confused. Trademarks should not describe the product.

Daniel Scola: [00:20:45] They’re really adjectives, but they don’t describe the product per se. And Super Glue Super was just saying, Well, it’s kind of a laudatory thing, saying it’s pretty good glue and you know, you would not get that that trademark through. So I said to him, I don’t think you’re it’s very protectable. He goes, Well, I don’t care. I’m putting $10 Million into this program. And we’ll just beat them on the market side. So, you know, we’ll do our best from the legal side, but I think it’s going to be difficult. So he didn’t listen to me. But he did listen to me. And the reason I said he didn’t, because he launched the product was very, very successful. The reason I said he did listen to me is because very shortly after that, he left the company and he started his own company called the Superglue Corporation. And and we sued him. And we we basically lost because it’s a terrible trademark. Trademarks. Look at look at the word tide. That’s a pretty famous trademark, right? It doesn’t describe what the product is. It’s a great mark. It’s very fanciful. It’s like, well, you know, it gives you the connotation of suds.

Daniel Scola: [00:22:03] You know, like when you see the ocean waves come in. They look like, you know, the tides come in. It gives you that sort of foamy action. And so they named their detergent that way. And everyone knows Procter and Gamble makes Tide. And you’ve got to enforce it. And going back to your other question real quickly there, you know, Velcro is a very well known mark, and it was almost in, you know, going generic because of misuse. People would refer to say, give me a I’d like to buy some Velcro. It really it’s it’s a hook and loop structure and the brand is Velcro. So people were identifying it like Velcro is a noun. And if you said Velcro brand, fine. Ibm went through this when with I’m sorry, I’m sorry Xerox went through this with photocopying. Everyone would say, make a Xerox copy of this. Well, you know, there’s a lot of different copying machines out there. So Xerox put a whole marketing program together saying don’t misuse our trademark. If you misuse the trademark and you let people do it long enough, you will use it. Lose it. So. So did you know that escalator was a trademark that went generic?

Lee Kantor: [00:23:18] I didn’t I didn’t know escalator. I imagine Kleenex was one Kleenex.

Daniel Scola: [00:23:23] Right. Kleenex. I’m not sure if Kleenex still. Kleenex still may be. I’m not sure it’s generic. I’ll tell you what really is surprising. It was surprising to me when I learned it. Adrenaline was a trademark. In fact, it was it was a trademark of a company I once worked for, which was the Warner-Lambert Company. Adrenaline was the trademark for epinephrine. So and everyone uses adrenaline now to get your adrenaline going. Well, you know, drink some, drink some coffee, and you’ll get your adrenaline going.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:54] So they created their own word. That’s now just that’s.

Daniel Scola: [00:24:01] That’s amazing. In that’s what trademarks are great on you be be creative. You know, you can come up with some great names and I’m guessing that adrenaline came from the adrenal glands, right? Right. But they called it for it was for a shot that contained epinephrine. And that’s that’s what they named it. So, you know, it’s these these trademarks can be extremely valuable. I mean, you know, and sold. I remember when when Johnson and Johnson bought the Mylanta name, they bought it. In fact, I was involved in the sale and. My lanta was a it’s. It had a distinct color on the bottle. It has a distinct name and so forth. And they even the color of the bottle in combination with the name was a protectable thing under trade dress. It’s part of the trademark genre of protection. So IP can really be a fun place to be if you’re if you create. And the one thing that entrepreneurs don’t do usually early enough is get their IP, because once they disclose their idea, if that’s not under a non disclosure, it’s gone. You can’t protect it anywhere. I mean, you get it, you get a little time in the States, they give you a little grace period. But you know, you always have to file first if you’re going to get the best out of your IP because you never know if you’re going to misstep. Otherwise, it’s just very much safer. So what do you do if you don’t have the money? You have to have the money early enough. You’ve got to get some money to get some IP early enough or you will you will really be sorry later. And there are many stories I could tell you where people come and there’s not a lot you can do with the early stage stuff they had now, which was excellent but now can be copied. So it’s just a lesson, you know, for entrepreneurs.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:08] So now who is the ideal client for you and your firm? What is that, that perfect fit client for you?

Daniel Scola: [00:26:16] Well, I think, you know, between companies where they’re they’re really technology driven and that’s really independent of the size and they really have a lot that they want to do in the IP side. That’s the kind of client because that’s where you can you can have the most room for being creative. I love the due diligence aspects. I love evaluating IP and creating it. So investment firms like large companies that that large investment companies that that are looking to buy and companies that are looking to get new IP, it could be there could be small firms, it could be medium sized firms, they could do large firms. And we have all of those small investors, big investors. You know, a lot of times people think, well, patent patent firms, they really just, you know, deal with single inventors who come in, who have got a better way to slice bread. That’s not really the bulk of the work that we do. We certainly do some of that because there are investors. I mean, it takes a little bit of money to get some patents going. So, you know, you can’t think you’re going to get have a patent with that’s going to cover anything for a small amount of money. This doesn’t happen. You have to know you’re in for it for the long haul. You’re getting a monopoly. So you’ve got to pay for a monopoly. Monopoly? It’s not it’s not a free thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:49] Right. So but these larger entities, like a VC firm, private equity firm, a university where they they have a lot of intellectual property or potentially could have a lot that’s a good fit for you to have conversations with.

Daniel Scola: [00:28:02] Absolutely. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:28:04] Now, if somebody wants to connect with you or your firm, is there a website?

Daniel Scola: [00:28:08] There is. You know, it’s it’s the Hoffman and Barron website. W. W w h. B ip locked. Or you could put in Hoffman and Baron, and you’ll see it come up on any of the search engines. And the firm number is is, is on there as well. So.

Lee Kantor: [00:28:32] And you’re open. If they go to the website they can find information to connect with you, maybe learn some things.

Daniel Scola: [00:28:39] Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you can go and do some there’s a blog page where you might be able to there’s there’s I know that we have some basics on why should I get a pad and what should I do, you know, when is it a good time? And then if they just want to give a call or an email, I can answer them. Or we can get people, other attorneys who might specialize in that particular question.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:06] Well, Dan, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Daniel Scola: [00:29:12] Well, thank you, Lee. It was a pleasure to be on.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:14] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on High Velocity Radio.